Fragment by Paul G Swanson (me reader .txt) 📕

to kill us and who knows how many more people his employer has willing to do the same."
"Yeah." Moumoru hopped down from the debris and waited for Psylix to do the same. "It's pretty far, we'll need to get transportation."
"No, lets just walk for a while first." He wasn't ready to trust a unknown taxi driver just yet. Not after what had just happened. He hoped Haschel was on top of one of those buildings watching them as they walked away uninjured from the deathtrap. "If your there! You tell your boss to bring everything he has at us! We're tougher than that!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. His voiced echoed into the distance, but was soon lost to distance.
"Suit yourself. But I just want to get there as soon as possible. Maybe I'm just being paranoid but I don't like this place very much." He'd rather be with the rumored crazy cyborg than out here in the open in a small group of two without weapons. Losing his precious guns in the explosion he felt talents as a marksman were useless, so he had no offense or defense. Unlike Psylix Moumoru didnt't have a sharp tail to rip flesh apart with.

Roughly an hour later they found themselves stumble upon the gate leading to a large pile of broken ships. Exchanging glances they pushed it open and went in. About sixty feet in was a small house with four poles about seven feet from each corner. A large transclucent purple shell enclosed the building and sealing the rest of the courtyard off. A console close to them on the outside had a button and speaker on it. Hesitating Psylix pushed it.
"Yeah? What da'ya want?" The speaker threw at them an accent he couldn't identify.
"A ship. We've heard that you might be able to help us out."
"A ship, huh?" The shot out of the receiver dryly.
"Yeah." Psylix returned the tone.
"Why?"
"Ours was just destroyed up." They heard a hearty laugh.
"Was it now? So that was yours? I've hearing about it all day!" Moumoru shoved Psylix aside and tossed his own two cents in.
"Listen geezer, get your wrinkly ass outside where we can see you and then we'll talk." Psylix smacked him on the back of the head and muffled a laugh. The line went silent. They stood there for a second. Waiting to see if anything was going to happen. The purple field became multiple hexagons and dissipated from the center as the door to the building opened.
Out stepped a man wearing blue trousers that barley hid his prosthetic legs. A pin that looked like a bird was pinned to his white grease stained shirt. He had iron colored mechanical arms. His balding head reflected the light from some unseen source. If it was even possible he coughed and laughed at the same time. The cigar that was in his mouth bounced.
"Ok, I'm out here, now what?" Moumoru gestured that he was handing the show back to Psylix, he wanted nothing to do with this guy after all. Psylix just shrugged and thought, Time to start negotiations.
"So you're this crazy cyborg we've heard about?"
"That's me, though, hardly what I'd call crazy. What's it to ya? I thought you wanted a ship."
"We do."
"Well I don't sell them." The man told them bluntly. This took the two of them aback and left them confused.
"Then what do you do with all crap?"
"First of all it ain't crap, and second I build them or repair 'em."
"Then we need a ship to be repaired. That's bound to be cheaper than having one built right."
"Damn right! In fact it's free."
"You lost me." Psylix was losing his patience here. The man was clearly crazy.
"I only have one ship left, that can be repaired and it's the pride of my collection. The rest of these ships are irreprably damaged so all thier parts were used in other ships. Namely my favorite big ship; and whoever takes it, I'm coming along for whatever ride it promises. Even to hell and back."
"You really are nuts." Psylix chuckled a litle bit.
"Least I don't have a tail. I'll admit I have plenty of nuts.and bolts for that matter. But you're the one that looks dumb with that ridiculous tail of yours." He let out another smoky laugh and spit the cigar out onto the ground where it bounced sending ashed and cinders into the air as it put itself out.
"You're really something, you know that?" Moumoru exclaimed shrugging.
"Wanna see it? The ship?"
"Sure, lead on peg leg." They walked silently for about a hundred meters, they then came to a big white wall obstructing the path. It rose roughly twenty-five meters and stretched off into the distance in both directions until it vanished under stacks of ruined space ships.
"Well, here we are." The old man thrust his chest out and looked extremly pleased with himself.
"Uh, where exactly is here?" Glanced at each other Moumoru and Psylix frowned slightly.
"You're looking straight at it genius." He pointed at the wall.
