Annoyed, Ramya looked around, her heart freezing the moment her eyes fell on the sole dirt-encrusted window in the room.
Two bright lights—one white and the other reddish—shone in the darkness outside. She was looking at stars! And that wasn’t right. They were supposed to be in the SLH and the fake scenery screens were supposed to be on every window. That was how it had been when she had slept—the standard bright picture of a mountainside covered with flowers had flashed on. But now she could see the stars outside, which meant that they had fallen out of the SLH. That couldn’t have been according to plan. The plan was to go all the way to the system nearest to Posci and then jump out. They couldn’t have reached near Posci so soon.
Gripping the M-gun tighter, Ramya rolled out of bed, her legs a tad unsteady under her as she slowly walked to the door. She slinked outside without much noise, the M-gun ready in her hand. Ramya had never seen the main lights in the corridors turned down so low. Something was definitely wrong. Heart thudding, she scanned the corridor, which was dimly lit by the standby light. She placed her back flat against the wall and tried to think.
That was easier said than done. Her heart was thrashing against her ribs as if hell-bent on jumping out of her body, and thoughts zoomed past in a wild rush before she could pause on one and vet it thoroughly. She tried as hard as she could, breathing in with all her might, until the slight metallic air settled in her lungs and weighed her heart down.
Ahool’s room was the nearest place from here, but Ahool would be of no help. He was too young and he didn’t know the Endeavor well enough. She had to find one of the original crew. That meant crossing the width of the ship since all of the old crew had quarters on the other side of the COM.
The COM! That was where she had to go. Fenny had to be there, as well as Wiz. They had to have answers. Clutching her gun with both hands, she tiptoed along the cold, dark corridor, pausing every now and then to check around her before starting again. Her fingers were as cold as ice and her forehead was covered with sweat when she finally reached the entrance of the COM.
The door was open and shadows flitted across the entrance. People were talking inside, but Ramya couldn’t recognize the voices. She pressed against the wall and tried to listen.
“We came out far too soon,” a woman’s voice said. “You should’ve waited. I told you to wait.”
A man scoffed in response. “This is an iffin ancient ship, Lolo. I don’t know what half of these shitty controls do.”
Lolo! She was one of the mercenaries Fenny had sought help from at Nebeca. Which probably meant the other voice was of the man, Bo.
Her heart dropped at the realization. Whatever these two were up to couldn’t be good.
“That’s why you should’ve forced the pilot to work for us,” the woman, Lolo, hissed. “Not conk him out cold.”
The pit of Ramya’s stomach fell out. They hurt Wiz. Did they kill him? She had to find out.
Ramya whispered a quick prayer and braced for a quick peek.
“Please, let them be looking away from the door,” she muttered a few times. Ramya inhaled deep. She was just about to lean forward when she saw the shadows turn darker behind her. Ramya froze for an endless second before whirling around. She knew it was too late already, but she swung anyway, the M-gun in her trembling hands pointed into the dark.
“Rami, stop, it’s me.” The whisper was urgent, fearful, and familiar. Ramya’s arm dropped.
“Fenny?”
Fenny scooted to her side. “What’s going on?” she asked in a rushed whisper. Ramya told her what she had found out and Fenny gave out a low anguished cry. “It’s my iffin fault. I should’ve never—”
“We have to fix this,” Ramya cut her off. “That’s all that matters.”
Fenny nodded ruefully. “We’ve got to find better weapons,” she said, waving the blaster in her hands. “I’m sure those iffers have cannons.”
Ramya raised an arm to shush Fenny. Someone was speaking again in the COM. They had to find out what Bo and Lolo were planning. Ramya couldn’t catch what Lolo said, but she heard every word Bo uttered.
“Stop freaking out,” Bo snapped. “We’re just one system off our original plan. They’ll take a little more time to find us, but they will find us. They’ll come. We just have to keep this piece of junk under control until then. It’s that simple.”
Ramya exchanged a quick look with Fenny, panic raising a swift head in her guts. Who was Bo talking about? Someone was coming to meet them? But who? And why were they coming after the Endeavor?
“What in the hell do they want with this bag of bolts?” Lolo said. “If I were settling scores, I’d just blast it off the face of the universe.”
