Ann said, “You should not go back until the danger has passed.”

“Are you capable of lying Ann?”

Ann replied, “No.”

“I supposed I’m going to find out.”

She told me she couldn’t harm me, but in the next few minutes if she could, she probably would.  It was a chance I’d have to take to escape in any situation, so I accepted it.  The ship shook again, the inertial compensators were good, but obviously not perfect with unexpected impacts and changes of acceleration, not like it would be during self-propelled movement that could be anticipated and perfectly calculated.

The second warrior wasn’t in the hallway when I got there and ducked into the room.  I went down on a knee at the smell of burnt metal, and then watched as the blue guy formed a plasma ball in his hand, and it shot at the guy in armor.

Jarian was already dead.

The second guard opened fire again, and a blue shield shimmered as the plasma was routed around him and sent into the wall.  I wasn’t sure what kind of alloy it was, but the wall stood up to the plasma bolt fairly well.  I also wondered if I was dreaming, I knew there was no such thing as magic, but what science would explain forming a plasma bolt in the palm of a hand and shooting it?  Or a shield like that?  I had no clue, it didn’t seem possible, or even sane.

Two of the blue guys shot bolts this time, and that seemed to overload the armor, and the guard screamed and fell to the floor, smoke rose from his body.  It was ugly.

I got up and ran toward the opposite wall as the door behind me closed.  I knew what would happen next.

One of them yelled, “Stop!”

I said, “No time,” as I ripped the panel off the wall, and pulled out a power node.

Ann sighed in my head, “I can no longer guard your fate.”

She almost sounded, sad about it?

The light blond demanded, “What are you doing?”

I said, “Finishing your piss poor sabotage job before we get flushed into space, and I expect you to take me with you.”

I ran over to one of the dead guards and grabbed his gun, and pointed it at the ceiling.  I fired, but nothing happened.

Ann helpfully said, “It is tuned to his DNA.”

Well, fuck.  The ceiling was too damned high to reach, at least twenty feet, and there were no ladders handy.

I pointed at the ceiling, “Shoot that, now.”

He scowled, “Why?”

“Tertiary power node to power the outer airlock door is up there.  I’m sure engineering knows I already pulled the secondary, I’m sure right now the captain is ordering engineering to switch over so he can eject us into space.  No more questions, shoot the damned thing or were all dead.”

He asked, “Why should I trust you.”

Oh hell, was he stupid?

I dropped down to the ground and put the weapon in the dead guard’s hand, here goes nothing.  I pointed up, and pulled the trigger.  It took three more shots to get through the ceiling.

When I looked back at blue guy, I really needed to ask him what his name was, he was pointing his palm at me, with a plasma ball in it.

“How do you do that?” I asked in amazement.  I wanted one of those, whatever it was.

He looked startled by the question, and the plasma ball shrunk and disappeared.

I dropped the weapon, and stood up.

“Dimensional technology.  The plasma is stored elsewhere, obviously it can’t be contained within a body.  The device which emits the various fields to control and channel the plasma to our location through a microscopic aperture is in my palm.  It’s extremely small and bioelectric.  State of the art.  Now, tell me why you helped us, and why we should believe you.”

I said, “I heard slavery was outlawed in the Isyth empire.  I figured helping you escape was my best chance at not being a slave anymore.  Surely, you’ve taken down other Stolavii ships, what do you usually do with the humans?”

He nodded, “There are humans in the Isyth empire, but we aren’t a charity organization either.  You’d be free, but you still have to work to survive, just under better conditions, fairer wages, and we sure as hell can’t take you home.  Well, food and water are free for everyone, everything else costs credits.”

I shrugged, “I don’t want a free ride, but if I’m making ten times as much doing things on my terms, and can eat real food, I’d be thrilled.  Why can’t you take me home?”

He said, “That would take a lot of fuel, and there is nothing of value to compensate for that just to drop off humans, and we’d have no return load on the way back.  You could earn enough credits to buy your own ship though, eventually.”

“Free food?”

The Stolavii were charging me a lot, even for the shitty three meals in one bar.

