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Both running for the door, Miranda stopping long enough behind each column to fire back at Farmer. She landed three shots. Farmer staggered for a moment, then started shooting at them again.
“What kind of gun is that?” Adam asked.
“It’s my training holo,” she said, “It’s the only thing I got.” He nodded. She shot again. They were halfway there. Only one more sprint and they would be at the door. She volleyed off another round of shots. One hit him in the head, two in the chest. He stood there stunned, but only for a minute. It was enough. Adam was at the door. He had to get on his back to shimmy under it so far down. He reached out a hand for Miranda.
“Come on!”
“Stay straight and you’ll pop out in the confidence course,” she yelled. The ancient earth door was too close to the floor for her to get through with her backpack and there was Farmer to deal with. She had this strange feeling that they should not leave him alone in this place. The door was thicker than she was tall. Even if she’d wanted to go with him, it was too late now.
“Nooo!” Adam cried. He reached for her, but she stepped back. They were both on their bellies. She shared a moment of eye contact with Adam. Both knew their duty to the Empire. Her sacrifice meant his safety. That was all that really mattered.
“I’ll get help,” he promised. They watched each other until the door shuddered closed. A plume of dust rose from the forgotten floors. She coughed and looked back. Farmer had stopped firing, but that was because he couldn’t get a good shot on her at this angle.
“Time to face my demon.” She stood, noticing for the first time a small control panel by the door. A control panel she immediately smashed with the butt of her holo. They were sealed in. Her with her holo and him with a blaster.
She took in a long breath and let it out. It was time. She and the rebels were finally going to finish this.
“Why won’t you just die?” Farmer screamed. He raised his blaster rifle up to his shoulder and shot again. Again, the shot went wide. It ricocheted off the rocks behind her and up into the vaulted ceiling. The mountain rumbled its anger, the floor beneath them kicking and bucking. It wanted this maniac out of its core.
“You’re going to kill us all!” she shouted.
“That’s the plan,” Farmer said. He smiled his sardonic smile and fired.
Miranda ducked, but she didn’t need to.
Oscar beeped at her.
“What do you mean the homing system of the laser is being negatively impacted by these rocks?” she asked Oscar.
“Just that,” he beeped. She rolled her eyes and her body behind another barrier. All of Farmer’s shots went wide.
“What does that mean for us?” Miranda asked.
“Farmer couldn’t hit us unless he threw it at us,” Oscar beeped back.
“I’ll take it under advisement,” Miranda told the droid. She gave his head an affectionate pat and checked her holo. It was down to three bars. She took a long breath in. As she breathed out, she moved. Sprint, duck, sprint, duck, until she was in firing range of Farmer.
They were trapped together. Unless she could get one good shot. The cavern rumbled. Something or someone was trying to blast their way in here. Most likely to get them out. The rocks beneath her feet shifted. She braced herself against her hiding spot with her free hand. A small rock the size of her palm hits her knee.
“Ouch,” she said, rubbing her knee. An idea hit her. She picked up the rock and threw it as hard as she could towards Farmer’s head. He remained focused on firing at the door, not realizing that Miranda had gotten that close.
“Die, you—” His scowl cut short as the rock hit him in the back of the neck. He stopped firing and put his free hand behind his head. It pulled away bloody. Miranda watched as Farmer’s eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed to the ground in a heap.
A red light flickered at his vest. Miranda grabbed the box from his fingers and made to run. He reached out with a hand, grabbing her ankle. He’d just been pretending to be knocked out.
“Why?” he asked as he took her feet out from under her. She used the momentum to break free of his grasp, rolling into a crouch like they’d been taught.
Miranda watched him, gauging his path as he circled the room’s center. He was measuring her up, looking for a place to strike.
“Why resist me? You know you’re going to lose again,” he said. She remained alert. He was trying to wear her down. Sure, he’d won every one of their mock battles, but this wasn’t play anymore.
“It was you all along, wasn’t it?” she said, trying to play a game of her own. She motioned Oscar to start recording. If she was going to die, then she was going to be an exonerated corpse.
“How can you be so dense?” he said, flapping his arms around. Miranda didn’t rise to the bait. He was trying to get under her ors. If she let him, she would lose. All she had to do was hold off long enough for Adam to get help.
“You could have escaped with your Ironside. Lived happily ever after, yet here you are: asking me about who killed all those Farmers in BASIC.”
“And leave the box in your hands?” she countered. They both knew that was a half-truth. Farmer’s eyes shown.