“There must be something valuable on it,” Bo replied. “I would’ve found it out, too, if that shriveled old captain didn’t throw us out of the hold during the meeting.”
“You’re right, there has to be something important in here. They’re paying us far too well to just take over the ship. I didn’t get half us much when I killed a shop full of people on Coroni.”
Terror and realization hit Ramya like a flash of lightning, sending a stream of shivers up her spine. The Stryker! Someone . . . whoever had sent these thugs had their sights set on the Stryker.
But who could’ve sent this pair of cold-blooded killers? Her father? Could Trysten Kiroff be double-crossing Captain Milos?
Fenny nudged her elbow. “Come on, Rami. Let’s move,” she said. “We need weapons to put up a fight.”
Fenny fell back a few steps and Ramya followed. They tiptoed back to the ladder and clambered down to the lower level. They reached the weapons hold without incident.
“I hope they haven’t changed the locks,” Fenny muttered as she keyed in the code on the door, exhaling with relief when the door slid open.
A shadow leaped across the room even before Ramya could blink. A Stunner gun, its barrel the size of an oversized human arm, was thrust into their faces. Ramya would’ve screamed but she recognized the man behind the weapon quickly enough. So did Fenny.
“Ross?” Fenny croaked.
“You?” Ross blurted at the same time. He gestured at them frantically. “Get in here, quick.”
Barely had the door closed behind them before all three started speaking in unison. Ross had been at the engineering bay with Flux when the Endeavor fell out of the SLH. He had asked Flux to stay put while he checked out the COM. There he found out the two mercenaries had taken over. Unarmed and unequipped to do anything, he had come to the weapons store.
“I was at the hold with . . . Vi,” Fenny said. “What about the rest of the crew? The captain?”
“I’m sure those thugs locked them in.”
“My door wasn’t locked,” Ramya said.
“I don’t think they considered anyone on the starboard side to be of any threat,” Ross said. The idea made sense even though it was a little demeaning. All of the older crew, including the captain, had quarters on the port side, and the rooms on the opposite side had been allotted to newcomers. Ramya and all the Mwandans boarded there.
“That’s a problem,” Ramya said. “What if one of the Mwandans come out of their room like me? They’d get killed.”
“We have to warn them,” Ross said. Pressing on the buttons of his comm, he frowned. “I think they’ve shut down our communicators.”
“We’ll have to get the captain out,” Fenny added.
“Let’s grab some weapons and split up,” Ross suggested. “I’ll go check on the Mwandans. You and Rami talk to the captain. We have to get out of here before their back-up arrives.”
Ramya and Fenny strapped on body armor quickly. Fenny picked up a Meson cannon from the shelf. “Bo has one of these.” She gave a disgusted shake of her head. “I should’ve never trusted those iffin pieces of filth.”
“You sure have judgment issues,” Ross said sourly before turning to Ramya. He pointed at the M-gun in her hand and frowned. “Where did you get that?
”
That he’d notice the gun or recognize it as not one from the Endeavor’s store surprised Ramya, but guilt came before answers. The M-gun was yet another thing she had quietly brought aboard the Endeavor and hidden from its crew.
“I-I had it when I got on the ship,” she explained, barely able to hold on to his questioning gaze.
“Get something bigger,” Ross said simply. He didn’t seem to care about the M-gun, or maybe he was too angry to talk about it. Either way, this wasn’t the time to linger on the issue. Making a mental note to speak to Ross about it once they had the situation under control, Ramya tucked the M-gun into the holster strapped to her leg. It would make a good sidearm. She scanned the shelves and settled on an Oori, a rifle she had carried on her first trip to the cargo hold. Ross shook his head right away.
“That’s useless against these people,” Ross said. He picked a large assault rifle and handed it to Ramya. “This should be good.”
The rifle was heavy, much heavier than the Oori. But Ross was right—Bo and Lolo and whoever was coming were likely armed to the teeth. She had to have something effective.
“All set?” Ross asked after they’d checked the weapons and filled their pockets with extra clips.
