Surge (The Emberling Book 3) by Daniel Young

Surge (The Emberling Book 3) by Daniel Young

Author:Daniel Young [Young, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-03-25T16:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER 8

Tate halted in front of the hatch, stuck his rifle through the breach, and fired in all directions inside the Sleepwalkers’ vessel. Plasma ignited inside and bounced off the walls and bulkheads. The noise crashed through the ship, and then everything fell dead quiet.

Tate and Taggart exchanged glances. Tate stepped forward to move through the breach. Taggart couldn’t let his brother go in there alone, so they crossed the threshold at the same instant.

Taggart swiveled back to back with Tate, and they aimed their rifles in opposite directions. Nothing. Taggart faced a short corridor that ended in a cockpit, but that couldn’t be the whole extent of the ship. There had to be more.

He whispered over his shoulder. “It’s all clear this way.”

Tate took a step away. “Come on.”

Taggart backed up, covering every possible angle where the Sleepwalkers might ambush him, but he still didn’t see anything. He couldn’t hear anything, either. The Sleepwalkers were keeping very quiet.

Taggart didn’t like this at all, but he wasn’t about to leave without the Emberling. Tate halted, and Taggart joined him in front of another door. The brothers shared another nod, and then Tate slid the door aside.

Sure enough, lightning from a dozen rocket shafts blasted through the instant he opened it. Taggart dove one way and Tate dove another. Taggart pumped his rifle through the door without bothering to aim at anything.

He hunkered against the wall and kept his head down while lightning crackled all over the place. The plasma from his and Tate’s rifles combusted in the doorway. The explosions blocked the lightning from getting through and hitting the brothers, or else they would have gotten fried for certain.

The gunfire cut out for a split second. Taggart squeaked one eye open just long enough to see another cadre of Kaxons defending a different passage winding deeper into the ship.

They aimed their rocket shafts at Tate and Taggart, and another volley of traded fire obliterated all else for a moment. That one instant of calm gave Taggart a clear view of a large compartment beyond. A different cockpit-style setup covered the back wall. The Sleepwalkers must be able to control this ship from multiple locations.

Three Kaxon pilots worked over the controls. They must be trying to repair their ship, or maybe their communications system, and Taggart didn’t see any other way out of here.

He had to stop the Sleepwalkers from alerting their people to their location. He and his crew would be doomed if more Sleepwalkers showed up while he and his friends were on this planet.

He lunged into the open, hurled his rifle at the Kaxons, and yelled out, “Tate—fire!” Taggart flung himself across the passage to flatten himself against the opposite wall while he scrambled to get one of his other weapons into position.

Tate saw in a split second what Taggart meant to do and took aim at the rifle soaring toward the Kaxon line. Tate jerked away from the wall and fired directly at the gun.

The plasma canister detonated inches from the Kaxons’ position, and Tate and Taggart charged.



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