The World at the Edge of Space (Perseus Gate Book 2) Read online

  By some miracle, only two guards appeared within the first few minutes after they’d entered the lab. Trevor let them get inside before taking each one out. They had put up more of a fight and now their lifeless bodies lay just within the entrance.

  “OK, we’re all set,” Jessica announced as she examined the improvised incendiary she had crafted. “Dump the lab techs in the corridor and give em a kick in the ass, should wake em up.”

  “How are we going to make sure that no one comes in here and disarms your explosive?” Trevor asked as he hauled two of the unconscious techs out into the corridor—much to the shock of a man passing by in the corridor. “Food poisoning. Did you have the chicken in the commissary?”

  The man blanched. “Uh…yeah…”

  “Shit man, get to the infirmary, fast!” Trevor bellowed and the man took off running. “Heh. Works every time.”

  Iris offered.

  "Almost sounds too easy,” Jessica said as she rose from setting her device and opened up the valves on the tanks, taking care to get the right mixture for explosive combustion. “Let’s go, this is going to get toxic fast.”

  She strode to the lab’s entrance and watched as Trevor slapped one of the techs. “C’mon buddy, time to wake up and run for your life.”

  “Wha?” the man asked as pulse shots erupted from a cross-corridor twenty meters to their left.

  Jessica turned to see a half-dozen RHY security guards rushing down the passageway. The man Trevor was holding saw them as well, and was on his feet seconds later, running down the opposite end of the hall.

  Trevor, on the other hand, shouldered his pulse rifle and raced toward the approaching guards, firing wildly and screaming at the top of his lungs.

  The guards were unprepared for the hundreds of kilos of man-mountain rushing toward them and several stopped shooting, their mouths hanging agape.

  Two were felled by Trevor’s pulse blasts, and then he crashed into two more. Jessica followed after him, firing on the final two guards, catching one in the face with pulse blasts that bowled him over. The other leveled his rifle at Jessica and fired a concentrated pulse at her. Jessica raised her arms reflexively, and felt a strange sensation in the palms of her hands. And then the bone-numbing force of a pulse wave—which she’d been dreading—never arrived.

  “What the hell?” she asked, looking at her hands.

 

  Trevor smashed a fist into the man who had fired on Jessica, before raising a hand to massage his jaw. “That would sure be handy—no pun intended. Pulse blasts hurt like a bitch.”

  An alarm wailed around them, and a blast door began to lower a dozen meters down the hall.

  Iris cried out.

  Jessica replied.

  Trevor said.

  Jessica took off running, Trevor close on her heels. They reached the door and slid under it a moment before it closed, Trevor clipping his ear on the door’s seal.

  “Fuck! Ow!” he swore as he gingerly touched his ear.

  “Still attached,” Jessica said as she glanced up at him. “Let’s move.”

  Iris said.

  “Good work,” Jessica replied as they dashed down the corridor, taking a right at an intersection as they angled toward where they suspected the RHY docks on the spire to be.

  Jessica was in the lead, and passed into an area filled with doors leading off to private offices. They were outpacing her nanoprobes and she prayed that the way ahead was clear when a door ahead opened. Soldiers in heavy armor spilled out, weapons leveled at the pair. Jessica skidded to a halt, ready to beat a hasty retreat when she saw more soldiers file out of two offices behind them.

  “Kinetics. We can’t take that kind of firepower,” Trevor said as he lowered his rifle.

  “Well, this sucks,” Jessica said as she followed suit.

  “For you, yeah,” Phoebe’s voice came from beyond the soldiers, followed by the appearance of the woman herself a moment later. “I’m not letting you get away so easily. When we get you to Bennia, I’ll have you fitted with a compliance chip and this will get a lot easier.” She glanced at Trevor. “Maybe him too. I bet he’d make a good personal guard for Retyna Girl once she starts making all of her promotional appearances.”

  “Weapons on the ground. All of them,” one of the soldiers said as he approached the pair. “Duffel too. Kick it over.”

  Jessica let out a long sigh and complied. Trevor dropped his as well and chuckled.

  “Looks like you’re going to get that career change after all,” he said.

  “Take them to my ship, and put them in stasis,” Phoebe ordered the soldiers. “And sweep the corridors back there, find out what they were up to.”

  One of the guards unzipped the duffel and rifled through it. “Just clothes,” he said.

  Phoebe laughed. “Look at you, making off with all of Retyna Girl’s gear. I knew you wanted to be her.”

  Jessica laughed. “What can I say. I’m a sucker for purple.”

  BLAST OFF

  STELLAR DATE: 07.22.8938 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Hermes Station

  REGION: Naga System, Orion Freedom Alliance Space

  “Clamps released. Pushing of on grav drive,” Cheeky announced.

