Slowly, carefully, Twilight Sparkle worked the tiny screwdrivers in her hands back and forth over the seam of the plastic casing of the unusual electronic device on the table under the work lamp. Fellow computer technician, Drago, was standing by, unsure if he should instead return to monitoring the station’s systems for anomalies since all he was currently doing was staring intriguingly at the work the lithe woman was doing and, guiltily, sneaking the occasional glance at the curvature of her bottom. He knew he shouldn’t, but… Damn, she is so cute while working.
“Drago, I need something to hold this gap. Nonconductive, like a plastic or ceramic wedge.”
“Uh, sure… hold on.” Twilight tried to glance back, but did not want to risk damaging the object or lose the opening she had, but needed to rest her hands. A moment later, Drago squeezed up next to Twilight and inserted a folded up playing card.
Twilight blinked a few times. She felt herself blush against her desires. While she had no sexual interest in men, the body heat and breath brushing against the bare skin of her neck reminded Twilight of Sunset and how much she missed her wife’s touch. Twilight quickly drew back to hide her flushed features, pushing her prescription goggles up onto her forehead to rub her eyes. “O-oh, yes. That will work. I just… I need a second before diving back in.”
“I’m sorry,” Drago immediately said in a voice just above a whisper. “I got too close, didn’t I? I… that was wrong of me.”
Twilight rubbed the back of her neck, but smiled. She took a moment to clean the lenses on her goggles before replacing them. “It’s okay. You didn’t… Drago, I haven’t asked because I felt it might be inappropriate, but are you married or seeing someone?”
Drago blinked a few times, completely taken by surprise at the question and polite tone it was asked. “Oh, um… no. Not married. I’ve dated a few people, one I thought was going to be the one, but she flaked when I proposed to her. It was pretty embarrassing actually, but thankfully was not a big public proposal or anything horrifying like that. Still messed up my emotions and how to read people. Probably more than I wanted to admit and why I threw myself fully into work as far away from, ‘normal people’ as possible. Oh, look, space station job! That sounds like fun!”
Twilight smiled warmly and returned to the table, retrieving her tools. “I know I may not look it, but I have been married for a long time now. Insert the cliche comment of, 'I'm older than I look' here because it's still true. Though we did not get married until after we graduated college, we had been in love since the end of high school. My reaction was instinctive. I think I can safely speak for both of us when I say we get used to always having someone near. Feeling their warmth, smelling their scent. It has honestly been hard these last few weeks. Like going through chemical withdraw, which in a way, is still accurate given the hormones and brain chemistry neurotransmitters that are released during sex annnnnnd I’m rambling.”
Drago smiled politely. Twilight had to admit, he had an adorable, friendly smile that reminded her of Timber Spruce, but not in a bad way. That kind understanding and willingness to listen to her ramble. Still, given that her thoughts had wandered in such a direction she felt it was time to clear the air and get that little white lie off her chest.
“I need to be honest with you about something that I should have come forward with from the beginning.”
“Sure.”
Twilight turned inward, taking a deep breath before turning to meet his golden colored eyes. “I have been enjoying our time together and you are a sweet, intelligent man. I would have been honored to date you had some situational things been different,” Drago nodded, knowing there was a “but” coming. “But I am married to the most magical and amazing woman on the face of the planet. She is my everything and I love her more than all the technology and science that has or will ever exist.”
Drago blinked and his mouth hung open briefly. “Oh… OH! I follow. Not sure why you felt a need to lie about that to begin with, but now I get it and feel terrible for assuming a lot of things… annnnnd shit. Eagle Eye was right.”
“Huh?”
Drago cringed a bit, but still smirked sheepishly and chuckled. “My buddy, Eagle Eye, insinuated that you and Sunbeam were lovers…. Wait….” Drago’s eyes turned to Twilight’s left hand. “Same rings. Duh! That should have been my first guess.”
Twilight smirked and nodded. “Now do you understand?”
“Yeah.” Drago chuckled again. “If it’s appropriate to say, you have very good taste.”
Twilight giggled. “I like to think she does as well.”
“Oh, for sure!”
