Mercenary Courage (Mandrake Company)

by Lionsdrake, Ruby

  “I can’t tell if that’s the talc freighter from here, but I think those are the mafia thugs,” Ankari said over the squeal of weapons. “I recognize that big fellow slamming the butt of his rifle against that control panel.”

  “He looks bright.”

  “Not every warrior has your smarts.”

  Viktor grunted. “If the mafia came in on the stolen ship, they might have come in using a dead captain’s credentials.”

  A boom rattled the walls and the floor. The crate jumped two inches, and Ankari jerked away, nearly tumbling into Viktor. Clouds of dark gray smoke filled the bay. Shrapnel—or were those pieces of one of the ramps?—flew in every direction, clanging against the walls. A triangular metal shard slammed into the top of the crate, and Ankari ducked, wondering why she hadn’t done that sooner.

  “Fools,” Viktor said—Ankari barely heard his voice over the ringing in her ears. “They’re right next to the exterior hull of the station. They could kill everyone in the bay—and us too.”

  The rapid bangs of the machine gun rose over the last pings of wreckage clattering to the floor. Ankari risked looking out again. The two men at the control panel had left it. Given up? Six other men were racing from their ramp toward a corner of the bay. There had to be another exit down there, but potted plants along the wall blocked Ankari’s view of that corner.

  At least the men were not charging toward her and Viktor. But should she do anything? Try to stop them?

  The androids fell without making noise, so it startled Ankari when a human cry came from the end of the bay. At first, she thought one of the armed men had been hit, but a stray energy bolt had slammed into someone hunkering behind a bench near the wall. At least a dozen other people were trying to hide, as well, but the bay did not offer much more than those slender benches and the infrequent potted plants for cover. One of those plants had already been struck, the pot shattered, with dirt and dead leaves flung everywhere. Seeing that made Ankari think of the man-eating plants she and Viktor had dodged back on Paradise. Unfortunately, none of these appeared to have such qualities, so she could not entice any mafia men over to be munched.

  Besides, the combatants were heading for that corner. Another six crouched on the ramp, firing at the remaining resistance from behind their force field and waving for more of their comrades to escape the ship.

  “What are they doing?” Ankari asked. She could understand trying to hack into the control panel and free the ship. But if they hadn’t been successful at that, what were they up to now? Why take all these men and charge into the station?

  “This isn’t our fight,” Viktor said, even though he did not move from his spot. “Security will be here any second. We should find a closet or stairwell to duck into until they pass and things settle down.”

  Someone else cried out—another civilian caught in the crossfire.

  Despite his words, Viktor growled and leaned around the corner to fire at one of the men racing toward that rear exit. Even though dozens of meters stood between them, his shot blasted into his target with accuracy, striking the man in the shoulder and hurling him to the floor. It wasn’t a killing shot, but he probably hadn’t meant it to be. Those on the ramp might have a force field, but the mafia thugs racing through the smoke toward the rear exit were vulnerable. Viktor fired twice more, blasting armed men in the knees before the combatants realized where the laser bolts had come from. The men providing cover fire from the ramp shifted their aim. Viktor ducked back, pushing Ankari back, as well, before shots streaked past the mouth of their corridor.

  “Not our fight, you say?” Ankari asked.

  “Those idiots are a threat to the integrity of the station, and they’re shooting innocent civilians.” Viktor leaned out and fired twice more.

  An alarm started up from within the bay, and the lighting switched from simulated daylight to a flashing crimson. Had that big brute with the grenade launcher caused structural damage, after all? Or had someone back in the station figured out what was going on and finally sounded the alarm? Either way, Viktor was right. It was time for them to get out of there.

  She backed up, but only made it a step before movement down the corridor caught her eye.

  “It’s too late to leave,” she said, though Viktor had just fired off two more shots and didn’t appear that interested in leaving, anyway. “We have company coming. A lot of company.”

  No less than twenty armored and armed men were running in their direction in two squads, with a pair of androids leading the way, laser rifles clutched across their chests.

