The Furthest Planet by James Ross Wilks

Author:James Ross Wilks [Wilks, James Ross]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781796940862
Published: 2019-02-19T22:00:00+00:00

Amit stood shaking with an aluminum chair leg gripped tightly in his hands. Taking the chair apart had been more difficult than he had anticipated. First he had used the chair to shatter the mirror in the lavatory. Once he had several pieces of mirrored glass to work with, he was able to find one that would make for a crude screwdriver. The pieces had been sharp, and though he had used a sheet from the bed to create a cloth handle, he had still accidentally cut himself in the operation. Now the shard, wrapped in a piece of the same bloodied bedsheet, was tucked in his back pocket.

The metal bar he now held felt light and ridiculously inadequate, an ineffective weapon against any opponent, let alone an armed one. The mirror shard might have made a more effective weapon up close, but the larger chair leg gave him more range and versatility. Amit was a fairly small man, and his normally slight physique was significantly weakened by the lack of food in his system, and so he had chosen the blunt weapon over the sharp one. He also didn’t want to kill anyone if he could avoid it.

He didn’t know if the tremors that shook his hands and arms were the product of adrenaline, fear, anticipation, or calorie deprivation. Eighteen hours without food was not enough for someone to be truly starving, but like many people with fast metabolisms, Amit tended to eat frequent smaller meals. His body was unused to these gaps.

“I estimate one minute,” the artificial intelligence said quietly from the speaker. “He is searching the room next to yours.”

Amit listened carefully, but he could not hear anything. That was not surprising. Rooms designed to contain hull breaches tended to insulate sound very well.

“He’s leaving the room,” Brutus said.

Amit raised the bar aloft. He was pressed against the bulkhead wall next to the door that allowed entrance to the room. From his position, the door would swing in his direction, blocking him from view from the hallway.

“Ten seconds,” Brutus whispered, barely audible.

Amit concentrated on steadying his hands, but it was useless. They shook mercilessly. Despite his sweaty palms, his grip felt true.

He heard the door mechanism turn. Many cabin doors on ships like Gringolet had a feature, similar to a child safety setting, where the interior handle could be disabled. Crews on long hauls with strange passengers always faced the possibility that they might need to convert one of their guest rooms into a cell.

The door swung open. Amit could see nothing of the man who had opened the portal. He had left the restroom door open in the hope of luring the man towards it. Standard operating procedure dictated closing all doors; an open door could swing about violently during a ship’s attitude change and possibly injure someone.

A hand, pale and hairy, appeared holding a pistol. A moment later the rest of the man came into view. He was larger than Amit, perhaps by as much as twenty kilograms, and taller as well.

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