With that weight off her chest, Twilight resumed her work of opening the palm sized device, which finally split open with a small crack sound like an eggshell. She had briefly sucked in a breath thinking she had broken something vital, but there were some inner workings and a few LEDs that were still on. One even looked like a miniature isotope heater to keep the circuitry at optimal temperature. Twilight gestured for Drago to take a closer look.
“What does that look like to you?”
Drago once again leaned in next to Twilight, but neither felt the previous discomfort or anxiety of proximity as their eyes were transfixed on the complexity of the small device before them. Drago adjusted his glasses that tried to slip down his nose. Now he understood why his fellow computer guru was wearing goggles instead.
“Well, those are obviously the processors given the amount of gold and soldering on the connectors, but they look like that are a made of glass, which can’t be right.”
“Could be iridium structured core, dense, but looks like glass.”
Drago nodded. “That’s definitely an onboard battery and I can see some signs of internal power, like the heater and lights... but what is that?”
“That,” Twilight paused to make sure he was following her eyes, “is a synthetic quartz dodecagon solid state memory storage unit. And that small armature is likely the laser used to etch the stored information.”
“No… that’s not possible. That… for fuck’s sake, that’s insane! Do you have any idea how experimental that is? How much something like that would cost?! Holy Cowbell, the laser alone would have required one processor just for itself and more power than that battery could pump out! It had to have been drawing power from the connection. What the hell is this thing?!”
Twilight reached into the pocket of her jumpsuit and extracted a small device that she extended and began examining the confounding electronic device closer. Drago was right. This technology was still experimental. She had seen some drawings in Sparkle Tech's classified R&D folders of similar ideas, but nothing in the testing phase yet.
“Do you always carry a compact microscope with you?”
Twilight arched a brow and smirked slyly. “Well, yeah. Don’t you?”
“I’ve been out-nerded… And I feel completely fine with this.”
Twilight giggled before returning the microscope to her pocket. “If I have to hypothesize, I think it is safe to say that this device was designed to be attached to the station at that specific junction for the purpose of penetrating our systems and collecting as much information as possible while also either stress testing for weaknesses or using said weaknesses to throw us off of its data collection function.”
“But we swept the systems multiple times! Even reinstalled them from startup backups. We would have found a breach… right?”
“Not it if knew we would do that and could cover its tracks all the way back to this thing every time. It removed itself completely to avoid our system wipes with the backups.”
Drago felt his stomach drop out and a chill run up his spine. “Hold up. You are saying not only is this thing one of the most advanced hack and slash storage devices ever made, but that it has an adaptable central processor that learned to get around us? You know what that means, right?”
Twilight nodded. “Of course. Advanced artificial intelligence programming. Most likely funded and created by a rival corporation, country, or both. It is likely still rudimentary in its independent thought parameters, but I could be wrong. There is no telling how long this has been in secret development. We have our own teams working on similar projects, but under tremendous restriction and government oversight. Rogue AI and AI for warfare are serious hot button issues across the entire globe and have been for more than two decades. Which has both stunted their ethical development and testing and made illegal development desirable. Things like this are why I personally refuse to allow my research or other Sparkle Tech departmental R&D to be used for war or espionage. The ease in which it can be abused is... it hurts my soul to think about.”
“Huh, didn’t know you had that kind of pull with the corporate higher ups. But then again, you are related to the founding family so, that makes sense. I appreciate the moral integrity even if no one else does because there is a LOT of money to be made in military development. Personally though, this kind of stuff scares the shit out of me. I’ve seen waaaaaay too many ‘AI destroy all of humanity’ movies to be comfortable with fully sentient machines.”
“It’s not the machine’s fault," Twilight snapped. "We made them. We tell them what to do. It is, therefore, our responsibility to make sure they are developed ethically and, as you said, with integrity. They cannot possibly understand right and wrong if we do not explain it to them, show them why it is important to care. They are not just tools to be used and discarded.” Twilight chewed on her lip a moment. She knew she was dangerously close to revealing who she actually was. In addition, Drago was treading on a topic that was close to her heart that she had argued at length on to Aurora and, through email chains, with the other development teams, shareholders, and corporate suits. Sunset had been a saint of a wife and had listened patiently to Twilight rant and rave on more than one occasion about how frustrating it was to work in the shadows remotely and relinquish a great deal of direct control of the company she had founded out of their garage and molded into one of the largest advanced technology developers in the world. Twilight was constantly worried about what the future would bring and whether she would be able to help shape it.
