If I hit the thing. And if it overloads.

  Those ‘ifs’ were massive, huge shadows darkening her soul, even as she dropped low, doing what little she could to protect herself from the bots if they attacked.

  Gregor turned toward her, even as the scanner unit sitting next to him erupted in a shower of sparks. He had a horrified, confused look on his face.

  Don’t worry…I wasn’t shooting at you, my friend…

  Andi swung around, her eyes darting toward the closest bot. She held the gun down, behind her back. She didn’t know what the bot’s programming allowed, even if her desperate action had succeeded and cut it off from the AI’s direction, but she didn’t think threatening the thing directly was a good idea.

  “Brilliant, Andi!” The captain turned toward her, and as he did, he pulled out his own rifle, and he fired three times at the far wall, the bullets shattering the speaker mounted there.

  The only one that seemed to be functional.

  Way to go, Cap. She hadn’t even considered that the AI could issue verbal orders to the bots.

  “Let’s get out of here, before that interference fades.” She listened to the captain’s command, but she was far from as certain as he sounded that the bots were cut off. “Walk slowly, everyone. Don’t threaten those things, don’t even look at them with a funny expression on your face.”

  Andi had conceived the plan, and she’d bet her life—and quite possibly her friends’ lives—on it, but she found herself stunned it seemed to be working.

  She didn’t let doubts or shock slow her response, though. The captain was right. The interference wouldn’t last long. She’d bought them an escape from the room—maybe—but it was a long way back to the ship.

  She moved toward the hatch they’d used to enter, slipping into the rough single file column the others had formed. Her eyes darted back and forth, checking on the bots. They were still motionless, sitting still where they had been. That didn’t ease her worries, though. Any instant, she knew, they might attack, and if they did, she and all her comrades would be dead in seconds.

  She could feel the small of her back tighten, a series of shivers running down her spine as she could almost feel autocannon rounds tearing into her, ripping her body to shreds. Andi had faced death before, but somehow, walking slowly and calmly, knowing with each passing second that the next was far from assured, was harder than anything she’d ever done, and battle she’d ever fought.

  Her heart was pounding as she looked toward the hatch. Anna had been the closest to the door, and she was at the head of the column. She’d moved slowly, steadily as she slipped through the still-open door.

  Barret followed her, and Sylene was next. Then, the captain walked through, and after that, Andi took a deep breath and followed. One by one, the others came out, and when they had all left the room, they paused for a moment in the corridor.

  “Sy, can you close that door?”

  Andi heard the captain’s words, and she liked the idea of closing off the control room, with the security bots inside. But without knowing what the AI could control through the station’s aging and battered circuitry, she didn’t know if it made more sense to try o close off the portal, or just to run like hell.

  “I think so, Cap.” Sylene already had her tablet in her hand. “I think I’m still connected, unless that…thing…found me and cut me off.” A few seconds passed. “Yup, I’m still in.” An instant later, the door slid shut.

  “Nice job.” Lorillard stepped into the middle of the corridor. “All of you, get back.” Then, he turned to Sylene. “The locking mechanism is there, right?” He pointed toward a section of wall next to the hatch.

  “I think so, Cap.”

  “Alright, everybody back ten meters.” He waited while everyone stepped down the corridor. Then he opened fire with his assault rifle.

  The walls were almost invulnerable, whatever incredible material the imperials used to construct them proof against most damage. But Lorillard’s assault rifle wasn’t the normal kind the rest of the crew carried. It was a Marine issue, hypervelocity weapon, firing a depleted uranium projectile at speed in excess of three thousand meters per second.

  And Lorillard opened fire on full auto from a range of less than a meter.

  The spray of projectiles slammed into the smooth white surface, and for an instant, they were proof even against that awesome kinetic energy. But then, a split appeared, and a chunk of the wall material flew off, landing on the floor about a meter to the side.

  A burst of sparks sprayed out from the internal mechanism, and Lorillard turned and nodded. Andi didn’t know if the captain had managed to jam the door—she called it about 50/50, and she suspected he would have been right around the same figure—but she knew it was time to go.

  Time to get the hell out of there.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Sector Nine Freighter Clipper

  800 Kilometers off Imperial Station

  Zensoria, Osiron VI

  Year 301 AC

  “Nightrunner, you will stay where you are. At the first sign of engine ignition, or if we read any energy flow to weapons systems, you will be destroyed without warning.” Gavereaux sat on Clipper’s bridge, relishing his ship’s advantage. He enjoyed power plays, at least when he had the power, and he savored the fear he suspected those in the trapped ship were feeling. He was a bully by nature, as were most of those in positions of authority in the Union—and in most other nations as well.

  “If you pick up so much as a spark going to the engines or weapons in that ship, you open fire. Understand?”

  The agent sitting at the tactical station nodded. “Understood.”

  It wasn’t a real tactical setup, of course, or at least it didn’t look like one. Clipper had stronger weapons than a small freighter would be expected to carry, but Sector Nine generally pushed as far as it could get away with, and no farther. The goal had been to give Clipper the heaviest punch possible, without drawing dangerous attention or creating suspicion.

