Elle took off, being careful to run with delicate footfalls until she was far enough away to break into a full sprint. Tunnel vision set in and all she saw was the ramp ahead of her. Kane and Britt were beginning a debate about something but the words floated past Elle’s mind as unimportant sounds.
She went up the stairs and around a corner, nearly slamming into Kamil. Elle slapped the op con device into his hand.
“Made it,” she said.
“Hey, folks, nobody react,” Petra said, “but I got the emergency manual release opened on this flyer. Kane’s an idiot thinking he can trap me with a remote override. I have a stun gun. I’m going to come around behind him and put him down, just keep him talking.”
Britt started into a speech on human moral imperatives and Elle was surprised that Kane let her ramble. Maybe he was actually listening to what she said.
Then a crack rang out through the air and over the comm simultaneously.
Britt screamed, “Petra.”
“She’d have been up on treason charges anyway. This is a better death.”
There was a long silence and then a series of unidentifiable sounds. Elle took a cautious look around the pod and saw Bear on the ground wrestling with Kane. It was too far to see who had the upper hand.
Court moved abruptly and then she heard him over the comm. “That’s enough. Don’t move or I shoot.”
The two men stopped struggling. Bear backed away. If he said anything, the comm devices didn’t pick it up.
“You’re a nacking pot of goat piss, Kane. After what you did to my people, I should put a hole in your head.”
“You don’t have the stomach for it, kid. Besides, my gun is paired to my ID. It won’t work for you. You people never learn.”
“This one’s not,” Britt said, holding up Petra’s stun gun.
Kane raised his hands, palms out, to shoulder height, and then most of Britt’s upper body vanished, replaced by a cloud of gray dust. The hum of a grav flyer over head provided the explanation—a Qyntarak black hole weapon. The third flyer descended to the ground at an alarming speed and a Qyntarak in full body armor leaped from it before it had even settled into a stable hover.
“Kamil, there’s a Qyntarak out there. I need to go help.”
“But the suit’s almost ready.”
“I won’t let my friends die. They don’t stand a chance.”
“And what, you’re going to fight off a Qyntarak?”
“It won’t be the first time.”
She ran, anger and terror pressing her forward even faster than before. It was time to find out if Master Zheng was right about her. As she closed the distance, the Qyntarak knocked Court to the ground, using a pincer like a boxing glove on his gut. With its other pincer, it lifted Bear by his neck. The big man was struggling to keep some of his weight on his feet so he didn’t suffocate. Kane was getting back up and brushing off his pants.
Faster.
She wished she had a weapon. Her biggest risk was Kane seeing her too soon. She adjusted her course a foot to the right so the Qyntarak’s body hid her from Kane. She could still see one of Bear’s legs flailing.
Faster, faster, faster.
From Master Zheng’s unofficial training classes, Elle knew that Qyntarak armor was weakest around the long tentacle-like appendages because it had to be flexible. It was strongest over the sensitive feeding slit. The leg armor was plated around the joints to allow for movement. If she hit the lower joint on a back leg, it would have to steady itself with its tentacles. It held Bear in its left pincer. If she went for the rear right leg, there was less chance of the alien’s bulk landing on top of him. Bear would be in a weakened state from lack of oxygen so his reactions might be slow if the alien dropped him.
Yes, back right leg, bottom joint, that’s the target.
She saw the alien twitch at the last moment, perhaps hearing her, but she had already launched herself legs-first through the air, one foot extended toward the joint. She heard a welcome crunch as it absorbed her momentum and buckled. The Qyntarak emitted a bone-chilling sound and stumbled backward. Elle scrambled to avoid being trampled under its other legs as the alien tried to get its balance.
Bear hit the ground with a thud. Elle rolled to her knees and glanced at him. He wasn’t moving.
The Qyntarak hit Elle and knocked her over. She rolled with the direction of movement to get clear of the other swinging tentacles. As she pushed herself back up to her feet, she saw Court kick the stun gun from Britt’s orphaned hand as Kane was reaching for it. Court jumped back as Kane took a wild swing at him.
Elle narrowly avoided an incoming swing from a stabbing tentacle. She hit it with her elbow, which hurt her but didn’t seem to bother the alien. Then its other stabbing tentacle and both of its pincer tentacles came looking for her. She scurried underneath its body and drove her shoulder into the leg she’d already hit. The alien bellowed again and used its tentacles to steady itself.
She caught a glimpse of Court stepping away to dodge another swing from Kane. Court would be in trouble once Kane got his footing.
“Bear,” she shouted. “Bear, we need help.”
No response.
The Qyntarak spun itself around so it was facing her. It was unbelievably fast. The alien lunged at her, long stabbing tentacles swinging out so they could stab her from behind while the pincers came at her from the front. It was a classic Qyntarak attack, one that Master Zheng had taught her to counter until the movements were second nature, requiring no conscious effort. She grasped the pincer arm on her left and hoisted herself over it, her body weight throwing off the symmetry of the attack. The most common outcome was that you moved yourself to safety. If you got lucky, a sharp stabbing tentacle would hit the Qyntarak’s own pincer and do a bit of damage.
She got a little lucky, the Qyntarak poking itself but not enough to do any serious harm through the body armor. She dove at its injured back leg and landed a blow with the palm of her hand. A few more good hits and the leg would be unusable, dramatically limiting the alien’s mobility.
Reducing its attack options wasn’t much of a bar for success but one step at a time. She’d taken down a Qyntarak before, once, in a training gym. Never mind that she spent two hours with a surgery bot afterward—she beat it and she intended to beat this one, somehow.
Court grunted and she looked to see Kane’s fists pummeling his torso; Court’s arms were up to protect his face. She was distracted for too long because the Qyntarak had time to spin in place again, and the sides of two tentacles hit her like a pair of swinging tree trunks. The impact sent her to the ground several feet away and knocked the wind out of her.
A stabbing tentacle came at her and she rolled to avoid it. The other stabber followed and caught the edge of her shirt, tearing open the fabric. She didn’t have time to look, but it didn’t feel like it punctured the skin.
She came to a stop on her stomach and saw Petra’s stun gun. Elle pawed at the ground with her hands and feet to build up momentum as she lunged for the weapon.
It looked like a Morris M14. As the name implied, its standard capacity was fourteen stun rounds. At maximum setting, each one could knock out a human. They weren’t designed for Qyntarak physiology and even if they were, they wouldn’t puncture the body armor. But a hit close to the protective covering over the alien’s thermal-optical organ would be like shining a spotlight in a human’s eyes, temporarily blinding and disorienting it.
Elle sucked in a deep breath while her fingers grabbed the gun. She rolled and landed on her back. Giving herself a fraction of a second to center her focus, she pushed the air out of her lungs and pulled the trigger. Then she pulled it again.