Resilient by Allen Stroud

Author:Allen Stroud
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: science fiction; flame tree press; military scifi; disability; SF; British Science Fiction; hard sci-fi; inclusion and diversity
Publisher: Flame Tree Publishing
Published: 2022-03-15T14:36:32+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Five

Holder

How do I get out of here?

They told me I am an experienced mercenary soldier, a veteran of countless missions and campaigns. But every time I came back, they wiped my mind. Now, all those moments of violence and desperation are half-remembered images, like a kind of muscle memory. I do things a particular way because I know I have done them before and learned a specific method, but when I reach back for the scenes from my past, they slip through the grasp of my mind like water.

I don’t know how many of these instincts are real – the occasional flashes of experience associated with them feel real even as I reach for them and they fade away. I have no way of distinguishing between what actually happened and what didn’t.

I know I should be tired. The last few hours have been intense, but I sense I’ve been trained to cope with sleep deprivation.

I know how to use and maintain a rifle. These gas-powered units are different to what I’m used to, but not that different. The pressure system is self-contained, so I avoid opening any of that up. But the rest is the usual mix of machine-crafted metal and plastic.

There’s a self-ingestion mode for the gas unit. I flick that on. I guess it’s designed for longer campaigns, where the pressure units need to refill. I’ve no idea how effective it’ll be.

After spending time on the rifle, I start to explore the locked-down space. I appear to have been isolated in a T-junction corridor. There are no stairs down, but I still have access to the ventilation shaft I climbed up before.

My shoulder really hurts. There are three dead bodies up here in various stages of ruin. I loot them methodically, looking for anything that might resemble a medical kit, but I find nothing useful.

My options are limited. I know I’ll need to get the bullet out, but I’m not quite ready to dig into my own flesh with my fingernails just yet.

Part of the problem right now is my lack of experience in space. I know I’ve never been on an orbital station before, but I don’t know how I know that. This environment looks very like a military barracks, but there are a lot of differences, particularly when you get down to the technology and engineering. This place has to be pressurised and powered. Everything is designed to be sealed off for safety reasons, not security.

After exhausting my other choices, I turn to the ventilation shaft.

Climbing down is going to be difficult. My right arm is almost useless. Thankfully, gravity is on my side this time. The tricky part is getting into position.

Carefully, I flick the immobiliser switch on the rifle and drop it down the shaft. Then, I sit on the edge of the opening and slowly lever myself into the open space, until my weight is supported by my back and my feet pressed against the edges of the metal shaft.

Slowly, I begin walking the wall.

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