Galactic Frontiers: A Collection of Space Opera and Military Science Fiction Stories Read online

  It’s sealed shut. Dammit.

  As slowly as possible, she pulled the lever, and the door started to swing inwards. It would have potentially struck the door had she not blocked it with her hand. Inch by inch, Kirya moved out of the doorway and then froze. Directly ahead, and outside the door to the bridge, were two men. Equipped like the others, and both carrying long firearms, they were engaged in a conversation. They had little interest in looking back into the long passage. Then they stopped and straightened up just as figures emerged.

  Get back!

  She edged back through the door and pulled it shut. She made it to within a gap the size of her hand when it started to squeak. She instantly halted, her chest pounding. The figures moved closer, and now she could see the ship’s captain walking at the front, with four other men and a woman right beside him. The Captain dawdled and received a crack to the back of the head from a shotgun butt. He stumbled but was held up by the man that seemed to be the leader of the group.

  “Keep moving…Captain. We’ve got work to do. Engines on in the next hour, or you and your crew get to try swimming in space. Got it?”

  Kirya almost choked at hearing that. She froze for a second, but already knew what she had to do. She’d worked on counter piracy operations before, alongside the Confederate Marine Corps. And with most of those operations, the pirates considered the crews of the captured ships expendable.

  I need to keep them alive. And how do I do that? I make them valuable.

  She turned from the door, leaving the bridge far behind, and moved back into the service passage. The distant lights flickered on and off, yet for some reason this strange place now felt like home. She moved quickly, step by step through the crew habitation ring and into the main service shaft. The closer she made it to the centre of the ship, the lighter gravity became until finally she made it to the middle.

  Now what?

  The lights were on even that far inside the ship, and she reverted to using the many rungs to pull her way along. Travelling through zero-gravity was hardly something new to her. This was how most ships were designed, with only the more luxurious vessels putting effort into creating any level of artificial gravity. As she passed through the next set of emergency doors, she spotted a locker with signage to boots and protective gear. A gentle tap opened the unit, and she pulled out the sandal type shoes. She pulled them onto her feet, and they clunked securely to her boots.

  “This way,” said a distant voice, “Engineering is three compartments along, in the shielded…”

  Kirya double-checked they were behind her, and then carried on as quickly as the boots would allow her. Each time she lifted a foot, the unit would deactivate, but it would not do the same for the other foot until the first returned to the floor. Each step made a gentle thump sound that under normal circumstances would be relatively unimportant. But now, every single sound was one that could end her life. She reached another set of narrow transparent doors. Everything ahead was dark, and she could only hope the lighting would activate upon her entry. The panels separated, and she went inside.

  As the doors started to close, a shape leapt out from the shadows. She tried to jump out of the way, but the boots locked her in place. The floating figure crashed into her, sending both of them spinning through the interior of the passageway. The two tumbled for what seemed like an age before they crashed into the distant wall. They separated for a second, but before Kirya could recover, hands were around her neck.

  “Get…off me now. I’ll…”

  Kirya choked, and her vision began to fade. She shook her head and tried to pull away the arms. Another shape moved closer and joined in, so she was forced to fight dirty. First, she lifted one leg and struck the approaching assailant in the midriff. The figure grunted and floated away, still groaning. Kirya needed to deal with the one still holding her throat in a death lock. Ignoring every instinct, she released her hands and grabbed her attacker’s hands from the outside. She dug her fingers in deep and quickly gripped whatever she could get hold of. Her assailant’s grip was as solid as a rock, but she knew where to look for weakness. She found a small finger and locked on tightly. With merciless skill and timing, she pulled to the side, snapping two fingers in one fluid moment.

  “No!” screamed her attacker.

  The two separated, leaving Kirya gasping for breath. There were two figures in the darkness, and while the one nursed her broken finger, the other came in.

  “What do you want with me?”

  Kirya let her feet connect with the ground, and she formed up into a fighting stance. Her hands were out in front and a little above her waist. She could see both of them as her eyes adjusted to the light, and to her surprise they wore company uniforms. The woman with the broken finger popped it back into position, and Kirya cursed herself for merely dislocating, rather than snapping it clean at the bone.

  “Wait,” said the man, “They’re coming.”

  All three of them looked to the clear doors at the end of the passage where Kirya had just entered.

  “Hang on,” said Kirya, “You’re with the crew, right, not them?”

  She lowered her hands a little, indicating she didn’t want to fight, but keeping them ready just in case. There was a short pause as the group exchanged looks. Then the injured woman moved closer and examined Kirya carefully.

  “Who are you? You’re not part of the crew.”

  “Kirya, passenger on the ship.”

  “Why didn’t you leave with the others?”

  “I could ask you the same question. Why aren’t you prisoner along with the rest of the crew?”

  “What do you mean, the rest of the crew?“ said the young man she’d recently kicked in the stomach, “What have you heard?”

  Kirya’s eyes narrowed as she tried to assess the situation. Her gut instinct told her these two were telling the truth, so she lowered her arms and nodded towards the door.

  “I was up near the bridge and overheard them. Apparently, they have the rest of the crew in the brig. Ten I think they said.”

