They still got through.
Kendra dropped the bow and snatched up the shotgun. She aimed it at the center of the mass and fired.
The net spread out as soon as launched from the shotgun, pulling three men down into a screaming, cursing mass as the magnetic weights attached to the floor and held them tight.
They were getting closer. Sean watched them, studied them as they advanced through the smoke.
The gas masks gave them an eerie look, strange animals standing upright and swaying from side to side.
They didn’t look like monsters.
They looked like what he’d seen on Vegas Four.
Hungry, angry scavengers set on one thing.
The woman standing at his side.
Sean leaped over the table with a roar and swung the shillelagh at the nearest target, a short bald-headed man brandishing a large knife.
* * *
In the back of her mind Catherine wondered why the attackers hadn’t brought ranged weapons, pistols and rifles to blow them all away. They’d instead chosen to carry swords and knives, chains and iron pipes—all close-combat weapons.
The detached, logical part deduced the danger was too great for them to risk anything else. They worried about blowing a hole in the Belle’s hull. A bullet hole could start a sequence leading to explosive decompression and killing everyone, including her.
You couldn’t collect a bounty if you were dead.
The Belle’s crew, however, had no such restrictions. There was a limited killing zone before it got close and personal and those few precious seconds were now over.
Sean jumped over the barricade, screaming something in a foreign language. The rest of them soon followed, including Sam and Daniel.
Catherine scrambled over the top, almost colliding with a thug on her right side who charged at Sean. Sean, preoccupied with another attacker, didn’t react.
She screamed as she slammed her fist into the man’s head, dislodging the gas mask and sending him reeling back. He staggered off to the side to fall prey to Harry’s follow-up punches.
Sean’s shillelagh descended on one masked man and slammed through the left eye lens. The attacker screamed and dropped the machete he was carrying. His hands went to his face to try and stop the blood spraying out through the now-shattered hole in his mask.
Sean didn’t stop to survey his damage but moved onto the next target, a tall brute wearing a handkerchief tied over his mouth and nose. A swift jab in the balls and he fell as well, rolling away before Sean could deliver a disabling kick to his torso.
Catherine stayed at his side, protecting his blind spot. If anyone came too close she lashed out, delivering punishing hits to their heads or kicking their legs out from under them.
One man lunged at her through the smoke, his gas mask warping his silhouette as he charged. He swung a short sword at her, apparently not caring that she was the prize they were looking for.
She ducked under the blade and kicked him hard on his left leg. She could have sworn she heard the bone snap as she pulled away.
She’d never know because Sean’s shillelagh fell on the man’s throat and crushed it.
Catherine glanced around to see what the others were doing.
The crack of April’s whip sang through the air as the barbed tip tore a hole in one attacker’s clothing, shredding fabric and skin alike. She spun around with a kama in her free hand and sliced another across the belly.
He folded in half like a cheap deck chair.
Harry yelled as he slammed both fists into the face of a brawny shirtless warrior, the pirate’s dark skin decorated with white spiral tattooed lines.
The gas mask shattered under Harry’s attack. The plastic flexed but the plastic eyes were unable to do the same, splintering and cracking and warping the attacker’s view.
The man didn’t fall right away and slashed back at the courtesan with the blades held in each hand. Whatever he saw through the jagged remains of his mask was enough to keep him going.
Kendra moved among the fighters with the perfect moves of a ballet dancer, one blade in each hand. She knelt and sliced the leg tendons of a brawler facing off with Bianca who was holding her own with her tanto and her nails. The attacker screamed as he dropped to his knees, easy prey for Bianca, who sliced his throat.
Jenny was like a ghost. Using her petite frame she ducked in and out between the fights to slam her wrench into the back of someone’s head, take out a knee, smash an exposed foot or hand. She’d disappear back into the smoke before the pirate could react, leaving them open to attack from another source.
Sam and Daniel stood in the middle of the chaos, back-to-back.
They’d advanced into the center of the killing field, setting themselves up as prime targets for the attackers.
Sam had pulled her knife from a boot sheath and now held it in her left hand to use on anyone who came too close as she shot what appeared to be rubber bullets. The projectiles sent the killers sprawling but didn’t kill them.
Daniel, on the other hand, had no such restrictions on his weapon. Bloody holes opened up in anyone who came too near the pair, the bullets blowing through the weak body armor some of the attackers wore and shredding the gas masks many of them still wore. There was no discernable uniform, just a variety of military and civilian clothing with various pieces of body armor tacked on for protection.
Daniel had also pulled a knife out from under his jacket, the blade already dripping blood from the killers who’d come too close.
The pair stayed back to back and spun as if they’d worked together as a team forever.
But it wasn’t enough.
Chapter Eighteen
Catherine saw a knife fly out of the smoke and chaos to imbed itself in Sam’s right shoulder. The handle quivered as it stuck out of the leather, the hilt pressing against her jacket.
She didn’t flinch and didn’t drop her pistol but went pale. More of her weight went onto Daniel’s back, alerting him something was wrong.
