She must have believed the drones were all focused on him, for she sprinted to the computer bank.
Tristan gritted his teeth, worried and irritated that she couldn’t stay put, but he couldn’t waste his breath to argue with her. Three drones dove in at a time, zipping in high and low, working together and trying to overwhelm him. But he knew better what to expect, and with his back protected, he whipped his pertundo about effectively. He blocked them with the shaft and rammed the point into their bodies or cleaved into them with the sharp blade.
Pieces flew, clattering into the walls and deck, as he tore through his mechanical foes. Tears of pain plagued his eyes, but the heat of the battle gave him strength to overcome his discomfort.
Soon, blessed silence fell. They had all focused on him, and they were all destroyed. No other foes presented themselves. The big defender robots that he’d originally worried about still hadn’t moved.
Tristan strode to the computer console where Nalini’s fingers danced, trying to gain access. Or maybe she already had it?
“I thought we agreed that you would wait in the cage,” he said.
“Until I could tell that all of the drones would end up in pieces on the deck.”
“There seems to have been a tense shift there. I’m certain we were going to wait until after the drones were destroyed, not until you could tell they would be destroyed.”
She flashed a winsome smile at him and switched topics instead of arguing further. “Give me a few minutes. So far, I haven’t run into any prompts for retina scans or passcodes. Maybe I can lower the forcefield from here.”
Tristan nodded and headed to inspect the robots along the wall, curious if they were a threat. None of them had so much as shifted forward an inch on their wide treads.
There weren’t any indicator lights nor any other sign that they were online in any capacity. He clambered up on the broad treads of one and rapped his knuckles against the metal torso. It sounded hollow. The block-shaped head tipped sideways and fell off.
He sprang back to the deck with his weapon up before his brain caught up to his reflexes and he realized it wasn’t an attack. He stared down at the detached robot head lying on the deck.
“I know knights like to excel in all walks of life,” Nalini said, “but you needn’t attack the robots that don’t attack us.”
“Thank you, Your Highness. I’m relieved you don’t require wanton destruction from your servants.”
She snorted. “You’re not a servant.”
“Are you sure? I believe I signed paperwork to that effect.”
“No, you’re…” She spread a hand as she looked at him, her brow furrowed as if she truly didn’t know how to describe him. “Special,” she finished.
His ribs hurt too much for a full bow, but he inclined his head toward her.
A beep came from the console, and Nalini turned back to it.
Tristan climbed back up on the robot and peered into the opening where the head had been sitting unattached. The torso was nearly empty inside, hollowed out save for a few snipped wires and a large circuit board leaning against the inside of the chest. It wasn’t attached to anything.
He checked more of the robots. The heads didn’t fall off on all of them, but they were all missing parts to varying degrees. Several had open panels on their backs.
“Maybe these were sacrificed for parts,” he murmured.
“We have a problem, Tristan.”
“More drones?” He eyed the shadows warily.
“No. The forcefield in that bay is lowering.”
“That’s good, isn’t it?”
Nalini waved her hand and activated a display in time for Tristan to see their yacht sailing out into the asteroid belt.
He sagged. “We did tell her to go without us if she got a chance. Did you lower the forcefield?”
“No. They did.” Nalini pointed as two sleek blue combat shuttles flew into view.
One immediately zipped off in the direction the yacht had gone. The other flew into the bay, and Tristan groaned. It looked like the human kidnappers that he’d been expecting had arrived.
11
“The Shredder,” Nalini read off the side of the combat shuttle pulling into the huge smelting bay. “That’s not one of my father’s ships. It has to be Prince Dubashi’s people.”
Nalini silently cursed herself. If she’d been faster, she might have been able to figure out how to get the forcefield back up, so their enemies couldn’t enter. But then both combat shuttles would be out in space chasing Jenna. Nalini hoped her star yacht was fast enough to evade the single shuttle and make it back home to let the family know what was going on.
In the meantime…
“Tristan, we need to take over Dubashi’s shuttle.” She waved at the blue craft on the display. “Do you know the range of those types of combat shuttles? I know some are capable of intra-system travel between planets and others are only designed to go from orbit down to a moon or some such.”
He leaned over her shoulder to look at the display. “It’s from the Star Viper line. It should be capable of flying us back to your palace.”
Or on to Oceanus? Nalini wondered to herself.
She had apologized to Tristan for her singular mindset getting them into trouble, and she’d meant it, but if they could somehow take over that shuttle and reach Oceanus, maybe she could still arrive in time to oversee the asteroid landing. Besides, Dubashi’s men might have more ships out there and expect her to fly home. If she flew the other direction, that might catch them off guard.
“We’ll just have to deal with the crew first,” Tristan said grimly as the shuttle’s side hatch opened and six armored figures strode out with weapons.
His hand strayed to his ribs, though he did not say anything to suggest he wouldn’t do his best to fight them.
Brave, but Nalini didn’t want him to have to battle even one armored man. That would be worse than the drones. She and Tristan either had to surrender or think of something clever.
“How many do you think are left on board the shuttle?” she asked as the six men gathered outside, some pointing toward the back of the bay and one waving toward all the mounds of ore.
