by Kathryn Hoff
In a moment, I was careening down Duchess’s dark passages. “Archer? Switch to local channel. Are you all right? Do you have the stunner?” Babs would hear us, but I couldn’t help that.
“Done. Yes and yes.”
“Great. Our odds just got better. Go look after the rockets. And Archer—when you find that Troy guard, stun him.”
CHAPTER 25
Deal with the devil
I ricocheted past the silent cabins where the dead reposed, past the mess hall with its frozen drinkers, past the command deck where Duchess’s captain and first mate kept icy vigil. I propelled myself up the ladder and into the gunner’s turret—the one place where I could see what was going on.
The Troy militia cruiser’s airlock remained linked to Duchess’s starboard hatch. Mudpuppy was grappled onto Duchess’s port side near the now-useless airlock, next to the hole I’d blasted in Duchess’s hull.
Surrounding the trio of ships, the velvet darkness of the Gloom.
Flashes from the cruiser’s gun ports made my heart race faster. Where was Sparrowhawk?
A shout and the zing of a stunner came over the mic.
“Got him,” Archer said. “Poor bastard, he’ll be out of it for a while.”
“Good. Stick him somewhere safe. I’ll let you know if we need to fire rockets.”
Something big arced over my turret—Sparrowhawk, swift and silent, her battered hull rotating as she powered by. I caught a fleeting glimpse of Hiram at the helm, grinning like he was on a picnic. And in Sparrow’s gun turret—Charity!
Ancestors. I hoped Kojo had told her not to shoot anything. I did not want the death of Troy militia on my conscience.
Flashes marked a brief spurt from Sparrow’s guns. Whether by intention, by luck, or by Charity’s poor aim, nothing hit the cruiser.
I keyed my mic to the hailing channel. “Everyone cease fire. I’m in Grand Duchess’s gun turret. Squad Leader Bell, you’re under my cannon. If you continue shooting, I will destroy your cruiser. Davo, I have Mudpuppy under my gun as well.”
“I’m listening,” Bell replied.
“Kojo, Archer and I are in control of Duchess. Squad Leader, your crewman is unharmed but under restraint.”
Sparrowhawk took position on the other side of the cruiser. I waved to Hiram in Sparrowhawk’s wheelhouse, and to Charity in Sparrow’s turret.
“Glad you’re safe,” Kojo said. “We’re standing by. Cruiser, I repeat, we have no quarrel with Troy. All we want is the derelict and our crew members.” He must be in Sparrow’s engine room—her rockets briefly flared to keep Sparrow at a stable distance from Duchess in the swirling ether.
“Squad Leader Bell,” I said, “recall your crewman from the derelict, terminate your linkage, and go on your way. No one will stop you.”
“Negative. You may have a cannon, but I have a destruct button that will take all of us out. This current is taking us to Barony—and I won’t let my vessel be taken.”
“There’s no need for that. Davo can guide you back to Troy, and I’m willing to send your crewman back to your cruiser with the records cartridge from Duchess. You get to go home a hero.”
“Daddy!” Charity squeaked. “Where are you? Are you all right?”
Davo—I’d been so glad to see Sparrow, I’d forgotten to keep an eye on Mudpuppy. I checked the port side—the skimmer was gone.
Ancestors! “Kojo, watch out for Davo. He works for Tr—”
Davo cut in with, “Grand Duchess is my prize, Mzee high-and-mighty! And she’s going to Troy.”
The skimmer zipped under Duchess and took up position behind Sparrow’s stern. Tracer lights needled from her gun ports. Davo had opened fire at the only place his tiny guns would do damage—Sparrow’s propulsion.
“What in Zub’s name?” Kojo yelled. “Davo, have you lost your mind? Charity’s on Sparrowhawk!”
“Daddy, what are you doing?” Charity cried.
“Don’t worry, girl. These pea-shooters won’t do much to Sparrowhawk except keep her where she is. You can join me once they surrender.”
I called into the hailer, “Kojo, he’s been a spy for Troy all along. Everything he’s said is a lie. Davo, cease fire or I’ll blow you to hell.”
An empty threat—I couldn’t fire at Mudpuppy when she was so close behind Sparrow.
