by S. J. Bryant
"Great," Aydin said. "Another unknown."
"Just keep your ears and eyes open," Kari said, trying to sound confident. How big was this other invading force? Perhaps they were only a couple of people and they'd already left? But Kari knew that wasn't true. To kill so many pirates all at once there had to be at least twenty and they wouldn't leave without getting what they'd come for… whatever that was.
"Keep moving," she said. "We find Ghost and we get out of here."
"At the end of the corridor, go up the stairs four floors, straight, then left," Piper said. "At least… provided they haven't moved it."
Kari faltered. "You know how to get there?"
"Of course." Piper looked up at her as if she were an idiot for even asking. "It's the same way we came in."
Kari did her best not to let her temper get away from her, but it was getting harder and harder as the day wore on. "Why didn't you say anything earlier?"
"I didn't know you wanted to know."
"Of course I wanted to know! Where else would we be going?"
Piper's lips thinned and she stepped away from Kari.
"Okay now," Ryker said, squeezing between them. "It's an easy mistake. But Piper says we go up and take the next left, so that's what we'll do."
Kari gave a stiff nod and led the way to the end of the corridor. Sure enough, winding stairs led up into the ceiling. She snatched hold of the rail and hauled herself up. Why couldn't Piper be normal? What had the Imperium done to her? Sure, her powers of observation came in handy now and then, but at what cost?
By the time Kari had climbed four floors her legs ached and she was breathing hard. Normally she wouldn't have even felt it, but clearly the days spent sitting around in the cell with nothing but thin gruel for food hadn't been good for her strength. From the grunts and groans coming up the stairs, she suspected the others weren't doing much better.
She edged onto the landing, holding her gun. More bodies dotted the floor here. Some of them might have suffocated, but most of them bore large burns and scrapes from plasma blasts. It looked as though a small war had been fought on this floor. Kari's skin crawled and she scanned the hallway beyond for any sign of movement. The other group—whoever they were—had to be good fighters, because Kari still hadn't seen any of their bodies. They wouldn't be scared off by a little gas. And if they were worth their salt then they would have hacked into the space station's security feeds and were probably watching Kari and her companions at that very moment. They'd know exactly where they were and what they were doing, and that they only had four guns between them. The enemy would strike before Kari and her team had a chance to regroup and get supplies.
Piper joined Kari and studied the bodies.
"There must have been a lot of them," Kari said, doing her best to smooth things over.
"I don't think so," Piper said, in that infuriating, condescending voice that made Kari want to tear her own hair out.
"What do you think happened?" Kari said, her voice tight like a chord waiting to snap.
Piper shrugged. "All the shots came from the same place. Look at the angle of them." She waved at the bodies and the few marks on the walls. "And all of these were shooting in the same direction." She pointed to the middle of the corridor where a dense patch of black smudges stained the walls and floor.
Ryker and Atticus had joined them, Aydin coming up last.
"What are you talking about?" Ryker said.
"Piper doesn't think there were many others here." Kari had shrugged the possibility off, but now she actually looked at the stains and the bodies, she couldn't help but admit Piper was right. It was as if the bodies fanned out from one tiny space. But that was impossible.
"Maybe it was a battle droid," Atticus said. "I've seen them wreak havoc."
"A battle droid," Kari mumbled. That would explain things. And if it meant they weren't facing a whole army of new enemies then that was something. But what were they supposed to do about a battle droid?
"It won't help us to stand around here waiting for it to come back," Aydin said. "Let's keep moving." He pushed to the front and led the way over the bodies. He collected two more plasma pistols as he went. Kari and Ryker did the same. Piper picked up one more pistol and shoved it into her belt.
"Arm yourself," Kari said to Atticus. He looked ready to argue. "Your morality won't do you any good if you get shot by a robot."
Atticus closed his mouth and took a medium-sized gun from the nearest body.
"Besides," Aydin said over his shoulder. "You didn't kill these bastards."
Kari saw Atticus flinch and she had to resist the urge to shoot Aydin in the back. Although, he was right. So far Atticus' plan had killed far fewer people than whoever had attacked the space station. Good for his conscience perhaps, not so good for their chances of survival.
CHAPTER 24
Kari stumbled to a stop. "It's not here."
An empty airlock stared at her, and beyond that, through the glass, she could just make out twinkling stars. The sight made her heart ache—so close and yet so far. She wanted to reach out for them but she was as trapped inside the space station as she had been in the cell. What she wouldn't do to get back out to those stars.
"Are you sure you memorized the way?" Aydin said to Piper.
"Yes."
"It would have been easy to miss—"
"I didn't make any mistakes. They've moved it."
Kari's hands trembled. She clenched her fists to stop them but the shake moved down to her legs. What if whoever had attacked the base had taken her ship? There was no way for her to find Ghost if someone else had stolen it, even if she did get off of the space station.
"No one panic," Ryker said. "Maybe they moved it to a long-term storage bay or something. We can't jump to conclusions."
