Tklth held herself
tightly pressed against the walls of the overhead crawlspace. Her shape was obscured by a ventilator
grating, which provided just enough visibility to observe the hallway
below. Her legs ached terribly. Her toe-claws threatened to pull loose from
their beds. Only the determination and
patience of her predatory heritage enabled the waiting Vislin to silently
maintain her position. This task was
made more difficult by the need to keep one hand on the plasma thrower she had
retrieved on her way from the bridge.
It
was almost time to act. Against a single
target, possibly even two, her plan had a very high probability of
success. Three Ningyo of unknown skill
and armament posed a challenge. The
cramped conditions worked in her favor.
If she attacked from the rear of their formation, the lead Ningyo would
be blocked from responding right away.
Luuboh would probably flee. That
would at least provide a distraction. If
the pathetic Mauraug took unexpected initiative and engaged the lead Ningyo, its
assistance would greatly improve Tklth’s chances. She couldn’t count on help, though. Only her own cunning and reflexes could be
trusted.
Planning
was stupid. The captain and first mate
and that chattering half computer atrocity could talk all day and accomplish
nothing. They needed the sharp beak of a
Vislin to cut through tangled plots. The
occupying Ningyo must be removed, otherwise every step they dictated would wrap
the Scape Grace tighter into their
snare.
The
necessary moment of tension passed, and Tklth leapt into action with a surge of
joyous relief. She fired directly through
the vent cover, targeting the rearmost of the Ningyo. A bolt of superheated matter, plasma conducted
by a carrier of ‘cooler’ gas, flashed from the muzzle of her thrower and
through the Ningyo’s suit. Familiar with
the vulnerability of that species, Tklth had targeted the suit’s
midsection. The bolt punched a clean,
glowing hole through the center mass of the Ningyo suit, breaking its
integrity. The living creature resident
within was explosively decompressed. It
expanded grotesquely through the breach before bursting in a multi-toned
greyish mess over the walls and floor of the hallway.
Tklth
did not wait to see the reaction to her fatal shot. She released her grip on the crawlspace walls
and dropped heavily downward, bending and breaking through the vent grating as
she fell. She landed hard on the floor
of the hallway. The well-prepared Vislin
was already running forward as she hit the ground. She cleared the short space to the next
Ningyo in two hops.
As she did, she
registered the identity of her second target.
It was the Ningyo captain, Jolly, the one they had seen on the view
screen earlier. Perfect. Perhaps the last of the three boarders would
hesitate or even surrender if she took their leader hostage. Tklth also noted that, as she had expected,
Luuboh was running away from danger.
That was just as well. If the Mauraug
could not help, it could at least get out of harm’s way. Tklth would normally have no concern about
accidentally incinerating her pack’s omega, but the captain might be unhappy to
lose his cook.
The plasma thrower’s
greatest flaw was the recharge time it required to heat up between shots. That was a tradeoff for its excellent
penetrative force. Really, in a ranged
combat, two seconds’ wait was well worth being able to fire through cover. Here, though, it meant that Tklth had to get
cover for herself before she could fire a second time. There were no openings to either side. That meant her cover was her target.
Tklth jumped and
grappled Jolly, hooking one fore claw into its neck joint and the other into
the wrist of its right arm. The plasma thrower
was trapped between them, hanging from a strap around Tklth’s neck. Her toes anchored her to the rubberized
decking. The material was slick with the
remains of the dead Ningyo but was engineered to provide grip even if coated in
silicone lubricants. The Ningyo were
comprised of similar substances, though somewhat more volatile. Tklth’s bare feet itched where the ichor had
smeared.
Her pin
prevented Jolly from reaching the weapon strapped to its back. It was also prevented from turning in place
to present Tklth as a clearer target for its ally. It struggled, but the mechanisms of the
Ningyo suits were built for Human scale and strength. Against a well-trained and well-exercised
Vislin, such constructs were unable to break free. This particular victim didn’t even seem
combat trained. It writhed
ineffectually, wasting time and effort by pushing in directions Tklth was
already resisting. It did not even try
the most basic techniques for evading a claw hold… not that those would
succeed, either. Tklth was ready to
react to most evasive strategies.
The main problem was
that she had to keep holding the Ningyo or release it to fire again. Against a less armored victim, Tklth would
have just kicked out its entrails and moved on to shoot the third target. Ningyo were entirely unsatisfying to claw or
bite: not only hard-shelled but unpalatable inside. Those fluids were really starting to sting her feet now. She would have to wash down thoroughly after
this slaughter.
