Chapter 15 #2
Without examining them, Kira didn’t know how thick the metal for those blast doors was, but she could guarantee that it was at least several meters. The enclave had taken its security seriously. They would have made sure those doors could stand up to anything but a nuke.
Hence the DIY skylight.
Probably flew a ship through it before the dust even settled.
Scanning the chamber with an experienced eye, Kira spotted the pirate’s likely landing spot a moment later. She searched the ground in the vicinity.
Sure enough. Those were boot prints.
She recognized the tread. Singer’s. A brand popular with miners and long-distance freight haulers. Most everyone on Titan wore them. Including her at one point.
“You should have seen it before,” Az said with an odd, wistful note as she knelt on one knee, touching the compacted dirt and charred debris that the ship’s backwash had made.
“It must have taken them years to create something of this magnitude,” Kira offered.
Az brushed the dirt off her fingers and rose. “Almost two decades.”
Kira turned with Az. “Find anything interesting during your search?”
“A few things.”
Kira waited, hoping this wasn’t one of those times when she had to drag out the information kicking and screaming. She was going to be really irritated if that was the case.
Bez slid down a mound of dirt, dislodging a small avalanche of loose soil and rock. He tossed something down beside her.
“What’s this?” Kira asked, examining what looked like a side panel of a ship.
“Confirmation that Caius was here.”
Bez reached down, flipping the metal over to show the etching on the other side.
“Is that Tuann?”
Kira was better at speaking Tuann than writing or reading it, but she did possess some familiarity.
“Alair. It’s part of an ancient Tuann dialect. It means brutal current,” Bez explained.
“It’s also the name of Caius’s personal ship,” Az added.
Crap.
“Caius never made it off the planet then,” Kira said.
Honestly, she never thought he had. The whole purpose of this mission was to trace his last steps and see exactly where he had gone missing.
It appeared they had their answer.
“Not on his own ship at least,” Az agreed.
Kira nodded. “We got what we came for. Let’s rendezvous with the rest of our people and head back to the world gate.”
“You can’t be serious.” Bez looked at Az for support. “We’re close. We can’t just leave.”
“We’re not leaving. We’re regrouping.”
Kira didn’t like being out of contact with the rest of their party. Anything could happen and they would never know.
The pirates operating out of Titan were notorious for being unpredictable and merciless. Kira didn’t want to lose someone just because Bez and his pod got careless.
“No.”
Kira looked at Bez. “Excuse me?”
She couldn’t have heard that right. It had been a long time since she’d been in a position of command so she was a little rusty, but insubordination was still a thing, right?
“No,” Bez bit out. “If you want to go back, go. We’re staying to continue the hunt.”
“I thought that was what you said,” Kira said with an easy smile that masked the anger beginning to bubble in her veins. “You must not understand the chain of command. It’s a difficult concept so I’ll break it down for you. Harlow placed me in charge of this mission. That makes it my call.”
“Roake is doomed if its heir jumps at every little shadow,” Bez taunted.
The look Kira shot him was incredulous. “Are you done? I’d like to get moving if so. You’re boring me and I have important things to do.”
Like not getting the people Harlow entrusted to her command killed.
Bez looked taken aback at her response. His forehead furrowed and his gaze shot to Az in confusion.
Kira sighed, knowing he’d probably expected her to curse him out or take a swing.
If only. “I’ll let you in on a little secret.
I’m rarely this understanding. But you’ve lost someone important to you.
I know what that’s like.” Better than most. “You’re under a lot of stress because of it.
For that reason, I’m willing to make an exception.
Just this one time. Question me again and I’ll have you arrested for insubordination when we get back. ”
She wasn’t sure if that was something she could do, but that didn’t matter. It sounded good.
“I don’t have the time or inclination to deal with the chip on your shoulder. There are matters much more critical that require my attention.”
Saving Roake’s ass and protecting the home she’d like to return to among them.
Bez’s eyes got wider and wider the longer she spoke. “How dare you!”
Kira’s chuckle was terrifying. “Don’t look so surprised. It makes you appear stupid.”
They wanted to play games? Get a rise from her?
Well, then. She’d be happy to show them the real Kira. The one that suffered no fools and hated when people tested her. That Kira had made subordinates and senior officers alike fear her.
Bez grabbed Kira’s arm as she started to walk away. “We’re not done.”
She quelled her instinctive reaction as a shift of movement from the hillside above the cave-in caught her attention.
