The hand that heals

[jxie93]

"What?!" Felix bellowed as he slammed his fist onto the reinforced glass table, and then immediately flinched as shards of broken glass sliced his knuckles and pain shot up.

The hectic room fell silent as the executive coordinator stood at the conference table, with his bloody fist resting on top of the synthetic glass mesh.

"Why can't you dimwits ever take care of yourselves? I sit back for 10 minutes and one of you DIES? Do you even know how much a death during an emergency operation is going to cost us? Are you honestly that incompetent I have to baby-sit and monitor you throughout every single solitary individual task? I ought to fire every single one of you and hire myself some people with at least more than half the brainpower of a damn fish!" Felix spat out in a wrath.

Ashley was stunned, her ears were left ringing after receiving Felix's angry outburst, and she had never seen her boss in a trance of rage such as this. She quickly located and grabbed the nearest first aid package and rushed towards the furious coordinator. Taking out a dermal-regenerator, Ashley turned to face all other equally astonished personnel in the command centre and ordered, "What are you all standing still for? Get back to work!" As the crowd of engineers, scientists and inspectors went about their respective tasks in a disgruntled murmur, Ashley approached Felix.

Still stuck in a trance like state of anger, Felix stared blankly into the distance. Veins on his forehead which otherwise remained hidden protruded and writhed. Blood was dripping from the wounds from his hands but Felix was oblivious to the pain by now. Felix slouched back down onto his comfortable chair and gazed up to the metallic ceiling. Ashley took a nearby chair and began to treat Felix's wounds in silence while noticing the tiniest of movement across her secret lover's emotionless face.

"It's not your fault you know," Ashley said quietly, finally breaking the small pocket of silence between the two, "since when have you started to care about the people who work for you?"

Noticing Ashley's light hearted attempt to sooth his frenzy, Felix squeezed out an expression barely recognisable as a dry smile but remained speechless.

Finishing up with the acceleration of the dermal cells regeneration on Felix's hand, Ashley switched off the dermal regenerator and was about to tidy up the equipment when Felix suddenly stood up and surprised her with a tender embrace.

"Felix, c'mon, there're people watching." Ashley whispered into Felix's ear.

"I love you." For the first time ever, Felix opened up to his faithful secretary. He would never know how much these simple words had warmed up Ashley's broken heart.

Moments later, no more words were spoken as the couple split and went about their usual routines again.

Felix picked up his communicator and after a few presses his following transmission was routed to all control team leaders.

"This is a high priority message from Executive Coordinator Cabulb to all leaders of Cryer emergency response control teams.

As you no doubt have heard, one of our colleagues was shot and killed in a hostage situation. This incidence has effectively raised the threat level of the entire containment operation from moderate to high. I hereby authorise the usage of discriminating non-lethal force against any non Cryer personnel onboard the Hawaii in compliance with CECS-015.2A, article 3.1. Exercise extreme caution and don't hesitate to pacify situations as you see fit.

Cabulb out"

Felix ended the transmission after receiving the swift confirmation of his order from the grunts. He sighed and set the communicator to record a relayed transmission directed at the liner's captain.

"Captain Frial, this is Executive Coordinator Cabulb and I wish to inform you about something important.

Due to the recent incidence resulting in one of Cryer's employee's death, I had no other option but to raise the overall threat level your liner possesses. This means our control teams will be making more frequent patrols, checking suspicious individuals and their living areas as they see fit. They're also allowed to use discriminating non lethal force to… resolve violent situations should one arise again.

Be careful captain, one more accident like this and I'll be forced to increase the tension between us even more, by authorising my men to use full lethal equipment. I hope it won't come to this, as our control teams and your security teams are already at each others' throats."

Completing his message, Felix put his communicator down and drew his side arm. He then reached into one of the hidden pockets in his suit jacket and took out a blue, glowing canister just bigger than his thumb. He opened the hatch of the energy cell compartment on his weapon and slid the canister in. With a few firm clicks, the weapon came to life with a hum increasing in pitch which eventually subsided. After setting the weapon to produce optimal performance, Felix hesitated on the lethal rating. A short pause elapsed and reluctantly, he turned the dial to point at "kill".

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