Run For It (Patreon)

Continuing the Tori/Daskatoma confrontation.

———

Tori pushed past Commissioner Daskatoma, groaning in pain as she wriggled through the narrow space between his hind claw and the wall. When she finally made it through, she rested on her palms and knees for a long while, taking deep breaths and trying to recover her strength before picking up her cane and climbing back to her paws.

“Tori! Come back!” Dask called, but she ignored him.

The krakun hadn’t made it far into the ship. Well, it would take Tori quite some time to walk from his hind claw to the airlock, but that difference was mostly due to the vast scale of krakuns and any space made to accommodate them. As she hobbled along, she kept glancing up at his bulk above her, at the enormous tail that could crush her flat if he were to merely rest it on the deck.

After she was finally past the tip of his tail, there was only a few meters of clear deck before she reached the massive airlock door. It stretched nearly deck to rafters, was a meter thick, and she could only guess how many meters wide.

Adjacent to the airlock hatch stood two geroo-sized doorways. Compared to the krakun-sized airlock beside them, they looked like little kerrati holes gnawed into the baseboard, but they were in fact entrances to the gravity wells.

Has Thojy already made it here? she wondered. Perhaps he’s inside the airlock now, waiting for the commissioner to return, to take him to safety.

Tori turned back to the airlock, but before she could take a step, she heard voices coming from the down well. With three soft thuds, three geroo appeared—two adults and one cub, all dressed in orange environment suits and carrying their helmets. Thojy groaned when he exited the well, gripping one paw hard against his side, just above the kidney. His mate grabbed his free arm and wrapped it over her shoulders, urging him forward.

Tori frowned. She pulled the strand from her shoulder and with a tap, placed a voice call to an entry in her contact list. “Sese, I’ve located Thojy,” she said. “He’s in the main corridor on Deck 12, near the escape airlock. Approach via the aft gravity well as the main corridor is…”—she turned her head a moment to look at the krakun’s massive rear end blocking the way—“obstructed.”

“Tori?” said Sese’s worried voice in her ear. “I’m on my way but get out of there! Thojy is dangerous—”

With a tap, Tori disconnected the call and put the strand back in its holster.

Thojy’s mate helped him take a labored step forward and then another. Tori couldn’t see any blood as the environment suits were essentially geroo-shaped plastic bags—as leakproof as they were airtight—but she had no doubts that Nija must have stuck him well. He was applying far too much pressure to the wound for Tori to believe the bleeding had stopped, and he needed way too much assistance to walk for someone who’d lost only a little blood.

“I don’t want any trouble,” he said. With wide eyes, Thojy’s son looked up at her for a moment before backing away, pressing his lowered tail hard against his father’s legs. “Just let me pass—”

Tori gritted her teeth. This isn’t supposed to be my job, damn it! she cursed herself. I was supposed to identify the culprit, not apprehend him. But as she was the only security officer present, she stuck out her chest and with the most commanding voice she could manage, she said, “Thojy, you’re under arrest for the murder of your boss, Computer Chief Nija.”

Obviously, she knew that he had committed the other murders as well, but she didn’t really have any hard proof to back up that accusation. Not that it mattered. One murder charge would suffice. The sentence for a single murder was the same as it would be for nine. They could only throw him in the recycler once.

Thojy’s mate looked up, eyes rimmed in red and off-white fur stained with tears. “He didn’t do anything wrong!” she explained.

To her left, she could hear the krakun squirming, trying to squeeze his head back alongside his body, but the corridor was far too cramped for him to turn around. “Stop this, Tori!” Daskatoma insisted.

Tori turned toward him, shouting with defiance, “Just keep backing up if you want to crush all four of us to death, commissioner!” That made him freeze.

“I was just following orders!” Thojy explained with a gasp and groan.

“Really?” said Tori, not trying to hide the disbelief in her voice. “Commissioner Daskatoma ordered you to beat Nija to death with a metal pipe?”

Thojy’s mate gasped, burying her face against his plastic suit. She dropped the helmets she’d been carrying and squeezed her son’s head against her belly, crushing his ear flat with her gloved paw.

Tori glared at Thojy. “Because I’ll believe he told you to kill your first eight victims. Slipping a big orange pill into their drinks? That sounds like something he’d want you to do,” she said, “but bludgeoning your boss to death? Kicking her after she fell? Nah, that doesn’t sound like Dask’s style at all.”

Thojy took a breath and released it as smoothly as he was able, the sound shuddering only slightly. He took his arm from his mate’s shoulders and grabbed her arm with a firm grip. He looked her in the eyes. “Besho,” he said quietly, “take Guhash and get on the shuttle.”

Her eyes opened wide. “I’m not leaving you!”

