Rebirth

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  Mariah Rigor was annoyed by the attentions of the two men she knew must be government agents on the trail of both Johor and herself, why must they put up with such tribulations from the likes of them, well no more she would speak to Johor about ridding themselves of this one particular problem sooner rather than later. Later that day, and because of her talk to her husband, the two Aldebran agents were working towards ridding themselves of the problem that so irked Mariah. Directly behind the broom cupboard that was home to the two agents was a maintenance corridor along which all the pipes and electrical wiring and such ran through, it now also housed Johor Rigor, who was cutting what would look like a crack in the wall that separated the corridor from the broom cupboard. Mariah stood on deck A with a good view of the cupboard, for cover she was gossiping with a pair of colonists about this and that, in her hand she held a small device that would warn Rigor when to be quiet, at the moment though there was no reason for him to stop work, and soon he was finished. Alongside this new crack was a pipe that carried a toxic gas under pressure, this too would be cut when the time was right, but only as a red herring.

  Night fell and Mariah and Johor Rigor in the meantime had decided that the time was right to rid themselves of the two government agents, before they became even more of a problem when the Constellation reached Persephone.

  First Johor unscrewed the false bottom to his shaving foam to reveal a clear liquid, next Mariah pulled out a perfume bottle from the bottom of her bag. When the contents of the two liquids were mixed together with the contents of a second perfume bottle that Mariah now produced, the final combination of liquids gave off an extremely toxic gas that would kill any who came into contact with it. It would take a minute, two at the most, it all depended on the size of the area it was released into and how much of the gas the intended victim breathed in. Mariah and Johor walked towards the toilets on the middle deck level, but instead of using them they slipped quietly down the stairwell to deck A. All was quiet here except for the sound of some of the colonists snoring, the hum of the air conditioning and the ship`s engines, which were housed on this deck, but then it was only three o`clock in the morning and everyone was asleep, except for the two people with murder on their minds. Mariah slipped into the maintenance corridor and awaited Johor`s signal to cut the gas pipe that ran alongside the crack he had made. Johor then moved across to the broom cupboard shared by the two agents. Johor knelt to one side of it and stretching his arm around the corner put three plastic cups filled with the mixture of the first two chemicals about two feet inside the confines of the room. Then he took out the bottle containing the third chemical, but before using it he signalled Mariah with his small hand device, before stretching around again into the broom cupboard and empting the contents into the three plastic cups. With this done, he hurriedly made his escape up the stairs to his own deck level, where Mariah joined him. The two Aldebran spies smiled at one another, and then they walked quickly and quietly back to their cubicle to see if they could catch up on their sleep. No sooner had they disappeared inside than they heard a commotion from the deck below.