Starbreaker

by Amanda Bouchet

  I felt Shade at my elbow. His body heat steadied me. We had two options, as far as I could see. Do the maintenance, if we could, and move on, or incapacitate these people before they were onto us.

  “Glad you’re finally here.” She frowned, peering through the doorway to look more carefully at us. “Wait. Who are you?”

  “Bob couldn’t make it. He sent us.” Caeryssa’s easy-breezy voice rang false to my ears. She leaned against the other side of the doorframe.

  “But…” The woman’s face blanked in confusion. The pervasive green glow lent a waxen and inanimate quality to her features. “I just talked to Bob. He’ll be here in a few minutes.”

  I stared at her. Well, that was bad news. And moved up our timing. As soon as Bob and the real Crew 32 arrived, this whole starbase would be after us.

  Oddly, I didn’t panic. Cold calm took over. Incapacitate it was—and quickly.

  The soldier’s hand inched toward her belt. There was a Grayhawk there as well as an emergency button that would alert the whole base to a problem.

  The three others glanced over but didn’t leave their spot next to the row of pod chairs. From here, it looked as though they were passing around a handheld video game. Dark Watch downtime. It seemed so…normal.

  I was still mostly in the hallway and half-hidden by the doorframe. My gun was visible, just like hers. I didn’t even twitch in its direction. No need to confirm her suspicions.

  I slid a hand into my pocket hidden by the doorway. My fingers curled around the little canister I’d found near a vault of precious books—a bonus I’d held on to when I sold the rest to Susan. I pulled out the small metallic tube. It was barely palm-sized and felt warm from being against my body. I found the trigger with my index finger, whipped the can up, and misted sleeper spray into the woman’s face.

  Her eyes made a sudden O, just like her mouth. No sound came out. She dropped, her legs folding under her like ribbons. She was down in two seconds flat.

  “What the hell?” The other three goons gawked in shock before springing into action. Two men and a woman charged us.

  Shade blew past me like a rocket. Jab. Jab. Cross. He sent the largest man down with a crash. Right behind him, I bulldozed into another soldier and shoved him straight into Jax. Jax grabbed him around the neck from behind and heaved him out of the way. I swung back to Shade, finding a gun aimed point-blank at his chest.

  Shade’s hands went up. My heart stopped dead and so did Shade, all motion arrested as the female soldier looked at him, cocking her head. Steady arm. Finger on the trigger. Bloodlust brightened her eyes. She had cold-blooded killer stamped across her face in neon lights.

  Panic flared inside me, lighting a reckless and furious fuse. I lunged just as Frank shot out the camera in the corner of the room, distracting her. Her gaze flicked away from her target for half a second, and I rammed into her from the side.

  She grunted as we slammed together and went down hard with me on top. I grabbed her wrist and cracked her hand into the thin gray carpet. Once. Twice. Harder. I growled and ground down with a twist.

  She yelped and her fingers popped open, letting go of the gun. I shifted my balance and smashed my elbow into her skull. Her eyes rolled back. Done.

  A gun went off, leaving a smoking hole in the floor by my feet. I snatched my legs in and scrambled back. Shade jumped in front of me, his arms spread out.

  “Frank!” Still in the doorway on lookout, Caeryssa ducked as two Red Beams flew in, buzzing over her head. From a crouch, she pivoted and tracked one with her shots. She sent the first drone spinning into the far wall. Frank blew the second one from the air just as it shot back at him with a stun blast. He dove behind a table.

  Damn it! Red Beams were a plague. More would come.

  The guy struggling with Jax let off another shot. The free-standing console next to me toppled over, a big crack in the top. Electronics bled out like innards. Sparks flew in my face. I lunged away as an electrical fire broke out.

  The goon fired again, and I dragged Shade behind a chair with me. Shots banged. Stuffing flew out. I flinched and kept down. I couldn’t shoot back without endangering Jax.