  “Step aside?” Ankari asked, wondering if they could avoid being trampled if they pressed themselves against the wall.

  With the alarm wailing and guns still firing in the bay, she didn’t want to go in there, especially if there might be a breach in the hull, one that could expand into a hole that could cause them to be sucked out into space. She glanced up, hoping there was a safety door at the end of their corridor that could be lowered for containment.

  Viktor pushed the crate around the corner, so that it stuck out into the bay, leaving a couple of feet of space between it and the wall. He pulled Ankari down behind it, his pistol in hand as he kept shooting at the armed thugs progressing toward what she could now see was a hatch in the wall. Two had fallen to the deck, clutching at injuries, but most of the men were making it to the exit, even if they needed help from their comrades. That hatch appeared to be more of a service duct than a corridor, but Ankari knew full well the benefits of avoiding public spaces here.

  Viktor blasted one more man in the shoulder before he could duck through the hatchway, but then the first of the station personnel burst into the bay, and he paused.

  “Criminals detected,” one of the androids announced, its metallic gaze shifting down toward Ankari and Viktor. “Secondary objective. Primary objective, enforce quarantine.”

  With those words, the androids sped into the bay, charging straight toward the men on the ramp. Laser fire and bullets bounced off their armor.

  “Glad we’re secondary,” Ankari said over the noise of the firefight.

  More security personnel, humans this time, charged out of the corridor. One flung down a one-foot-wide cube that bounced lightly across the deck a couple of times, then expanded in an instant, creating a six-foot-wide and four-foot-tall barricade. Most of the men dropped behind it, using what had become a solid barrier for protection as they fired over and around it.

  “We should escape now.” Ankari jerked her thumb back toward the corridor. “Let Security handle it.” She wasn’t convinced that their crate would withstand much abuse, especially since the brute on the ramp with the grenade launcher had reloaded.

  Viktor squeezed off several blasts toward that man. He wasn’t the only one firing—all of the security personnel were alternately shooting and pushing their movable barrier closer to the ramp—but he had a different angle. One of his shots bounced off, but the second two breezed past the mafia men’s invisible force field, identifying the edge.

  “I’m going to get closer,” Viktor said. “If I stay by the wall, I can find an angle to hit them around their force field.”

  Ankari gripped his forearm. “Or you can get yourself shot.”

  “Stop them at all costs,” came a shout over one of the security men’s comms.

  “Detain the criminals in the rear,” someone ordered. “We don’t want them at our backs.”

  “Uh oh,” Ankari said. “Is that us?”

  How could those people not have figured out that Viktor was helping?

  Two late-comers jogged out of the corridor. The security officers must have been warned that Ankari and Viktor were behind the crate, because their rifles turned toward them as soon as they came into sight. Ankari found herself staring into the muzzle of a deadly weapon, and her mind went utterly blank. It was so close that her eyes crossed to focus on it.

  Viktor did not hesitate. He flattened Ankari to the wall at the same time as he ki
cked, sweeping with his leg. Even from the awkward position, he managed enough power to knock one man to the side, so that he tumbled against his comrade. The rifle fired and Ankari squinted her eyes shut—it hadn’t belonged to the officer Viktor had kicked, and she was certain the beam would blast into her head. But Viktor’s hands moved almost as quickly as laser fire, and he had knocked the weapon upward as the man fired. He lunged to his feet and tore the rifle out of the officer’s grip. By the time Ankari stood up, realizing she needed to be helping instead of cowering, Viktor had already downed the two men.

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the corridor, but at the same time, another explosive went off nearby. The deck rocked again, and men screamed. The security officers’ portable barrier had taken the full force of the grenade, and even though it had not exploded, it had been flung back, tumbling onto the men hunkering behind it. A second boom followed the first, with so much smoke filling the air that Ankari could not tell what had been struck.

  Two more security officers raced out of the corridor. This time, Ankari was ready. She wasn’t even sure if they meant to attack her, but she would not be startled into stillness a second time.

