by R S Penney
She ran at full speed, ignoring the strain of pushing a Bending forward. Her skin was tingling, but she could deal with that.
Melissa was at her side, using a Bending of her own to redirect incoming fire into the opposite wall. By the time they were finished, this entire hallway would be nothing but bullet holes and shattered light fixtures.
Anna jumped over the fallen men.
She landed and then dropped to her knees, bending over backwards until she was almost flat against the floor. Her Bending vanished as she slid over the tiles, revealing a man who stood with his assault rifle pointed up the corridor, firing a stream of slugs into the distance.
Anna slid to a stop in front of him.
Slapping her hands against the floor tiles – her pistol beneath one palm – she lifted herself and brought her feet up to strike the underside of his rifle. The weapon tumbled over the shocked officer's head, and he backed away.
Anna rose into a handstand, then flipped upright and raised one arm to point her gun at the retreating man. He stumbled, reaching for his sidearm, but a stun-round hit the soft skin of his neck before he could draw it.
The man began to spasm.
Melissa flew with her arms spread wide and her legs curled up, propelled by Bent Gravity as bullets zipped past beneath her. She kicked the other security officer square in his face, and he fell backward.
That left only the fifth man.
He was a few feet away, readjusting his aim to point his weapon at Melissa.
Anna seized the trembling man in front of her before he could fall to his knees. She flung the stunned guard at his companion, Keeper strength making it feel almost as easy as hurling a rag-doll across a room.
The two men collided, and they both fell to the corridor floor, landing one atop the other. The one who was still awake let out a wheeze of pain, but he was trapped beneath the weight of his companion.
“There are more!” Keli shouted from behind.
Anna tossed aside her pistol.
She dove, her hands coming down on the fallen rifle before she somersaulted over the floor tiles. Anna came up on one knee, and when she stood up, she had a much more powerful weapon at her disposal.
A woman in black tactical gear came around the corner, her eyes widening behind the visor of her helmet as she caught a glimpse of the scene.
Anna fired.
Bullets hit the female officer's belly – deflected by her heavy body armour – and she stumbled backward into the adjoining corridor. No time to waste. If she gave them a moment to regroup, they would swarm her.
Anna ran right into the fray. She jumped and flew across the intersection, kicking out to strike the corridor wall with her foot.
Turning in midair, Anna found the dazed woman standing near the corner of the intersection, trying to raise her weapon while several more officers trotted up behind her. Anna flung her rifle.
The stock hit the female officer's helmet, knocking her sideways into the corridor wall. It wouldn't kill her. Not with a helmet to protect her.
Anna landed.
A Time Bubble formed around her in the instant when two men who stood further up the corridor lifted their rifles and fired. Bullets spiraled slowly through the air, inching their way toward her.
Anna stepped out of their path, positioning herself in front of the female officer who was leaning against the corridor wall, just beyond the surface of her bubble. The woman looked as if she might fall over.
The bubble vanished.
Anna grabbed the stumbling woman's vest and turned her slightly, using her as a human shield. Bullets hit the woman's back, but unless her fellow officers switched to high-impact rounds, she would be fine. Bruised but fine.
Anna pushed her captive backward up the corridor, using the other woman's armour to deflect the incoming gunfire. In mere moments, the other security guards clued in and stopped shooting.
Anna gave a shove.
The female officer staggered backward until she slammed into the pair of men and threw them both off-balance. One recovered quickly, pushing his companion aside with obvious disdain and then trying to take aim with his rifle.
It was then that Melissa came around the corner.
The girl was a blur, becoming a streak of colour for less than half a second before solidifying to stand with her arm outstretched, the pistol pointed at her enemies. She fired and then blurred again.
A stun-round hit the officer who was lifting his rifle. He spasmed before he could get the weapon pointed at Anna and sank to his knees. The other two were still out of it, still trying to get their bearings.
The streak that was Melissa resolved into a woman who stood with her pistol in both hands, taking aim. She fired once, adjusted her aim and fired again. One bullet hit the female officer's neck, and before she even lost her balance, another one hit her male companion. They both fell flat on their faces.
Melissa hunched over, touching three fingers to her forehead. “Oh…” she groaned. “I wasn't expecting it to hit me that hard.”
Squeezing her eyes shut, Anna tilted her head back. “Easy there, Melissa,” she said. “What did we tell you about pushing your symbiont too hard?”
Her own skin was tingling, and some of those little pinpricks stung with fiery heat. For the moment, she was all right, but if she pushed Seth much further she would hit her limit. They had to find the cargo bay. Now.
“I'm all right,” Melissa mumbled.
“You need rest.”
“I can rest after we-”
Clap…Clap…Clap…
Maybe thirty paces up the corridor, another hallway branched off from this one, and from that intersection, a woman in flowing blue robes with a diamond pattern on the hem and the cuff of each sleeve stepped into the open. She was gorgeous with a round face of pale skin framed by ringlets of red hair. “Impressive,” she said, nodding to them.
A man in crimson robes came out behind her, moving gracefully with each hand hidden up the opposite sleeve. He was quite handsome with a strong chin and a coiffure of blonde hair.