  “Ten, are you serious? Zhang, I told you I saw some of the lifeboats breaking apart. This is murder. We had over thirty crew on board. What happened to…”

  “Shut up, Weston. Let me do the talking.”

  Kirya’s vision improved by the second, and now she could see the crewman. She was in her mid-twenties, sporting short, dark hair and a pale complexion. A patch on her arm marked her as part of the senior crew, and the Hippocratic symbol confirmed her role.

  “We heard gunfire and found bodies in the crew rings. That’s why we came back here. My estimate is that most of the crew were sent off the ship, those that stayed were killed. We assumed it was a hostage situation.”

  Kirya listened, but she wasn’t ready to give up information. Not yet.

  “You’re the medic, right?”

  The woman Weston had called Zhang nodded.

  “Yeah, that’s right. I’m the ship’s medic. Zhang Wei. And these guys coming for us, do you know who…”

  “Mercenaries, probably pirates.” Kirya interrupted before she could finish, “And they’re heading for engineering.”

  Weston stepped forward, his boots clunking away.

  “Engineering. They want to get the engines back online, right?”

  Kirya nodded.

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, makes sense. They probably want to take the ship somewhere else. Maybe steal the cargo, or just sell or scrap the ship. Then again, they could always…”

  His voice trailed off. Leaving them all in the dark as to what he was thinking. Zhang tilted her head to one side, clearly not quite sure the direction Weston’s thoughts were heading.

  “Would you like to explain?”

  Weston shook his head.

  “Yes, but not now. We need to get there first. Come on!”

  Without waiting to see what the other two did, the young man deactivated his boots and pushed off into the hull, further towards the rear of
the ship. Zhang did the same, leaving Kirya on her own. She hesitated, but then the sound of the advancing mercenaries caught her ears.

  Just do it!

  A heeltap and a short push, and she was away. Luckily zero-g training was compulsory in the Army, even if only covered in cursory detail. Only the Marines spend months working on that kind of combat. She hurtled through the passage and the next door without making a sound or touching the side walls. For the next minute, they inched their way further until they reached the sealed engineering deck. It was a restricted space, with three separate compartments joined together. A large intercooler unit was in the middle, as well as multiple computer systems. Pipes ran from the ceiling to the floor.

  “Now what?”

  Zhang looked back at her, and now that they were in a better lit room, Kirya could see her more clearly. The woman was younger than her, and though a little worse for wear after their ordeal, there was something aesthetically attractive about her face. Zhang caught her staring, and for a second seemed almost embarrassed. She looked back to Weston and tapped his shoulder.

  “Well?”

  “I’ll start a series of cooling failures. It will be slow, but in less than five hours the engines will be offline, and there’s nothing they can do about it. Starlighter won’t be going anywhere without spending some time in spacedock.”

  “Good. Now cut the lights.”

  Without waiting to check, Weston hit the controls, and the lights dimmed slowly. Within seconds the place was in darkness, save for the gentle glow coming from the screens, flashing controls, and warning buttons. It was enough to make out their shapes, but little else. Kirya was about to speak when she heard something nearby, a mixture of footsteps and talking. Then the sound stopped, and she heard the unmistakable sound of a firearm safety being clicked off. Kirya lifted a hand to her mouth, indicating they needed to be quiet.

  “They’re coming. How do we get out?”

  Zhang looked about for another hatch, but Weston knew the area best. He pushed up towards the ceiling and hung from the metal plating like a spider. Once there, he pulled on several levers until the hatch clunked down a few degrees.

  “Did you hear that?” said an angry voice.

  They turned to watch as a beam of light penetrated the adjoining room. She reached to her side as though she’d find a weapon, but there was nothing there. She turned her gaze to the central compartment of the three in this part of the ship. Cases were fitted to the walls, but what interested her more was the selection of wrenches and other pieces of equipment attached via magnetised clips. A single fire extinguisher sat there.

  “Get out of here. I’ll keep an eye on them.”

  Weston hesitated, but not Zhang. The young women pushed up to the ceiling, pulled on the hatch, and thrust herself up into the blackness. She vanished for a second but reappeared and reached out to grab the others.

  “Come on!”

  Weston looked back to Kirya.

  “I don’t think it…”

  Kirya ripped a bright red fire axe from the mounting on the wall and then nodded towards the confused looking engineer.

  “If you can fight, stay. Otherwise get the hell out of here.”

  This time Weston pushed up to the ceiling, and Zhang tugged at him to help him through. Kirya proceeded to chase after them but stopped as a figure passed through the first compartment. Little more than a pair of bulkheads separated the two rooms, so she waited in silence, while the hatch pulled almost completely shut just behind her. She looked down at the axe.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Interplanetary Liner ‘Starlighter’

  Kirya gripped the axe and took in a series of slow breaths. The weapon felt powerful in her hands, and the weightless nature of the lump of metal only made that easier. The thought of facing down guns with it didn’t fill her with much optimism, though.

  “Excellent,” said a hidden figure, “Hold up.”

  There was a short pause as one of them spoke quietly with another over their communications gear. Then another short pause, and somebody complained. Kirya knew the sound of fear, and that was exactly what was in the man’s breathing.

