edges of the fabric melted and charred. Rips and scorch marks marred the fabric, but where it was whole it had a sheen to it that sparked her memory.
Kira gasped as it came back to her. The pirates, the sniper rifle, the voice she had heard, and the name ‘Emily.’ “What have I done?” She whispered to herself.
She stood up on shaky legs. Her body ached, causing her to move slowly and stiffly across the room to a mirror. The bunkroom was communal, a necessity of limited crew space aboard the transport vessel, yet she was the only in it. She stared at her reflection, noting the bruises in the early stages of showing color, as well as the edges of burn marks that appeared beneath some of her bandages.
“ I killed seven men,” she whispered again. She watched as her chin trembled at the memory of it.
“ Knock it off, it’s not like it’s the first time!”
Kira gasped, her grief forgotten. She spun around but with her body stiff and aching she made it worse by falling to the cool steel floor. She craned her neck looking all around the room but saw nothing. She climbed back to her feet slowly, groaning at the pain in her burned leg and bruised back. She glanced into the mirror again, only a flicker of interest, and felt her heart leap into her throat.
She spun again, looking behind her, but saw nothing. Back in the mirror she saw a silhouette of a figure that seemed shrouded in shadow. It stood still, facing her back. “Em…Emily?”
“ You did well today Kira, I’m proud of you. All the time and money I spent seems to have paid off. ”
Kira’s hand flew to her mouth, muffling her gasp. “You’re…you’re not real! I made you up as a kid!”
The shadowed figure stepped forward slowly. The shadows began to lighten as though she was coming into the light. “ I’m as real as you are, Kira. You sent me away, but I wasn’t ready to go. After all we’d shared — all the help I’d given you. ”
Kira realized she was nodding. “I really am crazy,” she whispered.
The figure shrugged. “ I hated you, you know. I wanted to hurt you for what you did to me. You sent me away, after you were the only person who ever cared for me. But I couldn’t — if I hurt you, I’d hurt myself. ”
“ I’m sorry,” She whispered to the woman in the mirror. It was obviously a woman; the shadows had faded to show a tall and shapely person wearing what Kira recognized as the bodysuit she had so recently worn.
“ I know you are,” She heard in her head. “ You weren’t ready — I know that now. I’ve gotten tired of my life Kira. Of our life. It was only half a life and it wasn’t the fun part. You’ve never had the good part either, I kept it from you. That’s not fair, and I understand that. I want you to be whole again, Kira. I want you to live and to do everything you should do. I even like Eric, not as much as you, but I’ve only talked to him once.”
Kira gasped. She remembered hearing Eric call Emily’s name in the passage before she had blacked out. No, not blacked out, she’d passed out. She understood that now.
Emily stepped closer, the shadows fading from her face to reveal to Kira that she was staring at two images of herself in the mirror. One, the real one, in front of the mirror, and the other just slightly behind her and to her left. She felt her chin trembling again.
“ Be strong Kira. You wouldn’t believe the things we’ve done over the years. Eight pirates was impressive, but we’ve pushed the line even further before. Now it’s all about you. There’s no tie to the money or to Kira Eskew, only Emily Bradford. My time is over, yours is just beginning. Live for us, Kira. Do all the things I could never do. ”
Kira felt the tears run down her cheeks. She nodded, both fearful and excited at the prospects ahead of her. “I won’t wake up and find Eric missing!” She whispered.
“ Eric might need you more than you need him,” Emily told her. “ Now stop talking to yourself, it makes you look crazy. ”
Kira laughed at the joke. She wanted to turn but she knew it do her no good. She watched instead as Emily stepped to her right, hiding completely behind Kira. She gasped, feeling something inside of her mind release. Millions of images and thoughts flashed through her conscience mind in a heartbeat, unrecognizable but now a part of her.
