Unlike the one I’d improvised and failed to use against the pirate, the weapon that came for Fir was an actual spear, with a mirror sheen and a terrifying edge. My heart nearly stopped. I thought Fir was about to be decapitated right in front of me, before I could even react. I instinctively raised the laser gun and took aim, yet stopped myself from pulling the trigger.
Because what transpired in that fraction of a second, I would only come to understand hours later when Fir explained it to me in a comic strip-like series of silly drawings.
Like a cat suddenly twisting in midair to brace for a fall, Fir bent her spine in an instant, placing herself out of harm’s way. That alone would have been astounding, but the momentum flowed into her right arm as she swung the sword through the airlock, taking a valiant step into its darkness.
I heard the clanging of weapons as I got to my feet — it echoed through the walls. My suit’s light filled the next room — which, as expected, had the looks of a storage bay. I saw a woman in an elegant black-and-white dress, and I saw her tremble when the pole of her spear barely stopped an overhead strike of Fir’s new HF-blade.
The situation was a mess. How was she standing, let alone fighting, without an EVA suit now that all of the airlocks were breached? Moreover, wind hadn’t come out when the airlock opened: there couldn’t have been any oxygen in this compartment, just like the rest of the ship.
I held my laser gun, but I couldn’t get a clear shot on Fir’s rival. The movements were much too fast, and it’d be a coin throw whether I’d hit my target or hurt Fir instead. I couldn’t risk it — especially since, surpassing all my expectations, Fir appeared to be winning the bout.
I didn’t understand much about martial arts. Yet even I knew that it wasn’t possible for someone who’d never experienced zero gravity to move so skillfully on the first try. Kicking the ground and catching up with it, making momentum into simulated gravity, Fir moved like a noble from the Falcon Empire — the type that’d been implanted with bionics and dedicated a lifetime to training for space swordfights.
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Lost in thought, I watched Fir’s vibrosword bite into the woman’s spear a second, third and fourth time. She would try to make distance and Fir would step into her guard. If Fir wasn’t wearing a spacesuit either, they’d have been breathing down each other’s necks.
The spear-wielding woman was backed against a wall and desperately tried to evade sideways. However, by the time her legs got there, the rest of her had begun to drift away separately. A shower of sparks exploded out in a crescent, and Fir’s tense sword arm came to a stop a half-step behind her opponent.
“… A robot?” I took a step into the storage bay. Before I could say anything else, Fir seized the bisected android by the neck and slammed it against the ground with all of her back and shoulders’ strength, causing it to drop its spear in what almost looked like pain.
Fir then turned to me, her eyes a scorching golden, her expression absolutely stern. It was breathtaking. There was an intent behind her eyes which, combined with the demonstration I’d just witnessed, painted her as something other than human in my brain. Like some sort of sword demon from ancient legend. As if merely looking at her would curse my bloodline with a propensity for papercuts.
“Fir, good! Right? Right?” Breaking my chain of thought, her murderous demeanor suddenly changed as she rushed into my arms. My brain was too far gone to find the sudden skinship surprising… I placed my hand over her helmet and said “Good Fir. Good Fir.” She loved it, responding with a beaming smile and happy feline noises.
“How… pathetic.” I instantly turned to the broken android. It was transmitting to my suit’s radio via a standard public channel. “Even... in the end... I am still... a useless machine...”
Not a second after saying that, the female android’s eyes became dim, and the lights within her severed torso powered off as well. I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of pity — a feeling that wouldn’t go much further in this situation.
“Fir, break, bad? Fir, sorry.” I hadn’t taught Fir the word “kill.” This made it unclear if she knew the machine in front of us wasn’t human. Would her reaction be different either way? Could she split a living human in half and then immediately turn to me and ask for praise?
I couldn’t put it past her. Whatever background she had to be able to wield a sword like that, this mentality could be seen as a side effect of it. And if I had any hopes of making it back home, perhaps it was about time I started thinking like that as well…