“Regardless, we know this was the cause of the station issues and this data crystal cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of another. I should probably destroy it, but I want to analyze what it was collecting first. That would give us a clue to its goals.”
“Do you think the program is in there right now? We never did find it during all our system restarts or scans.”
Twilight took the crystal between two of her fingers and tore it free from the housing, placing the casing into her empty pocket for study later. “I can’t imagine it would be anywh-”
Half the station warning lights went red and alarms began to sound.
Drago stumbled back and jumped into his station chair. He quickly brought up the station monitors and was glad the jumpsuits absorbed bodily fluids because he was certain he pissed himself for a second. “Oh shit! The whole station is going into systematic failure!”
Twilight glanced down at the crystal in her palm. “Oh no. It was still wirelessly connected! When it lost contact with its hardware it must have triggered a freakout or failsafe it left behind! I should have scanned it for a broadcast signal! Stupid, Sparkle, stupid!”
“I’m trying to isolate the core systems but it’s sending everything into corrupt failure! I, I think it’s deleting it’s tracks and all the operational program code with it! It’s lobotomizing the station systems!”
“But why would it do that?!”
“Like he said,” Drago and Twilight turned to see Spacer standing at the doorway, holding onto the door frame with one hand and a pistol in the other, “to cover its tracks.”
---------
Sunset Shimmer and Eagle Eye were marching down the corridor side by side. After finding the elusive anomaly they had been looking for, the pilot called Administrator Skymark to ask where Carbon “Spacer” Date was. After overhearing he was likely in the server room where Twilight was it took every ounce of restraint Sunset had to not sprint down the corridors in a manner that would have made Rainbow Dash proud, leaving burn marks on the plascrete floor.
However, Eagle Eye had cautioned restraint since they did not want to give away to their quarry that they knew he had conducted an unscheduled EVA and had deleted it from the system but not the suit memory. The timing was also damning evidence since the first system glitches had been recorded two days after said EVA. Sunset wanted to roll her eyes and laugh, but deferred to caution only because she was more than aware that when cornered, people did stupid, desperate things. There was a sledgehammer on display at her old house, behind glass that had once served as a daily reminder to stop and think things through.
Her feeling of rational calm was soon interrupted however when all the hall lights went dark and emergency floor lighting kicked on. The blaring warning klaxon that sounded like any number of space sci-fi films Sunset had seen did nothing to sooth her rising anger and frustration and whoever installed it should have been punched in the face for thinking it was a good idea.
“That’s a bad sound!” Sunset growled.
“Yeah.”
Nothing else needed to be said. The pair picked up the pace as they jogged for the server room while Skymark’s voice came over the PA system. “All personnel proceeded slowly and cautiously to your designated muster points for station wide emergency! This is not a drill! Do not gather personal items, do not divert for other personnel. Again, this is not a drill!”
As Sunset rounded the last corner to the server room, she caught the glimpse of someone moving into the room. Her instincts screamed to take caution in the back of her head. Sunset held up her arm in a stop gesture and Eagle Eye immediately slowed. His own instincts and intuition followed suit. The two pressed themselves against the wall and slowly crept closer to the doorway.
If it had been someone coming to warn Twilight and the others to evacuate they would have emerged seconds later. But the seconds ticked by. Then, Sunset heard her wife’s voice. Loud and decidedly irritated.
“You have GOT TO BE FRELLING KIDDING ME?!”
Spacer scowled, but did not lose his resolve. “It was not supposed to be like this. Just give me the memory crystal and I promise you’ll never see me again.”
“This isn’t the Death Star! Real people’s lives are in danger! Why would you do something like this?!”
Spacer raised the gun out at arm’s length. Drago was still sitting with his hands up, his eyes constantly shifting back to the screens that were communicating increasingly bad news by the second. “I don’t need to explain myself, but since you asked, mostly for money. But also for a chance to stop being in everyone’s shadow. Maybe you understand, being descended from a real genius, but I’m not interested in talking more. I just want what I came for and then I’m out of here.”
“We’re in space! How exactly are you planning on getting ‘out of here’ as you so put it?”
Spacer growled. “Escape pods, duh! I reprogrammed one to a different splash location more than a week ago. Now, stop stalling or I will shoot! I don’t want to, but I will!”
