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DAZED AND DISORIENTED, I shoved myself to sitting. What the fuck had happened to Camille and Irus? Smoke filled the bridge of the Trad ship, and I squinted against it, holding the back of my hand to my mouth to stifle a cough. Through the smoke, the column of blue light had grown brighter, the glass—or whatever the material was that had surrounded it—shattered into pieces. A loud humming filled the air. It was coming from the light. The blasts from the guns had done something to it, though I didn’t know if the change was due to the energy from the guns or because it was no longer contained.
Angry shouts in a language I didn’t understand met my ears. We were still surrounded by Trads, and while they were also dealing with an attack from our ships, they also now knew they had been infiltrated as well. I took a small amount of satisfaction from having turned the tables on those Trad fuckers, but that satisfaction wouldn’t last long if I wasn’t able to get Camille off the ship and back to safety.
I staggered to my feet, desperately looking for Camille. We needed to all be together to activate the transporter belts and get back onto our ship. There was only enough energy to do it once, and if we didn’t, we’d be leaving someone behind.
I spotted Irus picking Camille up off the floor. They were both armed, and Irus was holding off the Trads who’d spotted them and realized they were being attacked from inside their ship.
In the center of the bridge, the blue light grew even brighter, so bright now it was almost white and blinding, and the humming was deafening. This wasn’t good.
“The ship’s gonna blow!” I shouted to them. “We need to get out of here! Now!”
The column of blue light had absorbed the power from the weapons, stepping it up to a level it was unable to contain.
A fist suddenly connected with my jaw, throwing me back to the floor again. Pain shot through my face, but I didn’t have time to think about it as one of the Trads landed on top of me. Through the smoke, I was able to make out his red glowing eyes and the horns protruding from the top of his head. He threw another punch, and I managed to twist to the side, so his fist cracked against the floor rather than my face.
“Go!” I yelled at Irus, while ducking another flying fist. “Take Camille to safety.”
They could go now, just the two of them. I’d rather that happened than none of us make it.
I landed a punch of my own, connecting with the Trad’s ear and throwing him sideways. I rolled, trying to escape him, but a tail whipped through the air and wound around my throat, yanking me back again. The tail tightened, cutting off my airways.
“Camille is mine,” the Trad snarled, his nose an inch from mine.
A white laser cut through the smoke, striking the Trad in the side of the head. He stiffened momentarily, the tail now so tight I worried it would cut straight through my neck, but then it fell loose, and the Trad toppled sideways, either dead or unconscious. I couldn’t be sure which, and we didn’t have time to check.
I sucked in a smoke-filled breath, setting me off coughing, and looked up to see Irus standing there. Camille was holding off any of the Trads who decided that dealing with us was more important than dealing with the attacking Athion ship, or figuring out how to fix the power source, which was going to blow at any minute.
He put out a hand to help me to my feet. I took it, allowing him to haul me up. “You saved my life.”
“You’d have done the same,” the Athion said.
I liked to think I would, but Irus had shown me something. He was a far better person than I was. I’d been holding him at arm’s length all this time, worried he’d steal Camille away, but he had more integrity in his little finger than I had in my whole body.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.”
Camille stopped firing long enough to turn and run over to us.
I unhooked the extra transporter belt that I’d brought with me for Camille and looped it around her waist. “Just hit those two buttons there,” I told her. “It’ll take us back to the Athion rocket ship where the others are waiting.”
With Camille standing between us, and more Trads lunging through the smoke toward us, we got the hell out of there.