37
THE FINAL ECHO
Gideon’s feet clanged onto the Dragonfly’s perforated metal deck and he launched himself at Archer, grabbing him by the throat and shoving him roughly up against the cockpit bulkhead. “Why did you leave her,” he demanded. “Why?”
By way of reply, Archer coughed and glanced down at his stomach as a small trickle of blood ran from his mouth. It took Gideon a full three seconds to understand what he was seeing, before releasing his former commanding officer and reaching for the biofoam cylinder stored beneath the sub-locker on the rear of his suit. The man’s stomach had been torn to shreds and, despite his best efforts to keep them in, his entrails had already begun to slide out through his fingers.
“I’m sorry,” he wheezed, the words causing even more blood to erupt from