As soon as they nodded Ross pressed on the door switch. The panel slid open slowly. The corridor outside was just as quiet and dark as it had been a few minutes ago. But the quiet lasted for just a second. Lolo’s sniveling face swung into view, her muscled arms cradling a Stunner rifle that she aimed squarely at them.
“Oh, hello,” she said in a bone-chilling voice, baring a set of yellow, pointy teeth. “Going somewhere?”
19
A CRACKLING SOUND out of the Stunner tore the momentary silence into shreds, discharging a wave of electricity into the weapons store. From the size of the Stunner, they’d be incapacitated for ten minutes at least if hit, Ramya guessed. Ross ducked and Ramya threw herself to the ground behind him. The air above them hummed.
A blast ripped out of Fenny’s cannon even before Ramya hit the floor. Lolo flew backward. She hit the wall and crumpled in a heap to the floor, her shoulder spewing blood. Undaunted, Lolo whipped her sidearm out and raised it, but Fenny was quicker.
“Take this, you iffin rat,” she hissed before unloading another round of cannon fire on the woman’s torso. Lolo’s armor would have held up against the fire for a bit, but one shot found its mark on the woman’s neck, tearing it apart. Blood sprayed on the wall behind her and the woman collapsed.
“She’s dead,” Ramya whispered, trying to keep her body from shaking. She’d never witnessed anyone getting killed. It had happened too quickly, but as she stared at the woman’s remains, a buzz grew in her ears, and for a second or two she could barely feel her limbs.
“Rami!” Fenny called. “What’s wrong? Are you hit?”
“She dead,” Ramya repeated.
“Yes, she’s dead,” Ross snapped. “If Fenny hadn’t got her, you or I would be dead instead. Would you prefer that?”
No, but all that blood, pieces of flesh stuck on the wall, the suffocating smell of gunpowder and burning flesh . . . they didn’t make for an easy situation to handle.
“Lolo?” Bo’s voice crackled out of the dead mercenary’s armor, probably out of a built-in communicator. “Where the hell are you, Lolo?” he growled.
Ross rose to his feet stealthily and gestured at Ramya and Fenny to head toward the captain’s room. Weapons ready, they crept forward along the long cold corridor. Ross went the other way to round up the Mwandans. Not more than twenty steps later, a loud clanging noise made Ramya jump.
“What’s that iffin noise?” Fenny muttered, falling back toward Ramya. They saw Ross in the distance, frozen in his tracks.
They might’ve stood there for mere seconds but to Ramya it felt like an eternity had passed before Fenny whispered in a rush, “I know what it is. Come on, Rami,” she said, and broke into a sprint toward Ross.
Ramya followed. She had no clue what Fenny had suddenly realized, but Fenny knew the Endeavor more than she did. Right now, Fenny, after having killed that mercenary, was the undisputed leader. Fenny skirted the blood-spattered floor around Lolo and ran up to Ross. As Ramya joined the duo, careful to keep her eyes off Lolo’s battered corpse, the clanging sound came again. This time, it seemed louder.
“That’s the sound of the main hatch opening, Ross,” Fenny said in a breathless voice. “What is he trying to do? Throw all of us out?”
Ross stared at Fenny, worry in his eyes swiftly turning to fear. Then he shook his head. “If that’s what they wanted, they would’ve done that sooner,” he said. “Anyway, no point talking about it. Let’s go up to the main deck and check out the hatch.”
Endeavor’s hatch, like most all spacecraft, was a double-layered system. The inner door opened into a small cabin—an airlock—the other end of which opened to the outside. If anyone went outside when the ship was in space, they had to walk into the hatch in a spacesuit, and follow a strict pressurization protocol before they could come back in. Ross had to go out once to fix a capacitor box, the only time Ramya had seen Endeavor’s hatch opened out in space.
What the hell did Bo have in mind?
Dread rising like an acrid surge in her throat, Ramya followed Fenny and Ross. Why would anyone open the hatch in the middle of dead, cold space?
Ross led them to the main deck up the ladder. He peered down the corridor on both sides before signaling them to follow. They went up another ladder to a catwalk that ringed the hallway around the main hatch. This was a maintenance path, not the direct road leading up to the hatch that Ramya had always used. She had seen Flux tinker around with the heater units up here. Now they walked around bulky equipment until they reached the end of the elevated walkway. Ross dropped to one knee next to a staircase that led down to the main level and raised a fist, signaling them to stop.
