"In Search of Answers"

[Troy Parson 0]

Through the scratched eyepieces of the ancient gas mask, Troy surveyed the scene outside the lab. The corridor was littered with unconscious Guardians; Nickles clearly wouldn’t be trying to shoot him again for a while; Redera was out cold as well. Pher and Shane were nowhere to be seen. He hoped that they wouldn’t hold his nearly rendering them unconscious against him, but he had no intention of walking out into the middle of an active fight with weapons involved, and remaining in the lab was simply not an option.

 

He paused for a moment to take a weapon from one of the Guardians, picking it up with his fingertips as if it were a piece of week-old roadkill before dropping it into a coat pocket. Then he made his way through the pile of sleeping bodies, making sure to step on Nickles’ hand in the process. Serves him right for trying to gun down a shipmate.

 

The last time Troy saw Simon, the latter had been headed back towards the bridge, and so that was where Troy went now. There were some things that he had to ask Simon, answers that he had to get, whether or not the process of getting them left Simon in any condition to be turned over to the Guardians.

 

Troy arrived at the door to the bridge, and pressed the button to open it. The door bleeped at him, but remained closed. He pressed the button again, leaving a fingerprint in blood. The wound on his arm where Nickles had shot him was running quite freely, despite a painful and hurried attempt back in the lab at cauterizing it with a portable gas burner. And still the door would not open. Someone must have locked it from the other side.

 

With the slightest of sighs, Troy took a multi-tool from one of his pockets and went to work on the door control panel. He wasn’t sure what he’d do once he succeeded in hotwiring the door, but there was no time to think about that now…