Free Awake by Viola Grace

Chapter One
    Through the layers of liquid that protected her, Kali felt her station rock. The staff on the relay station sounded the alarm, and her tank was separated from the station itself.
    Six weeks of nutrients surrounded her as she floated in her home, and her mind left its role as relay for high-priority transmissions. Whoever was attacking her was going to have to deal with the automated systems, and if they failed, Kali was ready to take over.
    Changing her links to let her manipulate the interior’s systems took seconds, but it was still too late to save the maintenance staff of Lor station.
    Kali brought the interior guns to bear on the foreign bodies and blasted away. The speakers translated shouting, cursing and cries from those who were struck. With every surge of new attackers, her targeting refined and more died.
    The outer sensors showed her data that she could not believe. Raider ships surrounded her.
    The Alliance had installed a defensive cannon, but it had not yet been integrated with her systems. It was dependent on staffers on the station to manoeuvre it, and they were all dead.
    Kali wished that she could scream when her system feedback started to go dark. Fear ripped through her body and pooled in her mind. All she had was her wiring to the outside world, and as her impulses were turned back on her, she was trapped in her own mind for the first time since she had joined the Alliance.
    Kali bit her lip and slowly lifted her hands to press them against the interior of her tank. The pressure of the plexi against her palms reassured her that she had not yet entered the afterlife.
    She closed her eyes and concentrated on thinking about her friends, family and her entrance into the Alliance.
    Kaliana Borning had never felt right, never fit in with her life back on Earth. Her thoughts were always her own and her mind still as a pool. This was a situation that few of her romantic entanglements could handle. They always wanted her to be thinking about them but that was just not what she had in mind.
    Part of her mind was dormant. She knew it, and the staff at the Volunteer centre had confirmed it. She was a perfect candidate for a position as a relay, and after some cursory training and a short stint as a receptionist at the Alliance information centre, she was placed in the tank and encased on Lor station.
    Kali had made friends on the station, and support staff rotated on a six-month basis while she remained in the tank with only her handlers for company.
    She used her training to keep her mind calm, but she still opened her eyes wide when the tank shifted suddenly.
    Lights streamed toward her, and she slowly covered her eyes. The people around her were large blurs, but they seemed intent on moving her tank somewhere. In the grip of shadows, she tried to remain calm but her heart started to pound heavily.
    * * * *
    “The life signs are going berserk. Our little prize is upset.” Foros grinned at the readouts rippling through his monitor.
    “What about that mist? Where is the leak in the atmospheric systems?”
    Foros scowled at his commander. “There is no leak. All of the systems are secure. Whatever that mist is, it isn’t from the station.”
    “Fine. Get going. We need to have her delivered before we can collect the bounty.” The commander crossed his arm.
    “As you wish, but how are you going to handle the tank connections?” Foros started pushing as the other men paused.
    “What?”
    “There are connections from her tank to the outside world for both the oxygen she needs and power for her nutrient pumps.”
    “I thought her tank was self-sustaining.”
    “It is, but not for eternity. We will need to find an Alliance-compatible connection.” Foros looked at the woman suspended in a tangle of wires and tubes. She was pale, her head was the standard shaved scalp of other tanked employees, but there was a sad expression in her dark blue eyes that part of him felt badly for her. Fortunately,