Free Gadget by Viola Grace Page A

seemed to be leading the charge scowled. “Why did you land the craft?”
    “I am not heading back to a repair depot in the next few days and my release clamps are not quite up to a smooth drop.” She shrugged helplessly and smiled, giving him her best girly look.
    His eyes narrowed at her, but he gave her a slight smile.
    Toby moved past him.
    “You aren’t helping us unload?”
    “Oh, no. I am merely transport. It is your job to pack and unpack.”
    The men in the hall who hadn’t entered her ship drew closer. When they were close enough, she released the cryo gas from the interior of the ship, and on her inner monitor, she watched the bodies drop within her ship as the gas cascaded out, propelled by her interior fans.
    The man across from her took a step toward her before the gas struck him, and he dropped to the ground at her feet in a heap of tangled limbs.
    His men shouted and ran for the ship, which was the worst thing they could have done. When they were all done and the gas had formed a solid cloud in front of her, she sought out the guard life signs that were still glowing on her inner monitor.
    If anyone had told her that she would have her own walking Wi-Fi, she would have called them insane, but the Dark Fairy was part of her now. She was part of its systems, and it was part of hers.
    The guards were shackled to the walls, so she slid breathers onto them before she undid their restraints with short blasts from her left knuckles. A sonic thunder punch was her favourite weapon, but it also made for an excellent tool. She was delighted with the use that she had gotten from it over the last year and a half of travelling around the Nyal Imperium.
    She reset her right fist to a mild stun and zapped the guards to bring them around. The men jerked and stared at her with wide eyes, but she winked at them until they were all up and mobile. “Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am Guardian Transport Specialist Morris. I have your missing prisoners, and the others who tried to free them are out cold in the hall.”
    The warden, based on his rank marks, asked. “What is in the air?”
    “Oh, cryo-tank sedative. I always carry extra. It’s only sensible.” She winked at them. “What kind of help do you need to regain control of the facility?”
    He straightened. “The gas is quite enough. If we can get to the control room, it will all come around within the hour.”
    “Let’s get to the control room then. I have a hair appointment three systems away, and I would hate to be late.”
    They trooped out into the hall, and the blue-white mist curled and twisted its way ahead of them. For safety, Toby turned up her stun punch and kept herself at the ready.
    They recovered control of the facility and locked everyone in their current positions while releasing the held staff into the halls.
    Toby leaned back, and when she got the signal from the warden, she cut off the gas so the forty men on the other side of the blast door could come through and stay upright.
    Each face she saw was matched with a name in a file, so it was with relief that her ship was finally unloaded, and she was free to go on her way.
    She ran four scans of her ship before she nodded to the warden. “I really hope that they are all gone.”
    He frowned. “I am sure that you could manage a single prisoner.”
    “Oh, I am about to do an acid wash. This isn’t a bus or a city transport. If they are on board, they are about to die.”
    He quickly did a confirmation call on his men. They all confirmed their locations, and he sighed in relief.
    With a quick nod, she sent a broadcast out to the interior of her ship, warning any intruders of the upcoming wash, and when there was no reply, she sealed the ship and started the heavy scrub cycle.
    None of the cyber systems were accessible if you didn’t have a welding unit, so she ran the bio-toxic acid through the ship while she waited. The cycle took five minutes before the rinse neutralized it.
    She dusted