Chapter 22

Kat was almost back to the bridge when a pair of armored men came out of a side passage and spotted her. Their weapons snapped up, pointing directly at her and one of the men lunged forward, grabbing her arm and shoving her against the wall.

"What the hell are you doing out here? All passengers were ordered to the dining area." His voice was rough and filled with contempt.

Kat looked him defiantly in the eye. "I am a paying passenger and not some crew member that can be ordered around. I want to speak to the Captain right this moment. I warn you, I will lodge a complaint against the shipping line if this nonsense does not cease this very instant. And unhand me! Who do you think..."

She saw the blow coming and had to force herself to ignore it. The armed and armored man backhanded her across the face, snapping her head back into the bulkhead and making her see stars.

"Shut your face, woman! We are in charge here and if you do not follow orders, I will shoot you and toss your worthless body out the nearest airlock." He spun Kat around and grasped the back of her collar, yanking up so hard on the fabric that her toes would barely reach the ground. He marched her down the corridor and into the dining area, tossing her negligently at a group of huddled passengers.

"Found this one on storming down the passageway, on her way to file a complaint with the Captain." he said to the men guarding the passengers. There was a snort of laughter from a couple of them and sounds of disgust from others.

Kat huddled on the floor, curled into a ball and pretending to be terrified. Inside she was seething. She would give a year's pay for a chance to show that bastard what it meant to be manhandled, but her best defense right now was invisibility. After the men who had captured her left the room and the other guards went back to standing in front of the exits, Kat slowly sat up and raised a hand to her jaw.

She had gotten harder blows in training, but she had been wearing protective gear and the Chief had been wearing gloves. The military grade armor the goons were wearing extended to the backs of the hands and that hardened ceramic plate had loosened a couple of her teeth. The jaw wasn't broken, but it would be sore for a while and the bruise it was sure to have left would be a sight to see.

One of the other passengers, a matronly woman past her prime, knelt down next to Kat and offered her a handkerchief. "You are bleeding! Are you all right? Should I ask for the ship's Doctor?"

Kat shook her head and tried to smile at the woman. "It's ok, just a busted lip. I'll be okay and I don't want to cause any more trouble."

The woman didn't look convinced, but it was also obvious that she didn't really want to interact with their captors either. She motioned to her companion, a man who was probably her husband, to help Kat stand.

Kat took a minute to look around the room. The ship could carry two hundred and fifty paying passengers and it looked like the roster was just about full. There were two men on each of the three exits, one in light armor and one in heavy armor. There were two more men roaming the room, glaring at anyone with the temerity to meet their gaze. It looked like they were trying to keep the prisoners cowed to prevent any of them from getting the idea to resist.

She found a spot near the bulkhead, as far from the guards as she could be. She wanted to keep an eye on what was happening and, at the same time, avoid interacting with them if at all possible. She leaned against the wall and waited.

A half hour passed before anything changed. People had started to relax, as much as it was possible to do so when armed men were holding your prisoner. Some had seated themselves at tables and other huddled in little groups. A commotion on the far side of the room drew Kat's attention and she could see an eddy in the crowd.

There was a loud tone from the ship's sound system, causing everyone in the room to stop what they were doing. In the unnatural silence, the voice that spoke rang out clearly.

"Everyone will line up into two columns. One column facing each of the two men you see holding up rifles. There will be no talking, no moving around. You will each step forward and give your name and your home system to the man with the rifle at the head of your line. If you disobey, you will be shot. If you lie, you will be shot."

"Now see here, you!" A voice broke in from somewhere across the room. The speaker sounded like an elderly man and the frustration in his voice was evident. "What is going on here and why are we being treated like criminals?" His tremulous voice got louder at the end, almost a shout. There was a buzz from the rest of the passengers, most agreeing with the man but a few sounding scared.

The supersonic crack of a rifle being fired was thunderous in the large room. The sound proofing was insufficient to dampen the sheer volume of a military grade rifle being fired in an enclosed space. There was a moment of shocked silence and then a woman screamed, opening the flood gates for a dozen more. There was hysteria in the section where the voice had originated.

"SILENCE!" The voice over the loudspeakers roared. "SILENCE! The next person to speak out of turn will be shot!"

Silence spread swiftly, broken only by the muffled sobs of a woman. The voice, back at a normal volume, ordered a pair of the guards to dispose of the body and Kat could see two men move into the crowd. The passengers melted away from the guards and through the newly created clear space, Kat could clearly see that the shot had taken an older man in the chest, sending a spray of blood, bone and tissue across a dozen other passengers.

Kneeling in the pool of blood, over the body of the dead man, was an equally elderly woman whose face was buried in her hands and whose slight frame shook with sobs. She had been wearing a cream-colored dress that was now splattered liberally with crimson.