The click of the door closing behind Xander echoed across the bridge, the sharp sound echoing the stab in my chest.

He left. I shook, fear knotting my gut.

The hell with that. He left to fight that thing, buy us time. Xander trusted I’d be able to fight too. And I wasn’t going to let him down.

I pushed the chair back, sliding between stations, so that in seconds both comms flared to life. An array of camera views made a checkerboard across the screen of one, schematics of the ship flipping as fast as I could read across the other.

“What do you think you can do?” Tobias asked.

“Don’t know yet. What are you going to do to help?” I snapped.

Nothing, nothing, maybe, nothing, there.

The ship wasn’t large enough to need an audio system wired through the decks for its crew to keep in communication. But there was still an emergency system, just waiting for me to pry the code open and bend it to my will.

I narrowed the screen down to two sets of cams, set them to auto-follow movement, and finished modding the emergency announcement system.

“Xander,” I called and watched his step falter as he raced through the corridors. “Sorry, I don’t know how else to reach you. The Hunter is one deck down, three corridors to port.” I swallowed, throat tight. “I think it’s heading to the cells.”

Where, if SysSec’s arrest had gone to plan, I’d have been trapped.

Xander’s mouth moved, but I couldn’t hear.

“Sorry. Communication is only one way.”

The irritation on his face was clear enough he didn’t need to speak out loud.

“I’ll keep you posted as he moves.”

I rolled back to the other commstation searching for anything that would be useful. “Besides that pitiful electromagnet lock on the cells, what else do you have on this boat?”

Tobias shook his head. “Light arms, not much else. This craft isn’t usually used for arrests or combat support missions. Long range reconnaissance and infiltration is more my speed.”

I kept my eyes on the screens. No, if it had been just me you wouldn’t have thought you needed much else. “Where are they?”

“Auxiliary storage three.”

I pulled up the armory on the map and called Xander again. “There’re weapons on board, but it’ll take you away from the Hunter.” I calculated the path again. “Maybe a five-minute delay.”

Xander kept running but glared at the cameras as he passed.

“I’m not an idiot,” I muttered. “I’m only broadcasting into the corridor where I can see you.”

Huh. Maybe that expression was apology.

I’d take it.

“At the next junction, the Hunter is to your left. To get to the armory, turn right.”

I waited, calling all my focus to anticipate what he needed. I might not be able to fight with him, but there was no way I was leaving him alone.

“Traitors!”

What? Oh Void take it, not now.

“Tobias shut her up!”

The woman was awake now, Tobias hunching over her until she swung out with her bound ankles, kicking at him.

“Mel, Mel, calm down. A lot’s happened, and-”

“I don’t need to know what happened,” she spat. “You’ve let the prisoner take control of our ship. You’re a traitor to the Director General.”

I glanced away from the screens. “Aren’t you guys supposed to be loyal to the Emperor?”

“Left again, sorry!” I directed Xander then flicked my attention back to the Hunter who slowly, implacably paced through the corridor.

Like all ships of sound design, this one had been built with a thick blast door at every intersection and every length of corridor. In case of decompression, the doors could be deployed to seal off the damaged section of hull.

I kept dropping them in front of the Hunter.

It kept ripping them back open.

But better than letting our enemy stroll unimpeded though the ship.

“Get me a tablet, and ask her if she wants to live or not,” I barked at Tobias, my attention already too fractured as I ripped apart commands from the consoles, shoved in some command prompts that were certainly not part of the original interface, and wondered if I’d be able to pull off one more minor miracle.

“Shut up, you piece of filth,” Melra hissed. “You’re a prisoner, should be delivered as per our mission requirements.”

“Your mission has changed a bit, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

On one screen Xander selected a long barreled blaster while the Hunter moved closer to the cell.

What would it do when it found the cell empty?

Nothing I’d like, would be my guess.

I grabbed the tablet from Tobias and did my damndest to ignore the ranting of his partner.

“Has she always been deranged?”

The tunneling program spun up on the tablet, started a seek routine for the hole I’d left in the command structure on the main terminal.

“No.” Tobias scrutinized the woman, his forehead creased. “This is what I was trying to explain to Zayda. Melra is funny, sharp. Thinks Stanton isn’t a bad boss, but a bit of a jerk. Questions orders all the time.”

Not exactly what I was seeing now, but stress did odd things to people. Fingers flying, I whispered more information to Xander. “I suspect the Hunter will be headed our way after he visits the cell. I’ll work out an interception path.

Xander glared at the camera, face tight, and ran faster.

Tobias meandered on. “If I didn’t know her, I’d swear this wasn’t her. Enough of her little ticks are still there, turns of phrase, gestures. It’s Mel, but it’s not.”

Final touches on the program done, I stood and lifted the chair. “Interesting, but not the top of my list right now.”

