12. Chapter 12
Mazorium
I wished Ithorum hadn’t scared Mika to the point she demanded we walk a circuitous route back to the ship. I was sure Gorum would never stoop so low as to try actual thievery. Although I had to admit, I wouldn’t have thought she would threaten me with the Committee of Pet Welfare either.
“Do you have a map of the station on your Ident?” she asked when we got to the long-term housing section of the station. We had three directions to pick from, and I wasn’t sure which path we should take.
“I’ll have to set you down,” I warned her.
She made a hum of agreement, and I carefully put her on her feet. In our haste to leave, we’d left the carrier behind, but the way she was holding Nadia told me it would be a fight to pull the baby from her arms.
My sweet human was afraid.
I unclipped my Ident and tried to access the station’s unibase. I wasn’t able to connect. Confused, I tried again—still nothing.
“That’s odd,” I murmured, checking my Ident’s connection capabilities.
“What’s odd?” she asked.
“My access to all station systems has been revoked.” I tapped a few more times, hoping it was an error easily resolved. Nothing changed. “That should only happen if I acted badly or didn’t pay all the docking fees.”
“Shit,” Mika muttered, looking around as if someone was going to jump out at us.
I sounded a soothing rumble. “It must be a mistake, or Gorum is punishing me for denying her. It’s a petty thing to do, but harmless.”
My assurances didn’t seem to calm Mika down. She kept casting her eyes around, looking for danger. “We need to get out of here fast.”
I reached for her, but she jumped away from me. I was upset by her actions. “Are you worried I’m going to hurt you?”
She rolled her eyes, a clear indication she thought I was being ridiculous. “Of course I’m not scared of you. It’ll be better if you aren’t carrying me and have your hands free.”
I stifled my rumble of amusement at her caution. “If this makes you feel better, it’s fine. Remember, I’m ready to carry you again when you’re fatigued.”
She paused looking around long enough to do the up-and-down movement with her head that indicated agreement.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t any signage at the intersection, forcing me to guess which direction we should go. “Let’s try this corridor.”
She nodded and moved to walk at my side. It was clear I’d made a poor choice when we found ourselves at a dead end. Mika remained silent as we doubled back to pick another path.
When we got a spot with a display, Mika rushed ahead. Shifting Nadia to one arm, she tapped the display, then made one of her adorable, frustrated huffs when she couldn’t read the Talin glyphs.
“I don’t understand what you guys have against Universal or Common. Everybody uses them,” she grumbled and stepped aside so I could navigate to a map of the station.
“Talin glyphs are superior,” I explained as I studied the map.
She mumbled something I didn’t catch and waited with obvious impatience.
It didn’t take long for me to memorize a route that would get us out of the residential area and to one of the major corridors leading to the docks. “This way.”
I tried to walk slowly for Mika’s sake, but she refused to maintain a sedate pace. “I know you’re worried,” I began, hoping to convince her she was worried for nothing. “But letting—”
Before I could finish speaking, three male Talins rounded a corner at a rush. I moved in front of Mika, worried they'd mob her without Ithorum to warn them away.
The three came to a stop and stared hard at Mika. That wasn’t unusual, but it was curious none of them asked any questions or tried to get her attention as everyone else did.
Instead, they all reached behind themselves and pulled weapons from the small of their backs.
I sounded an angry rattle. “What do you think you’re doing? This is a human and her pup, not a threatening force.”
“Give us the pup,” the one in the middle said. “Otherwise, we’re going to take her.”
Mika made an angry, negative sound. I wanted to turn and comfort her, but I had to keep my eyes on these men.
“You’re breaking the law,” I reminded them, edging backward. Using my peripheral vision, I sought a sheltered spot for Mika and Nadia to hide in if I was forced to fight these men.
“Normally I like being right,” she mumbled, moving backward with me. “But not now.”
“It’s one against three,” the leader said. “That’s poor odds. It would be best if you set the pup down and walk away.”
“I’m more skilled than you think,” I warned.
“Don’t be foolish,” he snapped. “You’d need to fight perfectly, while we only need to fight well.
We don’t need to win or even incapacitate you.
All we need to do is overpower you long enough to carry her away.
Be reasonable; let us have her. You have two humans; let us have the pup. She can’t even do anything yet.”
I spotted a sensor alcove. It was narrow and hopefully deep enough for Mika and Nadia to squeeze into.
“The pup will die if she’s separated from her dam,” I told them.
“We’ve been assured that’s not true,” he said. “The pup will survive and probably thrive under more attention than one dam and one owner.”
“So you three think to raise her yourself?” I asked, hoping to keep them talking until I was closer to the alcove.
“Of course not,” he said. “We are only here to collect the animal for delivery.”
I saw the leader tense, preparing to rush me. I spun, shoved Mika into the alcove, and barely turned in time to meet the first blow. She understood what I intended and moved to squeeze her body sideways into the small space.
The leader wasn’t as skilled as me, and despite his weapon, I was able to knock him into a wall with relative ease.
It was bad luck that his cohorts were more skilled, and within a submark I knew it was only a matter of time until they got the better of me.
I sounded a war rattle that echoed down the corridor as I fought. My only hope was that someone would hear and bring help before they defeated me.
Mika
Cursing, I squished myself into the narrow spot Mazorium had pushed me into.
The attack started even before I was entirely inside.
Ignoring the claustrophobic tightness, I got Nadia and me pressed against the back.
Sensors dug into my hip, and I had to hold Nadia in an awkward position over my head.
An arm stretched in after me, but I was out of reach, barely.
