Hand of Steel

by Jessi L Roberts

  “Open the hatch,” Klate growled.

  The hatch whooshed open. Hunters leaped through headfirst. Almost all of them landed on their feet, a hard trick considering the ships were belly-to-belly, which meant the hunters had to dive through a hole and then come upward through the Deathhorn’s floor.

  I took a few quick shots. One missed. The other hit a human in the chest. He stumbled but didn’t fall. These hunters were armored.

  Darts flew in every direction. A few sharp cracks told me at least one person had bullets.

  Pirates fell. The hunters scrambled for cover, most of them never making it before they were hit.

  The hair on the back of my neck stood on end. Something about the attackers felt off. Why were there so few hunters? Hunters and mercenaries didn’t take huge risks like attacking pirates who outnumbered them.

  A boot-step sounded behind me.

  I spun, my pistol aimed at the movement.

  Reva stepped through the next hatch in the hallway. A huge Elba stood behind her. More hunters followed. They’d hacked through the belly of the Deathhorn and come in without using a hatch. They must have done some sort of seal so the ship wouldn’t depressurize.

  The pirates were positioned to deal with the hatch threat in front of them, not enemy flanking them from behind and above. The attackers charging through the hatch were a distraction.

  “They’re coming!” I shouted to Klate. I had to stop them. I pushed the nearest hatch lever. The hatch doors whooshed shut, sealing me with the hunters. Only then did I realize I should’ve gone to the other side of the hatch before shutting it, but now, I didn’t have time to open it and jump through. My best chance was to get in close.

  I charged the hunters, trying to keep Reva between myself and the others. I fired at her. One dart hit her in her armored chest and the other flew wild.

  Reva took aim. “Traitor.”

  I dodged.

  A bullet split the air by my head. I fired at Reva. She leaped sideways. A dart bounced off my steel arm, one fired by a hunter behind Reva.

  We collided. Reva kicked my legs out from under me.

  I fell but grabbed her shirt in my cybernetic fist. She fell on me, driving the wind from my chest.

  Reva grabbed my real hand. She slammed it into the floor. Pain shot up my arm. My pistol skittered across the floor. Reva aimed her killing pistol at my head.

  I struck at her throat with my cybernetic hand.

  She reeled backward and slammed into the corner of the open hatch.

  I scrambled away from her.

  The Elba, a big male with sandy fur and darker stripes, stepped toward me. He waved his long claws in the air. “Do you surrender, cub?”

  My pistol lay near his clawed foot.

  I stumbled to my feet and unsheathed my claws. “You’re not getting through that hatch.”

  The Elba hunter chuckled. “How stupid are you?”

  I met his icy gaze. “I prefer brave.” I dove for my pistol.

  The Elba swiped at me. His claws slammed into my cybernetic arm.

  I hit the floor and rolled, but his attack had its desired effect. I didn’t reach my pistol.

  The other hunters behind the Elba stood back. They weren’t going to come between an Elba and his prey, even if going around us would get them through the hatch.

  The Elba stepped toward me, his walk slow. He knew I wasn’t a threat. I had no hope of beating him, not without my pistol. I could bide my time. I grabbed my knife in my real hand. Pain pulsed up my arm. So Reva had broken my hand.

  She lay still on the floor, her pistols out of my reach. Akar crept to her and started dragging her out the hallway.

  The knife in my throbbing hand, I climbed to my feet.

  The Elba stepped over my pistol. The only way to get it was to go through him.

  I charged.

  The Elba’s claws slashed the left side of my head. I slammed into the closed hatch and slumped to the floor. Sparks shot through my vision then my cybernetic eye went black. I tried to rise but fell back to the floor.

  The Elba crouched in front of me. He drew back his huge hand for the killing blow.

  I lifted my knife.

  The hatch whooshed opened causing the Elba to look up.

  Klate, a storm of fur and claws, slammed into my attacker.

  The hunter Elba backpedaled and slashed frantically at Klate.

  It did no good. Eyes narrowed and ears flat against his head, Klate attacked in a flurry of claws, more like an unstoppable force of nature than a person. Sandy fur flew from the Elba’s chest and throat. I crawled away from the two titans.

