Page 30 of Between Earth and Eternity
“Stop that man! He is not a passenger!” a steward roars.
The man jumps on top of a nearby hyper-view. “I have a ticket!” he cries. “I’m telling you, there must be a mistake.” A forged ticket? I shouldn’t be surprised.
Three badges surround him, guns raised.
“Come down or we will shoot!” the leader of the group yells. “Set rifles to stun,” he instructs his badges. Then he turns his attention back to the man. “This is your last warning!”
“My ticket is real! I must be allowed to board. Please!” the man pleads, eyes dilating with fear.
The lieutenant begins to count down. “Three.”
“Please! I beg you!”
“Two.”
“You can’t do this!” The desperation in his voice makes me ache for him.
“One.”
They fire the stun bullets, hitting the man, one in each leg and another on his shoulder. He falls immediately to the ground, his cry of agony deafening. The bullets don’t pierce the skin; instead, they latch on to send electrowaves imitating a gunshot wound, essentially “stunning” the recipient. I’ve never actually seen anyone stunned in person before, but it’s horrible.
“Get the area cleared!” the lieutenant instructs nearby crew members.
“Move along everyone. This way,” Runa orders the group.
Before we’re ushered from the scene, I watch as they cuff the man’s arms behind his back and drag his unconscious body away. I wonder what will happen to him and if he was telling the truth about his ticket or if it was a desperate attempt to get off the planet.
“Everyone, we are going to go through a security checkpoint, and then we will board the shuttles,” Runa instructs.
Security again?
“We aren’t going directly to the shuttles?” I ask Payson under my breath.
“Apparently not.”
There’s no way I can pass through without them uncovering the phone. I check my surroundings, searching for a way to stash it somewhere, but in a sea of people, it would look too suspicious.
“Skyler? You okay?” Payson places a gentle hand on my shoulder, my panic likely evident on my face.
This can’t be happening.
I shake my head. “I’m fine.”
Fake it and you’ll make it. Is that how the saying goes?
His hand lingers for a few more seconds, clearly not convinced. Neither am I, to be fair.
We are ushered to a line with an open hyper-view machine, where a badge instructs us to place our bags on the conveyor belt. Should I act surprised when they find the phone? Pretend like I completely forgot about it?
No. I think I would rather be viewed as rebellious than an imbecile.
“Miss,” a stern voice says, “is this yours?”
I don’t have to look to know what he is referring to. “Yes, sir.”
The man’s black uniform makes him seem more menacing than he probably is, but right now, he might as well be ten feet tall.
“This is not allowed. We will have to confiscate this device.”
