At Empire's Edge Read Free

without being caught in the back blast.”
    “So?” Sivio wanted to know. “What can I do to help?”
    Hong took comfort from Sivio’s calm, unflinching manner. If her extremely unorthodox plan was to succeed, it would depend on Sivio and the men and women under his command. “Once we close with the Vords, the battle will turn into an exchange of broadsides, and given the fact that they mount more guns than we do, the outcome is nearly certain. Unless we can come alongside, blow their lock, and board! The only trouble is that we don’t carry any combat troops—and my crew will be very busy.”
    The Umana shook violently, and Sivio was forced to hang on to the railing as something hit the screens, and they flared brightly. “Meaning that you want my team to fight its way onto the Vord ship?”
    “That’s right,” Hong confirmed. “Will you do it?”
    “We’ll try,” Sivio said grimly. “Assuming you’ve got someone who can blow that lock.”
    “I do,” Hong replied. “Get your people into space armor and take them to the main lock. A weapons tech named Raybley will be there to meet you.”
    Then, turning to Umbaya, the naval officer gave an order. “Turn the ship into the enemy, and accelerate. Even if we die, we’re going to take some of those ugly bastards with us!”
     
     
    Having no reason to look like anyone other than himself, Verafti had reverted to what the Sagathi thought of as his true form. Like all his kind, the shape shifter had a vaguely triangular skull that narrowed to an abbreviated snout and a mouth filled with razor-sharp teeth. His green lizardlike body was humanoid, and covered with iridescent scales, which offered good camouflage within the thick foliage of Sagatha’s equatorial jungles, an extremely dangerous environment where his race’s ability to morph from form to form enabled them to survive and eventually rise to sentience.
    Now, as Sivio, Cato, and two sections of heavily armed Xeno Corps variants marched past on their way to the main lock, Verafti rattled the bars on his cell in an effort to get their attention. Though he was not privy to Hong’s plan, the fact that his jailers were dressed in space armor told Verafti everything he needed to know. “Take me with you!” Verafti demanded loudly. “You know what I’m capable of. I’ll rip their guts out!” The words had a sibilant sound, reminiscent of the so-called hiss speech that the Sagathies spoke to each other.
    Sivio knew that much was true, but he was also aware that once free, the carnivore would kill everyone if he could, which was why two of his most reliable officers had been detailed to guard the prisoner.
    For his part, Cato was thinking about the job ahead. It was a task that none of them were trained for but which he likened to entering an urban structure occupied by well-armed criminals. They faced a very dangerous room-by-room clearing process in which the defenders would have a distinct advantage. This was an unsettling thought and one he was determined to ignore.
    Technician Raybley was waiting for the police detachment when it arrived at the lock. His voice was clearly male, but his face was invisible behind a visor, and, like the rest of the Umans’, his body was sealed in a suit of space armor. The police officers could “sense” his personality, however, and all of them took comfort from Raybley’s calm persona. Cato felt a sudden jolt and struggled to keep his feet as the Umana ’s NAVCOMP spoke. “Hull-to-hull contact has been made. . . . The boarding party has entered the lock. . . . All crew members will don their helmets and lock them down in case of a partial or full decompression.”
    Cato felt a sudden emptiness at the pit of his stomach as he and his companions were sealed into what could turn into a communal coffin, and the air was systematically pumped out of the Umana ’s lock. Then it was time to question everything that could be questioned, including Cato’s decision to