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“I should be the one to go,” Vlasa stated.
Ariana shook her head emphatically, “You are still recovering. I’m not sending you on an EVA with a lunatic killer.”
“You could leave the lunatic killer here. I am capable of monitoring Serene on my own.”
In the brief silence that followed, Ariana smiled and Noah tilted his head slightly before saying, “Hold on a second.”
Ignoring Noah, Vlasa continued, “If Noah is correct, Serene is intelligent enough to know that she would only be hurting herself by betraying us to an unknown group of pirates. In which case, it does not matter who goes with her, as I will not be in danger. But if Noah is wrong, as he often is, then I am the one most likely to be able to ascertain if she has betrayed us.”
Ariana sighed, “And you are sure you could not disarm it yourself?”
“No, I am not sure. There is a greater than zero chance I could indeed do it entirely myself. But given my lack of experience with this kind of situation, our odds would be better with someone more familiar with the potential problems.”
“All right, suit up.” Ariana decided.
“But Cap...” Noah began.
Ariana cut him off with a look, “Bring our guest down to the cargo bay.”
Noah departed, and Vlasa turned to make his way to the cargo bay. Ariana followed silently. She helped him don the cumbersome EV suit and then prepare the second one. Before they had finished, Serene appeared flanked by Noah with a gun.
“Noah said you wished to see me, Captain?” Serene asked.
“You said you wanted to help out. Here’s your chance. You’re going to prove how useful you can be.” Ariana said with a smirk, “Suit up. You’re going for a little trip.”
“There is some lock you want me to pick?” Serene asked, and then after a moment she smiled, “No, a bomb you want me to disarm.”
Ariana nodded, “Potentially. There’s an abandoned ship sitting out there broadcasting a distress signal. You and Vlasa are going to see if there are any survivors and make sure the ship isn’t booby-trapped.”
“I am not a fan of space suits,” Serene said with a frown.
“You can go without it if you want. But I wouldn’t recommend it.”
As Serene reluctantly started to don her suit, Vlasa opened the weapon locker and checked the charge on one of the pistols. Before he could strap the gun belt on, Noah stepped over to him.
“You don’t want to take that.”
“You are suggesting I go off the ship with a prisoner while unarmed?”
“If you want to come back in one piece.”
“Explain.”
“If you take a weapon, it won’t be long before Serene borrows it. She has sticky fingers when it comes to that kind of thing.”
Vlasa frowned, “I thought you said she would not try anything while she has no means to escape.”
“No, I said she would not butcher us all in our sleep and strand herself in the middle of nowhere, or signal a group of pirates who are just as likely to rape and murder her as the rest of us. But, if she gets herself a weapon...well...then she has a bargaining position.”
Vlasa considered Noah’s statement. He felt mild annoyance at the suggestion he would be careless enough to let himself become disarmed. Though, he was self-aware enough to know that Noah’s concern was not unfounded. He did not possess any combat training.
“Very well. I will accede to your experience in this.”
The shocked expression on Noah’s face made Vlasa feel even better about his decision. He made a note that agreeing with Noah on occasion might be a good way to keep him off balance.
Putting the gun belt back in the locker, Vlasa trudged over to the teleporter chamber in the cumbersome pressure suit. Once in place, he sealed the facemask and did a comm check to be sure he could still communicate with those on the ship. With Ariana’s help, Serene donned her pressure suit and joined him in the chamber.
“I would suggest putting us just outside whatever hole got blown into the side of our target. If this is a trap, it is most likely set to trigger if anyone teleports into the pressurized areas. Or if any of the airlocks open.” Serene suggested.
Ariana nodded and then entered the coordinates into the teleporter controls. She gave Vlasa a tip of her head and then triggered the chamber. Around him, the world changed. The comforting pull of the ship’s artificial gravity vanished, as did the lights. The dim glint of millions of far-off stars became his only light source. Blocked by the derelict ship, light from this system's star cast no light down on him.
Vlasa activated his suits headlamps and turned slowly to survey the scene. About five meters in front of him sat the derelict. A fantastic rent in the metal hull showed him what, on Seraph, would have been the mess hall. Torn metal continued in deeper through what had once been the deck floor.