In reaction to
Tklth’s appearance, the black-masked Ningyo had originally drawn its gun. Now, unable to fire without hitting its
fellow, it smoothly holstered that weapon and drew its baton. Depressing a stud set into the device’s
handle, the Ningyo caused the black cylinder to hum loudly. The air around its upper portion began to
shimmer and arcs of electrical discharge ran its length.
A stun baton of some
type. That was clever. Tklth recognized that the device would wreak
havoc on the nervous systems of most organic life. Whether it would affect a Ningyo inside its
suit was an open question. She could
withstand one or two blows from such a weapon but would weaken greatly with
each hit. There were two questions:
would this Ningyo get a chance to land any such attacks? And if it did, would the stun baton harm
another Ningyo as much as a Vislin?
Tklth decided to test
both hanging questions. Planting her
rear foot, she shoved hard against the captive Jolly, sending them both flying
toward the armed Ningyo. That target
stepped backward, belatedly, and was clipped by its leader’s body. Unfortunately for Tklth, it proved to be a
far more skilled warrior than Jolly. It
kept the stun baton raised and away, avoiding collision with the other
Ningyo. Then, letting both Jolly and
Tklth fall flat, it took advantage of the opening to strike down against the
Vislin’s back.
Tklth was hit
squarely at the base of her spine, at the junction of her tail. The pain was unbelievable. Her bowels and ovipositors clenched in
spasmodic agony and her tail lashed hard enough to tear its joining
ligaments. Her fingers flexed and claws
released the suit of the Ningyo beneath her.
Even her beak clacked spasmodically and her breath came in tortured
gasps.
Tklth summoned enough
composure to roll away from the horrible baton.
She came to her feet, weak and shaking, on the opposite side of the
hall, diagonally across from her attacker.
The prone body of Jolly lay on its back between them. Wary now, Tklth circled around, reaching for
her own weapon. The Ningyo gave her
little time to aim. It jumped forward,
swinging the baton in a diagonal arc toward Tklth’s forearms, forcing her to
pull away. The blow missed but prevented
her from lining up a shot.
The same was not true
for Jolly. On its back, the Ningyo
captain had gained all the time it needed to recover, retrieve its spatial fold
projector and aim at Tklth. When she
jumped back, Jolly gained enough space to fire safely and avoid catching its
own ally in the field.
With a warbling
shriek, the field was engaged. A
spherical region centered slightly behind Tklth turned chaotic, swirling in a moiré
pattern of darkness and light. Vacuum
and pressure warred with one another as multiple volumes of space were
relocated to other positions within the same field. Along with them traveled their occupying
matter. This happened to include
sections of Tklth’s back, tail, and rear leg.
Chunks of Vislin dropped to the floor several centimeters behind their
previous positions. Their formerly
attached organism lost its support, not only from the loss of two appendages
but also from having the lower section of its spinal cord removed.
Tklth fell to the
ground, screaming in horrified anguish.
Her vision blurred as her perceptions narrowed to the sole awareness of
burning, stinging, wracking pain from her back.
She was at least spared the additional torment of her lost tail and leg,
as she could feel nothing from below her tail juncture.
Faintly, she heard
Jolly’s voice as shock set in.
“Hold. The threat is gone. No need for more suffering.” Then blood loss completed the process and
sent Tklth into painless unconsciousness.
****************************************************************************************
On
the bridge, the first indication of any problem was a hazard alarm lighting up
on Soloth’s panel: high heat and smoke detected. The actual sound of Tklth’s weapon discharge
had been muffled by many layers of vibration-dampening material. Her initial shot had barely registered on
their ears, no louder than a buckle scraping against a bulkhead in the same
room.
Luuboh’s voice came
unexpectedly over the bridge comms.
Indicators showed that it was sending over the emergency line from the
shuttle deck.
“Problem
in mid-engineering. Tklth attacked the
Ningyo.”
The
air in the bridge colored with a palette of curses as Evgeny, Soloth, and
Gleamer reacted similarly to the news in their respective native tongues. Evgeny rose from his command console
immediately but had to wait for Soloth to storm past toward the door.
“Hold
the bridge,” Soloth insisted, holding a hand up to stay Evgeny’s movement. “If the Ningyo come seeking reprisal, you
will need to lock them out of ship functions from here.”
It
was sound advice, though it sounded more like orders. Evgeny grimaced but nodded in agreement. “Go.
If they’re on the move, collect crew to help you hold the line. If they’re stationary, hold off anyone who
might go charging in and make things worse.”
