"Wait!" Kolya slowed her pace as Donovan turned to face her. "You said this guy wants to make an example of you. Does that mean what I think it does?"

"Well, he’s killed people for a lot less than what I did." Donovan shrugged and resumed his course through the corridors. "If I don’t turn myself over, they’ll kill us all. I’m dead either way. At least this way I can make up for what I did to you."

I guess now the question is whether he’s being honest or just trying to manipulate me again. Kolya glanced over her shoulder at Cora, Dylan, and Grishnag as they caught up with her. Not that it matters, I guess. He doesn’t deserve to die just because he lied to me. Besides, there’s no guarantee that they won’t get rid of all the witnesses.

"While I was exchanging threats with the captain of the Relentless," Cora said, "I worked my way through the comm connection and into their ship’s computer systems. I managed to keep a narrow-beam connection open after he cut off his own channel to us. I overheard him issuing orders to the gunship crew." Cora grasped Donovan’s shoulder, turned him around, and aimed her optics directly into his eyes. "They’re going to kill us even if we hand you over, and then they’re going to steal this ship."

His breathing grew rapid and he braced a hand against the wall as if to hold himself upright.

"Shit." Kolya’s heart pounded. "Shit."

Dylan gaped at Cora and started to tremble, but then he took a few slow breaths and pulled himself together. "Let’s get to the armory."

"This ship is my baby." Cora’s brow plates dipped into a determined scowl as she followed Dylan. She made eye contact with Donovan and Kolya before taking the lead. "I won’t let them get their hands on her, and I won’t allow them to harm anyone onboard."

"How can you stop them?" Donovan appeared to be trying not to hyperventilate as the group stepped through a hatch and turned to the right.

"My combat software includes a bleeding-edge cyberwarfare suite. Their ship is carrying a payload of missiles. I’ve just set them to target their own ship and launched them."

Kolya grinned. "Nice."

"It’s not something I’m planning to celebrate. I don’t enjoy taking lives, but since they were planning to wipe us out, I did what had to be done."

"Don’t shed any tears for them," Vacendak said. "I got to know them well enough in the last few days. They’re a bunch of motherfuckers."

"I wish that made me feel any better about it." Cora cocked her head as they reached the armory. "The gunship has landed and one of its occupants is trying to hack the lock on the cargo ramp. I’m keeping them out to buy us time, but in a few minutes I’ll have to unlock it so they’ll think he succeeded, or they might use more drastic measures that’ll leave the Jemison too damaged to lift off."

"I’ll make the stand with you," Grishnag said to her.

Kolya stepped forward. "So will I."

"Since protecting you is part of my job," Vacendak said, walking over to stand beside Kolya, "count me in."

Ayastal and Nishara joined them. Cora opened her mouth as if to tell them to hide with the others, but changed her mind and nodded. She glanced at Dylan.

"We’ll grab some weapons, then you’ll get everyone else into Engineering."

Dylan walked up to the armory door. He tapped a code into the lock and a computer’s soft voice came from the speaker above the panel.

"Please enter voiceprint passcode."

"Belloq ate that fly."

"Passcode accepted." The door unlocked and slid open.

"Hand out weapons to everyone, including our passengers," Grishnag said. "Just in case they get past us."

***

"They started getting antsy and I had to unlock the cargo ramp," Cora said, keeping her voice soft. She darted through the intersection and took a position on the opposite corner. "I’m tracking them with the Jemison’s internal cameras and sensors."

"How many?" Grishnag pressed herself against the wall across from Cora, gripped her plasma rifle, and fought the urge to peek into the intersecting corridor. She glanced at Kolya, Nishara, and Ayastal as the first two joined Cora and the third stayed with Grish.

"Nine. I’m keeping all hatches between them and us locked, forcing their techie to hack each one, to buy us more time. Looks like they’re at least trying to keep everything intact so they won’t have to invest a lot of money in repairs after they steal the ship." Cora glanced at Vacendak as she planted herself beside Grishnag. "What can you tell us about them?"

