My head is throbbing, killing my balance with my right eye damaged.
A human hand hooks under my arm, pulling me straighter as I stumble to my feet.
“Gotta run!” Zane yells, dragging me under the belly of the ship.
Where did he come from? “Did you leave the control room?”
“Well, obviously!” He yells as we sprint for the closes hangar door to the left of the ship. I hear the number behind us hit the floor. Dammit. Zane is not going to be faster than him.
“You’re an idiot!” I scream at him.
“I know!”
“Thanks!”
“You’re welcome!”
“Where’s Lee? We need a bigger weapon.”
Zane takes a wild left and I follow, slamming the door behind us. “He’s coming.”
I wish I knew where the weapon’s vault is in this place. I would think it relatively near the hangar, easy to access for anyone leaving for a job, but this place is a maze, and I don’t remember much about it.
“Head back to the control room,” I yell as we sprint down the unfamiliar hallways. “Go, before it gets through the door.”
“I’m not—”
“Zane you will be dead in two seconds, just go!” I shove him through the next hallway and take off down the one we were running. When I glance back, the door behind me slams open as the number finally starts catching up, but Zane is no where to be seen. Relief tugs at me, replaced promptly by panic at the thing catching up. I take another blind turn, hoping to figure out a way to double back and hit the hangar again. I need a gun of some sort, bigger than the one in my hand. My temple sends stabbing pains up my eye. My bruised body doesn’t want to start sprinting again, but the adrenaline makes up for it. Still, I can hear it catching up. Can’t believe that stupid elevator didn’t kill it.
I take another right at what I hope is the original hallway out of the hangar, stumbling. The fact is hasn’t caught up to me gives me hope. Maybe I managed to slow it down just enough between aiming for a shot in it’s face—I never did see if I hit anything—and breaking it’s arm. I’m not sure why Captain left the bones partially original. As much as my metal frame irritates me, it’s a hell of a lot harder to break.
I slam into a familiar door, the hangar opening wide. The ensuing crash behind me as the number knocks through the door itself is only a second behind—
Zane drops out the airlock of his ship, a huge rifle in hand, and aims right past my head.
Idiot never listens.
I dive under the belly of my ship, just in time for his shot to burn past. A flash of heat spikes in my already damaged eyes. I roll to my feet with less grace than usual and stumble, trotting sideways to a stop, breathing hard and watching the aftermath of whatever weapon Zane had stashed away hitting the number.
He hit the number dead in the chest, and it lays still and silent on the hangar floor. Catching my breath, I edge over to it, nudging it’s leg with my boot. Nothing. It’s right eye is in ruins. Well, I guess I did hit it in the face. Makes sense why it was slower.
Zane stands next to me, rifle in one hand pointed to the floor.
“Good shot,” I say.
“Thanks.”
“Dumbass.”
“Uh huh.”
We exchange looks. I don’t know if he’s ever killed anyone, but he doesn’t look any more upset than he has the past few hours. I’d think cyborgs don’t count to him, but I’ve gotten over the mindset he doesn’t see us as people. He might even see this one as more human than I do.
“I hope the princesses stayed in the control room?” I ask.
“They were there. I don’t think Yvonne will risk taking Anya out of that room.”
Good. One less thing to worry about. “Any idea where the other number is?”
“We couldn’t find anything on the heat map. Lee tried to call you again.”
Did he? I touch the comm behind my ear and wince. The near dead shot to the face took out some of the wiring in my temple and down behind my ear. Feeling around, I take out the comm and flick the burned piece of metal onto the floor. By some miracle, it hasn’t seemed to damage my new ears other than a small, rough burn on the outside of one of the hearing aids. Small miracles.
“You’re bleeding quite a bit,” Zane says.
The number on the floor isn’t. But touching my fingers to my temple brings them back wet and sticky. Huh. Must’ve broken some skin around the metal in my face. The actual graze of the gunshot is burned—I’ve had them enough times to know the feeling. Once the adrenaline wears off completely, that’s probably gonna hurt like hell.
“It’ll clot up in a minute. Can you do me a favor and stay in your ship? I’m gonna go looking for the other one.”
Zane shrugs.
I glare.
“I make no promises.” He still sounds pissed.
“You just wanna fight someone, don’t you?”
Another shrug.
Unbelievable. “Ya know what, close your ship and come with me. At least I can keep an eye on you.”
Deadpan, Zane heads back to his ship, rifle over his shoulder. What a day. Hoisting myself into my own vessel, I use the comm still blinking on the control panel.
