Liberate: Starship Renegades, #2

by S. J. Bryant

  She inched along Ghost's outer hull, checking each movement, each handhold.

  She'd rarely spent so much time so close to Ghost's exterior and hadn't noticed the large patches of rust that darkened some of the pipes and screws. She couldn't afford to have that kind of damage, it could be a death sentence in space. But then, she didn't have the tokens to get it fixed either.

  Damn Imperium. If they just left her alone, or if they left the people on Zenith alone, maybe there'd be enough food and fuel, and bloody unrusted screws to go around. But that's not the way things worked.

  She sighed and blinked her rage aside. She could dwell on that later, when she'd worked out exactly how she'd get her revenge on the Imperium for capturing Piper and keeping her like some kind of lab rat for all these years. They'd pay… they'd pay dearly.

  As Kari rounded the bottom of the ship, the full surface of the asteroid came into view. The scaffolding was like the skeleton of some immense city. Huge metal platforms and machines dotted the surface, testament to the fortunes that were once hidden within.

  There would be corridors and rooms carved into the rock, but like Zenith, this asteroid orbited too close to the sun, making any lengthy time on the surface dangerous. At least it wasn't so close that Kari had to worry about it now; she'd just get below ground, find Piper, and get out again. Easy.

  At the front of the ship she stopped. The docking bay was right above her. Wren and the others would be standing over her head—or at least, she hoped they were still standing.

  The docking bay led directly into the tunnels, but security would be on high alert with Wren and the others there. Kari would have to go another way. The nearest mineshaft led deep into the asteroid's surface, disappearing in a circle of darkness. No scaffolding attached the docking bay to the shaft which left Kari with only one option. Jump.

  Kari drew a deep breath and surveyed the rest of the structure, but unless she spent hours inching along the main tunnel then this was it.

  She tensed her legs, stretched out her hands, and leapt. She pushed off Ghost's hull with all her strength, shooting across the small gap like a bullet from a gun, and only just had time to snatch hold of the upper piece of scaffolding to prevent herself careening right past and smashing her head into an outcrop of the asteroid.

  She clutched the scaffolding and drew several rasping breaths. Still no gunfire. That had to be a good sign.

  She edged down the length of the platform and into the mouth of the mineshaft. She had to suppress a shiver as she lost sight of Ghost and was instead surrounded by the hard rock of the tunnel. Pockmarks and scratches covered the walls, like some desperate creature had tried to claw its way out. In reality, Kari knew it was the result of the katium crystals being pried away, but all alone, with only her breathing for company, it was hard not to think of monsters.

  The deeper she went, the darker it got. She'd brought a torch which hung from the utility belt of her suit, but she didn't want to risk using it unless she had to. One stray shaft of light could bring every Imperium goon down on her. Besides, she knew which way the shaft went: down.

  CHAPTER 5

  Kari kept going down the mine shaft until she was sure she would run out of air, or would go so far that she came out the other side of the asteroid without ever finding a way into the facility. But miles down, when her arms ached from clinging to the sides of the shaft, her hand touched against something hard, symmetrical, that didn't fit with the smooth tunnel walls.

  She still didn't want to risk a torch, so she fumbled in the dark. Her hands clamped around the spokes of some locking mechanism and she heaved. The heavy door resisted, and she could imagine the thick cakes of rust that would be holding it closed. She strained harder, and with a sudden groan, the mechanism spun and something within clunked.

  Kari braced her feet against the opposite side of the shaft, heaving against the door with her shoulder. It inched forward, swinging on an ancient hinge into deeper darkness.

  Fear curdled in Kari's stomach but she pushed it down. What did it matter if she couldn't see what was inside?

  She squeezed through the narrow opening and dragged her hands along the wall for the activation switch—or anything—that would help.

  "Bloody hell," she whispered, snatching the torch from her belt. She flicked it on and a sharp beam of light filled the small room—an airlock. The red equilibrate button stood out on the opposite wall.

