On The Imperium’s Secret Service (Imperium Cicernus) (41 page)

Another airlock opened too quickly for them to intervene and burn it closed.  Mariko’s suit whirled around and opened fire, picking off the Secessionists as they emerged from the airlock and tried to find cover before they were burned down.  None of them escaped in time to prevent Fitz from running up behind her and launching a plasma grenade into the hatch.  The resulting explosion sent atmosphere venting out of the ship, although not for more than a few seconds.  Despite the damage they’d inflicted on the ship’s sensors and weapons arrays, the ship’s integrity was still intact.

A plasma bolt shot past her.  The suit sent her diving to the hull. 

Some Secessionists emerged from a third airlock, advancing towards them in battle array.  Half of them wore battlesuits that looked to be outdated Imperium designs, while the remainder wore suits that her suit couldn't identify.  A present from the Snakes, perhaps, or something constructed on a hidden world along the Rim? 

There was no way to know, but she suspected that neither she nor Fitz would like the answer when they found out. 

Paradise had blossomed by ignoring the Imperium’s laws; what might have been possible on a world completely unknown to the Imperium?  An entire battle fleet, perhaps? 

“Keep firing,” Fitz ordered.  “Mai should be coming soon...”

Mariko snorted.  She was effectively a passenger in her suit as it fought the battle for her.  Every time an enemy showed himself, the suit shot a load of plasma at him, forcing the target to duck quickly to save his life. 

Mariko saw beams of light blazing away from the undamaged weapons, just before
Bruce Wayne
came into view.  Mai
was
a good pilot, Mariko acknowledged, as the tiny ship evaded the incoming fire and shot back, scarring the enemy hull.  But a single lucky shot would cripple her ship...Mariko wanted to scream at Mai to run, even as she came in for another attack run.  She didn't want to see her sister die while she watched, helpless to affect the outcome.

The hull of the cruiser tilted suddenly as her helmsman brought her about, trying to bring her surviving weapons to bear on their tiny tormentor.  Mai
couldn't
win, but she could keep them distracted while Fitz and Mariko made their escape. 

Fitz led the way back to the other side of the ship, shooting a handful of weapons and sensor blisters before they could be turned against the
Bruce Wayne
.  The enemy cruiser had to be half-blind by now, Mariko told herself, as she opened fire on a pair of enemy soldiers trying to creep up on them.  Mai might be able to win after all if she stayed in the ship’s blind spot.

New alerts flashed in front of her. She cursed.  The cruiser, clearly accepting that it had picked on something more dangerous than itself, was rotating, preparing to leave by the shortest possible route to the phase limit.

“We have to get back to the
Happy Wanderer
and secure the Professor,” Fitz snapped.  “Mai can keep them off-balance long enough for us to escape.”

Mariko sighed in relief, feeling sweat pouring down her face even in the cool interior of the suit.  How could combat in an automated suit that did most of the work be so exhausting? 

He fired a final spread of shots at the enemy, forcing them to keep their heads down, and then threw himself into space.  Mariko followed a second later, trusting in the suit’s guidance systems to find their way back to the
Happy Wanderer
.  They still couldn't use the onboard systems, for fear of being detected and vaporised by the enemy cruiser before it left. 

It struck Mariko that the ship might fire on the
Happy Wanderer
anyway, in the hopes of eliminating the Professor and all evidence of what they had been doing with him.  But what
had
they been doing with him?  Why would they want a wormhole expert?  None of the possibilities she could think of sounded very pleasant, or possible.

Mariko’s ship loomed in front of them and they impacted on the hull, just before a burst of laser fire scorched the side of Mariko’s suit.  Red warnings flashed in front of her, warning that her left arm had been compromised, the outer layer of armour almost completely destroyed.  She hit the hull of the ship and clung to it like it was a life preserver, desperately trying to figure out what happened.  Had Red broken free of the duct tape and set out to get revenge?  But Fitz had knocked her down effortlessly...

Fitz swore as he opened fire. 

“They sent a team over here while we were over there,” he said, angrily.  “God damn it – I
thought
there was a small number of troops trying to kill us.”

Mariko felt a hot flash of anger as her suit managed to stabilise itself, although real repairs would have to wait until they were back on the
Bruce Wayne
.  How
dare
someone try to board her ship? 

Fitz was still firing, but he was placing his shots carefully; it took Mariko a moment to realise that the enemy boarders had managed to capture the Professor, as they'd removed him from where he’d been tethered.  Mariko’s weapons array had been damaged, yet she realised there was enough left to force the enemy to take care.  She opened fire with gleeful abandon, trying to drive them away from her ship.

Her radio crackled.  “I don't seem to be able to damage this thing properly,” Mai said, angrily.  “Should I try to take out the phase drive?”

Mariko smiled. Her sister sounded fine, but irked. 

“Absolutely not,” Fitz said, sharply. 

Mariko blinked in surprise.  Taking out the cruiser’s phase drive would leave them stranded in the isolated system. 

“We really don’t want them stuck here with us,” he added.