"If they kept the same squad setup they’ve used before, it’ll be led by Stephanie Anderson." Vacendak sneered. "She’s a real piece of work. Fanatical and as bigoted as they come. Hates everyone who isn’t exactly like her. She tolerates the rest of the crew because they’re almost as horrible as she is."

"Name sounds familiar," Grishnag muttered. "Don’t think I’ve run into her before, but I’ve heard of her."

"Among the more fucked-up things she’s done, she once tried to revive the old Sword of God cult. They started back around the time the first bioengineered people were created, then they got even crazier when synthetic intelligences began achieving sentience. Railed against and physically assaulted anyone who wasn’t human."

"More like, anyone who wasn’t their kind of human," Grishnag said. "A few cells were active when my people were relocated to Earth."

"I remember them, too." Cora shook her head. "They really went into high gear not long after I became sentient, and then they came completely unglued when we made contact with aliens."

"Yep. My grandpa once told me they were like the Westboro Baptist Church cranked up to eleven." Vacendak shrugged. "Not sure how familiar you are with them."

"Dylan’s mentioned them. He was abducted through a rift in 2015. They were some of the worst excuses for sentient life I’ve ever heard of, but at least they never murdered anyone. The Sword of God, however, seemed to think anyone who wasn’t them was actually a demon, or being controlled by them, and honestly believed they were at war with the forces of darkness. And they didn’t take prisoners."

"Ugh." Ayastal let out a soft growl. "That makes me wonder if I want to visit Earth."

"Those whackos are pretty much out of business, these days," Vacendak said. "They were all arrested or killed at one point, then a new batch sprang up a few years later. They eventually got arrested or shot, a few more years passed, and someone else started them up all over again. Anderson was the most recent one to try to bring them back. Didn’t work out in the end, but just knowing she’s that filled with hate should tell you all you need to know."

"Terrific." Grishnag sighed. "Cora, what’s the situation with the intruders?"

"They’ve just gotten through the second hatch from the cargo hold. They’re splitting up to search the ship." Cora motioned at a monitor on the wall behind Grishnag and it came to life, showing four mercs in armor advancing through one of the corridors. They wore visors with cameras and spotlights attached instead of helmets. "Those guys are heading straight for us."

Grish smirked. This should be easier without helmets protecting them. Just nail a headshot on each one and it’s all over.

"Is Anderson one of these?"

Vacendak glanced at the screen and nodded. "The blond one’s Anderson. The other three are Raquel Antonio, Justin Osborne, and Brett Davis. They’re not on nearly the same level as their boss, but they’re still despicable people. The two dudes are wanted throughout Terran space for trafficking in sex slaves, among other things. Men, women, shackled AI, even children -- whatever fucked-up tastes their clients had, they supplied the demand." Vacendak curled her lips and glared at the screen. "Antonio loves to interrogate people. There’s nothing she likes better than when Morales needs to extract information from some poor bastard who crossed him."

Kolya glanced at something past Grishnag and her good eye opened wider. Vacendak snapped her left arm up and aimed her gun directly at a man in the corner of Grishnag’s eye without even looking at him. Grish spun around and raised the sights to her eyes -- but lowered her rifle with a sharp sigh when she realized it was Donovan standing at the far end of the corridor. Vacendak glanced at her and returned her pistol to her hip.

"Guess I picked the wrong time to walk in on the conversation." Donovan stared at the screen and ran a hand through his hair as he approached. "I’m assuming Antonio will have a role to play in ’making an example’ of me. Sounds like the kind of thing that’s right up her alley."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Kolya pointed at the hatch behind him. "Get back to Engineering with everyone else."

"Maybe they’ll go easy on you if I turn myself in." Donovan’s hands shook and he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Unlikely," Vacendak said and turned back to the branching corridor.

"I’m not handing anyone on this ship over to them." Cora turned back to Vacendak and the monitor switched to a view of three more mercs creeping through another corridor. "What about them?"

"Kimberly Ponson, Gerry Sands, and Nicolas Wernick. Ponson likes to blow shit up. Sands is their techie. Wernick is just plain squirrel-bait." Vacendak glanced over her shoulder at the others. "He’s always staring off into space like he’s listening to the voices in his head. One day, he tried to pick up an underage zorai prostitute on Tevsa. She probably took one look at him and figured out that he was at least five cans short of a sixpack. She turned him down and he tried to drag her into his aircar."