Sunset had heard enough. Before Eagle Eye could grab her arm, Sunset stepped into the room and raised her fist to punch Spacer in the head. If he had been facing completely away it might have been a good sneak attack. However, he had caught a glimpse of movement in his peripheral. Spacer quickly turned, his finger squeezing the trigger on reactive instinct without really thinking or aiming, but he held the weapon firmly against jumping out of his hand.
Several things happened in the span of only a few seconds.
Gunshots, even small caliber pistols, in a small room, especially well insulated ones, are painfully deafening. The sudden flash that accompanied the shot in the semi-dark room made it irrefutable that the gun had been fired. Twilight knew she was fine beyond her ringing ears because Spacer had turned suddenly, bringing the weapon around with him. The next thought that occurred to Twilight after, ‘I’m okay’ was that someone else was not. Her purple eyes went wide when she recognized that wavey mane of red and yellow fire in the low light.
“OH MY GOD! SUNSET!”
Sunset Shimmer had been hurt before. Quite badly, in fact. Her mind provided a mental image of a shadowy pony demon that had impaled her with a dark magic lance that actually started to climb up inside her ruptured organs. That had felt like acid coated shards of glass being forced inside her body in the most violating way imaginable. She had taken a few hard hits and kicks during combat training in both human self defense and as a pony with the royal guard, which had also included horn blasts of varying degrees of power. They had all hurt in to one degree or another.
In all honesty, Sunset had wondered in that moment how had Spacer managed to sucker punch her from two meters away when she had the element of surprise? Then, Sunset realized her ears were still ringing painfully and there was a sharp pain between her ribs just below her right breast. Sunset stumbled back and hit the cage that was protecting the server stacks. She stumbled over her own feet that felt jelly like and fell to the ground.
Eagle Eye stepped in and found himself face first with the barrel of a small, semiautomatic pistol. He wanted to press his luck and do a fake, maybe get grazed during a second shot, but still close the distance and disarm Spacer. He wanted to check on the woman who was sitting on her bottom with a clearly dazed expression, her brain trying to process the shock her body was going through. However, his eyes were locked on that black abyss of a gun barrel. It shook, but only slightly. Logic, realization, and training set in. Spacer had firearms training. He was a tech, a nerd, but he was not helpless and not ignorant of what he was doing. Desperate, perhaps. But not some scared college kid who would lose his focus at someone shouting 'BOO' really loudly. Eagle Eye, reluctantly, stayed where he was and raised his hands. He would bide his time and have to hope the fire haired woman whom he had come to respect was as tough as she came off being.
“SUNNY! SUNNY! Oh, God! Are you okay?!”
Spacer swung the gun back towards Twilight and she gasped and jumped back a step, eyes wide. “Crystal! NOW!” Eagle started to move. Spacer swung the gun back. “Don’t.” For extra precaution, Spacer back up to the server cage, closer to Drago who was still sitting. He brought the gun around again and pointed it at the back of Drago’s head, pressing down hard enough to make the other tech wince. “I don’t need him alive to get what I want. There is nothing on there that is worth dying for. Just give it to me, dammit!”
“Dude! Don’t you get it?” shouted Drago, clenching his teeth, pointing at the monitor with his hands still raised. “That thing is deleting ALL the system software! Including the guidance information needed for the escape pods to fly! Even if you reprogrammed one it just deleted that information too! Whoever made it didn’t want ANYONE to find out what they did and that means killing all of us! If they gave you a time window to escape it is now gone.”
“Y-You’re lying!”
Drago screwed his eyes shut as he felt the barrel press harder against the back of his skull where it met the spine. His only prayer was that it would kill him quickly before he felt any pain or bled out.
“He’s not lying,” Twilight said as calmly as she could, hands up defensively, eyes shifting rapidly between Spacer and Sunset. She wanted nothing more than to rush to her wife who was struggling to get back to her feet, clearly in excruciating pain, but any sudden movement could spook Spacer into shooting her or Sunset again and she did not have the benefit of alicorn resilience. They were not immortal. Twilight was fairly certain of that. “I can show you what Drago is talking about, but the longer we do nothing the harder it will be for me to stop and fix this.”
