Chapter 28
As soon as Nia had arrived in family medicine, she didn’t have a minute to herself. It had been the same at all her former posts. One day would be quiet, the next non-stop. Unfortunately, Kessy had the day off, making the day even more challenging when dealing with Faas and Mayra’s enduring antagonism.
On the positive side, the bustle didn’t allow her even a second to examine how her relationship with Mace had changed over the past day—and what that would mean for the future.
Because she really couldn’t deal with that right now.
Frowning, she ran a scanner over her patient, a baby with a fever, one more time. Such a wee thing. Nothing conclusive emerged on the screen, frustrating her. Give her a broken bone or a lacerated appendage any day. Maladies like these, especially on one so small, were always a guessing game.
“Where are you hurting?” she murmured to herself, then looked at the mother. “Maybe it’s a growth thing?” The woman didn’t look happy at the vague explanation. “I’ll lower her fever, then maybe it’s best to keep her here for observation.” It was the only thing she could think of.
Thiswas why she shouldn’t have been placed in family medicine. It annoyed her to no end that she would have to ask Faas or Mayra their opinion.
Turning, she sought to make eye contact with one of them, when the deck rumbled beneath her feet. She tensed, hands tight on the scanner.
Another rumble, and a collective gasp echoed through the med bay. Nia’s eyes flew to Elec whose focus was on his vambrace. Then his other hand reached for the weapon at his thigh.
Boom. The blast rocked everyone to the side. Shouts of alarm collided against the bulkheads; supplies cascaded off the shelves to the deck. Her infant patient cried. The mother curved over her baby in a protective cocoon. Children whimpered in fear. Her heart racing, Nia tightened her hands on the med bed, trying to keep her balance.
Another blast roared through the space. Nia pitched to the side, hit her elbow on the med bed, and fell to the deck. People screamed. Above the ringing of her ears, the metal around them groaned with strain.
The lights went out and the emergency lights turned on, dim and red. Using the med bed for support, she staggered to her feet.
“Everyone to their evacuation zones and get off the station,” Elec shouted to the people in the bay. “Hurry!” he added when everyone seemed frozen. “CORE are boarding.”
Cries of fear and dismay echoed as everyone hurried to the exit. One more explosion rumbled farther away, then the station stilled.
Nia’s heart pounded hard in her head as she clenched the edge of the med bed. The CORE were here. She grabbed her locket and squeezed it tight. They’d finally come.
But instead of the thought elating her, dread swirled in her chest and her head felt disconnected from her shoulders.
Elec gripped her elbow. “We need to go.”
“Where’s Mace?”
“We’ll meet him at the evacuation bay.”
She nodded, her stomach roiling in fear. Elec cleared her bonds to leave, and they entered the corridor. The dim, flashing lights made it hard to see. Shouts resounded further along, people giving orders, others panicking. Elec hurried her forward, her elbow in his one hand and weapon in the other.
“We can’t take the lifts,” he said, gesturing to where others entered an emergency hatch. “We’ll need to climb up to deck forty-two.
They waited at the back of the line, and she recognized some of the patients from the med bay climbing inside the hatch ahead of them. Evacuation zones. They’ll get off safely. She swallowed against the dryness in her mouth, her heart feeling like it was trying to escape through of her throat.
It took forever before it was their turn.
“In you go,” Elec said as he helped her inside the emergency shaft where she stepped on a ledge and grabbed hold of a ladder rung. Her stomach jumped into her throat. The space below her plummeted unendingly like it had in the engine core. She looked up, could see the outline of the people climbing above her in a tube about the same size as the lift. A baby cried, the sound bouncing within the bulkheads.
Elec followed close behind when a shout down the corridor made him turn. Laser fire erupted, blinding against the dark of the shaft.
“Climb, climb, climb!” Elec shouted before he shut the door behind her, sealing her inside and him out.
Heart galloping, palms sweaty, Nia tried to climb as fast as she could. The weapons fire behind the thick hatch was muffled and muted. Sounds of distress echoed from above as people climbed faster.
Elec…he didn’t enter the shaft behind her.
A sob clogged her throat as she continued to climb. The shaft’s bulkheads felt like they closed in on her. The echoing movements, the rustle of clothing, disoriented her senses the higher she went. When she passed another access hatch, she saw which deck she was on: nineteen.
A whimper escaped her. Her hands were already sore from the thin metal bar, but she didn’t stop, moving as fast as the man above her—which felt about as fast as a hundred-year-old shuttle only using half a thruster. The hatch below could open at any moment, exposing them to the defenders who’d attacked Elec.
Her pace faltered. Should she go back down? Defenders were supposed to be on her side. What is my side?
She kept climbing, desperation clogging her throat. Was Elec alive?
An ear-splitting sound, weapons fire, ripped through the shaft from above. Screams of terror echoed, then thumping noises, bodies hitting bodies. Someone was shooting at them from a hatch above. The man above rammed into her, an unavoidable force in the small space.
Nia screamed, losing her grip. She fell, the narrow rungs of the ladder scraping against her body, until her elbow caught against one of them, nearly ripping her arm off.