“I’m alive, but the comm in my ear is broken,” I say, and hear what sounds suspiciously like La in the background muttering damn idiot brothers.
Despite myself, I snicker. “Where are you?”
“Still in the control room,” Lalia says. “Lee and a few of his men are heading your way. Is Zane okay? He just left the control room when we weren’t looking.”
“He’s stupid, but he’s fine.” Saved my ass. Again.
“He’s not answering his comm. Tell him I’m going to murder him, will ya?”
“Happily. Bat, you there?”
“Yeah. I don’t like when you stick me with the humans.”
Anya’s voice says, “Hey!” in the background.
Better than you getting hurt. “I know. Sorry. The number Zane just demolished didn’t have a heat signature, but it did at first. I guess they can turn it off and on. Keep in the room, you have no idea where the other one is. I’m gonna try to find it.”
“That sounds like a terrible idea,” Yvonne interjects.
“Of course it is, have you met me?” I say, then cut the feed. No need to figure out her strange concern.
Leaving the airlock open feels like both a good and bad idea. Good, because it keeps other people out. Bad, because if the other number crawls in through the floor paneling, I’ll be trapped again. I leave it open.
In my bunk room, I push up my bed and yank out the oversized rifle I’ve had little reason to use. It’s about time. Firing the thing up and clipping in the ammo, I head back for the airlock, grabbing my other pistol as well, just in case. Can’t hurt to have, even it if takes a weapon that would pulverize a human to take one out.
“Zane, let’s go!” I yell, then stop dead on the hangar floor.
The number’s body is gone.
There’s no one out here, and I hadn’t heard any footsteps. My glitching eye couldn’t’ve messed with that. Barely any blood sits on the hangar floor, but there isn’t a sign of the body being moved otherwise. No other droplets, no drag marks.
It’s dead. I checked for a pulse. I don’t care how augmented it is, no breathing and no pulse means dead.
“Zane?” I ask, swirling around, cursing the dark emergency mode of the ship coupled with no heat source from the number.
He appears in the airlock of his ship. “What?”
“Where is it?”
For a moment, he just frowns, then his eyes go to the spot on the floor, and his expression goes dead. He drops down, coming to stand beside me, gripping his rifle and looking just as alarmed.
“I thought you said it was dead.”
“It had no pulse. No breath.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Yeah, I got that.”
Zane’s gun put a hole the size of my fist through the number’s chest. I wouldn’t survive that. Captain wouldn’t. No one would.
Nudging him, I whisper. “Call La. Let her know.”
Zane taps on his ear, mumbling, “The other number’s body disappeared. We don’t know where it is, be careful.”
A door cracks. I nearly jump out of my skin, but it’s just Lee sliding in with a rather impressive rifle that puts even my heavy weapon to shame. Nice.
Two men I don’t recognize are behind him, but they stay near the door, casting me nervous glances.
Lee pauses at my expression, and I wave him over. “Zane shot the big one I ran into. It was dead. But the body just disappeared.”
Lee looks like he’s about ready to throw up. “You don’t know where it is?”
“No idea. Both don’t seem to have heat signatures.”
Swearing to himself, he taps back into his own comm. “We’ve got two highly-dangerous Amerov cyborgs with no heat signatures still in the ship. Both seem to be injured but alive. Go through every single camera on the ship. I want someone to get eyes on them.”
I’m not sure who he’s calling, but there’s a garbled agreement on the other end of the comm. Doesn’t sound like Kel’s voice. Good. I wouldn’t trust her with this. And given how Lee didn’t call up his first mate with the job, I’m guessing he doesn’t trust her either.
Catching my look, he says, “Kel confirmed she called you in.”
I expected it, but heat still fills my face with rage. I take a long, deep breath, but Zane was already two seconds from snapping, and apparently that does it.
“Why the hell would she do that?”
Lee looks at him calmly, but there’s definite regret in his face. “You all are a big bounty, Aaron included. She ignored my orders.”
Zane’s eyes narrow into dark slits. I put my hand on his shoulder. “Zane, we’re keeping a level head here.”
He opens his mouth but shuts it again, looking away.
Lee says, “I should’ve just let you leave. If I’d known she’d pull something like this, I would never have asked you to stay.”
Zane shrugs out from under my hand and stomps back to his ship. I sigh. I believe Lee, but I’m not thrilled. I loop the strap of my rifle over my shoulder, sliding it onto my back and out of the way.
“Here, give me that gun and get out of here, you’ll just be in danger.”