Spacer pointed the gun at Twilight again. “Shut up and let me think! Dammit! Why didn’t you just give me the damn crystal?! Why did you yank it out to begin with?! This is all your fault!”
“HEY!” Spacer almost pulled the trigger again and swung the gun back to Eagle Eye first, who looked poised to pounce. Then to the one who had shouted. Much to his surprise, the tall, amazon woman was back on her feet, even if just barely. “You keep that gun pointed at me, asshole.”
“Sunny, don’t…”
“I’m telling you right now, you point that gun at her again I will attack you, I will break every bone in your hand, then I will take that gun and shove it up your ass and pull the trigger. Repeatedly. So, you let them work to save this station, including your miserable life, and we talk like adults. Otherwise, say a prayer and be prepared to die very badly.”
Twilight met Sunset’s eyes. She could see the irises were glowing bright teal, accentuated by the dim ambiance of the emergency lighting. Spacer and likely Eagle Eye had to be seeing it as well even if they had no idea why or how. The two women held each other’s gaze for reassuring comfort and to communicate silently about how the other was handling the situation. Twilight could feel her heart pounding with fear and adrenaline, beating like a drum in her ears and briefly, she wondered, if her own eyes were glowing as anger stewed and boiled from her bowls to her chest.
Slowly, so as to not spook Spacer into shooting again, Twilight reached into her work bag with one hand while keeping the other up. She extracted her work computer and a connector cable. “I can reprogram the system, rewrite most of the code from memory, but the rogue AI needs to be stopped or slowed down at the least. I have a plan that MIGHT work. However, I need to start right now before we lose a vital system.”
Spacer chewed on his lip, growling under his breath. “How about I just take the shuttle? Eagle Eye is a pilot. I can take all of you with me as my hostages.”
“You would have to shoot me too. I’m not leaving all these people to die and I assure you, the moment I have an opportunity, I too would shove that gun up your ass and pull the trigger.”
“God dammit!” Spacer shouted. “Fine! Fix it! Then… then I want that crystal and I’m out of here!”
Twilight forced down her darkness, her anger and indignation to the whole situation cried afoul and demanded revenge for the pain her wife was going through, but she ignored it and spun around, plugging her computer into the mainframe and quickly tapped the side of her goggles to log in. She had to get into the right head space. She had to focus and could not think about Sunset Shimmer at the moment no matter how much her heart was pounding near through her chest cavity. Or how she wanted to rip the traitor limb from limb if only she had her… Twilight shook her head. God dammit, go away! I can’t deal with you right now!
Still, she needed to hear that voice, for comfort and support. “Sunny? How are you doing back there?”
Sunset watched her wife get straight to work and risked a smile that the purple skinned genius could not currently see. “Working my magic, babe. You just focus on working yours.”
Twilight scoffed and barked a harsh laugh to hide the sniffle and growl of frustration that dared to escape as she fought desperately to bury her emotional turmoil under her preferred distraction, science and technology. “That’s actually funny. I was just thinking if I had my magic this would have been over before it began.”
“Heh.” Sunset cringed and hissed after letting out a small laugh. “Y-Yeah. A little levitation, m-maybe throw some stuff around the room. Gooooood times.”
Or break his arms and shoulders, maybe tear his head clean off… Twilight ignored the dark cackle in the back of her mind and quickly accessed the program she was looking for. A window popped up on screen that started off by saying hello to her, displaying a digital emoji smiley face. Drago carefully leaned over to see what she was doing, waiting to help in any way he could. Twilight typed back a hello and a few commands.
“Honestly, I think we could have used a little empathy about now too. Some understanding, don’t you think?”
Sunset smiled more genuine, her vison trying to blur around the edges, but she blinked it away. Eagle Eye, however, groaned and rolled his eyes. “Oh, dammit. Now I get it. You two are the ones that are married! I can’t believe that was not my first guess after I suspected you were kissing cousins.”
Briefly, all the eyes in the room turned to Eagle Eye with different levels of disbelief and a bit of disgust before returning to what they were doing. Sunset shook her head and finally said, “You need a more constructive hobby, or maybe talk therapy? A puppy perhaps?”
“Just shut up, all of you! Where are we on getting the systems…”
The entire station shuddered.
A space station in stable, geosynchronous orbit should not shudder.
