Free Samael's Fire by L. K. Rigel

Junque   for a better view. The station was breached in several places where ships had collided against the hull. He scanned the bays for a place to pick up survivors.
    Two transports with sunflower logos rammed the station side-by-side and blew up on impact. Another bright light flashed east of the China strike, this one in New Korea.
    “Don’t be afraid.” Durga stood beside Jake’s chair and patted his hand.
    Wonderful. He’d saved a band of religious nutjob little girls.
    “Did you see that?” Rani stuck her head in from the passenger cabin.
    “Which? The signs of nuclear Armageddon or the end of the V?”
    Rani slid into Tyler’s chair and motioned for Durga to sit on her lap. Until now the girl had made a good show of bravery, but she seemed to welcome Rani’s comforting hug. She rested her head on Rani’s shoulder and let out a heavy sigh.
    Poor kid, Jake thought. She’d done some heavy lifting today. She might be a nutjob, but her goddess delusion had saved her and her precious matriarch and the other girls. Saved for what though?
    The V entered de-orbit, and flames consumed the structure as it plummeted through the atmosphere. Jake had to remind himself to breathe. He hated everything the V stood for, but he knew people who worked there.
    The bulk of the station crashed somewhere in Guangdong Province, sending up so much ash and fire it was as if a monstrous volcano had erupted. In orbit an eerie void separated the few ships that hadn’t docked or crashed into the station. They drifted, still intact and alive with nothing to lock onto. A smaller shuttle pulled out of formation and hurried away.
    “The panic setting in out there,” Jake said. “The I’s defenses are solid. We need to get back now.” He glanced down at the planet. Australia was coming up, but the cloud cover was too thick to see anything. At least, he hoped it was cloud cover.
    “Go ahead and call her,” Rani said. “It’s worth the risk.”
    “No, it’s not.”
    Magda was still alive or she wasn’t. Knowing would change nothing. He couldn’t even be sure she was in New Melbourne. If there were more DOGs out there, he didn’t want them latching on to the   Junque’s   communications signal.
    One more time, he set their course for the I.
    He wondered how the others were doing in the passenger cabin, but not enough to go back there and find out.   Shibbing shibad , a cargo of children. Well, they would be taken care of at the Imperial station. There were hundreds of kids living in the workers’ section.
    Maybe there was a child psychiatrist on board.
    “Why do you have this?” Durga traced the tattooed SJ on Rani’s cheek.
    Rani squeezed the girl’s fingers and kissed them with maternal sweetness. She would make a good mother—not that she’d ever get a license. Even Mike couldn’t fix that.
    “This is my mark,” Rani said. “My sign to the world where my commitment lies. With my service to the   Space Junque , I am complete. I need nothing more.”
    “I don’t know yet where my commitment lies.”
    “That sounds serious from one so young.” Jake gave the girl his charming twinkly smile to no effect. She stared at him dubiously then turned back to Rani.
    “Asherah will tell me. I have a mark too. Do you want to see?”
    She pulled her shirt sleeve down to expose a black widow spider tattooed over her left shoulder and upper arm, complete with hourglass. “Asherah gave it to me when she changed my hair.”
    “Now that makes me mad,” Jake said. “That’s just abuse.”
    “It’s my totem,” Durga said. “It makes   me   happy.”
    A broken-off piece of a ship passed close to the window, going the wrong way to have come from the V. The audionav reported debris in the line of trajectory and said, “Acquisition target unavailable.”
    “That’s not good.” Jake sent the docking data request again manually.
    “Shouldn’t we be in visual range?” Rani pulled Durga’s shirt back over the