  Jax roared like the unhinged beast he was and moved his arm into a crushing hold around the guy’s neck. He jerked the man to the side, trying to get me out of the line of fire just as the soldier let off a string of crazy shots. The big monitors on the control-room wall shattered and went dark. Jax clamped down hard and shook the man with a snarl. The goon dropped his gun and ripped at Jax’s arm, his air cut off. Jax was immovable, a stone wall with death carved into the lines of his face. His scar whitened. His muscles bulged. He squeezed.

  I sprang out from behind the chair. “Jax, no!” He went into terrible depressions when he killed someone with his bare hands. It triggered something that firing shots didn’t, even if the outcome was the same.

  Jax’s eyes met mine, feral. I held his gaze. Easy, partner.

  He shot at you! Jax’s silent scream nearly deafened me, low and hollow and wild.

  I stood there, unharmed. Not a spot of blood on me. Not a bruise. I’m fine. I’m here. Let’s take another step—together. Like we always do.

  After a long, fraught beat, his grip loosened, and he eased his choke hold enough for the man to breathe.

  Jax’s eyes dulled to brown again instead of burning, but I didn’t move. I kept his focus on me until Frank dove forward and picked up the tiny can of sleeper spray I’d dropped.

  “Jax!” Frank shouted, his arm outstretched. He pressed. Jax held his breath, closed his eyes, and shoved the guy straight into the oncoming vapor. The goon fell while Caeryssa reached out and jerked Jax back, hauling him away from the fast-acting mist. Jax’s back hit the wall of windows, and she crashed into his chest. They got their balance and sprang toward the doorway. The rest of us followed without a backward glance.

  “Red Beam!” Caeryssa warned, swinging right with her gun to cover us as we flew out the door to the left. The security drone zinged back and forth to avoid her shots, ordering us to surrender in a robotic voice. The machine scanned her while it armed itself.

  “Caeryssa Clare Owens. Wanted. Halt.”

  “Not today,” she muttered, letting the Red Beam get closer and level out.

  I swung around, starting back. “Ryssa!”

  “Go!” she shouted and shot. The Red Beam exploded a millisecond after firing off a crimson ray that crackled with volts.

  “Ah! Shit!” Caeryssa stumbled against the wall. Her right leg gave out, and she dropped.

  Jax hurried back and scooped her up. “I’ve got you,” he said. “Breathe through it.”

  “Stupid stun blaster.” She winced, clinging to his neck. “Twenty minutes before my leg works.”

  I cursed. I knew from experience that hurt like hell, and now Jax was going to have to climb about sixty-five levels with a woman on his back.

  Strike that. We’d never make it to the food holds unless our luck turned fast.

  As if reading my mind, Shade said, “We gotta do something else.”

  I nodded. “Merrick, fly in now. We’re going to need you.”

  “You, too, Asher,” Frank said.

  Both confirmed over the coms. “Everyone all right?” Asher asked.

  “If by all right, you mean alive, then yes,” I said.

  Someone blew out an audible breath. In my gut, I knew it was Gabe.

  “Our time just got cut way down.” Frank pocketed the sleeper spray as we sped down the corridor. “Goons’ll be here any second.”

  They’d flood the level, but they had to organize and get down here first. We’d be dealing with more Red Beams before that. “Go right!” I cried.

  We skidded around the corner, our boots squeaking loudly. Shade and I ran fastest and ended up in front. Another Red Beam zoomed in from ahead. I got ready to d
uck, but Shade slowed, took aim, and shot it before it got too close.

  We leaped over the debris, parts of the drone still whirring and clicking, its crimson eye wide open and searching for us. Frank kicked it hard as he passed, punting it into the wall. It stopped chirping.

  I glanced back. Pretty soon, actual people would catch up, and they’d be a lot more dangerous than security drones.

  “Come on!” I yelled over my shoulder. Jax was slower than usual because of Caeryssa’s weight, and Frank was hanging back to cover them.

  “How far, Tess?” Shade asked, his alert gaze scanning for threats both ahead and behind.

  “Haven’t you ever been on a DWALSH?” I asked between panting breaths.

  “I’ve never been in the basement of one looking for the spine exit with the Dark Watch about to attack!”

  Yeah. Fair point.

  “I delivered…” He trailed off with a shake of his head. “I didn’t hang around memorizing the layout.”

