Gunship (27 page)

Ty popped back up to his feet and aimed another vicious kick at Tiny’s midsection. She sidestepped and grabbed his foot, allowing his momentum to do the work for her as she flipped him onto his face and made a solid connection with his right kidney. Ty swept his free leg around, knocking her legs from under her and rolling to free his foot. She scrambled back to her feet and blocked Ty’s next flurry of punches. A right hook reached her rib cage, knocking the breath out of her, forcing her to step back.

Marek cheered. “Ol’ Ty’s got ’er on the ropes now! Never did see anyone ever get the best of him!”

Chang still said nothing, waiting to see what would happen next. Tiny was watching Ty, reading him and readying her next move. Marek was too young to see it and Ty was too angry, but Chang could tell that was what she was doing: she was playing with him, testing and learning about him and then cataloging the information in case she needed it for the future. She didn’t have to kill him now, just teach him a lesson while adhering to the Captain’s request. Every move would be orchestrated to that end, even if no one else could see it. Everything would look normal, but she had already planned out how this chess match would be won.

They circled each other warily, exchanging a few more kicks and punches. Ty feinted to Tiny’s right, causing her to flinch away as he switched up and stepped left then grabbed ahold of her. She connected her free elbow to his eye and started to perform a reverse mule kick, which he promptly blocked. He wrestled for control of her arms, pulling one up and around behind her so he could leverage it if he needed to. Chang held his breath.

“You fight pretty good for girl,” he panted, sweat dripping down his face. “But I been doing this for a long time, been in a lot more fights than you have, and I rarely lose. I’ll break this arm if I have to, but I’d rather not since the Captain preferred we didn’t. So why don’t you just holler out that you give up, and we’ll end this nice and civil?”

Tiny appeared to be listening to Ty’s words. She paused, then slumped a bit in his grasp, looking defeated. Ty grinned triumphantly, releasing his hold just slightly.

Chang saw it coming. “Don’t let her go! It’s a trick!”

Tiny shifted her weight to the left and swung her legs up while twisting out of Ty’s grip. Her left foot connected with Ty’s jaw as she flipped around, landing firmly crouched, ready to strike him again. Ty dropped to the ground and lay still. Tiny kicked him a couple times to make sure he was out and then checked his jaw. It would be bruised, but she hadn’t broken it. She glanced at the security camera briefly.

“I won’t be messing with that gal anytime soon. Dang!” Marek gave a low whistle and continued to look on in disbelief as Tiny squatted a moment longer, spitting into the dirt nearby as she pretended to catch her breath.

Reilly watched, somewhat amused now as Tiny grabbed Ty up under the arms and dragged his huge frame back towards the ship. When she reached Reilly, she dropped him on the ramp and then scrubbed the dirt off her face with a sleeve.

Reilly leaned over and pried up his eyelids and felt his jaw. Satisfied that he was intact, she nodded at Tiny. “I’ll stay with him until he comes to. Chang probably needs your help in the med center right about now.”

Tiny nodded and headed up the catwalk to see to Duv and Skeeter, leaving Reilly with her thoughts.

—————

Chang finished placing the last set of stitches at the base of Duv’s skull and then gave him a shot to help with the pain and the swelling. He had lost a lot of blood and was nauseous, but Chang reassured him he would be feeling fine in a day or so, though he would probably be sore for the next week. Duv mumbled a sleepy thank you as he looked down at Skeeter, a frightened concern in his gaze. Tiny coaxed him to go with Marek back to his bunk and get some rest, promising to come get him if there were any changes in the boy’s condition.

Chang cleaned up the bloody bandages and pads while Tiny checked Seth out. Her duty report indicated that she was an experienced trauma medic, so Chang insisted on deferring to her. In reality, Chang knew that as a Gaiden her medical skills would far outpace his own, and this would provide him with yet another opportunity to assess her abilities.

She ran a full body scan and then a focused scan. His brain waves were excessively elevated, even though she had been able to get his heart rate stabilized with the med kit. There was an infection, a minor one, but still something she could focus on. She pointed it out to Chang, explaining it as the likely reason for the fever, and then asked if they had any nanocilins aboard. Chang left to get what they had from cold storage.

As soon as he disappeared, Tiny pulled out her handheld and entered a passcode. Her screen flashed, waiting to connect, and then Colonel Zain appeared.

