by Rachel Aukes
“We face challenges. I can’t retake Atlas because it’s the primary reason behind the invasion. If I cut off their access to it, they’ll likely abandon and destroy the station. As for revoking the lockdown, I need to access the control center on level nine, but we can’t retake level nine with our current numbers. As such, we’ll free as many marshals as we can one at a time and use your plan to overpower the enemy. We’ll start on level seven and work our way up and down to retake the other levels.”
He looked across the faces of the three teams of cadets. They were as inexperienced as they came. Most had never left their colony before arriving on Free Station. They had spirit, but without real experience, they wouldn’t stand a chance against experienced pirates. He’d taken in their skill level when he’d devised his plan. Even so, the odds were stacked against them.
He continued, “This is a spacewalk assignment, so I need all of you to suit up. This mission will be just like you’ve practiced: you’ll spacewalk tethered in pairs for safety. One in each tethered pair will carry a rifle to protect the other. Grab all the gear you need from the bunkhouse armory. Teams Red and Blue, you will spacewalk to the docking bay while evading any cameras. Yes, I know that’s easier said than done. But the cameras are stationary on the walkways and on the airlocks, so if you stay below the walkway, you’ll avoid detection. Once you reach the docking bay, cadets not carrying rifles will secure restraining cables to every ship. It doesn’t matter if it’s one of ours or not—we have to keep the Jaders locked on the station with us. As long as they’re stuck here, they’re not going to blow us up. More importantly, the Jaders have been clearing out our armory. Under no circumstances can we allow those weapons to be in the hands of criminals.”
Red team leader raised his hand.
Chief acknowledged him. “Yes, Yale?”
“Where are the restraining cables, Chief?”
“What are restraining cables?” someone in the crowd asked.
“Every dock has a set. We use them to secure ships that we’ve reclaimed or are being used as evidence. You’ll find them in red-painted compartments below the airlock doors. Each cable can be automatically connected. It’ll take longer, but I need you to manually connect each cable so that no one in the dock, should anyone be monitoring the dock-control screens, will see anything happening. The docking bay has docks numbered one to twenty. Red team takes docks one through ten, and Blue team takes docks eleven through twenty. Not all docks have ships, and a couple of ships, such as the large Chinese seed ship that’s parked outside the station, already have restraining cables. If one team finishes early, help out the other team. Stealth and speed are both crucial to the success of this mission. If you are seen, the pirates will go after you. Even if you’re seen by one of ours, remember that East’s pirates can see and hear everything through the Atlas chips. As soon as you’re finished, return to the bunkhouse. I know it won’t be easy without your Atlas chips, but you’ve practiced all the maneuvers you’re about to perform. You can do this.”
“What about Yellow team?” Numi asked.
“Yellow team will spacewalk a short distance to the evacuation tunnel. You can enter the tunnel at escape pod location eight. I ejected that pod, and you can use the door to enter the tunnel. Be careful. It’s not an airlock, so watch out for the pressure—it’ll try to knock you back. As soon as you’re in the tunnels, I want you to split up and launch all the escape pods.”
He noticed the fear painted on the faces. “I know it’s scary giving up our only way off the station, but ejecting the pods gives us two benefits. One, it closes all the escape routes for the Jaders. Two, Anna East will think everyone in this bunkhouse jumped ship. As long as we avoid cameras, they won’t know how many Peacekeepers pose a danger to them on Free Station.”
“We understand the risks, Chief. We stand behind you one hundred percent,” Numi said.
He made a small motion of acknowledgment. “To launch each pod, all you have to do is hold down the red launch button on the panel next to the pod. When you hear a beep, press the same button one more time. Its doors will close, and it will launch. You’ll have to move as fast as you can. The Jaders will see the launches, and they will go after you. Keep your suits on. When the Jaders enter the tunnels, you can open the bay door with no escape pod by entering the following code: Seven-four-four-seven-four. Repeat that code to me.”
“Seven-four-four-seven-four,” Yellow team said.
“Again,” Chief said.
They repeated the code.
“Good. If things go well, no one will have to fire a shot. If things don’t go well, everyone’s priority is staying alive. If things get ugly, get yourselves into an escape pod and eject. I’d better not see any hero crap out there. Once all the pods are gone, return to the bunkhouse. We’ll grab any gear that can be of use. We can’t give the invaders time to regroup. Any questions?”
“What if we can’t make it back to the bunkhouse, Chief?” someone near the back asked.
“During lockdown, the only airlocks you can access besides the bunkhouse are emergency airlocks. They’re smaller than a normal airlock and are outlined by two red lines. Find one to get back on the station before your suits run out of air. If you can’t make your way to the bunkhouse, find a hiding spot. Any more questions?”
“Which team will you go with?” Yale asked.
“None,” Chief answered. “I’m going to scout the command level for intel. That’s where Anna East and her pirate captains have most likely set up their headquarters. I need to verify that assumption if we’re to launch an attack against them.”
“Take anyone from Yellow team with you, Chief,” Numi said.