“Do it!” he commanded. Then his ears softened a bit. He promised, “I’ll be fine.”

The trio didn’t move, and Tori wasn’t sure what she should do. She couldn’t contravene the commissioner’s orders, and she wasn’t physically able to make Besho do anything. Tori was so frail that Thojy’s mate could probably drop her with a single slap. Hell, even their young son could probably push her down.

Tori raised her voice, speaking for Daskatoma’s benefit as well as the geroo, “If you can convince the commissioner to declare all nine of those killings ‘executions’, then I’ll have nothing to charge you with,” she said, “but unless he does, you’re still a murderer.”

“Tori!” the krakun whined, put right on the spot.

Thojy ignored her, talking to his mate instead. “Dask promised to reward all three of us,” he told her. “Go! No matter what happens to me, the two of you still deserve a good life. I took this risk for us. I earned this for you.”

“I don’t want to leave you,” Besho blubbered, cupping his face with a gloved paw.

“I know. I don’t want to lose you either,” he said. “But go. I’ll follow if I can.”

The two kissed a moment, traded whispers that Tori couldn’t hear, and then without even glancing her way, Besho grabbed a helmet and scooped her son up in her paws before dashing off for the airlock.

Tori and Thojy waited, watching her go until his son’s crying faded and the pair were completely out of sight. Then, with a groan, Thojy retrieved his helmet. Though never intended to be used as a weapon, Tori was sure that even in his weakened state, he’d be able to swing or fling the thing hard enough to bowl her over. With a deep breath, Tori moved her grip to the bottom of her cane, preparing to use the handle as a club if she had to.

Thojy stared at the anodized aluminum a moment before looking her in the eyes. “This doesn’t have to be a fight, Tori. Just let me go,” he said. “Dask promised that I’d be home free if I just make it to his shuttle. I’m almost there. Just tell them you missed me. Tell them you couldn’t stop me—”

Tori gritted her teeth. Despite how her heart was pounding, she tried to remain calm. How long would it take before Sese arrived? She had no way of knowing. She had no idea where the big security officer had been when they spoke. “You and I both know that Dask never ordered you to kill Nija,” she said. “Whether your first eight victims were sanctioned killings or not, killing Nija was murder.”

Thojy’s ears fell. “She was next on the list, Tori!” he explained. “Dask had a big ol’ list of duds he wanted removed, and she was number nine! When I stole the pills, there were eight in the bottle, so he only assigned me the top eight.”

He gestured helplessly and took a step closer. She moved the cane from over her shoulder to in front of her, holding it with both paws as if it were a sword. She didn’t back away.

“But she was number nine, Tori!” he repeated. “She deserved to go too! She was on his list! Even if he didn’t tell me to kill her, I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Thojy took a step to the side and so did she—not approaching, not backing away, but keeping her body between him and the airlock. If he wanted to escape, he’d need to go through her.

“Take the fall, Thojy,” Tori said. “The punishment’s the same whether it’s nine counts of murder or just the one. At least this way, the victims’ families will get some closure knowing you were caught and punished.”

“But it wasn’t wrong!” Thojy shouted. He took another step, this one at an angle, both closer to the airlock and trying to get around her.

Tori took another step to the side and swung the cane at his head. The aluminum made a satisfying swoosh as it cut through the air, but he was still out of range, and it missed him by at least a meter. Still, the warning was clear, and he took a half-step back, opening the space between them once more.

Tori lowered her voice to just over a whisper, trying to make sure that he could hear her but that the commissioner could not, “And what about your tenth victim, Thojy?” she asked. “You better pray that Dask doesn’t find out about that one.”

Thojy lowered his eyes and his voice as she had done. “That…” he sighed. “Troykintrassa was keeping Dask as a slave. He did his uncle’s work for over a hundred years while Troykintrassa took all the credit.”

Thojy took a half step forward and Tori took half a step back. She put the cane back over her shoulder and prepared to swing it again. “Please don’t make me do this,” she whispered.

“Can you imagine that, Tori?” Thojy asked. “Dask is a great guy, and he deserved to be commissioner—”

“I realize he’s a great guy,” she interrupted him, trying to take a sturdy stance, trying to stand so she wouldn’t be easily knocked over when he attacked, “but he also loved his uncle, and you robbed him of that. There’s nothing you can say to paint that as anything other than murder.”

He tried stepping closer and she swung on him again. She still didn’t connect, but the cane’s handle didn’t miss his face by much this time. She put the cane back over her shoulder.

“But—”

“And worse, you’ve put everyone in jeopardy,” she hissed. “If the company even suspects what you’ve done, they’ll purge—”

“They won’t!” he insisted, flailing with the helmet. “I knew the captain would stage it to look like an accident out of self-interest. So technically, I didn’t actually—”

Thojy took a step.

