Free B00BFVOGUI EBOK by John Jackson Miller Page B

gravity. Jamie hoped that might slow them down. But those
hopes ended when his captors activated the jets in their backpacks. Small
gimbaled engines fired, scooting the figures along higher and faster.
    Jamie twisted to see where they
were taking him. Bright yellow light shone down through an opening far above.
He knew where it led. The security guys on the way in had called it the Shaft,
joking that Quaestor had just given it all to them. A
football field’s width across and a kilometer from end to end, the Shaft was a
vast cylindrical pressurized region within the station’s axis, a weightless
loading dock for materials shipped in from the whirlibangs
outside. Grids of metal scaffolds extended from the rounded walls, providing places
where ’boxes could be secured for unloading; hatchways back into the north habitation
area could be seen on all sides. In the middle of the open space, Jamie saw the
supply ’box the surge team had arrived with tethered to a metal scaffold.
Nobody was here unpacking.
    The alien leader grunted
something as the entourage entered the Shaft, and Jamie now saw other
silver-clad aliens joining the group from other places of hiding. This wasn’t a
small party, he realized: there were thirty or forty of the creatures here.
Bridget’s Surge Sigma team only had thirty-two people. One by one, all of the
figures ignited their personal backpack rockets.
    Propelled ahead with his
kidnappers, Jamie squirmed. They’re
taking me to the whirlibang! They’re taking me away!
    Jamie began screaming again,
indifferent to any threat. He saw the supply ’box tethered ahead and clawed for
it — something familiar, something from home. Maybe some of his so-called
bodyguards were inside!
    The leader in black made a
beeline for him, yanking him free from those holding him and slamming him
against the side of the supply ’box. An ebon fist struck Jamie squarely in the
nose, drawing blood.
    “Stop!” a voice called out from
behind. The brute turned his head to see what Jamie saw: Bridget in her
environment suit, her magnetized boots holding her to the inside wall of the
Shaft. “Don’t be smacking our trader like that,” Bridget yelled. “Not before
I’ve had the chance!”

10
    Kolvax looked back in surprise. It was
the human woman from the airlock — and she wasn’t alone. Other soldiers emerged
from the hatchways, climbing out onto the skin of the vast tube, weapons drawn.
    He didn’t hesitate. Many of his
followers had come from the Xylanx Stalker units he’d
once led. The Severed could fight, he knew. He shoved his captive aside, the
human’s bright red blood still on Kolvax’s glove.
    “Stay here, stripling,” he barked
at the human. “Faithful, attack!”
***
    What
the hell are these guys?
    Bridget sidestepped as a burst of
energy flashed past, striking the Shaft wall next to her booted feet. She’d thought
her teammates were big, but Jamie had found himself a gorilla
army — or they had found him.
    She’d seen the massive silver-armored
figures when Trovatelli got the station’s
surveillance system unlocked. Some tall, some beefy, all big — and whoever they
were, they weren’t worried about damaging the depot. On the black-clad
puncher’s command the flying people had opened up on her comrades with energy
and missile weapons. Bridget hadn’t understood their leader’s words, but she
had a good idea what he’d said.
    Bridget figured the missile
weapons weren’t going to hurt the station this deep inside, but they could
certainly do a number on her. She slid her legs back
into the hatch she’d emerged from. Twisting, she snapped a tether from her suit
to an anchor inside the hatchway. “Get back in the hatches and strafe with
pulse weaponry,” Bridget called into her mouthpiece.
    It was the craziest combat
setting she’d ever encountered: flying enemies in zero gee shooting at her
people, who were attached like flies to the cylindrical wall. But the hatchways
provided cover,