  Kari shoved and heaved the door behind her back into place—some kind of maintenance hatch. But it was hard to get proper leverage with her body floating out behind her. She curled around so that her feet were on the ceiling and used that to push the door closed. It groaned and clunked, and the locking mechanism spun automatically into place.

  Smooth metal made up the walls, floor, and ceiling of the tiny airlock, with no hint of what might lie beyond.

  Kari floated to the equilibrate button and pressed.

  Air rushed through vents in the ceiling, the pressure of it hard enough to push her down so that she floated only a few inches from the floor.

  The readings on her suit counted up—oxygen, good.

  A heavy thud sounded in the floor and Kari plummeted. She landed, full body, against the metal floor, her head hurtling forward to smack against the faceplate of her helmet.

  Her knees and elbows throbbed and the wind had been knocked out of her. She lay gasping on the floor.

  "What?" she managed to whisper.

  She pushed herself up to a sitting position. She'd dropped the torch when the gravity kicked in. It had rolled a few feet away and rested against the wall. The narrow beam of light lit up the wall and nothing else.

  Kari grabbed the torch. If she hadn't been wearing the damn suit, she would have rubbed her nose. She didn't think it was broken but she would have liked to check.

  Still, it was her own fault. She should have thought about the artificial gravity. The facility was bound to have it; they couldn't very well run human experiments properly in zero gravity. At least she'd only been a few inches from the floor, and not floating near the ceiling, when it came on.

  Kari got to her feet and shuffled to the door, allowing her throbbing knees to ease up and become accustomed to carrying her full weight again. It was strange that just a few hours without gravity made her whole body forget about it.

  She stopped in front of the door that led out of the airlock and deeper into the facility. She had no way to know what lay on the other side. It could be the security headquarters of the whole damn place for all she knew. But she couldn't stop, couldn't go back. She had to save Piper.

  Kari drew her plasma pistol from her belt while she pulled the door open.

  The seal made a fresh popping sound as it opened and then a flurry of lights sprang to life on the other side. They sprouted from the ceiling in a sequential burst down the corridor, lighting the way into the distance.

  Kari's heart lurched into her throat at the sudden light, but it eased and she let her shoulders relax. The lights made it clear that no one was waiting for her in the darkness. She turned her torch off and tucked it back into her belt.

  The passage was all metal, like the airlock had been, and without decoration. It had to be a maintenance passage for the mining equipment, which hopefully meant no one from the Imperium facility would come inside.

  Kari inched along the bare passage, gun still out, and ears straining for any sound. Nothing.

  Two turns later she came to the end of the corridor, marked by a thick metal door with a window set into the middle.

  Kari edged closer and peered through, then whipped her head away and pressed her back against the side of the passage.

  The door led into another corridor. Two people stood outside wearing white coats.

  Kari had caught sight of a camera too, blinking from the ceiling. She held her breath, sure that one of the people, or the camera, must have seen her staring through the window, but nothing happened.

  She waited as lo
ng as she could and then risked another look, this time staying back from the glass and out of sight of the camera.

  The people were gone and the corridor outside was empty.

  She stood back from the door and fiddled with the chunk of katium around her neck. What now? She couldn't very well go out into the passage in the space suit—anyone would take one look and shoot her dead. What then? She had normal clothes underneath but that wouldn't fool anyone for long. A facility like this had to have the best security in the system. Her only chance was to blend in, and so far, the only people she'd seen were wearing white laboratory coats.

  Kari eased her helmet off and set it on the floor, then she took off the thick gloves and peeled the rest of the unwieldy suit away. It would only slow her down, and for the next part of her plan she needed all the speed she could muster.

  Footsteps clicked on the other side of the door.

  Kari strained to hear, just one set, light—not the heavy stomps of security. She gripped the handle and just as the footsteps passed by, she tore the door open, snatched the passing woman by the back of her shirt, and hauled her into the maintenance tunnel.

