Rivers of Orion by Dana Kelly (a court of thorns and roses ebook free .TXT) 📕

“Then we’ll need to split up,” said Torsha. “We can meet near the bridge. Remember, the rest of the crew will die as soon as these thugs take command of the ship.”

Mike regarded her sternly. “I’d rather we stay together.”

Torsha offered a friendly smile and pointed downward. “I’m sure they’d rather we didn’t.”

“What if something happens to you?”

“Too late for that,” she said. “Don’t worry about me. I’m a big girl. I can hold my own.” Before Mike could respond, she spun on her heels and dashed out into the passageway, where she turned right and sprinted away.

“Torsha,” whispered Mike, and he took a deep breath. He exited the room and moved along the passageway before him, until he reached an opening. Across the way, two figures stood hunched in the corner, their backs to him, with a chest of tools nearby. One was human, dressed in loose clothing. He carried a plasma rifle. The other was sudasau, and he towered over his human comrade, dressed in battle armor painted black with flames and grinning shark’s teeth. A large, thick plate guarded the back of his head. Upon his forearms, he wore oversized vambraces, each joined to the armor by reinforced conduit. At the end of the left vambrace, intense heat radiated within a concave lens. At the end of the right one, three massive, robotic fingers formed a steel fist

With his robot hand, the armored buccaneer scissored a bundle of network cables, and the human tapped his commlink. “We’re ready,” said the human. “How are you guys doing?” After a moment, he nodded, looked up at his associate, and patted his associate’s vambrace. In response, the armored buccaneer closed the hatch leading down to Deck 2. With his weapon hand, he set to fusing the passage shut.

“I can’t let you do that,” said Mike.

With looks of surprise, the pirates turned to face him.

Mike bolted across the deck. Scooping up the toolbox, he spun around and smashed it into the sudasau’s faceplate. The toolbox clattered to the deck, spilling its contents. Howling in pain, his armored foe used his robotic hand to claw at the glass embedded in his snout.

As the human raised his weapon, Mike gripped a handful of tools. Before the pirate could pull the trigger, a barrage of wrenches struck his chest, broke some of his teeth, and struck his forehead. He swayed a moment before falling backward, unconscious and bleeding.

Mike raced around behind his armored foe.

With his weapon arm, the sudasau fired through the air in Mike’s wake, spinning wildly on his heels as he tried to track his target. Heat blasts scattered cables, knocked open a door, and dislodged a mounting brace. “Hold still!”

“Sure, I can do that,” said Mike, and he climbed up his opponent’s back. “How’s this?” Alighting upon the sudasau’s armored shoulders, he crouched and gripped the underside of the shattered helmet. With a quick pull on its seal, he disengaged it. “I hope you like the view,” he said, and he spun the helmet around. As his opponent staggered blindly, Mike hopped down, picked up a length of cable, and cinched it around the sudasau’s ankles.

With a muted cry, the sudasau tripped and toppled forward. He crashed upon the deck. A moment later, the sudasau’s body relaxed as he succumbed to unconsciousness.

Pausing only long enough to catch his breath, Mike took up the plasma rifle. He pointed it at the toolbox and pulled the trigger, but a red light flashed as the gun beeped. “Biometrics,” said Mike. “Figures,” and he tossed the weapon aside.

He gathered several lengths of cable and used some of them to bind the human. When he had finished, Mike set to removing the sudasau’s armor. The stench of sweat and blood wafted from within, and he leaned away. Steeling himself, he returned to his work. Mike piled all the pieces close by, and he used the remainder of the cable to tie up the sudasau.

Static sounded from a nearby comm interface. “This is PFC De Leon. Can anyone hear me?”

Mike rushed over to the console and pushed the button. “Bianca, is that you?”

“Mike, thank God,” she said. “You don’t know how glad I am to hear your voice!”

“How can I help?”

“Ask Captain Aguirre to override the lockdown,” she said.

“I wish I could, but Deck 1’s been boarded,” said Mike. “This place is crawling with pirates.”

“If I give you a code, you can attempt to enforce the command override yourself. Do you see a console in the bulkhead next to you?”

“I do, but they cut the data cables,” said Mike.

Bianca fell quiet. Slight static returned, and she said, “Then command override is not possible. You must find a way to reach Captain Aguirre.”

“Copy that,” said Mike.

“It’s roger that,” said Bianca. “Only civilians use ‘copy.’”

He laughed quietly. “Roger that, PFC De Leon. Next time we talk, I’ll be calling you from the bridge.”

“Mike,” she said, and a pause hung in the air. “Mike, they breached the Deck 3 starboard hull, drawing all of us down here, but… The sled was a decoy. When she opened up, there was a terrible explosion.” She sniffed and coughed, and the comm went quiet for a moment. “Carmina was killed in the blast. We have people from IS down here, but they say it’ll be at least an hour before they can quarantine the virus. Ops is down until then.”

“Life support?”

“Thank God it runs on a separate network,” said Bianca. “But if they gain access to the bridge, these bastards will certainly shut it down.”

“That’s not going to happen,” he said.

“I know I can count on you.” She took a deep breath. “Good luck, amigo.”

The comm fell quiet.

Mike approached the armor. “I wonder,” he said, and he slipped his left hand into the weaponized vambrace. He found a pistol-grip recess, along with several switches within easy reach of his thumb. Straining against the vambrace’s weight, Mike pointed