“You are familiar with your suit controls?” Vlasa asked over the comm to Serene.
“I am.”
“Please take the lead.”
Serene hesitated for a minute before triggering her suits thrusters. She gave only a short burst and began drifting in through the damaged hull. Vlasa followed a moment later, being sure to keep himself well in the center to avoid becoming snagged on any of the metal fragments.
Once inside, Serene stopped, “I believe we found your bomb.”
Vlasa drifted to a stop beside her and looked where she pointed. A large object sat tucked into the fragmented hull. From its position, it clearly had been installed after the battle.
“I thought you said the trap would most likely be set in the pressurized areas of the ship.” Vlasa inquired.
“No, I said there would be triggers in the pressurized areas. That is an ion pulse bomb. You want as little ship around it as possible to maximize how far the pulse will travel before it expands to an ineffective strength.”
“Very true. We should disarm it before searching for survivors to lessen the chances of accidentally setting it off.”
“If I fail, we’ll be stranded here in nonfunctioning space suits and your ship won’t be able to port us back.”
“Seraph is moving back to a safe distance.”
“So just you and I will be left to die.”
“Correct.”
“And you cyborgs claim to be different than the AI. No emotion. No sense of self-preservation.” Serene said coldly.
Vlasa drifted downward until he could secure himself to the broken deck with magnetic boots before responding to his fellow Echanic, “I wish to point out that you too, are technically a cyborg.”
“Not by choice.” Serene snarled. She came to rest beside Vlasa. Holding out her hand toward Vlasa, she added, “Tools.”
Vlasa shifted the tool bag so that its magnetic clamps could secure it as well. Then he stepped back to be out of Serene’s way, but where he could still see her every move. She squatted down and began rummaging through the tools.
After a few minutes of silence, Vlasa asked, “You did not elect to receive your eye implants?”
“I had an accident in a chemical lab during school. I became completely blind. I had to choose between being blind or being able to see, but being exiled by my own people.”
“Not an easy choice.”
“A very easy one, actually. I didn’t want to be blind my whole life. My people are a little backward in that regard.”
“If you turn your back on your people’s teachings, why the contempt for me?”
“I got new eyes because my old ones died. You desecrate your body by removing perfectly fine parts in favor of fakes.”
“My upgrades enhance failings in my body, the same as yours.”
“So, you couldn’t see or walk?”
“No, but I couldn’t see as well or run as far.”
“I fixed an injury. You mutilated yourself.”
“I choose to improve myself instead of being held back by outdated customs. The same as you.”
Serene had no response to that. Silence settled over them as she continued to work. Vlasa watched for any sign of betrayal, but every action she took and every tool she used, made perfect sense. She approached the disarming process differently than he would have, but he could not find fault in her choices.
“Vlasa report,” Ariana ordered suddenly.
“Everything appears optimal. Serene is making progress dismantling the bomb.”
“Are you sure? We just detected an incoming ship.”
“I have been monitoring things closely. She has done nothing that seemed suspicious, and I have detected no energy surges that would be indicative of a hyper-light communication signal.”
“Damn. That means we’re dealing with someone else.”
The channel went silent again as Ariana switched her comm back to Seraph’s internal network. This left Vlasa without any information about the events outside the derelict. While tempting, he resisted switching over to the ship’s network. He would be nothing but a distraction and Serene would be unable to communicate with him easily.
Vlasa turned to look out through the damaged hull and into the blackness of space. Turning the magnification on his cybernetic eye to its maximum zoom, he managed to locate two ships. Both maneuvered rapidly and small flashes sliced through the space between them.
The pair of ships slowly drifted closer with each maneuver, and Vlasa gasped. He recognized the sleek profile of the other ship, an AI drone scout. Not as deadly as the warship that almost ambushed them before, but still far more heavily armed than Seraph.
“Looks like our ride out of here is having some trouble,” Serene said.
The sound of her voice startled Vlasa. Fortunately, thanks to the space suit, he didn’t give any outward sign, and was able to steady his voice before replying, “Nothing you need to concern yourself with. What is the status of the bomb?”
