Pixie Hazard by Archibald Bradford (top young adult novels .txt) 📕

Once again their sensors had failed to pick up the Junkers’ ambush, even with the hasty modifications they had thrown together the day before.

“Being the lead charger in the primary breaching unit for eight mid-space boarding operations doesn’t impress you?” Eva remarked drily over the coms; “Wow, cat sex must be mind-blowing.”

Kyle didn’t say anything at first, mollified at the redhead’s sarcastic tone.

“I just hate to damage the ship any more than we have to.”

Eniella rolled her eyes as she finished priming the charge.

“You ever seen anybody killed by a Pete-Willis?”

“No, what’s a Pete-”

“Pressure-Wrecker.” Donnie interrupted; “Basically a door mine. Someone doesn’t want you getting on their ship in space, they set ‘em up as a nasty surprise on the inside of the outer airlock. Try to get in and they blow outwards. A pre-emptive strike against exactly what we’re doing now.”

Eniella helped him up and explained further as they all walked away from the rigged hatch.

“They’re sensitive to heat, so your cutting torch is out. They also have motion sensors in case someone gets clever and tries to jack the ship’s CPU to let themselves in. Pretty effective deterrent. We have one in the armoury for each airlock in case shit ever gets too real.”

They moved back a good ten metres and took cover.

“Sounds like the same thing as this breaching charge. Why aren’t we just using one of those to get in?”

Eniella chuckled and signaled for everyone to get down.

“Because-” She paused to make her point by popping the detonator for the plasma breacher.

A flash of green light causing them all to blink for a second as their visors automatically adjusted to account for the sudden brightness.

There was another, smaller explosion from the ship, the dual shockwave causing a nearby pile of congealed and putrid sludge to collapse in on itself with a wet squelch.

“As I was saying before Kyle let one out in Billy’s suit. A Pete-Willis is an old school powder charge, they have to be to keep them from being disabled by a short-range EMP. And it’s a lot easier to break out of a pressurized airlock in space than it is to break into one, so in short: they’re not strong enough.”

“Right.”

They could hear the dubious frown in his voice.

“Enough gabbing.” Donnie ordered as they got back to their feet; “That second pop meant I was right. Ship is rigged. Our job just got way more involved. Eva? Anything twitching out there?”

“I clocked another one of those nasty pigeons that tried to eat Bunny. But it’s a good two klicks out at least.”

Donnie opened her mouth to respond, but Kyle beat her to it.

“Don’t get too comfortable Eva, those things might look like an evolutionary disaster, but their wings work and they’ll surprise you with their speed in the air.”

Eniella turned to the skipper.

“You want me to take it out with one of the Javelins? Plenty of time this go-round for target acquisition.”

But Donnie’s helmet shifted side to side as she shook her head.

“No sense drawing even more attention to ourselves. Davie? You on the scopes like you oughta be?”

The redheaded pilot was more than capable of using the fire control station to keep an eye out for hostiles, and even spin up one of the Javelins in a pinch, though she was nowhere near as able of composing a symphony of destruction like the one that Eniella had pulled off on the Junkers, with manual targeting no less.

“Aye Skipper. And I’m monitoring the biological in question, despite the truly idiotic modifications that my dumbass soon-to-be ex-girlfriend made to the sensors.”

Opting to ignore the potential lover’s spat Donnie instead focused herself, and her people, on the task at hand.

“Good. Hooker, keep your head on a swivel and stay close to the airlock in case you need to take cover. Junkers aren’t about to hop on top of the Pixie, but like Kyle said one of those things might land on your ass if you decide to take a nap.”

Billy came on the coms then.

“Hey Captain. Maria’s fine. No concussion or major internal injuries, just some nasty bruises and a couple of cracked ribs she’s pretending don’t hurt. You want her up top with Eva?”

“Sounds good, and if you’re not needed in medical, get up to the cockpit with Davie in case she needs a hand.” She paused long enough to hear the doctor copy her orders then turned back to Kyle and Eniella; “Meanwhile the three of us get to sweep a shady-ass ship for booby-traps.”

“Oh what fun.” Unlike the captain, Eniella’s tone was more excited.

Crazy bitch loved her explosions.

Kyle lifted one leg out of the muck with some effort, the suits physical augmentation gyros not properly calibrated for him.

“Yes, it was my reason for getting up this morning. I gotta be honest Captain: I’m a mechanic not a demolitions guy. I might just be in your way in there.”

“Maybe, but maybe you’ll spot something out of place that we wouldn’t look twice at. You want to pick this carcass clean or not?”

He grunted.

“Fair enough. Lead on.”

It took them most of the rest of the day to ensure the ship had no more nasty surprises, but by the end of it the attitude of the crew was jubilant.

They hadn’t had any more Junker trouble and aside from the one airlock the ship was in perfect condition.

She turned out to be a mid-sized transport, a lot less bulk but roughly half again as long as the Pixie and running a very similar fusion drive configuration.

One of the first things Kyle did when Eniella and Donnie gave the all clear was swap out the faulty part from the Pixie into the transport.

They all breathed easier once he