“It’s not a very big vessel. Might just be the pilot and a couple more. Those six look like they’re about to fan out and search for us.”
“If they don’t have codes for the elevators, there’s not much to search, just that bay and this control room.
“I know. They’ll be here soon.” Tristan looked toward the robots he’d been inspecting earlier. “What are the odds that they think Jenna got away with you aboard?”
“They have to consider it a possibility.” Nalini wished she could communicate with Jenna to find out what was going on out there.
“They’re heading for the corridor.” Tristan nodded at the display. “Not just a couple of them. All six.”
“I bet they’re coming to check the cage.”
Tristan glanced at it but focused on the robots. “I want you to hide in one of those hollowed out torsos. If Dubashi’s men don’t have sophisticated scanners along, they might not find you. If all they thought they would be doing is collecting you from a cage, they might not have brought much equipment.”
“Hide? But—”
“I’ll tell them that you went up the elevator shaft to hide in another part of the ship. If I get a chance to fight them when the odds are better, I will, but I can’t take on six men, not when they’re armored and I’m not.”
He didn’t mention his broken ribs, but they had to be on his mind.
“Maybe I can separate them and improve our odds. At the least, I’ll try to keep them from finding you.” Tristan pointed her toward the robots, touching her elbow, though he didn’t presume to use force. “Go, please.”
Nalini worried that they would shoot him as soon as they spotted him, but if they thought he knew where she was, maybe they wouldn’t. They would only torture him. She grimaced. That was just as b
ad.
But what else could they do? There were too many to fight.
“All right, but if it looks like you’re in trouble, I’ll come out.” She headed for the robots.
“If it looks like I’m in trouble, you shouldn’t come out. The point is to keep you safe until your father’s ships arrive. If they kill me but don’t find you…” Tristan shrugged and opened his palm, as if to say that would be a win.
She didn’t agree, but the six men were passing the elevators. There wasn’t time for further conversation.
Nalini approached the robot he’d examined earlier, grabbed the head off the deck, climbed its torso, and slithered inside. She had to twist her body and pull one knee up to her chin in order to fit. Wires prodded her, and the corner of a drive dug into her waist, but she wouldn’t be stuck like that for long. She hoped.
She drew the blocky head over the hole above her so that, from a distance, it shouldn’t look like there was anything wrong with the robot. Once the head was in place, it blocked out all of the light except a tiny beam coming through a hole in a seam in the torso. Nalini leaned her eye up to it, her forehead pressing against cool metal, and had a view of Tristan.
He’d gathered some of the drone wreckage together, and he lay in the middle of the chamber, as if he’d fallen in battle. He’d pulled in the shaft of his pertundo and was lying on the weapon to hide it under his body.
Feigning unconsciousness wasn’t the tactic she’d expected him to take, but at least he was smart enough to know he couldn’t fight so many while injured. If their enemies had a medical scanner, they would know his injuries were not fake—his bruises alone should tell them that.
The armored men strode in, the clanks of their boots reaching her ears before she could see them. They must have spotted Tristan right away because their walk turned into a run, and they charged straight up to him. All six of them pointed their weapons at his chest.
Nalini tried to swallow, but fear and worry created a tight lump in her throat.
Tristan lifted his head slightly, not feigning unconsciousness, after all. But he was definitely trying to appear weaker than he was. When he winced, it looked very real.
“Who are you?” one of the armored men demanded, his voice muffled by his helmet.
Tristan slumped back, his head against the drone pieces. “Security for the princess.”
“That your first name or last?” the man asked.
His colleagues—or were they subordinates?—laughed.
Tristan closed his eyes and didn’t answer. One man removed a compact medical scanner from a utility pouch.
“He’s got a bunch of broken ribs, sir. Cracked skull. Some other fractures. I’m surprised he’s conscious.”
“He’s not very conscious,” another man muttered.
The leader looked around at the wreckage, then up toward the empty cage. “You do all of this by yourself?”
Tristan opened his eyes again but didn’t answer.
“Where are his weapons?” one of the men asked.
Another leaned down to push Tristan to the side. He tensed, and Nalini thought he would fight.
She groped around the inside of the robot shell, wondering if there was anything she could do if they tried to hurt him. Her knuckles bashed against circuit boards still screwed in and something that might have been a motor with wires snaking through the housing below her.
“Is that a pertundo?”
“You a knight, man?” That was the one Nalini had dubbed the leader—another man had addressed him as sir.
Tristan still looked tense, but he hadn’t moved from his back. One of the armored men had nudged the pertundo out from under him without picking it up.
“I was,” Tristan said. “Got no love for the Kingdom now.”
“But you had training from them?” The leader looked around at all the destroyed drones again. “That would explain this. It would take a squad of men with rifles—or anti-tank guns—to take down this many. I assume they were all attacking you?”
“I wouldn’t have beaten them up if they’d stayed in their rack.” Tristan didn’t point out that he’d had two separate battles to destroy the twenty-odd drones on the deck.
“Was the princess with you?”
Tristan didn’t answer.