He spun around and shouted something in her ear.
Sam dropped to one knee.
The marshal stood over her still firing and slicing, as Sam dropped her knife and switched her pistol to her left hand.
She kept firing as she slumped against his legs, face contorted in pain.
April spun into sight, the whip discarded in favor of both kamas, each curved blade quick to disembowel anyone in her sights. She hovered around Sam and Daniel, taking out anyone who got too close to her captain, then crouched down before leaping out and attacking the nearest target.
Sean jumped over another fallen body and slammed the bulbous head of the shillelagh into another attacker, this one holding up dual cutlasses and wearing a gas mask painted like a white skull.
The unknown attacker went down but not before one blade sliced into Sean’s right arm, below his sleeve.
The wide gash spewed blood, spraying out across the dead body.
Sean staggered backwards toward the barricade.
Catherine covered his retreat, punching one short man who came too close. He reeled from the attack and staggered backwards, making him an easy target for April.
Sean dropped the shillelagh.
Another attacker came out of the smoke holding a pipe over his head and screaming as he charged at the pair.
* * *
The bastards were fast. But not fast enough.
He had a hard time keeping a firm grip on the shillelagh with the blood pouring down over his hand. It’d done its job, however—many of the men he’d struck weren’t going to be getting up again.
His right arm burned, the loose skin flapping back to show a deep cut. He staggered as the numbness crept up to his shoulder and down to his fingers.
He co
uldn’t feel the club.
Sean couldn’t feel his right arm at all, the burning turning into numbness.
He spun around and fell to the floor, grunting as his back slammed into the barricade. The shillelagh bounced away as his hand fell into his lap, useless.
Damn.
He’d found something to live for just as he was about to die.
A tall man, his face already ripped open by April’s whip, advanced on him with an iron pipe held high in both hands.
Closing his eyes would have been the act of a coward.
Sean stared back, glaring at the man as the pipe rose even higher.
The man’s gaze wavered for a second.
The shillelagh slammed his jaw closed and lifted the pirate off his feet. He dropped the pipe as he toppled backward to land on the deck with a resounding thud.
Sean felt the adrenaline draining away, leaving him limp and exhausted. Even the sight of Catherine standing above him with his club didn’t give him enough strength to speak.
So he smiled and spat out blood from a cut inside his mouth as she stood protectively over him, shillelagh at the ready.
* * *
Insanity.
The shillelagh felt good in her hands, felt right as she hefted it in both hands, waiting for someone to dare to approach. She kept the brass knuckles on, using them to give her hand a bit more protection.
It was as if a circle existed around them, a no-go zone where the fighting was over.
Only a few attackers remained standing. Out of the twenty or so who had poured through the narrow corridor, only half had gotten out of the initial kill zone, thanks to Jenny’s shrapnel and a combination of April’s knives and Kendra’s quarrels. It’d been a tough hand-to-hand fight with the rest, but while they had orders to take the ship and kill as many as necessary, including Catherine, the crew of the Bonnie Belle had their own orders.
To live.
Satisfied they were safe for the moment, she dropped down on one knee and placed the club beside Sean.
“Stay,” she commanded.
He nodded as she climbed back over the barricade to retrieve the medical bag. Another short hop and she was back at his side. She felt faint as she fumbled with the ties.
Sean’s hand landed on hers, stilling her trembling fingers.
“I’m okay,” she muttered, more to convince herself than reassure him. “I’m okay.”
A moment’s worth of digging in the canvas bag brought up a field dressing, which she handed to Sean. He wordlessly helped her unwrap it with his one good hand and secure it around the gaping three-inch wound in his arm.
It was hard to not cry at seeing the deep slice through his skin. It hadn’t gone to the bone but it was enough to cripple him if it’d cut through vital tendons and muscles.
“Don’t.” His harsh rasp brought her back up to face him. “Don’t worry. The Guild’s got some pretty good surgeons.” He winced as she tightened the knot, pressing the thick bandage against the opening. “Give me two of the blue pills. Time to break out the good stuff.”
Kendra appeared out of the dying smoke and knelt down beside the pair. Blood stained her face and for a terrifying second Catherine thought it was the courtesan’s.
“I’m good,” she answered to the unspoken question. “We’re almost done here.” She looked over her shoulder at the unconscious man who had attacked them earlier. “Nice hit.”
Catherine nodded, a wave of nausea washing her down to sit beside Sean. Her right hand sought his uninjured left and held on tight.
The smell of blood was almost overpowering, the coppery tang at the back of her throat verging on making her nauseated.
Sean intertwined their fingers and they watched the last fighter drop to his knees before falling onto his face in front of Sam and Daniel. The captain still sat at her lover’s feet, pistol held out in front of her.
Jenny walked in from one side, brandishing a bloody wrench in one hand. Her makeshift bandolier was empty and a cut on her forehead dribbled blood down her face.
“That’ll learn them.” She wiped her forehead with one sleeve, smearing the blood further. “No one attacks the Belle.”
