THE PRIZE: BOOK TWO - RETRIBUTION (28 page)

“One perp down.” She muttered, swallowing carefully, chiding herself for not taking aim with greater care.

“Good girl. Ellis didn’t take her eyes off the passageway ahead. If Jenny said the slaver was down, then he was down and she didn’t need to check. Despite her reluctance in taking part in the paintball games, Jenny was a sure shot and hit what she aimed at.

Another stairway and a short passageway and they reached ‘officer country’ with threadbare carpets on the deck and actual color on the bulkheads rather than the omnipresent battleship gray of the crew and slave pens. The paint was dirty, flaking, and peeling, so cleaning and maintenance didn’t seem to be a high priority on this ship. At the end, a short flight of stairs led up to the flight deck, and reaching back, Ellis placed her hand on Jenny’s shoulder and pushed down so she sank to a squatting position.

“The hatchway to the bridge is open, but that could mean they know we are coming and are just waiting for us to stick our heads up.” Jenny nodded. “I don’t see any security cams here, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any.”

“Plan?” Jenny asked.

“Thinking.” Time wasn’t on their side, as sooner rather than later the captain or boss of this outfit would start getting worried when he didn’t hear something back from his cleanup crew.

“We need a distraction…” Ellis grinned as a thought occurred to her. “Don’t tell your Dad I showed you how to do this.” Ellis pulled a pistol power pack out of her belt, and using a hairpin she shorted across the terminals. “Set for stun, not that I’m particular if these assholes live or die, but I don’t want to damage any equipment if any of the shots miss. Fire in the hole!” She whispered sharply and threw the doctored power pack into the corner by the hatchway. The pack overloaded and exploded with a bang and a flash of blue-white light.

“What the fuck!” Someone yelled. A large tough looking character with a beard stormed out of the bridge, pistol in hand and ran into twin pulse rifles. Even on stun, the impact of both rounds flipped him back onto the bridge. Even before he’d stopped sliding across the deck, Ellis took a leap up the short stairway and through the hatch before Jenny could move.

“Freeze asshole or die!” There was only one other person on the bridge, a pale looking man of medium height who stood there blinking in surprise. The moment he saw the rifle pointed at him, his hands shot into the air.

“Oh fuck!” was all he said as the Valkyrie with the blazing eyes stalked across the bridge, the business end of the rifle pointed at his crotch.

“Who are you?”

“I… I’m the navigator.” He stuttered, having no doubt she’d shoot his dick off if he didn’t answer.

“And him?” Ellis asked with a slight nod of her head at the fallen man.

“H… he’s the captain… well, sort of. The boss you might say.

“I wouldn’t call that asshole anything, let alone the boss or captain. He’s a low life, bottom feeding scum as far as I’m concerned. Now go sit in the corner and don’t move. If you do, this young lady will not hesitate to blow your head off, clear?”

“Yes… yes, ma’am.” The girl flicked her eyes to him a moment but all he could see was hatred. She stood with her foot on the late captain’s neck and the tip of her rifle against his chest. The navigator quickly scuttled to the corner and tried to curl into a ball, whimpering softly. This was his worst nightmare come true, one the late captain had dismissed with a laugh and a brushing motion of his hand.

“There’s no way those bitches can escape, or have the guts to do anything about it if they did.” He laughed. “And where would they go?”

Ellis ran her hands over the controls, and like Penn she knew what each was for and what they did. It still felt odd to have that ability, but it did come in handy. She located the security lockdown and activated it. She then punched in an override code and all the pressure doors and hatchways slid shut, locking in whoever was left alive on the ship. To her amusement, almost all of the security cams were out, which accounted for the bridge being unaware of their escape. She located the comm switch for the cleaning area.

“Hi girls. Don’t worry about the hatchway closing and locking. We have the bridge and I’ll be down very soon so we can go take the engine room crew.”

“Shit! We were getting worried when you didn’t come back, and then the door locked.” Gwen answered, sounding relieved.

“Asshole number one is coming around, Mom.”

“Good. I want a word with that dick… gentleman, and don’t let your Dad hear you use that word.” Ellis grinned at her.

“Yes, ma’am. Don’t want him paddling my butt.”

“What the fuck?” The man on the deck muttered as he sat up. “Oh shit.”

