CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
JAI
As my master trailed off, I was sorely wishing that he and I had had more time to learn to work together before we’d ended up in this situation.
It wasn’t much of a consolation, but I didn’t think my own behaviour earlier in the week had had too detrimental an effect, given that one week would not have been long enough to properly understand each other, no matter how well behaved I’d been.
And this way, my master was already well aware that I could think for myself, and that I might prefer alternative ways of doing things, rather than simply following his orders.
I went to the door of our prison and spent a few moments working the controls of the hacking device.
I’d been trained on something very similar to this, though not this exact model.
They were illegal in large parts of the galaxy, but the Eumadians never liked to assume that the people who bought their slaves would have any particular scruples, which inevitably led to them teaching us a variety of illegal skills, along with more legitimate ones.
After a few moments of effort, the lock clicked, and I pulled the door open.
“I propose that we free as many of the crew and our own teams as possible,” I said to my master.
“And no, we don’t have long range weapons, but there are plenty of things in the storage crates that can be used as bludgeoning tools. ”
I made short work of opening Bryce’s crate, then removed his and Carver’s cuffs.
Then I handed Bryce the hacker. “See if you can free the rest of them,” I said, hoping I wasn’t breaking too many rules in giving a superior office what amounted to an order.
Or rather, I was hoping that the exceptional circumstances meant he would overlook the breach of protocol.
Sure enough, Bryce took the device and rushed off down the row, getting to work on the next lock.
Then I turned back to my master. “I know it’s going to be difficult to do without weapons, but you need to…
” I was cut off by my throat closing up, and I coughed, my lungs feeling tight.
I might get away with giving Bryce an order, but I wasn’t capable of doing the same to my master.
My training, and the Eumadians’ neuro-engineering technology, would not allow it.
Thankfully, though, my master was very quick on the uptake. “I’m sorry, you were saying perhaps it might be a good idea if I…?” he prompted me, and I nodded.
“Perhaps it might be a good idea if you get everyone to arm themselves as best as possible and gain control of as much of the ship as you can manage. With your permission, sir, I think it would be best if I-”
I was cut off by the sudden sound of the engines going dead. The steady thrum that accompanied any ship in motion faded out, the silence deep and oppressive by comparison. The lights dimmed, reverting to emergency mode, and my master looked around in alarm. “What the…?”
But rather than feeling concerned, I was grinning.
“You know how the pirates said there were still a few of the crew on the loose? I suspect they just killed the engines. It’ll take time for the pirates to get them running again – depending on how much damage they managed to do – and that buys us time to recapture the ship before the pirates try to jump through the wormhole. ”
“Those jammy bastards,” my master muttered, a grin lighting his own face. “What were you saying about what you’re going to do next?”
But before I could answer, a new problem grabbed our attention; with the cessation of the engines, the rotors that provided artificial gravity had cut out as well.
With the amount of weight in the ship, the operational levels didn’t stop spinning immediately, but they slowed noticeably, and as they did, the simulated gravity began to fade.
Fortunately, our magnetic boots were designed to automatically detect a loss of gravity, and to activate themselves in response.
I felt the magnets kick in, my feet thumping back down onto the floor, just as I began to lose traction.
The loss of gravity was going to make our job that much harder. The only benefit to it was that the pirates were going to be having just as much of a hard time as we were.
“Ah, fuck,” my master muttered, checking down the row to see if anyone had been caught unawares and was accidentally floating away. One woman had apparently lost her footing, but Carver had caught her before she could get too far, and was pulling her back down to the floor.
“With your permission, sir,” I repeated, “I should go and take the bridge.”
My master frowned at me. “What? You can’t take the bridge by yourself. That’s insane. I mean, for a start, you don’t have any weapons.”
Even as he was speaking, I was unfastening the front seal on my pressure suit.
I unzipped the inner layer and reached inside.
We were all still wearing fatigues underneath the suits, and I pulled a small knife out of a sheath at my waist. I secured it carefully into the now empty sheath on my calf, on the outside of the suit.
One of the serious risks, with no gravity, was that any object I let go of would drift away and likely be unrecoverable.
Under my master’s startled gaze, I pulled out two more knives, one small one that had been attached to my forearm, and a larger one that was strapped to my thigh.
All three were weapons I’d originally been sent here with when I’d left Eumad, and given my stubborn insolence last week, I’d never bothered declaring to my master that I had them.
“Fuck me, I should have known that,” my master said, rolling his eyes.