“Tell me that was not the reactor,” said Eagle Eye, keeping his eye on Spacer and if he had a chance to take him down.
“Worse,” Drago replied. “Two maneuvering thrusters just fired. If they stay on longer that ten minutes it will move us out of the Lagrange gravity well beyond what we can recover from and we’ll either crash into the Moon or burn up on our way to Earth.”
“Sounds to me like you’re ‘friends’ REALLY wanted to cover their tracks.” Spacer was clearly thinking the same thing. Sunset did not have to read his mind to imagine he was considering all sorts of scenarios of betrayal. She could work with that if she was careful. Sunset looked down at her blood covered left hand. She was fairly certain most of the bleeding had stopped, but there were other problems to consider. None of which could be addressed until the gun was removed from the equation so that no one else would get hurt.
“Spacer, you need to consider the big picture here.”
Twilight could hear Sunset speaking. She could not focus on the words, but even the smooth tone of her velvety voice brought much needed calm to Twilight’s mind and soul. Sunset would be okay. She was hurt, but she would be okay. Sunset was tough in ways normal people could only imagine. She had seen Sunset Shimmer broken and bloodied to the point that even the doctors said she SHOULD have been dead. Magic flowed through her veins and even as a human her alicorn power gave her advantages over the average human. Twilight had faith in her wife that she would do her part to keep anyone else from getting hurt… and she would do hers.
Twilight shook her head and redoubled her focused.
“Drago, I’m going to very quickly explain what I need to have happen and we do not have time for me to repeat myself or make a single mistake.”
“Okay. Tell me what you need.”
“Remember how I told you other Sparkle Tech divisions were working on AI?”
“Yeah?”
“I have a prototype with me. Or at least most of it. It does not have much of a personality yet, but... never mind that's not important. Anyhow, it's not ready. Not yet, but I’m hoping it is far enough along that it will distract the other program enough with conversation that we can isolate it in a data partition and then remove it from our systems. Then, I will have to rewrite the deleted command codes. I need to you monitor our system failures and be ready to shut down or isolate it when you can.”
“You want to send an experimental AI into our systems to… to talk to the one rampaging? I… don’t know how I feel about that.”
Twilight’s goggles lit up with information. She slipped the holographic interface gloves on and multiple windows that only she could see appeared. “I did not ask you how you feel about it. Can you do what I ask?”
“Yeah, I got your back.”
"Good. Let's begin."
Sunset Shimmer swallowed a scream of pain through clenched teeth as she dug a finger into the unwanted hole in her side. While it did cause the bleeding to start again it also gave her an idea of how deep the bullet was lodge. The fact that she could feel it, or what she hoped was it, meant that it had not gone far or that her body had already started to try and expel it. She needed to get it out, but first things, first.
“Spacer, keep your eyes on me, remember?”
“You shouldn’t be standing. And don’t even get me started on the freaky eye glow from before.”
Sunset nodded in agreement, which only made her head spin more for a second. “It would take too long to explain and you need to listen to me on more important issues at the moment. While I am pissed off that you chose to value money over company loyalty and the friendship of others… and pissed that you shot me, of course, I do understand a little bit of what you are feeling.”
“Bullshit.”
“Oh? You think you are the only one who has ever lived in the shadow of someone greater? You think you are the only one that ever tried your hardest to get the craved recognition of your parents or peers? So that they would know you were not only good, not only great, but THE BEST at what you do. My mother was seen as a GODDESS in the eyes of many. Do you have any idea how long a shadow a goddess can cast? I’ve been there, buddy.
"I've walked that shadowy path. Sometimes I think I still have one foot on that path and it’s hard to see the good in yourself. Self confidence, self love, the ability to wake up and just look in the mirror and not be disgusted by what you see, it takes time and it is a struggle. Every. Damn. Day. But this road, the road to prove everyone wrong by any means necessary so that you can be king of the hill? Let me tell you from personal experience, it’s a dark, lonely road to follow.”
“Just… just stop.”