Kojo swore. Squad Leader Bell squawked cease fire orders.
Sparrow’s propulsion lit up. My heart thumped in my chest as I willed her to move faster, to get away from Davo’s guns.
Another spurt of gunfire from Mudpuppy. Sparrowhawk spun away, her unbalanced propulsion sending her into a spiral.
Damn Davo! I hit the cannon’s fire control to send Davo and Mudpuppy to oblivion, where he belonged.
The concussive canister left the cannon—
—and drifted slowly away.
The tiny lights on my weapons console faded and died.
Burzing power mod, completely drained.
For a moment, the coms were completely silent.
Squad Leader Bell broke the quiet with a mocking laugh. “That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? Gunner, detonate that canister. Then target that derelict’s gun turret.”
I grabbed what I needed from the munitions locker and vacated the turret, fast.
On the dark command deck, I squatted next to the dead captain, peering out the canopy in time to see the concussive canister detonate in a shimmer of light. I called into the com on the helmet-to-helmet channel, “Archer, brace.”
A moment later, the shock wave from the concussive threw the joined cruiser and Duchess backward and drove Sparrowhawk farther away.
Another stutter of flashes from the cruiser’s guns splintered the turret where I’d just been, shattering it into a silent cloud of debris.
“Patch, what’s happening?” Archer called. “Is Sparrow all right? What should I do?”
“Stand by. Sparrow’s limping, but…”
Davo’s hail broke in. “All right. Now we got the stupid heroics out of the way. Kojo, I figure you’re pretty desperate over there, with only you and Hiram to man Sparrowhawk. Your propulsion’s crippled, you’ve got no engineer, and you know Charity won’t fire on me, so you’re toothless. If you want to survive, grapple onto Duchess and help me take her to Troy. If you don’t, Sparrowhawk and everyone on her can die, lost in the Gloom.”
Kojo snapped back, “That’s means Charity, too, you bastard.”
“Charity, if they don’t surrender, just put on a suit and go to the airlock. The cruiser will take you in. Kojo and Hiram will be busy—they won’t stop you.”
Charity sobbed into the com. “Daddy, I don’t understand. I don’t want to go to Troy.”
“I’ll explain it all later, when we get home.”
Time to play my last bargaining chip. “Davo, I know what you’re looking for on Duchess and I know where it is. Let us and Sparrowhawk go, and I’ll tell you.”
Davo’s cackle came through the mic. “Ah, you’re an interfering one, aren’t you, girlie? I don’t need your help. Once I get Grand Duchess into Troy space, I’ll have all the time I need to search her proper. Archer, you listening?”
“Davo…”
Davo cut Archer off. “You’ll cooperate, too, or I’ll leave Sparrowhawk here to die. Maybe I’ll come back and salvage her in month or two. Now, boyo, turn Duchess’s rockets to two-seven, one-second burst, then steady her so Sparrowhawk can grab hold.”
At Davo’s direction, Sparrowhawk began to come around to join Grand Duchess. I watched helplessly as Sparrow foundered, all out of balance, slowly nearing Duchess’s portside hull.
Watching Sparrow bobbing in the turbulence like Archer on an off day, I’d taken my eyes off the Gloom beyond Duchess’s stern.
“Davo, you thrice-damned son of a Selkid fungus eater!”
A small ship sped out of the dense ether—Nemesis. Lili sounded mad enough to rip Davo apart with her bare hands.
Nemesis’s guns spattered fire over th
e skimmer’s hull.
A silent explosion glittered from Mudpuppy’s forward section. Her hull was breached—Davo would have to surrender or die.
Charity screamed, “Daddy!” Sparrow’s gun emitted a burst in the general direction of Nemesis but so wildly off-target that I instinctively ducked.
The com blazed. “Damnit, Lili, forget Davo!” Kojo shouted. “Target the cruiser’s link to Duchess. Separate them!”
Nemesis dodged toward the cruiser.
I called gleefully to Archer, “Lili’s come! The odds just got better.”
A well-placed shot from Nemesis severed one of the three grappler struts holding the Troy cruiser to Duchess’s starboard side. The blast sent the cruiser pivoting, straining the remaining struts.
