She braved the sparks, raising her right arm and trying to duck under them. One caught in her hair and she burned the back of her finger batting it out. David was right behind her as she picked up the bag, ran to the Captain and handed it to him.
“Get these doors closed!” he shouted as he pounded the emergency seal button. The door inched part way out of the wall, the motor squealed with the effort of moving it further but failed. 'God dammit! If we don't get those doors closed the bridge can't separate! Hurry!'
David turned to check it. “That impact warped the jamb,” he reported, kicking the leading edge of the door hard. It made no difference. “I need to pry it straight,” he brought out a ten centimetre tool and with a flick of his wrist it extended into a meter long pry bar.
“We're being boarded! Hurry!”
The other slaves on the bridge looked near panic, even more so after looking at Nerine's injuries. Paudi, the First Officer looked at her and shook his dark brown and green pocked head slowly. “I think we leave this one behind. She is damaged.”
Captain Gammin looked at her and was immediately furious.
Nerine cringed. She was in enough pain already, she raised her good arm to fend off what she knew might come.
“What have you gone and gotten yourself into now? You're not worth the clothes I bought you!” He took two quick steps and snatched her wrist.
“A pipe exploded! I didn't fall or hurt myself on purpose this time!”
“It's too late now, you're going to welcome this bastard when he comes aboard!” He shoved her into the hall, nearly knocking her down. “Now stay there!”
She knew what was going to happen. The people breaking into the ship would come inside the hall and Captain Gammin would press a button on his amulet. She'd explode and kill whoever was nearest. It was quicker than being poisoned, the more common death the slave implants provided. Nerine had seen more crew members than she could count killed in such a way after the Captain or his First Officer caught them doing something they weren't supposed to be doing.
Yellow and white sparks filled the corridor behind her as she looked to David, who had stopped working altogether. She tried not to cry, but her lip quivered, her eyes watered and it felt like her world was collapsing into itself. Captain Gammin walked back to the centre of the circular bridge and turned around. He caught sight of her staring at David. “Do you want to join her? Get back to work!” he shouted.
David stood slowly and dropped the pry bar. With determined steps he walked down the corridor and stopped beside her.
“No! No, you can survive. Go with him, do what you have to,” Nerine pleaded through shuddering sobs.
David gave her a small smile and shook his head slowly. “Couldn't live with myself if I just watched this happen,” he took her uninjured hand.
The airlock door fell with an angry sounding clatter, shaking the deck grating underfoot.
Nerine looked into David's brown eyes. They were so strong, steady. His hand was firm, comforting. He had looked after her when the Captain wasn't looking ever since the emergency services transport leaving the Enreega system was captured and she was taken on.
“Close your eyes baby,” he whispered.
She let out a shuddering breath and did so. As someone came into the corridor just behind she felt a crack in her chest that told her the compounds implanted in her were about to mix. In a few heartbeats her life would end.
A hand grabbed her head roughly and tilted it to the side. Her eyes popped open at the feeling of a pinch on her neck. She watched as a figure in black and crimson armour grabbed David and pressed some kind of injector to his neck as well. It was mounted on the end of some kind of control unit at the end of his arm.
Urgent hands grabbed her and she was pressed into the hall behind several other black clad boarders. “Do you feel any pressure, any unusual warmth in your chest?” One of them, a woman, asked her hurriedly.
She realized then that there was just the opposite, like something cool was resting on her chest and shook her head. “Not warm. It's like someone put a cold glass of water on me.”
“That's the nanobots working, they're disabling your slave device. Stay there, don't move.”
David was sat down beside her and they were put in restraints. The boarder's movements were professional and quick. Before she knew it they were sitting in the middle of several black clad, heavily armed soldiers and she was watching the man who had injected her and David, saving their lives and most likely his own, stalk down the corridor towards Captain Gammin.
Gammin drew his pistol and fired several times. The dark figure stopped as several rounds struck him full on.
Nerine flinched at the sound of each shot, feared for their rescuer and silently prayed that he could somehow survive.
“Kneel,” said the leader of the boarders. His voice sent a shiver through her. She could hear his anger, the strain in his voice as he restrained it.
“He has a personal shield,” David whispered. “You're right, it's Valance, it has to be.”
“So you've heard of him. Good,” Was all one of the boarders keeping watch over the corridor said from behind. The pair could hear him smiling.
“You'll never take this ship! Every crew member has a charge installed and there are enough of them aboard to rupture every compartment!”
Captain Valance slowly drew his long coat aside and drew his heavy sidearm. “My people and I would survive. We have an easy escape route. I'll make sure you don't though,” he levelled the wide barrel of his sidearm at the First Officer. “Tell me the codes to deactivate the slave implants,” he demanded.
“Or what? You'll start killing people?”
Gammin jumped as Captain Valance fired at his First Officer, who ducked behind a console just in time. Instead of relenting he fired again, waited as the console erupted with blue and white sparks. “You and this man don't have an implant. That makes you the people responsible. Slavers.” He fired several more times, each round exploding into and around the ruined console.
The First Officer panicked and ran for better cover. Captain Valance caught him with a shot to the shoulder, blasting the limb part way off with a cauterizing thermite explosive round.
Nerine watched wide eyed as the First Officer's momentum carried him wailing to the deck, falling in a smouldering heap. Jacob Valance took a step closer to get a clearer shot and fired four more times, ruining the man's torso and head. His aim settled back on Captain Gammin as the thermite rounds still sizzled and spat sparks out of his First Officer's corpse. “Give me the codes for your ships and the control unit and I'll let you live. You can take anything that's left in the launch bay and leave.”
Captain Gammin hurriedly pulled his ornate oval amulet off and tossed it to Captain Valance. It landed on the deck at his feet. He picked it up, keeping his weapon pointed at Gammin, who was holding his hands up high. “The code is dominator!”
Jacob Valance clutched the amulet in his hand for a moment. “You're lying,” he said flatly.
“How could you-” Gammin blubbered. “I mean, you didn't even enter it!”
“He must have a neural link that allows him to communicate digitally,” David whispered.
“What is the code?” Captain Valance asked in a quiet, menacing tone.
“Dominator with zeroes instead of O's.”
Jacob Valance stood completely still for a moment. The amulet was clutched in one hand, the chain dangled and caught the light from the bridge consoles. His other arm was extended, his heavy pistol levelled with a steady bead on Captain Gammin's head.
No one moved, not his boarders, not the crew on the bridge, not the crew trapped behind them in the corridor. Nerine didn't want to breathe in the near complete silence and stillness. Her gaze was fixed on the figure that seemed to fill the broad corridor, his black long coat was like a shadow that extended from the protective hood of his armoured vacuum suit. Crimson streaks ran like blood through the creases and edges of the unusual armour. His feet were steady, his thick treaded boots were like pillar footings.
“Thank you.” Captain Valance said finally.
Captain Gammin sighed, eyeing the barrel of the gun pointed at him dubiously. “I have a shipment of
