Binary Love (18+)

The Left Hand Of Darkness Part 2

"I was working the tunnels - it was a normal shift, ya know? Nothing strange, at first, just that they've started to put these cables in to help with lighting and for when they start building them out properly... Anyway, it was my last day planet side. I was exhausted after five days of digging and securing the tunnels, but it was my turn to do final check, so I was alone..."

Amaruq took a pause, frowning slightly and he thought about whether he should share the next part of his story. With a nod of his head, Itsuki quietly encouraged him to continue.

"Look, I can't be sure whether I was just seeing things - I was tired - or if I just got spooked over nothing, but I swear there was someone else in that tunnel." His voice became stronger as he became more confident and picked up in pace. "It was just a quick blur and it startled me. I dropped all my tools, and one of 'em nicked one of the wires. I called out and stuff, but no one responded, so when I calmed down I went to grab my stuff."

"That's when I saw it. It was just drizzling out, this bright blue liquid, and at first I had no idea what it was. Blue is a wealthy mans drug, ya know? But I've still heard the stories, all the guys that have visited the Mayflower talk about it."

"What has visiting the Mayflower got to do with Blue?" Nova asked, suddenly drawing attention to herself. Amaruq jolted in his bed, noticing Mark and Nova for the first time. After a few seconds, when the others didn't react to her question, he seemed to settle and realise that everyone was waiting for I'm his answer.

"Well, it's a travelling brothel, and the rich go for the more expensive packages, or to get their whistle blown while they're going to the next station, ya know?" He played with the edges of his sheet, in a bashful manner. Nova wasn't sure why though; everyone in the room knew what a brothel was. She could hardly judge either, considering she made sexbots for a living. "There's been a few times when some of them talk about it. But it was that fight a while back that got everybody taking 'bout it. This chick and some random guy had a full blown fight over just a vial of the stuff. I think that was the first time some of the lads had ever even seen it - made that shit real, ya know?"

Nova wanted to ask more questions about the fight at the Mayflower. She was pretty damn sure that was the one Mark had been involved in, but she was cut off from asking when Harou's commanding voice beat her to it.

"We're going off topic. What did you do when you found the Blue?"

"Panicked, obviously. I mean, that's fucking thousands of credits just pissing out the fucking wall at my job! I grabbed my shirt and tried to stop it, but that was useless. So, I poured some of my water on the loose dirt and just caked it around the pipe to stop it."

"What did you do afterwards?" Istuki asked.

"I went to try and find the captain. No way in hell was I going to tell my supervisor what I had found, and I thought the captain would be in the best position to do something about it."

"We saw on the station's camera feed that you started to head towards the cockpit, but turned around towards the docking station. Why was that?"

"I called ahead to explain why I wanted to see him," Amaruq shrugged slightly before wincing in discomfort. "An average Joe like me ain't allowed to just go walking in, demanding to see the Captain. Once I explained a bit about what I found, the guy said that I could find the boss at the Mayflower, so I headed straight over to where it was docked."

Everyone seemed shocked by this information. Even Lucy, who had seemed interested but still focused on her work, had completely turned to face the Beta with a deep frown marring her features.

"What happened next?" Harou asked.

"I ... I don't..." The Lupus shook his head from side to side, before suddenly going still and letting out a deeply disturbing growl. The change was so sudden that Nova instinctively reached out her hand towards Mark. With ease, he responded by gently holding her hand, carefully interlinking her fingers with his.

"I was fucking kidnapped!" Amaruq roared at the top of his lungs, ignoring the sharp alarms from the medical data pads stressing that he was in no fit state for such behaviour. With absolute authority, Lucy and Rosalind firmly reminded him that he had just woken up, and would need to calm down for anyone to understand him.

"I got there, and like an idiot I just waited - he came up to me, offered to take me to the Captain, but when he got me alone his fucking android knocked me out!" At this point, Amaruq's sharp teeth were on full display, barely snarling out the words through his clenched jaw. "I was kept in a cage! He was some sick fuck that tested on us all. I was so out of it most of the time, but when the high from the Blue would go, I could see the shit that he did to others. How he would inject it into them and take notes like he was studying them. He killed so many - Great Tengri protect them - there was even children."

"Who was he? Did you recognise him?" As Itsuki pressed for more information, Nova felt a cold chill in the air. From across the room, Rosalind made eye contact with her. Both could sense the deep feeling of foreboding the other felt, as if seeing dark storm clouds roll in, carried by turbulent winds.

"I didn't recognise him from anywhere; he was a human I have never seen or smelt before. He was one of those pale humans, with short brown hair. I never saw his eyes though, as he always kept on these damn goggles - like the ones you see in labs. He did have a scar on his upper lip, on his right side, though." Amaruq used one of his claws to draw an imaginary line along his muzzle, ending where his lips met his teeth. "Other than that, I would say he looked pretty average. Nothing special." 

"Dr. Haber..." Even just saying his name out loud made Nova want to bite her tongue off, just to get rid of the disgusting taste of that man's name from her mouth. Rosalind visibly shuddered and recoiled when she heard the name, while Harou let out a deathly snarl.

She could feel Mark's stare almost burning her skin with his intensity, as she gripped his hand so tightly in hers, she was afraid she would break his fingers.

Her worst fears had been realised.

Earth Tech was here and it wouldn't be long before they found her.

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I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thank you all for your lovely comments, and for voting on the chapters. I really appreciate it and I'm still really surprised that people like this story so much!