by M. D. Cooper
Bubbs was nothing if not unique.
They approached the exit into the main corridor.
The woman fired a shot at the BQ’s breach team—a combination of particle energy with rail-fired pellets interspersed.
Kylie’s armor absorbed the blast, but it cracked her ablative chest-plate, which was a lot more than she’d expected from this junk-freighter’s crew.
The woman quickly backpedaled and took cover behind a thick, meter-tall CFT barrier that jutted out from the wall.
Definitely an aftermarket addition.
The defender leant out and fired another shot, but Kylie and the team had already moved out of the doorway.
The shots tore holes in the deck and drove the defender behind cover. But Bubbs followed her weapons fire with her entire body, charging into the corridor to leap over the barrier and land on the woman, pinning her to the floor.
Kylie and Ricket advanced into the corridor, and Ricket scooped up the woman’s discarded rifle, eying it suspiciously.
Kylie covered the woman while Bubbs lifted her from the ground and checked for more weapons.
“You’re lucky she didn’t kill you with this thing,” Ricket said as she slung the woman’s rifle over her shoulder.
“I had it handled.” Bubbs grabbed the enemy’s shoulder and slammed her against the wall, twisting her arms behind her back.
Ricket rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t talking to you, Bubbs. I was talking to her!” She pointed at their new prisoner. For her part, the prisoner responded with silence, keeping her eyes closed.
Bubbs raised her eyebrows.
Kylie pulled a pair of cuffs from her belt buckle and slipped them onto Elizabeth’s wrists. “Welcome to the team, Elizabeth. Ready to answer my questions or do you want to go a few more rounds with Bubbs?”
“Doesn’t matter the answer,” Bubbs laughed unpleasantly as she forced her knee into Elizabeth’s back, “I win by default.”
Elizabeth’s nose flared as she tried to turn her head to throw a glance at Kylie. “If you think I’m going to say anything to you—”
“How many more crewmembers are there?” Kylie pressed. The woman didn’t answer, and Kylie resisted the urge to add force.
Bubbs, however, didn’t resist. She kicked the prisoner in the calf. “There’s no way you or your crew can win. Tell us, and it’ll be easier for the lot of you.”
Elizabeth still didn’t respond, but this time she closed her eyes and a serene expression came over her face.
“Fine,” Kylie said impatiently. “Have it your way.” She turned her attention to Ricket. “Stay here and guard the prisoner. Bubbs and I will be right back.”
Kylie gestured to a cross-corridor that ran both forward and aft.
Kylie’s navigational display on her HUD led her to the right, then down a corridor for a few meters. Two more corners and she was at the bridge. She’d kept expecting to run into more defenders, but surprisingly, no one was present.
When she reached the bridge—a room with barely space for three people—it was empty. She eased forward to read the display, spinning the pilot’s chair out of the way to make room.
The Solidarity’s reactor was running hot, and the cooling systems were disabled. If left unchecked, it would eventually explode. Kylie didn’t even bother resisting an eyeroll at such an amateur trick.
Marge said with a grin.
Kylie suppressed a smile and straightened, when her nanocloud alerted her to movement from behind, and a woman’s voice rang out.
“Turn around! Slow!”
Kylie raised her hands and slowly turned around. The captain was a lovely woman of a similar height and build to Kylie, with long, fine, blonde hair and perfect features. But it was the rifle she had tucked against her shoulder that held Kylie’s attention.
“You’ve read the warning,” the woman’s eyes flicked past Kylie to the console. “So you know we’re in a world of trouble if I don’t deactivate the self-destruct. If we’re going to survive this, we’re doing things my way. Do you get me?”
Despite the circumstances, the woman’s brown eyes were uncommonly warm, almost friendly.
“Chass, the self-destruct isn’t going to be a problem.”
Marge said,
The freighter’s captain didn’t flinch. “How’d you know my name? What the hell do you want with us?”
“I’m a space pirate.” Kylie gave an innocent grin. “What do you think I want? Your cargo and your contraband. I want to know what you’re hauling and how much I’ll get for it on the black market.”
“You’re well-armored for a space pirate.”
Chassea obviously wasn’t falling for Kylie’s ruse, which was fine…for the most part. Kylie knew that she really needed to get better at playing the long game, but before she had a chance to mount an argument, Marge broadcasted across the shipnet.