  She let the first one pass, trusting Viktor to handle him, and slammed her elbow into the gut of the second, throwing all of her weight behind the attack. Her joint met honed muscle instead of soft layers of fat, but even so, he grunted in a great expelling of breath. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to stun him. He recovered, whipping his rifle toward her. Anticipating the attack, she had jumped back as soon as she finished her blow, and she had space for a straight kick. The toe of her boot caught the rifle squarely, and it flew from his grip. He jerked back for an instant, but then growled and lunged for her, pulling his fist back for a punch. She swept her arm up in a block, but his fist never reached her. Viktor had already finished his man, and he grabbed this one by the scruff of the neck. His elbow slammed into her attacker’s kidney, and he dropped, gasping in pain.

  “Hull breach,” came a computerized voice over the bay’s speakers. “Warning. There has been a hull breach. All personnel are ordered to leave Docking Bay Three immediately. The doors will be closed for containment in forty-five seconds.”

  “Happy to leave right now,” Ankari said, stepping over the fallen men and angling for the corridor.

  She scarcely had time to register the four men sprinting at her before Viktor grabbed her and pulled her to the side. At the same time as she was flattened against his chest, orange laser beams sizzled out of the corridor.

  “Why are they shooting at us?” Ankari growled, too frustrated to thank him for saving her—again. She gripped her pistol, almost lunging from his arms to shoot at the oncoming security officers, but if she killed one of them, there was no way she would get her name cleared. Whether she would even be able to leave the station alive would be questionable.

  Viktor’s arm tightened around her, as if he knew what she had been thinking. He pulled her away from the firefight and away from the corridor, heading toward the quiet end of the docking bay. Even down there, smoke clouded the air. He tugged her into the thick of it, and it stung her eyes and nose.

  Two men appeared in the mouth of the corridor, pausing there and sweeping the area with their rifles. Viktor halted, and Ankari gulped, aware of how vulnerable they were out in the open. The smoke obscured everything, but would that be enough?

  One officer’s weapon lurched toward the other end of the bay, where the last of the mafia men leaving the ship were racing toward the hatch. The other officer jerked his rifle toward Ankari and Viktor’s end of the bay. She tensed, ready to spring aside, certain he was aiming at them. But the smoke must have been helping to camouflage them. Someone crawling along the floor near the wall was what had drawn the officer’s eye.

  The woman jerked a hand up, cringing. “Please, I’m just trying to get out.”

  The guard shifted his rifle toward the floor. “Civilians clearing out,” he called back.

  “The doors will be closed for containment in twenty seconds,” came the indifferent update from the speakers.

  “Viktor,” Ankari whispered in warning, even though he must feel the urgency as greatly as she. If they were caught in here when the doors came down, they not only risked being trapped, but some hairline crack in the hull might be about to rupture, exposing the interior to the deadly vacuum of space.

  “This way,” Viktor whispered and led her deeper into the smoke.

  A cold draft brushed Ankari’s cheek. Her stomach dropped into her boots. She could not know if they had passed some vent, or if that was the feel of their air being sucked out of the bay, but she couldn’t help but be certain it was the latter.

  Shadows moved in the smoke ahead of them. Ankari thought they were almost to the wall and hoped Viktor was leading them to a hatch similar to the one the combatants had escaped through on the other side. A clang sounded in the corner, and her stomach did a few more gymnastics. Had someone locked the very hatch she had been hoping to find?

  “The doors will be closed for containment in ten seconds.”

  Ankari was about to sprint for the corner, to check that hatch—if it wasn’t open, she didn’t think they could make it back to the corridor in time—but Viktor launched into motion ahead of her.

  He grabbed one of the figures jogging through the smoke, even as he kicked out at a second, knocking a man in dark clothing to the deck. Confused, Ankari almost stepped on the person. What was Viktor doing? Those people had been running toward a ship, not toward the exit.

