the Glasnax.
A gauntleted fist punched toward her stomach. Qin managed to shift aside, only catching a glancing blow, but without armor of her own, it stung like a dagger thrust and almost knocked her away.
She managed to keep her grip on the soldier and shoved her head against the wall. Her faceplate thwacked against it. Qin dug one of her claws into a seam in the armor, trying to rip it open. Her claws were like steel, but armor was tougher than steel. Growling, Qin slammed the woman’s faceplate against the wall again.
An elbow came back, catching her in the stomach. Qin snarled through the pain and scooted closer, wrapping her arms around her foe’s armored neck. The soldier tried to twist away. Her armor made her stronger than usual, but Qin was stronger still. She squeezed hard enough that the neck piece groaned and finally cracked.
The woman got her boots against the wall and shoved backward. They sailed across the corridor, and Qin’s back struck the opposite wall. The soldier twisted and punched toward her face. Qin let go and ducked below the blow, then brought her legs up, jammed her feet against her foe’s waist, and pushed off down the corridor. She floated past the unconscious Bonita and grasped the stunner where it dangled in the air.
The lights went out. A few indicators glowing on a panel near the door gave Qin’s feline night vision enough to work with, and she turned and aimed at her target. The soldier was pulling herself along the wall, trying to get into the cell where her rifle floated. Qin fired at her cracked neck piece, though she worried the breach wouldn’t be enough to matter. The woman’s momentum carried her into the cell and out of sight.
Qin’s socked foot clunked against a wall, and she used the leverage to push off. If the woman got that rifle, she could kill Qin and Bonita.
But the stun had done just enough. When Qin rounded the corner, she found the soldier floating unmoving in the air near the rifle.
Another jolt coursed through the ship. Qin grabbed the weapon and Bonita, and maneuvered up the corridor toward the exit, but she paused. Should she try to remove the soldier’s armor? It looked like it might fit Bonita.
No, they would be better off finding their own. If they had any luck at all, it would be in a closet in the brig.
As Qin searched, she also looked for oxygen tanks. Who knew what would go out next on the ship?
“Is there any chance of us coming up with a vaccine?” Dr. Sikou asked dubiously, eyeing the display full of virus details and Kim’s notes on the modifications that the deceased Scholar Sunflyer had made. “Based on how difficult it was to immunize against the original version of the virus…”
“Odin would have to have the vaccine and plenty of time to implement it, yes,” Kim said. “And what we can do here is unfortunately limited. I’m running hypothetical tests on computerized simulations, not a live virus. But I do have all of Scholar Sunflyer’s notes. I was able to download his data both from Dubashi’s base and also from his lab on Stardust Palace. My main goal is to send a thorough study to private and government infectious-disease laboratories back home as soon as the gate here is operable again. Transmissions fly faster than spaceships, so there’s some hope they would have time to come up with something, especially if the Fleet can find Dubashi and detain him here. Or stop him altogether.”
Kim glanced at the door as someone walked in, but it was a nurse. She kept expecting Lieutenant Meister to return and force the issue of drugging her for questioning, which could get ugly, since two of Casmir’s new crushers were stationed nearby with orders to protect her.
With luck, the ship’s officers were too worried about the prince right now to pester her. The deck vibrated as the engines worked hard to take the Osprey to help the Chivalrous.
“I can’t say I’m sad that you don’t have a Petri dish of the virus in your pocket,” Sikou said.
“I wish Dubashi didn’t either.”
Kim had been so close to thwarting him. If only she’d had a little more time.
A message alert popped up on her chip, and she barely held back a groan. Rache.
Greetings, Scholar Sato. Do you have a minute?
I shouldn’t be speaking with you. Intelligence here caught your last message. Kim wondered how far away