by A. R. Knight
"Is she okay?" Mox asked Merc as the pilot joined them.
"We'll find out," Merc said, eyes rimmed with red. "She's not going to be happy, she wakes up and we haven't taken care of this guy."
"Then let us make Opal happy," Mox rumbled.
"Me, then Mox," Davin said, then noticed the raider woman still standing in the room. "Who are you?"
"Cass." The woman said.
"Tell me why I shouldn' t shoot you?" Davin asked.
Cass looked at Merc. The pilot returned the stare, not saying a word.
"What're you looking at him for?" Davin said.
"Look," Cass replied, turning back to Davin, palms up. "I'm just trying not to die, all right?"
"Not helping," Mox said.
"Your boss might've killed my sniper," Davin said. "Tell me why I shouldn't take you hostage. Use you as leverage."
"Because I'm worth nothing to him," Cass said. "And because I want to help you."
"You've helped plenty, bringing Quinn here," Davin said.
"Davin," Merc interrupted. "She's not our enemy."
Cass flashed the fighter pilot a quick smile.
"Convince me. Prove that the moment I turn around, you're not going to blast me in the back with that sidearm," Davin said.
"I can't," Cass said, reaching for her holster and pulling out the weapon. Mox tensed, ready to jump and tackle the woman if she raised the sidearm. But she dropped it, the sidearm clanging to the floor. "All I can say is that I've lost my faith."
"Faith?" Mox said.
"Look at my friends," Cass said, pointing at the unconscious raiders on the floor, the three stunned from Merc's shock grenade. "They're here because of a cause. Because they believed that what they were doing was helping some great crusade. We were supposed to free Mars, but now we're not even on it. We used to be fighting for cities, now we're dying trying to take one freighter from people that had nothing to do with the war."
"Convenient that you're realizing this now," Davin said, not moving his hands from Melody.
"It wasn't really clear until you came back here. Until we were trading innocent lives for those ice diamonds, for a shot at some coin," Cass said, then looked at a piece of crimson ribbon wrapped on her right wrist. "I didn't join the Red Voice to be a thief. That's not what my family died for."
Cass met Davin's stare.
"I don't know your name, captain," Cass said. "But if you're willing, I'd like to help you clean up this mess. Then you can drop me at the next station."
The woman looked set. Mox believed her. No quaver in the voice, no glances off to the side. And with Opal out of the game, they could use a fourth on the ground.
"I trust her," Mox said.
Davin nodded a second later.
"Mer c, you seem to know her, so you've got responsibility," Davin said. "Otherwise, Mox and I up front, you two covering our backs. Trina, when you get a minute, bind up our trio out here so they don't wake up and get excited."
The hallway outside the bay was quiet. Mox noticed marks on the walls, tearing from a vacuum exposure. Wires, containers, equipment cluttered the ground.
"Really made a mess out here, Merc," Davin said as they walked through.
"Wasn't thinking about it," Merc replied. "Hey, captain."
"Go," Davin said.
"Opal doesn't talk much about her past. You know why that guy would've called her a monster?"
Mox heard the claim. Had similar names leveled at him. By any reasonable measure, Mox had wounded, killed, or destroyed more people and things than he had any right to. Was he a monster? Did he deserve to die for it? Better question. Did Mox feel he was evil? No. Therefore, he was no monster. Neither was Opal.
At least in his own eyes.
"You're gonna have to ask her that," Davin replied after a minute.
A few more empty stretches of hallway put them near the bridge. No resistance so far. Cass thought the burned man had pulled his remaining forces. Sent them to protect the ice diamonds. To prep his ship. That the bridge would make an ideal ambush.
"Merc?" Phyla's comm call came through. "The fighter and that scout ship are still out there. Erick's working with Opal, Trina's making magic with the shields, and we're going to need cover."
"What do you want me to do about it?" Merc replied.
"Didn't you put the Viper down in the freighter? Can you get to it?"
Merc was nodding before he was even done talking.
"I can, provided the raiders haven't torched it."
"Cass, go with him," Davin said. "Prove what you said back there."