  Blood spattered on my real arm. Klate’s claws slammed into the Elba’s chest, then another blow hit the side of his head. The Elba fell in a pile of blood-soaked fur.

  Klate roared again, then pulled the rifle off his back and shot at the hunters.

  Klate’s crew charged through the hatch and fired at the hunters. The hunters retreated.

  I touched the cybernetic side of my face. Three furrows cut through my replacement skin and to the metal underneath. Near the edges, blood oozed from places where the replacement skin covered flesh.

  I tapped my eye. It stayed dark. I climbed to my feet. My head throbbed so I leaned against the wall.

  Blood dripped from a claw wound on Klate’s leg. He clutched his shoulder and looked at his crew.

  I glanced at the crew, some of which hadn’t come through the hatch. Almost half of them were missing. An old Torf named Falto and his sister lay on the floor. A Skallan lay near them, but the others I spotted were okay.

  Klate removed his hand from his bloody shoulder.

  Doc scurried through the hatch. He slathered Klate’s leg in salve then climbed up Klate and did the same to his shoulder. He sprang off Klate and landed in front of me. “What sort of injuries do you have now?”

  “My eye’s not working.”

  Doc reached up and twisted my cybernetic eye. It popped out of my head. He fiddled with it then shoved it back in.

  The eye switched back on. The image was pixilated, but at least I had some vision.

  “Better?” Doc asked.

  “It will work,” I said.

  Doc glanced at Klate. “Should I help him?” He pointed to the downed Elba.

  “Go ahead.” Klate stepped past the Elba and waved to the crew. “Come on.”

  I picked up my pistol and joined with the rest of the crew. We followed after Klate. He stopped at the next hatch, which had been closed. He pounded on it. “Will you surrender?”

  “Never!” a Skallan voice shouted. “We outnumber you. Open that hatch and we’ll use bullets.”

  Klate sighed. He pulled his datsheet from his pocket. “Tenned, where are you?”

  “We’ve taken the hunter ship, but I’m down to five crew. Melsha is going to stay here to work out the hijacker bot.”

  “Tell me when you get to the hatch.” Klate ended the call and looked at his crew and me. “I want three of you to get into the room using the ventilation system. We’ll all attack at once. Hopefully, being attacked from three sides will be enough to get the hunters to surrender. Try to take out their leader.”

  “I’ll lead,” Likkil, the old Elba, said. She twitched her ears. “I can fit through the ducts.”

  “I’ll go too,” said Geshan, the blond Human.

  “I’m going,” Doc said. “It’ll be close quarters. I’m good with those.”

  We needed one more. “I can do it,” I said.

  Klate’s eyes narrowed. “Can you? You took a pounding.”

  My leg still ached from being shot. “I can do it.” I switched my pistol to my cybernetic hand. My real one had started swelling. I switched back. The pistol felt wrong in my cybernetic hand. Maybe I had less control over it, or it was the fact I only had three fingers.

  “You’re sure?”

  “I’ve got a bit of a headache, but I’m not in any worse shape than you.”

  “Then go.”
Klate limped to a grate on the floor and flipped it open.

  Likkil crawled through the hatch. Though the ventilation ducts were designed for Skallan to use as an emergency escape route, she managed to fit down the hole. Geshan followed her. I went next. Doc darted in after me. Unlike the rest of us, he managed to walk on two legs, though even he had to stoop.

  Likkil paused under the next grate. Her ears twitched.

  I held my breath. Hunters paced above us, their boots echoing through the shaft.

  Likkil held up all four fingers, made a fist, then held up her four fingers two more times, then held up two fingers. Fourteen hunters.

  She grabbed the datsheet and punched a button. We waited.

  Likkil tensed, her muscles bulging under her fur.

  I got ready to spring forward.

  Likkil burst through the grate. A hunter shouted. From the thump he made, I guessed he’d been standing on the grate when Likkil lifted it.

  Geshan leaped out of the hole.

  I followed right into the middle of chaos.

  Hunters tried to dive for the sparse cover, but the sleeping alcoves were not meant to be used as cover in a battle. Others fired wildly, their shots bouncing off the walls.

