The X Pathogen

Chapter Twenty-Four

Ash woke up in the middle of the night struggling to breathe. Their lungs burned as they gasped for air. They frantically started digging through their bag for their breathing device but the combination of panic and darkness made finding anything difficult.
Suddenly a flashlight flicked on. Kyo's face appeared next to Ash's. He rummaged around in their bag and quickly found the device. Ash barely registered what was happening at that point. They felt an arm holding them upright as the device was held up to their nose and mouth and heard Kyo quietly telling them to breathe.
After a few minutes of slow, deep breaths, Ash's vision cleared and they were able to breathe normally. They pulled the device away from their face and laid back down.
"You okay?" Kyo whispered.
Ash nodded and pulled their blanket around themself.
"Alright. The device is by your pillow if you need it again," Kyo said quietly before going back to his own mattress.
Ash buried their face in their pillow, their cheeks burning with embarrassment. Needing someone to help them in the middle of the night made them feel like a little kid. They were a GSA cadet, but they couldn't even breathe on their own. Ash pulled their blanket even tighter around themself and eventually fell asleep.
The next morning Ash woke up and silently put the breathing device back in their bag. Kyo didn't say a word about the previous night.
As Ash grabbed their chest plate they realized they'd slept in their binder. They silently reprimanded themself for forgetting to take it off then pulled the chest plate over their head. They couldn't do anything about it now.
Saji quickly braided her hair, managing to turn a tangled mess of hair into a neat and orderly braid in a matter of seconds.
Nadil slowly laced up his boots, dark circles had formed under his eyes. He probably hadn't gotten much sleep. Ash couldn't help feeling a bit responsible since their wheezing had probably played some role in that.
Kyo strapped his holster around his waist and pulled his chest plate on with the deft ease of an experienced agent.
Once they were all dressed and had gathered their belongings, they left for the large concrete building they'd gone to yesterday.
Adar was waiting for them inside. "Dr. Burnick is waiting for you down the hall, Nadil, if you want to go test out your new wing," were the first words out of his mouth.
Nadil's eyes widened and darted anxiously to the door Adar had pointed to.
Kyo squeezed his shoulder, "let's go, Cadet Ronette." He guided Nadil down the hallway. Having someone next to him seemed to relax Nadil a bit, though his shoulders were still tense.
A device beeped in Adar's pocket. He pulled it out and pressed a button. "Jay?! Are you okay?"
A slightly garbled voice replied, "yeah, geez Adar, you worry too much. I'm fine. I just wanted to let you know-" the voice cut out. A few noises made it through but it was all indecipherable.
"Jay! What's going on?"
"I– bad connection– explain– see– later–" Jay's voice came through in broken fragments then the transmission ended.
Adar's face twisted with concern but he forced himself to stay calm.
Ash and Saji glanced at each other uncomfortably.
"Do you... do you need to check on him?" Ash asked awkwardly.
Adar sighed, "No. He does this a lot. Leaves for weeks, sends barely comprehensible messages and shows up again like nothing happened."
Ash nodded, not sure what to say.
Saji tapped their shoulder and pointed down the hall. Ash's gaze shifted to where she was pointing and their jaw dropped.
Nadil was walking towards them. Strapped to his left shoulder was an artificial wing. Whereas his organic wing resembled a bird's, the new wing looked more like a bat's. Long chrome rods forming the arm and fingers. Between the rods a durable fabric had been stretched to form the wing itself.
Nadil was fighting a smile as he walked down the hallway. He stopped in front of them and raised his new wing.
Ash grinned, surprised to find themself genuinely happy for Nadil. "It looks amazing!"
Nadil opened and closed the wing, "I can't believe how natural this thing feels."
Adar smiled proudly, "Dr. Burnick is a human treasure. We're lucky to have him."
"As much as I'd love for us to all stand around gawking, we have a job to do." Kyo interrupted, appearing behind Nadil, "let's get moving."
Nadil's expression immediately hardened. They left the building as a group and headed back to the GSA ship. Verdome had ships but none of them were as high quality as the one the GSA squad had arrived on.
Adar had gotten the ship refueled the night before so there was less work to do than normal. Once preflight checks were taken care of, the rescue mission could begin. Kyo and Adar took the cockpit seats, leaving the cadets to awkwardly cram together in the back row with Saji as the unlucky soul in the middle.
As soon as they were a safe distance away from the planet, Kyo opened a tunnel. Ash fidgeted with their daggers anxiously. Nadil's eyes kept darting back to his new wing. Saji twisted her braided hair between her fingers.
The ship exited the tunnel revealing an empty portion of space. Or at least it was empty for about five seconds before another tunnel opened up and a large ship floated through the exit.
"Are you sure that's it?" Kyo asked, "that looks like a cargo ship, not a transport."
Adar grimaced, "humans are cargo to people like them."
Kyo nodded and guided their ship towards the larger vessel. "Attention vessel, this is GSA Agent Kyo. I have a warrant to search your ship, please prepare for boarding immediately."
"What are you doing?" Adar hissed, "there is no way that is going to work!"
"Of course not," Kyo said calmly, "I wasn't planning for that to work."
"Then why-?"
"I'm going to go on board, they'll "ambush" me and while they're distracted dealing with me, the rest of you will get the prisoners and get out of here."
"I'm sorry, WHAT?" Adar snapped, "you can't possibly expect us to just go along with that plan!"
"Acknowledged, Agent Kyo. You may board." a voice came over the intercom.
"Too late." Kyo started docking the ship. "Relax, I'll get out of there and meet back up with you later."
"No you won't," Nadil muttered.
"What?" Kyo blinked.
"They'll kill you," Nadil said bluntly.
"I'm tougher than I look, cadet. Now stand down," Kyo glared at him. Then he disappeared through the hatch.
Adar stared at the hatch in shock and horror. "He's gonna die."
After a few minutes Nadil broke the silence. "C'mon. He may be doomed but we got a job to do," then he opened the hatch and crawled through.
They dropped down into the halls of the ship. Just like Kyo had predicted, the halls were empty. Every guard had immediately converged on him.
"Where are the prisoners?" Ash whispered.
"This way, follow me," Adar took the lead. He kept checking a map on his small handheld device.
Several turns and hallways later, Adar stopped in front of a door. He punched in a code and the door slid open.
Inside a man was already removing metal rings from around the necks of the people inside.
"Took you long enough, Adar."