The two of them went running back the way they'd come. Mox and Davin stood alone outside the bridge doors.
"You ready for this, big man?" Davin said. Mox nodded.
Davin tapped the intercom.
"Hey. Gage. Open these doors," Davin said.
"Can't do that, captain," Gage replied. "You know how I feel about security."
"Sorry to hear that," Davin said, glanced at Mox.
Erick had asked Mox once, after taping up the metal man's hands yet again, whether Mox ever got tired of hitting things. The answer to that question, as Mox charged the exoskeleton and slammed his braced hand into the door, was no. Another swing and the door shook. Designed to handle high one-time stress, but not repetitive impact - because how many space craft had battering rams on them? - the door bent away from Mox's fist.
Several punches later, Mox alternating lefts and rights, the big man paused. He'd felt the door slip on that last swing.
"One more," Mox said.
"Can't wait," Davin replied, leveling his shotgun at the door.
Mox loaded up the punch and let it fly. The door held for a split-second before crumpling around Mox's fist and launching through into the bridge. The door hit the floor and skidded to a stop a meter in front of the burned man and his other bot guard. Behind those two, at the freighter's console, was Gage.
The burned man, while Mox was still pulling back from the punch, fired from his sidearm. Mox saw the shot coming, though, and was already kicking away. The exoskeleton boosted Mox's jump, and he flew over, to the side, of the orange beam. Mox saw the flash of green that meant Davin had pulsed his shotgun. Then Mox hit the floor and rolled.
Came up and the bot was swinging at Mox's head with a short, twin-tined fork. Made for law enforcement. Mox had seen them before, on Luna. No guns there, so other methods were used. Mox curled up, letting the bot's first swing fly over the top of his head. Tried to grab the robed creature, but the bot danced away, aimed the fork at Mox and fired.
The lightning arced forward and through Mox's exoskeleton, which absorbed the current, and shorted. Mox collapsed to the floor, the full weight of the suit holding him down. A defense mechanism, but not a great one. Mox triggered the restart, but the exoskeleton didn't respond. It would take time. Which Davin did not have.
Mox could see the captain dueling with the longer, lankier burned man. Davin triggered a second blast of the shotgun, but the burned man was already rolling out of the way. Trying to get closer. They had reversed positions, with Davin closer to Gage and the burned man near the door out. The bot was moving too, getting ready to hit Davin from behind.
Davin had no chance. The exoskeleton still not restarting. One way. Mox reached behind his head, pressed in on a hidden button beneath the nape of his neck. All along his arms and legs, Mox felt popping sensations, pinches as nerves released. The exoskeleton prying itself off.
Mox stood and dove as the bot took aim with the fork. Without the exoskeleton, with Mox's nerves shaky from operating without the metal suit's support for years, the dive fell short. Instead of a tackle, Mox landed at the bot's left foot. Reached out and swiped at it. Mox's hand blew up in pain as it hit the bot's metal ankle, no longer shielded by the exoskeleton's glove. But Mox was still strong enough to sweep the bot off its aim, the fork's arc shooting up and spattering against the ceiling.
The bot fell on its back and rolled away from
Mox, but the big man grabbed the bot's arm. Grabbed the fork. The bot stopped its roll, tried to pull back. Minutes before, Mox would have been able to yank the fork free without a thought. Now, with both hands wrapped around it, straining, Mox could feel the bot winning the fight.
So Mox reversed, pushed instead of pulled. Shoved the fork's back end, with the force of the bot's own strength, into the bot's chest. The fork pounded through the bot's chest plate, punching by the shell and into the bot's central circuitry. It twitched once, then collapsed. Mox jarred the fork loose, looked up just in time to see Davin take a jab from the burned man. Saw his captain crumple to the floor.
52
Release
Man, that last one really popped Davin's jaw. Not happy with that. Even less happy looking up into the muzzle of Bakr's sidearm. The man could fight - Bakr's wiry arms were like trying to get a grip on oil-slicked rope, and that same lankiness meant Davin's blocks weren't in the right places. Like trying to fight an octopus.
"Yield," Bakr said. "You have talent. Talent we could use."
