The View from the Imperium by Jody Lynn Nye

Author:Jody Lynn Nye [Nye, Jody Lynn]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, General, Space Opera, Adventure, Fiction
ISBN: 9781439134306
Publisher: Baen Books
Published: 2011-04-05T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

I lay upon the floor of the small cubicle, trying not to move, listening to repulsor fire echoing off the metal floors. The smell of my sweat and everyone else’s combined with the sludge on my uniform to create a sickening stew. What feeble light we had came through the translucent floors around the carpet runners. We all inhaled as softly as we could. I had no idea that Croctoids had such sensitive hearing! The surviving members of the militia and my ship’s crew were piled haphazardly upon one another. It was difficult to breathe with Captain Chan and Bailly all but piled upon my chest. I didn’t dare chide them or nudge them off. No matter how little noise we made, the pirates heard it. The walls were perforated with holes—most of them small, the result of hot plasma drilling its way through the heavy, reinforced wall panels. Several of the militia had been wounded more by accident than design. I had left the injured in a corner room under the protection of Oskelev with two of the captured pistols, and continued on with the depleted force of soldiers, but the rooms into which we fled had progressively grown smaller and smaller as per my own design. It was meant to corral the pirates so they couldn’t move, but it was having precisely that action upon us. At the current state of crowding, we could not possibly defend ourselves. I peered sideways at my viewpad, propped against the wall next to my head, silently echoing the countdown to the next three-minute sequence.

I tapped Chan’s leg. Three, two, one—move!

As the wall behind me dropped down, the amorphous blob of soldiers rolled, scooted and crawled into the next enclosure like a frightened amoeba. To my relief, a hallway had opened up. I believed that the maze key now was right-left-right. I had been wrong before, and the chiding looks of my depleted force reminded me of that unhappy fact. Instead of triumphantly leading the enemy into a trap, we were the ones who were trapped, while the unbridled brutality of the pirate crew had been unleashed upon an innocent and harmless hotel ballroom. I winced as I beheld some of the scars and gouges on the fine décor. Sconces swung loosely on the wall or lay on the floor. Even the crystal floor had scars in it. The aesthetics of my soul were offended.

At least I still held the ace in this hand: the ship’s license. As long as I had it, the pirates must remain here on the station.

But it was a stalemate. They knew by now that we had no weapons to counter theirs. They were larger and stronger than we were. Our strength lay only in remaining out of reach, and that, I realized as I saw a man-sized hole blasted in the side wall of the hallway through which we crept, was becoming a less likely proposition all the time. We had to carry our wounded with us.

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