She reached back into the locker and withdrew a handful of metal disks about the size of chits, which she flung in a scattering motion across the room. The disks began to glow softly and emit quiet, infrequent thuds and rustling noises. “That'll further confuse their EM and heat sensors, as well as their auditory sensors. Which means as long as you're very, very quiet, and aim well, you can now destroy the enemy before they kill you.”
Lana felt a surge of relief at that, at least for a moment. Then she frowned. “Wait. With all this smoke and noise we'll have just as hard a time finding them. How do I aim well?”
“With lots of practice that you unfortunately don't have,” Belix said sarcastically. When Lana just stared at her blankly she sighed. “It's simple . . . the moment you hear or see anything that's not me, you shoot towards the doorway. We could be anywhere in this room attacking the combat androids, but they can only be in one place attacking us, at least initially. That gives us a huge advantage.”
Before Lana could ask any more questions, the elfin woman abandoned the locker and ran over to a panel, slapping a big red button. The lights in the room flickered briefly, and Lana saw a brief shimmer appear around most of the big tanks that filled the engine room. The shimmer reappeared every now and again as smoke moved against it, harder to see along with everything else now that the thick white clouds had nearly filled the room.
“What did you just do?” she demanded.
Belix's voice drifted unseen through the haze. “Emergency shields for the fuel and accelerant tanks, a final protection against sabotage by boarders. That way a stray shot doesn't blow us, along with half the ship, into the void.” There was a brief pause, along with some scuffling noises and a soft curse. “You should find some cover and get ready . . . the Deek robots will be here any second.”
Fantastic. Lana was liking this less and less. She looked around for something to hide behind and pointed her cauterizer towards the doorway with shaking hands, hoping she remembered where it was.
In the back of her mind, thought processes she wasn't even aware of were preparing her to turn and gun down the Ishivi the moment she was triggered. In fact, she was somewhat confused as to why the trigger hadn't already happened, when the battle had been going on for a relative eternity already; she could've devastated the Last Stand from within on her own, and now with the aid of a boarding party of three combat androids the task would be even simpler.
Conversely, if the trigger hadn't happened yet it might not happen at all. In which case her priority was maintaining her cover at all costs, with a lesser priority of self preservation. Even if it meant aiding in repelling the boarders.
The thought processes settled down to respond to whichever eventuality presented itself, leaving Lana to stew in her fear as she waited for her first firefight to start.
Now that neither of them were talking, she could hear muted booms and feel the ship shaking from the Last Stand's continuing battle with the enemy, along with closer sounds that seemed to be coming from just beyond the sturdy closed door leading into the engine room: the whine of cauterizers, heavy crashes and clangs, and a strange hissing noise.
A sudden thought struck her. “What if it's Ali or Fix who come through the door? I don't want to accidentally shoot them.”
“The door's been sealed as a security countermeasure,” Belix replied dryly. “Someone on our side isn't going to come breaking through it.” She hesitated, lowering her voice almost as if she was talking to herself. “Come on, bro. I don't usually hope you'll be good at your job, just in case I ever get a chance to nab it from you, but keep those things away from me.”
Lana shifted uncomfortably. She would've preferred to not hear that sort of fear in the other woman's voice; after the cool, collected speed and competence with which the Ishivi had prepared for this fight, Lana had just assumed she did this sort of thing all the time and it was no big deal.
Moments later, a loud thud on the engine room door made her jump half out of her skin.
The boarders were trying to break through.
* * * * *
“Incoming message from our friend Dalar,” Barix said. “Let's see how pissed he is about us getting away.”
It did certainly look as if they'd manage it; in its eagerness to catch up to them, the Vindicator had pushed its engines too far and was now slowly falling behind rather than catching up. It was still far enough away that most of its shots missed, as well.
In less than a minute, Aiden would slow the Last Stand to jump, still far enough ahead that it was unlikely the enemy would even have time to punch through their shields. Then they'd be safe.
Still, less than a minute was plenty of time to gloat, so he opened a channel with the Deek cruiser.
“I would've preferred to have the glory of this victory for myself!” the captain of the Vindicator growled in Aiden's earpiece. He sounded frustrated, but oddly enough not as much as he should've been. “But orders are orders, and a win is a win. Listen to the sound of your dreams crumbling, Thorne!”
Aiden flinched as a jarring, atonal screech filled his headset, then ripped it off his head and threw it across the room. Deeks were petty, but playing irritating noises seemed a bit beneath even them. “Are you going to open