"You've got to be kidding me!" About to walk away, Psylx hesitated.
"No, not at all. It's called Prodject Orion." He stepped up to the wall and put the palm of his hand on it. A keypad slid open and he punched in some numbers. A section of the wall in the shape of a circle vanished, revealing a long corridor with metal grates and fluorescent lights. "It's old, but it'll do the job. No matter what it may be."
"You're freakin insane!" Moumoru said when he saw what was at the end of the corridor. A large door with a red and a blue symbol was blocking the way.
"By the way, my name is Orwen." He told them holding out his hand to be shaken. He held it there for a moment waiting for it to be accepted before he gave up and dropped his arm.
"Psylix, and this here is Moumoru." He held up four fingers after saying each of the others. "Seth, Sarah, Tio, and Somie will be joining us too."
"Good, a ship this big needs a lot of work." Orwen put his hand up to the door blocking the way and pushed against it. It creaked and then one half of it slid open. "You see. Lots of work." He stepped through the open door and shoved a mess of wires, that had fallen out of the ceiling, out of his face. "Oh joy."
Psylix had just finished getting around the wires as well when he saw what Orwen was going on about. The room that it opened into was in complete disarray. It had three floors and lots of computers. The chairs had all fallen over, wires hung out of places that should have been sealed, support beams that should have been holding up the ceiling were on the floor, and the air was horribly stale.
"And you're gonna be able to fix this?" Psylix stammered.
"Not by myself." He tapped the pin on his shirt and a voice came out of it. "Zeke! Get the boys together." It said something else Psylix couldn't understand. "Just shut up! Get ready to fix the big one!" Orwen grinned, "Yes, the Orion! When have I ever called anything else the big one?" He poked the pin again and the voice fell silent. "Damn kids." Again the smoky laugh. "Zeke is going to be helping us."
"Help?" What was he talking about, he understood that Zeke was helping but why, us? "Us?"
"Yeah. We'll be needed you guys as well. Can't really expect me to do this for free if you don't help right? A job like this would normally cost millions."
"Ugh.It's so big though. You sure you don't have something smaller?"
"Positive. And I hate building them, takes to long." Orwen walked up the steps onto the first landing. "Well, might as well get started now." He said as he lifted a chair off its back..
"Moumoru head back, tell them where we are." Psylix told him as he picked his own chair off the floor. After kicking away some smaller debris he bent over and pulled some papers off the ground. Moumoru left running down the corridor. His foot steps echoed with each step.
Moments later Psylix saw a guy walk into the room. His red hair stuck out of the various holes in the tattered beanie he wore. He wore thin black shades and a shiny leather jacket that resembled motorcyclists armor. He must be a gothic, Psylix assumed because the dumbbell shaped earrings he wore and the fact that his pants matched the jacket and clinked with chains.
"Zeke! Bout time you got here." It seemed Orwen noticed him as well.
"Yup, I'm here" He called up to his boss. He glanced at Psylix, hesitated and then ran up to join Orwen.
"Zeke, meet Psylix."
Stopping, Psylix stood up straight and waved. A strange sensation swept over him, at first he thought it was déjà vu, however he knew the difference. This was not déjà vu but something else entirely. This was the feeling that came when his subconscious seemed to be most in tune with his surroundings. He knew on some level, and he wasn't about to rule out telepathy, that Zeke was far more than he appeared to be, and he'd had just about enough of suspicious people.

* * *

Sarah watched Tio and Seth battle it out, this time with paint balls. Seth had flicked the lights off and pulled out some glow-in-the-dark paint balls. Seth had even put up some small obstacles to mix it up. At this point it seemed like Tio was winning and that Seth was coated, until she realized it was the other way around. Tio was the running glow stick and Seth taken just a few indirect hits.
It looked fun and she wanted to try it out, even though she knew it was 'serious' training. She had no idea why Seth had even started training Tio like this. After all Tio wasn't going to be running around with guns blazing. Or at least she hoped not. Suddenly Tio stopped moving completely. He ducked only when he saw a shot heading toward him. Seth sensed this change and stood up without firing. Somie was also intrigued by this and he also stood up.
It seemed to them as though Tio had a