That one second between Jacob Lafisque pulling out the blaster
and shouting ‘for Jade!’ seemed to last an age. Nashh could have slid off his seat, thrown up
his hands or maybe even had time to draw his own weapon. He didn’t. The reason,
the story behind Jade flashed before him as he simply managed; ‘thank you’
before Jacob pulled the trigger twice.
-=o0o=-
Three weeks earlier…
Another long day keeping up with his long working hours and
Jade made ready to finally leave her post. ‘Will there be anything else Sir?’
she enquired over the intercom, hoping he would call it a day as well. ‘Yes,
get yourself in here’ Nashh commanded. ‘Yes Sir’ Jade responded before sighing
deeply and making her way over to the Directors office.
Commander Nashh’s office in Goinard was a replica of a former
friend’s office back in Evati. It had a large oak desk, floor-to-ceiling book
cupboards and brown leather features, polished to a shimmer. One the far side
was a large full-pane window overlooking his personal hangars, in it hovered
the enormous hull of a Vindicator Class Battleship. The door shut behind Jade
as she entered, ‘Yes Sir?’.
Nashh Kadavr was bent over various electronic pads all
displaying different graphs related to sleeper loot. ‘Jade…’ he started without
looking up. ‘Yes?’ she sighed putting her bag on the chair in front of the desk.
The sigh was not discreet enough to escape his attention and he looked up from
his work.
He looked tired and darkened skin covered his eye-sockets. ‘Sorry’
he mumbled ‘I lost track of time again, have I kept you too long?’. ‘Sixteen
hours Sir’ she smiled a sweet smile. Jade had been a dedicated secretary for
over 3 months but he had not paid much attention to anything other than the
quality of her work, she looked sweet. ‘Fifteen minutes?’ he smiled and raised
his eyebrows to attempt a friendly manner of convincing her. He didn’t really have
to; there was not a chance the mere mortal Jade would deny any of his wishes. She
returned a friendly smile and meant it, ‘ok then…’.
Nashh offered up his chair to give Jade a better view of the
spread-sheets on the desk. Leaning over her left shoulder he pointed out the figures
that didn’t seem to correspond with some of the results on other pages. ‘You
see what I mean?’ Nashh asked. Her hair smelled lovely. ‘Yes, odd’ Jade
responded slowly but immediately started cross-referencing some formulas and
numbers. The office was uncomfortably warm and small beads of sweat started to
form around her neckline and collar bone. ‘Well, this is part of the problem’
Jade Lafesque highlighted some of formulas that had clearly been added in at a
different time than the original document was made. ‘Yes’ Nashh mumbled, distracted
by two small beads of sweat that adjoined then slowly ran down her cleavage. ‘
He didn’t pay attention anymore to the problem that had been
bothering him for the past two hours. Pupils dilated and lust coursed through
his veins like a hungry wild animal. He must have her. With his left arm he
swept clean the desk as his right hand tightly gripped around her neck, pulling
her out of the office-chair. Jade managed a high pitched yelp as Nashh
forcefully removed her pristine white shirt and pulled up her black waxed
skirt.
Jade desperately tried to remove Nashh’s hand from around
her neck as she gasped for air. Both her hands scratched and writhed their way
behind his fingers and with all her remaining strength she removed his firm
grip allowing her to breathe. Nashh would not be stopped however and she knew
it, she didn’t have the power to protect herself any longer. She wept quietly
as he had his way.
-=o0o=-
Jade had left after the event that played out in her boss’s
office but never returned home to her husband Jacob on the 38th
floor, section B. Instead she got out of the elevator on the viewing platform
on the 9th floor and after standing there for 3 minutes and 42
seconds climbed over the ledge and jumped. Security cameras captured the
incident from several angles. Although she didn’t die instantly she was later
pronounced dead at the scene, her injuries to severe.
Remorse was not one of his strong points; it simply wasn’t an
emotion he could afford. Outside the hundreds of deaths he had caused in space-combat
he had raped, tortured and killed more men, woman and children than he cared to
remember. Why did this death bother him
then? Her face appeared in his dreams, sometimes smiling, sometimes bloodied
and deformed.
He had been shown the security camera’s footage and it
replayed in his head over and over. He imagined the sound her fall and crash
would have made.
There was a police investigation and a court precession but nobody
was charged as it had not been murder or a criminal case. It was just an
investigation into her death and to confirm her death was self-inflicted or
incidental. Nashh had been called upon to give evidence as he had been the last
person to speak to her. The presiding Judge reeled of a set of standard
questions to satisfy the grieving friends and family that all had been done to
prevent her death and that extra security measures where to be considered for
all viewing platforms in the station.
‘Are you guilty?’ a man stood up in the first row in the
public section of the court room. He was tall and had curly hair down to his
shoulders. A tear ran down his right cheek as he repeated the question louder. Judge Quareem silenced the room, explaining
this was in no way a criminal investigation and called an end to the
proceedings by closing the case.
The case was closed, suicide the verdict. He asked himself; I
didn’t kill her but why can’t I fucking sleep, why am I hurting for her loss? Lack
of sleep makes one tired; lack of sleep that lasts for days causes anxiety,
paranoia and illusions. None of those things where strange to him as he
suffered from them on a regular basis, but now they were worse than ever. He
imagined her dead body to be under the table as he tried to eat, under his bed
as he tried to rest his fatigued body.
-=o0o=-
Nashh sat in one of the many restaurants of the station, his
dinner companion was Anabaric. As always Anabaric had a plate of food in front
of him and was eating loudly or spoke with his mouth full. Nashh didn’t respond
much or stared vacantly into nothingness.
A tall curly haired man he vaguely recognised made his way
into the restaurant and stopped just shy of their table.
That one second between Jacob Lafisque pulling out the blaster
and shouting ‘for Jade!’ seemed to last an age. Nashh could have slid off his seat, thrown up
his hands or maybe even had time to draw his own weapon. He didn’t. The reason,
the story behind Jade flashed before him as he simply managed; ‘thank you’
before Jacob pulled the trigger twice.
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