The Talin withdrew his arm and pressed his face into the narrow space. “Come out here, human.”
Did he really think that was going to work? I ignored him and tried to look past him to see how Mazorium was doing. I knew from the way he’d dealt with the Hulks that he was a skilled and powerful fighter. But these were fellow Talins with weapons; it was a whole different situation.
They could seriously injure or even kill Mazorium! I was as scared for his life as I was about losing Nadia.
I heard a grunt of pain and then the sound of a body hitting a wall again, but I couldn’t see anything.
The Talin with his face pressed against the opening moved back and disappeared. “You two deal with him. The human wedged herself deep into the sensor alcove. I’m going to get something that’ll flush her out without damaging the pup.”
The sounds of fighting didn’t stop as the third one rushed off. Despite all the noise Mazorium was making with his rattling, we hadn’t drawn anyone's notice. I debated about exiting the spot and running, but it would be much too easy to get caught.
What we needed was to draw a crowd. If Mazorium’s rattling wasn’t doing it, we needed something massive to bring attention to this area.
The sensor digging into my hip gave me an idea!
My arms were starting to shake from holding Nadia up. Sliding toward the entrance a little, I brought her down to my waist with one arm. My shoulders stopped screaming at me, and I took a breath as I judged the sensors.
On the stations I’d worked on, they’d mount the sensors behind big metal cages to keep them from being touched, but that wasn’t fancy enough for these Talins. They had to bury them in a crevice.
Pressing my shoulders against one side, I lifted a foot and kicked at one of the sensors with as much force as I could manage.
Nothing happened. Damn it!
I kicked a few more times and still nothing. All these years of thinking these things were delicate evaporated.
“What the fuck?” I muttered, kicking them a few more times for good measure. By now my foot was hurting, and my left arm was shaking from Nadia’s weight. I shifted her so she was resting against my shoulder. Her cries filled my ears, making me feel even more helpless.
That’s when I noticed her everclean suit had changed color. That meant the nanos couldn’t break down and store any more of her waste. She needed a new suit and was at least partially upset because the suit couldn’t clean her like usual.
If I couldn’t upset the sensors with my kicking, maybe Nadia could do it for me!
It wasn’t easy, but I laid her on the floor at my feet. Movement was so limited I only had one hand to tug the suit free. She screamed in protest.
“I’m sorry,” I told her over and over again, tears of frustration rolling down my cheeks. “I know the floor is cold. I know you don’t like the way I’m handling you. I’m sorry, but it’ll be over soon. I promise.”
That wasn’t a lie. We would either have help or be captured.
I got the suit off at the same time Mazorium’s rattling suddenly cut off. The silence felt unnatural and foreboding.
Fearing the worst, I turned the suit inside out, ignoring the noxious odors my sweet child managed to produce. Pressing the dirty suit to the sensors, I rubbed it all over.
“Please work,” I begged. “Please work. Please work!”
The first indication I was successful was a flash of light and a beep from the base of one of the sensors, then the entire place was flooded with red light and blaring alarms.
“Biological contamination,” a calm voice said. “Please leave this area at a safe but quick pace.”
“What’s going on?” one of the Talins said. I could barely hear him over the shrieking alarms and the voice telling us to evacuate. The other one spoke, but I only made out the last part of what he said.
“...no amount of wealth is worth suffering a long, painful death from some kind of fuel leak.”
Then I heard rapid footsteps.
I wiggled out of my safe spot, shuffling Nadia with me. I nearly fell over backward when I popped free. Grabbing Nadia up, I held her naked body against my chest, ignoring her wails.
Mazorium was a little further down the hall, leaning heavily against a wall. He was bleeding excessively from a wound on his face, and there were cracks on the plating on his chest. His breathing was ragged, and he was blinking rapidly, as if having a hard time focusing.
I rushed up to him. “Maz?”
His eyes focused on me, and he went completely still for a second. Then he exploded into motion. He snatched me up and sprinted off. The walls flew by as he ran.
We left the alarms behind and entered a populated area.
Everyone was moving rapidly, probably because they’d been warned of the alarm.
Standard procedure on almost all stations was to have everyone shelter in the closest safe place until the emergency was assessed.
No one gave Mazorium a second look as he rushed toward the docks.
Most of the traffic was heading the other way, probably going to the living quarters.
The rest were moving along with us to get to their ships.
Mazorium flowed through the crowd; his ability to judge where the gaps would appear was uncanny. He didn’t slow down when we got the umbilical to the ship. Thundering up the passage, he continued running until we were inside the ship. Then he pressed the emergency protocol button next to the door.
The moment it slammed shut behind him, he sank to his knees and set me on my feet. I turned to face him, expecting him to express concern for the still screaming Nadia.
His gaze held mine.
“You’re safe,” he whispered. His eyes rolled back, and he slumped to the floor.
“Maz!” I cried, kneeling next to him. Fear made me act stupidly.
I felt around his neck for a pulse, almost weeping when I couldn’t find one.
But he was Talin, not human, so I couldn’t expect to find a pulse in the same place.
Placing Nadia on the ground next to us, I leaned my face over his head and put my ear to his mouth.
He was breathing.
Sitting back with relief, I picked Nadia back up and tried to soothe her.
“What do we do?” I asked her. “Maz probably needs a healer, but it’s a risk to go back on the station. Gorum could send more men after us. They could kill Mazorium next time!”
Fear caused a roaring in my ears. No, there was no way any of us were leaving this ship or even opening the door while still docked at this station. The only option was for me to get us out of here, care for Mazorium, and hope we all survived.