The Coup
by Max Schau
I watched them as they wept quietly in the airlock, their fate for having aligned with the wrong side, waiting for the harsh metallic clang of the outer door cycling open and the hiss of life escaping.
Me? I was on the right side.
The coup had been brewing for weeks, right under the nose of the orbital station governor. He'd been too busy enlarging his personal crypto-accounts and sampling the local delights of the underside of the station to notice what was happening.
My position as head of station security meant that I had expectations of privilege and my own cut to count, something that the governor had started to forget lately. When I was approached it didn't take much to convince me, I would be a key member of the coup with all the benefits that would bring. Without me it would be impossible to bypass the station security AI, the conspirators would be vaporized the instant the governor realized what was happening.
A few security system changes, some rescheduling of the more loyal security officers and we were ready. The governor followed a predictable routine, we grabbed him as he stumbled drunkenly down a sub-level corridor and hauled him screaming to the nearest airlock, the look of disbelief is probably still frozen on his face.
