I kept my eyes on the lord and his lady, but was aware of Delight stepping forward, and of the tiny adjustment Mack made to his stance as the child was handed over. The muffled sound of a smaller weapon going off came as a sudden and unpleasant surprise.
“Now,” Mack groaned, and I saw silver surround the Odyssey agent as she was whisked away.
Mack waited until she had vanished completely, before coming slowly around to face Sandoval and Treivani. His face was pale, and beads of sweat had started to form on his forehead, but he indicated the child held in the crook of his arm, and took a step forward.
“Your child,” he said, and she was off the couch and taking her baby from his grasp before I could react.
To my surprise, Sandoval followed her, pulling her into the curve of one arm as he looked at Mack.
“Thank you,” he said, and Mack nodded.
“Now,” he whispered, and Tens wrapped the teleport around both of us, and pulled us back to the command center.
When we arrived, Mack wrapped his arms tightly across his stomach, and staggered over to his console. He sank into the chair, and, before either Tens or I could ask him what was wrong, he’d activated its stasis capability, and enclosed himself in a pod.
Tens swore, and I saw the gun in Delight’s hand. She caught the expressions on our faces and twisted her mouth into the facsimile of a smile that came and went in a flash. I brought Pritchard’s gun up, and trained it on her, returning her expression, as I glared.
“You have a cabin,” Tens said. “Go there.”
And Delight laughed.
“You’re sending me to my room?” she asked, in disbelief, but Tens refused to be drawn.
“And we’re billing Odyssey with the cost of your retrieval, Mack’s medical expenses, and the cost of the inconvenience of Mack being down.”
Delight opened her mouth to argue, but Tens wasn’t finished. He looked at Pritchard.
“You might want to get her out of here, before she adds anything else.”
Pritchard looked at Delight.
“You shot him?”
She shrugged.
“Your point?”
Pritchard didn’t answer, he just wrapped his hand under her bicep and moved her towards the command center door. When she brought her arm back into his gut, he pulled her across in front of his chest, and wrapped an arm around her throat, putting her out in seconds. When she’d stopped struggling, he scooped her up into his arms, and continued to the door.
“She’ll be fine, when she wakes up,” he said. “If you wouldn’t mind locking the doors to our quarters once we’re inside?”
“Done,” Tens agreed.
Pritchard dipped his head in acknowledgement, and walked out, taking Delight with him.
“You know that thing still has its safety on, right?” Tens asked me, when the door had closed behind Pritchard.
“Hell, I don’t even know what this thing is,” I told him, “but Pritchard handed it to me, instead of shooting me in the head with it, so I guess I’m grateful.”
“You’re lucky Pritchard was with her,” Tens said. “Things could have gone south in a very bad way, if he hadn’t been.”
As he spoke, the view screen went live, and Sandoval came into view. Treivani wasn’t in sight, and Sandoval was alone.
“Tell me why I should let any of you live,” he said, and I heard suppressed fury in his tone.
“Since Mack took a shot for you,” Tens replied, “and since he stood in front of Delight’s gun, and since Mack got your wife her child back, unharmed.”
An alarm sounded on my console, and I ran towards it. As I reached it and slid into my seat, the air shuddered at various points around the command center.
“Oh, nice job,” Tens said, and turned to me, even as his hands moved like lightning over his console. “Stay very, very still.”
On the screen, Sandoval smiled, and it was as cold as any smile I’d seen from Delight. He didn’t say anything, though, just watched as his men materialized in the command center, and brought their weapons to bear.
“Hands!”
“Show me hands!”
The shouts rattled around us, and I lifted my hands away from the console, but not before checking that Delight and Pritchard were well and truly locked in their cabins—and then I added a layer of security to the one that Tens had already laid down, and looped the security feeds to their cabins so they’d show empty no matter how long they ran.
“Nice.” Tens said, but his presence was brief, and he was sitting just as still as I was, when he lifted his hands.
I swiped the console in front of me, locking it down tight, before I raised my hands, and held them up near my shoulders. A brief glance at Sandoval showed that he hadn’t moved, even though his eyes had followed every move Tens and I were making. It was hard to split my attention between him and the men moving purposefully to the consoles around the command center.
I watched as one walked towards the security console. He stopped when he was a couple of paces away.
“Get up,” he said, but I shook my head.
He frowned, and glanced at Sandoval. Sandoval nodded, and the trooper levelled his gun.
“Move.”
I was about to refuse, again, when Tens spoke.
“Move, Cutter.”
His order was followed by Sandoval’s next comment.
“You can’t negotiate when you’re dead.”
“Move, Cutter,” Tens repeated, this time in my head, and I obeyed, standing slowly, and moving to one side so the trooper could occupy my seat.
“You’re taking the ship?” Tens asked?
“We need to negotiate,” Sandoval said, “and your ship is dead in the water. My men will run up the drives and we’ll move it into port.”
There was a port? I glanced over at Tens, glad to see the same question flit briefly across his face.
Sandoval looked from one to the other of us, obviously enjoying our confusion.
“You didn’t know?” he asked, and we shook our heads.
“Truly?”
And we shook our heads, again. He frowned,
