Kris hit the release on her seat and propelled herself for that same hatch. ''Captain, if you will distribute inconspicuous weapons to your crew, we should be in a position to take down our assistants before they can become our assailants.''
''Sulwan, see to that,'' the captain said, not budging from his command chair.
Jack followed Kris off the bridge; he needed to be out of uniform, too. ''Beni,'' he shouted. ''I want you in my room five minutes ago.''
Abby had shed her prim skirt and blouse for a tank top and very cutoffs. Any not-dead male, faced with her long legs and full breasts, would be too locked in indecision as to what to lust after to notice minor things like Abby shooting him.
Kris ended up in a bulky sweater and oversize sweatpants… that hid the spidersilk undies and ceramic armor plates that Abby put her in. ''And there's five minutes of emergency air in that pack between your shoulder blades. If somebody doses the atmosphere, that ought to give us a chance to rescue you… again. The undies will help if we go to zero pressure.''
''Thank you,'' Kris said, and then again to Sulwan when she came by with a nasty-looking, but tiny weapon. ''Sleepy darts?''
''Low power for close quarters. What's your hold-out gun?''
Kris produced her service automatic from the small of her back. ''I'm not using Pfizer's best with it.''
''Well, power it down or you'll be punching holes in Bret's ship. He doesn't like that, and it kind of makes it hard for the rest of us to breathe.''
Kris held the weapon up for Sulwan to see that she already had it dialed back to the smallest squirt of propellant for each flechette. ''Don't want to make holes in my station.''
''Should have known I wouldn't have to teach a Longknife how to kill folks. Or not—if she wanted.''
The knocking of tubing against tubing had echoed through the hull as Kris changed. Now her conversation with Sulwan was punctuated by the solid thunk of the attachment being made. Then came the whooshing sound of the tube pressurizing. ''We better get back to work,'' Sulwan said as she did a racing turn and pushed off for the hold to greet their kind assistants. Kris followed, with Jack close behind. He had switched into battle dress bottoms and boots, but a red tank top that showed off nice pecs.
Beni came up the rear in a rumpled set of khakis with the chief's anchors gone. And a sandwich in one hand covering an electronic monitoring station.
Kris brought them to a halt, then towed her three into a crewman's quarters on one side of the hold. With the door partially closed, she watched as six ''helping hands'' from the other ship followed Sulwan toward the bridge. One of them looked to be the captain of the reputedly good ship Wild Goose.
Ducking her head out, Kris checked the passageway, then waved her team toward the hold. There they paused for Jack to move to the head of the line. He pushed himself off first, gliding unsteadily into the hold and made an awkward grab for the busted buoy, pulling himself to a halt on it.
Kris allowed herself to show more grace as she jumped for one of the new ones, Abby right behind her. The chief held back, out of sight, content to let the three of them go in harm's way.
Lounging free beside the open airlock were three from the other ship. Eyeing them as they floated in were two men in shorts and T-shirts, and a redhead in full body armor. Ouch!
''Hi.'' Kris waved. ''Captain wants us to get a replacement buoy up and running.'' Kris flipped open the maintenance hatch on her buoy and did her best to appear busy.
The armored woman eyed Kris narrowly. ''You do that.''
The two fellows seemed to lose interest in everything but Abby's rear once she expertly bent over the open buoy service hatch and waved it their way. Jack fumbled to a second buoy and managed to get it open. Kris had hoped the woman in armor would concentrate on Jack, but she gave all three an eagle's attentive eye. And her hand kept going to the small of her back. She was packing and looked eager to use it. Kris took a deep breath and sentenced the woman to surrender or die.
Humming to herself, Kris passed behind the buoy, pulled out her service automatic, switched the power up and the safety off with one sweep of her thumb, and came back in view of the three strangers with her automatic sighting on the woman's head.
''We got a problem in the hold,'' Kris called on net, switched off, and said, ''Don't go for the gun.''
Two soft pops of sleepy darts from Abby and Jack and the men floated like jellyfish. The woman sneered at Kris—and reached for her gun. Kris shook her head and fired. The woman's head disappeared in a red smear before she even reached the gun.
''Did you have to do that?'' Beni asked from the safety of the passageway.
''She was armed and going for it,'' Jack snapped as he moved to the sleeping beauties, checked for a pulse, then put another dart into each butt to make sure they took a nice long nap. Then he frisked them. All three yielded ugly knives and pistols of various flavors. All lethal. No sleepy darts here.
''We surrendered or else,'' Abby drawled softly.
Captain Drago shot into the hold, deflected himself off a buoy and aimed himself for the open airlock and tube between the ships. ''Did you have to start shooting so soon?''
Jack waved at the captured horde of weapons.
''Yes. Yes, I know,'' Drago said, grabbing the airlock and propelling himself down the tube. ''But we barely were in position on the bridge.'' Four beefy sailors followed in their captain's wake.
''Yes,'' Kris agreed. ''But that also means they were just getting in position, too.'' The captain was too far up the rabbit hole for Kris to hear any reply. She shoved off to follow.
''Don't you think we ought to wait?'' Jack said.
''We've still got air. Let's go,'' Kris shouted, putting her service automatic between her teeth. She flew past Jack; he scowled. She grabbed for a handhold on the airlock and pulled herself hand over hand into the void between ships.
Jack shouted, ''Beni, get over here,'' and made to follow.
Abby shot in ahead of him. ''You could break a nail on these handles. Way too awkward,'' she muttered.
Kris concentrated on grabbing hold and pushing along fast. The tube was clear, though the moisture of their breath was making it fog. Beyond, the dark cold of space loomed, speckled by unblinking, forever-distant lights. Kris had seen this view before, from a racing skiff. She'd always had a well-tested pressure suit hugging her at those moments. She paddled faster.
The air took on the smell of fried fish and dirty laundry, overpowering even the taste of the weapon in Kris's mouth. Flashing out into a wide space at the other end of the tube, Kris found two sleepers drifting. Before Kris touched down on the far wall, she had both guns out, covering the passageways up and down in the ship. No head came in view. No nothing.
There was noise forward and Kris turned to go there as Abby and Jack glided in to do their own check.
''Hold it,'' came from the chief as he wiggled in behind Jack. One hand held his electronic gizmo; his eyes studied its flashing colors. ''Something strange going on aft. In Engineering.''
Kris did a flip and headed that way, Jack right behind her, Abby took station with two guns out, ready to hold the tube against all comers. Beni followed Kris, bouncing from one side of the passageway to the other but his eyes never left the electronic monitoring station in his left hand.
Kris paused at the open hatch to Engineering. Inside, two men were anchored by their feet to impromptu holds. One held a huge wrench, the other an automatic pistol. He fired off a burst at Kris but couldn't control the weapon. Rounds went high, then higher, ricocheting inside. Kris shot for the dead center of his chest; he flipped over. He went one way, the pistol the other.
Kris swung her weapon toward the guy with the wrench. But he'd vanished aft into a maze of machinery. Now the guy in stained khakis strapped into the Engineering command station drew Kris's attention. He was hunched over a button, knuckles white as he pressed it down hard. Beads of perspiration glistened on his face to form globules and float free into the air around him.