Moving slowly with Thatcher deeper into the brig area, the two of us cautiously eyed the three cells that lined one wall. More often, these were used to stash drunk or misbehaving crewmembers for the night.Sometimes we collected a bounty on someone alive, and they were housed here until we delivered them. Right now, they were supposed to be empty. The middle cell pulsed with darkness from the entity, and almost a third of the room was taken up by the black knot and tendrils crawling along the wall.
A force field hummed and flickered over the cell furthest away, and neither of us could see inside it. “Stay close,” Thatcher said, and he swung his rifle back into his arms on its strap. He’d seen that force field too, and he wanted to check it before we tackled the black tumor growing on the brig wall inside the middle cell. My fingers twitched around the scanner I held, then flicked to the box of tools Thatcher had dropped at the entrance. It was tempting to go back for them, grab a hefty wrench. Did I hold onto my vows not to do any violence, even in a situation like this?
Thatcher seemed to know exactly when I shuffled back a step. His hand reached behind him and curled around my wrist. “Stay close,” he snapped again. He placed my hand on the small of his back, on the belt around his narrow hips. “We’ll get your tools in a bit.” So I followed him, moving with his body as he crossed the brig and aimed the barrel of his rifle into the last cell in the row.
I drew in a shocked gasp when I peered around his shoulder and saw what had halted him in his tracks. I’d thought perhaps the force field being on was a malfunction, a byproduct of the entity clinging to the wall beside it. Perhaps it was on for much more sinister reasons than that.
Drawn back against the wall, back-to-back with where much of the entity pulsed in the other cell, a figure hung. Feet barely touching the ground, hands raised to his throat, but otherwise completely limp. It was a male, dressed ingreen-and-brown smeared clothing, several knives in sheaths all over his body. Bulky, big, and muscled in nearly an identical manner to Thatcher. This male was also splattered with dark red on his hands and wrists. Perhaps it was also on his clothing, but the green-and-brown fabric masked it.
He was being strangled by dark vines wrapped around his thick neck, his hands clawing slowly, reflexively at them and drawing furrows of blood into his skin. More of that black substance covered his face, wrapped like foil over his features so they pushed through. A mask of agony, of a male screaming in turmoil while no sound came out. I wasn’t sure if he was being suffocated or simply silenced as the entity tried to absorb him, or perhaps possess and control him. Whatever was happening, the fight was almost concluded, and I was pretty sure the human was losing.
“Ah, hell,” Thatcher growled. “Can you kill the force field? We should put the bastard out of his misery.” That’s when probably the worst, most awful plan unfurled in my mind. It was definitely going to cross the line, breaking my vows. I saw no other way to save my family, my ship, theVarakartoom. If there was one thing I knew, it was that I’d do anything to prevent the destruction of another home. I couldn’t stand by idly when I could have done something, for the sake of a conviction I held as much out of nostalgia as for spiritual reasons.
“Don’t,” I whispered. “It might be our one shot to truly kill it.” I clutched at Thatcher’s belt, my fingers in such a tight fist that my azure-blue knuckles were turning a pale pastel shade. “We have to try to drive it from the cell into the male. The Sineater killed such a creature back on Xio. Remember that?” We’d tried everything else:fire, the icy cold of space, oxygen deprivation. I feared that not even blowing up theVarakartoomherself could shake this thing from her systems.
Thatcher shrugged and lowered his weapon before he glanced over his shoulder at me. “Okay, what then?” he said, not saying a word about the moral implications—clearly not even all that concerned about putting an end to his fellow human’s suffering. That made me feel worse, because I had kind of hoped someone would tell me what an awful plan it was. Thatcher didn’t care, though; I knew he truly didn’t. I was the one with the moral compass in this equation, and now I felt like mine was telling me to do something horrible.
I wet my lips, swallowed roughly, then told myself internally to toughen up. So what? This was a mercenary vessel; these were tough males used to killing and death and even torture if the job called for it. Of course none of them would so much as bat an eye at this solution—Thatcher least of all.
We shuffled back and paused in front of the cell in the middle of the row. We stared at the black knot pulsing on the wall, and I knew it was my only option. Then Thatcher said the right thing again, and it was definitely the right moment for those words. “You have no choice, my little engineer. You are protecting your home, your family. I don’t know much about right or wrong these days, but I knowthat is right.”
That’s right. Protect, at any cost. Yeah, that was kind of his motto, wasn’t it? And what he wanted to protect most was me. I nodded, and then I reached up to cup the side of his jaw. Stubble pressed against my skin—abrasive—a reminder that he was rough around the edges. Some of those edges were as sharp as knives, but some of them were there toprotect a surprisingly soft core. Rising onto my toes, I kissed him.
“Thank you, Thatcher,” I whispered. A kiss with him was never just one touch, one brush of our lips. He claimed, taking what he wanted; a plunderer. His mouth slanted over mine, his tongue delving deep, and his hands found my curves and yanked me close. Danger thrummed around us, but in that moment, there was only passion.
“When this is over,” he growled against my lips, “I’m going to pin you to the nearest bunk and fuck you senseless. That’s a promise.” He lifted his head after those words, leaving me a tingling, wet mess trembling in his arms. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter 21
Thatcher
With Ysa pressed protectively behind me, I led the way into the cell with the pulsing knot of darkness on the wall. It was very tempting to fetch a flamethrower, but I did not think fire would be enough. Ysa’s plan was a good one, very good. We’d drive the creature off our walls and into the Shadow Unit soldier. That would possibly create a very dangerous, deadly opponent, but it would also present us with a chance to truly kill it. I rather liked the way things were coming together.
