Drew Karpyshyn - Ascension

The clearing by the waterfall.

With Gillian in tow, Jiro would have to stay on the trails, following the long, winding path that eventually led to the clearing. Hendel didn't have to worry about that. Trusting his sense of direction, he veered off the trail, crashing through the brush as he carved his own direct path.

Branches slashed at his face and tore at his clothes. He swatted away a wiry limb from an Elysium fir, only to have it spring back so that the needles scratched across his cheek, leaving bright red furrows.

Hendel simply blocked out the pain, charging forward until he exploded in the clearing. Jiro was kneeling on the ground, over Gillian's body.

"Get away from her!" Hendel shouted, aiming his pistol at the young scientist.

The other man looked up, fear and confusion on his face.

"Stand up and back away!"

Jiro did as he was told, moving slowly, his hands raised. "I don't know what happened. She just started having a seizure."

Hendel dared a quick glance down at Gillian, who was convulsing on the ground.

"Over there," Hendel said, gesturing with his weapon. "On your stomach. Facedown. Don't move."

Jiro did as he was told, moving quickly. When he was in position, Hendel stepped forward and dropped to his knees beside Gillian, his attention focused entirely on her.

Daring to shift his head slightly, Jiro could see the security chief huddled over the unconscious girl. Slowly, quietly, he reached down and undipped the stunner from his belt. When Hendel set his pistol on the grass beside Gillian to check her vitals, Jiro aimed his stunner and fired.

The shot took the security chief square between the shoulder blades, causing him to arch his back and cry out before slumping forward across Gillian's body.

Jiro scrambled to his feet and ran forward, crouching down to pick up Hendel's gun with his left hand, his stunner still clenched tightly in his right. As his fingers closed around the butt of the pistol, the security chief's hand shot out and seized him by the wrist.

Crying out in surprise, Jiro tried to pull away. Hendel — disoriented but somehow still conscious after a direct hit from 100,000 volts of electrical current — held on, twisting Jiro's wrist up and in, forcing him to drop the pistol.

Jiro kicked at his prone opponent. The first blow hit him squarely in the ribs, causing the bigger man to grunt in pain and roll onto his side, releasing Jiro's wrist. A second kick caught him in the stomach, but Hendel managed to wrap his arms around Jiro's leg.

Thrown off-balance, Jiro fell to the ground. Then Hendel was on him. They wrestled briefly, grappling at close quarters as they rolled away from where Gillian lay. The security chief was bigger, stronger, and better trained. But Jiro still had his stunner.

He jammed the weapon against the other man's ribs and fired again, just as Hendel brought his elbow up hard into the side of Jiro's temple.

Jiro recovered first, woozily scrambling to his feet. Swaying to keep his balance, he saw that Hendel, unbelievably, was struggling to rise. The younger man still had the stunner clutched in his hand, and he used it for a third time, completely draining the battery. Hendel fell face forward on the ground, where he lay motionless.

Unwilling to take the chance his enemy might not be out completely, Jiro turned and ran into the surrounding trees. Tossing aside the now useless stunner, he ran with an uneven, stumbling stride through the trees, still trying to shake off the lingering effects of the sharp elbow to his head.

Kahlee's lungs were burning by the time she reached the entrance to the atrium. She had tried to keep up with Hendel in the race from his office, but with each of his long, powerful strides she'd fallen farther and farther behind. Within seconds he was out of sight, and a minute later even the sound of his footsteps had vanished.

She'd continued on, racing through the halls and stairwells until she reached the atrium. . and now she didn't know where to go. So she simply stopped and waited, trying to catch her breath and wondering what to do next.

Calling for backup was an option; there was an emergency call box at the entrance to the atrium. But if Hendel was the security chief, and if he wanted backup, he would already have called for it.

You're probably overreacting, she told herself. All you know for sure is that Jiro lied to you. It might piss you off, but that doesn't mean you should call in security.

She began to pace back and forth, frustrated by her inactivity, but still not having any useful plan. She could go look for them, but there were several paths and trails; she could easily choose the wrong one and miss them. However, there was only one entrance to the atrium, so as long as she stayed put they would all eventually come to her.

And when they do, I'm going to get some answers!

Hendel couldn't feel his body. He didn't know if he was asleep, awake, alive, or dead. His head was a bubbling cauldron of disconnected, incoherent thoughts and sensations. And then one clear image came bubbling to the surface.

Gillian.

He took a deep breath and held it for three seconds, then slowly let it out. The action was pure instinct; an exercise to calm and focus the mind ingrained by years of biotic training. Another deep breath and the world around him became still, the fragmented pieces of his awareness settling into position.

He was lying facedown on the ground. Every muscle in his body burned with lactic acid, exhausted and utterly spent.

He bit you with a stunner. The son-of-a-bitch hit you with a stunner.

He was tired. He needed to sleep it off. Nothing else he could do.

Don't you dare black out, you worthless son-of-a-bitch!

The words were his own, but the voice in his head was that of his first drill sergeant from basic training. Whenever he faltered during his Alliance career— pushed to the limits of endurance by a 20k run, or exhausted after hours of biotic training — he would hear that voice, relentlessly driving him onward. But those days were over. He'd retired. He wasn't a soldier anymore.

Don't give me that BS! Once a soldier, always a soldier! Now get your lazy ass up off the ground and move!

Somehow he found the strength to push himself up onto his hands and knees. That's when he saw Gillian, still lying on the grass. She wasn't convulsing anymore. She wasn't moving at all. She wasn't even breathing.

He reached down and pressed the emergency alert button on his belt. Security and medical teams would dispatch immediately, homing in on the signal. Response time to the waterfall in the atrium was seven minutes.

Too slow. She cant wait that long.

He started crawling toward Gillian, his muscles screaming in agony, too weak to even attempt to stand.

Jiro uttered a prolonged string of profanities in his native tongue, cursing the thorn-covered branches that were tearing at his clothes as he tried to pick his way through the atrium's forests. But he didn't stop; he didn't know how long Hendel would be down, and he needed to find a way off the station before the security chief woke up.

Therewas an emergency shuttle at the docking bay that could take him down to the planet's surface. If he thought up a good excuse he might be able to charm or bribe the pilot into making the trip. Failing that, he'd need to hijack or steal it. It was a crazy, desperate plan, but he was a desperate man. He had known from the moment Hendelfound him in the clearing that his only option was to get clear of the facility.

He burst from theundergrowth back onto the running trails, less than twenty feet from the atrium's exit. He didn't notice Kahlee standing off to the side until she called out to him.