Shoving all of my terror into the swing, I slammed the chair into the comm system’s screen, shattering it. I turned to the second monitor and hit it until the display cracked.

In the sudden crash, even Melra’s rants stopped.

Gasping, I dropped the chair. I was *not* telling Nadira about this. I didn’t have to ask to know this was way outside the parameters of my physical therapy.

Melra’s shrill voice broke the silence. “What are you doing? How are we supposed to control the ship now?”

“The ship is fine.” I tapped the tablet. “You just can’t see the comms to operate it. But I can. Let’s go.”

Tobias turned his full attention to me. “Where?”

“I’m not waiting for the Hunter to get here. I think Zayda would like to see you, so you should try to survive.” I double checked the mapping on the tablet. “I’d like to think your best bet for that is to stay with me. But I could be wrong.”

Tobias paused by Melra, still tied on the deck, wild eyes glaring at us both.

Dammit. “I don’t know about the crazy lady. Up to you, but if she wants to come along, she needs to keep her mouth shut and let me work.”

“Don’t you dare leave me, Tobias,” Melra hissed. “Have you forgotten every oath you swore?”

Charming. But effective. With a half-shrug of apology, Tobias cut her free with a splinter of the broken plex while I waited by the door, foot tapping in anticipation.

“Let’s go.” I led the way, away from the Hunter, away from Xander.

“Why is this ship so large, anyway?” I muttered, staring at the dimly lit corridors, grey walls and grey decks, lined on one side with maintenance grates. Depressing, somber and cold.

“Fuel.” I hadn’t really expected an answer, but apparently Tobias was shaken up enough by the day’s events to keep talking. “Fuel for me, fuel for the ship. We’re in the field for months at a time. Can’t count on anything you don’t carry with you.”

“Makes sense.”

“I hadn’t been back to SysSec long enough to restock when I got sent out to pick you up. Mel was assigned to accompany me, which seemed odd, but I’d already decided this would be my last job. Time to retire. I don’t know what the Agency is turning into, but it’s not what I signed up for.”

On the smaller tablet screen it was harder to track the Hunter. It appeared we were moving away from him, but how long could we keep this up?

The entire ship shuddered beneath my feet, knocking me to the ground with a resounding thunk. Had we been attacked?

No. I remembered Xander’s last commands on the bridge. We just dropped out of warp, and like idiots, none of us were strapped in.

I shook my head to clear it, then a trail of ice ran through my chest.

The tablet. Where was tablet?

Scrambling to my feet I leaned against the bulkhead, searching in the low light.

There! Fallen halfway through the grating I could see the steady red light of the charge icon.

I dove for it, my only communication with Xander, the only way we could control the ship now.

But before I reached it I was knocked off my feet again. Melra, dark eyes gleaming, snarled at me as she knelt above me.

“Get back to your cell you bitch,” she snarled.

Bucking against her, I tried to throw her off, but her strength and experience easily outmaneuvered me. “The situation’s changed. Did you not notice that?”

Where the hell was Tobias? Head frantically whipping from side to side, searching for him to control his partner, I finally focused on the long jagged length of plexi she wielded. Blood dripped from its tip.

“What did you do?” I gasped.

“Nothing that mattered. I’m following orders.” Her dark, pupilless eyes bore through me.

“He was your partner.”

“And I still am.” A black booted foot struck Melra in the chest, knocking her off me.

Tobias slumped heavily against the bulkhead, hand pressed into his throat. “There’s something wrong with you Mel.”

“No!” she scrambled back to her feet while I rolled away.

Tobias could deal with this, had to deal with this. I had to get to that tablet. Without it Xander was fighting blind.

On hands and knees I scrabbled for the grate, stuck my fingers through it and heaved until it came loose.

“Return to your cell!”

A fiery wash of pain lanced through my right shoulder, crushing down. I spun on my knees, the length of grate still in my hands and slammed the end into Melra’s face.

“You think that’ll stop me? You have no idea what I can survive,” I yelled.

She stumbled back and I slammed the grate into her side again.

With a third strike she was down, limp on the deck.

Tobias pushed himself upright long enough to kick the makeshift blade away from her grasp.

“Keep her down,” I snarled, then turned, grabbing for the tablet. I was vaguely aware of him cutting his uniform jacket into strips and binding her, but it didn’t matter. Not now.

The entire incident had only taken seconds, the pain down my shoulder blade from the cut screamed, but pain was familiar, dealable.

What took my breath away was something entirely different.

Xander had found the Hunter.

Bolt after bolt of plasma hit that midnight dark uniform. And nothing happened. The fabric scorched, but the creature, the machine, whatever it was, didn’t go down.

Just as the Hunter had relentlessly paced towards the cell, now it advanced on Xander.

“Get away from it,” I shrieked through the comms. “It’s not working.”

But Xander wasn’t listening to me.

With a grin like a madman, he blew a kiss to the camera, and launched himself into battle.