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Gwen& "
"She is dead, Taggart," K'Kai said above him. He glanced up to look at
her inscrutable alien face, blurred through the tears in his eyes. "You
cannot help her now."
"She can't be dead. This wasn't supposed to happen, it should have
been me& she's so young, only a child& Gwen, lass, you canna die on me,
girl!" Paladin's arms tightened around her, burying his face against her
scorched red hair. He felt numb, frozen, unable to think. This shouldn't
hae happened, not to Gwen. A young lass, with everything in the world
to live for. It should have been me, a useless old man, not her .. .mother&
"Taggart, there are other lives at stake here," K'Kaibegan.
"Shut up!" Paladin snarled at her, holding Gwen's body against him,
tears brimming over his eyes, his stomach clenched with grief.
The Firekkan leaned in close and bit his ear.
Paladin yelped and swung his fist at her, but she ducked back out of
range. He felt the blood trickling hotly down his face, the pain drying his
tears and breaking him out of his grief, throwing him instead into anger.
Hell, that bitch!
"Gwen is dead, but we are still alive, and we have work to do!" K'Kai
said angrily. "Get back on your feet and help me find my people, or I will
do more than bite you!"
Her cold, reasoned words shocked him back into thinking again. She's
right. Gwen's dead, but we can't give up yet.
"You're you're right," Paladin said slowly, looking down at the woman
in his arms. He set Gwen's body on the deck, gently closing her open,
staring eyes. Then he straightened, crossing to one of the computer
consoles. "We we need something that'll slow down those Kilrathi troops,
give us a chance to get the hostages and get back off the station. Do any of
these controls make sense to you, K'Kai?"
"No, Dzames."
He stared at them, talking as much to himself as to her. "I recognize
these symbols. That's the temperature controls. We could raise or lower
the temperature, but that wouldn't really help us& wait! Over there, those
switches. They look like they're emergency seal controls in case of an
environmental accident." His eyes raced over the keys as he spoke,
pointing out what he was talking about to K'Kai. "We can seal off this
section of the station, prevent the Kilrathi from bringing more troops into
this area. The only risk is that we'd cut off Hunter and Kirha as well." He
studied the controls, desperately trying to remember the layout of the
station that he had studied for endless hours. "No, if we hit them here,
and here, Hunter will still be able to get through to the detention areas."
"A good plan," K'Kai agreed, and together they set the controls for the
worst possible environmental accident that could occur on a station,
multiple breaches of the station's hull.
"And that gauge over there. I bet that's the artificial gravity controls."
"It could be," K'Kai said, studying the console.
"Your people are flyers. They'd be able to move pretty damn fast in zero
gravity, better than the Kilrathi."
"That is true," K'Kai agreed, her eyes brightening. "Indeed we move
well on my freighter."
"I'm sure they'll have backup systems, but a few minutes of zero-gee
might allow Hunter and Kirha a better chance of getting the hostages out,
not to mention giving us a better chance to fight our way back onto the
ship." He paused a moment, trying to think of any holes in the
hastily-made plan. There were probably dozens, but at this point it hardly
mattered. "It's worth a try, and I can't see anything else here that'll help.
We can shut down the gravity and use that surprise to get out of here.
Grab onto something, I'm going to switch the gravity off& now!"
He held onto the edge of the console as he pulled the switch, and a
split-second later felt the familiar stomach-twisting weightlessness of zero
gravity. Gwen's body gently floated up from the floor, the Kilrathi corpses
drifting through the air beyond her.
"We must hurry, Major," K'Kai said from the hatchway.
"I know," he replied, pulling himself across the console toward the
floating body. "Goodbye, Gwen," he said, holding her unburnt hand in his
for a long moment, and pressing it to his lips. He turned and pushed off in
the direction of the hatchway. "On three, K'Kai," he said, grabbing onto
the edge of the hatch. "One, two& three!" He punched the control to
unlock the hatch and kicked it open. The three Kilrathi floating helplessly
in the corridor tried to bring up their assault rifles, but too late& a few
seconds later, Paladin and K'Kai were moving past the lifeless bodies,
heading back toward the Bonnie Heather.
CHAPTER TWELVE
"Can't we talk about this some more?" Hunter asked, staring at the
huge Kilrathi warrior.
Kirha obligingly translated for him, and the big Kilrathi replied in the
same language. "He says the time for talk is past, now you must prove
yourself worthy to be a liege lord of Kilrah."
"Oh, hell," Hunter said with a sigh, looking up at his opponent.
"Somehow I was hoping that he'd settle for a friendly game of cards
instead." Hunter glanced at Kirha, then suddenly snap-kicked the huge
Kilrathi between the legs without warning. The Kilrathi stood there for a
moment in shock, then collapsed. The other cats stood staring at their
crumpled chief.
"That was not very honorable, my lord," Kirha observed from the
sidelines.
"Anything's fair in& shit!" Hunter exclaimed as the fallen Kilrathi
hooked his leg, claws ripping through the thick leather of his boot. Hunter
kicked desperately as he fell, then the huge Kilrathi caught him up in a
bear hug, slowly squeezing. Hunter gasped, then reached for the only
obvious target he could see, the Kilrathi's broad nose. He drove the heel of
his hand into it, then grabbed it and twisted it hard. The warrior yelled in
pain and let him go. Hunter rolled away, scrambling to his feet in time to
duck a sideswipe of claws from his opponent. The second time he wasn't
as lucky. Hunter felt the warrior's claws rip through his jacket, tearing
into his back. He jumped backward, standing with his back against the
wall. He definitely felt the blood running down his back, sticky and hot.
This isn't going too well&
The Kilrathi touched his nose, which was bleeding profusely, and
roared something in his own language. Then he charged.
Hunter slammed against the wall and was pinned there by the full
weight of the Kilrathi, the breath knocked right out of him. He fought to
get free, but was pinned tight. "Kirha!" he gasped. "Help me!"
"But, my lord, it is not honorable& " Kirha objected.
To hell with honor! "Kirha, I order you to help me!" he yelled.
A moment later, the Kilrathi's weight lifted right off of him, for no
reason that Hunter could see. Then he realized why, as he began drifting
away from the wall, floating in mid-air.
The gravity! Something's happened to the gravity!
Then Kirha, drifting close to the other Kilrathi, grabbed one of the
assault rifles from a Kilrathi guard, aimed and fired. He tossed the rifle to
Hunter a moment later, wading into the mass of Kilrathi with claws and
teeth. Hunter froze for a half second in shock, then brought up the gun
and started firing before the startled Kilrathi could react. A few seconds
later, it was over.
The face Kirha turned toward him was full of indignation. "My lord, I
cannot believe that you asked for my assistance in a ritual combat! It goes
against all the traditions of "
"I know, I know," Hunter said, and pushed himself off from the closest
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