  No, that was just me, a kid whose only playground was Starbase 12, the original Dark Watch alphabet-level security hub, with all the others modeled after it to the letter—literally. Uncle Nate had written up treasure hunts that encouraged me to search the station from top to bottom for my reward, usually a book. We’d crawled all over that place.

  He’d been preparing me from the beginning, hadn’t he? Memorizing the security hub floor plans, flying Dark Watch 12 from his lap, giving me banned books on the sly, idealizing his and Mom’s birth Sector of 17 in my head until the rebel bastion felt more like home to me than Sector 12 ever did. He’d been giving me the tools I needed to escape Simon Novalight. To fight him. Uncle Nate had shoved me straight into the arms of the resistance via Starway 8.

  My chest started to ache in a way that had nothing to do with bolting down the hallway, each breath more labored than the last. Why did he leave us? Just stop showing up in the months before Mom died? And why did he try to capture me on Starway 8 and then threaten people that I love? He wanted to protect me. I knew that.

  And deep down, I knew why he’d been willing to bring me in. Nathaniel Bridgebane could sacrifice individuals, even me, for the greater good.

  Now, the GIN Project was in motion. Uncle Nate had wanted to keep the Overseer from doing something drastic in search of more type A1 blood by handing over some of mine, but he’d been too late. We both had.

  “We’re close,” I finally answered, my thoughts in turmoil, the next turn in sight. There’d be no going back for Shade’s cruiser. The Queen Bee was lost.

  “We’re all coming out in a cargo attachment from the bottom,” I said for our crews on the ships. A big box with thrusters would have to do for a getaway ship. No clue what was in it. Something useful, I hoped.

  Both temporary captains acknowledged that.

  “You pick ’em up. I’ll run interference,” Asher said.

  Merrick grunted an affirmative response.

  “Go for two if you can,” Sanaa said, speaking for the first time.

  Was she for real? She wanted us to climb the stairs to Lower Y and take another box? What the hell? Not all of us were super soldiers.

  “Damn it!” Frank growled a curse. “All for nothing.”

  All for nothing was the least of it. We’d be lucky to get out of here alive.

  “We’re coming in low,” Merrick said. “Just push straight off, and we’ll attach you as fast as we can.”

  “I’ll catch you, Tess,” Gabe whispered right in my ear, his voice low and intimate and a little bit hoarse. “Just come back to me.”

  I didn’t answer. There was way too much in that request for me to deal with right now.

  I slanted a look at Shade. He stared fixedly ahead.

  We rounded the corner, my heart seizing in fear when shouts to stop and sudden shots chased us around the bend.

  I glanced back. At our rear, Frank spun, stuck his arm around the corner, and hammered off several rounds from his Grayhawk. He sprinted to catch up. “They’re closing in!”

  The last turn loomed ahead. “Left here, then straight to the end!” I took off at a dead sprint, ignoring my aching legs and burning lungs. If I got to the door fast enough, the others might not even have to slow down.

  I ran as if death itself chased me. It did. My nerves frayed a little more with each step, thinning until the raw bits sawed against each other. I finally came up on the exit door to the cargo spine and slowed just enough not to flatten myself against it. Lifting my hand, I pressed the pad of my right thumb firmly into the center of my left palm and touched all five fingers together like a pointed roof over it. A tingle webbed out from the center of my hand, spidering toward my fingertips.

  What I hadn’t told Shade was that I had to activate the AI. Someone just holding my hand up to a lock wouldn’t get anywhere. Body scans wouldn’t pick it up unless it was turned on. The whole thing was disturbingly discreet. A secret weapon—a tool for a spy or a thief. Or a genocidal control freak.

  As soon as my hand went completely numb, I positioned it directly in front of the control panel next to the door. I shook, partly from fear and the fatigue of the run and partly because a piece of my body was being controlled by something other than me right now.

  “Come on!” Anxiety pumped through me and kept my hair on end. Not even the heat and perspiration of running for our lives could keep the sudden chill from my skin.

