I told Roys I would help, that he didn’t have to worry, I had his back, and if he were here… he’d get everyone to the habitat first.
I didn’t understand how he could make this decision when it felt like ripping out my heart to turn the shuttle toward thehabitat.
“Care to explain why a group of pirates attacked us?” Maddy fell into the co-pilot seat. Her visor had been discarded, revealing her flushed features and messy hair. She wasn’t injured, much to my relief.
“Arana joined the militia because she owes an angry mob boss a lot of money and she missed a few payments,” I replied.
“Of course, that’s it.” She glanced at the blood drying across the console. “Are you alright?”
“I told you, my leg was stunned. That’s all.”
“That’s not what I’m asking.” Her gaze was like a hangnail — painful, irritating. “The captain is alive,” she said, like that would change the cold sweat rolling down my back. “So is Arana and Ryker.”
At the time, she probably would have said if she weren’t attempting a shitty pep talk.
“Once at the habitat, we’ll help the others in, then we’ll look for them,” she said.
“We? Do you mean me and the rest of our security team? You can’t join.” My hands flexed on the wheel. “That’s against protocol.”
“You don’t care about that.” She leaned back, arms crossed and words final. “You aren’t leaving me behind, Lucky.”
She wasn’t talking about our past. I understood that, like she understood from the moment they were taken, that I would get them back alive. No matter the cost.
040
Chaosensuedinthehabitat. Everyone scrambled to get Zavir, Iylene, and Tobs to the cradle while I went to the armory. The pirate’s shuttle had been damaged. They couldn’t break atmo with their engines sparking. Pieces of them would rain down from the sky, over in an instantaneous blast. No doubt they had equipment to fix their engines, which meant I had limited time to find them.
The armory had all manner of weapons on the off chance that straiers appeared on planet. My exoskin didn’t have the best defense; however, I moved better and silently compared to our interplanetary gear meant for deep space. I kept on my exoskin while filling every strap. It wasn’t until I heard the hiss of another exoskin beingretrieved from the charging ports that I realized I wasn’t alone.
Maddy slid into an exoskin unlike the ones the scientists wore. Theirs protected them against the environment, while ours were more defensive. She had the exoskin to her waist when I grabbed her arm.
“What are you doing?"
She swatted my hand away to slip her arms into the sleeves. The exoskin hung off her form until the seams met at the front. Once sealed, the exoskin shrank to hug her. “You aren't going after them alone. We don't know how many there are."
“You said six attacked you. I killed the two who attacked me. Your lot killed two and severely injured one. A pilot certainly stayed on board, perhaps an engineer, too, so that’s five potential assailants. They know we’re going to search for them. They will land to fix their shuttle and have at least two on lookout, if they’re smart. On board, I’d have to handle two plus an injured pirate. I can handle them, which means I am not taking you.” I angled myself in front of her, ensuring that she couldn’t get to the weapons without going through me.
“You are annoyingly quick-witted,” she snapped.
“When I want to be.”
“And you could be wrong. There may be more.”
“I’ll take that chance.”
“I already told you, you aren’t leaving me behind.”
Her words weaved wounds no weapon ever could. She didn’t need to draw blood to incite pain, even if, by her slow breath, she hadn’t meant to. Consciously or not, she saw the correlation between our past and present. I had been put in a situation where I could save someone or run and, for the first time, I didn’t have any urge to run.
“There are six militia team members left, and you cannot take them all. A team must stay here to protect the habitat in case piratescome this way,” she continued, bypassing the moment altogether. “A large force is more easily caught, so the two of us would work nicely.”
“Three,” Lilea declared in the entryway. “Whoever these people are, they blocked our interplanetary communications, either from a main ship off-world or a jammer. Mance is in the comm rooms now, and he can’t ping Corporate.”
“Most likely a jammer. Their ship was outfitted for deep space voyages, still, this means those bastards will exterminate all of us to keep this under wraps,” I growled.
“That or they’ll haul us off to work camps, and Corporate would be led to believe we were all devoured by flora.”
Not so different from the Colony, where we’d work for nothing, slaving away under the cruel hands of our wardens.