Kari nodded, trying to take Ryker's words to heart and calm the sick rolling of her stomach. It wouldn't help anyone if she overreacted now. Even if Ghost was gone—the thought made her heart stutter—there had to be other ships in the station. The sheer number of bodies they'd passed on their way up here said there had to be at least a dozen transporters. So they'd just get on another ship. It was fine. She could always buy another Phantom class later.
But it wouldn't be the same.
As much as Kari tried not to get emotional over anything—because it only led to pain—Ghost had been her constant companion for a very long time and in their current situation, she doubted she'd be able to earn enough money to buy another Phantom.
"We keep looking," Ryker said.
"And quickly," Aydin added. "The people with the battle droids could be back any moment. Plus, robots don't need oxygen."
Kari's gaze flew away from the twinkling stars to the passage from which they'd come. Aydin was right. Robots didn't need oxygen and so their little stunt with the gas wouldn't have done anything. Hell! That thing could be anywhere. "Ryker, with me," she said, doing her best to take control. She could worry about Ghost and her own future later. Right now, she had to focus on getting the hell off of the station and away from whoever had killed all those people. "Aydin, you take rear."
He made a mock salute and took up position behind Atticus and Piper.
Their footsteps made light taps on the metal floor that seemed a hundred times louder in the silent passages. Dead eyes stared up at them from the bloody corpses and the iron tang of blood tainted the air. Ryker collected guns from the bodies until they sprouted in a ring around his belt and from every pocket. They returned to the last fork in the passage and went the other way, this time traveling blind and so trying every door they came to.
Most of the rooms were empty, or dotted with pirate corpses. Not a hint of whoever the other enemy was. Kari kept expecting them to leap out from around each corner, but so far nothing. They had to know the ship was safe again, and surely they were watching Kari and her group. So what were they waiting for? Perhaps they knew something Kari didn't. Or they were just waiting to vent a section of the
ship and send Kari and the others shooting out to suffocate in space. It made Kari's skin crawl.
Ryker shoved open a door and glanced in. "Storage room. Food packs and stuff."
Kari didn't bother looking. Even Ryker would notice if a spaceship sat inside one of these damn rooms.
"That's the bag they took Wren in," Piper said.
Kari froze. "What?"
Piper stood at the entrance to the storage room, one hand resting on the frame. "That plastic bag. It's the one…"
Kari went back and gripped Piper's shoulders, ready to pull her away. She'd suffered enough and didn't need to be reminded of Wren's death as well. But as Kari glanced inside, she saw that it was indeed the bag, but it lay open.
"It's empty," she said.
"Yes," Piper said.
The others crowded around the open doorway, staring at the black plastic crumpled on the floor.
"Maybe it's a different bag," Ryker said.
"No. It's the same one. I recognize the scuff marks on the bottom left corner," Piper said.
Kari couldn't even see any markings, but she'd come to trust Piper's observations. Whether her skills were natural, or inserted by the Imperium, she rarely missed a thing.
"Then they moved her," Aydin said. "We need to keep going."
Kari stayed rooted to the doorway. They might have moved Wren's body. But why would they? And why leave the bag lying in the middle of the floor? Kari thought back to the bodies they'd passed, to the blood and the absence of any enemy corpses. "She survived," Kari whispered.
"What?" Ryker said.
"She survived!" Kari spun to face them, her heart hammering against her ribs like a desperate bird. "You know she's immune to some poisons. She took it on purpose, but she didn't mean to die. She's alive."
"But I checked for a pulse," Atticus said.
"Are you kidding? Wren can slow her heart down to be undetectable, even by machines. She's alive."
Grins spread across Atticus and Ryker's faces and it was as if a heavy weight had been pulled from Kari's shoulders. She could have leapt into the air and cheered but the look on Piper's face made her pause. "What?"
"She was alive," Piper said.
Kari frowned. "What do you mean?"
"The small matter of the gas cloud." She gestured at the air. "She might have left the cell alive, but she's not anymore."
Her words were like a physical blow to Kari's stomach. She bent double, bile rising to the back of her throat. It was like losing Wren a second time, only worse. To have so much hope only to have it ripped away a second later.
Atticus' legs gave out and he fell to the floor. "I killed her."
Kari shook her head but she didn't trust herself to speak. She was the one that had ordered Atticus to gas the ship. She'd forced him even though he didn't want to. If the blame rested anywhere, it was square on her shoulders. Her legs trembled and she slid to the floor beside Atticus.
"She was coming to save us," Kari said. "My God. She risked her life, got out of that bag, and was coming to save us." Of course she was. Wren had a plan for everything, she was never going to be sold into slavery, and she would never kill herself without a fight. How had Kari been so damn stupid? She should have realized Wren's plan, or at least guessed. She should have given the assassin time, instead of gassing the whole ship and killing her like an experimental rat in a lab.
The others stared at the walls or the floor, not speaking, and in a way that was worse. At least if they'd yelled or blamed Kari then she would have had something to focus on. But their silent accusations were worse. They knew it was her fault, they were just too damn polite to say so.
"If we'd just stayed quiet in the cell and listened to Gerbil," Kari said. "Wren would have saved us all. Instead, I killed her."
Ryker laid a hand on her shoulder but still didn't say anything and it took all of Kari's self-control not to cry.
