Before Reynard forms a stratagem, the entire entrance foyer erupts in a fireball of fanatic explosions. Structurally, the building shakes from the impact before secondary expulsions send lateral flame pillars erupting past the Mokarran. Parts of the inner wall leading into the entrance collapse on the Braeco’ns position.
A Halcary engulfed in the blast cooks in his suit. The other two barely escape the explosion. Flaming wreckage shreds and broils the Mokarran. Chunks of spacecraft shatter the entrance.
Spotty fires burn among the glamorous entrance wreckage. Heat and smoke hang in the air. Hauser hurtles to his feet, claps his hands together before rubbing them in satisfaction. Ecstatic, he howls at Reynard, “You owe me one ship, Commander.”
Insane plans seem to work the best. Reynard moves from his position, not sure which of his attackers are completely dead.”
“If the Mokarran are here, there’s a battle cruiser en route,” Hauser claims.
Scott nods in agreement, bringing the Aurulent slave girl to the entrance of the secretary room. A Halcary drops the slave girl with a single blast only to be blown apart by a Mokarran weapon.
Doug releases beams of sound from his weapon. The Mokarran slinks back into the pile of debris it crawled from. Blood rolls from twin spots on its skull.
Doug adjusts a cylinder over the end of his gun barrel. The weapon hums, recharging.
Hauser fires on a Braeco’n unable to reach a weapon.
Chunks of Tibbar meat scatter around the room when the third raptor becomes incinerated midair by Amye emerging from the broken entrance way. She swings the rifle and fires a second shot, shredding open the last Halcary. Her third shot decimates any Braeco’n surviving the collapsed wall.
Even in the haze-filled chamber, Amye’s exposed arms have a bluish-purple hue from long exposure in the asteroid’s thin atmosphere.
“Do I even want to know how you got outside?” Reynard scoops up a Braeco’n weapon.
Scott grabs the Halcary rifle, motions for Joe to follow him, and waves Doug to check on JC. The chief engineer and Calthos warrior slink back into the casino.
“We should burn this place to the ground,” Amye demands.
Doug checks for a pulse in JC’s neck. “You haven’t time, Commander. Ki-Ton has abducted the princess. He used some kind of hidden shuttle built under the bridge section of the Dragon.”
“You’re making less sense than usual, Doug.” Amye keeps her back facing the wall while she holds her finger on the trigger.
The Braeco’n splayed with shrapnel crawls from the collapsed wall. “Don’t…shoot.” Once free his breath returns. “We found the body of Kelben in one of the rifle transport cases. He was last seen with your man Ki-Ton and weapons all proved to be IMC fakes. They exploded during a raid Youshon led himself.” Half blind, he crawls to another dead Braeco’n.
Reynard keeps his weapon poised to fire.
The Braeco’n draws a leather chunk from the man’s side pocket. He tosses it at Reynard’s feet. The Commander recognizes it instantly. The same tattoo as the queen and Micah Donkor had.
“Youshon bade us to cut this from him and deliver it to Maxtin before we killed him. We, last of the Braeco’n, have failed.”
Reynard takes the jagged flesh. Before promising he’ll see the responsible party for Youshon’s death die, the Braeco’n coughs his last breath.
Doug gets the cadets to help him with JC.
“There’s a Mokarran battle cruiser,” Hauser reminds him. “I don’t have a ship. I don’t want to be here when they arrive.”
Amye swings her rifle toward the one-eyed male. “I get the UCP cadets, but who’s this smerth?”
“Another of Maxtin’s agents—Hauser.”
“Don’t trust him,” Amye says.
“He’s been useful, so far.”
“Not for long with those Cybernic implants. They have a tendency to drive Osirians insane. Doug’s a prime example. Most organic tissue cloned instead of using implants.”
“You forget, as technology advances not every planet has such nice expensive medical labs. When you get wounded on a backwater planet with half your face blown off a doctor with any Cybernic skills becomes your new best friend.”
“Why don’t you get it replaced now?”
“Pain. Grafting the metal hurt; if they hadn’t strapped my hands down I’d of shot myself. Their sawbones was amply christened. He drilled and cut and chiseled into the bone until he could attach the one-size-fits-all metal jaw. All without the benefit of anesthesia or my passing out.”
“Not at a proper medical facility?” Reynard still learns something new about this epoch every day.
“I don’t want to find out. No one could live through such pain a second time.”
Scott drags an Aurulent slave girl from the corridor. “We found one.” He assists her to her feet, escorting her into the doorway. Sensors scan her and release the genetically coded door locks. Scott disappears inside with the woman.
With the Braeco’n dead, Amye moves to inspect the Halcary. She unclasps the breast plate of the one she killed and snaps free a pendant from around his neck. She pockets the jewelry.
JC gains her bearings and, once on her feet, slips the Silver Dragon jacket off her shoulders covering more of her flesh than her telepathic uniform. She offers it to Amye. “Leaving without this?”
Amye drops the heavy blaster rifle before climbing into her coat.
THE MAIN VIEW screen stretches across the cramped shuttle cockpit. Racks of tightly packed IMC rifles fill all the compact passenger space in the shuttle. Michelle fidgets in the captain’s chair next to Ki-Ton. He sports a Silver Dragon jacket with a second identical Silver Dragon jacket draped over the chair behind him.
“You want some kind of explanation, Princess?” Ki-Ton taunts her. “You’re entitled to an explanation?”
“If you aren’t going to kill me, I’d like to know why. Your issues with the crew occurred before they took me.”
“Who said I wouldn’t kill you? I need you alive to entice the Commander—to complete his downfall. No one on the Dragon ever learned of this shuttle. It provided the perfect location to