Lee’s face makes an expression I can’t really read. It resembles sadness, but I don’t much care at the moment. I hold out my hand and he turns over the rifle better described as a miniature rocket, just as Bat said. It’s heavier than mine but not difficult for me to handle. I’ve never seen a model like this before, but a quick inventory gives me a good rundown of it. I take it apart halfway and put it back together, popping out and back in the ammo clip. Nice gun.
“Can I keep this?”
Lee rolls his eyes, though it still seems forced. “No.”
“Stick in the mud,” I grumble. “Alright, get out of here. Find a room to lock yourself in or something. I don’t trust one of them not to come after you since you were with us.”
Nodding, Lee heads for the door, still glancing back at me with a regretful expression. I try not to think on it. He doesn’t get to be regretful when it’s his first mate that got us in this jam. Sure, I believe he didn’t know, but even I knew she had a unfortunate look in her eye the minute I saw her.
With the door shut behind Lee and his men, the hangar falls utterly quiet again. I scan the open space. I’m not sure when the heat from the star will hit us, but it must be soon. Hopefully, that doesn’t cause any further problems.
Either I need to hunt those two numbers down myself, or we just need to make a run for it. They’re not in here, and stranding their ship parked across the hangar from us wouldn’t be a stretch. I need to get Bat and the girls from the control room to here, which feels like a bad plan. The only thing that feels worse is the idea that the bigger number took a rifle shot to the chest and apparently got back up and walked out of the hangar without me hearing or seeing a thing.
I glance at the silent, dark ship the numbers took here. It doesn’t show signs of having been opened recently, but I wonder if that’s where the big number retreated. I squint at it, not sure if I should poke the bee’s nest.
“Zane, let’s go,” I call, stepping carefully to his open airlock.
He holds up a finger without looking at me, talking to Lalia over the comm. I lean in, looking at their cozy little ship with the pictures taped to the walls and nicknacks fastened to the control panel. Sure is a lot more personal than mine. I’ve never been one to collect bobbles. Fits them a lot better than my ship would.
Lalia is saying something about leaving the control room, but before I can tell them that’s a terrible idea, her voice cuts off. Zane stares at the console. Glances at me.
“La?” he asks, tapping the comm button.
Softly, her voice says, “I think it found us.”
My head is throbbing, killing my balance with my right eye damaged.
A human hand hooks under my arm, pulling me straighter as I stumble to my feet.
“Gotta run!” Zane yells, dragging me under the belly of the ship.
Where did he come from? “Did you leave the control room?”
“Well, obviously!” He yells as we sprint for the closes hangar door to the left of the ship. I hear the number behind us hit the floor. Dammit. Zane is not going to be faster than him.
“You’re an idiot!” I scream at him.
“I know!”
“Thanks!”
“You’re welcome!”
“Where’s Lee? We need a bigger weapon.”
Zane takes a wild left and I follow, slamming the door behind us. “He’s coming.”
I wish I knew where the weapon’s vault is in this place. I would think it relatively near the hangar, easy to access for anyone leaving for a job, but this place is a maze, and I don’t remember much about it.
“Head back to the control room,” I yell as we sprint down the unfamiliar hallways. “Go, before it gets through the door.”
“I’m not—”
“Zane you will be dead in two seconds, just go!” I shove him through the next hallway and take off down the one we were running. When I glance back, the door behind me slams open as the number finally starts catching up, but Zane is no where to be seen. Relief tugs at me, replaced promptly by panic at the thing catching up. I take another blind turn, hoping to figure out a way to double back and hit the hangar again. I need a gun of some sort, bigger than the one in my hand. My temple sends stabbing pains up my eye. My bruised body doesn’t want to start sprinting again, but the adrenaline makes up for it. Still, I can hear it catching up. Can’t believe that stupid elevator didn’t kill it.
I take another right at what I hope is the original hallway out of the hangar, stumbling. The fact is hasn’t caught up to me gives me hope. Maybe I managed to slow it down just enough between aiming for a shot in it’s face—I never did see if I hit anything—and breaking it’s arm. I’m not sure why Captain left the bones partially original. As much as my metal frame irritates me, it’s a hell of a lot harder to break.
I slam into a familiar door, the hangar opening wide. The ensuing crash behind me as the number knocks through the door itself is only a second behind—
Zane drops out the airlock of his ship, a huge rifle in hand, and aims right past my head.
Idiot never listens.