But movement on the port side caught my eye.
Mudpuppy’s hatch opened. A single figure in an enviro suit launched himself out the hatch and into the space between the skimmer and Duchess.
Sparrow and Nemesis were busy with the cruiser. The com channels were jammed with Bell’s furious shouts, Lili’s curses, Kojo’s calls to Bell to cease firing, and Charity’s frantic cries.
No one but me was in position to see Davo escape his skimmer and head for the hole in Duchess’s side.
I keyed the local com. “Archer, find someplace to hide. Davo’s coming aboard.”
“Don’t worry,” Archer answered. “I’ve got the stunner.”
Oh, Archer. Someday I would have to explain to Archer about stealth and combat and shared com frequencies between helmets. Now Davo would know that we had only the one stunner, and which of us was unarmed. And he’d surely guess that Archer was in the engineering section.
Davo answered with a cackling chuckle. “Got a stunner, do you, boyo? Well, that’s fine. So do I.”
“All deals off,” Squad Leader Bell broadcast. “Our guns are trained on Grand Duchess. We’ll rip her to pieces along with everyone aboard unless someone takes us back to Troy.”
“No worries, Bell,” Davo drawled on the hailer. “I ain’t dead yet. I’m on the derelict. Shoot up them other ships as much as you like but leave Duchess alone whilst I take care of the two pests aboard her. Shouldn’t take long.”
“Understood, Davo.”
Another voice came on the local com. “Davo? This is crewman Babs—I’m aboard the derelict, locked in the head. Let me out and I’ll help you take control.”
“All right. Stay quiet and bide a bit.”
In the battle to control Grand Duchess, me and Archer were pitted against Babs and Davo. Our odds were not looking good.
Worse, my oxy gauge showed only forty minutes of air left in my suit—and Davo would have a full oxy supply. My stomach sank.
Weapons. I needed weapons.
I looked around the bare command deck, under the glittering eyes of the frozen captain and first mate.
Time to defend Grand Duchess.
CHAPTER 26
The battle for Grand Duchess
In the absolute darkness of my chosen hiding place, I positioned my few weapons where I could reach them, each one held in place with a spot of Prestoseal.
Wait.
The coms were filled with threats, curses, and gunfire. I strained to hear other sounds—sounds that might tell me where Davo was.
“Lili, damn you, watch where you’re shooting!” Kojo cried.
“Stay out of my line of fire!” she tossed back.
With my helmet and wrist lamps off, the darkness covered me like a cocoon. No glimmer to stimulate the eye, no gravity to provide an orientation—it was like dreaming of a cloud in endless night.
Wait.
I stared in the direction of the lightless passage, the lack of sensory stimulation lulling my eyes into imagining moving shapes and flashes of color. My gloved hand tightly clasped the door frame—it anchored me in place and, more important, in a tangible reality.
The sense of menace oppressed me more strongly than ever before: the dead’s unfiltered hatred of the intruders stalking Duchess’s passages.
Wait.
My com picked up more chatter between ships, Kojo coordinating with Lili. Squad Leader Bell’s cruiser had detached from Duchess, and Kojo urged the squad leader to stand down, promising to let her go. Bell told him to go to hell.
Davo’s gravelly cough sounded over the local channel. “I know you’re there, girlie.” The helmet mic gave me no clue where Davo might be.
“Try and find me,” I said.
Wait.
Through the enviro suit’s glove, my sweating hand picked up a tiny vibration. It could be a bit of debris or a stray shot hitting the hull. Or it could be an enemy, blundering into bulkheads as he tried to navigate the lightless passage.
Wait.
“You know, I really liked old Kwame.” Davo’s voice was as calm as if he were strolling the decks of his own ship. “Kojo’s got his looks, but you’ve got his savvy, girlie. I wanted him for Troy, you know. If he’d teamed up with me proper, we woulda been a force to be reckoned with. Barony wouldn’ta known what hit ’em.”
“I’ll bet it didn’t take him long to see through you,” I said.
Wait.
A light flashed from the far end of the passage, only for an instant. The moment of illumination would have been just enough for a stealthy intruder to get the layout of the passage.
Wait.