Chief held up his hand. “You all have your hands full. I’ll learn what I can and meet you all back here. If for some reason I don’t make it back here, I want you to initiate the first part of your plan. Cut the power to cut the video feeds. Then, instead of launching an attack, you will clear the residence hallways and unlock as many cabin doors as you can using my code. If I’m not here, that means you three team leads—Yale, Numi, and Roxy—will then lead the teams exactly as you’ve practiced in drills. All weapons should be set to lethal. There can be no hesitation. Every life that you take today may save dozens more.”
“Uh, Chief?” Roxy asked.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Most of our weapons are practice weapons. Their maximum settings are stun.”
He scowled, forgetting that fact. “Then stun the hell out of any pirates you come across. I want them on the floor and crying for their mommas.”
Several chuckled and he continued, “The marshals will lead the attack. The Jaders have taken the docking bay and all the levels above it, including the one we’re on. We’ll take back one level at a time. The last I saw, two patrols were causing problems for the Jaders since they docked.”
When no one said anything, Chief said, “Okay, time to suit up. Move out as soon as each team is ready. Remember, stealth and speed come second only to your lives.”
He left the cadets to their preparations. If he’d stayed, they’d find questions to ask, and no Peacekeeper could afford delays. He worried that they might already be too late to prevent the Jaders from leaving.
He left the airlock and moved upward over the smooth white surface, careful to avoid windows and cameras. Minutes ticked slowly by as he flew alongside the outer hull of Free Station. From the outside, the orbital station resembled a massive oceanic submarine, except for the open docking bay near its center and the winding dots of small escape pod bays that climbed from the lowest level of residences to the command level. A row of tiny round windows marked each level, making it easy for Chief to navigate.
He slowed as soon as he reached the command level, where all the officer cabins and offices were in addition to the command center itself. He could see the small window to his cabin several windows away, and he longed for when Free Station would be free once again, and he could lie on his co
t. His arm throbbed constantly, and a tension headache stabbed at his thoughts.
Seeing his cabin infused him with a sense of optimism that he hadn’t realized he’d lost. He activated his boots and gloves and crawled across the surface, careful not to cause any sound. Every time he moved his left arm, it protested. He gritted his teeth and continued. He came to a stop just below the window of the command center.
Movement out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned to see an escape pod shoot out from the station. A second pod followed a few seconds later. He turned back and risked a split-second peek over the edge of the window. He snapped his head back down.
In that split second, he’d seen at least three specialists sitting in front of the screens that displayed feeds from the station’s cameras. Two pirates stood guard behind them. They all had their backs to him, so he risked raising his head again. He frowned. Anna East should’ve been in there, coordinating her plans from the comfort of Chief’s chair. But she wasn’t there. He glowered and scanned the large room, to see garbage and leftover food scattered on the conference table.
His chair was pulled out from its usual location, which made him believe it’d been used. He was about to move to look into nearby rooms when movement in the doorway caught his attention.
Anna East rushed into the room. She had an entourage of four pirates flanking her, all armed with photon rifles. She looked none too pleased as she headed straight toward the screens, where he saw the launch of an escape pod.
East was still on Free Station, which meant she still needed to be physically on the station to complete her work. She either hadn’t contacted the Consortium yet or was still in talks with them. As long as East remained on Free Station, she had a need for it. Assuming the Red and Blue teams were successful in restraining the pirate ships, they would delay East’s departure by at least one hour.
His delay tactics wouldn’t buy them much time, but it’d be enough if they moved fast. He released his connection and pushed off from the outer hull. He used maximum propulsion to return to the bunkhouse. As he made his way, he’d seen at least half of the escape pods had launched so far, and he hoped Yellow team would finish their assignment before East’s pirates reached them.
That hope was squashed when a bay door opened not far from him, and four pirates, none wearing suits, flew out from the opening. A cadet was flung outside through the bay door acting as a pressure valve to the station, but Chief saw they were in their suit. The pirates were firing randomly as they were caught in the vortex, and they continued to fire after death, their fingers frozen on the triggers. The shots sprayed in outward spirals as the bodies still spun. Black burn marks marred the white hull of the station.
Chief’s eyes went wide as one of the dead pirates rotated and fired shots in Chief’s direction.
He tried to evade, but it was impossible to evade a beam that traveled at nearly the speed of light. His suit alarms went off before he felt the wound.
He looked down to see a wound in his side. A mist of warm, moist air and blood droplets teemed out from the hole in his suit. Ice burned at the wound, numbing it but sending spears of frostbite into the surrounding skin. Wincing, he placed his hand over the wound. “Son of a gun.”
He struggled to right himself and get clear of the shooting gallery. He propelled forward too fast and bounced off the hull. He tumbled backward until he felt something latch around him. He struggled, but the grip tightened.
“I’ve got you, Chief,” a woman’s voice said through his suit speaker system.
She positioned him so that he could see her, and he found himself looking at a cadet from Yellow team.
“I’m Murphy with Yellow team,” she said.
“Suit’s—breached,” he said and realized he must’ve had more than one breach since he was running out of air.
