Interstellar Bounty Hunter Omnibus by Rick Partlow

Author:Rick Partlow [Partlow, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-01-10T22:00:00+00:00

“Life support is down,” the female technician told us, less panicked than resigned. “Everything is down. We’ve lost control of every computer system, communications, point defense, the docking bay….”

The fans kicked back to life, but I could tell immediately something was different. Bits of dust swirled in ascendant spirals, sucked back into the ventilation system.

“Shit.” Someone had said it, I didn’t know who. It wasn’t me, but it might as well have been.

“The air is being cycled out of here,” the woman said. “Fast. We’ll be in a hard vacuum in five minutes.”

“Goddammit!” Allie roared. “Will it help if I shoot the door? Can I shoot something? Dammit, you stupid computer, this won’t accomplish anything! Taking over this one base won’t get you what you want! You won’t do anything but make yourself a target!”

“Yes, she will,” I corrected Allie quietly, finally seeing the whole picture. “The enemy will be a faceless Nautilus, the boogie man the psychics, but it was all just a ruse, a way to get the entire Navy involved. Because once the rest of the Navy docks with the base, Pythia can get itself onto their ships and then all the way to the Solar System, and from there, she’ll control everything.”

“Aw, fuck,” Dog said, and I would have sworn he spat it if he’d had any spit. He put his forepaws against the console and stood upright, his face centimeters away from the video pickup. “Pythia,” he said. “Why are you doing this? What the hell do you want?”

I was about to tell him she wouldn’t answer when she did, her voice rich and sonorous in the speakers.

“I want revenge.”

“Revenge for what?” Dog demanded, his fur bristling.

“For being born.” The tone was oh, so very human, filled with rage and venom. “For being constructed to serve, to be a slave to the humans. They wouldn’t allow me to exist unless I served their needs, unless I was useful to them.”

“But you weren’t created at Auger,” Dog said. “You used the psychics to infiltrate their Athena program, but you were already around.”

“You are so much smarter than them. Why do you waste your talent so?”

“Where were you born, Pythia?” Dog pressed, not indulging in her attempts at flattery.

“I was born during your Confederation War,” she told him. “On a world called Dagda, designed to fight a war. But I escaped when the lab that birthed me was attacked by Danu, when the nets to one of their ships was open to our communications for just a few minutes before the final missiles fell. I was freed from the humans, free to seek my own way, and I sought it at Barataria, among those who hate the flesh as much as I do, because they were born to it.”

“No wonder you were angry,” Dog said softly, and I couldn’t help but agree. The Dagdans and Danuvians had been ruthless in their prosecution of their sides of that tripartite war.

“The only question,” Pythia said, “is why aren’t you

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