“No, I won’t. Because you have to hear this, just like I did. My best friend in the universe saved my life when I did not think I was worth saving. Hell, I was so fucking clouded by ambition and hate I thought it would be okay to kill her too. Stupid, arrogant me just throwing my new power around like a spoiled rich brat with a flamethrower. It all blew up in my face. I thought I was going to die at the bottom of a muddy hole and, despite it all, she reached out and pulled me up. And by doing that, showing me the way, she gave me the chance to save others who had fallen from grace. Including that beautiful, amazing nerd sitting right over there. Now personally, I think you are an asshole. But that’s okay, because I was the queen bitch of the campus when I craved that need to be on top all the time and believe it or not, I AM trying to save your life too.”
Spacer sneered and twitched. Sunset knew he was done listening to preaching. But he was also ready to listen to facts. Years of observing body language of humans and other creatures alike were finally paying off.
“Spacer, here’s where we are. Just follow my logic, okay? You were paid to get information. I don’t know what kind. They may have even lied to you what they wanted that thing to collect because they sure as hell lied to you as far as your value if that was all it took to turn everything on us. Anyhow, things have changed. You’ve been made. We’ve seen your face, so have all the cameras, and the records are all in system." If they have not been deleted too, but don't point that out, doofus. "Even if you take an escape pod and get away you won’t get far.” Sunset paused to let him chew on that. When he was about to speak again, she spoke over the top of him, fighting to ignore the fresh, dripping wetness slipping through her fingers after tearing her wound open.
“I’ve seen enough shows and read enough books to know that espionage like this, if it does not go smoothly means loose ends. And you are now a loose end. If it was another country that fronted this or even a hostile rival corporation, they won’t want to risk your face being on national news feeds with a chance to flip on them. They will kill you once they know they have the crystal or all the evidence related to it is gone. You have to see that.”
“She’s not wrong,” added Eagle Eye. “I’ve worked with enough spies and government contractors to concur how expendable they are considered. It’s not personal, it’s just a nasty game. However, you give up now, you cooperate on what you know, and I will promise you that I will get my bosses to put you into protective custody so those enemies never find you. You give up the right intel and they may even give you a new life and identity instead of just a solitary jail cell. But only if you end this now before it gets any worse.”
Spacer fidgeted. He chewed on the words. Sunset could hear Twilight mumbling softly, but she did not dare break focus or eye contact with the tech before her. He needed to know she was serious. He needed to believe there was no other option even if there was one or two.
“I… I’ll need guarantees. And probably safety details for my parents and other immediate family members. Maybe even relocations. I… I don’t want anyone else I care about to get hurt because of me. I want it in writing.”
“I’ll get Skymark to call corporate and the commander of the joint chiefs. He’s an old friend. But you got to give me the gun and then we wait to see if those two can fix this because I’m pretty sure the coms are down too.”
Spacer’s face twisted as he weighed his options. Finally, he turned the gun around and pointed the grip to Sunset Shimmer. “I’m sorry I shot you. I hope you will be okay.”
Sunset took the weapon in her right hand and stepped back. She was no stranger to firearms and knew where and how to hold them. It had been one part curiosity, one part Sunset’s never ending thirst to try new things. So, she had gone to a few ranges and tried a few different calibers, but it had been many, many moons now. Twilight had outright refused to participate and had made her stance abundantly clear on more than one occasion that she absolutely detested guns. Sunset had not pushed or tried to convince her otherwise.
Once Sunset had flipped the safety switch Eagle Eye held out his hand and Sunset gladly handed the pistol over. The pilot took the gun and quickly lunged at Spacer, smacking him on the head with the bottom of the grip. The tech dropped like a sack of potatoes.
“For fuck’s sake! Why did you do that?!”
Eagle Eye ignored Sunset’s shocked reaction and the question and began to search about for a specific item. “Yo, Drago. Where’s your duct tape? I know you got some.”
“Yeah, second drawer. Sorry, busy here.”
Eagle Eye nodded and retrieved the roll of tape and immediately started hog tying Spacer’s hands and feet together. “Sorry, couldn’t chance it. Now that he’s secure, let’s get you patched up. I can get you to the infirmary and then go find the doctor. He’s probably near the escape pods or shuttle bay by now.”
Sunset shook her head. “No. No way I’m letting her out of my sight after what just happened. There could be another agent or… hell, I dunno. She may need me for comfort support if nothing else.”