"Oh, no." Kolya grinned.

"Exactly. Turned out to be a big mistake."

"Yeah. You don’t want to pick a fight with the zorai, even the kids."

Grishnag smirked.

"Wernick learned that the hard way. The girl had an experimental device that could generate hard-light weapons -- energy blades, basically. Probably got it from her bodyguard, since he’s a merc with all the right connections. The girl lopped Wernick’s left leg off before her guard could even reach for his gun."

"Good. So, he’s got a prosthetic leg?"

"Yep. If you’re squeamish about killing people, you can at least slow him down by blasting his leg a few times, and you won’t have to worry about him bleeding out."

"I’ll do whatever it takes to keep everyone on my ship safe," Cora said.

Grishnag glanced around the corner. "ETA?"

"Just a few more seconds. Vacendak will have to tell us about the other two after we deal with Anderson’s team. The other teams are taking a longer way around, so we’ll be able to slip up on them from behind." Cora leaned into the corridor and raised her plasma rifle. "Get ready."

***

"They’re two hatches away," Cora said, lowering her voice to a whisper. "Hacking the first lock now."

"I’m so sorry about all of this." Donovan slumped against the wall and hung his head. "Kolya, I swear I’ll make this right."

"Save it." Kolya leaned just far enough around the corner to aim her rifle, and wondered if she could pull the trigger. She’d never taken a life before and wasn’t sure she could start now. She didn’t expect to have a choice, but that wouldn’t make it any easier.

Donovan winced and turned away.

"Just get your ass back to Engineering," Kolya hissed.

"I can’t let all of you get yourselves killed for me. Just give me to them."

"It won’t matter." Vacendak stepped into the intersection and aimed both pistols down the corridor. "If you won’t go back to Engineering, then just keep us between you and the assholes."

"What the hell?" Cora’s optics opened wider and she gaped at something only she could see. "Lorkis is meeting them at the next hatch."

"What?" Kolya stared at her and then turned to the monitor as it switched to a view of the kid blocking the mercenaries’ path. "What the hell’s he up to?"

"Maybe he thinks he can stall them." Vacendak shook her head as Lorkis held a hand out to Anderson.

"Well, hello there. My name’s Lorkis. Nice to meet you."

"Jesus Christ, kid," Cora muttered.

Oh. Of course. Two of them are women. Given the way Lorkis hit on us when I first boarded the ship, maybe he saw these two on another monitor and decided to try his luck. Kolya shook her head. He should be smarter than that.

"He has no idea who he’s dealing with. Anderson will shoot him dead as soon as look at him." Vacendak stepped forward and flicked a split-second glance at Cora. "Captain, unlock the hatch so he can get the hell out of there."

On the monitor in the corner of her eye, Anderson snapped her gun up to aim at Lorkis. His eyes opened wide and he turned and bolted.

"Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiit!"

The entire squad opened fire as the hatch slid aside for Lorkis to bolt through. Vacendak charged into the next intersection.

"Drop!" She fired a dozen shots from each pistol and Lorkis slithered around the corner, keeping low to the floor. Kolya caught a glimpse of his panicked expression as he shot past her, lost control, and plowed into the wall behind her. He grunted, picked himself up, and glanced around at everyone.

"Run! They’re right behind me!"

"Get under cover." Cora grabbed his upper-right hand and dragged him over beside Donovan before returning to her previous position and pointing her rifle at the spot where the intruders would appear.

"You!" A woman’s shrill but hard-edged voice -- Kolya guessed it was Anderson. "What the hell do you think you’re doing?"

"My job," Vacendak said. "I’m a Council Operative. And your ass is under arrest."

She whipped suddenly toward Kolya and the others and dive-rolled out of the intersection just before a burst of plasma bolts seared through the air and drilled into the hatch at the far end of the corridor. Vacendak came up in a crouch, spun around, and raised both guns.

Kolya stretched out on the floor beside Grishnag’s boots, to make herself a smaller target and keep out of the other women’s line of fire.