  Gavereaux wasn’t sure how his ship would fare in a head to head matchup with Nightrunner—if the free trader had uprated guns, too, it would be far too close to an even fight for his tastes. Fortunately, he had Lorillard’s ship trapped, powered down and under his guns.

  Just the way he liked it.

  “Sir…Embuscade reports docking completed.” A pause. “They had some difficulty connecting to the coupling. They took some damage to their stabilizers.” The agent at the tactical station turned and looked back at Gavereaux. “They suffered three casualties due to integrity loss in two compartments. All three KIA, two of the Foudre Rouge and one of the ship’s crew.”

  Gavereaux didn’t like losing any of his soldiers. Twenty troopers plus one officer in command was a small enough force to secure a vast construct like the station, not to mention cleaning out any of Nightrunner’s crew that remained there.

  But two won’t make a difference. At least not in wiping out Lorillard’s people. Securing the station was another matter, of course. It was huge, and probably dangerous. But he knew Gaston Villieneuve would send massive reinforcements to begin the true securing and exploitation of the system as soon as he received word of just what his people had found.

  “Are the remaining Foudre Rouge ready to board the station?”

  “Yes. They are prepped and set to go in on your command.”

  Gavereaux stared at the display, his eyes darting to the numbers on the side. Nightrunner’s reactor had been increasing its output, but now it had leveled off. That’s clever. Obey my orders, more or less…but hang on to the increased energy production you’d reached before that.

  He turned toward the tactical station. “Order the Foudre Rouge in, but hold back one fire team in reserve. They are to find and secure the station’s control center or main engineering space.”

  He turned back to his comm unit. “Nightrunner, you are to shut your reactor down to minimal levels, sufficient for life support only. You have one minute to comply.” There, an order you can’t skirt by and pretend to obey. He wasn’t sure he was ready to open fire in sixty seconds—he didn’t know what the crew of Nightrunner knew about the station, how much useful information they might possess, and he wasn’t ready to throw that away. But he made damned sure to sound like his hand was already on the fire control. A good bluff was all in the delivery.

  “Sir…Lieutenant Emile-2756 requests clarification on rules of engagement, specifically how his troopers should handle any of Nightrunner’s personnel they find in the station.”

  Gavereaux hesitated a few seconds, considering. He had whoever was actually on Nightrunner as good as captive in his own brig. They might be useful. But any still on the station…they might get away, find somewhere to hide, even sabotage some vital system. They were too dangerous…and nineteen soldiers wasn’t enough to secure the station and guard prisoners.

  “Shoot to kill. The Foudre Rouge are to terminate all contacts in the station immediately, but they are to take prisoners on Nightrunner if possible.

  * * *

  “We’re stuck, like rats in a trap. Tyrell slammed his fist down on the control panel, pulling it back sharply as the pain told him he’d banged it down a bit too hard. He was angry—with himself, because he couldn’t come up with a way out, and with the situation, too. What the hell are the odds on some other mission being all the way out here when we are? Nightrunner had faced competition for relic sites before, but they were far out this time. Damned far. Running into another ship was a shock. Encountering two was off the charts.

  He looked down, checking to make sure he hadn’t damaged the captain’s workstation. He was relieved to see the only thing hurt by the outburst had been his hand. He turned toward the second station on the bridge, toward his sole companion then on Nightrunner.

  “Better cut the reactor, Doc. They’ve got us dead to rights.” Tyrell hated being vulnerable, but he also knew the unidentified ship could blow Nightrunner to bits anytime it wanted to. That made playing for time the right way to go. Maybe there would be a chance to talk their way out of the whole mess.

  Maybe…but my gut says it’s a longshot. Still, dying in a few hours is better than dying now, if only for the chance something can happen in between.

  The rest of the crew was still out there. He figured the variables at play might still come together in their favor, create an escape of some kind. He wasn’t sure just how much be believed that, but whatever he thought, analysis didn’t matter. Such vague hopes were all he had.

  He figured there was a good chance Lorillard would have come up with some course of action if he’d been there. Or Andi. Nightrunner’s rookie crewmember had proven herself not only handy in a fight, but also damned smart. Tyrell was impressed as hell with her, as was everyone else on the ship. He had always felt something familiar in her mannerisms, the way she attacked problems, but he’d only recently figured out just who it was she reminded him of.

  The captain.

  Andi and Lorillard were incredibly similar in many ways. They agreed almost all the time, sometimes sounding almost like copies of each other. It had taken him a while to figure it out, but he’d come to a conclusion eventually, a realization of why they seemed so similar.

  They were both natural leaders.

  He’d teased Andi his share of times, given her the usual shit the rookie and the youngest crew member almost always took on ships like Nightrunner, but he’d also come to understand that he would willingly follow her…on missions, into battle, anywhere. She was Lorillard reborn as far as he was concerned, and the more he saw her in action, the more firmly he believed that.

  He loved the captain, and his devotion and loyalty were absolute. But as he sat there, he found himself wishing Andi was onboard even more than Lorillard. Her mind was quicker, her tactics fresher. If anyone could figure a way out of the trap Nightrunner had found herself in, it was Andi.

