enemy battleship, surrounded by people I’d been lying to. I thought of Hesho and Morriumur as my friends, but they would kill me in a heartbeat if they knew what I was.
Status update, the drone suddenly sent, the words tapping out on my wrist. It is probable I have been detected.
A set of warning alarms suddenly rang through the ship. Aya the kitsen cut off, and the rest of my flight stood up, shocked by the sudden sound.
What? I typed to the drone. Explain!
Before I could exit the engine room, I tripped some sort of alarm, the drone sent. Multiple engineers search. I have not escaped into the hallway. I will soon be discovered.
Scud! Though we’d tried to remove any identifying features on the drone parts, M-Bot had little doubt that the device—if detected—could be traced back to Alanik.
Scudscudscudscudscud.
Orders? the drone sent to me.
A plan popped into my mind. A terrible plan, but it was the only thing I could come up with while under so much pressure.
Able to reach destructor pistol strapped to you?
Yes. Service arms can reach weapon.
Turn off safety, I sent. Remove tape. Hold pistol in front of you. Start pulling trigger.
32
I expected an argument. M-Bot would have argued, but this drone wasn’t him. It wasn’t a true AI, and so could follow my instructions without thinking of the implications.
We felt the series of blasts, small though they were, from our room. The other pilots began to murmur nervously.
Keep shooting, I sent to the drone. Avoid being destroyed.
Affirmative.
The warning sirens turned frantic, and a voice piped over the PA, reverberating outside our jump room as well. “There are hostile forces in Engineering! Number unknown, but they’re firing!”
Another set of blasts sounded from nearby. Here we go, I thought. “We’re under attack!” I shouted to the other pilots. I leaped from my seat, swinging my pack onto my shoulder. “We need to go help!” I said, throwing open the door, and scrambled out into the hallway.
Though Morriumur sat stunned in their seat, Hesho needed no other confirmation. He shouted, “Kitsen! To arms!”
A swarm of furry little warriors on hoverplatforms zipped out into the hallway to join me.
“Wait!” Vapor’s voice said from the room. “I’m sure that the local guards can handle this!”
I ignored her, barreling down the hallway. As I’d hoped, the solitary guard at the intersection to Engineering had taken cover by the wall, and was calling on her comm for backup. The Krell talked tough, but the truth was, this ship’s crew had probably never been in combat before.
“I can help,” I said to the guard. “But I’ll need a gun.”
Another series of blasts sounded from down the hallway. The Krell guard looked toward them, then back at me. “I can’t . . . I mean . . .”
A part of me was really satisfied to see how her tough persona fell away once the shooting started. I waved my hand impatiently, and the guard took out her sidearm—a small destructor pistol—and handed it to me. Then she raised her larger rifle and nodded.
“Hesho, guard this hallway,” I said. “Don’t let anything suspicious escape through it!”
“Order confirmed!” Hesho said, and the kitsen platforms formed up like a wall behind us.
The Krell guard, to her credit, stood up and started down the hallway. She made a sharp cutting motion with her fingers—a kind of Krell version of Here we go. Then we passed beneath the large sign on the wall proclaiming that we’d entered Engineering.
I’d spent weeks trying to figure out a way to get down here, and I followed the guard with a rising sense of excitement. We turned down another hallway, and I was hit with the scent of lemons. Maybe a cleaning crew had been through recently? On the wall was a sign: NO NONESSENTIAL PERSONNEL ALLOWED. SECURITY CLEARANCE 1-B REQUIRED.
The blasts were coming from a door a little farther down, but the guard stopped and turned to me.
“You aren’t allowed in the room,” she told me. “It’s against clearance rules.”
“Is that more important than protecting the engineering crew?”
The guard actually gave it some thought, then said, “We should wait. Security details are up on deck four for special duty, but they should be here soon. All we need to do is make sure that whoever is in there doesn’t escape.”
I tried to go ahead, but the guard gave me a firm gesture of forbiddance, palm out, so I settled down by the wall, holding my pistol. I set my pack on the ground.