“Almost there. I can convert some of your bio-systems to producing what we need, and Tens has mapped a way of limiting the gas to just those decks. It’s a good thing your crew are locked down.”
“Except us.”
“The emergency lockers have rebreathers.”
“Point. You ready on the seat flip?”
“Two seconds,” Tens said, then looked at me. “This is going to take all three of us, or someone’s going to get out.”
“Gotcha.”
I sank into my implant, and worked my way to the part of the system where Tens was altering code. He handed me three strands.
“Navigation, Weapons, Life Support. Abs is going to take out comms. She’s the only one fast enough to stop them triggering a distress signal. I’ll take out Security, Piloting and Command. When you get done, I’ll need your help.”
Well, that explained why he’d given me the easiest consoles to lock down. I took a closer look at the console activity, took our current coordinates and route, and then worked up an alternate route to flip into the nav system the minute I put the wolf running it into stasis. Weapons, I prepped an emergency lock-down command, and got ready to send a power stop through the system to prevent any reversal of energy being directed back into the ship.
“Damn, girl. The things you think of.”
I didn’t tell him that that last idea was courtesy of Keevers, but he snorted.
“Part of the Odyssey dirty tricks department,” he said, like that explained everything.
Except that it kinda did.
I checked the stasis function on each of the chairs, made sure there was nothing blocking an external override of the conversion mechanism—and was not surprised to find it clear. Abs and Tens did good work; I’d just been taught not to take anything for granted, when it was something I was responsible for.
“Good idea,” Mack said.
“Almost done,” Tens told him, as if he’d been asked.
But even I could feel Mack’s impatience, knew he was watching the activity in his command center via the security feeds with me.
I checked over the chairs, again, took a peek at the console operators through the security feeds, and the activity being logged by the consoles. Everything looked normal.
“Comms is going live,” Abby said.
“Do it, now,” came from Tens, and we activated the chairs.
I had a vague impression of chaos, from the feeds, but I was too busy locking the chair down, and making sure it made it through the process of putting the wolves into stasis—while letting my alternatives loose in the weapons and nav systems. There was no way I wanted the ship frying itself, or making for ports unknown.
Once that was done, I locked the operating panels on the bridge, and dug in to help Tens.
The piloting system was a short step from Navigation, I took care of it, lock-stepping it with the nav program I’d set running, and then turning to security. Tens knew that was the system I was most familiar with, but I’d hoped he’d already be done with it. There was no telling what contingencies the wolves had in place, especially if the wolf operator had picked up our activity.
He’d had no such luck…or I’d been extra fast. I checked Tens was handling the command console, and then ran myself through the security interface to make sure it was completely ours. The code that had lain dormant until a check point had been reached, almost slid by me. If I hadn’t been looking for something like it, I’d have missed that sucker completely.
I sent a chaser after it, and looked to see if it had back-up, breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it didn’t.
“You done?” Mack was standing beside me.
“Why?”
“The big guy’s security detail just got back from the canteen.”
Well, damn.
I remembered the size of those two. This wasn’t going to be easy.
“I’ll catch up,” Tens promised, booting me back into my head. “Just as soon as I’m done here.”
Mack was already on his way to the door, and I hurried after him.
“Make sure you’re using non-lethal.”
Right—and just how was I supposed to calibrate that for a wolf?
“Quit your whining. Here,” and Mack sent me the necessary settings.
“None of your business,” he added, when I wondered how he knew.
Which only made me add it to the list of shit I was gonna dig up about Mack.
“That is not somewhere you want to go,” he snarled, but quietly, inside my head, where the sound wouldn’t carry and warn the guards returning to the command center.
He might as well not have bothered.
The wolves were ready when we arrived. They hadn’t panicked, but they were on high alert, even as they tried to work out how to bypass Tens and Abby’s lock-down on the pods and intercom.
“You!” one said, looking straight at me. “Weren’t you pack?”
“Until the pack leader cut me loose,” I said, and let him see just how much that had hurt. I tilted my chin at Mack. “This one says he will be my Hunt Master.”
I watched the guard’s eyes narrow, saw his partner already closing on Mack.
“When he is dead, you can transfer your allegiance back!”
“Not even if you begged.”
Even Mack was shocked by that one.
“Ouch! Girl, you got a death wish, again?”
I fired the Blazer, but the solids just bounced off the wolf’s heavy-duty armor.
Like…really? Even in the security of their own ship?
It was a good thing, I’d picked up a couple of spare Glazers, and noted the guards’ helmets were open. This sort of combat I had half a chance at. Once those things closed, not so much. That was more Mack’s territory than mine.
“Hey!”
“Quit your whining.”
Damn wolf must have thought I’d intended that comment for him…or maybe he was still smarting from the remark I’d made about begging. Either way, he charged forward, and I decided to try something suicidal.
I stood there, shooting even as I brought the Glazer up and sighted. Stun charges can make a mess of
