Steven Campbell - Hard Luck Hank - Screw the Galaxy

The entire club full of patrons was lying on the ground unmoving.

“It’s not his fault,” I heard Jyen say at my side, but I couldn’t process it. He just murdered hundreds of people.

Like a light switching off, Jyonal immediately dropped to the floor, as if he had been suspended from strings now cut.

I stepped through the bodies over to Jyonal’s still form and my hand was going into my jacket. This…thing can’t live. He’s too dangerous.

Jyen stepped in front of me, her hands on my arm.

“Hank. They’re alive. It just knocks them out, they’ll be okay. It doesn’t work on me. I guess it doesn’t work on you. It wears off, I promise. When you were gone some men came over and they were bothering us…,” she trailed off. As if there could be any kind of valid reason for doing this.

I paused and looked down at one of the partiers. His eyes were closed and his mouth open. My fingers were too thick to feel a pulse, but I crouched down to examine him. I could see his chest rising and falling. I looked at others and could see them breathing as well.

“Take him. Take Jyonal home,” I said with difficulty.

Jyen started to answer.

“Take him home!”

Jyen ran over to her brother and coaxed him to his feet. I didn’t want to look at them. All I could see was this club full of bodies that had been so lively a second ago.

How was I going to explain this? How does a whole club get knocked out cold?

I could tell the doormen that… that some electrical thing happened. Yeah. Like wiring. Come quick. Yeah. They wouldn’t know. It would hurt Daavisim’s business, but they wouldn’t know.

I got to the front door. I paused to rehearse my lines. Be startled. Act surprised. I didn’t think that was a problem.

I threw open the door.

“Come quick.”

The doormen were lying on the ground.

I looked up the street and there were nothing but prone figures as far as I could see.

I stumbled out of the club and began walking. People with shopping bags. People with their children. All unconscious. I checked a few more and they all appeared to be breathing. How long did this last? How far did it go?

I turned a corner and it was the same. I walked dumbly, looking for someone still moving. Waiting for it to end.

I turned another corner and it was the same. The whole city? Was it possible? I felt like I was going insane.

Suddenly I heard a noise and looked up.

There was a mechanic strapped to a train support pole looking down at me from maybe ten feet up. He was dressed in work clothes that were designed to protect him from the heavy machinery of the train.

I gave him a small, hesitant wave.

He struggled with his harness, fell to the ground, and ran away from me as fast as his chubby legs could carry him.

I crept around the empty city like the last survivor of a war. I wanted to avert my gaze, as it was very disconcerting seeing all the bodies, but I also didn’t want to step on anyone being as hefty as I was.

There was no way I was going back to my apartment. I felt sure Jyen would come over and try to explain how all this was totally normal for them. How level-ten mutants, when they weren’t getting high, making themselves new bodies, or handing out delfiblinium, were busy knocking whole cities senseless.

I went into a diner. The occupants were on the floor or with their heads on the counter, and decided to fix myself some food. All the appliances seemed to be working so it was a matter of finding ingredients.

It was a simple meal because I didn’t want people to start waking up and find me preparing some fancy seven-course dinner. But it turns out there was no fear of that. After two hours and my meal long gone, I was still the only one awake.

But soon enough I heard a cough by the counter. Very slowly the patrons were stirring.

I immediately sprawled myself against a countertop and played dead. After a few more minutes, there were screams and yells and all kinds of commotion.

I got to my feet last, confused at this strange happening.

But as soon as they saw me there, I was accosted with questions.

“Hank, what just happened? What’s going on?”

People kept asking me as if I had all the answers. I did, but it was irritating that they would assume I did.

I just shook my head and did my best to feign shock, though I don’t think I sold it well, as the diners kept pressing. Finally, I had to leave so I wouldn’t be bothered by a lot of scared folks whose problems I couldn’t resolve—not without breaking my word to keep Jyen’s and Jyonal’s identities secret, anyway.

At home I turned off my tele and the doorbell and went to sleep.

I woke up to harsh light in my eyes.

“What did you do?” I heard Garm ask before I could see her.

With one eye open I could barely distinguish her outline in my bedroom. I checked my tele. I had only gotten about four hours sleep.

“Come on, we can talk about this tomorrow, I’m tired,” I slurred.

Bang!

I grabbed my head where Garm had just shot me.

“Hey.” I stumbled out of bed and reached with an arm to try and snag her, but she easily sidestepped me. I tripped and landed hard on the floor.

“I know you hate getting shot, so if this is what it takes, I got all night,” she said.

“Garm, I don’t know. Ask anyone, I was asleep too,” I said.

“Do you think I’m stupid? You’re the worst liar in the galaxy. You weren’t in the restaurant before it happened and suddenly you’re there, in someone else’s seat, covered in food.”

“It must have messed with our memories,” I pondered mysteriously.

“Hank. The city was paralyzed. Everyone. We’ve already had five deaths from it and there’s probably going to be more. So tell me,” Garm said, her gun pointing at me again. “What in the 440 states is going on? When the troops get here, they’re going to ask about it. They’re going to assume the Dredel Led made the station unstable. This may even be the rationale they need to destroy Belvaille. Eighty thousand people just don’t simultaneously swoon.”

I couldn’t really lie to Garm. Not on moral grounds, but because I couldn’t think of any lie that would remotely make sense. Finally I took a deep breath.

“Garm. I can’t tell you,” I said simply.

“Why?” she asked, her eyes huge and angry.

“I can’t tell you that either. But—”

“You’re going to have to do a lot better than that! People died from it, Hank.”

“How did they die?”

“Why does it matter, they’re dead. Now I need to know how. If I know that, I am sure we can fix it or somehow explain it to the Navy. But do you really think they’re going to want to drop off tens of thousands of their troops into an area that mysteriously knocks its citizens into a coma?”

“Garm.”

“Yes, Hank,” she seemed to expect another stonewall.

“Will it help you to hear that I have it under control?”

“How is this under control? How can I possibly think you have it under control? Is it only going to be half the city next time?”

I wasn’t making any progress this way.

“Who was it who fought the Dredel Led?” I said. “For free.”

Garm was incredulous.

“You want money?” She rummaged in her pants. “You mercenary bastard, is that what this is about?”

“No. I was just saying…you have to take my word for it, Garm.”

“I don’t have to take anything. I have to protect this station, not just you.”

I thought for a moment.

“You have to take my word for it,” I said, leaving a heavy pause. “Or it will happen again.”

It was kind of true. Though kind of a lie. If Garm kept at it, she’d probably haul me down to jail and treat me pretty damn bad. I could somewhat realistically guess that Jyen would respond to that by using her brother. Who would do…mutant stuff. Up to, including, exceeding, what he’d done already.