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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3795702" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 522: Rational Thoughts“If I don’t deal with them right this moment they’ll kill me!” Marix snarled at the vaguely transparent image of the long-dead Titus Voort. Why she was explaining this to a dead man, she didn’t know, but the rational part of Marix’s mind was currently a small voice that wasn’t being listened to.    But Voort simply tilted his head slightly and continued to stare blankly at her, “There is no turning back from pointless slaughter, Marix. Killing is one thing, but you very well know these Mrrakesh are out of the fight.”    A loud thud from behind caused Marix to look over her shoulder. Thankfully, the bulkhead had only buckled inwards slightly, and not completely broken open. The Mrrakesh would be through it soon, though. She didn’t have time for this...    “No, you don’t have time for this at all,” Voort said in that infuriatingly calm voice.    “Stop! Stop...doing that!” Marix yelled at him, spinning back to deliver a glare that, quite literally, went right through him.    In a move that was odd for someone that was dead, not real, and definitely a sign that Marix was losing her mind, Voort shifted his weight and crossed his arms across his chest, “This is your choice to make, Marix, I cannot stop you from making it. But I can ask you to consider what you’re deciding. For the sake of yourself and for Jyren...can you truly begin on a path of genocide?”    Marix stared at him. At least four different answers formed in her mouth while another thousand were being worked out in her mind. But then, almost suddenly like a targeting computer locking on, her mind focused to a single word, “Jyren?! How the hells do you know that was his name? You were dead already!”    Somehow, it made matters worse that Voort simply shrugged and said, “You trust the Force, Marix. Trust what its trying to tell you, and please listen to me. This is not a path you want to follow, nor is it a path we can watch you go down...not after all you have been through already. But, Marix, I cannot make you act on anything. I can only try to help you realize the severity of this moment. And remind you that there are people that still need you.”    [Marix!] Loki’s voice cut into her mind at such a high pitch that she was forced to grit her teeth.    Through the Force, she could feel her old friend flying in close. Immediately the importance of the fact that she was stuck on the bridge with the only exit blocked by a great deal of Mrrakesh in a very small area came to mind. That would be pushing her luck to go through it. And they would be in soon...but she had to get off the ship. Simply cutting off the life support to the rest of the ship wouldn’t solve that problem. It was unlikely she could survive long enough to get to the docking tube, and besides there were likely backup systems in place to prevent just such an action.    Rational thought was working at lightning speed now, but while it did, her focus shifted in front of her again. And Marix saw nothing.     Well, no, Marix saw two consoles and the viewport, with space and a corner of Alraxia beyond. She did not see, however, the image of Titus Voort. She didn’t feel it either. Typical. Damn him! Damn...whatever that actually was!    But then, in staring out of the viewport, an idea came to mind.    It was crazy.    No, it was absolutely and utterly insane.    It was so completely insane that it was the kind of idea that would work, too. At least, that’s what Jyren would have told her.    [Loki!] Marix finally responded, though she quickly realized that it had only been a few short seconds since the ship had found her again. [Can you see the bridge of this ship?]    [Uhh...yes. Why?] for good reason, Loki was confused. But despite the confusion, in a matter of moments, Marix saw his distinct form out of the viewport a few kilometers out.    For some reason, she pointed at him. He couldn’t see it, but she did it anyway. [Just stay right there. Get a good lock on me and don’t lose that.]    There wasn’t so much a pause as a long, uneasy sound from Loki that echoed in her mind. After it had settled as a sort of white noise, Loki decided to actually use words. [Should I be worried?]    [Not if you do exactly what I just told you.] Marix sent back to him, turning to look at the bulkhead again. It was still holding, but buckled inwards at such an angle that the Mrrakesh had to have been hitting it with something extremely forcefully. If it didn’t hold now, it wasn’t her fault.    A short dash across the bridge took her to the fallen Mrrakesh commander. Marix dropped to one knee beside him, ignore the hair that got in her face, and rummaged through his armour as quickly as she could. Almost immediately she found what she was looking for, or at least something that was close enough to work.    Retrieving five of the small, square explosive charges from a section of his bandoleer, which seemed to have an unnecessary amount of ammunition and other weapons attached to it, Marix got to her feet again and darted to the viewport. The large, rectangular viewport was about five meters wide, and maybe six or seven high. Technically it was small, but that was because most of the flying and shooting was done completely be computers and direct visuals weren’t really needed.    As quickly as she could, knowing that the Mrrakesh would break through soon and make this a whole lot more difficult, Marix attached the charges as evenly across the viewport as she could. If the material the Mrrakesh used was anything like the glassteel that the rest of the galaxy used, it would take all five charges just to weaken the thing. But that was fine. All she needed to do was weaken it. Marix knew that she could do the rest herself.    The last charge set in place, Marix found the operating mechanism and, after reminding herself how to read the Mrrakesh numerical system, set it to a ten second timer. The explosion would hopefully be enough to detonate all four others...without being so huge as to kill Marix in the process. Ten seconds was enough.    Then, with a very gentle touch for some reason, Marix hit the button to arm the weapon and start the timer. Her finger was yanked away from the charge by her body sprinting the other direction. Mid-sprint, her body also began to change its form. By the time she’d reached the opposite bulkhead at the other end of the bridge, Marix’s entire body was metal again.    And then the charge detonated.    Intelligently, she had turned away. Shrapnel likely wouldn’t kill her, if there was any, but it was always a good idea to be ready...metal or not. Marix’s hearing was drowned out by the four other charges going off at nearly the same time, causing the entire bridge to shake with enough violence to drop her to her knees.    When the sounds of the explosions faded, she heard two others. One was a constant, high-pitched scream of the alarms the explosion had set off. That was expected, but not what she wanted. It was the second sound, the loud, hard clamping of metal slamming into metal, that would have made Marix smile had she not been metal.    Looking up to the bridge’s entrance just to her side, Marix could see emergency blast doors had closed over it. Perfect! She turned to look at the viewport, and could see it was cracked, dented, and darkened from the explosions. It was definitely weak. And...and there was a sound. It was soft, almost inaudible, but just enough to be heard under the alarms: hissing of air. Oxygen was leaking out of the bridge.    Perfect!    It had worked. By the Force, it had worked!    Again, the rational, still-sane part of Marix took control and reminder her that she was now in a bridge, completely sealed in with the oxygen leaking out. The rest of her looked at the rational side, nodded politely, and told it to please get the hell out because things were fine and it was worrying too much.    At about that moment, Marix stood up completely, looked to the damaged viewport, and charged at it full speed.</blockquote>

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