Davo’s voice grated like a rusty hinge. “The problem with Kwame was he didn’t have the heart for it. Too weak for any passing pretty face that took his fancy. No dedication. You’re just like him that way, girlie. You don’t stand for nothing.”
Another vibration, a little stronger. My eyes strained to see something, anything.
That wasn’t good. If the intruder was approaching, his next flash of light would blind me.
I forced my gaze away from the passage.
Wait.
“He was loyal to his family,” I said. “Loyal to his crew. That’s not something you would understand.”
“I’ll take care o’ Charity, don’t you worry. She may not have the skill to nav as good as me, but Troy always needs pilots.”
“She has her own plans. They don’t include you.”
Another brief flicker of light, gone so fast it might have been imagination.
Wait.
“You might as well give up now, girlie. I got more air’n you. All I got to do is bide my time and Duchess is mine.”
“Good at that, aren’t you, Davo? You never face a live enemy, never take a chance. Well, I have news for you. I’m not waiting around to die. I’m hunting you.”
Let him worry and look over his shoulder.
Wait.
The flicker of light, no more than a couple of strides away.
Wait.
“Gotcha!” Helmet lamp flashing on, Archer flung himself into the passage, a little forward of my position.
Tzing! His stunner fired…
…and drove Archer backward, heels-over-ass. Poor Archer. Really not adept at zero grav.
Nevertheless, he’d hit his target. The enviro-suited figure in front of my doorway grunted as he was propelled backward.
Archer’s stunner soared up the passage as he flailed at the bulkhead, trying to find something to grip.
As he tumbled, Archer’s circling helmet lamp swept over the passage and his victim. The stunned, weaponless body bounced aft.
Crewman Babs, shot by Archer for a second time, was having a really bad day.
As Babs bounced past a cabin door, Davo peered out from where he’d been lurking. “Forgot to brace yourself, didn’t you, boyo?”
He raised his stunner, pointing it at Archer’s circling lamp.
I braced—against the mess hall ceiling as I shoved one of the frozen brandy-drinkers at Davo. The man’s stiff body, still in slouched-in-the-chair posture, cartwheeled down the passage.
A shot from Davo’s stunner deflected the corpse, but by then I’d tossed another frozen body at him.
&n
bsp; The second brandy-drinker hit Davo hard enough to drive him into the bulkhead. The old man still had a grip on his stun pistol, though.
Time for Grand Duchess’s captain to do his job and defend his ship.
I grabbed my weapon—the empty brandy bottle—from its Prestoseal berth. Holding the captain’s bent form in front of me like a shield, I launched myself down the passage.
Davo’s stun shots went wide, doing no more than clipping the captain’s leg.
The captain didn’t feel a thing.
When I got close enough, I braced myself against the ceiling. With all my strength, I swung the bottle onto Davo’s shooting arm.
The dead crew seemed to cheer with vindictive glee.
The frozen bottle shattered into a zillion slivers, shredding Davo’s sleeve.
“Damn you,” he gasped, clasping a hand over the breach. A pink mist of freezing air, moisture, and blood leaked from between his fingers.
“Now who’s low on air?” I sneered. “Archer? Are you hurt?”
“I’m all right.”
“Get the stunners and bring Babs to the survey room. It’s time to end this.”
I hailed the three circling ships. “Squad Leader Bell, we have Davo and your crewman in custody on Grand Duchess. Cease fire immediately and you can have them back and go on your way.”
“Negative. I won’t allow the information—”
“Quiet. I’m going to destroy Duchess’s survey banks. Barony will never get that burzing information you’re so worried about. And you can have Davo, so he can get your squad home to Troy. That’s what you want, isn’t it? All we want is the derelict.”
And once we returned Grand Duchess and her ghostly crew to Barony, Lili would get her crew members free from Barony’s prison. Most important, Nemesis and Sparrowhawk would split the bounty.
Davo gasped, “Bell, don’t…”
I nudged his injured arm, making him squawk, and switched to the local com. “Shut up, Davo, or I’ll break your other arm. I’m giving you a chance to be a hero one more time by saving Bell’s squad. Cooperate and I won’t tell Charity what a monster you really are.”