“She hiding somewhere? We know she’s here. There was only one life form on that yacht, and we know there’s a pilot, so we know that was her.”
Nalini wondered if she dared risk activating the light built into her helmet. The night vision wasn’t good enough to tell what components she was looking at. If the circuit board that controlled the cannon arms still worked, maybe she could aim the weapons at the men and fire.
“How much the sultan pay to get you to protect her?” the leader asked, switching tactics. “A former knight ought to be worth more than a simple security officer or bodyguard, don’t you think?”
Tristan focused on him for the first time.
Nalini stopped poking around and watched the men. She didn’t like this new line of questioning. She thought Tristan was honorable, even if he’d lied to his people to try to become a knight, and she didn’t want to believe that he might be tempted away from her side by money. But he wasn’t a knight, even if he had one of their weapons and had trained as one. She had to remember that. He’d grown up poor, and if the money was right, wouldn’t he be tempted to betray her?
“Pay’s all right.” Tristan kept watching the leader.
“Just all right? My father, Prince Dubashi, would pay well to have a knight working for him. A former knight. He wouldn’t mind some fresh insight into the Star Kingdom right now, and I reckon you have that. You’re not old enough to have been out of the knights and the Kingdom for long.”
“That might be.”
“And we need the princess. My father wants to make sure she’s not available to marry Jorg and that none of the sultan’s other bazillion spawn will either. She on this ship somewhere? She run off and hide while you were saving her ass down here from those drones?”
“I told her to run.” Tristan’s tone sounded cooler.
Was he affronted on her behalf? Or was that Nalini’s imagination?
All of the armored men were focused on Tristan so she stuck her thumb over her peephole and risked turning her helmet lamp on to the lowest setting, so she could take a better look at what remained inside the robot’s housing.
Was that a motor down there? It appeared to be intact. If the robot could be made to roll around, maybe she could…
What? All it would take was a few blasts from one of those men’s rifles to blow the robot into shrapnel.
“Run where?” the leader asked. “Back out into the big refining bay?”
“What’s in it for me if I talk?” Tristan asked. “You offering a job?”
With her peephole covered, Nalini couldn’t see what was happening, but she heard a thump and a pained hiss that sounded like it belonged to Tristan.
“Don’t, Brannon,” the leader said sharply.
“Sorry, sir. My foot slipped.”
“Uh huh. Look, Sir former-Knight. You help us find the princess, and we’ll get you patched up—we’ve got a med-kit aboard the shuttle—and you can come back with us. I’ll tell my father how useful you were. A former knight ought to earn at least fifty thousand Union dollars a year, and my father pays his people bonuses if they do any dangerous work or long hours.”
Nalini bit her lip. How much was her father paying Tristan? She didn’t know.
“I don’t know where she went, but she climbed up one of the elevator shafts and into the depths of the ship. I told her to hide until her father’s backup arrived.”
Nalini closed her eyes, relieved that he hadn’t given her up. She hadn’t wanted to believe he would, but she also hadn’t known if she was being naive about him. Just because he kept saving her life didn’t mean there wasn’t a price at which he’d be tempted to turn against her.
The leader hissed. “Wh
at backup? How much is coming?”
“Not sure.”
“That sergeant was supposed to make sure she didn’t get any distress calls out and was too busy to use her chip.”
Nalini clenched her jaw, remembering Habib’s garishly slit throat, his blood floating away from his body. Habib had betrayed her, but it still seemed like he should be known as more than that sergeant.
“Seif,” the leader said to one of the men, “help our knight back to the shuttle. Tell Yazdi to throw him in the cell for now but also to give him some pain patches.”
“Sir? We’re really helping him?”
“Look what he did by himself. He’s worth getting on our team.”
“If he’d betray his current employer, you really think your father will want him?”
“My father will be willing to pay more than that cheapskate Shayban. You’ll see. Do as I say. Everyone else, we’re going on a hunt for a girl.”
“Yes, sir,” the men said as one.
Nalini dimmed her light and peered into the chamber again. She was in time to see one armored man sling Tristan over his broad shoulder. The group strode out of the control room.
She bit her lip, forcing herself to wait a minute after their footsteps had faded before carefully lifting the head of the robot to peer out. If they’d suspected she was hiding in the chamber, they might have left a guard. But no, she was alone with nothing but the drone pieces scattered on the deck. The drone pieces and Tristan’s pertundo.
It was strange that they had left it. The men must have known what an important weapon it was to him or to any knight—surely it had value even if it was sold on the black market to a non-knight.
Nalini tapped her fingers on the robot’s motor, debating her options. If Tristan had succeeded in sending five out of the six men to the upper levels to hunt for her, that would still leave at least one armored man and the pilot—that Yazdi the leader had mentioned—in the combat shuttle. And it was possible there were several more people in there.
If she sneaked in, she wouldn’t be able to count on Tristan to help her overpower them. They were putting him in their brig.
But she had to take over the shuttle. There was no other way off the mining ship. Even though she hoped her father’s men were coming, she couldn’t be positive that her message had gotten home.
Knight Protector: a Star Kingdom novel Page 12