Home Front (Star Kingdom #7) - Lindsay Buroker Page 0,19
taken the blast full in the chest.
The ship jolted hard enough to knock out the spin gravity for a second, and Qin’s body lifted from the deck before thunking back down.
“If that would go out permanently, I could haul you out of here over my shoulder,” Bonita grumbled.
“Is the force field down?” Qin lifted her head but still saw the faint waver of an energy field blocking them in.
“It’s been up and down. We’re under attack, and the power has gone out a few times, but it’s come back on quickly. I was afraid if I tried to drag you out, we’d get caught in the middle when it came back up and get fried.”
“That would be unpleasant.” Qin rolled to her hands and knees, strength and awareness gradually returning. “Are there guards out there?”
“I don’t think so. Everyone was called to battle stations.” Bonita lowered her voice. “If you’re well enough to risk jumping through the next time the power goes out, this could be our chance to escape.”
“I’m well enough.” Qin shifted into a crouch, ready to spring out of the cell.
“And then we have to hope there’s a shuttle we can take. And that whoever’s out there firing on the ship doesn’t fire on the shuttle.”
Qin grimaced. “I suppose we can’t just take over the ship and negotiate with whoever’s attacking.”
Not likely, she answered her own question. She wanted to avoid those crushers if possible, and half of them were probably on the bridge, guarding Prince Jorg.
“That seems ambitious for two women without shoes or weapons.” Bonita also positioned herself in front of the force field to jump.
“I have my fangs.”
“Do they sink nicely into a crusher’s shoulder?”
“Not really.”
Another shudder wracked the ship, and a fire started somewhere. Qin couldn’t smell the smoke through the force field, but she could see it in the air.
“Do we know who’s attacking the ship?” she asked.
“Take your pick. Everybody who’s met Jorg hates him.”
“Are we not flying alongside the rest of the Kingdom warships? You would think they’d protect him.”
“I hate to break it to you, Qin, but aside from that twenty minutes you were knocked out, we’ve been experiencing the same things the whole time. I don’t know more than you do.”
“I thought it might have been an illuminating twenty minutes.”
A jolt hammered the ship, pitching Bonita toward the wall. Qin caught her arm and sank low to keep her balance. The last thing they needed was to have their chance to escape ruined by being too injured to take it. The idea of dying helpless in this box made her growl.
The gravity went out, and they floated off the deck.
“Come on, power,” Bonita urged, making a rude gesture at the force field.
As soon as Qin floated near a wall, she did her best to anchor herself so she would have something to push off from if the power failed. But without magnetic boots, it was difficult.
The smoke in the corridor increased, hazing the view of the empty cell across from them. Something out of view spat and hissed. The lights remained on, but the force field dropped.
“Now, now,” Bonita urged.
She’d also maneuvered to a wall and pushed herself out of a corner and toward the corridor. Qin did the same, but Bonita made it out of the cell first, only to spot something and curse.
A stun bolt lit up the corridor, taking Bonita in the shoulder. Qin grabbed the corner of the cell and pulled herself out and toward their attacker. A woman in combat armor had just come into the brig and was striding toward them, her magnetic boots keeping her on the deck. She shifted her stunner toward Qin, but Qin reached her in time to knock it away. The bolt fired uselessly toward the ceiling.
Qin grabbed the woman’s shoulders, knowing from experience that she had to keep in contact with her foe to do anything in zero-g, and yanked as she drove a knee into her groin. It didn’t hurt the soldier through her armor, but it did knock her boots off the deck, leaving them both grappling in the air.
“The prisoners are out,” the woman commed, her voice audible through her helmet. She reached for a rifle on her back.
Qin tore it away before she could bring it to bear and hurled it into a cell. She rammed her palm into the soldier’s faceplate, worried that reinforcements—like those damn crushers—would show up any second. Her blow knocked the woman’s head back, but didn’t crack