Ramya and Fenny kneeled behind Ross and peered. The deck below was empty, but the clanging—now louder because of their proximity to the hatch—continued from time to time.
“What’s going on?” Ramya asked.
“Bo’s opening the hatch remotely from the COM,” Ross replied. “They’re fitting a boarding bridge on the other side, I’m sure. ”
The thumping of Ramya’s heart rose to a mad beat. A boarder or a boarding bridge—a simple, short tube connecting one craft to another through an air locked interior—was just as ominous as it was effective. Pirates used them to storm disabled ships, Ramya knew that, but even the thought of it happening to Endeavor was gut-churning.
Fenny thumbed at something behind them. “There’s a porthole back there. I’m gonna take a look outside.” She crept away as Ross and Ramya hunkered. Fenny was back in a second; her face was carved out of stone. “You’re right. There are three ships outside. One’s trying to dock.”
“Pirate ships?” Ross asked. “What faction?”
Fenny shrugged. “I didn’t see any marks, but they’re all Scuttlers for sure.”
Scuttlers were medium-sized spacecraft favored by space pirates. They were cheap because they could be purchased as a bare-bones craft, which could then be customized. Scuttlers were often fitted with boarders—tubes that would attach directly to a ship’s hatch—that were used to enter a spacecraft they had attacked and disabled.
“Damn!” Ross said under his breath. “Who knows how many are in that ship.”
“What’s the plan?” Ramya asked. She wasn’t sure if having a plan would help given the odds stacked against them. Even if they could stop one ship, what about the others?
“Scuttlers usually carry ten to fifteen, so let’s think fifteen,” Ross said. “We’ll pick them off one by one as they enter. I’m going to do that. They’re going to spot us soon. Then they’ll rush us. You two will cut them down. Understood?”
Fenny nodded and moved to the right side. Ramya scurried to the left and found a spot near the mouth of the staircase, forming a rough semicircle along with
Ross and Fenny. She scrunched low, making her body as small as she could.
She noticed movement in the airlock a second before Ross muttered, “Here they come.” A sharp clang and a hiss sounded, and a man with a bright orange hair and leather shorts walked out of the hatch. He was huge, carved entirely out of muscles. Ross pulled his rifle up and nuzzled his eye against the scope. He was fast. Even before Ramya could blink a report rang out and the orange-haired man collapsed on the deck, blood spurting out of the hole on his temple.
Ramya crouched lower as the pirates returned fire. Ross cursed, and Ramya quickly saw the reason. Four pirates charged forward, all of them heavily built and clad in armor. Ross fired, catching the foremost pirate in the chest. He toppled backward, the gunfire impinging on his chest plate, possibly just knocked out of breath. His mates kept charging on until Fenny started shooting.
The deafening blasts from her Meson cannon caught one of the leading pirates in the head and the other in the neck. The third one lunged at the stairs, swiveling around the metal banisters as he leaped upward like a giant ape. Within seconds, he had reached the rails in front of Ramya, his chunky gloved hand landing with a thud on the metal.
Ramya scooted backward. Someone shouted, “Just pull the trigger, Rami!”
She would, if she could keep her hand from shaking.
The pirate swung upward, raising his sidearm as he came into view.
“Rami! Now!”
Ramya clenched her teeth and squeezed the trigger. The bullets got him in the face, and he flew backward, spewing blood as he toppled down the stairs.
“Damn, they’re getting through,” Ross shouted as Ramya heaved to catch her breath. The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder, her vision blurry from the acrid smoke. “Cover me, Fenny. I’m going to chase them down. Can’t have them reach the COM,” Ross shouted, bounding over Ramya and hurtling down the stairs. Fenny sprinted behind him.
Two pirates darted out of the hatch, guns blazing, when Ross and Fenny were halfway down.
“Fall back,” Ross yelled. They fired back at the pirates as they rushed back up the stairs. There was little to shield them on the stairs. The pirates kept advancing.
The First Covenant (Dark Universe Series Book 2) Page 18
