Resolution Read online

  “I would never,” Toby replied solemnly. “I swear.”

  Sayomi spoke again as they neared the top of the elevator shaft. I have an update, and it’s not good news.

  Is it the Ooken? Grim hazarded.

  Better get it over with, Nickie told Sayomi, pulling herself up the final rungs to bring her and Toby level with the elevator doors. How deep in the shit are we?

  Grim is correct, Sayomi confirmed. An Ooken Pod just landed on the hull.

  Neck-deep, then. Nickie sidestepped onto the ledge and out of the elevator shaft. Can’t you just blast them?

  Not without killing you all, Sayomi told her regretfully. I can only suggest you find somewhere to hide until the danger has passed.

  Nickie snorted. I thought you were stone-cold. How many Ooken are in the Pod?

  Just one, Sayomi replied. And it is not waiting for the airlock to admit it.

  Nickie focused her hearing and picked up the relentless beating on the outside of the wreck. Shit. How long until we get some backup?

  We are actually closer to High Tortuga and the Federation than Devon, Sayomi informed her. The wisest course of action would be to remain at a distance and cause the Ooken as much damage as you can without being caught by it. That should buy us time for help to arrive.

  Looks like it. Thanks, Sayomi. Nickie had already come to a conclusion along those lines.

  She cut the link to Sayomi and turned back to Grim, gesturing to him to help her out of the rig. “Okay, folks, change of plan. Our exit is blocked, but there’s help on the way. Toby, you’re going to stay with Grim for a while. You two are going to go find a safe place to hide.” She pulled at the knotted fabric to escape it. “Quickly, since we’re short on time. The room at the end of the corridor has two exits. Go through there, and I’ll come find you when I’m done.”

  “What’s going on?” Toby asked, the tremor returning to his voice.

  “Nothing to worry about,” Grim assured him as he helped the boy down from the rig, taking extra care not to disturb his injured arm. “Nickie will handle it.”

  Nickie pulled the last piece of fabric from her body and drew her Jean Dukes Specials as Grim led Toby away. “Damn right, I will.”

  Station Wreckage, Airlock Corridor

  Nickie waited halfway along the corridor, out of the Ooken’s reach but within weapons range. Although, what wasn’t in range when you were armed by her Grandma Jean?

  She debated opening the airlock and cutting out the wait, her every fiber aching with impatience for the moment. However, she had grown beyond the need to act on her impulses.

  Recalling the reckless brat who would have blown the door and be damned made her cringe.

  The one who had broken her mother’s heart without a thought for what she was doing. The one so unwilling to contain her impulses that she’d had the temerity to tell the Empress of the Etheric Empire to go fuck herself.

  Bethany Anne had been right to exile her.

  Nickie could look at herself now without looking away. If she was honest, that was the thing that mattered to her most. That she had found a path to honor despite the dark beginning she had created for herself. She was no longer that person, to chase a high because escaping from reality was simpler than facing the consequences of her choices.

  What had she had to complain about back then? Sure, she had been lonely, but she could have done more to participate in her own life. To take the olive branch she had slapped back in her mom’s face time and time again.

  She could have funneled her anger into training with her grandfather, another lifeline she’d tried to reject. Thank fuck John had been tougher than her mom. If she ever saw him again, she was going to beg his forgiveness for being so stubborn all those years and pretending to hate every minute he put into shaping her when she grudgingly loved the challenges he threw her way.

  Nickie tested the magnetic soles on her armor’s boots again, still not understanding how her Grandma had come up with a way for them to move with her body with the zero-gee locks on.

  The airlock shook from repeated impacts. It was going to give; that wasn’t in question. At that moment, Nickie felt the peace of acceptance settle over her. She realized the failure she had been was an essential part of who she had become. Here she was, standing between a child and his horrific death.

  If it meant she had to suffer that death instead, so be it.

  The fight wouldn’t be completely one-sided. She had a shit-ton of advantages, the first and foremost being her sharp mind. It was worth a little boredom to know the Ooken was tiring itself, and it had to be picking up injuries from using its body as a battering ram.