Kira threw herself at Bez as a loud crack rent the air. He grunted as they toppled backward.
Heat singed the upper part of her back, blazing a line across her shoulder blade.
“Sniper—take cover!” Az shouted.
Kira rolled off Bez, scrambling to the closest large object she could put between her and the shooter. In this case, the severed wing of a ship.
Bez crawled after her. “Who is shooting at us?”
“Pirates—now you see why I wanted to rally with the rest of the group.”
Kira leaned around the tip of the wing, drawing back a second before the sniper opened fire again. She huddled low as the ping, ping, ping of laser hit metal.
“What are they still doing here? The attack on the enclave happened weeks ago,” Bez demanded.
“I don’t know. Why don’t you go out there and ask them yourself?”
Either the pirates left someone behind to mop up survivors and any would-be rescuers who showed up. Or someone had leaked their whereabouts and this was another attack on Roake.
This time with Kira as the primary target.
Mentioning either scenario in these circumstances wasn’t likely to help.
Bez seemed to notice the blood on her back for the first time. “You’re wounded.”
Kira pushed away his hand when he scooted closer to get a better look. “It’s fine. It was cauterized instantly.”
It hurt like a bitch though.
Even knowing it was useless, Kira tapped her comms. “Jin, you there? I could really use your help right about now.”
No answer.
“Arly, report,” Bez ordered.
Like Kira, he received no response.
“They must be jamming it,” Kira said.
“How is that possible? Roake’s comms are highly sophisticated. Even the major Houses would have trouble disrupting them.”
“Humans are exceptionally clever when they want to be.”
“You still think this is human pirates?” Bez asked.
Kira nodded at the hill. “The weapon they’re using is an Enos 3200.”
The first pick of Consortium trained military snipers. She recognized the report.
“A Tuann would have used a zitter,” Kira explained.
The cousin of a zuipi, the zitter was meant for longer distance shots. It looked like a bow, if that bow was formed of energy and light. Its “arrow” was a bolt about the length of Kira’s forearm that was pitch black and seemed to eat the light around it. When fired, the air screamed.
It was as unmistakable as the Enos 3200.
“If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, that usually means it’s a duck,” Kira said.
Or, in this case, a pirate.
“Is that a human saying?” Bez asked.
“What do you think?”
He chuckled, an assessing look in his eyes as he chanced a peek over the wing. He ducked back out of sight a millisecond before another barrage of laser fire rained down on them.
“Decent reaction time. We’re not making a run for it,” Bez said.
Kira agreed with his assessment. The door was much too far. The sniper would pick them off long before they made it close.
If Joule was here, he could have set a ki shield to cover their retreat. As it was, it was unlikely any of their shields could repel the force behind an Enos 3200.
Bez didn’t seem upset about that fact. It might have been Kira’s imagination, but she thought he seemed like he was enjoying this. The thrill of action washing away the frustration of earlier.
“We can’t stay here,” Kira said, scanning the room for a solution.
“Relax—that weapon doesn’t have enough firepower to penetrate the metal of this hull.” Bez thumped his fist against the wing, creating a dull sound.
“Hey, dumb ass. That hillside is unstable from the earlier landslide. What do you think will happen if they set off another charge?” Kira asked.
Bez’s expression said that thought hadn’t occurred to him. “Oh.”
“Yeah, oh.”
Kira didn’t know about him, but being crushed or suffocated to death was not how she wanted to go.
“Hey, Az!” Bez suddenly yelled. “You got a plan?”
“Working on it!”
To Kira, “She’s working on it.”
Exasperated, she shook her head. “I can’t believe Harlow stuck me with you.”
Bez lay down on his side. “Pretty sure it’s the other way around.”
Kira ignored him as a Hili Schooner caught her eye. Ten meters to their right and approximately five meters closer to the sniper, the schooner’s ass stuck out of the dirt at an awkward angle. Its front compartments were buried beneath the surface, making it look like an ostrich hiding its head.
“That could work,” she whispered, eyeing the left rear stabilizer that the damage to the ship had left exposed.
Bez sat up and looked at the schooner. “What could?”
The stabilizer itself wasn’t her ultimate goal but rather the fuel inside. Kira didn’t know how the Haldeel managed to create something with enough thrust to make their ships some of the fastest she’d come across but also so fuel efficient that they could go a decade between refueling.
The only problem was its instability. When exposed to oxygen, it reacted much like magnesium.
It burned.