Tori swung and connected.

With the hollow thud of aluminum against plastic, the orange helmet went flying out of Thojy’s grip. Thojy took a step back, and Tori prepared to swing the cane once more.

Druka’s thoughtful gift was badly bent, ruined, but it would still hurt if she managed to get him with it.

“You need to do this and quick, Thojy,” she huffed quietly. She drew a series of short breaths. “Investigator Jintauro is on board right now. Confess to nine murders, and they’ll execute you right away. Take this knowledge with you,” she begged. “If Jintauro gets his claws on you, then thousands of lives are at risk.”

“But—”

“You know in your heart that you deserve this, Thojy. Whether you were trying to help Dask or not,” she said, “what you did was wrong, and you know it. If you really care about Dask, do this for him.”

Thojy stared at her, ears drooping in self-pity. She wanted to go to him, to comfort him, but of course, that would be foolish. Tori explained, “If he finds out what you really did, he’ll know that he caused it, that his actions brought you to this. Don’t make him live thousands more years with that guilt. Do the right thing.”

Thojy opened his muzzle to speak, but before he could say anything, the deck began to shake with the four-beat rhythm that could only be a krakun’s steps. Looking away from Thojy, Tori turned to Daskatoma. He hadn’t gone anywhere, but he wasn’t exactly still. He was shaking hard.

“What in the Dead Gods’ names is going on here!” rumbled a voice that Tori had only heard once before—Investigator Jintauro. Who else could it have been?

Tori and Thojy shared a worried look. He clearly didn’t know what he should do. He looked like he wanted to run, but which way? To the airlock and past the geroo with the club? Or back toward the wells toward a court system that would execute him?

“Oh, um, hi! I’m Commissioner Daskatoma.” The krakun obscuring their view began to shake harder. “Well, um, Deputy Commissioner Daskatoma. My uncle is … well, he was Commissioner Troykintrassa. I’ve been kinda … filling in for him, making sure his work gets done.”

“You can’t be here!” Jintauro shouted. “This entire ship is considered a crime scene until this investigation is closed.”

Tori whimpered and prayed for rescue. “Come on, Sese. Come on…”

“Oh, um, well. Sorry. I can’t really turn—” Daskatoma said. He took half a step backward, but even that miniscule motion amounted to a couple of meters.

Now Tori was looking both ways. She had to move. She certainly wasn’t getting aboard the shuttle, but was she willing to stop Thojy from trying to make it? Just how badly did she want to apprehend him? Was she willing to risk her life to see him punished?

“Just back up! Get back in the airlock; get back on your ship,” the investigator shouted. “If you touch anything then I have to make you an official suspect in the case. You don’t want that, son, do you?”

“Oh uh, no sir!” said Daskatoma, clearly stalling, giving the two a little extra time to get out of the way.

“Then back up right now. Get back on your ship, or I’ll have to consider the crime scene contaminated.”

“Yes, sir. Okay, sir. Right away, sir.”

The commissioner was taking real steps back now. Though perhaps they were small, cautious steps for him, for the two injured geroo, he was moving really quick.

Tori dropped her bent cane and hobbled as quickly as she could for the nearest well. She didn’t even turn her head to see which option Thojy had picked—be it the airlock, the well, or just waiting to be crushed to death, he was on his own.

She made it to the well with a good two seconds to spare, then threw her back against the wall, groaning at how much that hurt, but without her cane, she really needed the support. She watched as Daskatoma’s claw lifted off the deck, stepped backward, and began descending right in front of her face.

And at the last possible moment, Thojy dove into the well and out from beneath the crushing force of the krakun’s step. He laid on the deck, gripping his side and staring out at the corridor, watching as Daskatoma wriggled his way back into the lock.

With ears hanging low, Thojy eyed the lock. Daskatoma wouldn’t shut it immediately. Even injured, it might still be possible for Thojy to cover the distance before the hatch closed. And without a cane to use as a weapon, Tori was in no position to stop him.

He got up on his knees.

He made it to his paws.

They watched as Daskatoma squeezed himself into the lock, one claw raised to grab onto the hatch.

Thojy peeked out past the wall to make sure that Investigator Jintauro wasn’t looking.

Then he turned back and both geroo saw it at the same moment: there, just beyond Tori’s broken cane laid a patch of crushed plastic that had once been an environment suit’s helmet.

If he was fond of breathing oxygen, Thojy wasn’t going anywhere.

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xjxFdg0Zf-hZPsCyjDNAngeXTHhns3tyPkulAJwQOwE/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?