CHAPTER THIRTY
AIDEN
Tolvorez scowled at the sealed door, his hands on his hips. “So how the fuck do we get it open?” he asked. He tried the manual release again, to see if there was any movement anywhere in the mechanism.
Beside me, Jai looked around, suddenly tense and alert.
“I think we should get away from the door,” he announced, backing away quickly.
Instinctively, I followed him, though I didn’t yet know what he’d seen or heard that had triggered his reaction.
Several other people moved back as well, though not all of them.
“What’s the problem?” Bryce asked him, moving towards us and away from the door. The wary look on his face said he didn’t understand what was going on any more than I did, but he was prepared to take the warning seriously.
“Gut feeling,” Jai said, turning in a slow circle to scan the room behind us.
“Our current behaviour is far too predictable. We’ve searched the room and found it empty.
Now we’re looking for a way out. The pirates knew we were coming, so they sealed the door, but they’ll also know that sooner or later, we’ll find a way to open it.
So if I was them, I would booby-trap the door and then wait until we’re all clustered around it to trigger the trap. ”
I cast an eye over the group, in light of that revelation, and sure enough, more than half of our number were currently huddled around the door, anxious to find a way out.
“We also don’t currently have anyone watching our six,” Jai added, eyes roaming over the storage facility. “Which is poor procedure.”
I braced myself for some sort of backlash, particularly from Tolvorez. He seemed like the sort of man who liked to be in charge, and being given attitude by the newest member of our team wasn’t likely to go down well.
But before he could say a single word, everyone else abruptly moved away from the door, and four soldiers took it upon themselves to form a rear guard, scanning the room behind us.
Tolvorez was left standing there, until he, too, suddenly saw the wisdom in Jai’s words, and retreated a few metres as well.
“Something you should all keep in mind,” Jai said, “and I apologise if I’m trying to teach the teacher here.
But space pirates are not stupid. I’ve seen too many missions where crews go in expecting pirates to be disorganised or poorly prepared.
But their very survival depends on their ability to improvise, and the successful ones learn a lot of very useful tricks along the way.
I would treat this mission the same way I would treat a mission to take down a highly trained special ops team.
Expect the unexpected, and do not underestimate them. ”
There was a pause, as the warning sunk in.
“Well said,” Bryce agreed, when it seemed no one else had a response.
“So does anyone have any thoughts about how to open the door, given that it could be rigged? And on that note, it’s extremely likely that we’re going to run up against a lot of fire power on the other side.
If they’re expecting a lot of us to be taken out by whatever the trap is, then they’ll want to finish off what’s left of us in a hurry. ”
“Is there any other way out of this room?” Jai asked.
“No,” Tolvorez replied. “It’s this or the airlock.”
“Then I would suggest trying to trigger the trap from a safe distance,” Jai said. He holstered his gun and started scanning the nearby crates. “I need a couple of objects that are reasonably heavy. Like boots, or a hammer.”
A couple of other soldiers joined in the search for something suitable, and a minute later, one of them came up with a couple of metal brackets – presumably spare parts in case the ship needed repairs while in transit. “How about this?” she called, showing Jai what she’d found.
“Perfect,” Jai said, taking the brackets from her. “Everyone stand back and take cover.”
We all did, and I felt a thrill of admiration for my new dimari.
Not only was he absolutely correct in his assessment of the situation so far, but he was also willing to take charge, even in the presence of higher ranking officers.
Maybe that belligerent attitude had some substance behind it, after all.
Once everyone was reasonably safe, Jai approached the door cautiously, keeping several metres back.
He tossed the first bracket at the cargo door, hitting it dead centre with a loud clang.
He threw the second bracket in the same manner, then the third, then he backed away, tucking himself into the nearest row of shelves.
A moment later, a faint popping sound came from the direction of the ceiling, and some kind of liquid splashed down in front of the door. A second flush of liquid rapidly followed it… and then I heard a chorus of curses and exclamations as the whole of the floor in front of us burst into flames.
Those nearest the front of the group scrambled backwards, but thanks to Jai’s careful planning, no one was within range of the liquid. Had we continued trying to open the door before we’d all moved, three quarters of our team would currently be on fire.
But the fireworks weren’t quite over yet.
Along the frame of the door, a series of explosions went off, and that triggered a new wave of shouting as people shielded their eyes from the bursts of light.
I’d had the foresight to look away once the fire started, suspecting there might be more to come, and so I kept my head down, judging from the reflections on the metal beams around us as to when the flashing stopped.
When it seemed to have faded out, I cautiously peered up at the door.
A good section on the right had been torn away from its casing, and a few solid blows should make a gap wide enough for a person to fit through.
But I saw movement on the far side, and there was no way that was going to be good.
“Incoming!” I yelled, just as a small object was tossed into the room.
It wasn’t metal – it landed on the floor with the sort of thud that suggested it was made of plastic.
The people closest to the device once more scattered, and not a moment too soon.
Liquid splashed out of it, re-igniting the patches of floor that had been burned the first time around.
One good thing – if it could be called that – about being on a space ship was that no one would be stupid enough to use grenades or any other serious explosives.
Blasting a hole in the side of the ship could kill everyone on board, not just our team.
As the flames began to die down again, I saw a long, thin object projecting into the room through the small gap, and it looked enough like the muzzle of a gun that I didn’t stop to think.
I lifted my own gun and sent a volley of laser blasts through the gap.
A yelp, then a string of curses on the far side said I’d hit something. Or rather, someone.
A blast of white foam surged out across the flames, and I looked to my left, seeing that someone had found a fire extinguisher and was putting it to good use.
A volley of shots were fired at the door from a few other soldiers, and then Tolvorez moved quickly but cautiously towards the door, two other soldiers flanking him.
I glanced at Jai, wondering if he’d have anything more to say about this latest development, but he just sent me a quick nod, then eased out of cover, edging towards the door behind Tolvorez.
I looked around for Bryce and Carver, and with a brief series of gestures and nods, we all began to move as well, forming up our team again, weapons drawn, ready to slice a pathway through the mayhem so we could get on with retaking this ship.
Nearest the door, Tolvorez took a small device out of one of his pockets.
“Flash grenade,” he muttered through the comm link, and we all looked away.
Our suits had automated systems to suppress excessively loud sounds, but the lights could still blind us if we weren’t careful.
He tossed the device into the hallway, and we listened to the series of pops that were the muted version of the ear-shattering noise it would be producing.
Once the noises stopped, we opened our eyes again and Tolvorez, along with two Denzogals in his team, made short work of kicking the side of the door in, making a hole that was large enough for even a Denzogal to step through.
He darted through the gap, and the rest of us began to follow, weapons out, forming a united front against whatever was waiting for us on the other side.
By the time I slithered through the gap, taking care about the sharp edges of metal, the pirates were in full retreat. I glimpsed the bright orange fur of an Anicrian as he darted off around a corner, then the bulbous white shape of a Polvron as it rushed through a distant doorway.
“Anicrians and Polvrons,” I told my team.
“Possibly something else as well, but that gives us a start.” It wasn’t the worst outcome possible.
Polvrons were large, both tall and wide.
They were slow in battle, but were generally well equipped with advanced technology.
Meanwhile, Anicrians were a lot smaller.
They were fast and agile but not terribly strong.
The partnership between the two species wasn’t surprising, each of them covering the other’s weaknesses.