A second man emerged, this one in robes identical to those of his male companion. His square-jawed face olive skin was marked by a small mole on his cheek, and he wore his black hair slicked back.
“I have always wanted to see Justice Keepers in action,” the woman said. “Sadly, I had to experience it vicariously through the eyes of our fallen comrades there, but it was no less exhilarating.”
Anna looked up to study her opponent, then narrowed her eyes. “There are three of you?” she asked, shaking her head. “Since when did your people start putting more than one telepath on your war ships?”
“Since Leyrians started attacking us with Justice Keepers.”
What?
The official reason for Antaur's “one mind-reader per ship” policy was the rarity of telepaths among the general population. Less than one percent of one percent of humans born on that world would develop telepathic abilities. Among the Antaurans, telepaths were considered to be the pinnacle of human evolution, and starships were always going into dangerous situations. There simply weren't enough telepaths to justify losing several when a single ship went down.
That was the official story; Anna suspected that military commanders feared losing control of a ship with too many telepaths on board. You never knew exactly what those clever mind-readers might do.
“Attacking you with Justice Keepers?” Melissa said. The girl put one fist on her hip and glared at the lot of them. “That's ludicrous. Justice Keepers would only attack one of your ships if we had reason to believe you were planning something heinous.”
The lead telepath pursed her lips and shook her head, ringlets of red hair swaying as she did so. “Tell me, how many of our kind did you capture?” She started up the corridor at an even pace. “How many have you enslaved?”
“What are you talking about?”
The woman's eyes blazed as she fixed her gaze first on Anna and then on Melissa. “To blo
ck all three of us?” she went on. “You must have at least four or five with you. We are some of the best.”
Anna grinned, then bowed her head to the other woman. “You really don't know, do you?” she asked, stepping forward. “There is only one telepath with us, and she's here of her own free will.”
“Impossible.”
At that moment, Keli stepped out from the intersecting corridor. The woman had a pistol in one hand, its muzzle pointed down at the floor. “Lenai tells the truth,” she said. “I am the only one.”
Pressing her lips into a thin line, the red-headed woman blinked several times and shook her head. “You alone possess the skill to block us?” she asked. “That is impossible. No one telepath could do so much.”
“I am…unique.”
“And you serve Leyria?”
That came from the blonde man who stepped forward and kept his hands hidden in his sleeves. His eyes were fixed on Keli as if he'd never seen a woman before. “By all the gods in Celestus, what would possess you to do that?”
“The Leyrians never locked me in a cell,” Keli replied. And then, a moment later, she added. “Well…there was that one time, but it was a much nicer cell than the one our people provided, and they did let me go.”
Anna was growing tense, and she could tell that Melissa wasn't doing much better; the girl kept fidgeting with her pistol as if she wasn't sure whether or not to do something with it. You didn't have to be a mind-reader to read minds.
Thankfully, Melissa's Nassai would make it difficult – if not impossible – for the enemy telepaths to sense her thoughts, and that might give Anna a chance to calm things down. No, you didn't have to be a telepath to read minds or to communicate without even a single word. A glance from her was enough to make Melissa holster the weapon.
“We're here to stop weapon's smuggling,” Anna said.
The red-head looked at her with large brown eyes, and then her mouth twitched in obvious displeasure. “Really?” she asked. “I have a very hard time believing that. After the reports I've seen…”
Keli moved forward, rudely shouldering her way through the narrow gap between Anna and Melissa. The woman positioned herself between Anna and the other telepaths. “We have no time for dawdling,” she said. “Find the weapons and destroy them. I'll deal with Carissa and her friends.”
“How do you know my name?” the redhead shouted.
“Your mind is an open book.”
Melissa put one hand on the grip of her pistol, staring down the three telepaths with resolve in her eyes. “We're not just gonna leave you,” she insisted. “Three against one is hardly a fair fight.”
Keli glanced back over her shoulder, her mouth tight with disapproval. “Go,” she grated. “These three are nothing.”
“But-”
Anna grabbed her young companion by the arm and pulled Melissa away from the confrontation. “Come on!” she said. “If Keli says she can handle it, she can handle it. We have a mission to complete.”
They turned their backs and ran up the corridor, past the intersection where several uniformed security officers were still passed out, toward the spot where their intelligence said the cargo bay would be. So far, they had been able to avoid the use of lethal force, but it didn't look as though Keli had any intention of showing her enemies mercy. Anna was not happy about that, but what else could she do? Keepers stood a fighting chance against telepaths, but three would be a challenge, and capturing mind-readers was not her objective. They had weapons to destroy.
She just hoped they didn't run into more security teams.
Grinning like a princess who had just been given a new necklace, Carissa strode through the corridor, flanked by her two male subordinates. They were not as skilled as their mistress – Keli could tell – but together, the three would present a challenge. And she wanted a challenge.
With the pistol in one hand, Keli stood before them in the black pants, t-shirt and armoured vest that Keepers wore on these ridiculous missions. Her eyes were downcast, her breathing slow. “I offer you this one chance to retreat.”
Carissa laughed.
Keli looked up and then squinted at her opponent. “As you wish,” she said, nodding once. “Don't say I didn't offer.”
