The First Nova I See Tonight by Jason Kilgore (best ereader for pdf and epub TXT) 📗

arm close to the console to try it, but he quickly lowered his arm.

"No ports," Yiorgos said. He tried to pull the console out of the wall, but it wouldn't budge. "It's constructed to prevent tampering."

Dirken growled. The so-called VIP suite was just another damned holding cell, albeit a plush one… with prostitutes. "Step back and get ready. We're getting to the bridge one way or another!"

Yiorgos stepped away from the door and picked up the Heart. He flashed Dirken a sincere look, and Dirken knew what he was thinking. Cargo cubes weren't as shielded as the rest of the ship. One misplaced shot and they would vent into space. But he saw little choice at this point. Given the metal latches, trying to kick it open wouldn't be enough.

Dirken went over to Andy and grabbed him by the arm, holding the blaster at the young man's side. "Clearly you're more than a piece of ass in a thong. You're coming with us."

"You seem to think I mean you harm," Andy said.

"Well then enlighten me, Twinkle Toes. You're obviously hiding the truth from us, and I don't think it's because you've got a present for me."

Andy nodded toward Yiorgos and the Heart. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to keep that safe and to make sure it gets to where it needs to go."

"And where is that?"

Andy didn't answer.

"Mmm hmm." Dirken tightened his lips and gave Yiorgos a look, then leveled his blaster at the door. He fired, hitting the door right where it latched. The door flew open in an explosive hail of sparks and debris.

Sugarplum screamed and ran across the room. Alarms rang from the hallway.

"Come on!" Dirken said, pushing Andy through the door. He turned to look down the corridor, blaster ready. No guards. Yiorgos followed.

The ship hummed as the Jacobian gravwell engine revved up, then they jumped again.

"So soon?" Yiorgos said. "We can't have gotten to the next jump point yet."

"He knows we blasted the door," Dirken replied. "He's desperate to get us to wherever he's taking us and had Feleesha jump prematurely."

The ship lurched and all of them sidestepped and hit the wall of the corridor. Once again they had come out of the jump too close to some gravity source, but this time it was very close, like right in the orbit or outer atmosphere of a planet. The gravplating couldn't keep up with the inertial changes. Gravity negated just long enough for them to float upward a few centimeters and pulled them twenty degrees to the right before slamming them back down. Dirken and Yiorgos managed to keep their footing, but Andy slipped and crumpled, grunting as he hit his knee against the wall.

"What the fuck is she doing up there?" Dirken asked, a touch of space sickness making his head spin. He was seriously starting to doubt Feleesha's gravjump navigation skills.

Yiorgos reached the airlock door between the cargo section and the forecastle. He pressed the console next to the door, but it just flashed red. He then tried the manual override lever on the door, but it didn't move. "Locked out," he said.

"Can you hack into it?"

Yiorgos was already putting down the Heart. "I'll try. This one has ports." Steadying the Heart with his feet, he plugged the exposed cable from his blasted forearm into the console and started pressing buttons. At first it gave the red signal again, but then he gained access. "It's coded. This will take a while."

The ship gave another, minor lurch, as Feleesha took some sort of erratic steering maneuver. It was enough to cause Yiorgos to lose his port connection and have to start over. "Damn it," he muttered.

Dirken looked through the airlock door. The corridor beyond seemed empty, but he didn't doubt that 'TakTrak and his crew were waiting for them. He glanced back over his shoulder. Sugarplum hadn't come out of the VIP suite. He doubted she would. He then looked back at the young escort, still held by the arm. Andy was transfixed by Yiorgos as the cyborg pressed buttons on the console, then Andy looked down to the Heart at Yiorgos's feet, its dusty spherical surface peeking through the duffel bag's opening. "May AVA bring peace," he whispered.

"Got it!" Yiorgos shouted. He picked up the duffel bag as Dirken moved forward with Andy, blaster pointed toward the door.

Yiorgos pressed the console and the airlock slid open. The corridor beyond was still empty.

With Andy's arm grabbed in his left hand, Dirken raised his blaster.

They ran through the airlock…

…and immediately they were hit with dozens of yellow rays emitted from the walls and ceiling. The beams hit them like so many punches, lifting them off the floor and holding all three of them airborne.

"Suspensor beams!" Dirken grunted. He could only move a few centimeters in any direction. They were trapped.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

HUNG UP

Dirken growled in frustration as he tried to pull an arm free and then a leg, but the suspensor beams held him firm. Each point where a beam contacted felt like a bad rash, itching and stinging, pinching his skin as if pulled by a line. The dozens of beams across his body, including a particularly irritating one on the side of his face, worked together to hold him in place, held in the air. He was a human marionette.

His blaster was pointed toward the ceiling, damn it, held in place with his forearm close to his head. Looking over, he saw Yiorgos similarly held and straining against the beams, the duffel with the Heart in his left hand. Andy had a reserved look on his smooth, youthful face, not bothering to struggle.

"It is no use, my friend," 'TakTrak said, stepping into the corridor from behind a cooling unit. A pair of his crewmen, including a lanky, four-legged Jen'torian and a faun-like Pleiadean, stepped out as well, each with a blaster aimed at them. 'TakTrak continued, "I had hoped you would stay in the comfort