  “Okay, Captain. Do your stuff. I won’t ask again.”

  It sounded like there was a struggle going on, followed by a thud. Then she gasped as a gun went off. Firearms were always loud. But this close, and in an enclosed area, the weapon sounded like a cannon. She couldn’t hear the voices over the echoing sound, and by the time it cleared, she heard a man panting in the adjoining room.

  “There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  Again there was a pause, and then the man spoke again.

  “So, we’ve got engineering control, life support, and navigation. In short, we have the ship. Correct?”

  Another voice muttered a feeble answer, and right then Kirya knew what was going to happen. She gripped the axe and braced herself for the fight. Instead of the awful sound, she felt a shudder through the metal hull of the ship.

  The engines, they’ve got them back online.

  “So it appears it’s time for you and your crew to experience life in the cold,” said the leader of the group.

  “Wait…you promised that…”

  The man’s voice was silenced by the shrill bang of a firearm. There was no thud of a body, one of the odd consequences of zero-gravity. To her surprise none of them came in farther and stayed in the first compartment. She moved closer to the edge and peeked around the corner. There they were, the small group that had boarded the ship, as well as the leader. He was bald, with a hard, cold expression showing at all times. Kirya had met his type before and knew he’d have no qualms about killing them all to get what he wanted.

  What do I do? I can’t reach the ceiling hatch without being spotted, and fighting my way out will be impossible. I could take some of them with me, but I have absolutely no interest in dying aboard this ship.

  Her decision was made for her as the leader grumbled.

  “Wait a second. What’s going on with the temperature?”

  There was a moment of quiet, and then another spoke. His voice was drowned out by a large bang, and then an eruption of steam in the room. Kirya thought this must be her chance, but just as she made to move, the steam cleared.

  “Uh…there’s a fault further inside the ship. Somebody must have put a bullet through one of the vents. Maybe one of your guys…The engines are still offline.”

  “Watch your mouth, son.” His tone dripped with menace.

  “My people took the ship, and without a drop of blood being spilt. We’ve done our part. And now it’s time for you to do yours. Now…can you get us to the Flying Dragon in forty-eight, no, forty-seven hours. Because right now, we’re losing a lot of time.”

  He pointed to a display at the side of the room.

  “According to this, our decaying orbit is throwing us away from our objective and right into trouble. Is that what you want?”

  There was sudden silence, and Kirya instantly became convinced they must be looking towards her.

  “Any longer and we’ll have the Navy on our asses. You know there’s a reason we’re avoiding that shipping lane, right?”

  There was a loud thud, and she suspected one of the men was up against a wall.

  “And if that happens, I’m feeding you to them. Got that?”

  “Yeah… Branko. I’ve got that.”

  “Good. Now, check out these engines and get me back on course. I want the cargo in the hold of the Dragon, every single metric tonne of the stuff.”

  Two shadows stretched out along the floor. Kirya slowly positioned her feet against the wall, ready to burst across the space in a fraction of a second. The shadows grew larger still, and then they were inside. Both men were heavily armed, holding shotguns out in front of them. They moved with little real concern, and neither spotted Kirya as she pushed away. The zero-gravity allowed her to drift at speed, albeit it with no control once airborne. She struck the first man with the ax
e at the back of the head, knocking him out cold, before the two slammed into the wall. A voice boomed out from the adjacent compartment.

  “What’s going on?”

  Kirya tore the thermal shotgun from the unconscious man and swung it around to face the others. The remaining man in the compartment fumbled with his own firearm, and then lifted it up.

  “Don’t do it,” said Kirya.

  The man hesitated, and then made the fatal mistake. As he pulled on the trigger, Kirya fired. At this range the super-heated spray of shot hurled the man across the room and back to his comrades. Kirya activated her boots, stepping out into the open so that she could see the other pirates. She took aim and fired four more times. Each sent a streak of shot into the space, and they quickly scattered. They might outnumber her, but unlike them, she was an experienced combat veteran and knew exactly how to put the fear of god into them.

  “Up here!” Zhang yelled.

  Kirya looked back as the first bullets crashed towards her. They were wild shots as the pirates scattered to cover while firing back. It was blind panic fire, but she knew from experience that with enough shots there was a chance one would hit her. If she were injured, it would all be over.

  Move!

  She took aim and loosed off three more, quickly sending her assailants further back into the ship. She deactivated the clip-on boot plates and floated up towards the hatch. Zhang tugged her inside, and as quickly as it had begun, she was through the gap and in the ceiling. Gunshots ripped into the floor, punching large holes in the metal plating. The thermal shotguns left the edges of the metal burning.

  “Run!”

  The three of them ran, slid, and floated as they travelled through the ship and into a series of barely lit shafts. It was more difficult than before due to the increasing forward velocity that created something close to half normal gravity. Luckily, the ship was designed in such a way that the walls of the shafts could function as floors. These were much narrower than on other parts of the ship, and only with great care could they avoid being bruised or cut as they worked their way back. When all sound of their enemy had faded, they finally stopped. Kirya’s breathing was heavy, as was Zhang’s, but Weston was barely able to breathe. They waited for several seconds until he began to calm down.