Free Archaea 2: Janis by Dain White

over and his eyes snapped open, glaring at me. I smiled, gave his shoulder a squeeze, and nodded back to the lock. He shook his head a bit to clear it, and took a few moments to look around.
    I whipped out my pride and joy, a razor-sharp antique Fairbairn-Sykes commando knife strapped to my thigh. As much as I wanted to do a little bit of extra cutting with it, with considerable effort I managed to resist the urge, and sheathed it with a sigh after cutting his binders.
    We stood surrounded by some of the nicest guns and gear money could buy, and his look of rampant desire was met by my own. I smiled and nodded, and moved to keep the room covered while he started collecting weapons and gear from the mercs, tossing guns, knives, grenades, and everything else that wasn't bolted to the deck through the lock to the Archaea.
    One merc started to rouse, and Yak socked him on the jaw hard enough to make my toes curl, sending him back to nap time. I kept the trigger at half cock and waited for the moment, but Yak moved fast, and we were back aboard the Archaea before I got the opportunity.
    “Captain, Yak and I are back aboard. We sort of helped ourselves to just about anything that looked like a weapon, I hope you don't mind.”
    “Not at all Shorty, good call. Did you have any trouble?”
    “Negative Captain. Yak got an opportunity to convince someone that they should go to sleep a little longer. But I didn't get any trigger time, sir.”
    “Very well Shorty, great job. Yak, so nice of you to join us, did you have a nice little adventure?”
    “Oh, I would have preferred a different place for R&R, but I'll take it any way I can get it, sir. I was in a pretty tight spot, thanks for recovering me. When the inner lock flashed ambers, I thought we were doomed.”
    “That was what I hoped would happen over there. Janis saved the day, as usual. She kept you on track from launch to orbit, and had you scoped as you burned through the system. Luckily for us, the Archaea is as tough as she is fast, and once we were in range, Janis took over their systems. That reminds me. Janis, what is the current pressure over there?”
    “As you requested sir, I have maintained hypoxic conditions aboard their vessel with pressure at 30% of normal. Would you like me to adjust that level sir?”
    “Well, I can't in good conscience kill them, but I should, by all rights. Taking my crew without my permission... that's damn impolite. In my book, a person without manners isn't a person at all.”
    “Sir, we could burn their core and leave them adrift with basic enviro”, Pauli said.
    Yak and I shared a look as we stowed gear in lockers along the gun deck, as much as I would have wanted to drop the hammer on any one of them that made a move, to leave them to die marooned in the endless dark... that didn't sit well with either of us.
    “Might as well kill them, Pauli... this is a pretty busy system, but they might drift on through without ever being noticed at these speeds... although, that might not be so bad, to give us some time to get clear. Janis, can you lock their distress beacon so they can't activate it?”
    “Absolutely sir. Might I also suggest disabling their waste handler as well?”
    Yak laughed out loud, nearly dropping an armload of grenades.
    “Now we're talking. A few weeks of staring at each other, smelling each other's business. That is punishment to fit the crime. Janis, go ahead and burn their core, burn it solid. Wipe anything that doesn't control enviro or basic necessities. Hardcode the ambient temperature for a few degrees above hypothermic, make them cuddle for warmth. Set their distress beacon to go off in three weeks.”
    “Jane, remind me to never make our captain mad!” Yak said with a grin.
    The thought of those muscle-bound mercs huddled together for warmth in the far corner of that small room. Horrible. There are fates worse than death. Looking at Yak, remembering him bound and bagged... a few weeks of cold and stink