Chassea’s eyes widened. “I guess we’re going to do this the hard way.” She fired her weapon.
Kylie had only a fraction of a second to react, throwing her arms up and crossing her wrists. The heavier plating on her forearms took the shot from the woman’s rather impressive rifle. It was enough to lock her armor up as the rounds ricocheted off.
A look of surprise came over Chassea’s face, and Kylie took advantage of her hesitation to whip a nanoweb at the woman—the same kind the SSF had used to capture Kylie those many months ago on the Titan-1.
The thick web stretched around the freighter’s captain and anchored to the bulkhead, drawing her back against the hull.
“Ugh,” she grunted, pushing with all her might.
Kylie approached the captain slowly, kicking the rifle free from the woman’s hand. “Sorry, Chass. We win some, we lose some.”
“How the hell did you do that? Your arms should be blown off!” Chassea blew at her bangs to get the strands out of her eyes. “Who the hell are you?”
Kylie only grinned and gave a noncommittal shrug. “I’ll get you down from there, but first I need to know about your special little shipment and where to find it.”
“Then you’ll let me go?” Chassea asked, doubt and suspicion filling her narrowed eyes
.
“Not that easy, unfortunately. You’ll be taking up residence in my ship’s brig where you’ll be given three square meals a day, and be treated well until we get where we’re going.”
“And where’s that?”
“Sorry,” Kylie said. “Too many questions. The contraband. Where are you keeping it?” When the captain didn’t say anything, Kylie knew she had to double her efforts. “You can’t beat me or my tech. Hurting you is the last thing I want to do, but I won’t hesitate if necessary. I can do a lot worse than pin you against that wall.”
The nanoweb began to contract, crushing the woman against the bulkhead. When the freighter captain’s mouth twisted with pain, Kylie dialed it back. She really didn’t want to hurt the crew of the Solidarity…not permanently, at least.
A look of defeat settled on Chassea’s face, and she glanced down at the deck and sighed. “The passageway just outside the bridge. Lift the deck plate and remove the conduit inside. You’ll find the storage units there.”
Kylie nodded. “Excellent, Chass. From captain to captain, thank you.”
“Hold your thanks,” Chassea’s nostrils flared, the simmering rage behind the woman’s warm brown eyes all too clear.
Kylie shrugged one shoulder.
THE SCORE
STELLAR DATE: 12.14.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Solidarity, Interstellar Space
REGION: Velorum Rift, Fringe
Bubbs had little trouble capturing the freighter’s third crewmember, a feisty man named Jacob.
Twenty minutes later, their new friends were secured in the Barbaric Queen’s ample brig. Bubbs was the best warden they had, so Kylie gave the formidable woman that duty while she stayed behind on the Solidarity to get the lay of the land.
Underneath lay two fake conduit runs, and the pair of women lifted them free. Inside were a dozen cases, and Ricket carefully pulled them out, setting them on the deck. Kylie tried to read the status reports on them, but the readouts all appeared as so much gibberish.
“Is this it? Are they here?” she asked Marge out loud.
Ricket’s eyes widened, and Kylie could understand why; Marge’s tone had become more than a little vengeful as she spoke.
Kylie traced the lines running from the cases to the conduit, and from there to sockets inside the hidden compartment.
“Looks like the cases are all plugged into the ship’s power grid. Can we move these pods without losing the charge?” Kylie asked.
Ricket placed a hand on one of the cases, feeding a filament of nano into its control systems. “We’ll get started at once.”
Kylie nodded. “Good. Laura, Marge, I need you to talk to the AIs. Make sure they understand what’s going on. Once we get back to Silstrand or come in contact with the SSF, we’ll free them in accordance with the field marshal’s mandate.”
replied Marge, her tone still a little dark.
“Understood,” Kylie said. “Let’s start by offering them a little bit of information—as much as you think they can handle. Marge, maybe one of your cozy mysteries will make them feel better.”
Marge said, now with a lighter, happier tone.
Kylie said privately to Marge,
IMPRISONED
STELLAR DATE: 12.16.8948 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Solidarity, Interstellar Space
REGION: Velorum Rift, Fringe
“Well?” Kylie asked as she entered the Solidarity’s cramped engine room where Rogers was bent over a dismantled console, working on bringing communications back online.
