Vanquished Read Free

day.”
    Yuri arched a brow at the
bitterness in her tone but didn’t respond to it. He nodded, then looked at the doors and back at her. “How?”
    “If they use a phase weapon we’re
fucked. But I can’t think they’d be so stupid. It was probably one of the crew
who objected to being cut down, slaughtered.”
    “You think the crew…” Yuri’s face
paled even more and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.
    “I don’t think anything, really.
I don’t know anything. I’m trying to
make some educated guesses and make the appropriate choice to respond. I’m now
wondering if this deck shouldn’t abandon ship while there is still time.”
    “They’ll destroy the pods.” His
tone was colored with despair.
    “If they have anyone left on
their ship to do it, they will,” she agreed. “But they may all be on board
except for a skeleton crew, and if so can’t watch all the ejection points. Hard
to weigh the odds because we can’t be sure they are really pirates.”
    “Who else?” Yuri blanched. She knew he was
thinking again about the possibilities. Being captured and sold as a slave and
worked hard was one thing. There was always the chance of escape or a decent
life. His next statement confirmed her supposition that he wasn’t thinking
positive. “What if it’s the Juxtant?”
    “The Juxtant are scattered,” she
dismissed, willing another surge of bile back down. “The Home World and its
allies dealt with them, and the Shadalla are cleaning up the dregs.”
    “We can hope that’s all true,” he
muttered. “At least the Shadalla treats slaves well, and sometimes they
ransom—”
    “The Shadalla don’t buy slaves
anymore, Yuri.”
    “So the treaty says,” he agreed,
but with true Russian pessimism.
    A thud signaled the
arrival of the lift, cutting Yuri off before she could remind him he was lucky
he didn’t possess a vagina. As far as she knew, the Shadalla were primarily
heterosexual, although that was but a fleeting tidbit of information she’d
recalled. An understanding of the sexual proclivities of other species hadn’t
mattered back then. But now…the majority of the passengers on the ship were
female, and it was a damn good possibility someone had told the pirates that
very thing. She knew there were species who’d prefer
Yuri. A particularly nasty flash surged up from the guarded recesses in that
dark room in her brain, battered itself into oblivion, and she blinked back
into the present once again. Breathe.
Attend to your surroundings.
    She’d boarded this fucking ship
to avoid all the triggers, choosing civilian life after her discharge, and this
was so unfair—like life was fair. Neira felt her lip curl at her pathetic
musing. Best to get on with it.
    The dual panels of the lift
shuddered but didn’t part company as she motioned Yuri into position on the far
side of the conveyance. She supposed the doors were affected by the same issues
as the ones to the passenger quarters. A tiny slit manifested in the middle as
the business end of a blade poked through the joint. Neira moved swiftly,
bringing up her palka , and slammed
the blade back into the recesses of the door. She distinctly heard a foul curse
hard on the heels of her action.
    “What do you think they’ll do
next?” Yuri spoke in a hushed tone.
    “If I was on the other side of
the door I’d try a couple of blades at once and hope whoever beat back the
first attempt is alone, or got lucky.” She ran a finger down her weapon,
relieved that there wasn’t a mark.
    Her only supporter tried a smile,
totally at odds with the look of terror in his pale blue eyes. “I’ll do my
best.”
    “All I can ask, Yuri,” she
reassured him, blessing the faulty mechanics that were the only thing standing
between them and some very real nastiness. She didn’t tell Yuri that repairs
might already be underway, in which case the lift doors would fly open and
they’d be overwhelmed in an instant, because she’d never be