  “Get off me you idiot,” someone snarled. The voice was somewhat familiar but Ankari could not identify it.

  “Hurry,” the second man said, rolling away from Viktor. “It’s our chance to get back on the ship.” The man jumped up and ran, leaving his buddy.

  “Was that you who left the graffiti?” Viktor growled at the man on his knees in front of him. “You touch my shuttle, my ship, or any of my people again, and I’ll kill you with my bare hands.”

  In the thick smoke, it was hard to tell, but he appeared to have his hands around the person’s throat.

  “Five seconds,” the speaker announced.

  Ankari had no idea what Viktor was doing, or why he was worrying about this now, but she raced toward the corner, toward where that hatch had better be. If she reached it, she could hold it open for him.

  But he was right behind her. She came out of the smoke enough to see the hatch, and she gasped with relief when she saw it open. Viktor touched his hand to the small of her back, guiding her through the opening. As if she needed encouragement. She ducked and flung herself through, not caring that she stumbled and dropped to the floor. She needed the support of the floor at that moment.

  “All exits are sealing,” the speaker announced, the voice sounding quieter now that Ankari was not in the bay. “Containment will commence.”

  Ankari spun back to make sure Viktor had made it through. Yes, he knelt in front of the hatch, pulling it shut and spinning a wheel to secure it. These definitely were not the regular station doors. Only when a thud of a large lock being thrown sounded did Ankari relax enough to peer around the tight passage they had entered.

  A tunnel with rounded walls stretched inward. The lights in here were flashing red, too, and she could not see far, but she made out the hint of an intersection up ahead. Ladder rungs ran along the walls, suggesting that what was sideways now had been up at one point, or maybe they were there in case gravity went out. A person could pull herself along with the rungs.

  Viktor slumped against the wall beside her. Sweat gleamed on his forehead in the crimson light. Maybe he had been more alarmed by that escape than he had shown. He grunted and lifted an arm. Since this grunt was much more inviting than any of the earlier ones had been, Ankari settled against his side. Nobody should be opening that hatch anytime soon, and Security ought to find a modicum of competence at some point and realize that the real threat had escaped in the other direction
. Maybe all that smoke had obscured whatever cameras were installed in the bay, hiding Viktor and Ankari’s flight here. She hoped so. She also hoped that some footage somewhere would show that they hadn’t had anything to do with the explosives or the people and androids being shot out there.

  “You never stop thinking do you?” Viktor asked, and she wondered what expression she had been wearing as her mind churned. He brushed a few strands of hair away from her face.

  She slid her arm across his abdomen, pleased by the warmth in his eyes. He had seemed distant since the jailbreak, or at least she’d had the feeling that he did not approve of her plan.

  “Only during sex,” Ankari said, leaning her chest against his side and relishing the strong arm around her, “when someone’s distracting my mind with all that delightful kissing and touching.”

  “Someone? Anyone will do?”

  “No, not anyone. Only sexy mercenary captains will do for me now.” She kissed him gently, then she rested her hand on the side of his face and gazed into his eyes, silently asking if they were all right. That morning—had it truly only been that morning?—they hadn’t parted on the best terms.

  “So long as that Sherkov doesn’t count,” Viktor murmured, lowering his other hand to her waist and rubbing her through her shirt.

  “Who?”

  His head tilted to the side. “You didn’t see him running to get onto his ship before the section was sealed off?”

  “I saw you pummel someone, but in the smoke, I couldn’t tell who. It was very confusing when I was trying to escape and you were threatening people.”

  “We had plenty of time.”

  “Sure, we made it through that hatchway with all of point two seconds to spare.”

  “I’m sure it was at least point four.”

  Ankari rested her head on his shoulder. There were a hundred things they should be doing—including figuring out why the mafia men had been charging onto the station, fully armed—but after nearly being caught in that bay, she needed a moment to recover. She wondered if, on the other side of the hatch, that area was even now being exposed to the vacuum of space. When everything was working well, one tended to forget about the perils of interplanetary travel or residing on a station.