“Almost ready to disconnect the arming mechanism. Once I do, the thing is going to become a piece of scrap. Including the hyper-light transmitter.”
“That is good. Proceed.”
“No.”
Vlasa turned to face Serene. Through their space suit helmets, he studied her face, but could not get a good read on her expression. Forcing himself to remain calm, he said, “Explain.”
“If those two ships end up destroying each other, I’d much rather get picked up by pirates than slowly suffocate.”
Vlasa considered Serene’s statement for a minute. In the end, he could find no flaw in her logic. “Very well. Can you disconnect the weapon from the transmitter?”
“Maybe. Once I disarm the device, it will still ruin the transmitter as they share a power core.”
“Could you trigger the device without triggering the transmitter?”
Serene paused for a moment and then let out a pleased sound, “I could.”
“Prepare to do so.” Vlasa ordered and switched to Seraph’s channel, “Captain, we are preparing to trigger the ion pulse on your order.”
A long pause followed, and Vlasa prepared to repeat himself. Finally, Ariana responded, “Trigger? Why...good idea. This drone ship is more than we can handle. Changing course. ETA, one minute.”
“That was premature. I never agreed to do it.” Serene said with a shake of her heavily gloved finger.
“You heard the captain. They are currently engaged with an AI drone ship.”
“All the more reason to preserve the transmitter. When it destroys the ship, we’ll need another ride out of here.”
“No, when it destroys Seraph it will come for us. AI don’t leave survivors.”
Serene hesitated for another precious few seconds, but then turned back to the bomb. As she worked, Vlasa watched the scene play out in the space above him and the flickering lights of the battle grew larger. He watched as Seraph juked out of the way of incoming weapon fire. His brief satisfaction faded quickly as the weapon bolts continued on their path, now with nothing between them and the derelict.
The bolts struck the derelict in the forward section. The force of the impact caused Vlasa to stumble and lose his boots magnetic hold to the derelicts deck. He began to float freely in space. Beside him, the ion pulse device and Serene had also been jarred free and had begun to drift. Unexpectedly, they all appeared to be drifting in the same direction; out through the open tear in the ship’s hull.
Turning his gaze, Vlasa scanned the part of the ship that had been hit. Atmosphere rushed out into the vacuum, escaping from the previously still pressurized part of the hull. As it did, it exerted rotational force to the ship, causing it to begin to spin.
No longer attached to the ship, he was not affected by its new spin. The broken hull began to move toward him, and Vlasa was forced to fire his maneuvering jets to avoid being impaled. Below him, relative to the ship, Serene continued to work as she drifted with the bomb, unaware of the approaching danger.
Vlasa fired his thrusters so that he impacted Serene, causing her to drift away from the ship and the jagged metal. The pair of them floated clear, but the bomb continued on its course. The rotating ship smacked the bomb and sent it careening across the small enclosure until it bounced off the opposite wall.
“Thirty seconds!” Ariana announced.
Through the opening to space, Seraph flashed past them. He could not see the drone ship, but Vlasa knew it must be close behind. They had twenty seconds left to trigger the bomb before that ship followed Seraph out of the bombs blast radius.
Running calculations quickly, Vlasa secured a safety line to Serene’s suit, linking them together. “Fire your jets at full blast for one second.”
“I’ll fly right past the bomb before I can slow down.”
“I will provide the opposite force necessary to stop you.” Vlasa said, “Now go.”
To his relief, Serene triggered her jets without further waste of their limited time. She shot away from Vlasa and toward the tumbling bomb. As soon as she finished her acceleration, he triggered his jets. He shut down the jets as the safety line went taut. Their opposing vectors canceled out their velocity, bringing them to a stop relative to each other, and with Serene floating within arms reach of the bomb.
“Now!” Ariana ordered.
Vlasa watched helplessly as Serene fumbled with the bomb for several precious seconds. He saw the enemy ship zoom in close, and then flash past in pursuit of Seraph. When she finally triggered the bomb, his only warning was the sudden loss of function from his suit and cybernetics. Half his limbs were now dead.
Fortunately, due to the physical link of the safety line, he could still hear Serene’s cursing. “That better have worked, because now I