Chapter 23

“Change of plans.” The words chafed my mouth, seeing my scheme thwarted to relieve the defenders below us. “We will all go to Main Medical to deal with the raiders going there. I suspect they want hostages now that their targets haven’t fallen.”

Our wounded companion fainted. The two men holding her up between them dragged her limp form as we began walking down the corridor. Without being told the other female crew mate took point, walking ahead of us scanning for trouble. I stayed in the rear, covering the ladder with my carbine as I walked backwards.

We made it down the length of the corridor and almost through a bulkhead door before I saw figures following us. Our little run in at the ladder had attracted the attentions of raiders that had been attacking Life Support. At least five men were swinging guns side-to-side in anticipation of an ambush. They saw us and dropped to their knees to fire; however, we quickened our step and shuffled around the corner of an intersection. A few more minutes and we would have made it to an elevator that opened up in front of Medical. Now, we had to stay out of their line of sight, taking side corridors that moved us away from our destination. The side corridors were narrower and shorter than the main corridors, so it was likely we could keep walls between us and those pursuing us.

“Go, Go, Go,” I ordered, pointing at the next intersection. “Hustle around the next corner before they get the courage to race after us.”

Blinking my eyes closed and walking backwards with my carbine leveled was a new feat for me. For a few moments, I focused my attention on implant information. Miley updated the raiders’ movements on a map behind my eyes. Engineering was still under assault, but all the other raiders were moving towards the bow. A group of eight was tailing us and another group was on the same level as Medical. I felt concerned about how effective a group of unarmed crewmen would hold up against the armed intruders. A few of the women I sent to defend Medical only had pistols. Having Nehring there helped me keep my composure, but he was unarmored too, having had his chest vest damaged.

Hearing combat boots slowly trampling up towards the corner we just darted away from, I shouted, “Here they come.”

Our female scout sensing the new urgency to find cover grabbed our wounded teammate’s feet and added her muscle to moving the dead weight. With three people carrying the woman we made it into a maintenance tunnel before they saw us. I stopped them and cut off the bloody bandage for my purposes.

“This tunnel comes out on the port side of the ship. Take her around the bend and put a fresh bandage on her before you go looking for an elevator to Medical,” I instructed.

One of the men flipped his visor up. “It sounds like you’re not coming with us.”

“No,” I answered. “If the pirates just focused on me, then they wouldn’t think to put an ear at the maintenance tunnel. Make your escape, I have to go.”

Not having any time for arguments or a debate on my sanity, I rush out of the tunnel and down the corridor, away from the hostiles. Leaving the relative safety of the tunnel behind didn’t bother me, I planned on running like a rabbit. “Hopefully, a few bloody clues will add to their excitement,” I thought.

Dashing across the corridor, I painted a bloody palm print on the next bulkhead door frame. The narrow corridor was shorter than I remembered, it ended in a “Y” intersection. The left passage offered only my death, a choice to make a stand at the small damage control station or hide in a large locker with emergency suits and gear. The right passage provided two choices too, either a ladder that only went up three floors or a squeezing, struggling path through an energy collector array that was not quite the width of my shoulders. The machinery and batteries consumed what would have been a narrow but clear corridor; it wasn’t intended to be a passageway anymore. If they pressed forward and I choose the ladder and was caught half-way up, I’d be a dead man. There would be no reason for them not to shoot me.

Two bolts of energy hit the wall, certainly rushed shots. I ducked right, stopped and knelt. It seemed my bloody wrap was not really needed, they had followed me so I dropped it. After a quick counting to ten, I shoved my shoulder and carbine around the corner, snapping off a shot on their rushing scout. The energy charge hit, destroying the man’s weakly armored knee. He lost his carbine, which was cast forward; and, it slid into the junction, only a few feet from me. “No way can I get the gun and live,” I thought.

The moment I ducked back into cover another two shots grazed my wall. I had counted on them believing I was our group’s rear guard, luring them into an ambush. If they truly thought I was alone and they were bravely determined, they might rush me. With no need to wait for my carbine to recharge, I ran. No doubt my shot would lure them closer for revenge, once they mustered the courage. With the weapon in my hand, I worked myself into the tight gap between the equipment, and then started to wiggle between monitors, test devices and auxiliary panels of the energy array.