“My mission was never this,” Farmer said, lifting the box. Miranda’s mind raced. She couldn’t look at her holo to see how much time had passed. Her internal sense would have to be enough. “It’s just a nice bonus.”
On the word ‘bonus’ he jumped at her, swiping with the blade of his blaster at her midsection. She jumped back, but not far enough. A line of red marked where he’d pierced flesh. It stung, but the numbness from the walls still protected her from all her aches and pains. She shifted to the other side.
“It’s better buried than with you.”
“Likewise, I’m sure.” He lunged, and would have stabbed her clean through, but Oscar tripped him at the last minute. His stab went wide as he stumbled. The black box flew out of his hand, sliding to a stop a few feet from either of them.
“No!” he screamed. They both lunged for the box. Miranda got her hands on it first, but Farmer was right on top of her. They grappled with it; his blaster forgotten on the floor where he’d fallen.
He hadn’t counted on Oscar staying behind. But now she’d lost her only advantage, surprise. He used his legs to leverage the box out of her hands, pushing her aside.
“So, your little droid stayed behind to save you,” Farmer sneered. His face was a mask of rage, warpaint and dirt turning him inhuman. He grabbed his rifle.
“No one’s coming to save me,” she said. The truth of her words sunk into his face. His smile grew from a glimmer into a beam of sarcasm and pride. He bellowed out a monstrous laugh.
“You don’t say?” he said. His long legs and wind tossed hair made him look deranged. More a mad scientist than debonair soldier of fortune. In that moment she saw him as he really was fake cheese in a rat trap.
“You killed them all,” she spat at him. “I don’t know how, but I know it was you.”
“Of course, it was me,” he sneered back.
“Why?” They were still circling, each of them waiting for the chance to get the other.
“Why? My mission.”
“So, killing a medic was your mission.”
Farmer scoffed.
“If that was my mission, I would have been off this rock long before now.”
“So why kill him?”
“He was a test.”
“A test?”
“Yes, for the drug I stuck in you.” Miranda thought back to the pin prick she'd felt right before she’d passed out in the med bay for the first time.
“That was you?”
“Do I need to keep repeating myself?” he said. “How dumb are you. Of course, it was me! It was all me. I thought I got lucky. Finish up my assignment in the second week. Get to go home. Stuck you with that drug and you’d fall out as cold as that medic, but no. You had to have the antidote already in your system.”
He paced around the floor, muttering more to himself than to Miranda at this point.
“Then there was the training course tripwire. Took me hours to set that up.”
“You were with me in the med bay the whole time. I don’t see how you could do it.”
“Had to reprogram a droid. First, he had to track down the parts. Then there was programming the assembly, not to mention hiding it so it wouldn’t be seen. I couldn’t know it worked until you ran the course. It was on a timer so it would only go off with your DNA code. All that work and the thing misfired. Death by electrocution, I thought. That’ll get me out of here.”
Miranda looked at him with wide eyes, her mouth slack at his confession. He’d reprogrammed a droid. Had it been her Oscar? No, there was no way he’d be able to reprogram Oscar. Oscar’s code was too complex. Then again, Miranda wasn’t a programmer, so she didn’t know.
“Oh, don’t give me that look. We all wanted out of this place as soon as possible. Reprogram over my tracks so no one would suspect me if they found the droid later, fry you, and then I’d get to go home. Fake an injury and fly away. But no, it only threw you.” Miranda opened her mouth as if to say something. Farmer raised up a hand to stop her.
“The poisoned roll was me. Used a different toxin I picked up from med bay. It was helpful, really, all those times you kept ending back up there. Made it easy for me to sneak things out. I thought it fitting, given we're in BASIC and all.” He laughed at his own joke. Miranda remembered all the cadences about how bad the food was here and grimaced. How many times had they sung about the food killing them? He had made that happen, but not for her.
“Not that it mattered since that stupid Farmer went and ate it. By then I’d tried too many times. The heat was too high, so I put all my plans on simmer.” He took a long breath and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
Miranda took the opportunity to but in.
“You killed them all on accident?”
“On accident, on purpose, who cares? The point is, you were still walking, and I couldn’t get off this stunting planet until you weren’t breathing anymore. I tried the gas chamber. Did a mask switch. That failed miserably.” He shook his head, disappointment in himself showing on every line of his face.
“The live holo mine was a last resort. We were so close to graduation. I was running out of shots. Now look at us.” He waved a hand around the chamber. “Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined this for the end of our journey together.”