I dive under the belly of my ship, just in time for his shot to burn past. A flash of heat spikes in my already damaged eyes. I roll to my feet with less grace than usual and stumble, trotting sideways to a stop, breathing hard and watching the aftermath of whatever weapon Zane had stashed away hitting the number.
He hit the number dead in the chest, and it lays still and silent on the hangar floor. Catching my breath, I edge over to it, nudging it’s leg with my boot. Nothing. It’s right eye is in ruins. Well, I guess I did hit it in the face. Makes sense why it was slower.
Zane stands next to me, rifle in one hand pointed to the floor.
“Good shot,” I say.
“Thanks.”
“Dumbass.”
“Uh huh.”
We exchange looks. I don’t know if he’s ever killed anyone, but he doesn’t look any more upset than he has the past few hours. I’d think cyborgs don’t count to him, but I’ve gotten over the mindset he doesn’t see us as people. He might even see this one as more human than I do.
“I hope the princesses stayed in the control room?” I ask.
“They were there. I don’t think Yvonne will risk taking Anya out of that room.”
Good. One less thing to worry about. “Any idea where the other number is?”
“We couldn’t find anything on the heat map. Lee tried to call you again.”
Did he? I touch the comm behind my ear and wince. The near dead shot to the face took out some of the wiring in my temple and down behind my ear. Feeling around, I take out the comm and flick the burned piece of metal onto the floor. By some miracle, it hasn’t seemed to damage my new ears other than a small, rough burn on the outside of one of the hearing aids. Small miracles.
“You’re bleeding quite a bit,” Zane says.
The number on the floor isn’t. But touching my fingers to my temple brings them back wet and sticky. Huh. Must’ve broken some skin around the metal in my face. The actual graze of the gunshot is burned—I’ve had them enough times to know the feeling. Once the adrenaline wears off completely, that’s probably gonna hurt like hell.
“It’ll clot up in a minute. Can you do me a favor and stay in your ship? I’m gonna go looking for the other one.”
Zane shrugs.
I glare.
“I make no promises.” He still sounds pissed.
“You just wanna fight someone, don’t you?”
Another shrug.
Unbelievable. “Ya know what, close your ship and come with me. At least I can keep an eye on you.”
Deadpan, Zane heads back to his ship, rifle over his shoulder. What a day. Hoisting myself into my own vessel, I use the comm still blinking on the control panel.
“I’m alive, but the comm in my ear is broken,” I say, and hear what sounds suspiciously like La in the background muttering damn idiot brothers.
Despite myself, I snicker. “Where are you?”
“Still in the control room,” Lalia says. “Lee and a few of his men are heading your way. Is Zane okay? He just left the control room when we weren’t looking.”
“He’s stupid, but he’s fine.” Saved my ass. Again.
“He’s not answering his comm. Tell him I’m going to murder him, will ya?”
“Happily. Bat, you there?”
“Yeah. I don’t like when you stick me with the humans.”
Anya’s voice says, “Hey!” in the background.
Better than you getting hurt. “I know. Sorry. The number Zane just demolished didn’t have a heat signature, but it did at first. I guess they can turn it off and on. Keep in the room, you have no idea where the other one is. I’m gonna try to find it.”
“That sounds like a terrible idea,” Yvonne interjects.
“Of course it is, have you met me?” I say, then cut the feed. No need to figure out her strange concern.
Leaving the airlock open feels like both a good and bad idea. Good, because it keeps other people out. Bad, because if the other number crawls in through the floor paneling, I’ll be trapped again. I leave it open.
In my bunk room, I push up my bed and yank out the oversized rifle I’ve had little reason to use. It’s about time. Firing the thing up and clipping in the ammo, I head back for the airlock, grabbing my other pistol as well, just in case. Can’t hurt to have, even it if takes a weapon that would pulverize a human to take one out.
“Zane, let’s go!” I yell, then stop dead on the hangar floor.
The number’s body is gone.
There’s no one out here, and I hadn’t heard any footsteps. My glitching eye couldn’t’ve messed with that. Barely any blood sits on the hangar floor, but there isn’t a sign of the body being moved otherwise. No other droplets, no drag marks.
It’s dead. I checked for a pulse. I don’t care how augmented it is, no breathing and no pulse means dead.
“Zane?” I ask, swirling around, cursing the dark emergency mode of the ship coupled with no heat source from the number.
He appears in the airlock of his ship. “What?”
“Where is it?”
For a moment, he just frowns, then his eyes go to the spot on the floor, and his expression goes dead. He drops down, coming to stand beside me, gripping his rifle and looking just as alarmed.
“I thought you said it was dead.”