Anderson charged into view, followed by the other three, all of them holding their rifles ready to mow down whatever was in front of them. They stopped when they found Kolya and the rest pointing their own guns right back at them. Anderson swept her glare over the Jemison’s crew.

"So, Vacendak, you threw your lot in with these things? I should’ve expected this. You’re not even human, yourself, anymore."

"It’s not a matter of being human or not. It’s a matter of not being a hate-filled sack of shit." Vacendak sneered at her. "You’ve got one chance to surrender. If you don’t, I’ll assume you don’t want to be taken alive."

"Shit," Donovan blurted, and Kolya tossed a quick glance at him. "You’ve been shot!"

Kolya noticed a hole burned through the back of Lorkis’s shirt, on his left side. The exposed skin looked like it had been grazed -- not a lethal hit, but there was no way it wouldn’t be painful as all hell.

"My luck with women gets worse every day." Lorkis winced and tried to hold his lower-left hand over the wound. "Never had one shoot me before."

"I can hear McCallister back there!" Anderson glared so hard at Vacendak, Kolya almost expected jets of flame to shoot from her eye sockets and burn everyone to a crisp. Anderson flicked her eyes over everyone else again and her face twisted into a smirk while keeping the glare at full-throttle. "I recognize the rest of you. Saw some of your interviews after your ship reappeared."

Kolya looked into the woman’s eyes and shivered. Yeah, she’s got more than a few screws loose. Bet I could hear them rattling around if I punched her hard enough.

"You and that human kid you hooked up with," Anderson snarled. "Disgusting! Don’t even bother handing McCallister over. We’ll plow right through you and take him."

"Not going to happen," Cora snapped.

"Oh, I have a better idea. We’ll find that kid you’ve been taking into your beds, drag him out here, and make him watch while I kill all of you. Then I’ll execute him for putting his dick into you filthy creatures."

Yeah, bitch needs to be shot. Kolya gripped her rifle tighter and adjusted her aim slowly, moving the target reticle right between Anderson’s eyes, growing more certain that she’d be able to blow the twat’s head off and live with herself afterward.

"Oh," Grishnag growled softly, "you should not have said that."

Kolya glanced up at her, then over at Cora -- and the breath caught in her throat. The Jemison’s captain had clamped her mouth shut and narrowed her optics, and Kolya swore their red glow had brightened. When she spoke, Kolya damned near felt the temperature in the corridor drop twenty degrees.

"You will do no such fucking thing."

Something jolted the entire ship, accompanied by four sharp booms reverberating through the floor under Kolya. A few seconds passed with the mercs trading nervous glances, then faint thumping, clicking, and clanging sounds seemed to come from somewhere above. Kolya glanced upward and noticed the mercs doing the same.

"That’s what’s left of your gunship, raining down on the Jemison’s hull," Cora said, keeping the same frigid tone. "First I blasted a round from one of our secondary coilguns straight through the pilot, then I ripped the entire ship into scrap."

Anderson stared slack-jawed at her. A few more seconds passed before she pulled herself together and spoke into the wire-thin mic jutting from her earpiece.

"Mikulecky? Respond. Mikulecky? Mikulecky!" She switched to another channel. "Renshaw, this is Anderson."

Silence was the only reply. Anderson tried several more times before turning to stare at Cora again.

"The Relentless is breaking up in the atmosphere. I shot it out of orbit before you boarded us. Your crewmates have already burned up, and it’s doubtful that more than a handful of the debris is big enough to reach the ground." Cora kept her aim square on Anderson’s head. "Drop your weapons and we’ll take you to the nearest outpost. No one else has to die."

Anderson’s mouth twisted into an enraged rictus and she gripped her rifle so hard that her arms trembled. She sucked in several rapid breaths and let out a scream that made the other three mercs take a sudden step away from her.

"You … fucking … evil … demonic … bitch!"

"Oh, what the hell do you expect?" Kolya snorted. "You came here to murder us."

"That’s exactly what I’m gonna do," Anderson shrieked. "I’m gonna kill every last goddamned one of you!"

She snapped her rifle back to Cora and clamped her finger down on the trigger.

Next Chapter: Chapter 13