  But she was off in the guts of that massive station somewhere, along with the captain and the others. And he was sitting on the bridge, feeling more uncomfortable than he could ever remember, waiting and hoping his captors didn’t decide to just blast Nightrunner anyway.

  He searched his mind, tried to come up with a course of action, anything. But there was nothing.

  Nothing but a single word, swirling around in his head, summing up his feeling on the whole situation.

  Shit.

  * * *

  Andi ran down the corridor, her head slung low into her shoulders, her neck tense. It was a natural reaction to the almost deafening sound of the klaxon. The volume of the alarm varied with how close they were to the nearest speaker. Just then, it was earsplitting.

  Andi’s desperate action, her almost instinctive move to block the AI’s connection to the security bots, had succeeded. For roughly three minutes.

  That’s how long it had taken for the alarm systems to go off. She hadn’t known if that meant the bots would be on their tail or not. At least she didn’t know for perhaps another ninety seconds, until she heard the sounds of fire coming from behind them.

  She’d felt an initial rush of satisfaction when they’d all escaped from the control room, but she knew they had a long way to go before they could reach anything resembling safety. Doubts crept into her mind as she fought to push them aside. Had she helped her comrades escape…or had she just managed to kill them all in some kind of perverse slow motion?

  They didn’t even have a plan, none save trying to get back to Nightrunner. But there were other ships in the system now. For all she knew, Nightrunner had already been blasted to atoms.

  “We’re never going to outrun those bots, Captain.” The words burst from her lips, almost involuntarily. “We’ve got to take them out somehow.”

  A few seconds passed with no answer, but then Lorillard stopped abruptly. “You’re right, Andi. We’re never going to make it all way back to the ship.” He turned, looking at one of the hatches along the corridor. “Sy, can you get any of these doors open?” A second or two passed. “Quickly?”

  Sylene already had her tablet in her hand, even as she continued running. “My connection seems active, still.” She seemed surprised. Andi was, too. She’d have thought the first thing the station AI would do was sever any unauthorized connections.

  The thing is damaged, though. Some things still work, others don’t…

  Andi wasn’t sure what practical use there was to that realization, but she was sure there was something.

  Then, the hatch closest to her opened. A few seconds later, she noticed that all the doors she could see had slid open.

  “I couldn’t localize any one, not quickly enough at least. So, I opened everything in this sector.”

  “Good, Sy…that’s great.” Lorillard turned to Andi. “You take Gregor and Yarra…move up to the next compartment. The rest of you, with me…other side of the corridor.”

  Andi wasn’t sure splitting up was the right thing to do…until Lorillard continued.

  “We’ll try to draw them in here, Andi. You three can come in and hit them from behind.”

  She wasn’t sure there really was a ‘behind’ with the security bots. Their center sections seemed to move three-hundred-sixty degrees. But she knew the captain was going for any tactical advantage they could get. And even the bots could only fully engage a threat in one direction at a time.

  That meant Lorillard and the others were bait.

  “Yarra, you’ve got those explosive charges, right?”

  “Yeah, Cap.” A short pause, then realization in her tone. “They’re not really set up as grenades, though. I’m not sure how accurate they’d be if they were thrown.”

  “Give them to Andi.” Lorillard knew, as the others did, that Andi had the sharpest eyes, the best aim. “You know what to do.” He flashed a quick glance at her, and then he moved through the hatch, motioning for the others to follow.

  Andi hesitated, for just a second, but then she could hear the bots getting closer. She waved to her two cohorts, and ran up to the next hatch, ducking inside the room.

  It was a storage facility of some kind. There were shelves behind her, stacked high with large plastic boxes. She was curious about the contents, but she pushed such thoughts aside. The place didn’t look like an armory and, frankly, nothing else but weapons would be of use to her just then.

  She stood just inside the door, waiting. She was tense, sweaty, scared. She slung her rifle back over her shoulder, and she turned toward Yarra. “Let’s get those charges ready.”

  Nightrunner’s engineer just nodded, and she slid the pack she carried off her shoulder, setting it down lightly. She reached inside, pulling out an irregularly shaped device, about thirty centimeters long. Andi was no engineer, but she knew a homemade bomb when she saw one.

  She reached out and took the thing from her comrade. It was heavier than she’d expected, and poorly balanced. It was just about the worst thing she could imagine to use as a thrown weapon, but it was what they had.

  “It’s not an impact-detonation explosive, Andi…you’re just going to have to set the timer, and make sure you throw it at exactly the right moment.”

  Great…that should be easy…

  “I’m going to have to get close, and that timer’s going to have to be dead on.” She knew she’d have to run in and throw the thing almost immediately. The bots would detect her coming right away. Lorillard and the others would do what they could to distract them, but time was definitely not going to be on her side.

  “How many of these do you have?” Andi already knew, but she wanted to be sure.

  “Two. But there’s no way you’re going to handle both of them.”

  “No, not quickly enough, at least. You’ll need to bring the second one. Come in behind me, and when the first one goes off, set that one for a three second detonation, and give it a good hurl at the other bot. Assuming I manage to take out the first one, of course.”

  That last bit was a moot point. If Andi’s attack left both bots standing, they were all as good as dead anyway.