Every foot I squeezed further through the energy collector array, I wondered if I’d over thought my escape. Price was a clever foe. He would have given his raiders the internal map of the Entous, which I had counted on. Only because Rayz and I had checked every suit locker on the ship did I know the map the Entous crew used was wrong. The internal map showed the “Y” corridor as a dead end. The ship designers didn’t want people squeezing through tight passages with dangerous capacitors, batteries and high-powered conduits. Theoretically, under the right conditions, an untrained person with a power source could trigger a shockingly powerful explosion by accident. Even worse, energy discharges from weapons could create a polarizing harmonic disruption that would collapse the containment fields on this equipment. Any able body crewman knew the basics about the dangers of energy discharges around capacitors. It was planet dwelling visitors or passengers that spacers feared would do something stupid to damage their ship, thus a reason for restricted areas and weapon lockups for such guests. “Potentially, I am risking my life on the pirates’ shipboard safety training,” I thought.

My life was in the balance, depending on my enemy’s cognitive connection to common sense around dangerous equipment and how I should be feeling. Knowing you had a foe cornered created a dangerous encounter. The cornered rat was more likely to make you pay a nasty price than whimper in a corner, waiting for capture. I hoped my conviction in human nature worked out. Hopefully, the pirates would be very tentative in their approach of my corner. “Who wants to waste their life to a gun toting crewman, who certainly would get the first shot off when they rushed around the corner of the dead end?” I thought, trying to boost my confidence in my actions. “Just a few more feet to go.”

The minutes ticked off as I wiggled and squirmed. The oppressive walls of liquidarmor screeched as my armored vest rubbed up against it, time after time.

Finally, they came.

“Stop,” a raider shouted in a synthetic voice, projected by the helmet’s speaker. “We promise you’ll live if you surrender.”

Another raider aimed his carbine at me.

I struggled another foot closer to my exit, keeping my eyes and carbine on them. It was equal folly for me to fire and they knew it. “Desperate or revengeful men take wicked chances,” I thought. “A lucky shot might kill me and not set off an explosion. A wounded man may fire in return, perhaps with not so true of aim.”

The person speaking lifted her visor and set a hand on her partner’s weapon, pushing it down. A complicated mix of frustration and calculation played over the woman’s face as I lowered my carbine. I had shut them off from their vengeance for the harm I’d committed on their friends. With the high emotions involved I hadn’t been so sure the fullness of their malevolent purpose could be contained; yet, the urgency of their chase melted away. Thankfully, she seemed in charge and she was no fool to discharge an energy weapon down the length of an energy collection array.

The other raider flipped up his visor too. He was focused and carried his carbine confidently. I could see his excitement bubbling, nervous energy hidden from inexperienced eyes. A thumb tapping his weapon, the regular wiggle of a boot gave him away.

Never having stopped my squirming, I exited on the other side of the gathering and containment equipment. My eyes never once left their leader’s face.

With no shame for running nor gratitude for their good sense, I said, “We will meet again and we will resolve our differences then.”

I didn’t know what reaction I would receive for my parting words, but to my surprise the woman saluted me. “Oh, you will make a worthy prisoner. I’ll be claiming you when this is over. You’ll look good on my leash at home.”

I ducked around the corner to catch my breath from my sweaty exertions. The pirates laughed at the woman’s words. She was a clever leader to save face and bring humor to their situation. “They see me as a rabbit running away with no real teeth, but I am a wolf with no fear of them,” I thought. The terrible tension in my neck and shoulders eased. I sighed, trying to relax in the moment with a brief breathing exercise. Leaning back against the wall, I let air circulate around my head from an environmental control handler, which began to blow.

After a minute of arguing, the raiders melted out of my hearing range. I ran to the nearest ladder that would drop me to the level below. It was easier for me to think after I put some distance between me and those that had hunted me. My PDA beeped with another of Miley’s updates, so I clipped my carbine to my chest hook. I closed my eyes and Miley’s updated map appeared, the raiders that had hunted me had switched strategies and were now climbing ladders that took them to the officers residential level, close to the Bridge. Other raiders were still assaulting Engineering unsuccessfully. The foes around our Main Medical were the threat I feared. My neck muscles tensed again because I had a hard time controlling my imagination about the fighting there.

