The Bodies
She'd thought the worse thing in the world would be, then being lost in space. But she'd been found, among the decrepit bodies of things that looked alien in nature. So who else would they ask to look into those bodies.
She still stared at the bodies her face pale in the light of the lab. While the other scientists chatted around her about what a great discovery this was. They hadn't bother to ask about the scars that dug deep into her arms, the hair she'd shorn as soon as she came back to earth. The eyes that held nothing but bleakness.
Mars was not a hospitable planet, and the people. The creatures were even worse. She took a breath, and took out the scalpel and started to tear into the corspe. She wasn't as squeamish when the ooze slimed out of the bodies. She was just glad they were dead. No one had ever questioned how they'd become that way. Would she ever be debriefed.
There was a sudden scream behind her, but when she turned, there was nothing there but blackness. Because suddenly she was back in her dorm. Back in the white cotton pjs of the hospital. Her eyes drifted to the window. She was still on earth, but they hadn't asked her to dissect the bodies. She got up, slipped on her boots and threw on her leather jacket. She slid her window open, and climbed out, and started the trek to the roof. She was unsurprised to find, that she wasnt' the only one there.
"Luca." she murmured, her voice carrying on the wind. Luca raised her hand towards her and she took it. His hands were as calloused as she remembered.
"Still thinking of the bodies?" He asked.
"This time I dreamed they made me dissect them." She muttered bleakly.
"That's actually not a bad idea." He ruminated.
"You can't be serious."
"Vandi, don't you want answers."
"Somehow, I don't think dissecting the bodies will give me any answers that I actually need."
"Nothing ventured, nothing gained."
I leaned down, against the wall and stared at the sky, space looked the same no matter which planet you were on. Something she'd discovered in Mars.
Could she go back to the bodies and cut them open? They didn't deserve peace after all the pain and suffering she'd endured at their hands.
"Where is Sloan." she asked.
"Where do you think? Pirates, even space pirates have the same vices.
Sloan watched his men and women drink themselves into a stupor. He was surprised that the bar was still even open, but he mused, scientists did keep odd hours. Like the scientist that was approaching him now.
He frowned at her appearance, she wore a leather jacket over black joggers shoved into boots and a henley that had seen better days. Clearly she'd come here on purpose. A purpose that seemed to be him, as she stopped in front of him.
"Sloan." she murmured.
"Vandi." He replied back. "This is the last place I thought to find you."
"This is the place I knew you would be."
"I had assumed you'd be asleep after your ordeal."
"Who has time for sleep, with what we've seen." She muttered as she took a seat and signalled the barkeep.
"It doesn't do well, to dwell. Little one."
"How did you know, where to find me?"
"Lucian let me know that you'd been left in Mars. I assumed you would've been found by the worst denizens in Mars." He dryly muttered back, as a single mug was set in front of Vandi.
Vandi took a generous sip, before she stared at him with watery eyes. "It wasn't me that killed them."
"I assumed." Sloan murmured.
"But I think they died, because I was close to the truth." She whispered.
Sloan turned to her, with a raised brow. "Whatever do you mean?"
Vandi smiled. "Tell me, have you ever heard of Rubel Enterprises?"