A nervous laugh escaped Catherine’s throat. Sean squeezed her hand, cutting off the hysteria bubbling below the surface.
Sam’s voice brought them all around. “Sound off. Everyone still breathing?” There was a wheeze to her words, a strained control underlying her request.
Harry stepped into sight. He still held both sets of brass knuckles but his hands were at his sides, the exhaustion dragging them down. His bare chest held a number of crisscrossing cuts, all dribbling blood, but none of them looking deep or serious. A wide smile split his face at seeing Jenny and Kendra next to Catherine and Sean.
“Good day to die,” he intoned, “for them.”
Bianca and April were the next to show. April’s gi looked like it’d been tie-dyed with red. Blood from her split lip dribbled down her front.
Bianca looked as if she’d run a marathon. Her tanto was already in its scabbard tucked into her belt. She held up her right hand.
“I broke a nail.” She scowled. Her nose was swollen, giving her a strange nasally speech impediment. “And I think my nose.”
Kendra surveyed the courtesans and gave an approving nod.
“Sean,” A low male voice murmured. “You up to delivering some first aid?”
Daniel shuffled toward them, half carrying, half dragging Sam. Her leather jacket was torn in a variety of places but none worse than the knife wound in her shoulder. She looked pale and on the verge of fainting.
“I’m a bit incap right now,” Sean grunted.
Kendra looked at the marshal. “We’re not. Put her here.” She pointed at the space beside Catherine. “April.”
The courtesan picked up the medical bag from beside Sean with a polite nod to Catherine.
“It’s not so bad,” Sam protested in a weak voice. “Nothing more than a scratch.”
“You shouldn’t have pulled it out,” Kendra said, a disapproving tone in her voice. “Basic first aid—leave the blade in. You know better.”
“It was getting in the way,” she replied. “Clashed with my outfit.”
Daniel helped tug her jacket off, wincing with every gasp of pain coming from Sam. “Another scar for your collection. Lovely.”
“It’s just a flesh wound.” Sam chuckled at some inside joke. “Belle...”
“Captain?”
“Status.”
“The pirate ship is disabled. I was able to gain access to their computer systems via our initial communications and shut them down.”
Catherine looked at the captain. “That’s why you answered them?”
Sam nodded. “Belle told me she needed a two-way conversation to allow her to sneak in via a back door in their system. With Etts’s help, of course. A Mercy ship AI shouldn’t be able to do that,” she deadpanned.
Bianca frowned. “So even if they killed us all they couldn’t have left the Belle?”
Sam gasped as Daniel pulled her arm free of the flight suit. “Belle wouldn’t have let them go. They’ve had been trapped until she got to a Justice base or they ripped her heart out and it wouldn’t have gone well for them if they’d tried.”
“Affirmative.” The smugness in the AI’s voice made Catherine smile despite the circumstances.
“So they’d get justice, one way or another.” Bianca grinned. “You’re pretty smart for a Mercy captain.”
Sam stuck her tongue out at the courtesan.
Daniel used his knife to cut the bloody tank top away, growling with every tug and pull on the fabric.
Kendra inspected the jagged inch-long wound in Sam’s shoulder. “Not too bad. Take a stitch or two.” She to
ok the offered bandage from April. “Maybe you should start attending our self-defense courses, Captain.”
“Ha ha.” Sam flinched as the pad was pressed to her shoulder. “Everyone’s a fucking comedian.”
“Captain.” Belle’s tone shifted to serious. “I have three incoming UNS scout ships.”
Daniel stood up, a weary look on his face. “Friend or foe?”
Catherine bit down on her lower lip. If they’d come this far only to be attacked by their own—
“I’m receiving a transmission.” The loud click echoed around the landing bay. “It is for Marshal LeClair.”
The friendly voice burst through the static. “Daniel? You there and in one piece?”
“Kyle?” The marshal slumped against the barricade. “You come out from behind your desk for ‘lil old me?”
The pilot snorted. “Not only for you, asshole. But you do owe me a bottle of vodka. Took a few favors to swap seats out with the rookie for this run. I’m picking up some odd sensor readings from the Bonnie Belle. What’s going on?”
“We just repelled a boarding party. The mercs’ ship’s connected to our docking hatch, which is—” Daniel peered across the bodies. “Out of commission.”
“Affirmative. All good?”
“We’ve got injured people. Could use a medic.” He looked down at Sam, who gave him a weak smile.
“Unless you’ve got some way to pop that pirate ship free you’re going to have to keep her attached for the rest of the trip,” Kyle said. “I don’t have much else than a first-aid kit on board.”
Daniel looked at Jenny, who shook her head slowly.
“I’d rather let the base experts cut the ship free,” the mechanic answered. “The pirates blew our door off. I don’t know if I could seal ’er up enough to keep us safe.”
“Kyle, we’re keeping the extra baggage,” Daniel answered. “Be too dangerous to try and get it unhooked at this point.”
“Roger that. Tell the Belle to turn and burn for the Justice base. We’ll run escort if you can hold on for a bit longer.”
In the Void Page 27
