“I’ll be damned,” muttered the woman with the gun. “For the fight you put up, the inside of your boat is the saddest piece of junk I’ve seen.” She glanced at the remnants of her crew and, Auri noticed with satisfaction, frowned. The woman caught Auri’s gaze on her and shrugged as if unbothered. “There’s more where they came from.”
Auri and Birdie had killed a quarter of the boarding pirate crew and disabled another. The man still whimpered over his broken wrist. Only the two women seemed fine, though Auri reminded herself the number of pirates aboard the ship was a mystery.
“Graham, search this miserable lump of metal,” the woman commanded, crinkling her scarred nose. “Better pray to whatever listening gods there’s something of value here since you demanded we stop.”
Graham clenched his jaw but was quick to obey, holding his injured wrist tight against his body. He proceeded to toss the mattress of her bed to the floor, rip apart the leather of the pilot’s chair, and clamber down into the escape pod, emerging with her rucksack. He dumped the contents of the bag onto the floor, eyes searching for anything valuable. Unless the pirates were after MREs and fresh vegetables, they’d be disappointed.
Meanwhile, the two women watched Auri. The scarred woman, likely the captain, kept her gun trained on Auri’s forehead. Auri attempted to scan the pirates’ barcodes, but they all wore black leather cuffs around the skin where the code would’ve been.
A snorting laugh from the other woman made Auri grit her teeth. She had knelt to rifle through the MREs with tattooed fingers. Her braided hair slithered over her shoulders like snakes as she stood.
“There’s nothin’ of value. Unless you count this.” She waved the MREs for emphasis. “Waste of time. Wouldn’t you agree, G?”
The captain raised one brow at Graham. “I told you this was one of those bounty hunter boats. They never carry anything worth boarding over.”
Auri bristled at bounty hunter but kept silent. If they detached the staff of their harpoons and left the spikes, she might be able to fly the ship to Kaido. It would be dicey if the autopilot was damaged, but at least she’d be alive. The last thing she wanted to do was annoy—
Her plans shattered as she noticed Graham eyeing her with growing interest. He cradled his wrist tight to his chest, the joint a swollen mass of flesh. As he drew closer, his gaze fixed on her earring.
Auri felt as if the floor had dropped out from under her. No, no, no…
“I see somethin’ of value,” he drawled, voice twanging with a familiar accent.
The man on the radio. It had been him.
As if he could read the terror in Auri’s eyes, a sneer spread across a face she might have otherwise described as handsome. He sauntered up to her, catching the dangling metal flower with a finger. She flinched at his closeness. “It looks like real gold. Maybe even a speck a’ diamond. Worth a few hundred creds at least.” He leaned in close as he examined it, the scent of engine fuel a cloud around him.
“No.” Auri heard her voice from faraway as if it didn’t belong to her. The raw submission, the fear she heard in it, repulsed her. “Please. I have credits. I’ll transfer them all to you.”
“So the Fed can track us?” The woman crossed her arms. “Nah.” She inclined her head the Auri’s disc, still trapped in the shuttle wall. “That worth somethin’?”
The captain shook her head. “Not to us. Can’t even be melted down. But grab the dagger, Kei. I left mine in some sod’s gut on our last boarding.”
Kei hurried to obey.
“Graham, get the piece of kuso already,” the captain snapped. “And hope some Medea hawker finds value in it.”
Graham grinned at Auri with anticipation and leaned forward. He grabbed the earring in his good hand—
And ripped it out.
Pain seared through Auri’s ear and seemed to lance down her neck. She bit her cheek to suppress a scream. Tears burned her eye, and hot blood oozed down her jaw and collarbone, staining the white bow on her uniform. Birdie growled low in her throat, claws scraping along the floor.
“Stay,” Auri rasped, praying Birdie obeyed. The dog didn’t move, but the growl continued to rumble in her chest. The captain eyed Birdie but didn’t shift her gun away from Auri.
Graham dangled the earring in front of her. Chunks of skin and clotted blood stuck to the delicate chain. “For my wrist.” He flicked her torn ear as he stepped away. She hissed.
The captain lowered the gun and called over her shoulder. “Yo, busu, get in here and get these corpses on ice. We’ll hit up the organ stall.”
The Japanese insult made Auri hold her breath. Busu was what Ty had named his DISC dog. The necklace hidden under her collar seemed to burn her skin. Was the chain visible? She’d already lost the most important thing to her, other than Birdie. The thought of losing Ty’s necklace too…
Two more crew members, both men, squeezed through the door. It was obvious why they’d stayed out of the initial assault. They both cradled a broken arm apiece and sported facial cuts that gave the impression they’d been on the wrong side of an explosion. Together they hauled the bodies through the doors while Kei picked through the MREs.
The captain’s attention shifted to Birdie. She ran her fingers along her scar while clicking her tongue. Finally, she shrugged. “Kei, get the dog. We might be able to sell it for something. The hide at least.”
“No!” Auri hurled herself at the captain. She slammed into the woman, and they crashed to the floor. The gun spiraled out of reach. Auri slammed her robotic fist into the woman’s face. Bone cracked against her knuckles.
The click of a hammer being cocked reached Auri’s ears. A coilgun. She opened her mouth to give Birdie an attack command.
Something flashed in the captain’s hand, and Auri leapt back, but too late. The laser knife cut deep into her synthetic forearm, grating against the metal bone hidden underneath. Auri cried out in surprise as the wires sparked. An alert shot across her vision, the cyborg half of her brain reporting the malfunction.