"We have to keep moving," Aydin said, although his voice was quiet and gentle compared to normal. "I'm sorry about what happened, but we won't help anybody by staying here."
Kari wanted to yell and scream at him, to take her frustration out on the nearest target. But she didn't have the energy. And besides, it wasn't Aydin's fault. He was right after all. They had to keep moving. But Kari couldn't imagine having the strength to stand again. She didn't deserve to live. It was her fault Wren was dead and she'd have to carry that around for the rest of her life.
Ryker squeezed Kari's shoulder, then gripped her arm and hauled her up. "He's right, we have to go."
Kari's legs wobbled and she would have fallen if Ryker hadn't kept her upright.
"Come on, captain," Ryker said. "I've seen you fight through worse than this."
"This time I don't deserve to."
Ryker's jaw tensed and he looked away from Kari's face. "Maybe not. But don't do it for yourself, do it for her." He nodded at Piper who was still staring at the empty plastic bag.
Kari drew a deep breath and shook off Ryker's hand. He was right. She'd get Piper out of this mess, find her somewhere safe. If that meant Kari had to live with her demons, then so be it.
CHAPTER 25
They trudged down the hallway for what felt like hours. Each airlock they came to lay empty, staring out into the blackness of space. The distant twinkle of stars seemed even more unreachable every time Kari saw it.
"We're getting closer to the engines," Atticus said.
"How do you know?" Kari said.
"Can't you feel them rumbling?"
Kari had been doing her best not to feel anything, but she should have known better. What kind of captain didn't listen to the vibrations of a ship? Atticus was right. The dull rumble she'd felt back in the cells was louder now, deeper, and the further they went down the corridor, the closer they got.
"Not much point going that way then," Aydin said. "They're not likely to hide ships in the engines, are they?"
Kari shrugged. Before, she would have argued, even just for the sake of it. Because she still didn't trust Aydin, and what right did he have to try to make decisions for her and her crew? But now… what right did she have to try and make decisions? It was her fault Wren was dead.
Ryker came to a stop beside Aydin and they half turned as if to go back the way they'd come. They'd tried going down, deeper into the station, but perhaps they'd have to go higher to find a ship. Provided there were any left.
At least they knew there wasn't some kind of enemy army watching them through the security cameras—the killer had been Wren all along. Now that Kari knew, she recognized Wren's work in the precisely slashed throats, the bullet holes between the eyes. Wren was good at what she did.
If there had been any pirates with an ounce of sense, they would have got into the nearest ship and flown away when their companions started suffocating.
"Actually," said Atticus. "I would like to see the engines."
"Why?" Aydin said.
Atticus shrugged. "Scholarly interest. They don't use katium drives, so what do they use?"
"Is this really a good time?" Aydin said. "We could have incoming enemies at any second."
Atticus' shoulders slumped. That was the first time he'd shown even a speck of interest in anything since Kari had made him divert the gas line and it broke her heart all over again to see the wretched slouch of his shoulders.
"We'll have a look," she said. Somehow she had enough strength to put authority in her voice, although she'd never felt less of a leader.
"What?" Aydin said. "It's a waste of time and it could get us killed."
"It won't take long," Kari said. "Besides, if we don't find a transporter ship, we may have to work out how to fly this thing." She didn't relish that thought. Compared to Ghost, the space station was like a lumbering whale and it would never go unnoticed. On the bright side, she might be able to sell it for enough money to buy something else, once they finally got to another trading port.
Aydin's jaw clenched but he didn't say anything.
> Kari resumed shuffling up the corridor and the others fell into step behind her. Atticus walked ahead, a slight spring in his step. As far as Kari was concerned, that was worth a small argument with Aydin. Hell, it was worth it even if it gave time for more pirates to appear. Atticus was the happy one, the bright one. He saw the best in everything and she would die—again—inside if she thought she'd killed that part of him. She might as well be responsible for two deaths in that case.
They followed the rumbling engine to the end of the corridor, then left down a passage to a large door with warnings plastered across it. Heat radiated from the metal and a warm glow burned on the other side of the small window.
Atticus stood on the tips of his toes to look through and the hot fires inside reflected in his eyes. "It's huge."
"It would have to be to power this thing," Kari said.
"It looks like they're using some form of combustion. This must be the basic drive engine. I can't see what they're using for FTL travel."
Kari pretended to be interested, even though she wanted nothing more than to curl into a ball on the floor and hate herself. For Atticus she'd put on a brave face. If he needed to talk about engines and mechanics to deal with Wren's death, then damn, she owed it to him to listen.
"They must have it housed in another room," he said. "Wow, the heat coming off of that thing. They must be using it to power the accessory drives. I wonder if…" He frowned.
"What is it?" Kari tried to see past his head into the sweltering room beyond. She didn't care, not really. She wanted to get the hell away from the space station, but she owed Atticus more than that.
"There's something on the floor in there," he said.
Kari squinted and leaned closer. There, not too far from the door, but distorted by the heat haze and glow of the engine, lay a black shape. "Probably just rubbish."
"I don't think so," Atticus said. "It looks like a person."