planted both feet on him, then propelled herself across the floor even as she sent him rolling into the pirate that was straightening with her own dropped weapon. As she slid she oriented the laser and fired, burning through the soft portion of the pirate’s suit at his neck and making him lurch backwards. Being off balance, he crashed to the floor.
Kira felt another wave of nausea hit her as her body flipped up into the air, driven by a powerful convulsion of her back and legs. Then she was on her feet and running forward. Distantly she smelt scorched hair and she knew her head had been narrowly missed. Another beam struck her in the chest, burning her badly and charring her bodysuit with the direct hit, but not penetrating.
She fired her laser with one hand, puncturing the suit of the pirate that stood near Tarn but doing no damage. He pulled himself back into a crouch, an instinctive reaction that Kira suspected whoever was controlling her body had expected. Her free hand grabbed her own magnetic accelerator rifle from the wounded pirate, which she then used to fire point blank into his chest.
Space suits were designed to be radiation and energy resistant. Against a sharpened ballistic projectile travelling close to three thousand feet per second they were no better than papier-ma c he. He collapsed onto the deck, gasping for breath and clawing at the hole in his suit over the hole in his chest.
Another beam staggered Kira, this one warming her thigh. It had come from the pirate in the air lock that had remained to cover the others, much the same as the blast that had taken care of any split ends in her hair. She gestured at him with the laser rifle, making him duck behind the wall. The beauty of beam weapons was that they fired at the speed of light and the beams themselves were invisible to the human eye. Calling her bluff would have been a very dangerous gamble.
Even with that threat momentarily averted Kira had no idea how she was going to survive. The man near Tarn, who remained senseless, was a heartbeat from firing at her. The man who had slipped through the hatch to cover Captain Sharp had also stuck just enough of his body out to fire at her. She winced internally, preparing to be consumed in a painful fiery death.
“ The wall! ” The voice inside her said. “ Jump to it, spring off it, and put a bullet through the man ahead of you, then use the laser to deal with the man in the hatch. ”
Kira stumbled, suddenly realizing her body was her own again. Her stumble saved her, based upon the curse she heard from the pirate in the hatch. She lurched forward, knowing she had only a few feet to go. She felt her rifle throb in her hand, a feedback control in the grip notifying her that the capacitors had recharged. She leapt to the side, dodging the beam from the man ahead of her, then planted her foot on the side of the passage as instructed and boosted herself higher into the air so that she had a better angle at him over Tarn’s slumped figure. She fired and felt a jolt of exhilaration flare through her as he fell back to the floor and fed a growing pool of red liquid.
Then her head hit the ceiling of the passage. She hadn’t considered what the extra boost might give to her already impressive height. She fell down, crashing to one knee, and struggled against the pain that threatened to tip her over. She struggled up while the remaining nearby pirate shouted something at her. She failed to make it out, so intent was she on her own course of action.
She felt her right arm on fire even as it swung the laser towards him. The rifle broke in half as it hit him, but so too did the viewport on his suit crack. The pressurized suit hissed as air escaped from it and the pirate fell back, stunned by the physical assault. She fell on top of him, reversing her broken laser rifle and jamming it into his body time and again until she was certain he was no longer a threat. The sharpened fragments had pierced both suit and skin many times.
“ One left,” she whispered to herself without looking at the persistent pain in her upper arm. She dropped the laser rifle and considered picking up the pirates, then reasoned her own Toledo Systems MAR-7 was weapon enough. She smirked at the realization that she knew the exact model number and specifications of her rifle. She wondered what else she knew, then discarded the thought. If this worked out right she would have more than enough time to have a long talk with herself.
Kira dove through the hatch and tucked into a role that left her feeling freshly bruised. She dimly heard Captain Sharp blurt something out behind her, but she ignored him. Killing the last of the pirate boarding party was all that mattered. There had been nine sensor contacts and eight of them were now down. Ignoring the pain she pushed herself off the wall and rolled up onto her feet. She jumped ahead, each leg alternately driving into the decking to propel her into a different place as she closed on the airlock. She screamed in denial when she saw the door close ahead of her, spurring her to run faster.
The door shut before she could reach it, though only by the barest margin. She crashed into it and beat her fists against it angrily. The green light cycled to red, indicating it was being depressurized, then she felt as much as heard the machinery in the ship’s hull open the outer door to let the pirate escape. Nearly three minutes later the light cycled back to green and the door opened. Kira stood ready, rifle held at her shoulder and her own body crouched into a shooter’s stance.
Inside the air lock a mess awaited her. All four of the dead pirates had suffered varying degrees of explosive decompression. Blood, brain, and other tissue coated the walls, floor, and even ceiling. Kira’s eyes swept over it without feeling, then she swore and stood up slowly.
“ Emily?”
Kira turned to the source of the voice. Captain Sharp stood in the hatchway, plasma rifle in hand though he still looked unsteady. Tarn was watching as well from where he had gathered himself up against the wall. His rifle lay across his lap and a small pile of vomit lay beside him. The name had come from further down the passage, to where Eric was walking slowly towards her while still cradling his arm. Her eyes fell on the first man she’d assaulted, realizing she had not finished him. Somebody else had taken care of that for her, someone with a plasma rifle, from the extent of the injuries to the body.
“ What? Who’s Emily?” She pulled herself away from the vision of the burned corpse. Something about the name seemed familiar to her. It was a pretty name, the same name she’d once called an imaginary friend she’d invented after her parents had died. Emily had helped her get through her grief and the horrible times that followed. Then one day she stopped thinking about her, it was as though she didn’t need her anymore.
“ Kira?” He asked, his tone sounding light and hopeful.
“ What, Eric? They’re all dead except the one that got away. He’ll either be back with reinforcements or they’ll just start blowing holes in the ship.” Kira turned to look back into the airlock. The macabre scene broke through her state of shocked calm, making her gasp. She stumbled back, her hand going to her mouth, then she stumbled on something and fell on her butt.
Kira looked over and saw she had tripped on the foot of one of the pirates she had killed. She let out a yelp and scrambled away, putting her hand solidly into the puddle of blood from the dead pirate near Tarn. She gasped again and lurched away, climbing to her feet and looking for a place to run. “I killed them!” She stammered through trembling lips.
“ You kicked their ass between their shoulders and hit ‘em so hard their grandparents felt it,” Tarn said with a chuckle.
Kira looked at him as he wiped spittle from his lips. He grinned and gave her a thumbs up. Kira felt her stomach twist and this time she knew it would not be denied. She turned and felt it explode out of her, sending her to her knees as powerful convulsions threatened to tear her insides apart.
Chapter 10
Kira opened her eyes and found that she was lying in the bunkroom. On her own bunk, no less. She looked around and found it deserted. She frowned, trying to figure out what was going on. She didn’t remember lying down to sleep.
Her arm ached, prompting her to look at it. It had been bandaged. Her chest and a few other body parts hurt as well. She picked up the sheet and looked beneath it, gasping when she saw another bandage on her chest. She threw the blanket down the bed and sat up. She was nude, aside from a collection of bandages. Another blackout? She groaned and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. At least she was still on the Rented Mule.
Laying on the bedside stand was a torn up and otherwise abused piece of cloth. It was stretched out fully, showing her the extent of the damage to it. The chest was blackened and the right upper arm had a hole with the
