Home Front (Star Kingdom #7) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,120

the faceplates between them, Qin couldn’t yet tell which one.

She opened the hatch, revealing numerous familiar faces, then stepped back with her hands raised. As much as she would have liked to hug her sisters, she had no doubt some of the pirates had come along and were behind them in the airlock tube.

Twelve of her sisters tramped in, all wearing combat armor, all pointing their weapons at Qin. All save one.

Mouser stopped in front of her—she’d always favored pale-green bows in her hair, and one dangled into view behind her faceplate—her weapon on a strap rather than in her grip. Her gauntleted hands were clasped behind her back.

Qin was about to say something, but twelve more people strode into the cargo hold, pirates in a hodgepodge of gray, blue, and black armor. One of the Druckers’ teams.

“You are alone?” Mouser looked around the hold.

If she hadn’t been wearing a helmet, she might have smelled the lingering scents of other people, but the armor would hinder that sense for her as much as it did for Qin.

“There are others on the ship,” Qin said.

“Where’s this supposed slydar detector?” one pirate asked.

“And any other valuables you’ve got,” another said.

“As long as we get the valuable we came for.” That was Groggins. He pointed at Qin and grinned.

Her stomach twisted as their eyes met and memories of the past flooded into her mind again.

Several of the men chuckled at Groggins’ stupid joke. Qin glanced uneasily at her sisters as she got the first inkling that things weren’t going according to plan—the pirates shouldn’t have known she was here. They should have been shocked to see her.

“Sorry, Squirt.” Mouser removed her hands from behind her back and showed a ball that could expand into an incredibly strong energy net. It looked identical to the one the pirates had used to capture Qin back on Death Knell Station.

She stared instead of reacting, too stunned to accept that instead of setting her own trap, she’d been lured into one by the pirates. By the pirates and her own clone sisters.

“Qin?” Asger’s voice came softly over the comm helmet. He didn’t seem to quite get what was happening either. Or maybe he didn’t know if he should jump out and attack her sisters.

That one is Groggins, she told Asger silently, glaring at the pirate. And I believe we’re betrayed. I’m sorry.

“They’ve wanted you back for a long time,” Mouser explained as the others spread out around Qin, “and when they learned you were also trapped in this system…”

“There are knights in here,” one of the men barked.

Bjarke sprang out from his hiding place, firing toward the pirates. Asger rushed out and targeted Qin’s sisters. His DEW-Tek bolts slammed into Mouser’s armored back.

Qin recovered from her surprise and was ready when Mouser flung the ball. Qin leaped into the air and over the heads of those gathered around her, hoping the net would unravel and catch one of her sisters instead.

But Mouser was as good as she was and anticipated the maneuver. The ball clipped Qin’s boot, and the energy net unfurled with lightning speed, crackling as it wrapped around her lower half.

She landed with a grunt, flopping onto her side since her legs were bound and stuck together. Even with all her strength and the additional strength from her armor, it wasn’t enough to break the net, a tool designed to detain even cybernetically enhanced and armored soldiers.

Qin opened fire from the deck, aiming at the damn pirates—aiming at Groggins—while avoiding Bjarke and Asger. Bjarke had engaged the pirates, and Asger was trying to fight his way to her, but they were outnumbered. When would the crushers jump in to help?

Two of her sisters dropped atop her, trying to tear away her rifle. Qin snarled as she fought them, hardly believing they were loyal to the pirates—to their slavers and rapists. If she could defeat the men, her sisters would back away and go with her, happy to be rescued. That letter from Mouser couldn’t have all been a lie, could it?

Powerful hands gripped her helmet. Trying to tear it off, Qin realized. They wanted to stun her, to knock her out, so they could drag her back to that prison of a life with the Druckers. No. God, no. She thrashed and fought her captor. After the freedom she’d had this last year, she couldn’t go back to that life. No way.

She punched backward, connecting with her assailant’s faceplate. Her gauntleted fist struck it like