Even she looked a little stunned as she took in the bodies. Her wide eyes met his. “My hands are shaking.”
Jak’ri grabbed one of the fallen guard’s osdulium rifles and looped it over his shoulder. “Let’s keep moving.” The blaster fire would’ve alerted anyone nearby to trouble.
Ava confiscated a second O-rifle and retrieved her blaster.
Once more they headed for the tertiary lab, picking up their pace, their bare feet allowing them to move quietly as they darted up one corridor and down the next.
Though shouts sounded distantly behind them, they managed to reach the lab without encountering anyone else.
Ducking inside, they sealed the door.
Jak’ri’s eyes went straight to the adjoining cells.
Both were empty. His chest tightened. Ziv’ri.
“We’ll check the secondary lab,” Ava promised as she hurried across the room and started checking the contents of the upper cabinets. “Hopefully, he’s there.”
Or maybe Saekro had told them the truth and Ziv’ri was dead.
Jak’ri headed into the cell and destroyed the computer in the lav. Then he returned to the lab and helped Ava search for the samples they’d taken from her.
She heaved a big sigh of relief when they found them. Grabbing two cold packages of blood, she shoved them at him. “Put these in the medic bag and don’t let anything happen to them.”
Surprised that she didn’t want to destroy them, Jak’ri did as bidden before turning his attention to the lower cabinets. This lab was set up almost exactly like the primary lab. It was just smaller. So the incinerator should be… He waved a hand across a lower cabinet and it popped open. “Here.”
Ava became a blur of motion—a literal blur of motion—as she swiftly deposited the remaining samples in the incinerator along with every device she could find.
Jak’ri closed it. A whoosh sounded.
She motioned to the walls. “Are you sure nothing in here can store information or were you just trying to protect me and keep me from blasting them?”
He hesitated. “Both?”
She narrowed her eyes.
“I’m mostly sure, but I’m basing that on the way Purveli ships are often designed.”
“Mostly isn’t good enough. Shoot everything they might use to enter or store information.”
Jak’ri shot every panel and input port. “They’ll know we’re heading for the secondary lab now.”
“I know.” She strode toward the door. “But that’s the only other place they’d be holding Ziv’ri, and we’re not leaving without him.” If he’s still alive went unspoken.
Jak’ri nodded.
As soon as they opened the door, blaster fire hit the frame.
Both ducked back inside.
Ava gave him a quick once-over, as though searching for wounds, then disappeared in a flash.
Battle sounds erupted.
Swearing, Jak’ri dropped the medic bag and blaster, raised the more accurate O-rifle, and ducked into the hallway. Two Gathendiens were already down. Six more fired blindly as a small form barreled through them, seemingly at light speed, knocking them on their asses and firing her blaster. One Gathendien’s head snapped back, though Jak’ri hadn’t seen what hit him, and the grunark shot his own man as he flew backward off his feet.
Jak’ri shot him before he hit the ground, then took out another, hoping fervently that he wouldn’t accidentally shoot Ava.
The last man fell. Ava stood in the middle of the pile, breathing hard. Little specks of blood spattered one side of her face. The rest of her body was streaked with it. “Thanks,” she said.
Jak’ri nodded. “I was afraid I might shoot you.”
“Apparently, I’m fast enough to dodge energy bolts or whatever these weapons fire.”
Jak’ri wasn’t so sure. One of her arms was liberally coated with blood. So was one of her legs. “Is that blood yours or theirs?” he asked as he started toward her.
She waved a hand as though brushing his concern aside. “I’m okay. Let’s keep moving.”
Mind whirling, heart racing, Jak’ri tucked his discarded blaster in an outside pocket of the medic bag and slung the bag over his shoulder. Looping the rifle over his other shoulder, he grabbed a second rifle and readied it.
Ava confiscated a long dagger from one of the Gathendiens. When she started toward him, dagger in one hand, blaster in the other, she limped.
He opened his mouth to ask about it, but the ship-wide alarm began to blare.
Wee-wonk! Wee-wonk!
Eyes widening, the two of them took off toward the secondary lab. Abandoning stealth in favor of speed, they ran as quickly as they could.
Or rather as quickly as he could. Jak’ri bemoaned the fact that he was slowing her down. Ava was so fast now that even with the limp she could’ve already been in an escape pod and flying away to freedom if she weren’t stuck with him.
You’re forgetting that I have no idea how to operate a Gathendien escape pod, she said in his head.
Drek. He had forgotten that.
When they rounded the corner nearest the secondary lab, his eyes widened.
“Oh shit!” Ava cried.
Jak’ri barely had time to register that ten or twelve Gathendien soldiers waited for them before she shoved him. Hard.
He flew off his feet, fell on his ass, and skidded back down the hallway. The corridor the secondary lab opened onto lit up with energy bolts.
His heart stopped. Ava was nowhere in sight. Had they shot her?
A slew of Earth curses filled his head.
Jak’ri found a smile. Drek no, they hadn’t. Nor would they.
Leaping up, he raced toward the battle. The rest of the Gathendien ship wasn’t as tidy as the lab and provided just enough dust on the floor’s surface to enable him to drop into a slide. Energy bolts sailed over his head as he skidded to a halt, body flat against the surface.
Once again, a small blurred form sparked chaos in the center of the group, so Jak’ri focused his O-rifle on the grunarks along the edges and fired in quick bursts. I’m aiming at the outer guards, he thought, hoping she’d hear him.
Their attention torn between the deadly woman behind them and the Purveli in front of them, quite a few Gathendiens fell beneath his fire. Ava kept them so busy they couldn’t take time to aim, so their energy bolts hit the walls, the ceiling, and the floor instead of him.
More bodies fell until only Ava and a lone Gathendien remained, locked in what was clearly a one-sided battle.
Boots pounded on flooring.
More troops approached.
Glancing over his shoulder, Jak’ri scrambled toward the lab.
The last Gathendien fell.
“More are coming,” he warned Ava.
The lab door rose at their approach. He raised his rifle. Ava raised her blaster.
But no guards lay in wait for them.
She darted inside.
Jak’ri glanced in long enough to determine Ziv’ri wasn’t in either of the cells.
Clenching his teeth, he parked himself in the doorway and watched both ends of the hallway. I’ll stand guard.
Ziv’ri isn’t here, she told him despondently.
I know.
Blaster fire sounded in the lab as Ava destroyed everything she needed to, then returned to his side.
O-rifle ready, Jak’ri moved into the corridor and led the way—he hoped—to the Gathendien escape pods.