Kira refocused on the mirror, then reached up to wipe the tears from her face. She felt different, she realized. She no longer felt lost and inadequate. Kira turned, shaking her head slightly at the incredible weirdness of it, then made her way back to her bed. She picked up the torn and burnt bodysuit and considered it. She glanced at her locker, where she had other clothes available, then smiled as she slipped the bodysuit back on.
She made sure it covered the most important areas then moved at a stiff but deliberate pace to the bridge, where she expected to find somebody, if not all of them. She was in luck; Eric, Tarn, Captain Sharp, and Jeff were gathered when she stepped into the hatchway. They fell silent instantly, staring at her with mixed expressions.
“ Do you have my rifle?” Kira addressed Captain Sharp first.
“ Here,” Tarn said, turning and picking up her MAR-7 from his station behind him. She noted he sported multiple bandages as well, and had a steel rod with a cross piece at the top to use as a cane. She took it from him and glanced at the cane deliberately. “That LF Grenade went off next to me. Shrapnel tore into my hip pretty good.”
Kira nodded, then began to turn away from him. She saw that Eric’s face was guarded. He met her eyes briefly, then looked away before she could offer him a smile. “Hey, that’s an impressive piece of hardware you got there. Newer than what I’m used to. Then again, I never cared much for sniping. You got clearance for that thing?”
Clearance? She glanced down at it, clueless as to how to answer him. “Does it matter?” She asked, remembering his own boasting about the military grade plasma rifles he’d acquired.
Tarn grunted. “Only if somebody with bigger guns and a search order comes asking.”
An image of herself filling out forms at an office then transferring money from three separate accounts to a fourth account played through her head. “Yes, I have a security clearance for it.”
He nodded and looked away from her. Kira frowned, he hadn’t been nodding to her, it had been for the Captain. She turned to face him. “This going to be a problem?”
“ Problem? Maybe you hit your head but you just saved our butts. Near as we can tell the pirates turned tale and ran away. Eric’s even went out on the hull to see about some repairs. No sign of ‘em,” Sharp said. “You can sail with me anytime, navigator or security.”
“ Hey!” Tarn protested.
“ Shut your hole, you’re old and not much to look at. Kira here is younger, faster, and a lot nicer to look at!”
Tarn chuckled. “Got me there.”
Kira looked back and forth between them. “Aren’t you the least bit curious about how I did all that?”
“ Ain’t a one of us that doesn’t have secrets. A dark past, a mistake or a string of ‘em. We wouldn’t be where we was without them. Long as they don’t threaten my ship or my crew, you’re entitled to them. One thing though, is it Kira or is it Emily?” Eric made a strangled sound at Sharp’s words, drawing glances from Kira and the Captain.
“ It’s Kira. Emily is- was a…well, I don’t know what she was. A survival mechanism I suppose. She’s gone now, and I have to pick up the pieces and move on with my life.” Kira paused to stare purposefully at Eric. “If my life will let me, that is?”
Eric met her gaze and after a long couple of seconds he gave her an abbreviated nod. The butterflies in her stomach settled down, but it took a few additional moments for her to tame the grin that came to her face. She turned back to the Captain. “I don’t even know all the skills I have, nor what’s so special about me. It’s going to take a lot of time to figure out.”
She paused, thinking about where to begin or what to say. She looked at all of them and noticed for the first time the absence of Kevin. “Hey, where’s Kevin?”
Jeff stiffened and looked away. “He didn’t make it,” Eric said softly.
“ Pirates picked him off the hull on their way in,” Tarn said in his usual gruff voice. “Jeff was hiding on the other side, they never saw him.”
“ Oh. Um, I’m sorry,” Kira said. She was sorry, but in spite of having spent months on the same ship with the man she had never really gotten to know him. That and her natural compassion and empathy seemed diminished for some reason. She frowned, wondering if Emily was responsible for that dehumanizing trait. Not for the first time she wondered just what Emily had done while she was blacked out. “Okay, let’s move on. What’s next? How’s the