His own orders sounded like simple statements of common sense. Leadership lately seemed more and more like choosing
the least stupid options out of a range of bad choices.
As
Soloth exited, the open door admitted sound transferred through
atmosphere. The distant shriek of the
Ningyo weapon discharge confirmed that a firefight was taking place.
Gleamer
had not even bothered to rise. Instead,
he had turned back to his instruments. A
schematic of the Scape Grace showed
on one panel of his view screen. Moving
dots showed mobile, living objects as identified by infrared sensors scattered
throughout the ship. Gleamer tripped
several controls and cut off several of the dots.
“I’ve
locked down quarters, Gene,” he called back informally. “The roughnecks won’t be getting underfoot
above-decks.”
“All
the little furry gods…! I told you never to override the blast door
controls!” Evgeny was furious now. Was nobody on this ship actually under his
command? All it took was one definite
crisis and everyone sailed off on their own self-appointed courses. He would have some serious social engineering
to do once they were done dealing with the Ningyo. How many crew could you threaten simultaneously and still have those threats
remain credible?
At
least in this case, Gleamer’s disobedience was proving useful. Soloth, as well, had acted in a reasonable if
brusque manner. Ticklish, though… Evgeny
was starting to understand the reasons the Great Family had shunned her as
mentally unstable. She had heard exactly
what she wanted to hear – remove the threat – and acted impulsively and
violently. It wasn’t just her panic
reaction that was aggressive. She was
almost a caricature of the worst stereotypes of Vislin.
Maybe
it was Evgeny’s own fault that he found uses for such instability. A criminal enterprise was at best a balance
of extreme forces. Stable, obedient
people did not steal starships or raid mining bases. They did not kill sapients for their
belongings or extort colonial governments out of their savings. Granted, a great many unstable people were
hiding out there pretending they were well-adjusted and doing all those things
anyway. Perhaps pirates were just more
honest about their inability to accept civilized, Collective society.
While
these thoughts simmered, Evgeny kept busy monitoring everyone else’s
activity. From a mirror of Gleamer’s
readouts, he watched the movement of figures around the ship. There seemed to be two dots – Soloth and Luuboh?
– closing on two others moving in the hallway connecting the mid-engineering
decks. Two other mobiles were staying
within Engineering: probably NuRikPo’s people, Burnett and Zenaida. The dozen dots crowded around the blast door
separating general quarters from the rest of the ship were the boarding crew,
the rank and file who handled less technical operations off-ship.
To
that mob, Evgeny directed his next ‘comm message: “Scape Grace crew, this is captain Lerner. You have heard indications of a problem on
board. Hold your positions. First mate Soloth is checking on the
situation. If it requires your
assistance, you will be notified. If it
does not require your assistance, do not put yourself in harm’s way.” He had meant the last phrase to contain an
implied threat. It came out sounding
like parental caution. Maybe it really was necessary to sound like a sneering
brute to be taken seriously as a pirate captain… even by himself.
****************************************************************************************
Soloth
found Luuboh waiting at the exit from the fore ladder. It had already prepared for trouble,
scrounging up two magnetic flechette throwers from a lower deck weapons
cache. The slightly bulky handguns could
cause considerable surface damage to either Vislin hide or Ningyo armor,
without the risk of fires from an energy weapon or hull breaches from a more
penetrative payload. Tklth, among other
misjudgments, had grossly overreached by using plasma inside the ship. She was fortunate that the beam had burned
out before puncturing the outer hull, igniting something reactive… or catching somebody
on a lower deck in the line of fire.
Soloth took one of
the guns and gestured for Luuboh to follow.
Soloth did not wait for the other Mauraug’s slower pace but instead
jogged out of the fore section. Visible
in the hallway ahead was one standing Ningyo and three bodies.
The one standing,
Punch, drew its pistol with its free hand and kept its baton ready in the
other. One of the downed Ningyo rose
from the floor, evidently not badly damaged.
Soloth recognized their leader, Jolly.
Its armor was scratched deeply in several places but did not appear
functionally damaged.
Soloth risked not
sighting on the armed Ningyo immediately.
Instead, it toggled open a side door to a storage room and gave itself
partial cover in case Punch fired first.
That Ningyo did aim toward
Soloth. When the lead Mauraug stepped
aside, Luuboh was left in the line of sight.
The second Mauraug kept its hands down but did not attempt to dodge
aside.
Risking exposure,
Soloth stuck its head out and called, “The Vislin was acting alone! If you lower your weapons we will drop
ours. We intend to honor the original
agreement.”
Jolly’s voice came
back as it stood and turned to face Soloth.
