Kira crashed to the floor. A burst of pain shot through her as her ship was dyed in red.
six
Kira blinked up at the ceiling, her body surrounded by the cups she’d served the tea in and whatever else had been lying out unsecured. A feeling of wet soaked into her pant legs. Probably from the tea she hadn’t managed to finish.
Her brain felt sluggish as she realized the red tint to the room was from the flashing red lights that indicated a ship wide emergency.
That shrill sound beating in her ears was the proximity alerts.
Torvald rose gracefully from his chair. Somehow, he hadn’t gotten tossed about in the collision, managing to maintain his seat.
Kira eyed him with envy as she rotated the shoulder that had taken the brunt of her fall. Wouldn’t it have been nice if someone shared that trick with her?
Kira pushed herself off the floor, turning on her comms. “Would someone like to explain what just happened?”
“We were hit by something,” Jin said.
Kira gave him an incredulous look. “You think?”
Raider’s voice interrupted through the ship’s intercoms. “Kira, I need you on the bridge. We’re in a bit of a situation, and it’s about to get worse.”
The ship heaved as if dodging something.
Kira stumbled, nearly losing the balance she’d just recovered.
Jin shot past her. “That bastard switched the ship to manual.”
“Jin, wait—“ Kira’s voice trailed off as Jin disappeared down the corridor. “For me,” she finished with a sigh.
Torvald caught her as the ship did another of its maneuvers. “Is this type of excitement normal for you?”
“I’d really like to say no.”
But the truth was Kira and Jin attracted trouble like flowers did a bee.
The Wanderer had seen more than its share of this type of excitement. There was that time on Galileo where they ripped half the belly of the ship off. Then there were those pirates near New Neptune who thought they were easy pickings and tried to commandeer her ship.
Such stories numbered in the dozens.
Sometimes she thought they were cursed.
“It seems I didn’t know what I was getting into when I boarded,” Torvald observed as Kira staggered toward the door.
Rather than concerned, Torvald seemed almost amused by that fact.
Kira ignored him as she concentrated on making her way to the bridge. “Status report.”
“Everything is fucked,” Raider growled.
Kira reached the corridor that led to the bridge. “That’s a lovely image but it doesn’t really give me a picture of the situation.”
“You want a briefing. Here it is. The system’s defenses attacked us and they’re getting ready to do so again.” Raider sounded stressed. “They have mines, Kira. Mines.”
“The Hakeeb, those things he’s calling mines, are the least of his problems,“ Torvald said. “Soon your human’s piloting will trigger the secondary layer of defenses.”
Kira clutched at a handhold on the wall as the ship swooped and dove. Torvald swayed slightly but didn’t even stagger.
“I see he found them,” Torvald observed.