“Yes, oh shit. Get up and sit.” Ellis motioned him to a seat. He did, wiping his hands over his face, wincing from the headache as he moved.

“I don’t think I have to explain the situation to you, but just in case you are a bit stupid. We, the girl’s and I, have taken over your ship.”

“Like hell you have. Once the boys get sort…”

“They are all dead or locked up.” The man gritted his teeth. He didn’t need a map to tell him he was in deep shit. “Your continued existence depends on your cooperation. Anything less and I start carving off body parts.

“Oh, think you’re a tough bitch, don’t you?” he snapped back, more bravado than anything else. Ellis pulled a knife and walked over to him, leaning down to put her face right in front of his. As expected, he bunched his fists, maybe thinking of taking one last gamble.

“You maybe think I’m a mild mannered female who normally wouldn’t hurt a fly, right?”

“You’re out of your depth, bitch. There’s no way you can get off this station alive.” He laughed, but it sounded hollow.

“Just so you understand your position. In a former life I was a Sub-Major in the Imperial Marines and saw more fighting in the chow line than you’ve seen in your whole miserable life.” The man swallowed carefully. “So, if you think I have one ounce of compassion and won’t carve you into little pieces without a second thought, think again.”

“You won’t get anything out of me, bitch.” Ellis raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t have anything I want.”

“You won’t get away with this… you can’t run the fucking ship without me. It’s locked down.”

“Wrong. I unlocked it and reset the code, dickhead. As for running this garbage scow, think again.” She deliberately turned her back to him, hoping he’d attack. “Watch that piece of shit while this dog turd and I go for a little walk.”

“Right, Mom.” Jenny moved to another corner so she could watch the door and the navigator at the same time.

Grabbing the late captain by the beard, Ellis shoved him out the door, booting him down the short flight of stairs. He tumbled down, cursing a blue streak.

“You rotten fucking bitch.” He moaned as he landed in a heap.

“Move it!” She did the same at each stairway they came to, and by the last, the man was almost crying, now bruised, battered and bleeding. Unlocking the storage compartment where the rest of the girls were, she kicked him through the doorway and into the arms of the waiting females.

“Here’s the upstanding leader of this bunch of assholes, girls. Why don’t you show him how much you appreciate this little vacation trip and the wonderful service you received?”

She didn’t have to say anything more before the girls started in on him. In all, it only took three minutes before he was nothing more than a slashed heap of flesh bleeding out on the floor. Ellis looked on dispassionately, thinking a better death would have been shoving him out an airlock without a pressure suit. Then again, that might have been too easy a death for him. This way was better, as it gave the girls something to vent their fury on. She wanted the engineering crew alive, at least for the moment and didn’t want them carving them up the moment they got their hands on them.

“Okay, funs over. Now we go and have a word with the people in engineering.”

“Good.” Gwen answered. “More assholes to send on their way to hell.”

“Not so fast, Gwen, We need them alive for now, unless you know how to run the fusion reactor?” Gwen shook her head. “Thought not. So, we go down there and have a word with them and see if they will cooperate.” Instead of the fight she was expecting, the engine room crew meekly surrendered and stood with their hands raised when they entered.

“Who’s in charge here?” She asked, and a moment later, an older man stepped forward.

“I’m the chief engineer, Miss.”

“It’s ma’am, and I’m now in charge of this ship.”

“Ship! This is a flying heap of junk,” he spat.

“That bad, huh?”

“Worse. So what do you want?”

“What’s your name?”

“Asher, Garry Asher.”

“Well, Mr. Asher, I was hoping to get the hell out of here in this ship.”

“To where?”

“Does it matter?”

“Not really, but you’re not going to get far in this heap of junk. She needs a lot of parts and repairs before we do another hyper jump, not to mention fuel, air, and water.” That wasn’t exactly what Ellis wanted to hear. In addition, there was something about Garry Asher and the rest that didn’t feel right.

“So why are you on this ship?”

“Didn’t have no choice, none of us do. Our families are on that station, and if we don’t do what the Captain tells us, their lives are forfeit.”

“Damn.”

“Ian Ross over there, already lost his sister for trying to run.”

“Lost?”

“Yeah, they pimped her out for a while as an example.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“That’s not all, his wife and kids are here and… and his sister killed herself after.” Ellis closed her eyes for a moment, feeling his pain. One look at his face showed he was a broken man. All of them were, in some way, as much slaves as the girls they transported.