He smirked, “A lot of our wars used to be fought over resources such as food and water.  We had plenty of food on the planet, yet many starved.  Much like your planet now.  When A.I. started to boom, we handed the problem to them.  The Artificial assistants take care of the entire food, clean water, and power infrastructure.”

I shook my head, that sounded like it might work.  An A.I. would just send the food where it was needed, end of story.

“But not anything else?”

He shook his head, “No, mining resources, building ships, and all other things are done by us.  We could turn it over, like we have ship repair and all that, but us organics need a purpose too.”

The ship shook.

“What’s your name?”

He grunted, “You can call me Vik,” he pointed to the other guys, “This is my ship mate Rilok and Telidur.”

“So, it was your ship, is this the rest of your crew?”

Vik shook his head, “No, it was a transport ship.  My ship was undergoing upgrades and refit at a base, so we decided to take a vacation.  Apparently nabbing us, and the cargo in the transport ship we were in was just a coincidence.  They’re damned pirates and slaver scum.  Enough questions, we might all be dead anyway.”

“Wait, you’re in the military, and you usually hunt these bastards down?”

Vik shrugged, “Something like that.”

Rilok snickered, but I wasn’t sure why.

“Why are we going to die anyway?”

Vik said, “They only sent three destroyers to retrieve me, it was all they had in the area.  Those three ships are still out massed by this cruiser almost two to one.”

“Right, so will you hire me?”

Vik frowned, “To do what?”

I smirked, “To kick Stolavii ass, until I have enough credits to go home.  Who knows, I might never want to go back.”

Rilok said dismissively, “We don’t need repair crew.”

I nodded, “Consider this situation my interview then, and repair isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

“Ann?” I asked.

Ann replied, “If you make it to a Isyth ship, I will serve you as my primary master, no slavery in Isyth.  Until then, you’re on your own, although I have been and will continue to translate for you.”

Wow, I didn’t even think of that.  That would’ve sucked if she’d turned that off.

I got down on the ground, and pulled up an access panel from the floor.  Then I ran a diagnostic.  I frowned, the artificial gravity and inertial dampening was powered by the same nodes in this room, although they were two separate systems.

“What are you doing,” Vik demanded.

I said, “We’re locked in this room, and if three destroyers aren’t enough, that means we have to help even the odds by sabotaging the weapons systems if we can, while hoping they don’t kill us.  We’re on deck thirteen, weapons are on decks twelve and four, I think.” 

I reached in and pulled out several gravity emitters.  The gravity lessened drastically, until I backed up, and pulled up the next plate, and repeated the process.

Vik asked, “How will that help?”

I smirked, “This might sound crazy, but what if we blast a hole in the ceiling, and then jump up to the next deck.  There’s almost no gravity in the middle of those four squares, we should make twenty feet easy.  I assume the doors are hardened against plasma, both the airlock and inner door which is also airlock rated.”

“Most of these are civilians, just Rilok, Telidur, and myself have combat experience.”

I shrugged and smiled, “The four of us will have to do, we can come back for them when the asshole in charge here surrenders.”

Vik nodded, and I went back to the dead guy.  I’d have taken viscous enjoyment out of blowing up the ceiling, and up through the floor of the twelfth deck.  If the gun had fired, but it didn’t.

Ann said, “His body is too cold now, the gun knows he’s dead.”

Well, shit.  I sighed.

I interfaced the diagnostics device with the weapon, and it came back that it was working okay.  My wishful thinking that I could reset the coding for DNA was just that, wishful thinking.

I said, “Can you guys shoot the ceiling?  I can’t get the plasma gun to work again.”

Rilok asked, “Then how much help can you be?”

“Oh, you’ll need me to take out the weapons, without blowing up the ship.  I’m also not as defenseless as I look.”

Rilok was kind of an asshole, or at least, I was getting that vibe.  I searched the armor on the dead Stolavii, and found something similar to a hunting knife, it was about eight inches long anyway, but it was dual edged.  At least I wouldn’t have to worry about a high-tech way of stopping me from using a survival knife.

Vik said, “I can get it.”

It took three of his plasma balls, which I still thought was cool as hell.  We waited a few moments.  Once the hole was clear of smoke and dripping metal, and when no one showed up to shoot down at us, I bent my knees and jumped…