by Melissa Good
“Good.” Jess holstered her blaster and turned in a circle, sweeping the area with her senses, looking for moving shadows, waiting for that sense to prickle.
The sets had their target immobilized, mainly with sheer bodyweight, and one of the BeeAyes was sitting on the arm of the soldier with his hand braced against the gun, pressing it flat to the floor. After a moment Jess came over and retrieved it.
Kurok removed the blaster from the man he was kneeling on and safed it. “Smart move,” he told the soldier, who stared up at him with wide eyes. “So let me ask you, punkta, you know who I am?”
The man remained silent for a long moment. “The traitor,” he finally said, licking a bit of blood that trickled from his lips. “The director said you would come here.” He smiled without humor. “Not so much friend, eh?”
“Did he mention I had Jess Drake with me?” Kurok smiled back with equal venom, watching for the reaction. “Not so much friend, eh?”
Dev came over and showed him the screen of her scanner. “Doctor Dan,” she said, “this doesn’t seem very optimal.” She glanced at the soldier then back at Kurok. “I don’t think they can hold grav much longer.”
“Ah, yes. Back in the day we used to call this a clusterfuck.” A low, wailing sound started up, and the station lurched again. “Well, that was a bit of fun.” Kurok stood up, dusting his hands off. “Tie them up, lads. Use the hold down straps in the cabinet there. Let’s get into control before something really unfortunate happens.”
The bio alts hurried to do as he asked. “Is it good, Doctor Dan?” one of the KayTees asked. “We did good work?”
“You did spectacular,” Kurok assured him. “Well done, everyone.”
Jess checked the tie downs and then she rambled over. “That’s all six. You got more, Devvie?”
Dev turned. “No. But we should hurry. Systems are shutting down.”
The lights flickered and the air had a faint musty smell. “What’s that out there?” Jess asked, pointing at the fog outside. “Is that what the venting is?”
“That’s some gas.” Kurok pointed up a ramp. “Something is leaking out into space. Could be ammonia, could be carbon, could be oxygen, could be coolant...but the life support systems are offline and we’re only going to be able to breathe in here for so long.” He glanced at Jess. “Unless your little party trick works without water.”
“Don’t want to try it.” Jess checked the charge in her blaster and started toward the ramp, with Dev trotting at her heels, scanner working. “Cmon.”
“Doctor Kurok, we were told to bring you to security,” one of the guards said. “You should come with us.”
“How about you boys staying here and guarding those bad guys, hmm?” Kurok was already moving away. “Come along, KayTees and BeeAyes. We’ve got work to do.”
“Good work,” a KayTee said, in a satisfied tone. “Let’s go!”
“Doctor Kurok!”
JESS PUT HER back against the corridor wall and held her hand up to stop the caravan of craziness following her. They were near the control center and she could hear chaos inside, the outer door to the chamber half open and leaking a pungent scented light fog.
When she was sure everyone was going to stay still, she skulked forward, pausing in the entrance with the fog bathing her before she could get a clear sight inside.
Six more armored bad guys. Jess sighed. But they were watching the group of men in the center, two of them hammering at the console, the rest of them yelling at each other with sharp, arm thrusting gestures.
Jess took a deep breath, pausing in case the fog was going to make her cough, and exhaled, willing the jumpy tension to dissipate. Then she clipped her blaster to its hard point and walked on, crossing a metal grid floor and down two steps so quietly none of the men inside noticed.
She picked a spot then put her hands on her hips and let out a shrill, loud whistle.
The soldiers whirled, the scientists and mechs whirled. A tall man in a deep red jumpsuit straightened up behind the main console and grabbed for a sidearm as he spotted her and recognition flared.
“Ah!” Jess barked. “Shooting in here is only gonna make it worse.” She kept her hands on her hips as the soldiers brought their long blasters up and aimed them at her, splashing her chest with lurid green dots.
