Page 65 of Warrior’s Mate

Haren deployed both security officers along the bend behind them. Civilians moved against the walls. The medic dimmed every unnecessary lamp.

Maelis concentrated on the wiring. The first shots echoed through the channel three minutes later.

Someone screamed. A child began crying. The pregnant woman swore with inventive precision.

Maelis's hands remained steady.

The contamination lock had three independent circuits. She bypassed the first. The second refused to cycle. She traced the failure to an optical relay, pulled it, cleaned the contact against her sleeve, and reseated it.

Weapons fire came closer.

"Registrar!" Haren shouted.

"I know."

"This is the part where you tell me you need two more minutes."

"I need three."

"I dislike you."

"Get in line."

The second circuit turned green. The third was mechanical. Maelis stared at it.

"Of course you are."

She climbed onto the control housing, reached behind the actuator, and found the manual release wheel. It had not moved in years, and her first pull accomplished nothing.

She braced her good leg and pulled again. The wheel shifted a fraction. Behind her, a weapon discharged with a sound much louder than the others.

Haren cursed. Maelis pulled until the muscles in her shoulders shook. The wheel turned.

The isolation alarm began.

"Everyone through!"

The door opened thirty centimeters, then sixty. Civilians squeezed past while the system announced contamination protocols in a calm prerecorded voice that felt obscene under the circumstances. The first security officer backed through firing. Haren followed last. Maelis waited beside the controls.

"Go!" he shouted.

"The door does not close automatically after a manual bypass."

"Then leave it."

"They'll follow us."

"Maelis—"

"Go."

She saw the same conflict on his face she had seen on Kaiven's earlier. Protection versus trust. Haren made the right choice faster.

He moved. Maelis waited until he cleared the threshold, then reversed the mechanical release. The door began to close. A Sargan appeared around the bend.

He was larger than she expected, armored from shoulder to knee, a restraint launcher in one hand rather than a rifle. Taken alive. The realization was almost worse than seeing the weapon raised.

Maelis dropped behind the control housing. A restraint charge struck the wall and burst into a web of conductive filaments. The door was still open twenty centimeters. Too much.