Ascension

away from her surroundings. 'The first cubicle in the group along the fourth column and the sixth row.'

'I need you to go there and wait for me or Hendel to come get you!' Kahlee shouted. 'Do you understand? Go to Seeto's room and hide!'

Gillian gave the familiar single nod, then turned and walked slowly over toward the freight elevator.

'The stairs, Gillian,' Kahlee shouted after her, knowing the elevator wouldn't be operational with the ship in emergency lockdown. 'You have to take the stairs!'

The girl didn't look back at her, she simply altered her course and headed for the stairs.

'You sure about sending her off alone?' Hendel asked, checking the sights and autotargeting system on his own weapon.

Kahlee wasn't sure. In fact, she hated it. But she didn't see any other option.

'She can't stay here,' she said. 'And we can't send anyone with her. Mai's going to need every possible body if we have any hope of holding this position.'

Hendel nodded, agreeing with her assessment of the grim situation, then ran off to find a cover spot behind one of the overflowing metal bins that gave him a clear shot at anyone coming in from the landing bay. Kahlee did the same, hunkering down behind a large steel crate filled with pots and pans.

Cerberus didn't keep them waiting long.

The assault began with a handful of grenades lobbed through the door and into the trading deck. None of Mai's team were positioned close enough to the entrance to be caught in the blast range, but when the grenades detonated they sent several of the crates, and their contents, flying through the air. No one was injured, but it served as a distraction as the first wave of two Cerberus soldiers pushed forward to the edge of the door.

Kahlee and the others opened fire, trying to drive them back. Trusting in their armor's kinetic barriers, the enemy returned fire as they sprinted forward through the entrance toward one of the nearby crates that promised them cover.

The plan would have worked if not for Hendel. While Kahlee and the quarians were unloading round after ineffective round into the enemy shields, the bi-otic had been gathering his strength. Just as the Cerberus soldiers ducked behind the crate they assumed would give them shelter, Hendel lifted it high into the air, exposing them to another barrage of concentrated assault-rifle fire.

Their shields, still depleted from their initial charge through the door, couldn't save them from a second hail of bullets. Both men were torn to shreds, and Kahlee felt a burst of triumphant exultation.

Her euphoria was short lived. The second wave of Cerberus soldiers — this time a group of three— followed only a few seconds after the first, using the same techniques. Hendel needed more time to recharge before he could unleash his powers again, so this time the trio made it safely to the cover of one of the bins. Protected from enemy fire, they were able to regroup and recharge their shields, then quickly strike out again.

They burst from their cover at the same time, all three moving in different directions as they scattered to and fro among the maze of crates and containers. Kahlee focused on the nearest enemy, losing track of the other two. She tried to take him down with well-aimed bursts as he moved from cover point to cover point, but he knew the limits of his shields, and he always managed to duck out of the line of fire just before they were completely drained.

She saw he was trying to work around to the far side of the room, attempting to get to a position where he could sneak up on the defenders from behind. From the corner of her eye Kahlee saw one of the quarians step out from the crate he was hiding behind to try and cut him off, only to get mowed down by the weapons of the third wave of four Cerberus troops charging through the door.

It was then that Kahlee realized how hopeless the situation was. Despite having a two- or three-to-one edge in numbers, the tactical and technological advantages of the Cerberus agents were too much to overcome. They had better weapons, better armor, and better training. Half of Mai's team — including Lemm, the captain, Hendel, and Kahlee herself— weren't even wearing body armor.

And Cerberus had grenades.

As if on cue, she heard a loud boom over on the far side of the deck. Whipping her head around she saw the smoke from the explosion clearing to reveal the burned and lifeless bodies of two quarians who had been caught in the deadly blast.

At least they had Hendel on their side. The big man poked his head out from behind his crate and unleashed another biotic attack, this one hurling two Cerberus soldiers backward from their hiding places, sending them both crashing against a nearby wall. One landed hard, quickly scrambling to her feet and making it safely back behind cover. Kahlee squeezed the trigger of her weapon and made sure the other one didn't.

An instant later, however, Hendel was the one flying backward through the air — Cerberus apparently had a biotic on their team, too. He shouted out in surprise, then slammed hard against the wall behind the desk outside the stockroom where they had grabbed their guns. He crumpled to the ground and didn't rise.

'Hendel!' she cried out, fighting against the suicidal urge to leap up and rush over to check on him.

Instead she turned her attention back on the enemy, drawing on her years of Alliance training to stay focused. Soldiers went down in combat, even friends.

Usually there wasn't anything you could do to help them until the enemy was neutralized.

She held her position, picking her targets carefully. She saw one more Cerberus soldier go down — by her count that left five, including the biotic. But all around her she could hear the screams of Mai's people. When the Cerberus biotic launched another attack, batting aside the bin shielding a quarian armed with a sniper rifle so she could be gunned down, the captain finally gave the order Kahlee had known was coming.

'Fall back!' he shouted. 'Fall back!' She didn't want to leave Hendel behind, but attempting to reach him now would almost guarantee her getting shot. Blinking away the harsh tears in her eyes, she lay down a line of cover fire as she began to make her retreat.

Gillian wandered back and forth along the grid of cubicles, silently counting until she reached the one blocked by the bright orange curtain. Far away she could hear the sharp retorts and ricochets of sounds she couldn't — or didn't want to — consciously identify.

She knew something was wrong, and she knew it was somehow her fault. But though she fought to piece together what was going on, the truth eluded her. Shocked into a trancelike state by the stress of the situation, all her fractured mind could latch on to were disconnected bits and pieces.

For example, she realized that there should have been more people around. She had hazy, incomplete memories of crowds moving in and among the cubicles. She could recall the buzz of chatter; it had circled around her head like a swarm of angry bees. Now, however, the cubicles were empty. Everything was still and silent.

Again, she knew this was wrong. She just couldn't quite figure out why.

Kahlee said hide in Seeto's room, she thought, as she reached out and pulled the curtain aside. The room didn't look as she remembered it. The sleeping mat had been moved half a foot to the side of where it had originally been placed, and someone had turned the cooking stove ninety degrees since the last time she was here.

Gillian knew that people moved things around sometimes. But she didn't like it. Things should always be put back in the same place.

I don't like it here, I want to go back to the shuttle.

She let the curtain fall from her hand and turned away from the cubicle. Walking with slow, uncertain steps she began to make her way back through the crisscrossing aisles toward the stairs leading to the deck below, taking a long, meandering route far different from the one that had brought her here originally.

Kahlee fell back up the stairs, knowing all hell would break loose when Cerberus followed them and the fight spilled over into the cubicle grids. Even with all the civilians cleared out, the battle would become a run-and-gun skirmish up and down the crisscrossing aisles, giving Cerberus and their superior weaponry an even greater advantage.

While several of Mai's people took up positions around the corners of cubicles near the staircase, aiming their weapons at the door Cerberus would have to come through, Kahlee made her way straight to Seeto's room to grab Gillian.

By the time she got there, she could already hear steady bursts of gunfire being thrown back and forth. She knew she didn't have long; as easy as it had been for Cerberus to break through the quarian defenses on the lower deck, it would be even harder to hold position up here. There were simply too many options; the quarians would have no hope of pinning an enemy down when they could simply double back to one of the other aisles and