“What are you doing here?” The man in red snarled. “You son of a bitch.”
Jess smiled. “Daughter of a bastard, actually. Hello, Darren.” She flexed her knees as the station lurched, the sirens morphed to klaxons, and a set of red lights started to flash. “You done screwing this place up?”
The man in red leaned both hands on the machinery. “Nothing would make me happier than to die here knowing you died with me, Drake. My whole family died at Gibraltar.”
Jess shrugged. “I have no intention of letting a little bit of vengeance kill off a thousand innocents.”
Doctor Dan came up behind her and walked past, ignoring the soldiers, the man in red, and the scientists, who looked utterly relieved at his presence. “Move.”
“Doctor Kurok, thank goodness the director found you,” one of the mechs said. “Please help us.”
“All the stinking fish in one pile,” Darren said. “Don’t touch that console.”
“Don’t touch him,” Jess said. She caught up with Kurok, and they walked straight to the center, Jess’s body collecting tension as they neared the enemy force. “Get away from the tech, and let him alone. He’s probably the only one who can keep this thing spinning.”
Darren pulled out a small hand blaster and turned it sideways to shoot, finger triggering the blast in a breath.
Jess shoved Kurok out of the way and toward the console, the blast missing both of them by just a hair. She leaped sideways as the man in red reacted, kicking the gun out of his hand then just letting her momentum take her over the railing to crash into him.
He was at her with a knife in a heartbeat. Her semi armored jumpsuit turned the blade, but only barely, and she elbowed him in the stomach as she felt its edge scrape against her skin. She got her arm around his above the elbow and applied pressure, as the knife flickered into her vision and came at her face.
Then chaos erupted behind her, and she heard shouting voices and then the sound of blasters. She had to focus on this opponent, though, because this one meant something and was her equal. She tuned out the yelling and caught hold of his wrist, and they arched into a grapple in tense silence.
Then someone kicked him in the head. He jerked and released the knife, it was picked up, and then Jess twisted him around and got his arm behind him and her knee wedged beneath it. She looked up to see Dev rolling past and coming up against the base of the console.
“You bastard! You bastard!” Darren screamed as she pulled his shoulder out of its socket. “Shoot her! Screw the databank! Let’s all die! Shoot! Shoot!”
Jess sincerely wished she had an antipersonnel mine to throw. Instead, she smacked Darren’s head against the console to knock him out then lunged forward and threw herself over Dev as all hell broke loose.
She curled her arms and legs around Dev and rolled under the lip of the console. The light around her went from red to white with an almost pain, then went dark.
Gravity came off, and only a quick grab at the bar that went along the bottom of the cabinet kept her and Dev, from floating up. “Ah boy.”
“Severely non-optimal,” Dev said into her ear. “Really, really.”
“I liked the floating thing right up to this second.” Jess twisted them both around so she could see above them. She smelled burnt electrical, blood, and an acrid thin stench. Frightened gasps could be heard nearby. “Doc!”
No answer.
A crunching boom sounded in the distance.
“That’s the crèche sealing,” Dev whispered. “If they lose grav and atmo, they purge them first.”
“Ah,” Jess said, after a moment. “Not a good day.”
Chapter Nine
; THERE WERE BOOMS, thuds and crackling bangs. Far off, a low alarm started howling.
Jess hauled herself upright. “Hang on.”
Dev briefly wondered if she was meant to hold on to Jess, but she reluctantly reasoned not and grabbed the bar on the console instead and started along the side of it as Jess moved up and over the top, her body tensed and ready to react.
To whatever.
Situational analysis. Jess extended her senses, aware of a prickling of danger at the sounds and smell of chemicals in the air.
When you were in the moment, it wasn’t so much reason as instinct, experience and training that drove reactions that could take a life or save yours. And in which you had to trust.
Trust deeply and she did.
Darren drifted into the air, blood dripping from his face. His eyes were closed, his limbs limp. Jess kept hold of the top of the console and rotated in the air, looking quickly around the room to determine their relative safety.