I climbed down the ladder to the next level of the ship and ran the length of the empty corridor to the next ladder tube, which would allow me access to Medical. I saw some motion in an open doorway and sidestepped, drawing my boarding sword. An intruder stepped out and swung at me with his curved sword. A quick clash of blades followed. The blades held fast as I pushed forward into the body of the man. He was unbalanced and unprepared for my counter move, and then with all my strength I shoved him back into the wall. His helmet bounced on the wall, stunning him long enough for me to cut his left arm.

With his unhurt sword arm the broad shouldered but short man thrust at me. I parried with no difficulty and nicked his wounded arm again. The raider fought bravely, slashing and parrying, but his defense couldn’t last. Taking no risks of a lucky hit, I methodically maneuvered him around the corridor into a corner. He had a number of burn marks on his armor and I realized he had no carbine or pistol. Trapping the man, I worked him over with powerful thrusts and slashes of my blade until he mistakenly gave me an opening. I killed him and left the scene without another thought.

Six steps from my conflict I arrived at the ladder tube. The tussles I had on Haven had taught me the consequences of losing my head. Focus and awareness were the keys to survival when your life is threatened and sometimes boldness is required too. Luck seemed to be the other factor in my success. Throughout my fights on the ship, I had a growing awareness that my sixth sense was sharper than it had ever been. It was as if my subconscious had known a man was in that doorway before my logical mind. Again, I sensed danger, but I had to sheathe my sword to slide down the ladder. My gloved hands and armored knee pads absorbed the friction as my body fell in a controlled fashion.

Appalling noise grated my ears as I slid to the bottom of the ladder tube. Only as I hit the ground did I realize the noise had turned into the the voice of a woman in her death throes. I immediately drew my sword and nanoblade. I peeked around the corridor’s wall and saw a raider twisting a knife into an unarmed woman. Another muted scream from a man, out of my sight, confirmed my arrival at a scene of violence. Inexplicably, my muscles froze as I observed the raider killing the woman. He had lifted the young woman off her feet with a hand around her neck and a knife in her belly. Her arm was limp from a horrific laser wound. At her feet was her carbine with the familiar recharging hum. The man’s visor was up and he was whispering to his victim. Totally intent on enjoying her passing, he did not see me. In the surreal moment, I understood what she had done, since I had done it earlier. Her carbine’s capacitor chamber was open.

Her selfless act exploded at their feet, blowing me back into the ladder tube. The conflagration rolled like thunder that slowly faded. Acrid smoke made my eyes water, as I struggled to my feet and came upon the gruesome bodies. The smell of burnt human flesh wafted about me. I touched a spot of blood on my cheek with the back of my hand, but the cut didn’t hurt. “Peace to you. What a brave soul,” I thought.

Another laser bolt flashed around the corner of the corridor and I ran towards it with sadness and rage. Here and there black burns marked the walls towards Medical. In the corridor was a litter of bodies, both armored and unarmored. I recognized a number of the dead crew; they were the three women from the food service area that I had sent to defend Medical. Beyond the bulkhead door, which was blasted open, a raider was exchanging fire with an unseen crewman. This side of the bulkhead and just in front of me, two raiders were sword fighting someone in a doorway. One of the intruders saw me out of the corner of his eye. He turned my blade enough to deflect its blow off his shoulder armor rather than take the hit on his clavicle, which would have crippled him.

The raider swore a foul oath and pummeled me with gloved hands. I realized he had dropped his sword, so I stabbed my nanoblade under his vest to gut him. My rage lifted him off the ground for a moment as the blade traveled to his heart. The anger in his eyes crested and a wave of surprise followed. The raider faltered and fell against my body, still not believing his end had come. I pushed him away, stepped aside and gave him another killing stroke before his body hit the floor. I looked to Nehring, who stood over the limp form of his opponent. Somehow I wasn’t surprised it was my self-appointed bodyguard. He had a number of cuts that looked painful, and his skinsuit’s left arm was scorched from a near miss from an energy weapon.

I stepped alongside him, into the compartment he was defending, the door at the back of the room was open, which led to another corridor. The compartment was a lab full of expensive equipment.

“Good timing, Lord Wolf,” Nehring breathed, hardly able to contain himself.