  Likkil leaped at a Skallan. Shots from a killing pistol echoed through the room. Likkil roared. The bullets did nothing to stop her momentum. She slammed into the Skallan. They went down in a heap with Likkil on top.

  A Chix leaped at me, his feet leaving the floor as he came at me. I shot him. The electricity shot through him, stiffening his body and sending him crashing to the floor. Being a Chix, He’d be up in no time. Hunters and pirates fought, some shooting while others abandoned their weapons in favor of close combat. Klate charged into the room and threw a Chix across the room.

  “Murderer!”

  I spun toward the shout. A dart glanced off my cybernetic cheek.

  Akar pulled his trigger again. His pistol clicked. He threw it to the side and drew a knife.

  Behind Akar, Reva lay in one of the alcoves, her skin pale in death. I’d killed her.

  “I didn’t mean—”

  “You’ll pay!” Akar charged.

  I stepped backward and aimed at him. My cybernetic heel caught on the Chix I’d stunned. The bullet wound in my leg shot a bolt of pain through me.

  I fell.

  A dart slammed into Akar’s neck. He dropped next to me. I scrambled away from him, my pistol still in hand.

  “Put your weapons down!” Qwalm screeched. “The pirates won. No one else needs to die.” He stood over me, his rifle pointed at Akar’s twitching form.

  I climbed to my feet.

  Qwalm bowed to me and held out his rifle. “I surrender.”

  The few hunters who remained standing dropped their weapons.

  I took the rifle.

  Klate limped to Likkil and knelt. “Doc, get over here.”

  Doc scurried to Likkil. Blood darkened her red shirt. Doc began bandaging the wound. Likkil tried to sit up, but Klate pushed her back down. “I’ll be back, cousin.” He stood, his gaze focused on Qwalm and me.

  Qwalm’s feathers trembled. He stayed in his bowed position, his eyes on Klate. Seeing Qwalm terrified unsettled me. I wanted to tell him Klate wasn’t going to hurt him, but I stayed quiet.

  Tenned strode through the bodies of stunned hunters and pirates. “Get on the floor and put your hands on your head. You’re beaten.”

  Qwalm sank to his belly. Tenned came to him first, probably because he was likely the most dangerous hunter who hadn’t been shot. He grabbed Qwalm’s own handcuffs and cuffed him. He kicked Qwalm onto his side so he could hobble him.

  “He saved my life,” I said. “He’s not going to do anything.”

  “He’s still a Torf hunter.” Tenned grabbed a set of hobbles from a stunned hunter. “I’ll need to muzzle him too.”

  “Tenned,” Klate growled.

  Tenned paused.

  “Leave that Torf alone.”

  Tenned sighed. “Keep an eye on him.”

  Qwalm rolled back onto his belly. His terrified gaze still focused on Klate, even though Tenned was the one who disliked him.

  Tenned went back to restraining the other hunters with their own cuffs.

  Klate growled, loud enough to get the attention of everyone in the room. “We will not harm you hunters. We’ll treat your injuries and sell you on Tupra. They’ll put you to work, but they don’t have pits there.”

  Qwalm’s feathers drooped.

  Guilt pulsed through me. No matter what I did, people suffered for it.

  Klate pulled out his datsheet and spoke into it. “Amellia, what are the other two ships doing?”

  “They’re coming toward us. They seem suspicious, but they aren’t trying to board,” Amellia said.

  Klate turned back to the crew. “Get the uninjured hunters to the cages in the hold, and get these ships operational.” Klate limped back to Likkil. “Can she be moved?” he asked Doc.

  “Yes.”

  Klate grabbed one of Likkil’s arms and lifted her to her feet. He limped toward the infirmary with her while Tenned herded the captured hunters toward the hold. The hunters who remained standing dragged Akar and a few of the other downed hunters.

  I itched to look through a window. There were still two more hunter ships out there. Did they know we’d won?

  “Krys, can you help me?” Doc asked. He stood over a prone Chix. “This one’s got broken bones.”