The armored figures were drifting near the ground, motionless, their bodies contorted.
There was blood all over the control center console, and just past it, she spotted a figure in familiar colors near the ground.
The bio alts were clustered near the entrance hatch, holding onto the bars fastened to the wall. Their eyes were huge and afraid, as they stared around at the carnage and at her.
“Dev, can you get to the middle there?” Jess hand over handed herself across the top of the machinery toward the end of it. “I’m gonna check out the doc. Someone zapped the bad guys.”
“Zapped?” Dev drifted up so she could see over the machinery and grimaced at all the blood over it.
“Like an antipersonnel mine,” Jess called back over her shoulder. “Automatic maybe?”
“As far as I have programming on it that would only affect,” she paused briefly and glanced at the sets clinging to the wall, “us.”
“Something zapped ’em.”
Dev got herself into the controls seat. After a moment’s inspection she got the restraints clipped around her. She brought up the input pad and keyed it, aware of the dank and musty smell growing around her. “BeeAyes,” she called out. “Can you assist please?”
Three of the BeeAyes detached from the hold and kicked off the wall toward where she was seated. They caught the edge of the rack and came around it, taking seats down the row next to her. “Yes,” the first one said. “NM-Dev-1, this is not excellent.”
“No,” Dev said “This is severely non-optimal. There is a lot of damage to station.” She glanced to her right. “Jess, is Doctor Dan all right?”
Jess got to him and hooked one leg around the console substructure, gently turning him over to inspect his still form. He was breathing, and his color was relatively good. But there was a big bruise on the side of his head and no indication of consciousness. “He’s not dead,” she called back. “But I ain’t a medic, and he’s got a big ass bump on his noggin.”
Dev exhaled unhappily. She turned and focused on the console though, since she knew it was probably more useful for her to. “Let’s see if we can bring up the diagnostics.”
The KayTees came over and the rest of the BeeAyes followed. They floated past the still bodies and reached control, finding places to sit.
“There is much damage,” one of the KayTees said, reviewing the console. “Atmosphere is compromised.”
“Yes,” Dev said. “Let’s see if we can do anything about it.”
Jess took hold of Kurok and pushed them both across to the other side of central control where there was a small work area with seats and a couch behind it. She bumped up next to the couch and got her patient settled on top of it, clipping two hold down straps over him.
There. At least if grav came back, he wouldn’t fall on his ass. Jess then went over to one of the armored soldiers and inspected him. He was dead, his eyes bulged out of their sockets, his facial muscles twisted.
Zapped. Definitely. Neural disrupters that were keyed very specifically to them like the mines back in her carrier were, like the ones they’d used at Base Ten during the attacks.
Emergency controls?
She turned and floated back over to the couch and studied Kurok, then picked up one of his hands, finding it closed around something. She prised his fingers away from it and found a small piece of electronics tucked inside.
She took it and carefully turned it over, ready to snap her eyes shut if it flared. It remained inert, and she could see delicate tracings across the surface that led around to the button seated on the front, flush with the curved edge.
Thoughtfully she put it inside a pocket on her thigh and then turned and pushed herself through the air back to where Dev was working on the systems.
On the way she passed Darren, his eyes half open, his tongue swollen.
Did she do that? Or the zap? Jess pulled the body close and examined his head, the lump under his ear, swollen and tight. She frowned. “Damn it,” she muttered under her breath. “I needed to talk to you, ya bastard.”
But now, too late. Whether she’d done it or the zapping had, no sense in worrying about it.
She shoved him away, sending the corpse toward the outer wall, the backward momentum causing her to flip in the air and catch a chair back to pull herself down.
With a grunt she came down next to Dev. “Can ya fix it, Devvie?” She peered over her shoulder to see a screen full of blinking red and flashing lines of errors. “Looks crunchy.”