  The woman opened her mouth to scream but Kari's other hand snaked around and clamped over her face while at the same time she elbowed the door shut.

  Kari dragged the woman away from the door and around a slight bend in the passage so that no one glancing through the window would see them.

  The woman writhed and strained, the tablet computer she'd been carrying falling and clattering to the floor.

  Kari wrapped her arm around the woman's neck and squeezed.

  The woman's eyes widened, her face turned red, then purple, then her eyes drooped closed.

  Kari kept choking until she was sure the woman was unconscious—but not dead—then let her limp body slip to the floor.

  Kari glared down at her, sorely tempted to finish the job. This woman had probably experimented on Piper, and if not Piper, then some other poor kid. She deserved to die, she deserved to suffer, and she deserved—

  The barrel of Kari's gun pressed against the woman's temple.

  Kari blinked, she didn't even remember lifting it and yet now it trembled in her shaking hands. She wanted to kill the woman, but not like this. Besides, she had to be quick. Wren was good at deception, but even she couldn't keep up a ruse like this forever.

  Kari wrenched the lab coat off the unconscious woman and tugged it on over her simple black singlet and jeans. She also snatched the woman's ID card and clipped it to her own waist before grabbing the computer.

  Her hands trembled as she stared at the screen. With a shaking finger, she navigated to the search bar, typed Piper's name.

  An information sheet appeared with a room number.

  Kari's chest ached—this was it. Piper was only a short distance away. Kari had to force herself not to run, and instead took the time to tie the woman up and fasten a gag over her mouth.

  The woman blinked. When she caught sight of Kari, her eyes popped wide and she tried to back away.

  Kari snatched the front of her shirt and held her close. "Listen to me. If you try to move, I will kill you. If you try to raise an alarm, I will kill you. If you even annoy me, I will kill you. Are we clear?"

  The whites of the woman's eyes showed and she nodded so fast that she looked like a toy bobblehead.

  Kari released her shirt and shoved her away. "Good. Stay still and shut up."

  Kari went to the door, feeling the woman's eyes on her back. Had she done the right thing? Wasn't it better for Piper, and for herself, that she kill the woman now? She hated leaving loose ends. But she didn't like to kill in cold blood, not even Imperium worms.

  At the door, Kari paused and drew a deep breath, then she shoved her way into the corridor and turned right as if she knew exactly where she was going. She intentionally didn't look at the security cameras and instead pretended to study the computer in her hands.

  White doors led off to the left and right, each with a black number painted in their center. The corridor smelled of antiseptic with an undercurrent of disease—just like every hospital Kari had ever been in.

  The numbers on the doors counted down. The anxiety in Kari's stomach rose. Only a few more doors now…

  She stumbled to a stop in front of door 411 and found her feet frozen to the floor. This was it. Piper waited on the other side. Kari swallowed, her throat suddenly bone dry. What should she say? What could she say?

  The clicking of shoes echoed up the passage, shaking Kari from her thoughts. She had to move. If someone caught her loitering around in the corridor they might ask questions and then everything would be ruined.

  She pressed the ID card at her waist against the security reader and it flashed green. The door hissed open and Kari slipped inside just before whoever had been coming down the corridor could see her.

  The door hissed shut. At the other side of the room a thin figure scurried away from a desk and hunched into the corner. "No!"

  Kari stood rooted to the floor, staring.

  It was Piper—she'd recognize her button nose anywhere—but it wasn't the Piper she remembered. This wasn't a seven-year-old girl, this was a young woman. But worse than that, she didn't have Piper's spirit, her fearlessness. She cowered in the corner like some beaten animal with her arms over her head.

  Bruises colored those arms like blue and purple flowers and she was so thin that the bones threatened to cut through her skin.

  "Piper," Kari whispered, her voice like sandpaper.

  "No more needles!" Piper wailed. "Please, no more."

  "Piper, it's me."