“It had no pulse. No breath.”
“That’s not possible.”
“Yeah, I got that.”
Zane’s gun put a hole the size of my fist through the number’s chest. I wouldn’t survive that. Captain wouldn’t. No one would.
Nudging him, I whisper. “Call La. Let her know.”
Zane taps on his ear, mumbling, “The other number’s body disappeared. We don’t know where it is, be careful.”
A door cracks. I nearly jump out of my skin, but it’s just Lee sliding in with a rather impressive rifle that puts even my heavy weapon to shame. Nice.
Two men I don’t recognize are behind him, but they stay near the door, casting me nervous glances.
Lee pauses at my expression, and I wave him over. “Zane shot the big one I ran into. It was dead. But the body just disappeared.”
Lee looks like he’s about ready to throw up. “You don’t know where it is?”
“No idea. Both don’t seem to have heat signatures.”
Swearing to himself, he taps back into his own comm. “We’ve got two highly-dangerous Amerov cyborgs with no heat signatures still in the ship. Both seem to be injured but alive. Go through every single camera on the ship. I want someone to get eyes on them.”
I’m not sure who he’s calling, but there’s a garbled agreement on the other end of the comm. Doesn’t sound like Kel’s voice. Good. I wouldn’t trust her with this. And given how Lee didn’t call up his first mate with the job, I’m guessing he doesn’t trust her either.
Catching my look, he says, “Kel confirmed she called you in.”
I expected it, but heat still fills my face with rage. I take a long, deep breath, but Zane was already two seconds from snapping, and apparently that does it.
“Why the hell would she do that?”
Lee looks at him calmly, but there’s definite regret in his face. “You all are a big bounty, Aaron included. She ignored my orders.”
Zane’s eyes narrow into dark slits. I put my hand on his shoulder. “Zane, we’re keeping a level head here.”
He opens his mouth but shuts it again, looking away.
Lee says, “I should’ve just let you leave. If I’d known she’d pull something like this, I would never have asked you to stay.”
Zane shrugs out from under my hand and stomps back to his ship. I sigh. I believe Lee, but I’m not thrilled. I loop the strap of my rifle over my shoulder, sliding it onto my back and out of the way.
“Here, give me that gun and get out of here, you’ll just be in danger.”
Lee’s face makes an expression I can’t really read. It resembles sadness, but I don’t much care at the moment. I hold out my hand and he turns over the rifle better described as a miniature rocket, just as Bat said. It’s heavier than mine but not difficult for me to handle. I’ve never seen a model like this before, but a quick inventory gives me a good rundown of it. I take it apart halfway and put it back together, popping out and back in the ammo clip. Nice gun.
“Can I keep this?”
Lee rolls his eyes, though it still seems forced. “No.”
“Stick in the mud,” I grumble. “Alright, get out of here. Find a room to lock yourself in or something. I don’t trust one of them not to come after you since you were with us.”
Nodding, Lee heads for the door, still glancing back at me with a regretful expression. I try not to think on it. He doesn’t get to be regretful when it’s his first mate that got us in this jam. Sure, I believe he didn’t know, but even I knew she had a unfortunate look in her eye the minute I saw her.
With the door shut behind Lee and his men, the hangar falls utterly quiet again. I scan the open space. I’m not sure when the heat from the star will hit us, but it must be soon. Hopefully, that doesn’t cause any further problems.
Either I need to hunt those two numbers down myself, or we just need to make a run for it. They’re not in here, and stranding their ship parked across the hangar from us wouldn’t be a stretch. I need to get Bat and the girls from the control room to here, which feels like a bad plan. The only thing that feels worse is the idea that the bigger number took a rifle shot to the chest and apparently got back up and walked out of the hangar without me hearing or seeing a thing.
I glance at the silent, dark ship the numbers took here. It doesn’t show signs of having been opened recently, but I wonder if that’s where the big number retreated. I squint at it, not sure if I should poke the bee’s nest.
“Zane, let’s go,” I call, stepping carefully to his open airlock.
He holds up a finger without looking at me, talking to Lalia over the comm. I lean in, looking at their cozy little ship with the pictures taped to the walls and nicknacks fastened to the control panel. Sure is a lot more personal than mine. I’ve never been one to collect bobbles. Fits them a lot better than my ship would.
Lalia is saying something about leaving the control room, but before I can tell them that’s a terrible idea, her voice cuts off. Zane stares at the console. Glances at me.
“La?” he asks, tapping the comm button.
Softly, her voice says, “I think it found us.”