“You help us and we’ll help you.”

“How the hell are a few girls going to help us.” One man snorted.

“You are?” Ellis asked.

“Martin Sealer, second engineer.”

“Well Martin, I’ll tell you what we are going to do. We are going to find another ship, take it, and get you and your families the hell out of here.”

“You and who’s army! Hell, there are two thousand people or more on that station. How the hell are you going to take them all on?”

“I’m not, and won’t need to.”

“Go on, I’m listening.”

“I take it you can visit your families while you are here?”

“Yeah, of course, but we can’t go nowhere, or get off them off the station.”

“Good, so you can visit them and tell them to get ready to leave.”

“Don’t see how…” Ellis held up her hand.

“Alright, girls. Start searching this ship for some decent clothes. Gwen, Alice, and Carol stay here with me, but give your rifles and pistols to another girl in case they find any lurking crewmembers. If you do, shoot them.” They all looked at one another for a moment, and then filed out, Gwen looking particularly upset having to give up her weapons.

“Alice, go close the hatch and come over here.” Perplexed, she did as ordered. Ellis motioned the other two over so all four now stood on one side of the engineering space while the ten engineering crew now stood on the other, with intervening equipment between them.

“You asked how I’m going to get us out of here, but first I should tell you who I am. I am, or was, Sub-Major Ellis of the Imperial Marines. Right now there are four of you, against us unarmed girls.” She said, pulling the power pack out of her rifle and laying it on a bench before turning her back to them.

“I normally don’t like doing what I’m about to do, as it scares people. I want you to pick up a tool and imagine you have blast pistols in your hand. Any time you are ready I want you to lift that pistol, point it at me, and say bang!” As she spoke, Ellis squeezed down on her stomach muscles just as Richard had shown her. Her senses expanded and she saw the puzzled look on their faces and the shrug the moment they all lifted their imaginary weapons. As they did, she moved, feeling time slow as she flowed across the compartment, between and around the equipment. One by one, she stripped the men of their ‘weapons’ before slowing to normal and coming to a standstill in front of the chief engineer, panting slightly. The shocked expressions on their faces said it all, and they looked at her in complete awe. Not one of them had said ‘bang’.

“Any questions?” She asked, seeing them all shake their heads.

“Oh my god! I thought the girls were lying when they told me you could do that.” Gwen breathed. Ellis brushed it away, feeling slightly embarrassed at having to show off. However, it did make the point. Even if they’d been armed, there was nothing they could have done.

“I’m not a trusting person usually, but you trust me, and I’ll trust you.”

“I can’t speak for the rest, but I’ll do anything you say to get out of this hellhole.” Somewhat reluctantly, the rest agreed, not that she could blame them. They’d been trapped in this nightmare for so long they thought they’d never escape.

“What you want me to do first?” Garry Asher asked.

“Get on the view screen and find a nice ship we can highjack. The rest of you get the tools and equipment you need to take with you.”

“By the way, ma’am. What happened to the captain?”

“Him? He’d dead. The girls gave him a nice sending off party.”

In all, the girls found plenty of clothes to wear, stripped from the backs of other girls sold into slavery. Even so, Ellis dressed on the plain side, but after seeing the views inside the station she knew she’d fit right in no matter what she wore. Besides the slavers there were any number of pirates, smugglers and traders, male and female walking and playing inside. They could even play it off that this ship had an all female crew, as there didn’t seem to be any real checking going on. Ships came and went as they pleased, and as long as they paid for the fuel, air, and water, nobody cared who they were, where they were from, or where they were going. From Ellis’ point of view that was perfect. On top of the motley crew, there were any number of asteroid miners that supplied the station with fuel, air, and water. There were no Imperials to be seen, other than a few Tellurian cargo ships tethered to the station. Not really surprising out on the edge of the Empire as they were. Even so, Ellis was betting IMPSEC was here, undercover as usual and getting their cut. They probably ran the local drug cartel and had buyers looking out for choice slaves and intelligence information. There wasn’t much she could do about them without knowing who they were, but she reminded herself to be on guard. She was probably one of the most wanted females in the galaxy and knew Markoff would love to get his sweaty hands on her. Her only consolation was that the local IMPSEC agents wouldn’t be on high alert for her.