  "I don't care who you are. It's enough." Piper's voice was slurred and she descended into a stream of dim murmurs that Kari couldn't quite make out. It wasn't right. Piper sounded delirious, drugged even.

  Tears threatened to choke Kari. What had those bastards done to little Piper?

  "Piper," Kari said. "It's me. It's Kari."

  "No. No more. No." Piper wrapped her arms around her uplifted knees and buried her head. She rocked back and forth like a child—or a madwoman.

  "Piper." Kari ran across the room, uncaring of the cameras. She fell to her knees in front of her sister and reached out a trembling hand.

  Piper flinched away from the soft brush of Kari's fingertips and moaned louder.

  "Please," Kari said. "Just look at me. It's Kari, do you remember?"

  "Kari," Piper whispered. "I knew her a long time ago."

  "It's me." Kari's heart broke with every one of Piper's words but she battled on—time wasn't on their side. She took Piper's tiny wrists in her hands and forced her hands away from her face. "Look at me."

  Piper's eyes opened a slit and slid toward Kari. Her whole body froze, then her eyes opened wider and she lifted her head so that they stared full into each other's faces.

  "Kari," Piper whispered.

  "I'm here," Kari said, and threw her arms around Piper's frail body.

  A few moments later, Piper's hands clutched at Kari and they were both crying and laughing at the same time.

  Kari squeezed her sister as tight as she dared. She'd never let Piper go.

  Never.

  CHAPTER 6

  Kari forced herself to lean away from Piper and look up at the security camera. There were probably dozens of security guards heading to the room right now. Dammit. But she couldn't very well have left Piper curled up on the floor. It was done. They had to move.

  Piper's eyes followed Kari's gaze, although they still had a glaze over them and when she blinked, her lids moved slowly, as if struggling to rise again. "There are a lot of patients."

  Kari looked back at her. "What?"

  "There are a lot of patients. They don't spend much time watching me. I'm not interesting."

  There were so many things that Kari wanted to say, to ask, but now was not the time. "We have to get out of here." Kari shot to her feet and spun in a tight circle. Why hadn't she planned a way to get them both out
of the facility? It was all very well getting in, but if they were both captured here…

  Her eyes locked on the bottom of Piper's bed. Instead of legs it had wheels. "Do they wheel you around?"

  "Sometimes. Although only when I'm unconscious."

  "Then lie down, close your eyes, and stay still."

  Piper stood, using the wall for support. Her legs shook as she shuffled to the bed and sat on the edge. "We can't leave without Ray."

  Kari knelt at the bottom of the bed, undoing the brakes that locked the wheels in place. She straightened and looked over the crumpled sheets at Piper. "What?"

  "Ray. He's my friend. We can't leave without him."

  Kari stood and went to Piper, grabbing her hands. "Piper, I don't even have a plan to get you out. This might work, but I can't push two beds. I'm sorry. Maybe we can come back for your friend another—"

  "No." Piper's eyes flashed and for a brief second the old spirit Kari remembered flared through the dazed expression. "I won't leave without him."

  Kari's hands curled into fists. Couldn't Piper see how dangerous it was? How every second they wasted put them in more danger? Even after all this time as a prisoner, hadn't she learned to be selfish and look out for herself first—just like everyone else?

  "If you try to make me leave without him," Piper said. "I will scream."

  Kari turned away so that Piper wouldn't see the fury in her face. Maybe she should have brought some sedative, then she could have knocked Piper out for real, making everything easier. Piper would have been furious when she woke up, but at least they'd both be alive. Kari's eyes slid to the locked cabinet by the door; it probably had sedatives in it. If she was quick, she might be able to—

  No. Piper's trust was fragile enough, Kari wouldn't betray her like that. But then how the hell was she supposed to get this Ray person out as well?

  "There's a storage cupboard a few doors down," Piper said. "There'll be more coats in there."

  "Good!" Kari said, already going to the door. "It will be easier if you walk rather than me having to push you."