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In the shattered hull of the Starship JOHN GLENN, Ensign Travis Bickle cautiously poked his head out from behind the only remaining intact bulkhead. He took a deep, shuddering breath, heedless of the burning sensation in his throat and the pungent gases released from the matter-antimatter mixing valve.
"I think I'm all alone here," he whispered. It was nothing new to him. Growing up on the Titan Space Colony, in orbit around Saturn's largest moon, he always had felt alone, mocked and resented by the other children because he was smaller and frailer than they were, and because he shared a name with a notorious character from an old 2D Earth movie.
He remembered asking his mother, "Why did you name me Travis Bickle?" And he remembered her sullen stare and her cold, hate-filled answer: "You're lucky I carried you to term at all, you little shit. I named you Travis Bickle because I was watching that damn DeNiro movie when your father screwed me senseless without protection. I didn't want a kid, and what's worse, I got stuck with you. Now get out of my sight."
Ensign Bickle wrenched himself out of the closed-loop of reminiscence, and wept a little to console himself. Then, painfully, he dragged himself free of the wreckage.
"Nobody alive but me," he said aloud. "What am I supposed to do now?" He dug into the wreckage and found only the pieces of his shattered Personal Emergency Subspace Transmitter. "Not even a PEST to hand," he said mournfully.
A sound came from somewhere behind him, but, lost in self-pity, Ensign Bickle paid no attention. He was too bitter, too enmeshed in anger at those who could no longer hear his words and see his face.
"Shiteaters," he whispered. Then, daring to speak more loudly, he bellowed, "I got one word for you complete fucking morons: Lame. Fuck off, you shit eaters!" A wild, bubbling laugh surged within his chest and erupted from him, as he tossed the wrecked PEST unit as hard as he could.
Suddenly, his laugh cut off, as he was overwhelmed by a tidal-wave of pain. A vise had tightened around his body, and he felt his ribs grinding and snapping under its pressure. Through a growing red haze of agony, he looked down and saw a huge furry paw gripping him. Wildly, with his remaining strength, he looked around and saw a huge rabbit-like creature, its hideous maw gaping open as its glowing green eyes fastened on him.
Bickle's final scream stopped in mid-ululation....
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