And the corner of her vision produced an indication of the soldier’s preparation to bring a fist down on her, his right arm pulling back dramatically as he ignored her weakening attack.
From behind her she heard a familiar voice, still tinged with anger. “Master Floreina!”
She threw herself back from Dithmire, her legs straightening like pistons to force her away from the soldier’s fist flying through the air. Her right foot went up suddenly, catching an opening, as his hand passed just in front of her face, her head springing back to avoid the concussion.
In the same instant, from the top corner of her vision, she registered Mahran’s body, artificially outlined against the nearly black backdrop of the control room, dotted with the colored lights of the computer interfaces. He moved toward her, the weapon clutched tightly in his right hand.
But she did not have time to think of Mahran as the toe of Floreina’s boot connected forcefully with the center of Dithmire’s crotch. But immediately Floreina recognized the give as inconsistent with flesh, recognizing the armor a soldier would have protecting his important parts.
But the shock was enough to knock him backward and off balance for a second as Floreina calculated another option.
“Floreina’s mobile!” Dithmire shouted. “Marteen, Karmine, take her out!”
She turned to race toward Mahran, planning to fake him out with a quick turn, dive around the closest row of computer terminals, snatch his weapon, then terminate him and Dithmire before calculating her shots at the rest of the hostiles.
She scanned for the simple shape of a firearm, seeing, for just a few milliseconds, the figures of several individuals: Karmine and Marteen standing within the pod chamber, weapons raised, but pointed – at least for the next second or two – toward the pod instead of into the other room toward Floreina. Before them, Seleina appeared, for all Floreina’s visual calculations, to be simply lying on the stretcher as though oblivious to everything. The three doctors all appeared to be gone, no doubt hiding on the floor, which was still too dark to make out shapes.
In the control room with Floreina, Garmein was still connected with the computer system, now crawling quickly over the back of the chair for cover.
So for the next few seconds, her combat application told her, she was free to focus on the simple task of combating Mahran and retrieving his weapon.
And as she came back to focus on her slave, his threat level immediately shot upward as she saw his arm straitening, pivoting upward, the abolitionist projectile pistol clutched in his hand.
The thought of Mahran’s own mental implant came to Floreina’s mind, tallying the programs she had purchased for him. Fortunately a targeting system was not one of them.
Floreina stopped and jolted to her left as she saw the artificial outline of the barrel of the weapon as a little circle as it bore down on her.
But no shot rang out as Floreina dodged to her left, seeing Dithmire to her right, moving toward her. Just behind him, Marteen was pivoting on his heel, simultaneously bringing his weapon to his shoulder to turn his attention from Allihence to Floreina.
But within milliseconds, the outline of Mahran’s gun was no longer a simple circle, and became a clearer outline of the entire sidearm.
The weapon moved, as if floating in the invisible sand of a dream, and her visual scans recognized a gap between the outline of Mahran’s hand and the weapon.
Her systems double checked their assessment and returned the same result. Time seemed to stop, as though the gap between Mahran’s hand and the weapon somehow caused a rift, twisting Floreina’s calculations and emotions into something strange and alien, like imaginary mathematics in a foreign language…
But one could not stop the flow of time… and the weapon had already left its owners hand.
Something had changed and there was no going back. It would take another few hundred milliseconds for Floreina to comprehend why… and at this time it didn’t really matter…
As she focused on the pistol sailing end over end through the darkness she simply reclassified Mahran as an ally and instantly began her rotation and distance calculations for her catch.
Her implant guided her hand as it moved up and around the moving object, gliding through the air as though on a precision track, to come down on it as it turned. Her thumb slipped gracefully around the handle and her forefinger slipped through the trigger guard.
Even before having a firm grip, she began her pivot, seeing the hulking figure of Dithmire racing toward her, his fist clenched, raised above his shoulder. Her feet pushed backwards as her arm came up to point the weapon at the soldier, just as he began his swing.
She pulled the trigger, the flash enveloping all of reality in a bright white fluorescence, the entire command center and pod chamber illuminating in sudden, colorful brilliance.
Floreina felt tiny splatters across her face and hands, and as the color faded back to darkness, she noted the bloody hole in the center of the soldier’s face.
But at the same time, she took note of the abolitionist leader, Marteen, just inside the other room, his rifle clutched in his right arm, locking his legs in a defensive stance and taking aim.
Floreina threw her legs out from under her and dropped to the floor as Marteen fired several rapid-fire shots, feeling the heat and air displacement of the projectiles across her back as she dropped forward. Her left palm slapped flat on the floor as she caught herself, her right hand still clutching the Minmatar pistol.
She looked up to make out Mahran, now down on the floor as well, between the two rows of interface desks, crawling toward her. “I can take the technician,” he whispered. “I’ll try to get his rifle…”
Floreina nodded, moving into the gap between the rows of terminals as Mahran crawled past her. “What made you change your mind?” she asked.
Mahran looked back momentarily, flashing an instant grin. “Change my mind about what?”
Another series of quick blasts rang out, piercing the relative calm as Marteen fired another round over their heads. “Floreina!” he shouted. “Stand up and I won’t execute you! We still had plans to allow you to leave alive!”
