Page 65 of Vicious
“Oh,” I’d said. She could’ve probably had enough credits if she’d turned me in, maybe even for extra upgrades or parts should she ever need three arms. But she hadn’t, and that meant a lot. She’d also thrown herself in the face of danger and saved me countless times. I trusted her more now because I was beginning to understand her, but mostly I was relieved she was on my side because the alternative was notgood.
She’d turned away then and gathered her long white hair up high on her head in a ponytail. “I guess I thought I’d feel different after Don was dead, but…” She’d let that thought float adrift into space, much like theViciousship we both now watched on thebridge.
“The airlock is engaged.” Crispin turned to look at both of us, his lightning eyes drooping at the corners. “You can gonow.”
“Not so fast, Crispy.” Poh took his elbow and dragged him out of the pilot’s chair. “You’re coming with us in case we need to barter yourlife.”
Crispin opened his mouth as if to argue but then thought better of it. He let out a resigned sigh, likely hoping to put this nightmare behind him, same as the rest ofus.
With a basket of stolen food from Parker’s kitchen tucked underneath one arm, I strode out the door toward the airlock, Poh and Crispin at my heels. I patted my hands over my chest, squeezing my ice picks for comfort. When we rounded the corner into the plastic-lined airlock that led into theVicious, frigid air tightened in mylungs.
A soothing female voice I’d never heard on theViciousbefore said, “Warning. Warning.” Again andagain.
“What’s happening?” I demanded, but I didn’t wait for ananswer.
I sprinted back onto the ship and into a strobing red light that came from down the hallway in the cargo room. It was stupid, but I’d half expected everyone to be exactly where we’d left them. Right here, in a battle for theirlives.
Poh and Crispin stepped up behind me, their breaths billowing in the deadstillness.
“Crispy, you’re with me.” Poh nodded toward the pulsing red light. “Help me find the source of this warning and shut itoff.”
He shivered. “Why is it so cold inhere?”
Poh herded him to the right but stopped. “Absidy?”
“I need to…” I stepped over splotches of blood on the grated floor and swallowed. “Use the Mind-I to findthem.”
More blood had puddled along the opposite wall with a mess of handprints just above it. A long red trail led away and around a dark corner, toward the infirmary. I forced a swallow and followed, my mind flashing me images of what could’ve happened, all of them involving Mase, Ellison, and the captain battered andbroken.
“Find a weapon,” Poh said. “Use a telecom if you need it. If I don’t like what I hear, I come running. Gotit?”
“Warning,” the female robot said. “Eight minutes until self-destruct.”
Dread seeped into my bones and rushed a cold sweat down my body. Eight minutes. Self-destruct. What the hell had happened in the thirteen hours we’d beengone?
“Go now!” I dropped the basket of food, glimpsing the stark terror written in Poh and Crispin’s faces, and ran. “Ellison!”
Eight minutes. Could I find them in time to usher them onto Parker’s ship and get us away from here? Had Parker put them somewhere so they couldn’t escape? But then where had he gone since his ship had left withouthim?
“Mase!Captain!”
I rounded the corner, my feet slamming the titanium with steadydoom, doomslaced between the lady robot’s warnings. Almost to the infirmary. Behind the glass circle in the door, it was dark, but I lunged for the lever and shoved it open anyway. Once I found the light and blinked into it, the trail of red drops leading to the gurney by the wall glittered like precious rubies. Except the gurney wasempty.
I charged out of there for the dining room. As soon as I stepped under the light, it swung wildly and cast its flickers over the Vicious room door. I shouldered it open, my ragged breaths catching in the freezing air. Through the pitch black, my gaze connected with the even darker air vent hole in the opposite wall. A series of bumps sounded from within, and I knew I was no longer alone. I got out of there and sprinted to the dining roomdoor.
“Warning. Seven minutes until self-destruct.”
The iced panic stabbing through my veins hissed out through my clenchedteeth.
Inside the dining room, everything appeared as it should be. The kitchentoo.
“Ellison?” I inched open the stasis pantrydoor.
Eerie blue light angled onto my boots. Shelves of inedible food were stacked throughout the room, and near the back by the wooden wine crates poked two left shoes. I jerked back, unable to process that crush of emotions right then, and backed out into the dining roomagain.
I stabbed my finger into the telecom unit on the wall. “Mase? Captain, where are you?” My voice filtered through the robot’swarnings.
Static shot through the unit and pierced my ears. “They’re not here,” Poh said, her voice wound up tighter than wire. “Only three lifeforms are on thisship.”
