“Have you heard from Snead? Demands, threats, anything?”
“Not yet, but they usually won’t reveal their demands until they have the upper-hand.” He stopped, pushing her against the wall. “You’re the upper-hand they want, so stay back!” He kept an arm on her. “Lewis, are you watching us?”
“Yes, sir. Another few pushes and you’ll reach the airlocks.”
“How many are we still facing?”
“Four, but two are wounded.”
“Not enough to be out of the game?”
“No, sir. Still firing on us. Wait…” There was a moment of silence. “Capt. Breeze, they’ve opened fire on the Dolan. They must have picked up our weapons. Geez, these aren’t GR weapons. We’re taking some serious hits.”
“Keep a line open to the Dolan. If you need to throw them off, do it. The bots can bring them back when it’s safe.”
“What about Adams?” Jayda broke into the conversation.
“Adams made it into his suit and out of the ejection tube. He’s aboard the enemy ship.” There was a slight pause. “Fredrik was ejected. Bot has him in a holding position under the GR ship.”
“Well, get him out of there before he’s fired on too.”
“How?”
“Order the bot to return him through a bot port.”
“Bot port? Oh, got it. Working the order.” There was a moment of silence on the line, filled with a volley of laser fire. “Breeze, something’s up! Capt. Breeze!”
Nick took off when Breeze didn’t answer Lewis. Jayda crept around the corner, seeing Nick change places with his pilot, letting her fall back. She came around the corner, glaring at Jayda. “Breeze here. Glad you remember I’m the captain. What’s up, Lewis?”
“The two wounded have fallen back to the docking doors. They’re doing something, but I can’t tell what.”
“Let me see!” Breeze tapped at the face of her comm, holding out her wrist as Jayda crowded in.
They slapped a device over the manual lock, but Jayda shook her head. “That won’t blow through. Those doors are made to withstand… “What the hell?” Smoke started puffing from around the portal seal. “How’d they get charges into the door frame?”
Jayda glared at Breeze, who shook her head defensively. “I don’t know. I never took my eyes off them.”
The door rolled open. Both women expected to see the two wounded jump to their own ship, but instead they moved out of the way. A head ducked through the portal, the enemy’s medic, but when he stepped the rest of the way through, he wasn’t boarding to treat his wounded. He wore body armor and swung a weapon up from his side.
“Oh shit!” Breeze jerked her hand free and pushed Jayda hard, back the way they’d all come while she ran forward again. She pulled Nick back, shouting into his ear as explosions detonated. He grabbed at the next guy and motioned the rest to fall back. The two of them remained, removing grenades from their pockets.
Jayda saw fear as Breeze returned. “What’s going on?”
Breeze shoved Jayda towards two of her men. “Get her out of here!”
The two men picked her up by the arms, heading down the corridor. More explosions made the walls shimmer with vibrations. “Breeze, what about Nick!”
“He’ll follow, but that weapon can pierce armor and will shred a human body. We need to get somewhere safe.”
“The inner circle!” Jayda shouted over her shoulder. “The med lab, the core and my labs are all built to withstand anything they got.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I am!” Jayda twisted out of the grip of the two men, staggering away before they grabbed her again. “My work is highly explosive. You think they’d not give me refuge for the worse-case-scenario?”
“Well, this is WCS!”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
A different explosion rocked the corridor. One of the men pounced on Jayda, knocking her to the floor. Everyone hit the deck as metal pinged against the walls, ricocheting.
As metal bounced around them, another round of grenades rumbled down the corridor, the floor vibrating. Hands jerked Jayda off the floor, running. She struggled against them. “Nick! Where’s Nick?”
“Right here!”
She twisted her head around and saw Nick suspended between two other men, blood running freely from several wounds.
“You’re hurt!”
“We’re all going to be if they catch up with us.” Breeze shouted at Jayda, waving them to keep running. “Get us into the lab!”
“Medical is closer.”
“Too close!” She threw two more grenades and came to push the men carrying Nick. “Run!”
Jayda tried, but the servos on her suit were down again. The men carrying her didn’t notice, picking up the pace as the explosions continued behind them. “Three doors past the med lab. What about Nick, he needs medical.”
The doors to medical were only steps away, but there was no stopping. Another round of metal shards answered their grenades. One of the men carrying her flinched, but ran faster.
“Computer, open lab doors, now!” She shouted over the chaos.
Jayda and her escorts reached the labs and they thrust her in first. She staggered to the control panel. Holding the door open until Breeze dove into the chamber. The doors closed with shrapnel scraping up her backside.
They were only in the decon chamber, not the labs. Jayda ordered a bypass to decontamination, forcing the lab doors open. “Yes, I know!” She shouted at the computer warnings she was violating protocol. The next doors opened as the outer doors thundered under the impact of the weapon Hendrix brought aboard. They wouldn’t hold long.
Breeze realized as much. “I thought you said these doors were impenetrable?” She stood across from Jayda as the team stumbled into the lab.
“Those aren’t, but these are core doors.”
“What about medical?”
“They’re part of the core too.”
Breeze nodded, helping one of the team in, the backs of his legs cut up. “Good, though this wasn’t how we saw this going.”
“Never is.” Jayda felt heat from the outer doors. “Get inside.”
Breeze slipped through the doors, Jayda on her heels, letting the core doors roll back into place as the outer doors started gapping open.
She waited until the locks cycled to red before she
