Dylan stood off to the side, his expression neutral as he made no attempt to mediate the conflict.
“What’s going on?”Kira asked, looking inside the room Jin guarded.
It was a Tuann command center.A large, round table sat in the center.Its surface as smooth and shiny as glass.The protrusion in the ceiling above likely housed the complex’s major systems.
Simply put, it was a war room.
“This—child—is preventing us from accessing the enclave’s logs,” Bez announced.
From his expression and the way he spat “child”, Kira could tell the word wasn’t his first choice.The fact that he’d held himself back was commendable.Though likely more due to Dylan’s presence than any courtesy toward Jin.
Kira couldn’t blame him for his frustration.Jin possessed the singular ability to be the most irritating entity in the room at any given time.
The thing was, Jin always had a good reason for going off the rails.
That proved the case this time too as Jin reached inside the room with the stick he was holding and dragged it along the floor before holding it up for them to see.
The tip sparkled like a frickin’ disco ball.
“Someone set off a dust bomb,” Kira observed.
“Yup.”Jin tossed the stick into the room.“If I hadn’t stopped these idiots, they’d all be dead by now.”
Pye held up a hand.“Can someone tell me what a dust bomb is?”
“Human tech,” Kira answered.“They’re the gift that keeps on giving.The dust lingers for years after the inciting explosion—especially in an enclosed space like this.Once inhaled, the razor-sharp particles destroy you from the inside out.”
They’d invade your bloodstream.Basically cutting you to pieces, doing damage on a microscopic level until your body finally gave out.
As far as Kira knew, there was no treatment.
“They’re banned on every Consortium planet.Not even the military uses them anymore,” Jin said.
That was mostly because of the collateral damage they caused.
Kira and Jin had lost a few friends that way.Soldiers who didn’t gain minimum safe distance before setting off the bomb.
It was a hell of a way to go.
“How did the remnants of human tech wind up in a wanderer’s enclave?”Az asked.
“There are a few groups I can think of who still have this in their arsenal,” Jin said.
Kira could too.
All of them human.All of them on the wrong side of the law.
“We need to get inside that room,” Bez announced suddenly.
He stared over Jin’s head with a focus that told Kira that he and reason were no longer buddies.
“I just told you that’s a death sentence,” Jin argued.
“I don’t care.It holds the answers we need.I’m going in.”Bez considered Jin coldly.“You and that traitor behind you might not understand loyalty but we do.”
This was the second time Bez had called Finn a traitor.
Honestly, Kira was getting a little tired of it.