“You’ve been trying to kill me this whole time, the other Farmers?” she stated it like a question.
“They just got in the way.”
“Even Grumpy?” she asked.
“Who?”
“The other female Farmer.”
“You mean Louise?”
“I thought you two were friends.”
“We were. I had nothing to do with that. Carcerus, I would have tried to stop it if I’d been there.”
“Then who?”
“What, you didn’t think I got a holo mine all on my own, or a battery, or the drugs?”
Miranda’s eyes widened with realization.
“You had an accomplice? But who?” His smile grew until it reached his eyes. It gave him a possessed look.
“You really think they would dump me with an impossible mission without some help? You might be vid smart Miranda, but you have a long way to go.” He smeared her first name. The sound of it coming from his lips sent chills down her spine.
“You mock me, but who’s still alive, Farmer? Me! That’s who.” Heat coursed up the sides of his face. He looked like he was ready to pop.
“I would have succeeded if it weren’t for those nanos of yours. Where did a farmer like you get that strong of tech?” She shrugged. She didn’t have any nanos that she knew of before coming to BASIC.
“Why me?” she asked, ignoring his comment about nanos. She would have to talk to Medic when she got out of this alive. But to do that, she needed to stay on top of her game here. He might be ranting about failing to kill her now, but he could resume firing at her at any moment. The longer she kept him talking, the closer to safety, and help, Adam got.
Farmer sneered. “At first, because I was told to. Now, because I want to.” He pulled the trigger.
Miranda waited for the deafening blast, but it never came. There was only the click of an empty chamber.
“Slag it!” Farmer shouted. He looked at the battery pack of his rifle. “These are supposed to last a cold age!” He cursed again. “No matter,” he said at last, dropping the weapon. “I don’t need it to kill you.”
They continued to circle, each measuring the other, waiting for a moment.
“There’s one thing that’s been bothering me,” Miranda said at last.
“Only one?” His sneer was back on his face. She wanted to warn him that if he kept it up his face would freeze that way. That’s what her mother always said. Her mother had been right about so many things. Miranda wished she’d listened more, paid more attention to the little details. Then again, you only care about those things when they are gone. She knew that now. It was a lesson she wasn’t about to forget any time soon.
“For Seventh day circle you said that your mom died in a mining accident.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Miner’s sons aren’t named Farmer,” she said. A light gleamed in his eyes.
“No.”
“You’re not a Farmer, you’re a Miner.” He slowly clapped as they continued their dance, careful not to lose his grip on the box.
“Detective Farmer, how did you ever figure it out?”
“No wonder you’re such an entitled prick. They probably adopted you out to some First Worlder who needed your money.”
He lunged for her. She slid back, reaching for the box. She got one finger on it, but then he pulled back and away. She had to get that box.
“You think you’re so smart,” he jeered.
“Smart enough to know you’re a rebel spy.”
“You got me.” He motioned an arrow sticking his heart.
Light streamed in from above as a large cracking sound filled the air.
“Recruit Farmer was a cover. You were here on a mission.” Miranda’s feet tripped over something on the ground. She’d been so focused on Farmer and the box she’d missed his backpack.
“I literally just said that” Farmer said. “Were you not listening? Do your ears not work? How many times do I need to spell it out for you?” He stared her down. The red fire in his eyes blazed. “I’m here to kill you!”
He lunged for her. Rather than engage, she rolled to the side, grabbing his rucksack with her. It was heavier than she expected.
“When did I become so special?” she shot back.
There was a loud bang. They both looked up. The shuttle from earlier hovered above them. It had cut a hole through the ceiling with a blaster cannon. A pale green tractor beam light shone around Farmer.
“Sayonara, little mouse,” he said, “I hope they fry you for my crimes.” He blew her a kiss.
Miranda reached into the rucksack and pulled out the holo mine weighing it down. She looked at Farmer, slowly rising to the shuttle. He’d shown himself to be the enemy. The kind of bad guy they trained to kill. So why did this feel like she was stabbing herself in the back?
“Think of him like the dummy,” she whispered to herself. She tried to imagine what Drill Sergeant Dan would order.
“Press the button. That’s an order, recruit!”
‘Yes,’ Miranda thought. ‘It would be something like that, except if Sergeant Dan were really here, she would have included expletives.’ Miranda giggled, high on lack of oxygen, and pushed the button. It was an order, after all.