Chapter 9 - The Killer Awoke Before Dawn

Poison Well was crowded as usual. There was no hour on the ship's schedule when the Poison Well did not cater to the workers moving from shift to shift. The small bar's 24/7 operations often did a number on the management that kept changing, but the quality of the drinks remained abysmal even after multiple management changes. It was often said that in the Poison Well, you did not buy a drink, you merely borrowed it for a while. Which was actually true. The water filtration systems in the urinals worked well enough to recycle enough water for next batch of brew. 

X2 knew all this and he was still getting drunk on beer that must have passed through his own body in the past. He looked at the remaining credits in the app in his HUD and cringed. He only had enough for a single meal every other day till he got paid next week. He didn't feel like it mattered and he ordered another beer from the menu on his table. 

His empty glass got swallowed by the table and a new one popped up, filled to the brim and sweating off the cold vapors. X2 picked up the glass and gulped down half of it. Every drop felt like acid in his belly, and all he could see in front of his eyes was his hand on her ass and his tongue inside her mouth. It made his heart ache and his head hurt with the pent up rage. X2 wiped off a stray tear that leaked out of his eye and gulped down the rest of his beer. The alcohol was getting to his head and he knew he was going to make decisions that he would regret later. 

His credit app pinged and now he was in red. One meal every two days now. 

He ordered another beer. 

When X2 woke up next morning. He had no memory of how he had reached his hub. The pain raged in his head like there was an army of goblins hammering away inside his skull and his belly ached for a different reason. He raised his hand to his head to massage away some of the pain. The sticky feeling made him wince and he opened his eyes. Panic flared up in his chest like a plasma flame. Blood on his hand, but he was not hurt. Whose blood was that? The toolbox was there by the side of his bed. He opened it up with his foot. The screwdriver inside was the color of dull rust, drops of blood and flesh congealing on the metal. 

The door to his hub slammed open. 

She was standing there. The girl from missile control. Shock and horror writ large on her face. Her overalls splashed with red like some artist had played a prank on her. 

"It's him!" She screamed as a hand reached forth and grabbed the girl, pulling her away and the hulking form of a military police officer appeared in the door frame. The officer took one look at the blood on X2's hand and the blood on the screwdriver in the open toolbox. 

He shook his head. "You fucked up, kid. You fucked up big time."

The taser prongs slammed into X2's chest and as he convulsed under the jolts of electricity, he smiled thinking of what he had done.