"Yeah?" Davin said, rubbing his chin on the floor of the bridge. "Seems like everybody is offering me jobs these days. What's the pay like?"
"You know what's in the hold of this ship," Bakr replied.
"That's been a question for me," Davin said. "How are you planning on selling those, considering every one in existence will come from a known hijacking?"
"It won't matter," Bakr said, and for the first time, Davin saw the man's straight face turn into something resembling pleasure. Bakr's white and red scars stretching was not a fun thing to witness, like a jam and cream cheese dancing.
"There's the detail I look for before I take a job," Davin said, looking over to Mox. "Hey, Mox, whaddya say? Bakr here says it won't matter that their payment will be stolen goods."
"Take the deal," Mox replied, resting on the fork.
Davin noticed the big man had popped the exoskeleton. Didn't look so hot, either. Last-minute rescue seemed unlikely.
"Listen to your friend, Davin," Bakr said.
"Eh, he takes more on faith than me. Why should I believe you that Eden won't come hunting their stolen diamonds?"
"Because Eden, and all its ilk, will be in too much turmoil to care," Bakr snarled, the calm expression fading from his face. "Now, join or die."
Bakr shoved the sidearm closer to Davin's face. Thing was, even if the deal was a good one, there was no way Davin would work for someone as crazy as Bakr. All the coin in the world didn't matter if your boss was likely to shoot you on any day. Davin took a breath, tasted that bland recycled air, and started to end his own life. Only Davin's words were drowned out by the sudden alarms ringing through the bridge. A robotic voice announced the cargo bay was breached to vacuum.
Bakr whirled, swinging the sidearm to Gage, who stood and looked back at the burned man from the console.
"Sorry, Bakr," Gage said. "I signed up for some coin, not for some mad revolution. Your ice diamonds are shooting out to space right now. Along with, I bet, most of the rest of your crew."
Davin didn't see Bakr pull the trigger. The orange flash, though, was plenty visible. A gaping, burning hole opened up in Gage's chest and the captain collapsed. In the same motion, without sparing even a second for Davin, Bakr sprinted from the bridge. Davin and Mox went over to Gage, but the old captain was already gone.
"Seal the bay," Mox said. Good call, with Merc heading down there.
Davin went over to the console. Shifted the seal from red to green. The alarms died. Anything not tied, weighted down in those bays would've already been sucked away, though. Davin flipped through the exterior cameras until he came across one that showed the diamonds, a huge cloud of them, glittering like small stars against the backdrop of Neptune. Left out there, the diamonds would slowly fall back to their mother.
"Merc?" Davin commed. "Please tell me you're still on the ship."
53
Flight Plan
"Could've warned me you would dump the cargo hold," Merc said to Davin over the comm.
Cass and himself were holed up down the hall from the entrance to the cargo bay. They'd been exchanging fire with the raiders inside when those raiders suddenly disappeared. The doors shut, claiming vacuum breach, and all Merc had to do was think about how lucky he was.
"No time," Davin commed. "See if the Viper's still there."
"Roger,"
"And Merc? We didn't get him."
"Good. I've got somethin' I wanna say to big ugly."
"Then get to it."
Davin clicked off and Merc looked over at Cass.
"You mind me going for your boss?" Merc said.
"He's not my boss anymore."
"Davin's a better one, trust me."
The freighter's alarms ceased, the sudden quiet seeming loud in its own way. The security door to the cargo bay shot open as atmosphere came back. Cass nodded in that direction, and they went. The only thing left in the bay was the Viper, its mass and locked struts keeping it glued to the cargo bay floor. Outside the magnetic seal, Merc could see thousands of spinning lights. Like stars, but meters away instead of light years.
"When I take off, I want you to head back to the bridge," Merc said. "Davin and Mox'll have something for you to do."
"I'm coming with you."
"What?" Merc said.
"That's a Viper-class fighter. There's room for a passenger."
"Room is stretching it," But Cass wasn't wrong. A small passenger could fit behind the pilot. Designed more for food and drink on longer flights, it wasn't uncommon to see Vipers leave that empty and squeeze someone in for short runs. Popping the hatch, the space was as empty as Merc remembered it. If Cass wanted to come, wanted to bend herself like a pretzel, she could.