  I glanced over my shoulder. The others raced down the corridor. Caeryssa clung to Jax’s front like a monkey, her arms around his neck, one hand stretched out and firing. Shade and Frank both turned to shoot, loping sideways and trying to cover each other. Bullets pinged around them, but the goons on their tail were taking cover behind the bend and shooting wildly down the hallway without aiming. I’d bet my ship they were waiting for a swarm of Red Beams.

  I held my gun in my free hand, shifting nervously. Numbers started flashing across the lock’s small screen faster than I could read them.

  The lock beeped just seconds after the override started. This type of control panel used simple badge recognition for workers unloading supplies to this level. Nothing fancy, and even quicker than I’d expected.

  I pushed through and stepped onto the grated metal platform, holding one side of the double doors open. The cold hit me instantly. I shivered. It was pressurized and livable in the open space between the shells, but it sure as hell wasn’t heated like the inner station.

  I glanced up, remembering what Sanaa said about nabbing two cargo holds. Zigzagging flights of stairs and a latticework of unloading platforms climbed above me until the curve of the rounded spacedock cut them off from view. There was definitely no making it to the food storage on the upper tier of the station, but one more level might be doable.

  I turned back to the others. “Red Beams!” I shouted.

  A drone army rounded the corner. Dozens came at us. I could barely see the ceiling. Stun blasts chased my friends down the corridor. They sprinted as though the floor were on fire, and I curved my body around the doorway and shot above their heads. I didn’t have to aim. I just fired and hit things.

  Goons moved in behind the cover of the drones, masks down and shields up. They weren’t taking any chances.

  Jax careened past me with Caeryssa, clipping my shoulder. I righted myself and kept shooting. I’d be out of bullets soon.

  Shade spun around and faced the Dark Watch as the hallway erupted into a war zone. Drones exploded in the air like bombs, raining down sparks and bits of metal. Frank barreled through the doorway next, and Shade brought up the rear, covering everyone’s asses.

  He backed toward us, crimson lasers flashing all around him.

  “Shade!” I cried. “We’re in!”

  He turned and sprinted the final steps. I tried to cover him, but a Red Beam swooped down and fired. A stun blast hit him square in the back and
he toppled forward, one hand reaching through the doorway.

  Chapter 16

  SHADE

  My back is on fire! I clawed at the metal flooring under my fingers and tried to haul myself forward.

  My shoulder didn’t work. The muscles didn’t respond. I couldn’t feel my upper legs, either.

  Tess lunged, grabbed my outstretched arm, and dragged me through the doorway. Where’d she find the strength? I was fucking heavy.

  Jax slammed the door on the stun rays blasting into the loading area. One hit my right calf before the barrage cut off. My body erupted in flaming agony. My whole leg went volcanic, and I sucked in a sharp breath. Then I grimaced as a painful loss of control took over. The inability to move chilled me to the bone. Hot. Cold. Fucking terrifying. It felt like most of my body was missing.

  Frank plugged the electronic lock on our side with two quick rounds, blowing it to pieces. Sparks flew. It went dead just as the doors rattled.

  The heavy thud of bodies pounding against metal drummed in the loading area. Shouts echoed through to us. I’d never been on the wrong side of this shit before. And here I was, living it every day now.

  Someone bellowed. Gunshots rang out on the other side of the door panels. Nothing came through. Were they stupid?

  Tess took careful aim above us. With five shots, she destroyed the locks on the next five levels. She tried for six, but her gun clicked, out of bullets.

  “Impressive.” I looked up at her from the floor, smiling stupidly. My woman thought fast and fought hard. Her hand-to-hand combat was messy and unorthodox, but she could run like the wind and had spectacular aim with a Grayhawk.

  “What are you grinning about?” Tess grinned back at me.

  “Just happy to be alive, starshine.” I was giddy with it.

  “This isn’t over yet.” She crouched next to me and laid her hand on my shoulder. She squeezed, but I didn’t feel it. “Can you move?”

  Barely. “Parts of me work. Help me up and maybe I can hop somewhere.”

  She and Jax pulled me up to standing. I balanced on my left foot and grabbed the platform railing.