“Comus is dead. Your crew member
is dying. I will let you recover her if
you do drop your weapons. Don’t delay;
she has only seconds.”
Luuboh immediately
dropped its gun and scrambled to kneel by Tklth’s mutilated body. Soloth might not have trusted the Ningyo, but
when they did not execute Luuboh immediately, it felt safer about taking a
risk. Still covered by the side wall, it
lowered its own gun to the floor and set it down carefully.
Luuboh called out,
“She’s lost her tail and a leg. I can’t
stop the bleeding by hand. We need a
cautery bandage and Vislin-specific circulatory synthetics. Help me lift her? Between the two of us we might make it to
meds in time.”
Emerging
and walking forward slowly, Soloth watched the two Ningyo warily. “She killed one of you. Why is she still alive? Why are you allowing us to help her?”
“Comus was my friend.” Despite the synthetically cheery tenor of its
‘voice’, Jolly’s rapid, terse delivery betrayed its distress.
Soloth put pressure
on the major circulatory vessels in Tklth’s back as it helped Luuboh hoist the
Vislin into a level carry. Without a
quarter of her mass, Tklth was light enough for either of the Mauraug to lift
easily, but they wanted to transport her without causing further damage. They began to move toward the freight lift
behind engineering, in order to bring Tklth to medical as gently as possible. Magenta fluids dripped between Soloth’s
fingers to spatter on the rubberized flooring, leaving a trail as they walked.
Punch followed close
behind, still armed but no longer actively aiming the pistol at either Mauraug. Jolly had slung its own space fold projector
onto its back and picked up Comus’ weapon as well. It held the second projector loosely, also
not threatening.
In genuine confusion,
Soloth finally replied, “If it was your friend, wouldn’t you want her dead even
more?”
“Dead is ended… no
more learning, no more suffering. Comus
believed in sapients understanding one another.
He wanted to learn more about other cultures and to teach about our
beliefs. I hope she lives. She owes a debt. If she wishes, she may pay it in
suffering. She may also choose to learn
something from the experience. I would
like to learn, myself, why she chose to attack the three of us, alone.”
“She was deranged,”
Luuboh grunted, a surprisingly unkind sentiment, particularly when coming from
the often similarly accused Mauraug.
“Perhaps, but not so mentally
damaged as to be shunned from your company,” Jolly rebutted. Its cadence was returning to the format of
its former conversations.
Soloth admitted, “It’s
no secret that we want you gone, dead if necessary. Tklth just couldn’t restrain herself any
longer.” Soloth’s candor would have made
Evgeny cringe. Even Luuboh was somewhat
taken aback. There were different
strains of opinion about the relationship between deception and Dominion. Soloth evidently held the attitude that
falsehood was a sign of weakness. Luuboh
itself was uncomfortable with its own various deceits, but it was equally
uncomfortable directly stating a threat to an enemy’s face.
Jolly delayed its
response until they reached the lift platform.
It waited at the edge and watched Soloth and Luuboh enter the enclosed
cage. Punch made a move to join them,
but Jolly held it back with a raised hand.
Instead, it looked at the two Mauraug.
“Go, tend to your
murderous pack mate. We will go to the
bridge as intended. You may not want us
here, but we want to be here… and we need
one another. Comus would have explained
better. I will have to do my best in his
stead… as my penance for his death.”
With that cryptic
closing, Jolly turned and walked away.
Punch followed after a moment’s pause to stare at the Mauraug.
Soloth was not well
pleased to leave the Ningyo free to traverse the ship, particularly not with
them heading toward the bridge, but it had few options. Soloth resolved to get Tklth’s body to
medical and leave it there with Luuboh.
If their multi-talented servant could not save the patient, then so be
it. Either way, Soloth would be free to
return quickly and deal with any trouble starting above decks.
It was tempted to just
leave Tklth to die, but Jolly was right about one thing: the Vislin deserved to
live and suffer for her idiocy. After
this much trouble, she would owe her life to her ‘pack’, not to mention being
indebted for any prostheses they could cobble together. From that day forward, Tklth would be working
without shares just to pay off her debt.
From what Soloth knew of Tklth, she was the type of Vislin that would
honor such an obligation. She could
become useful again… hopefully, worth the investment.
Luuboh nudged the
lift controls with its elbow and the platform descended toward the second lower
deck, the level containing Katy Olu’s work space. With no medic on board, Tklth was guaranteed
a chancy and painful triage. At best,
her recovery would be slow and demeaning.
Right at that moment,
even her ‘pack mates’ felt she deserved that fate.
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