Ray Gun Revival magazine, Issue 53

So what was it? A prank? Surprise
party? She hoped not. She didn’t
feel like celebrating in her room any
more than she felt like celebrating
on the bridge.
She stepped inside. The door
closed behind her and she was
about to turn on the lights when a
voice echoed in the darkness.
“How’s it going, eh, Colonel?”
She sighed in relief, and then
frowned. It was Samir. Drunk, as
usual.
“What are you doing here?”
“What everyone else is doing,
Colonel. I came to celebrate the big
victory with you. And your birthday,
while we’re on it.”
“Leave me out of your celebrations,
Samir. Ever since you were
released, birthdays and funerals are
all the same to you—an excuse to
get drunk and make a fool of yourself.
Now if you don’t mind, I want
to get some sleep.”
“Bullshit, Colonel. Everyone
knows you never sleep.” He gave her
a dirty smile. “I know better than everyone
else.”
“Get out of my room.”
“Not so fast, Colonel. Don’t you
want to see the present I brought
you?”
He went behind Niatti’s desk, and
kicked a human-looking figure into
the center of the room. The figure
wore a prisoner’s uniform, its hands
tied and mouth gagged. Its eyes widened
in fear as they met Niatti’s.
It was Antoine.
“How did you bring him here?”
she finally asked Samir.
“Well, you know how I’m best
buddy with all the guys at ship’s security
staff. You’ve got nothing to
worry about—we agreed on a story
about how he escaped from his cell
and came to your room, so you had
to kill him.” Samir kicked Antoine’s
body again, and he moaned in pain.
“Samir, our orders were to take
him captive—”
“They never said if he should be
dead or alive.”
“Don’t be a smartass. Intelligence
needs him for interrogation.”
Samir’s face darkened. “And
they’ll probably drop the death penalty
if he’ll give them the info they
want.”
“He’ll still spend the rest of his life
in prison.”
Samir kicked Antoine’s body
again, more forcefully, and Antoine’s
painful moans became unbearable.
“That’s enough, Samir. Take him
back to his cell.”
Humiliation burned in Samir’s
eyes. “Life in prison, Niatti? You’re
going to let him get away with life
in prison?”
“That’s the problem, Samir? You
can’t kill him yourself, even when
you’re loaded, so you come running
to me? Next time you feel like playing
my knight in shining armor, at
least do it all the way through. And
it will also help the general impression
if you’re sober while you do it.”
“Give me a break. You want to kill
him as much as I do.”
“I have no reason to kill him, Samir.
This whining, pathetic creature you
have on the floor here”—Niatti had
the urge to kick Antoine herself, but
she felt it wouldn’t serve her argument
very well—”is a proof that I’ve
won. And if you’ll think about it hard
enough, in your daily five minutes
of soberness, you’ll see that you’ve
also won. Now take him back to his
cell.”
Samir didn’t seem convinced.
“Okay. But there’s something I want
you to see first.”
Niatti began losing her patience.
“Samir...”
“Trust me, you want to see this.
It’s something the General made
personally sure you wouldn’t know
of.”
“And if I see whatever it is, you
promise that you’ll take Antoine
back to his cell? No more games?”
He gave her a vicious smile.
“Promise.” He placed a projector on
her desk. A display of a large room
appeared.
ISSUE 53
“What’s this?”
“This is what the team that
cleared his rooms found on Ruby.
Notice anything weird?”
“All those things on the wall?”
Samir nodded. He pressed a button,
and the display zoomed on the
wall. Hanging on it were heads. Human
heads. Samir answered Niatti’s
question before she could find the
words to ask it. “Yeah, they’re real.
Our favorite psycho loved looking at
his victims in the eyes. Even after he
was through with them.”
Niatti fought to control herself.
“If you’re trying to make me change
my mind, Samir, you’re wasting your
time. I won’t...” Her voice died as
she recognized one of the heads on
the wall.
It couldn’t have been real. The
Lunarian disintegrated in space,
her father couldn’t have possibly
survived the attack and fallen captive...
“Samir, leave me here with Antoine.”
He smiled again. “You sure you
don’t want me to stay? Maybe you’ll
need help cleaning up after...”
“No. Get out of my room. Now.”
Samir shrugged and left.
Niatti bent down and removed
the cloth from Antoine’s mouth. He
started crying, cursing, begging, and
even tried calling for help.
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