Floreina choked back a sudden laugh… a tiny emotion; a brief oasis in the dark and terrorizing desert that had been this day.
“Mahran!” shouted Marteen. “Where are you? I don’t see you?”
And Mahran suddenly stopped, to make eye contact with Floreina.
Marteen had apparently not seen Mahran throw the handgun… or was pretending to be oblivious.
“I’m here!” Mahran responded, shrugging questioningly at Floreina.
“Are you hit?”
Mahran paused. “No.”
“Do you see Floreina?”
“No…” Mahran began crawling again, around the second bank of terminals.
“Find her!” Marteen shouted, then fell silent, but Floreina sensed a falseness about his voice. He was most likely aware of Mahran’s double-cross.
She crawled after him as he rounded the last bank of terminals, knowing that either Karmine or Marteen would most likely be moving around this side of the control room to close her in.
“Allihence is still hacking the system!” Garmein shouted as Floreina silently approached his position. “I’m holding her off but I can’t get rid of her! Take her out Marteen!”
“We’ve got other problems right now!” Marteen shouted.
Looking out from behind the final row of interface terminals, she saw the outline of Garmein, crouched on the far side of the command seat, seeing his left hand on his sidearm under the chair. His head remained connected to the computer linkage in the back of the command seat.
Mahran began his charge toward Garmein, launching to his feet, keeping his body tilted forward.
But as Mahran charged forward, Floreina noted another figure leaping from the shadows, just behind Dithmire’s body. Karmine stood over his partner, tracking Floreina with his own weapon and taking aim.
&nbs
p; She rolled, hearing the shots ping off the deck plating to her side as she came against the base of the nearest terminal desk and brought herself upright.
As she maneuvered, her tactical applications took note, from the corner of her eye, of Garmein snapping his head up to look toward Mahran. In the same motion he aimed his weapon. From under the rear of the command seat, Garmein fired a shot, his head peeking out from behind the armrest just long enough to take aim.
Mahran cried out as Floreina pulled herself up to rest against the base of the interface desk. His body fell to the floor and he rolled against the same barrier, just a couple meters beyond Floreina.
Knowing Garmein would be quickly firing another shot, Floreina raised her own weapon, searching for the top of the technician’s head above the armrest. He would need to expose his cranium a moment before firing, and Floreina intended to catch that moment. She looked at Mahran from the corner of her vision as he examined the wound on the edge of his belly, having difficulty gauging the damage or judging the quantity of blood in the low light. She certainly couldn’t stop to help now.
The milliseconds sailed past as Floreina watched and waited for Garmein to make his move, imagining Karmine now advancing toward her along the port wall.
…there was no time to wait.
Floreina went down, bending at the waist and moving her right leg out of her line of sight to allow her head to come almost to the floor, though dangerously far from the protection of the desk.
Mahran brought his own legs inward to avoid her trajectory and she locked in on Garmein’s wrist which held his weapon, but also supported much of his weight, sticking just a little too far out from the base of the seat.
She fired and he yelped in pain, dropping the weapon; but more importantly, the shot threw him off balance. Her body bending forward, nearly resting her chest on the floor, Floreina searched for a second shot.
Garmein’s body teetered as he struggled for balance and for just a moment, a section of his stomach moved beyond the side of the chair, and Floreina, with little more than an automatic blip from her targeting program, fired another shot.
The shout was a pained, gurgling grunt, blending into rapid, incoherent shouts.
And as Floreina watched the bulk of his body come down under the protection of the seat, she could hear Karmine’s pounding footsteps coming toward her from the port side of the control room.
She fired the third round as Garmein’s head dipped behind the protective backing.
But before she could watch to confirm the outline of Garmein’s body slumping lifelessly to the deck plating, Floreina rolled toward Mahran, bringing her legs up to put her feet momentarily on the underside of the desk and draw herself around to face the port side as Karmine leapt into view, bringing his rifle up.
His first shot rang out, piercing the air, producing a blinding flash, and a circular flame in the center of Floreina’s vision.
The shot pinged off the deck plating near Floreina’s head, and even as Floreina found herself contemplating the view of the blast from Karmine’s rifle, never having seen a gun shot from that angle before, her finger was already squeezing the trigger to fire a counter round into Karmine’s chest.
He staggered back momentarily, his weapon hand faltering. He took aim again as Floreina fired another shot into his belly.
Karmine fired off a couple more quick shots, glancing off the deck plating as he attempted to bring his weapon down to focus on her.
She directed her systems to target his face, but could make nothing out after the sudden blinding blast from his weapon. Her night vision needed several seconds to recover. Instead, her targeting system went instinctively for his weapon, guiding Floreina’s hand down to fire a shot into Karmine’s waiting fingers.
His weapon went back and his left hand came up to take it from his right, but as he did, he took a faltering step forward to come into the tiny green light of a monitor.
The outline of his face became visible. Floreina retargeted and fired a single shot into his cheek.
As the body slumped to the floor, Floreina was already moving back to her position against the interface desk. Her back came to rest against the barrier, and she pressed against it for reassurance.