  “Gonna piss them off,” Cargo sighed.

  “Better than that detpack going off while we’re cheek by jowl with the station,” Cheeky replied.

  “Oh, I know,” Cargo chuckled. “I was just lamenting it nonetheless.”

  Cheeky opened up the ship’s grav thrusters and eased them away from the station. Past the ten-meter mark, then twenty…forty…seventy…one-hundred….

  Sabrina announced.

  “Shit, they’re gonna blame us for this,” Cargo muttered.

  Sabrina announced.

  “Put em on,” Cargo ordered.

  A moment later, a woman appeared on the bridge’s main holo, already yelling before the holo fully materialized. “—fuck do you think you’re doing? Grav drives, shooting at the station! Cease acceleration immediately! We’re bringing our turrets online!”

  “Dockmaster Jera,” Cargo replied in his calmest voice. “We were under attack from unknown assailants dockside. They had explosives and we needed to open up space for the blast to dissipate. If we hadn’t it would have done a lot worse than crack a few seals on your airlock.”

  “Assailants?” Dockmaster Jera asked, looking away for a moment. “I do have reports of fighting on the dock near your berth.” She frowned and shook her head. “Either way, you need to cease acceleration and hold your course. We’re sending out a patrol craft to board you—we have reason to believe you have a fugitive aboard.”

  “Fugitive?” Cargo asked.

  “Yes, one Misha Cairns. We have vid of him entering your ship right before you broke free from the station.”

  “We did bring him aboard, yes,” Cargo agreed. “He was being fired upon by those attackers. We had a meeting scheduled with him.”

  “We’ll be the judge of all that. Our patrol craft will be locked on your vector in five, ready to dock in ten—what are you doing?”

  The dockmaster disappeared from the holotank and Cheeky shot a look back at Carg
o. “Heard enough eh?”

  “Yup. Nice find with that Misha guy. Hope he actually has those maps and wasn’t just looking for a ride.”

  “Me too,” Cheeky replied softly. “For his sake.”

  Cheeky continued to alter vector, turning Sabrina in a wide parabola, the system’s star their apparent destination. However, that fiction would be shattered in six minutes when she would fire the fusion drives and boost toward the station’s spire for their smash and grab pickup of Jessica and Trevor.

  “Here’s our guest,” Nance said as she entered the bridge with Misha.

  “Nice hazsuit,” Cheeky said, stifling a laugh. Misha appeared to have put it on in a rush, and one of the arms was twisted once around and the boots weren’t seated correctly.

  “She wouldn’t let me on without it—well, not her, someone named Erin.”

  Erin said over the general shipnet.

  “Are you the ship’s AI?” Misha asked, looking around.

  Sabrina said.

  Misha appeared perplexed.

 

  Misha whistled. “Wow, two AI on a ship this small.”

  Sabrina said, at the same moment that Piya said,

  Piya added.

  “Shit, seriously?” Misha asked. “You have five AI on this tub?”

  Sabrina said.

  “That makes it sound like we collectively just have one ass,” Cheeky said.

  “Well, stars know that Cheeky has enough ass for three or four people,” Finaeus said as he entered the bridge and took his customary seat.

  “So, Misha,” Cargo said while snapping his fingers to get Misha’s attention. “Maps. Do you have the maps?”

  “Yeah, I do. Once you honor your side of the deal.”

  “Honor our—” Nance said, taking a threatening step toward Misha.

  Cargo stood as well. “We’re going to give you a free ride far away from here—that your maps will help with—or we’re gonna kick you out an airlock for whomever you pissed off to find. Pick.”

  Misha didn’t respond immediately, and Cargo took a step forward. “We’ve had a bit of hard luck lately, friend. We’re being very accommodating, given the trouble you’ve brought down on us. Now give us the maps.”

  “OK, OK, sheesh, so testy,” Misha muttered. “There, I pushed the data onto your shipnet.

  Cheeky looked them over, noting the absence of several obvious trade routes. Misha was probably holding back on them for later. Still it was enough to get them started on their journey.

  “Looks good enough for now,” she said.

  “Nance, can you put him in one of the spare rooms for now?” Cargo asked.

  “Sure,” Nance nodded. “This way, pastry man.”

  “Well, I don’t actually cook…not really,” Misha said.

  “What about the prep table and everything in your stall?” Cheeky asked.

  “Convincing, wasn’t it?” Misha grinned.

  “Seriously, let’s go,” Nance said. “I have stuff to do that doesn’t involve babysitting your ass.”

  “Fine. Hey, no need to push!”