Mariko understood, suddenly.  The cruiser still had a manpower advantage; they could still win, particularly if they couldn't retreat.  And if they got their hands on the Professor, they might call it a victory, even if they had been humiliated by a pair of operatives in battlesuits.  They’d even have data they could use to ensure that the next encounter didn't go the same way, perhaps altering their shields to prevent slow-moving objects from slipping through without being interdicted.  It would cost them in power, the engineer in her said, but it would be worth it. 

The cruiser was picking up speed, heading directly towards the phase limit.  For a moment, Mariko wondered if it intended to abandon its soldiers on the
Happy Wanderer
, just before they gathered themselves and leapt away from her ship on a course that would intersect with the cruiser.  Fitz cursed out loud as they sped away, carrying the Professor with them.  There seemed to be no point in giving chase, not when the enemy had managed to turn the undamaged part of their hull to cover the incoming soldiers. 

Fitz lunged forward, his suit rapidly reconfiguring itself to deploy a single weapon.  A long, thin tube emerged from his arm, which he pointed in the direction of the fleeing soldiers.  There was a brief pause as he took aim...

And then, as Mariko stared in surprise and horror, he fired, burning right through the Professor’s spacesuit.

Professor Snider, wormhole expert, died instantly.

“What the hell did you do?”
she demanded.

“What had to be done,” Fitz said, as the enemy cruiser recovered her soldiers, crossed the phase limit and vanished into phase space.  “There was no way we could allow them to take him.”

Mariko stared at his armoured form in complete disbelief.  Killing someone who was trying to kill her was understandable – and it worried her just how quickly she’d become used to it – but murdering someone in cold blood...?  That was something different. 

He turned as Mai brought the
Bruce Wayne
in towards the
Happy Wanderer
. 

“We both need a shower and a rest,” he said.  “After that, I know where we’re going next.”

“No, we don’t,” Mariko snapped.  “I want to know why you killed him!”

“And so do I,” Mai chimed in.  The airlock on the
Bruce Wayne
gaped open, invitingly.  “Come aboard and tell us!”

Mai sounded shocked, worse than Mariko herself; perhaps it would kill the crush she’d had on Fitz. 

Fitz jumped to his ship. Mariko followed. 

She wasn't sure how she felt.  Part of her was
very
attracted to Fitz and she believed the feeling was mutual, but she didn't really
know
him.  She had certainly never expected him to kill Professor Snider in cold blood.  If nothing else, he was one of the very few experts the Imperium had – and killing him would weaken the society Fitz was trying to protect and preserve. 

Inside the hull, she climbed out of the battlesuit and rubbed uncomfortably at her shipsuit.  The brief battle had lasted no more than fifteen minutes before the enemy cut their losses and retreated, but she was covered in sweat and gel from the suit.  Despite that, her body ached.  The suit’s automated combat system was designed for a trained and enhanced Marine, not for an inexperienced newcomer.

“Red is still aboard your ship, unless they triggered a suicide implant remotely,” Fitz said.  “She should be safe for the moment, but we will have to move her to a secure cabin onboard this ship sooner or later.”

Mai looked up from where she’d been waiting at the end of the corridor.  “This ship has a
brig
?”

“One of the cabins can be sealed,” Fitz said.  “You’d never know unless you took the command modules apart to discover what’s hidden inside.”

He sounded tired and worn, almost bitter.  Like Mariko, his face and body was streaked with sweat.  He stank...and Mariko was uncomfortably aware that she probably smelled worse.  For a moment, she considered suggesting that they went for a shower after all, before stiffening her resolve.  They
had
to know why Professor Snider had been sentenced to death...

And what if you don’t like the reason
? she thought, mockingly. 
Are you going to leave him now, despite giving your word to stay and see this to the end
?

She looked at Fitz’s back as he headed towards the dining room, and shivered again.  It was hard not to like him, but part of her was also scared of him.  She’d thought she'd known him –
a common delusion among women
, part of her mind said derisively – and yet she hadn't realised that he would carry out what amounted to cold-blooded murder.  Professor Snider had never done anything that caused him to deserve death, had he? 

And yet...what if Fitz had let him go?  The enemy could have snatched victory from the jaws of a bloody stalemate.

“Water,” Fitz ordered, as they entered the dining room.  “Water, and some supplement bars.  Mariko and I burned a great deal of energy over the last fifteen minutes, and the suits don’t let us stop.”

Mai nodded.

Mariko collapsed into a chair, the tiredness threatening to overwhelm her.  Fitz had his augments to keep him walking, but she just wanted to close her eyes and sleep.  She barely noticed the water until Mai held it under her nose, eventually splashing a little into her mouth.  It tasted of almost nothing, like all water that had been recycled time and time again, but Mariko found herself gulping it greedily.  The supplement bars tasted ghastly, as usual, yet she crammed three down her throat before remembering her manners.  Her mother would have screamed at her.

“There's a variant on those suits for civilians,” Fitz observed.  He seemed tired too, despite his augmentation.  “They make people do exercises and they don’t let up, even when the person inside is screaming for mercy.  But they’re quite popular if you have money to burn; if your kid is too fat, you put him in one of the suits and make him exercise.”

“Seems cruel,” Mariko commented, sharply.  “Why did you kill Professor Snider?”