She looked at Mahran momentarily, still holding his side, his eyes looking like gleaming round coins in the darkness as he stared back at her in shock.
“You okay?” she asked as her left foot scrambled across the floor to get a hold of Karmine’s rifle and drag it toward her.
“I’m not sure,” Mahran replied. “I hope the doctors are still alive…”
“Yeah,” Floreina said. “Me too…” Her foot found the weapon and she slid it across the floor to her left hand waiting by her hip. She lifted the weapon, scanning it momentarily to allow her targeting system to familiarize itself with the design.
She dropped the handgun to her stomach for just a moment before transferring the rifle to her right arm and slipped it into the ready position on her shoulder.
Looking at the little projectile sidearm for a long moment, she considered her options for the weapon, and finally handed it back to Mahran. “Just don’t shoot me with this,” she said.
“Don’t shoot the doctors,” Mahran wheezed. “They’re still allied with us…” He took the weapon in his right hand, examined it, and transferred the hold on his wound to his left hand.
“Copy that,” Floreina replied, scanning the space beyond Mahran, along the starboard wall. Marteen would no doubt be approaching in a flanking position on that side similar to Karmine a moment earlier. Floreina motioned for Mahran to watch in that direction and he nodded a quick response. He raised his weapon, trembling awkwardly.
Floreina took a deep breath and turned to move back toward the port wall. But as she brought herself to her knees, a series of rapid, deafening cracks rang out as Marteen sprayed the area with a round of projectiles, hearing the bullets tearing the tops of the interface desks and pounding against the rear bulkhead.
But after a couple seconds the shots went silent, and Floreina knew she would have two or three seconds to react as Marteen’s weapon reset.
Floreina rolled to her feet, bringing herself away from the interface desks. Her body extended as her tracking and targeting systems scanned for outlines in the darkness. Rising quickly to her full height, she brought the rifle to her shoulder.
But she saw no target.
Marteen had most likely ducked below the interface desks as his weapon reloaded and would be popping out any second.
He would expect her to remain low, so Floreina leaped to the top of the desk, swinging her right leg out to catch the edge and spring upward. Her thigh threatened to lock as her injury flared a reminder, but she pushed through the tightness.
She leapt forward again, her left foot landing squarely on a workstation keypad. She leapt again, racing toward the starboard side atop the row of terminals.
Her scans finally returned an outline of a body as she took another leap, Marteen’s head hidden from her line of sight under the last desk.
Floreina jumped as she fired a clumsy, miscalculated shot that coursed over top of Marteen’s body. But as her feet planted into the surface of a monitor screen, his head came into view and her targeting application began drawing her hands into position.
He sprang upward suddenly, his head moving from her targeting crosshairs as he leapt to his feet.
And Floreina squeezed the trigger, sending off a series of bright, flashing projectiles, one every thirty milliseconds, in Marteen’s direction.
Her arm and hand instinctively chased the crosshairs on Marteen’s face as the abolitionist raised his own weapon.
Marteen pulled the trigger just as Floreina’s spray of bullets connected with the body armor on his stomach and chest and moved toward his head.
Shots fired rapidly from Marteen’s rifle, scattering across the floor.
But it fell silent as the succession continued from Floreina’s gun. She wat
ched through the brilliant flashes, repeatedly piercing the darkness, as the projectiles connected with Marteen’s face and tore him apart.
Releasing the trigger she turned atop the desk to look out toward the main pod chamber, just before dropping back to the floor and ducking below the desk.
“Whose left alive?” she shouted. “Addeilon? Pari? …doctors? …Mahran?”
“Still here,” Mahran replied from the other side of the last row of desks.
And Floreina waited a tense moment before Addeilon finally replied with a shout, “We’re here! Doctor Pari is still here too. We took out Seleina and Doctor Stephson when the lights went out.”
“So we’re all allies here?” Floreina shouted.
“I think so…” Addeilon replied cautiously, his shouts echoing nearly incohesively through the chambers. “You took out the four abolitionists? Marteen, Garmein, the two soldiers?”
“Affirmative,” Floreina shouted in reply.
“And Allihence?”
Floreina paused. “Do you have a visual on the captain?”
“Negative!” shouted Addeilon. “Her body is not where we left it!”
“Doctor Pari!” Floreina called, “Do you have a visual on captain Allihence?”
“Uh… no!” replied the doctor, his voice emanating from the dark depths of the pod chamber, not too far from Doctor Addeilon’s voice.
“Mahran, do you know how to lock the captain out of the network?”
“Hopefully,” he croaked. “I had to let her in without a lot of safety checks… hopefully I can get her back out again.”
“Excellent. Let’s get to it.” Floreina began carefully rising to her feet, scanning the room and tracking with her rifle. “Can you get to the command seat to plug yourself in and see what she’s doing?”
“I think so,” he said, his voice shaking.
“Doctor Pari, Mahran has been shot!”
The doctor’s head came up slowly from behind another terminal near Allihence’s capsule. He replied, “I’m kind of afraid to move from my spot here until we get the situation under control!”
Against A Rock Page 28
