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.Still without thinking, Aaron raised his gun to fire.At the last moment, a bit of reason seeped in, and he altered his shot.His instincts had said to aim for the heart, but Aaron changed that just slightly and fired.The plasma bolt caught Eric in the shoulder and spun him around, throwing him hard into the bulkhead.The Patterson flew from his hand and clattered to the deck.Aaron swept the gun back toward Thomas, but he was curled up into a ball with one hand on his throat and the other on his testicles.An eerie silence settled on the corridor; the only sound was Aaron’s quick breathing.He swallowed, trying to work some moisture into his suddenly dry mouth.He pointed back down the corridor, toward the galley.“Go get Jessica,” he said breathlessly.Kyle bobbed his head then practically flew down the corridor.Aaron’s heart was threatening to beat right out of his chest.As a military man who had fought in a war, he had killed many times, but in those instances it had always been the enemy.He had never seriously thought he might have to kill a member of his crew.Suddenly, all of those thoughts fled at the arrival of a new thought.Was it starting? He knew that every previous attempt at creating a cyborg had ended with the subject going psychotically insane.Was that happening to him?Goose bumps broke out across his arms, and he quickly replayed the events in his mind.He didn’t think he had overreacted.Eric had put his hands on him, which had been the catalyst for the fight.It had escalated with Thomas, until finally Eric had drawn a gun.Slowly, the suffocating fear subsided.Everything he had done was justified, or at least that was what he kept telling himself.Chapter 9Even though Jessica and Russell were just down the corridor, it was Susan who arrived first.It seemed a bit strange; she had been up a deck and in her cabin, but still she was the first one there.Aaron was quite sure it hadn’t been the noise that drew her; undoubtedly, it was her telepathic abilities that allowed her to arrive first.Susan stepped out from the stairwell, her eyes taking in the scene.She didn’t speak.Instead, instead she stepped over to Thomas’s huddled form and pushed his head back.His eyes were watering and snot ran from his nose.He was gasping for breath, but Susan ignored his obvious pain and felt through the pockets of his jacket.After a moment, she stood up, holding one of the Logan plasmics.They still hadn’t spoken, and it felt like only a few heartbeats had taken place since Aaron shot Eric.He was frazzled, unsure of what to do.Russell and Jessica came sprinting up the corridor.They slid to a stop.Russell just stared around at the scene while Jessica stopped to check Eric’s vitals.“What the hell happened?” Russell demanded.Aaron opened his mouth to speak, but Jessica cut him off.“Help me! We have to get him to the med bay or he might die.”Aaron holstered his gun and hurried forward to help Russell lift Eric’s body.Between the two of them, they managed to half-carry, half-drag Eric’s limp body to the med bay and heaved him heavily onto a bed.“Out of the way!” Jessica hollered, making both men jump back.“Anything we can do?” Russell asked.“Yeah, get the fuck out!” Jessica said, not even slowing to look back at the men.Neither man needed to be told twice, and they hurried out the med bay door.Every last member of the crew waited for them in the corridor.Most looked wide-eyed and worried.Even CAC stood there, dutifully waiting at Kyle’s side.Grady stepped through the crowd carrying Thomas.He stepped between Aaron and Russell and disappeared into the med bay.“What happened?” Terry demanded.He looked confused.Kyle and Molly both looked scared.Adam, Susan, and, strangely enough, Eve all looked resigned.Aaron wasn’t sure how to respond, but he didn’t have to.“Were you there?” Susan demanded of Kyle.He nodded, looking around at the assembly.The med bay door opened and Grady stepped out.He paused there, watching the others.“They were furious that Eve got a full-share,” Kyle said.“The Captain tried to walk away, but they grabbed him.He hit them and knocked them away.And Eric drew a gun.”Several people gasped.It was bad enough to attack a ship’s captain, but to draw a gun on him was unimaginable.Aaron breathed a bit easier; the crew was believing Kyle completely.He had momentarily worried that this could cost him several more members of this crew.Everyone was still looking around when Kyle spoke again.“I have proof,” he said.“Proof?” Susan asked.“What do you mean?”“I’ve been upgrading some of the robots, and I installed a recorder in CAC.” He motioned to the bot standing beside him.“He should have a complete record of the.” he paused, searching for the right word, “incident.”“CAC,” Susan said, “can we see the replay?”CAC nodded his head once, in imitation of a human.“Of course.” The bot turned to face an open section of the corridor and a light-blue, three-dimensional image appeared; it was the corridor from just outside the mess.Absolute silence settled upon the crew.They watched as Eric and Thomas hollered at Aaron and then the brief fight that followed.Aaron let out a small sigh of relief when the pale, blue gun appeared in the holographic Eric’s hand.“Son of a bitch,” Terry said in his deep voice.“What are you going to do?” Eve asked.She was watching Aaron intently.Do? Aaron thought.He hadn’t gotten that far yet.He was just ecstatic that the recorder had backed him up.But as that relief slowly ebbed away, the anger began to come back.He knew what interstellar law had to say about assaulting a ship’s captain.The silence drew out for several moments, and then Aaron took a deep breath.“According to the law, I’m allowed to space them.”Molly and Kyle both looked shocked, Adam and Russell were nodding, and Susan, Terry, and Eve were just watching him.“I’m not going to rush to that decision.If I decide that’s what’s to happen, I expect each of you to back me up.”There was a transparent window allowing those in the corridor to see into the med bay.The crew gathered around the window to watch Jessica furiously working on Eric.She was working on the more critical of the two patients and had delegated the medical bot to work on Thomas.Aaron wasn’t sure what to hope for.If Eric died, then there would be no need to space him, and if he lived, then at least Aaron hadn’t killed a crewmember.He shook his head
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