“Report.”

“Sir, the operative has redlined. One of his defensive programs was tripped today, forcing a circumvention of the control program. He’s out. I need the doctor to look at these scans.”

Zain punched up the scans while the doctor looked them over. “She’s right, sir. He’s pretty bad off. She’s going to need to block him for a couple days.”

Zain swore, then turned back to Tiny. “Doc says to block him. Can you do that? Discreetly?”

Tiny frowned. “I can. I’ll have to mask it with something for inflammation so there is a reason he’ll be out. There is one other situation, sir.” Tiny explained what had happened earlier that day. “The operative acted in defense of his father. All five were dispatched with extreme prejudice in a matter of seconds. After securing the area, he promptly passed out, and I brought him back here.”

“Damn Joby Ty to hell! What was he thinking? He’s normally a sound troop, too. What’d Reilly do to him?” Zain asked.

“She didn’t have to do anything, sir. He challenged me. The Captain gave us the go-ahead, and as far as I know, he’s still out on the ramp where I left him.” Tiny briefly touched her jaw, then added, “He is a solid fighter.”

At that, Zain raised an eyebrow. “You mean he actually landed some hits without you allowing him to? That’s pretty good. I’m glad to see the old crew is staying sharp. Sounds like you’ll need to step up your game. Keep me informed.”

“Roger that, sir. Out.” Tiny switched off the handheld and then poked her head out of the hatch. Chang was just coming back down the hallway with the case from cold storage.

“Sorry, Marek needed some more help with Duv. Here are the nanocilins we have on hand.” Chang handed her the case, and she found what she was looking for and loaded it into an auto injector. She placed it against Seth’s neck and pulled the trigger.

“That will deal with the infection. My main concern is his stress level now. Has he been under a lot of pressure lately?” Tiny selected another bottle and dropped it into the injector.

“His father rescued him from slavers after he witnessed them killing the rest of his family. He’s been battling post-traumatic stress disorder for a while and only recently has started to make progress, but it’s fragile. We had a bad episode before we got here that set him back for a few days.” Chang met Tiny’s gaze.

She turned and looked at Seth again. That would explain Duv’s explosion at Ty. The anger she had expected, but the fear had surprised her. Now she understood. He was afraid that the boy had slipped into some type of traumatic state again. And he blamed himself for what had happened. She applied the next injection and sat back, setting the injector aside and tucking a blanket around Seth.

“I’ll stay with him for now. The meds will help him to rest and recover, but he’ll be in and out for the next day or so. From there, we’ll see how he does.” She pushed the hair off of his forehead and applied two biofeedback sensors to monitor his brain activity, then placed two more on his neck and chest. A holograph in the shape of a wire-framed body appeared in blue above him, ticking off constant stats on his heart rate, blood pressure, and temperature.

Chang packed up the nanocilins and prepared to take them back. “Is there anything I can bring you? If not, I have some duties to attend to, but I will come back in two hours to relieve you.”

“No, I have everything I need at the moment. Thank you for the offer. I’ll look for you in two hours.”

Chang nodded and headed out. Tiny looked after him briefly, then turned her attention back to Seth. The blocker she had added to the anti-inflammation drugs was working well. Already his brain activity had returned to normal, allowing him to fall into a deep sleep. She wondered what the final plan would be for this boy, why he was so important that Zain would risk bringing him into the program. Children who had suffered violence at an early age were very rarely selected for training, mainly because they were already unstable and the programming could cause them to suffer a mental break. Tiny was under no illusions. She had seen trainees come and go in quick succession, sacrificed on the galactic altar to broker a deal, buy time, demand peace, win a war. She hoped it would turn out well for the boy, but she was a realist. The Commander would sacrifice whatever was needed if it would serve the greater good of the galaxy. Her job was simply to get Seth healthy again and to get him ready for whatever was ahead. Tiny couldn’t help but wonder what angles Zain was working, but she had been in this business long enough to know not to ask. She turned back to the holograph, then pulled out her handheld and got to work.

—————

Ty woke up to see the night sky overhead. Puzzled, he turned his head slightly to look around as pain blossomed across his lower jaw. He winced and closed his eyes, trying to breathe through his bloodied nose. He looked to his right and was surprised to see the Captain sitting quietly, looking out at the stars. He slowly rolled onto his side and pushed himself into a sitting position. Dried blood was crusted down his chin and onto his shirt from where his lip had been split. It felt like he had been kicked in the face by a horse. His ribs were on fire, too, as if someone had beaten them with a cane. His whole body was stiff from lying on the hard metal of the cargo ramp.

