The ship shuddered again, and this time she was jostled in her chair.
One of the guards had to grip the door to stay on his feet and he accidentally discharged his laz, hitting the ceiling in a bloom of light.
Everyone stared over at him, shocked.
Before anyone could speak, though, there was a grinding sound—metal on metal—and then the ship listed a little to one side and stopped moving.
The guards changed position, from pointing their weapons into the mess to pointing them down the passageway, back to back.
“We’ve been caught and hobbled,” Ethan murmured.
Linao had finally gotten to her feet, looking toward the door.
Everyone here obviously thought they were about to be rescued, and that might well be the case.
She leaned forward and Ethan gripped her hand. Squeezed it in a silent message.
“I know,” she murmured, glancing at him.
It would have to be a matter of life and death before they moved, because if it was the Cores attacking the Caruso—which seemed the most likely—and the Cores were victorious, then they would have just shown themselves to be exactly what Ritter had been hoping for.
They would be a successful experiment, with all the further experimentation that would entail.
And they will try to take us from you. We are tired of being given a purpose and then put back in the box.
The voice in her head was obviously very much against that outcome.
And by us, she guessed it meant the silver balls.
Laz fire was suddenly exchanged and one of the crew gasped and stood, backing up against the wall, as far from the door as possible.
One of the guards looked in, then swung his laz in a lazy arc, firing into the room.
Ethan moved at the same time as she did, diving down and rolling under the table. They ended up side by side, close together.
Linao gave a shout, pulling a small laz from a jacket pocket as she leaped forward and began shooting, and Velda realized she must have been biding her time, waiting for the right moment to use it.
She didn’t last long, going down under the much heavier fire of the Caruson laz fire.
But she wasn’t dead.
Velda could see her chest rising and falling and suddenly the Caruson grabbed her foot and dragged her out of the room.
Someone else was dragged, too, and Velda was surprised to see it was Ritter. He must have been caught in the scattershot fire, because she was sure he hadn’t been hiding a weapon.
She looked back toward his table, saw Brink was also down but alive. The Caruso had chosen two hostages, probably at random, and Velda watched as they lifted up Linao and Ritter and held them, limp and unconscious, against their chests.
The laz fire abruptly ceased, and the Caruso backed away down the passage, going left.
There was a moment of silence in the room, and Velda saw four others were down, but the rest were crouched beneath tables, like her and Ethan.
Three people in full armor appeared in the doorway, scanned the room, and one stepped inside while the other two continued down the passage.
“Is this everyone?” The soldier kept his laz up as he angled to the side to look inside the kitchen.
“The captain, Tansy and Rico are on the bridge,” one of the crew said. “And they took Linao and Ritter.”
The soldier glanced at her, gave a nod. “No one through there?”