She fell back, the fingers of her robotic hand twitching as she struggled to move them. She barely registered the gun Kei had trained on her, the pirate’s eyes wide in panic.
“Clank.” Kei spat at the floor in front of Auri. “I’ll put a bullet in your brain.”
“Don’t touch her.” The captain shoved herself upright, spitting crimson out of her mouth. The gun was back in her hand. “She’s mine.” She staggered over to Auri, the woman’s face so close she could smell the sweat on her skin. “Normally I take your kind to the Market. Your parts sell for a pretty piece of cred. But no one—no one—hits me. You can keep your bitch.” Globs of blood and saliva sprayed across Auri’s face as the woman spat on her. “Suck space air, clank.” The captain raised the handle of the gun and slammed it into the side of Auri’s head.
Pain blasted through her skull. Dots exploded across her vision, multiple alerts flashing and disappearing, flashing and disappearing. She blinked. The pirates’ forms swam as they turned to go. The door shut behind them with a clang. Suddenly Birdie was at Auri’s side, against orders, whining and licking at her face.
Sensory inputs came in waves of intense feeling and then blackness. Cold. Something cold pressed against her cheek. She realized with sluggish alarm that she had hit the floor.
When? When had she fallen over? She tried to open her eyes, but her right eye was sealed shut by something sticky. Her fingers trembled as she brought them to her temple. Blood smeared her skin. So much blood. The urge to vomit spasmed her stomach.
The shuttle shuddered. A metallic scream sliced through the walls. It took Auri too long to realize what was happening. The harpoons…
“Warning, hull breach,” a female voice said over the shuttle’s speakers. “Oxygen levels, eighty-five percent... Seventy percent...”
Auri wanted to lie down, close her eyes, and open her lungs to the emptiness of space. What was the point anymore?
Birdie’s bark sent another wave of nausea through her. Birdie. Auri had to get Birdie out. She swallowed hard, shoving herself up with an arm, cradling the malfunctioning one to her stomach.
“Oxygen levels fifty-two percent.”
The world swirled. Only Birdie’s warm bulk at her side kept Auri moving. She staggered against the wall where the emergency hatch was located. Her sweat-soaked fingers slipped on the latch twice before the door swung open. A five-rung ladder led into the pod, seats and safety belts built into its spherical walls with plenty of emergency supply kits for them both. The floor below the seats was empty and beveled out. Going inside would be like jumping into a giant salad bowl. The thought made Auri giggle and duck her head.
Her eyes caught on a tiny square of flexi-glass a few meters away: the floppy with all the cannibal cases stored on it, considered useless by Kei.
“Gentle retrieve.” She pointed at the storage device. Birdie scooped the tiny piece of tech into her jaws, teeth gripping the glass with just enough pressure. “Now jump,” she rasped. “Jump, Birdie.” She swayed against the wall, gaze focusing and unfocusing.
Birdie stepped back before running forward and leaping into the hatch opening.
“Oxygen levels thirty percent.”
Auri moved to follow when her eyes locked on her disc, still trapped in the wall above the kennel. She licked her lips, the taste of salt and copper making her gag. The future had suddenly turned into an unknown black hole. Her plans torn to shreds, her body broken. The only thing she had to hold on to was her identity as a DISC agent.
She pushed off the wall and collapsed against the kennel. The edge of the disc gleamed, the matte metal splashed with the illusion of blood from the emergency lights. She tugged on the handle underneath. A wave of dizziness left her dry heaving.
“Oxygen levels twenty percent.”
The buzz of thousands of bees droned in her ears. Laughter burst from her mouth, doubling her over. Kuso. The part of her brain that still functioned registered the symptoms with horror. Move, Auri. Move now!
She reached up again. Gritting her teeth, she anchored herself against the kennel and pulled on the disc’s handle with all her remaining strength. The uncontrollable laughter weakened her muscles, but the disc shifted a centimeter. Then another. Suddenly, it slid free, almost dislocating Auri’s arm with the force.
“Oxygen levels five percent.”
Birdie’s frantic barking reached Auri’s ears. I’m coming. She wasn’t sure if she’d said the words aloud or not. She battled a thick fog toward the sound. When she felt the open space of the hatch she let out a whimper and fell inside, hoping Birdie moved out of the way. The hard floor of the pod bit into her back, but it was a faraway pain compared to the cacophony in her head. She forced herself up again, knowing the oxygen down here wouldn’t hold as long as the hatch door remained ajar.
Above, the final warning trilled: “Oxygen depleted. Oxygen depleted.”
She’d fallen at the base of the rung ladder. A few meters above her head was a button the size of her palm. Underneath it an open panel bristled with damaged wires. Auri prayed the pirates hadn’t filched anything vital from the pod.
She arced up and slammed her organic hand against the button. The open hatch above her slid closed with a click. The walls hummed as the sphere powered on. Fresh, breathable air streamed in.
“Nearest planet,” a computerized voice announced, the tech less fancy than the shuttle’s, “Kaido. Arrival in five hours, two minutes, thirteen seconds.” The pod’s vibrations increased, chattering the teeth in Auri’s clenched jaw as it dropped from the belly of the shuttle, hurtling through space.
Auri fought against the tentacles of darkness pulling her under as she collapsed. Birdie, trembling, curled up against her. She let out a whine, interrupted by a stress-induced yawn.
“I love you,” Auri wheezed, resting her chin on Birdie’s head. “I love you.”
The tentacles dragged Auri down, down, down into an inky black sea.