“You and Kade are so alike. He carries extra weapons everywhere as well.” I felt a warm flutter in my chest at being compared to Kade.
“Okay, so you have knives. But they’ve got laser guns.
And the four of us together couldn’t take the bridge.
What makes you think you’d be able to do it by yourself? ”
Thankfully, he hadn’t given me a flat no.
And though I was fairly sure his question was rhetorical, I answered it anyway.
“This is what I was designed for, sir. I was specifically trained to go into high risk situations where I would be required to disable more powerful and more numerous enemies, and to do so alone.” I felt a thrill of adrenaline, and the accompanying rush of fear at the knowledge of what I needed to do.
My master had told me repeatedly that Alliance soldiers were not sent into combat situations alone.
But at the same time, this situation was the exact sort of environment I'd been taught to thrive in. I tried to bury the automatic resentment that came with the knowledge that no matter how much he protested, in the end, he’d let me go.
My master shook his head. “I can’t send you alone. At the very least, you’d need to take Bryce with you. He’s the most experienced-”
“Sir,” I said, flinching as I was aware that I’d brazenly interrupted my master. “I’m sorry,” I apologised immediately. “Would you permit me to explain further?” I kept my eyes on the floor, making at least a token display of submission.
I could feel my master staring at me. “Go ahead,” he said, after a pause.
“One of the difficulties I’ve had with this mission so far has been making sure that my actions do not inadvertently place anyone else in danger.
I have a very realistic estimation of my own abilities, both strengths and weaknesses, but I’m not so well versed in the rest of our team – yourself included.
Given time, I could certainly learn to work well with a few specific individuals, but we haven’t yet had the time or opportunity to develop those sorts of skills.
And furthermore… I don’t mean to insult anyone here,” I added, cringing at what I was about to say.
“But I’m far more able to move about undetected alone than I am with the various species present on this mission.
” Hopefully, by not calling out anyone in particular, I could avoid being accused of insulting anyone.
My master scrunched his eyes shut and ground his teeth.
He knew what the necessary decision was.
And yet he was resisting making it. “But you were also terrified of being sent off into parts unknown with no backup and being abandoned,” he pointed out.
“I got the impression that that scared you almost as much as the hoards of horny men.”
He wasn’t wrong. And yet… “I was afraid of being abandoned by a master who didn’t care about me, on a mission that had no purpose other than financial gain or some fleeting pleasure, like a drug shipment.
Fighting space pirates is a worthy cause, and saving this crew is worth risking my life for.
And I no longer believe that I have a master who doesn’t care about me,” I admitted, with a tentative smile.
“I know we haven’t had long to get to know each other.
But I’ve seen the way you treat Kade. And I’m aware of your efforts to prevent me from being harmed now.
But if you don’t let me go, this band of pirates will go on to sabotage more shipments across vast sectors of the galaxy.
And sooner or later, somebody is going to get killed. ”
My master sighed. He stared at the floor and chewed his lip.
Then he glanced back down the row, where Bryce was freeing the last of the crew.
Major Tolvorez was barking orders, forming teams and deciding on plans for how the rest of them were going to retake the ship.
From the few details I could hear, none of his plans sounded very convincing.
“If you don’t let me go now,” I pointed out, “then the Major will not let me go at all.”
My master nodded, as I’d known he would. He turned back to me and surprised me by pulling me into a tight hug. “I’m only going to give you one order before you go,” he said, when he pulled back. “Be careful.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, confident that I could easily obey that one instruction. I would very carefully go and throw myself into the path of a dozen or more bloodthirsty pirates.
“Good. Now get out of here. Before anyone has the chance to start asking questions.”
With a quick nod, I switched my scales to black.
My pressure suit was a light grey, and in the dim light, that would offer me as effective camouflage as was possible in a ship full of straight hallways and metal walls.
My jet black face, though, would hopefully give the pirates a good scare, and even half a second of hesitation could win me enough time to make a difference.
Then I reached down and switched off the magnetic sensors on my boots.
Before I could start floating away, I pushed off the floor, leaping halfway up the wall, then propelling myself towards the door.
I landed lightly beside the release button and jabbed it, the doors hissing open smoothly.
Then I turned and looked back at my master, one fleeting glance that I was sure I would remember forever.
He was watching me with an expression of concern and longing that made my heart twist in my chest. I’d lived for so long without believing I’d ever see such an expression on my master’s face.
Then I pushed off the doorframe and floated silently out into the hallway.