“I’ll get you inside. Just stay with me.”
He struggled to hold his hand over the breach he saw, unable to find the other one.
“We’re almost there,” Murphy said.
Her words sounded like they’d been spoken in a wind tunnel. His air and pressure ran out, and he felt the sensation of every cell within him expanding. Sheer agony as the lack of pressure claimed his body like a harpy screams, tearing apart her victim from the inside out.
He saw the open bay door and black tentacles—no, arms—reaching out to him. He suddenly felt weight again. Two cadets grabbed him and were running with him. He would’ve cried out at the jostling, but he still had no air. His body was burning him from the inside out. He could no longer see and only vaguely felt being dropped onto a floor. As time passed, his anguish lessened into general pain. He sucked in a deep breath, and the air wrapped his lungs in barbed wire. His body burned from the cold vacuum it’d been exposed to, and it took an eternity before his eyes focused and his ears deciphered the sounds around him as words.
He meant to ask a question, but all he was able to do was emit a grunt.
“We’re getting you patched up, Chief.” Murphy’s voice reached him.
He found he could move his head again, though his tension headache was now a full-on migraine. He saw three cadets, though he was seeing double, so he couldn’t be sure.
He heard a masculine voice. “The tunnel was exposed, so we had to get you onto an escape pod, Chief. As soon as we get your wounds stable and your suit taped up, we’ll bring you back to the bunkhouse.”
Someone else spoke. “Of all the lousy luck to get shot by a dead man.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Anna East squealed in glee as she watched the video footage of Chief getting shot.
“I told you that I had things under control,” Pete said.
She turned to see him stroll into the command center. “You still have a long way to go to achieve what I consider ‘under control.’”
He walked toward her. “Chief’s been killed, Free Station is completely under your control, and the Atlas records are being changed as we speak. You have everything you want.”
“I have only the tiniest portion of what I want. What I want is to have proof that every marshal in this system is dead, especially Throttle Reyne. I want to see a thousand chunks of Free Station burn up in Hiraeth’s atmosphere after it explodes. And what I want most of all is to see the Ross system established as the Jade system, free of Sol control!”
The Peacekeeper specialists she’d forced to run the screens shot glances at her when she spoke of Free Station’s pending demise. She tried to ignore them.
“You’ve accomplished more than any of us ever dreamed. We should leave now and blow the station. That’ll wipe out ninety percent of the marshals in this system. I’ll go after Throttle after this, and I’ll bring her to you—there are only so many places someone can hide. Then all you have to focus on is that politics stuff.”
She stiffened. “That politics stuff is what will allow Jade-8 to expand beyond an orbital space colony to something more.”
He held up a hand as though to placate her. “I get it. You’ve got a bigger appetite than I do when it comes to power. But we’ve already gotten nearly everything we’ve wanted from this station. The longer we stay here, the more likely some marshals will get wild ideas about trying to make some kind of heroic last stand against my men.”
“You mean my men,” Anna corrected. “I’m the one who pays all the bills.”
“With the loot that my crews bring home,” he added.
“We’re not leaving, and we’re not changing the plan,” she said. “When the marshals all come home to roost, then we can blow the station. Not before.”
He pursed his lips. “You’re going to get us both killed with that sort of thinking. We need to cut and run. It’s time you start listening to me.”
She saw his hand move closer to his holster, and she nodded to his crew members who’d been serving as her bodyguards. They all pulled out their guns at the same time Pete unholstered his. Pete aimed his gun at Anna while his crew aimed at
their captain.
“If you shoot me, you’re dead before you turn around,” she said.
He scowled at his crew before turning back to her. “How much did you offer them to turn on me?”
Her lips curled upward. “More than you could.” She sobered. “Lower your weapon.”
He hesitated before holstering his gun. He held his hands out while Yank, his second-in-command, relieved him of his weapons. Bruises had formed under his eyes from Pete having punched him earlier for not finding the router on his ship.
“Sorry, boss,” Yank said. “But you know the life. A pirate’s got to seize every opportunity that comes his way.”
“Anna East is an opportunity you’re going to regret,” Pete said, not taking his eyes off the woman.
“Lock him up,” she said.
“There’s never been a cage that could hold me for long,” Pete said.
She cocked her head. “Ah, but the question you should be asking yourself is if you can break out before this station blows up.”
He gave a silent growl before three of his crew members led him from the command center.
Anna had known for some time that she’d need to sever her connection with Pete. She wasn’t a killer, at least not with her own hands, and found that their shared history made the idea of killing him too unpleasant. Instead, she chose to have him locked up like Chief Roux had been. She realized now that she’d made a mistake by keeping the Peacekeeper director alive, but she’d intended to gain additional information from him before executing him.
As for Pete, she knew he’d escape, and a part of her hoped he would. He wouldn’t come after her. Not for a while, anyway. He’d see to his own safety first, which meant that even if he escaped with them both still on Free Station, she wouldn’t see him again. Afterward, however, she’d be sure to keep a close eye on Skully Pete so that she wouldn’t be added to his grisly collection.