Anyone who walked by would see nothing but one woman staring down three other people in the middle of a hallway, but in Keli's mind, a furious battle took place. Waves emanated from the three, waves that crashed over her, threatening to break her will and leave her subordinate to them.
She smoothed mental defenses – there was no other word for it; the shield that she crafted was like a perfect sphere of glass around her mind – allowing the waves to wash over and drift harmlessly past.
And so the waves changed, becoming sharp, cutting at the sphere.
Keli winced, tears streaming over her cheeks when she felt the pressure those three exerted. “All right,” she croaked out. “You have some skill between you. But I have been training for this all my life.”
She lashed out with waves of her own, razor-sharp waves that cut into Carissa and forced the woman to stumble backward. Groaning and doubling over, ringlets of red hair falling over her face, the woman shook her head.
Her attack intensified.
Keli responded in kind.
She perceived the psychic bond between her three adversaries almost as a single cord of energy that connected all of them. So, she segmented it in two places, mentally separating them.
Carissa's onslaught was suddenly much easier to ignore, the woman flinching as she realized that she had lost her support. “How?”
The blonde man staggered, bracing one hand against the corridor wall and trying to catch his breath. Clearly, he had not expected to be cut off from his allies. Three minds blended together and then ripped apart. It could be quite disorienting.
Keli raised her weapon and fired.
A bullet pierced the blonde man's chest, blood spraying out behind him as he took a shaky step backward and then fell to the floor. Moments later, it was pooling out over the tiles while he made harsh rasping sounds.
Her mouth a gaping abyss, Carissa blinked a few times as she studied Keli. “You would resort to that?” she screamed. “To the use of one of their primitive weapons? You fight without honour!”
“What use do I have for honour?” Keli said. “I had three opponents, and now there are two.”
The mental attack came at her again, trying to bury her mind beneath an avalanche of pain and regret and despair. Keli didn't put up a fight. She let the negative emotions fill her thoughts, let her enemies feel as if they had dominated her. Carissa became focused on the invisible war, the war inside Keli's mind. These fools really did see themselves as superior to ordinary humans. Keli knew better.
Ordinary humans had kept her locked up in a cage for years, had pumped her body full of drugs and stimulated her brain with electric shocks. Ordinary humans had forced her to compete against other telepaths. Raynar was not the first.
Ordinary humans had outwitted her, poisoned her and then trapped her in a slaver's collar. Ordinary humans had forced her to perform for their amusement. She knew first-hand just how dangerous ordinary humans could be.
As Carissa directed all of her will and that of her partner into one final assault, Keli reacted as an ordinary human would.
She pointed her gun at the other woman's leg.
And she pulled the trigger.
A bullet ripped through Carissa's thigh, forcing the woman to fall flat on her face. Just like that, the mental onslaught stopped. Carissa was lying flat on her belly, shrieking in pain.
Keli fired her weapon again.
Ten paces up the corridor, the dark-haired man was trembling on the spot, terrified that he might be next. He glanced down at Carissa and then up at Keli. Without one word, he turned and ran.
The huge cargo bay door was shut tight, light gleaming off its metal surface. There was no way that they were hacking their way through the security syste
m to get that thing open; Anna was good, but she wasn't that good. Truth be told, even Ben couldn't devise an algorithm to override an enemy vessel's security protocols, and the fact that Antauran tech used an entirely different operating system was only part of the reason why. So, that left them with only one option: brute force.
Anna stood before the door with fists balled at her sides, her face tight with anxiety. “All right,” she said, nodding once. “Let's get this done. The sooner we get rid of these weapons, the sooner I can go home to a nice bubble bath.”
At her side, Melissa was down on one knee, removing an explosive charge from a pocket in her pants. The girl stood up. “We should be able to detonate this remotely. But we'll need to put some distance-”
The door slid open.
Anna looked up, and her eyes all but popped out. “Well that isn't ominous at all!” she spluttered. “What do you think, Melissa? Feel like walking blindly into the enemy's meticulously-planned trap?”
“We'll probably find Grecken Slade in there.”
“That would be consistent with our luck.”
Despite her reservations, Anna stepped through the open door and found nothing but a huge room with crates that were secured in metal frameworks that were bolted to the floor. Starships got jostled quite a bit when they took enemy fire; it was important to make sure the cargo didn't go flying all over the place.
A catwalk overlooked the cargo bay, but there was no one up there that she could see, and when she focused on the impressions she got from Seth, she realized that there was no one else in this room. Only a few dozen containers.
Chewing on her lip, Anna shut her eyes and took a deep breath. “I do not like this,” she muttered, shaking her head. “First they throw up all kinds of resistance, and now they make it super easy?”
Melissa was standing with one hand on the grip of her holstered pistol, turning her head to take in the sight of everything in this room. “I don't know,” she said. “But we're here; let's finish the job.”
Anna nodded.
The first thing she wanted to do was check one of those containers; the intelligence reports said they would contain guns, low-yield particle weapons and maybe even a few battle drones. Everything the Antauran colonists would need to fly across the border and conduct a few raids against their Leyrian neighbours.
