The Transporter's Favor by C.M. Simpson (pride and prejudice read .txt) 📕

I slid back out, noted that Mack and Tens had taken out their opponents, and were dealing with another two. The wolves around the Hunt Master hadn’t moved, held in check by their leader’s upraised fist. He caught my eye.

“Odyssey?”

“Yes, Hunt Master,” I barked back, the address sliding off my tongue without thought.

I don’t know what he thought of that, but I didn’t have time. Mack and Tens needed to fall back to Abby, and I needed… I looked around the hangar. I needed… Found what I wanted—a stand-alone terminal probably used for inventory. With one quick glance at the boys, I ran for the terminal, reaching into the pouch at my waist that held the jack and line.

I was plugging it into my skull, before Mack could say anything, aware of the big, black dog running beside me, the pounding footsteps as Rohan raced out of Abby’s hull, and made for the terminal, as well.

“Cutter!”

Well, Mack could just wait. I had a job to do.

The Hunt Master might have been content to let us take Costoganzi and retrieve Abby. His tolerance, however, did not extend to us hacking his station. Funny that.

I slid to a stop in front of the terminal, as he barked out a sharp lupar command. Rohan slid in beside me.

“I will hold them. You have…maybe thirty seconds. Establish the connection and unjack. You hear me?”

Gotcha, boy, I thought, but didn’t have the coordination to say it out loud. I shouldn’t have to, either, if he was as well-embedded in my head as Mack and Tens. He’d get me.

“I’ll bloody well get you,” Mack growled, and I heard the clash of weapons and a lupar yip of pain, over which came Delight’s voice, ordering weapons be kept cold.

“You go weapons live Mackenzie Star, and I will shoot you myself.”

Well, damn. She was serious about this diplomacy shit. I wish she’d make her mind the fuck up.

Which was when I slammed the jack home, and ripped into the station’s systems. Well, damn. Those fuckers had a teleport shield in place. Bit late for that, assholes. We’re already here.

“Yeah, but we aren’t leaving unless we get Abs undocked and the hangar bay open.”

Truly? Cool beans!

“Dasojin, Cutter. Find me the HMTs, first! You get your asses captured, and we’ll haul you out.”

Eventually, Delight. That’s what you meant to add, right? Cos I can kinda hear you when this juice kicks in. And holy wow! You kiss your boyfriend with that mouth? Cos, damn!

But I’d found it, the second wolf base in system, and I’d jammed their comms good. Now, I just had to—

“Dammit, Cutter, I told you to make the connection and unjack! I do not want to be puppy chow, again!”

Rohan! Shit! Sorry, boy.

I ripped out the plug and turned, felt his arm go round my waist, even as Cascade made a darting lunge at a bigger shape that had gotten too close.

“Keep chasing the data, Cutter. I’ve got you.”

“Move your ass, boy!” Mack, and he sounded unhappier than usual.

“Data!” Tens roared, inside my skull, and then he was working with me, the two of us fending off defensive programs much better than I could on my own, as we traced the links to the second base, ripping out schematics, coding, locations, locking down hangar bays, tearing into the teleport lock, but not making as much progress as fast as either of us wanted.

Rohan hauled me on board Abs, fighting a rear-guard action with Mack, as we tumbled through the hatch—which Abby slammed shut, even as she started the alarm for clearing the hangar. That pulled the wolves away from her hull faster than we could have hoped. It even got them out of the bay before the hangar doors opened.

“Don’t come back,” Wanderer said, as Mack and Tens made their way forward to Abby’s cockpit. “Start HMT retrieval. Abeona will take you.”

“Delight,” Mack snapped. “You are going to add a bonus to our contract for retrieving those miners, rescuing Abby, again, locating your allies, and for finding you the evidence you needed to put this bastard away.”

This bastard? And I realized we had a barely restrained Costoganzi in our midst. It was easy to fix. Glazers were part of my normal load out, even if my only regret was that I only got to shoot him once… Okay, maybe twice just to make sure, or….

“Shoot him again, and I’m going to space you when you get back on board.”

Again, with the airlock?

Mind you, she sounded serious, this time. I holstered the Glazer, and then caught sight of the stasis pod in the crew quarters.

“Help me put him in,” I said to Rohan, tilting my head in the direction of the pod.

“You sure that’s not overkill?”

“It’ll make me feel better about leaving him alone aboard Abs when we head out to rescue the others.”

“Good point,” he said, and we stuffed the treacherous son-of-a-bitch into the stasis pod, and made sure he was well and truly under, before locking it so it needed manual manipulation from the outside to open.

“Happy now?” Abs asked, and we both grinned, Cascade bouncing happily beside us. “Good, because this next bit isn’t going to be anywhere near as much fun.”

“… and you’ll get silent shares in all of Selimen’s Holdings,” Delight was saying when I came back out of my skull, “for your part in securing the evidence and the criminal. Deal?”

“Done and sealed,” Mack responded, and I wondered what I’d missed. The bit I’d caught, sounded pretty darned good. I caught Mack’s thought that he could afford to repair and upgrade the Shady as well as pay crew bonuses out of his share, and I realized I was still high on stims.

Well, damn. I hope these things didn’t run out before the job was done. I was gonna be in a world of hurt if they did.

“I will hurry,” Abby assured me. “We will try to have you out before that happens. You need to drop the teleport shields. I need