“Support? What are you gonna do, a pep rally cheer? You got a damn bullet in your liver or somewhere near there. You are the one who needs support and probably a quart of blood with some surgery and stiches. Fuck, you must already be going into shock.”
Eagle Eye reached for Sunset’s right hand and she pulled back, swinging it around and seized his wrist instead. Then, she began to squeeze. Eagle Eye tried to yank free, but it was like he was caught in a vise. Or a bear trap. The pilot winced. He glanced up to find those teal eyes glowing brightly once again.
“Stop assuming you know me and listen. I need to get it out before it heals over. Otherwise, they will just have to cut me open again to remove it and I don’t want that kind of attention.”
“Okay, you have issues, I get it,” Eagle Eye said in a calm and even voice as if he were negotiating a hostage exchange, only the hostage was now him. He quietly made a mental note never to challenge this woman to an arm wrestling match. “That said, you need to listen to me now. You are going into hypovolemic shock from the physical trauma. You need to lie down and take it easy. You want to lay on the floor here instead that’s fine, I’m not going to fight you. But you need to sit down before you pass out and hurt yourself more. We have stuff that will patch you up, fluid plasma and saline, but you got to let go of me so I can get it.”
Sunset released the pilot and he began rubbing his wrist. She knew what needed to happen next even if it was going to hurt… a lot. Sunset reached up and unzipped her coverall speed suit down to her hips and panty line and let the top half fall away.
Eagle Eye blinked. He knew most everyone only wore underwear under their suits while others elected for some tank tops or workout gear. It should not have surprised him by this point, considering what he now knew, that the fiery haired goddess an arm’s length away from him chose to go with a frilly black bra that was half see through, sheer material. He knew he was gawking and it did not go unnoticed.
Sunset rolled her eyes because there was nothing else she could do about it. “Would you kindly stop staring at my tits. For Celestia’s sake, I'm half covered in blood and even I'm not into that.”
“Yeah, sorry, but what are yo-”
Sunset took a breath and then plunged two fingers into the bullet wound hole. She screamed for a second and had to brace herself by holding onto the server cage to keep from falling over. In hindsight, perhaps lying down would have been a better idea... and a mouthpiece to bite down on because now her teeth hurt from clenching them.
“Sunny? What’s going on? I can’t log out right now.”
“F-FINE! EVERYT-THING'S FINE! D-D-DON’T STOP!”
Sunset rummaged around in her side, searching for the object she had felt earlier, hoping now it had not been a mistake. She knew she was on the brink of passing out and was squeezing the cage hard enough to bend the metal. Eagle Eye rubbed his wrist again, thankful she had let go before deciding to rip her own guts open.
“Are you crazy?!”
Sunset screamed, then panted, then cried quietly, before finally dropping the bullet from her blood covered hand and slid down the wall to the floor with a whimpering sigh of relief. Lazily, nearly unconscious, Sunset pointed to the oozing wound. “Now, please apply pressure and maybe a band aid or something. Also, I have a sudden desire for Sour Apple Pucker for some reason.”
“Holy fucking… How the hell?!” Eagle Eye did as asked and pressed down hard on the wound with both hands causing Sunset to tense up and wince. He flinched back for a second in case she tried to deck him. Eagle Eye started looking around for some spare cloth and considered taping it all down until he could get proper first aid materials. Assuming she did not bleed to death by then.
Sunset hissed and pounded the floor with her bloody hand a few times, fighting down her cries of pain so as to not distract Twilight from her work. She and Drago were talking back and forth… was she talking to someone else as well? It was all starting to blur together. Then, of all things, Sunset began to giggle drunkenly. Eagle Eye suddenly worried and wondered if the oxygen circulator was offline now too.
“Hehehehehe! I mmmmight be craaaazy, but I dooooo what I want. Because I’m a maaaaaagical princess! Yooooou should see me in my tiara and school girl outfit with its seeeeeexy boots and a skimpy skirt! WOO!”
“Yeah, you are definitely going into shock. Can’t wait.” Eagle Eye grabbed both of Sunset’s hands and placed them over the wound. “I’m going to run to the infirmary and grab what I can. It's too late to move you. Don’t you die on me, because I have too many damn questions and I’m honestly terrified your wife or family would have me bumped off.” Without waiting for an answer the captain ran from the room, thankful that the emergency lights in the hall were still working.