Part 5 (1/2)
”Who gets to repair the pock holes later?” Mica growled, but she complied, dumping a barrage of fire in the direction of the airlock.
In the light from her blazer bolts, Alisa spotted her man again. He spotted her too. He had a blazer out, the muzzle pointed straight at her.
She fired first and lunged back behind the protection of the bulkhead. The man returned fire, but his bolts did not sizzle past her ear as she expected. They must have flown wide.
”We'll make Beck fix the holes,” Alisa said. ”These are his mafia men.”
”I'll have a putty knife and a paintbrush awaiting his return.”
Alisa risked peeking out again. When blazer bolts lit up the hold, Mica trading fire with the man in the airlock, Alisa spotted the figure by the stairs, flat on his back and not moving. Good.
”Got a plan for the one in the airlock?” Alisa whispered. She couldn't target him or even see him, and she didn't think Mica could hit him effectively, either. In that alcove between the two hatches, he would be well protected.
A cough came from the airlock.
”That's my plan,” Mica said. ”Hoping he pukes his lungs all over the deck.”
”Beck's going to need more than a putty knife to clean that up.”
”He can-”
A boom erupted from somewhere outside, and the ice heaved underneath the Nomad. The s.h.i.+p lurched to the side, hurling Alisa back from the hatchway. She skidded into a console as snaps and cracks erupted outside, echoing ominously inside of engineering. She accidentally kicked someone as she rolled to her hands and knees. Yumi? It was too dark to see anything.
”Did one of those idiots set off explosives?” Mica demanded from flat on her back. She had also been thrown away from the bulkhead and lay in open view of the hatchway. ”On ice?”
Afraid Mica did not realize she was a target right then, Alisa scrambled toward her and grabbed her shoulder. Shudders wracked the Nomad, but she could easily imagine the mafia man taking advantage. She found her feet and started to pull Mica out of the way. A thump came from outside the hatchway, and she heard someone's heavy breathing.
Alisa could barely see, darkness still reigning on the s.h.i.+p, but she whipped her Etcher across her body and fired as a man appeared out of the shadows. The figure froze, framed by the hatchway, then toppled forward with a thump.
Before Alisa could recover her breath and string two thoughts together, a bang came from out in the cargo hold. Icy air swirled into engineering.
”Is that d.a.m.ned hatch open again?” she growled, even as she and Mica scrambled to the side where they would not be easy targets.
Footfalls thundered across the cargo hold. Alisa leaned her back against the engine housing and aimed her Etcher. She hoped that in the dark, the reinforcements would trip over the mafia thug crumpled in the hatchway.
Another dark figure came into sight, a huge one this time.
”Alisa?” came Leonidas's voice a split second before she fired.
She yanked her Etcher up, not trusting her twitchy trigger finger. But she reacted quickly enough to keep from shooting.
”We're here,” she said, trying to sound calm and professional and definitely not frazzled.
A flashlight came on. It belonged to Yumi, who was crouching near the s.h.i.+eld generator, trying to stay out of the way.
Leonidas stood in the hatchway, a couple of fresh scorch marks on his crimson battle armor. He looked down at the man at his feet, then stepped over him and into engineering. He walked straight toward Alisa as Beck stepped into the hatchway, blood spattering his white armor.
”I told you to keep the hatch closed,” Leonidas said, pinning Alisa with his gaze.
”No, we're fine here. Thanks for asking. How was your day?” She stuffed her Etcher into its holster.
His lips thinned.
”I didn't open the hatch,” Alisa said, ”just as I a.s.sume you didn't hit the b.u.t.ton to lower our s.h.i.+elds right before the other s.h.i.+p fired. Weirdness is happening here.”
”Yes, and my vote is to get out of here, especially since-”
Another snap sounded from under the s.h.i.+p, and the deck lurched, dropping a couple of inches.
”This situation is making it very difficult to maintain a serene state of mind,” Yumi announced. Her flashlight beam wavered. Her hand might have been shaking.
Alisa didn't blame her. She was trying very hard not to look at the man she had very likely killed-or the blood spattered on Beck's armor.
”What happened out there?” Mica asked. ”You didn't blow up the other s.h.i.+p, did you?”
”In the midst of a frenetic battle on their s.h.i.+p, we may have inadvertently shot something important in engineering,” Beck said. ”Something that cracked, smoked, and caused men to shout, Abandon s.h.i.+p, abandon s.h.i.+p.' Which we then decided would be a good idea for us too.”
”There was an explosion, and the ice under their s.h.i.+p cracked,” Leonidas said. ”It was sinking as we ran away, and we barely escaped before a ma.s.sive chunk of ice broke, sank, and took them all down with it.”
”Their s.h.i.+p didn't float?” Alisa frowned at Yumi, more alarmed than ever by the sounds of ice snapping outside. ”You said a s.h.i.+p would float, like a boat.”
”I said this s.h.i.+p probably would, since it's got a lot of air on the inside.”
”Well, let's see if we can get it fixed before we have to test that theory, shall we?” Alisa pushed herself away from the console she had been leaning against, though she had no idea where she would go. The s.h.i.+p was still broken and without power, so she couldn't even check the cameras in NavCom. Maybe Mica would need another flashlight holder. She stopped beside Leonidas. ”I a.s.sume we were right and that those were White Dragon people?” she asked him. ”The ones in here didn't introduce themselves before they started firing. We have some rude enemies.”
”They were White Dragon,” he said. ”When I charged onto the bridge, the captain tried to bribe me with ill-gotten mafia booty.”
”And you said no?”
”I shot him.”
”That's the equivalent of a no, I suppose.”
His brow furrowed slightly, that look that meant he didn't understand how she could make jokes when she did. She sighed, not wanting to try and explain. She could easily imagine him striding onto a bridge in that red armor, an implacable executioner arriving to deliver death. She found the image disturbing. She found this whole situation disturbing. Making jokes and avoiding thinking about it was easier than dwelling on grim reality.
”You did well to defend yourselves here,” Leonidas said, the praise surprising her.
She almost made a flippant comment, especially since she felt her defense had been anything but spectacular, but she bit her lip before it came out. She said, ”Thank you,” instead, guessing he would appreciate that answer more.
He rested his hand on her shoulder, and she decided she had guessed correctly.
”Uhh, Captain?” came Beck's voice from the cargo hold. ”We have a problem. Well, technically, the problem may have us.”
Alisa started for the hatchway, but Leonidas kept his hand on her shoulder long enough to make sure he could walk out first. A thunk, thunk, thunk came from a panel that Mica had opened. Yumi, once again holding the flashlight for her, looked curiously toward the hatchway, but Mica remained focused on her work, as if she hadn't heard Beck speak.
”Keep working,” Alisa said softly as she walked out. She had a hunch they weren't safe yet.