  SHIP TO BENNIA

  STELLAR DATE: 07.22.8938 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Hermes Station

  REGION: Naga System, Orion Freedom Alliance Space

  “I have to say, I admire your moxie,” Phoebe said turning her head to look back at Jessica and Trevor from a few paces ahead. “Just like something I could imagine Retyna Girl doing. You’re a lot tougher than you look.”

  “You have no idea,” Jessica replied. “But you will.”

  “Oh yeah?” Phoebe asked. “How’s that?”

  Iris asked privately.

 

  “Thought so. All talk,” Phoebe said unaware of Jessica’s conversation with Iris, turning forward once more.

  Iris said.

  Jessica asked with a chuckle.

  Iris said, pulling a new readout onto Jessica’s HUD.

  Jessica commented drolly.

  Iris passed a mental smile.

  Jessica said.

 

  Jessica pulled down the slider on the front of her shipsuit, letting more of her chest show. She noticed Trevor glance down and smile.

  he asked.

 

  Trevor laughed aloud, drawing looks from several of the guards.

  “We can tell when you use the Link,” one of the guards said. “Cut it out or we knock you out.”

  Jessica had suspected as much, which was why she was glad Trevor hadn’t asked about her plans of escape. She wasn’t worried about their captors breaking their encryption, but better safe than sorry.

  Instead, she flickered the glow in her eyes, flashing a quick message that she hoped Trevor would pick up. It was simple: “we take their ship.”

  Trevor looked away and yawned, their signal for acknowledgement.

  Several minutes later, they were led through a large airlock and into a wide bay. Jessica peered down its length, gauging the space to be roughly two hundred by five hundred meters. The spaceward side of the bay had its doors pulled wide, a grav shield holding the atmosphere within.

  Beyond the doors, the light of the Naga System’s star shone through, its yellow-blue glow striking Jessica with unfiltered intensity. She felt her skin tingle and its glow increase in the direct starlight. On her HUD, the RG power meter began to climb faster, crossing over the fifty percent mark.

  Jessica exclaimed.

  Iris replied.

  Ahead, several ships rested on cradles in the bay, and Phoebe led them toward a silver vessel with sleek lines.

  Jessica said to Iris.

  Iris replied.

  Phoebe walked up the lowered ramp and four guards escorted Jessica and Trevor onto the ship.

  Jessica asked.

  Iris said, highlighting a panel over Jessica’s vision.

 

  Jessica touched the panel, and a passel of nano flowed out of her hand onto its surface.

  Once at the top of the ramp, Phoebe turned left, and walked down a short passageway to a room with five stasis pods.

  “Your man will be a tight fit, but I think we can squeeze him in. If not, we’ll just dump him out the airlock,” Phoebe chuckled.

  “You’re not nearly as nice as you like to pretend,” Trevor said with a low growl.

  “Me?” Phoebe squeaked. “I think I’m plenty nice. I g
rabbed your friend, plucked her from obscurity. I’m going to make her a star! All she has to do is play along and she’ll be set for life—of for however long we run the Retyna Girl marketing campaign.”

  “You’re all heart,” Jessica said with a sour smile.

  Iris announced.

  Trevor turned to the guard on his left. “Hey, buddy, guess what?”

  “What?” the guard asked.

  Trevor twisted his arms around and a resounding SNAP filled the air. He pulled his hands from behind his back and held them up. “I broke my cuffs.”

  “Shit!” the guard yelled as one of Trevor’s fists jabbed forward, smashing the man’s nose.

  Jessica pulled her hands free as well, relying on nano, not brute strength to get the cuffs open. One of the guards fired a pulse blast at her, and she held up her right hand, nullifying the concussive waves while grabbing the throat of another guard who had closed in too quickly, discharging the rest of her skin’s energy.

  The guard shrieked and collapsed.

  “Shit, that’s cool,” Phoebe whispered as Jessica pulled up her right leg and pivoted while kicking high, catching the first guard under the jaw. His weapon flew into the air as he fell back. Jessica caught it, spun it around and drove the weapon’s butt into his temple.

  She turned to see Trevor dropping the final guard with a blow to the throat.

  “Tangos down,” Trevor grinned.

  Jessica deployed a stream of nano to the rifle, disabling its biolock and turned back to Phoebe. “Yeah, I’m pretty fucking awesome, aren’t I?”

  “Who are you?” Phoebe asked, her eyes wide with awe.

  “Phoebe, really,” Jessica smirked. “I’m Retyna Girl.”

  MEET UP

  STELLAR DATE: 07.22.8938 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Hermes Station

  REGION: Naga System, Orion Freedom Alliance Space

  Sabrina said.

  “Oh, and they’ve started firing at us,” Cheeky said. “Nothing serious yet, just lasers, Our shields are diffusing them.”