  I knelt by the Chix. She had four parallel scratches across her suit, probably from Klate. Those weren’t deep, but a leg and arm were bent at odd angles.

  I gently scooped the Chix into my arms. She moaned.

  “I’ll see if I can find the hunters’ medic if they have one,” Doc said. “You get her to the infirmary.”

  I carried the Chix to the infirmary. There were more beds than before. I lay the Chix on one of them, one that had a wrinkled look like it had been in storage. Likkil already lay on another bed. The Elba hunter wasn’t there. Klate sat by Likkil. He had cleaned the salve off his wound and started gluing the cuts together.

  He looked at me. “Are you hurt?”

  I took stock of myself. “My face needs some fresh skin. I think I’ve got a few broken bones in my hand.” I held up my swollen and bruised hand. Now that the action was over, it throbbed.

  My hand brought me back to how I’d punched Reva in the throat. I tried to hold back tears, but I felt my face wrinkling. She’d been my aunt and I killed her.

  “What’s wrong?” Klate asked.

  “I killed Reva.” My real eye blurred with tears. “I hit her in the throat. She had a killing pistol.” I shouldn’t have hit her in the throat. I should have known that would kill her. “I didn’t think.”

  Klate pressed his wound together and stood. He limped to me and wrapped one of his hairy arms around my shoulders. “It’s okay. You did what you had to.”

  I kept replaying the image in my head. She’d fallen off me so fast, then hit her head. “I should have hit her in the shoulder or her gun hand.”

  Klate squeezed me tighter. “She didn’t give you time to think. Sometimes, there’s no other choice.”

  I sniffed and tried to convince myself Klate was right. It didn’t matter what side I took, I always had regrets. She’d been trying to kill me, but if I’d been less panicked, I could’ve avoided killing her.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Pirate

  Ralkom quickly patched the hole in the Deathhorn before taking over the hunter ship and detaching. By then, the hijacker was disabled, leaving the Deathhorn free.

  “Come to the cockpit,” Klate said.

  I followed him to the cockpit. Amellia and Hirami were there. Klate took a chair. I used restraints on the wall to fasten myself in.

  We turned to face the enemy. There were two minor bullet fighters and a second major bullet fighter that showed up during the boarding.

  “Ralkom, you ready?” Klate asked through t
he com.

  “Yes, Captain,” Ralkom said through the speakers. “Let’s give them some lasers. Keep your belly out of range. That patch can’t take punishment.”

  “I know,” Amellia said.

  The bullet fighters opened fire.

  We were flying crippled, unable to turn on our shields or go anywhere near lightspeed, but we could still fight. Ralkom would have to do much of the work.

  Hirami fired off a volley of lasers as Amellia dove. Hirami fired again, hitting one of the minor bullet fighters. The armored hull melted. At our distance, I couldn’t tell if the ship had been breached, but it retreated. We’d frightened it.

  The Deathhorn vibrated from a laser impact. Above us, the major bullet fighter bore down. One good hit from its laser cannons would destroy us.

  Hirami kept shooting.

  In the distance, Ralkom fought against the other minor bullet fighter. By the way it weaved and switched direction, it had to be piloted by a Chix. If Ralkom took his focus off it for a second, he’d be shot.

  The minor fighter Hirami shot flew at us firing lasers. The lasers were all but invisible against the black vacuum of space, but the gun barrels glowed.

  “Hold on!” Amellia flipped a switch.

  The Deathhorn shuddered. The restraints held me in place. Amellia had hit the reverse thrusters. The major and minor bullet fighters surged past us.

  “Hit the minor,” Amellia ordered.

  Hirami opened up on the smaller fighter. Part of its armor heated up and glowed, but it moved before Hirami could get a killing shot.

  The major fighter spun around. Its huge guns swiveled toward us.

  A bird-like shadow blocked the stars above us. The major fighter’s side melted under a laser blast.

  “Good shooting, Nightslayer!” Amellia shouted into our com.

  “We’ve got your tail!” A Skallan replied.

  My stomach flopped. The Nightslayer was Nazar’s ship. Had they rescued him?

  The Nightslayer banked hard and shot after the bullet fighter chasing Ralkom.