“Maybe this placeis…” Trisha screwed up her face. “Safe seems almost insulting,doesn’t it? Like we’re hiding behind the curtains while afriendly neighbor is knocking on the door.”
“It might betime for us to do the knocking,” Frank said. “When we wereplanning this drill, we were also floating the idea of a smallexpedition back to where we found Vikram. That sound your boots made– there’s something metallic under there.”
“She’sthere,” Vikram said firmly. “I should be with you when you goback. I know that look,”he added before his mother could forbid it. “I really think it’simportant.
“Whatever’s there,we have to learn how to live with it...”
Departure from the Norm
Babilim Station
Adelinasat up in her bed, not quite sure if she’d just been shouting inher dream or in real life as well. Shewiped her hand across her forehead and it came away covered withsweat. Thinnest nightshirt I have and I’m still sweating.
Shecould hear an engine winding down, out on the road. Musthave flown over the house and woken me up.
She got out of bed andpadded downstairs to find out why her sister was buzzing the house inthe middle of the night.
She was halfway to thefront door when it opened and three men came in. The third manthrough the door had an arrogant smile that she didn’t care for.
“My lady,” he said,not quite sneering but damned close to it. He let his eyes drift downfrom Adelina’s face.
“What the hells doyou want?” she demanded, crossing her arms.
“Mom?” Gabriella’svoice drifted down from upstairs.
Adelina’s blood rancold.
“There’s a problem,my lady,” the man said, looking up at the stairs as Gabrielladescended, barefoot in her pajama shorts and t-shirt.
She didn’t carefor the look on his face, especially now that it was turned on herdaughter. “What problem?” shedemanded, wishing she had a weapon.
Gabriella squawked asone of the men grabbed her at the bottom of the stairs. Shestruggled, drawing chuckles from the three intruders.
“The problem,mylady,”the sneering jerk said as Adelina started toward her daughter, “isthat we only need one of you.”
She could see herdaughter’s eyes grow wide in terror. There was a sound behind her…
Gabriellascreamed in horror. She watched her mother’s now-facelessbody fall to the floor andwhen it hit the flagstones, Gabriella was jolted into motion. Withoutgiving it a lot of thought, she twisted her wrist, breaking her righthandfree from her captor.
She swiveled outtoward the counter, snatching up a paringknife her mother had broughtwith her from Earth. With an incoherent bellow of rage, she swungback toward her captor who was wearing his armored EVA suit.
He rolled hiseyes at her impotent gesture. She could see hisexpression because hishelmet wasn’t deployed. His disdain cost him. If he’d registeredthe young woman as a threat, his suit would have noticed hisheightened alarm and closed up his helmet.
She stabbed himat the base of the neck, stickingthe knifein at a forty-five degree angle androtating it before pulling it back out. She didn’t feel theslightest revulsion at stabbing someone for the first time.
Her victim had let goof her other wrist now that he had bigger problems. She turned forthe man who’d just shot her mother, ignoring the other man who wasstanding between them and slightly to the right, mouth hanging openin shock.
She snarled, leapingover her mother’s twitching legs and aimed her knife in a wild arcat the killer’s neck. His helmet flowed shut a second too soon forher and then she felt something hammer into the back of her head…
The Captivity
Shuttle,Babilim Station
Gabriella moaned. Herhead felt like it had a hive of bees in it and her shoulders ached.
Then her shoulders feltlike fire as her body jerked to the left. Her eyes opened and sherealized this wasn’t going to turn out to be a bad dream.
She was hanging by herwrists, suspended from the overhead framework of a shuttle. The manwho’d killed her mother was in front of her, arguing with the manshe’d stabbed in the neck. He was lying on a bench, desperatelytrying to staunch the flow of blood.
She forgot about thepain in her head and shoulders. All she could think about was killingthe man who’d killed her mom.
But he was busydeciding to kill someone else.
“It’s too muchdamage for medical nanites,” the stabbed man said with a bubblygasp. “I need a full med-bay!”
The murderer nodded. Hestood and stepped back, activating a holo menu. The bench as well asthe decking it sat on simply dissolved beneath the man, letting in aroar of air.
With a startled,blood-frothed yelp, theinjured man droppedthrough the opening and wassnatched away in the slipstream. Thebench and decking restored itself temporarilynumbing the ears of the remaining occupants.
Aftera flare shock, Gabriella remembered the rage she’d felt whendriving a knife into the man’s neck. He had it coming,she thought, but why don’t I feel anything?
Shefelt cold inside and it worriedher. One ofthe assholes responsible for mom’s death iskilled and I feel nothing?She felt a constriction in her chest as she watched the murderer.He’d killed her mother andnow he’d just killed one of his own men.
Itwouldn’t take much for him to end her life.
“What are youlooking at, bitch?” he snarled. He stepped up to her and grabbedher by the throat. “You just cost me one of my best people!”
The utterinjustice of his anger was impossible to deal with. Killedone of his people? He just shot Momand he’s angry at me?
He kept his hand on herthroat but he stepped back, looking down at her body. “Maybe Ishould…”
“Kolm!” avoice shouted from the cockpit. “Leave her alone and get up here!”
“Bitch killed Para,”Kolm snarled. “She needs to…”
“Shut it,” thepilot snarled. “You killed Para, or Para killed Para, due to hisbeing an idiot. You get your ass away from her now or I’ll have nofurther need of you! Seizing or killing a noble is one thing;offering an indignity is quite another!”
“A noble?” Kolmsneered, looking at her contemptuously. “She’s only a noble’cause she shares genes with that upstart that’s humping Gleb andhe’s only…”
He stopped at thetelltale click-whine of a sidearm coming off safety. He turned
