Page 77 of Craving Their Omega
Now or never.
I hit the switch, and the canopy above me disintegrated. The air puffed out into the vacuum, carrying me with it, and my helmet snapped shut as the sensors detected the dangerous drop in pressure.
If my calculations were correct, I’d be on course for my target. If not, I had enough air to regret my failure for half a day before I died. Behind me, theAviraccelerated hard, following the course I’d laid in. That course, too, needed to be perfect.
Ahead of me, sunlight gleamed off another ship. TheMagpie,Maddie’s vessel, drifting along where I’d pushed it. I tumbled closer, wishing I had a way to slow down, but no. I’d have to make do with the meeting velocity we had.
TheMagpiehit me like a club swung by an angry god, and I bounced away, spinning. The world went gray around me, but I couldn’t afford to pass out. I grabbed for a handhold, missed, tried again, and cursed.
I managed to snag it with my tail before I drifted out of reach. The impact nearly tore my tail out of its socket, and it hurt like nothing I’d felt before, but I held on and pulled myself back to the human ship. I fumbled my way to the nearest airlock, tore off the control panel, shorted it out, and dragged myself inside.
The easy bit of the plan had worked.
11
MADDIE
Through the viewport, I watched theAvirdisappear into the distance, and didn’t cry. An achievement to be proud of, I thought, staring into the bleak vastness of space, trying to wrangle the pieces of my shattered heart together.
Gazing at the void didn’t help, so I turned away. My back pressed to the airlock’s inner door, I sank down and hugged my knees. Down the corridor, dead men toiled without rest or pause. Once, the conduit arced enough energy through a shambler to fry its hardsuit, filling the air with the stink of burned plastic. Another dragged the smoking remains aside and took its place, work continuing without pause. Impressive in a macabre way, and in my shocked state, I think I could have watched them work for hours if I’d had the chance.
Long before that, my suit comm pinged and pulled me back from the horror show. With a frown, I read the message—an alert from theMagpie,broadcast at extreme range. Someone had triggered the airlock’s emergency access, and the ship diverted power to comms to make sure I knew.
Still staring at that, I nearly jumped out of my skin as another alert appeared. Then another, and another. Each announcinga system being activated, power being rerouted to the engines. Thrusters fired harder than I’d ever dared to push them, and the connection qualityimproved. TheMagpiewas getting closer.
“What the actual fuck?” I muttered. A fair question, so I opened a channel to theMagpie’scockpit and repeated it, louder.
“Do not worry,” Kahdrex answered, unhelpful as ever. “All part of the plan.”
I wanted to strangle him, and at the same time, his gravelly growl lit up my soul. I tried to resist, but the moment he spoke, I’d lost that battle.
Anima Numenon’s hundred-voice chorus joined us. “Whatareyou doing, Kahdrex? Please return to your originalcoursebefore I am forced to use active defensive measures.”
His snarled reply was succinct and to the point. “Go fuck yourself.”
“Ah, I see. Apity, I had hoped for better from you.”
She didn’t sound in the least concerned, but then, she was an AI. If an emotion got in the way, she’d switch it off. I wished I had that option—competing feelings pulled me in different directions, and I wanted to curl into a ball and cry.
I didn’t have time for that. Anima might not have sounded worried, but she responded with overwhelming force.Numenon’sguns opened fire, the hull creaking and shuddering under the strain. She pulled all available power to the weapons; lights dimmed and flickered, gravity rippled, the zombies working on the conduit froze, and a stink of burning plastic filled the air.
TheNumenonwas a shadow of the ship it had once been, but it was still a battleship. A glancing hit from any of its guns would destroy theMagpie.
Whatever Kahdrex was up to, his plan was half-assed at best, and he’d need help to pull it off. So I took a deep breath,swallowed my feelings, and stood up. On the comm channel, Kahdrex growled a litany of what had to be swearwords in a language I didn’t know. Glad to hear he was alive, I tried not to think about how long he’d stay that way.
Long enough,I promised myself, then staggered as the decking jumped under my feet. Explosions rocked theNumenonas blaster cannons, rushed into service after centuries lying dormant, overloaded. A terrible waste of Anima’s precious resources.
She had to be desperate to take that risk, which meant she’d try other desperate tactics. A clatter behind me turned my attention back to the ship and I saw what she’d try next. The shamblers working on the power conduit had dropped their tools and now turned in eerie unison to advance on me. On the comm, Anima spoke again, her chorus of voices fraying. “Ifyoupersist, I will remove theprizeyou seek to recover. Ourdealc-can still stand if you turn back now.”
Yeah, okay, that’s another reason to fuck her up,I thought. A smile crept onto my face, despite the advancing dead men—if Anima Numenon said Kahdrex was coming to rescue me, who was I to argue? I still had to survive long enough for him to reach me, which wouldn’t be easy.
My grin spread wider. I refused to let Kahdrex be the only one with a stupid plan today.
I raised my multi-tool, switching it to cutting torch mode. The tip hissed as it heated white hot, but the two hardsuits didn’t even pause their advance. Fighting wouldn’t go well for me.
I threw the tool, sending it past them to drop into the open conduit. The superheated blade clipped through an oxygen line, and then things happened very fast.
On the scale of theNumenon, the resulting explosion was trivial. In the docking chamber, it seemed to light the air on fire.Lightning arced out, frying one hardsuit, and acrid smoke filled the air before my helmet snapped shut.