Reilly continued to look up at the sky, not speaking.

“How long was I out for?” he asked, his mouth dry with dust.

“For a few hours. It only just got dark a little while ago.”

“I really screwed up today.” Ty knew the Captain well enough to know excuses weren’t going to fly, and besides, he had none. He licked his lip and then pulled his t-shirt back into place.

“Yup.” Reilly didn’t argue the point.

“And I just got my assed kicked by a damn girl.” He gently wiggled his jaw, squinting in pain. It wasn’t broken, but it sure felt like it should’ve been.

“I’ve kicked your ass before,” Reilly remarked.

Ty spat off to the side. “Yeah, but you’re a woman and my squad lead. It’s different.”

“I hate to break it to you, but Tiny’s a woman too. I think you need to start considering that, it might save you some pain in the future.” Reilly looked at Ty, her anger showing now. “Is she going to continue to be a distraction for you? We could have lost all of you today. What the hell happened in town, anyway?”

Ty sucked on his teeth. “I can’t put my finger on it, but that girl…woman…I just don’t like her. I can’t even tell you what it is, just feels like something is not right, not trustworthy. I try to read her and it’s like she’s working deception tactics across the board, throwing me off. It’s just weird.”

Reilly waited. Ty knew what she was asking. He’d tell her how he’d screwed up and how he was going to fix it before they were done here tonight, that much was for damn sure. Accountability for yourself and your actions was something she didn’t take lightly.

Ty stared out into the darkness. “Yeah, my big day of firsts; first fight I lost in about seven years, got my ass kicked by a girl, and got it saved by a kid. Who’d a thought he had it in him? He killed those men. I’ve never seen the like of him.”

Reilly was confused. “What, you mean he shot the man who had Duv?”

Ty turned to her, his eyes a bit haunted. “No, he came up, broke the lead guy’s arm and dropped him to the ground, then took his blaster. Before we even could move, he had shot the other four, turned back and retrieved the credits from the first guy, and then shot him twice in the chest. He didn’t think, didn’t blink. Then he looked around the entire area, like he was waiting for something, and then next thing we know he’s blacked out on the ground. He killed all of them and did it like it was nothing. Something’s gone wrong with him, scary wrong, and I’ll be fragged if I know what it is.” Ty groaned as he leaned back, holding his ribs.

Reilly’s mind raced. Seth was fine this morning before he left, and then he suddenly gets some strange infection, gets stressed out, turns into a gunslinger, and saves the crew from mercenaries only to pass out once he’s finished them off?

“None of this makes sense,” she said, and Ty nodded slowly his agreement. “Maybe he had a flashback and thought he was someplace else?”

“It’s possible. He still hasn’t talked about what happened down there, and he did faint when he was done shooting. It didn’t feel like a flashback, though. He definitely recognized the guy from Rooster’s, and if it was a flashback, why did he stop to swipe the handheld before he killed the guy?” Ty struggled to get up and then leaned on the side of the ship. “It was like the kid wasn’t even in there anymore, like it was just some killing machine in a Skeeter-sized suit. It freaked us all out pretty good.”

“I’ll talk to him when he comes around. Tiny’s keeping an eye on him for now.” She watched as Ty finally made it to his feet. “So let me bottom line it for you, Sergeant: you don’t like her and I don’t care. I’m not sure I like her yet either, but I’m pretty sure I like the crew we got already. We’re all pretty ragged right now—ever since Vervian, things have been getting stranger and more complicated. If I go with my gut, all hell feels like it’s getting ready to break loose. We all need to be at our best. I can’t have crew members losing focus. It gets people killed. Understood?”

At that, Ty looked up. Reilly’s intuition was well known, and it paid to listen when she said something was up. “All hell, huh? Well, let’s hope not. I’m over halfway on my hundred lives, and I’m not sure if today counts as another or not.” Ty tried to smile, but Reilly’s eyes were serious. “I’m focused. And it won’t happen again. The whole taking the kid gambling thing, I mean. Not so sure about the fight thing…with the girl…woman…whatever. It won’t be a problem.”