Dev looked at her then she went back to studying the readouts. “I’m not sure what we can do,” she admitted, after a moment. “I don’t really know where to start. There is so much broken.”
BeeAye next to her shook his head. “This is not good. Could we try bypassing the upper array? It’s shorting out, and we can’t get any intake to the grid,” he suggested. “We also can’t log into most of this.”
Dev slid over a little and peered at the screen. She took a breath, then a second, then she reached out and tapped out a code on the pad, pausing, then tapped a second. The screen cleared of its challenge. “See if that is better.”
The BeeAye regarded her. “You know the codes,” he said. “This is good.”
“Yes. That should clear the whole main console.” Dev went back to the screen she was working on, aware of Jess floating nearby. “Let me see what I can work here.” She triggered her own screen and began sorting through all the alarms.
The consoles themselves were on emergency battery. As she accessed the levels she drew a short, uneasy breath, staring at the levels. “Ah.”
“Draining,” Jess said. “Up here, down there, it’s all the same. Power to batts.”
“True,” Dev said. “And this indicates we have possibly fifteen minutes left.” Dev called up the diagnostic routines, her fingers moving in almost automatic motions, only the faintest of hesitations indicating the source of the knowledge that drove them.
Programming. A deep pocket of it, gentle and elegant and surely Doctor Dan’s. She could almost hear the faint whisper of his voice in her ear as she started a recovery, booting the lowest level of the power drive systems.
Details and instructions about the systems that ran the very heart of the station. Not something she’d been given before she left. Something he’d done today, given to her before he removed the collar. There was an urgency about it, and she responded to it as she scanned and rescanned, trying to retrieve systems in crisis.
Why did they shut them down? What was the purpose? Surely even the downsiders realized the station systems were critical for life support. She shook her head. “This seems so incorrect.”
“What, wrecking the joint?” Jess merely watched, having no skills to contribute to the effort. “Probably wanted to force your buddy up here.”
“By putting everyone in danger?” Dev saw the routine fail. She made a small sound under her breath and ran it again with a different parameter. “Jess, that makes no sense”
“Maybe it did to them. They cou
ldn’t get what they wanted, maybe they wanted to make sure we didn’t have access to it either.”
A KayTee approached. “NM-Dev-1, we think we have found an incorrectness. Please look.”
Dev unfastened the restraints and moved down the row of chairs in an odd, bouncy motion to where three of the KayTees were clustered around a panel.
Jess took over the seat Dev vacated, wrapping her long legs around the base rather than using the straps. She placed her elbows on the console and studied the screen. The fifteen minutes were clocking down in the back of her head, but she felt no sense of urgency over it.
Would they die? Maybe. Jess tapped her fingers on the metal surface. The routine finished and came up with a query. Continue or Abort. Well, Dev had been doing it for a reason, so she probably didn’t mean for it to be aborted. Jess touched the continue, and a few seconds after that she felt a vibration run through the console she was seated at.
No clue whether that was positive or negative, Jess turned to her left and saw Dev making her way rapidly back toward where she was seated, and she got up and moved around the chair to make space for her.
Dev pushed herself down in the seat, starting a little as Jess wrapped the restraints around her from behind and clicked them on. “Oh. Thank you.”
“That thing came back and asked if it should continue. I told it sure.” Jess rested her chin on Dev’s shoulder. “Hope that didn’t send it to crap.”
“No, that was correct. I think I understand why they did all this damage. The craft they came in does not work correctly with the systems here.”
“Yeah, the lock ons are coded to the shuttles on our side,” Jess said. “They won’t let one of the other side dock except in an emergency, and that sends a sig downside.”
“So they wanted to stop the rotation so it would not come apart.” Dev tapped in a few commands. “It seems the control people here could not explain why that was a bad idea.”
Jess frowned. “Dev, no one’s that stupid. Even those bimbos from the other side. So can you fix it now? We still have what, five minutes left?”