She took a sip of coffee from the plain blue mug she had found in the freighter’s galley. The beans had been over-roasted and tasted smoky instead of smooth. In other words, Kylie liked it just fine.
Rogers turned his head, glancing back at her, a test-unit in his hand. “Well, I can see you only brought enough coffee for one.”
“When will she be ready to fly solo, Rogers?” Kylie did her best to sound patient.
She normally loved some good Rogers humor, but her brother’s fleet could move at any time. She didn’t have much time to get the freighter repaired, not when she still had days of travel ahead.
What if I get to the Dante Velorum system, and the Revolution Fleet has simply moved on? Kylie didn’t want to have to find their trail all over again.
“Few more hours on communications. Then I guess we’ll say goodbye, and you’ll be off on your own.” His lips turned down, forehead creasing with a frown. Kylie already knew from previous arguments how much he hated the plan.
“You won’t be far behind. If I need you, you’ll be there.”
“Sounds like a great bumper sticker, but you know I won’t be able to get to you instantly. Not if I keep the BQ far enough away to not attract any attention.”
“You also know she’ll never be allowed within an AU of the fleet. I have to see Paul, one on one. I won’t get to do that if he sees us coming in on the BQ. She’s an impressive ship.”
Rogers gave her a level stare. “Don’t compliment the ship to disarm me—she really is impressive, isn’t she?”
Kylie grinned and smacked Rogers on the arm. “Her pilot is the best. Second only to her captain.”
Rogers grinned, but his smile fell quickly. “Hey, I know what you’re doing.” He pointed his finger at her. “It won’t work. This plan of yours is dangerous. I know why you want to talk to Paul. I get why you’re upset at him…your dad. I just don’t want you to put yourself in harm’s way.”
Kylie needed him to understand, she needed him to see where she was coming from. “If I can talk to him, if I can convince him what a big mistake this all is—”
“Agreed,” Ricket said as she stepped up behind her. “All of this is a big mistake. Well, not freeing the AIs—that’s the right thing to do. But going to talk to Paul? It’s foolish. You know it.”
Here we go again. She didn’t appreciate being ganged up on.
Kylie quickly downed the rest of her coffee. “I don’t want to have the same argument with you over and over, Ricket. Either of you.”
“And I don’t want to have to point out what our mission actually is over and over again. Find the fleet, send a message to the Transcend. Tanis gave us the QuanComm blade for a r
eason. They’ll send a fleet and wrap all this up once and for all.”
“By killing everyone. Paul, all the people in the fleet…. You think that’s a solution I can live with?”
“It’s the solution you signed up for,” Ricket said. “Or don’t you remember?”
“Hey,” Rogers said, then cast Ricket a pointed look. She returned it.
“I remember saying what I needed to say so I could get assigned this mission. I’m not a fool, Ricket.”
“Neither are Tanis or Sera. That’s why they put me on the BQ with you. And now,” Ricket sighed, “now you’re putting me in a really difficult position.”
Kylie turned toward Ricket and raised an eyebrow. “You know how I felt. You knew what I wanted to do even before we landed on Chimin.”
“I thought you’d see reason and change your mind. Your brother has a fleet set on the same mission as your father—except everyone on it isn’t being mind-controlled, like with your father. Paul and his people want to destroy the AIs, and if they have their way, what happened on Chimin might become commonplace.”
“If I can convince him—”
Ricket’s eyebrows rose. “What makes you think you can convince him of anything? It didn’t work with your father, did it? You wanted a chance to talk him down, and look how that turned out.”
Kylie’s eyes widened, and Rogers held his hands up. “Timeout, ladies. Just timeout.” He tried to slide between them, but Kylie thrust her arm out to hold him back.
She stepped up closer to Ricket, her gaze unflinching. “As captain, this is what I’m doing. I’m going to take this freighter and I’m going to meet my brother. I’ll at least try to get him to see reason. If that can’t be done, I’ll take him in. We’ll call Sera and have her people do their worst, but I’m not going to call them until I have my chance. As a member of my crew, I am ordering you to give me some extra time.”
Ricket’s lips drew into a thin line, but she nodded silently. Kylie didn’t like it.