Bodies pushed passed her as they fell, and she had no way to determine if they were dead or alive. She pressed herself against the bulkhead, trying to make herself as small as possible, squeezing behind the ladder, her shoes slipping then holding. They kept falling and falling, ramming against her body, scraping. The weapons fire continued on, a never-ending barrage assaulting her eyes and ears as she held on as tight as she could. Her forearm burned with sharp pain.
The laser fire stopped. The screaming stopped. The only thing Nia could hear was her heavy breaths. She held perfectly still, afraid to move, terrified if she did, the shooting would start again. Shouts a long distance above made her flinch. Hot tears coated her cheeks.
Time passed slowly as she waited for silence. When it descended, its oppressive weight constricted her throat. Had no one else survived? She closed her eyes and thought of those who’d been ahead of her in the line. Bile rose, the taste coating the insides of her mouth. She could hear nothing from below, no groans or gasps that someone was injured and needed treatment. Her eyes tracked downward, but there was no movement, just the unending shaft disappearing into the black. No one to help.
Swallowing against the acidic taste that grew in her mouth, she searched the bulkhead in the dim light, and realized she’d stopped between two decks. It took an excruciating long time to get her limbs to co-operate, to release the rungs enough to rotate to the front of the ladder.
Her arm throbbed painfully. Her body shook as she moved as quietly as possible. With her damp hands and trembling legs, each rung she grabbed took her whole concentration. One wrong move, and she’d plummet like the others.
Listening for anyone else, Nia climbed a rung at a time until another hatch appeared. She wouldn’t ascend farther—not if it meant being shot. Stepping onto the ledge, she pressed her hands against the metal, uncertain how to open the hatch. For a panicked moment, she thought she was trapped, then saw the handle at the bottom.
Careful not to slip and fall, she braced her body against the bulkhead and gripped the handle. Her damp palms slipped on the smooth surface. Gritting her teeth, she wiped them on her leggings, grabbed with both hands, and pulled.
A hiss of air escaped the seal, then the shaft turned into a wind tunnel as the corridor’s fresh air battled with the stagnant stuff in the shaft. Nia froze. Had that been too loud? Was there someone on the other side of the hatch? When she didn’t hear anything, she pushed the door open.
The corridor’s deck glared red under the emergency lights. Nia stepped one foot out, waiting for something to tell her if it was safe or not. When only silence remained, she climbed out the rest of the way. Heart in her throat, she leaned against the bulkhead, willing the strength back into her legs.
This corridor looked exactly like the one Mace’s corridors were on, except the numbers on the doors began with CUL24.
Where was Mace? Is he even alive? What about Dee or Kessy?
Her chest tightened painfully, bile rising in her throat once more. She stared at the shaft she’d exited and gripped her locket. Defenders had fired down indiscriminately…they were supposed to defend. It was in their name. None of those people had been armed, some children, babies, and the defenders hadn’t cared.
Her vision blurred. She’d done this. She’d killed all of them as assuredly as if she’d pulled the trigger herself. Her chest felt like it was shrinking. She couldn’t breathe.
Her liquid legs collapsed beneath her, the bulkhead her only support as she sank to the deck. Darkness seeped into the edges of her vision. The baby’s cries echoed in her head paired with the thumping of the bodies as they fell. Her body shook.
Footsteps stomped along the next corridor. Nia froze in place, unable to move. They kept getting closer, the heaviness of their steps matching how hard her heart pounded. She gasped as two defenders rounded the corner, and scrambled to her feet. Their helmets were opaque, silver uniforms splattered with blood, and their weapons were aimed straight at her.
Nia lifted her hands in surrender, exposing her bonds.
“She’s CORE,” said the one, his voice generic through his helmet’s interface.
“You heard our orders,” the other one replied, his head tilted over the sight of the weapon. “Leave no survivors.”
A shout of pure terror burst from her throat. Nia spun and ran, hugging the side of the bulkhead so the open hatch door would block her. This wasn’t a rescue mission. It was a siege. Her feet stumbled beneath her, and she braced for the pain of death.
The shots never came. She kept running.
Two more defenders turned the corner in front of her. Nia screamed, skidding, falling on her bottom at their feet. They aimed their weapons above her and fired.
Another weapon blasted from behind her, connecting with their personal shielding, making it ripple in stress. But it was the sudden appearance of a knife, plunged to the hilt, that captured her gaze. The blade was wedged in the space between the helmet and uniform of the defender on the right. She blinked and a matching wound appeared on the other defender.
They both fell to the deck.
It felt like her body had turned to iron. She couldn’t move, breaths bursting past her lips at a ragged tempo.
A scuffing noise behind her broke through her daze. She turned her head.
Mace strode toward her. Blood splattered one side of his face, and his blue uniform was covered in weapons and body armor. The first two defenders she encountered lay dead behind him.
She gasped a breath, relief blending with her fear and panic. He passed her by, knelt beside the dead defenders, and pulled the knives from their bodies before wiping the blades on their uniforms. Red smeared against silver.
He tucked the two knives away into his belt with a snick, then stood and extended his hand.