They settled into the seats, Merc starting the preflight checks and Cass grumbling about how her blood flow was already cutting off.
"No sympathy for you," Merc said. "You wanted to come."
"I'm merely commenting on the poor design of this space," Cass said.
"So now you're insulting my ship?"
"Yes."
Merc laughed, and immediately stopped. Opal was out there, on the Jumper, maybe dying, maybe dead. He had to get out there and protect her. Had to find and take out Bakr. Glancing at the preflight checks coming in green, Merc lit the jets glided out of the cargo bay.
And into a swarm of ice diamonds. The damn things were everywhere, swirling at different speeds based on how much momentum they'd had leaving the bay. The Viper bounced through them, the ship's armor deflecting the rocks away. From the cockpit, it looked as though reality was breaking apart. The diamonds reflected sunlight, the light from Neptune, and the freighter's own pearl paint to make it seem like lines were appearing and vanishing in space. Merc couldn't think of a way to describe it, so he sat there and watched as the Viper warmed itself up for full flight.
"Beautiful," Cass muttered from the back.
"This life isn't all bad," Merc said. The Viper beeped, showing the main engines set to fire. The ship's sensors were confused by the diamonds, but Merc could still get reads on the Jumper, and near it, near the freighter now, the Karat.
"What's that girl doing?" Merc said, ramping up the acceleration and blowing out of the ice diamond swarm.
"What girl?"
"Viola. She reprogrammed an android once," Merc said, angling the Viper towards the Jumper. "We stay alive, you'll get to meet her."
"And will we?"
"Will we what?"
"Stay alive."
"Cass, you're flying with one of the hottest sticks in the solar system. You want to stay alive, you stay right where you are."
The Jumper was coming closer, visible now in in front of the Viper. The sensors showed it was being chased by the damaged scout ship and the fighter that'd done such a tight job keeping its ass un-fried earlier. Speaking of asses, the Jumper's was eating a lot of laser. Merc could see the flashes, and the occasional attempt at counterin
g fire. Looked like the shields were still holding, but how much longer was anyone's guess.
"Phyla, on my mark, you're gonna pull back on that stick, got it?" Merc commed.
"Merc? That you on my board?" Phyla, sounding harried, answered.
"Oh yeah, it's me."
Merc tilted the Viper slightly so it slid just beneath the Jumper's vector. Flipped the shield strength entirely to the front, shunted the batteries from the engines to the lasers. Beautiful thing about space was that Merc's velocity kept right on going until something pushed him the other way, so might as well use that energy for what counted. The Viper's collision alarms blared. His cue.
"Mark!" Merc commed.
The Jumper curled up, like a running dog suddenly caught by the end of the leash. The Viper zipped underneath, and right into the path of the scout ship, which was already trying to match the Jumper's maneuver. Not paying attention to the little Viper that lit it up. The scout ship's already-damaged shields didn't hold more than a couple hits before collapsing. Bright blooms of orange appeared in the scout ship's hull, the vessel bleeding metal as Merc unloaded fire.
"One down," Merc said as he flew beneath the ruined ship.
"Where's the other one?" Cass said.
“Probably running.”
The Viper shuddered, then an alarm went off. A different one, the left rear engine hit and non-functional. Merc slapped a slider that evened out the shields and glanced at the sensors. The fighter and its annoying disc shape was tailing the Viper. It must have swung around the scout ship, and used its damn omni-directional engines to put itself behind the Viper. Fine. Merc could use a challenge.
"I thought you—” Cass started
"Hang on!" Merc said, then pulled the stick back as he re-routed power from the lasers to the engines. The rapid thrust, coupled with the pull of the stick flipped the Viper up.
Merc cut the engines entirely and punched the front docking jets, kicking the front of the Viper back towards where, a second ago, its aft had been. But the disc fighter was already moving away, attempting to go beneath the Viper, stay behind it. Merc squeezed off two shots but they missed high, way off. Then he boosted the throttle.