“Call the captain,” I said under my breath. “They need to converge on our location and provide backup, and end the sweep of the ship.” With the soldier pinned to the wall in the other cell, they did not need to search for him. Wecould, however, use the help of the rest of the crew for thetakedown. Especially the Sineater; he would be useful. Normally, I thought our crew could handle anything, but right now, I even wished theVagabond’s gladiators could be here.
We’d survive this, I told myself over and over as I visually inspected each of the black tendrils. I’d shoot the thickest veins first, then hack away at the thinner ones. This time, I had to make absolutely certain not so much as a speck managed to slither away. Especially with Ysa right behind me, in the thick of things. I’d much prefer to send her away, but I did not trust that the entity wouldn’t try to trap her, or follow her. It had it out for her from the start, and I did not think it had changed its objectives. Whatever they were.
I made sure Ysa was behind me, just in case it attacked again with acid like last time. With a glance over my shoulder, I flicked the control at my collar and allowed my helmet to close around my head. Ysa took that as her cue, and she dropped her hand to her belt. Something hummed, flickered, and then a shimmer of blue enveloped her front. A personal shield, one she had probably rigged herself. So that’s how she’d protected herself last time. Good.
I raised my rifle, took a steadying breath, and aimed. Backup wasn’t here yet. Ysa was only now reaching out to the captain to tell him of our find. I knew we shouldn’t wait. The moment it finished its fight for dominance over the Shadow Unit soldier’s control, he’d attack. They’d attack. We’d lose our chance to fully drive it into the human’s body, and this might never end.
The shot blazed a hole in the thickest of the black vines, and something squealed, awful, sharp, high-pitched. I did not hesitate, did not wait, squeezing off shotafter shot with precision, circling around the thick, bulging knot at the center to cut off each vein. I braced myself, made sure Ysa was still safely behind her shield and my back, then blasted the knot as well. It exploded, and like last time, acid sprayed thick and viscous. I was briefly blinded by it as it coated the faceplate of my helmet, but none of it burned through the armor, holding steady thanks to Ysa’s tweaks.
Then my little engineer swore, and I thought perhaps the armorhadfailed and I just didn’t notice. That was possible, as some parts of my body had been so damaged that the nerves would never fully recover. My processor did not warn me of any danger, though. I saw it too when I moved to cut the smaller tendrils with my knife: a burst of claws from the tips of my fingers. A force field had come down in front of the cell we were now in, effectively locking us into the tight space with the entity clinging to the wall.
It had to be the creature’s doing. It wasn’t fighting back, but withering and twitching, curling in on itself and appearing to burrow deeper into the wall. I cut into it, digging, clawing, destroying. Acid burned the metal claws at my fingertips and ate at my gloves. Whatever Ysa had done to strengthen my armor against this attack, it was beginning to fail, too. I was so close, though, I could taste victory. The entity lay in shriveled, broken pieces around my feet, and what remained was rapidly getting smaller. I grasped it, pulled, and with a pop it broke free. I saw a last little piece slither away, but it went into the skin at the back of the soldier’s neck.
Through that hole, I could see the entity, now part of the soldier, drop to the ground in the other cell. I raised my rifle to the hole, took aim, and fired repeatedly. The first shotstruck, but after that, the soldier rolled lightning-fast across the ground and out of view. What I could see of the neighboring cell was limited, but the force field in front of it seemed intact, like it was in front of ours.
I was breathing heavily, and sweat coated the back of my neck and dripped down my spine. Adrenaline made my heart pump furiously in my chest, and warnings pinged across my processor, telling me I was overheated. My nanobots were working to heal the smallest burns on my fingertips and smooth out the pitting along my claws caused by the acid.
Not trusting it one bit, I turned slowly to look at Ysa. One eye on the hole, but my head cocked so I could see her too. She was pale, her hand pressed to her mouth, shock filling her eyes. I thought for a very brief moment that she had finally realized what a monster I was, and that she’d discovered she was scared of me after all. Nothing was further from the truth. She reached for my hands, heedless of the claws still sticking through my gloves at the fingertips. “It didn’t hold! I’m sorry, Thatcher! Does it hurt?” She was concerned for me; my chest ached knowing that. I couldn’t recall the last time someone had been worried about my well-being. Except her.
“It held long enough,” I said gruffly. There were absolutely no sounds coming from the other side of the wall. I checked to see if I could see the creature, but there was only a small sliver of floor and force field visible through the hole. We inspected the wall and the shriveled remains together and had to conclude there was no threat hiding there. The entity appeared to have gone fully into the Shadow Unit soldier, as planned. I couldn’t help but wonder if ithadn’t gone a bit too smoothly, our only obstacle the force field that now trapped us.
“Did you reach the captain?” I asked Ysa when I had finished a second check, then kicked all the yucky black remains into the corner farthest away from us. I flicked the button on my helmet as well, releasing it back into the collar of my armor. When she gave me a wide-eyed head shake, I felt something hard knot inside my belly. Worry. That wasn’t the answer I was hoping for; it meant something was interfering, and there was only one answer to the question of who. Had this been a trap?
Ysa was as concerned about this as I was; I could tell from the furrow on her brow. Hairs had come undone from her braid, and they curled, wispy and cute, around her face. The pointed tips of her ears twitched, and her crossed-bone earrings glinted silver on her earlobes. She was concentrating, hard, and she wasn’t liking what she saw on the handheld scanner she held.