  Let it take its sweet time breaking in. It just gave Grim more time to hide somewhere safe with Toby.

  You’re quiet, Mere.

  You don’t need me, Meredith replied. Look at yourself, Meredith Nicole Grimes.

  What? Nickie joked. Standing in the middle of a massacre waiting to die punching?

  If that happens, you’ll die for the right reason, Meredith praised her.

  I was just thinking along the same lines, Nickie admitted. If I make it out of here, I’m going to visit my mom. My only regret in this situation is that I haven’t apologized to her in person yet.

  You will get a chance, Meredith assured her. You’re going to fight smart, just like your grandfather taught you to.

  Nickie smirked, feeling the comforting weight on her utility belt as she shifted her hips to a more comfortable stance. Aw, you think I’m going to follow the rules. I said I was reformed, Meredith. Not lobotomized.

  Meredith snickered. It’s a good thing. A fair fight isn’t going to get you on the transport out of here.

  Nickie heard a crack as the airlock began to give. Are you sure I’m not going to get sucked out into space?

  Definitely, Meredith assured her. You won’t be exposed for more than a couple of seconds. The emergency seal will activate as soon as the Ooken breaches the inner airlock and triggers the system. The gap will be filled with expanding permacrete foam almost immediately.

  Nickie nodded, feeling a little better about the hole the Ooken was beating into the only barrier between her and an icy end. She dipped her hand into the pouch on her belt that contained Tabitha’s drones and released them. Do your thing, Meredith.

  The drones hovered in place for a moment, then shot off down the corridor to circle above the airlock.

  Nickie thumbed the button above the grips of her Jean Dukes Specials to switch the regular load for taser rounds. If you say anything that contains the words “shockingly good welcome,” I promise I’ll take you to join CEREBRO myself, she told Meredith.

  Really? Meredith’s tone was laced with snark. And there I was, desperate to make a terrible joke.

  Here it comes, Nickie murmured, mostly to herself.

  You’ve got this, Meredith replied.

  Nickie braced herself, grabbing the guide rail as the airlock bulged inward under the pressure of the Ooken throwing itself against the door. The casement gave way, splitting with a grinding screech.

  The Ooken pushed its tentacles in and pulled its body into the corridor. There was a rush as the atmosphere was sucked out through the hole it left in its wake.

  Although Nickie’s boots did their job and she remained stationary, she was tossed around until the vortex vanished just as suddenly as it had started when the emergency seals activated and the breaches were filled with the expanding permacrete foam.

  Drones, Nickie ordered as she forced her knees to stop wobbling.

  The drones zipped like pinballs around the Ooken, bouncing off its tough hide. Nickie lost one of the drone feeds when the Ooken flicked a tentacle and caught it in one of the hundreds of small mouths on the underside.

  Nickie held her fire while the Ooken unfurled, looking for the weak spots where its rubbery flesh met its fur. Draw them back, Nickie told Meredith. She fired controlled bursts at the tentacles as they emerged, cutting off the Ooken’s s
enses with shock after shock from her taser rounds.

  The Ooken lurched toward Nickie by using four of its tentacles to hold its body off the floor, dislodging the thin layer of ice over its blue skin as all sixteen feet of it stretched up to brush the ceiling.

  The damn thing towered over Nickie, the tentacles not supporting its body flailing for her with their tiny mouths salivating hungrily. She retreated slowly toward the elevators, firing into the gaps between the tentacles obscuring her mark.

  She growled internally when yet another shot ricocheted off its skin. Fuck my life, how do you kill these bastards? She fired again, only this time Lady Luck must have breathed on her because the taser round found a new home in the Ooken’s furry belly. Score!

  The Ooken opened its beak and screeched as fifty thousand volts of electricity coursed through its body. It pitched forward, falling toward Nickie in a writhing mass of tentacles and teeth.

  Nickie continued stepping slowly backward as the Ooken fought for control of its body.

  It crawled toward her, snarling as it dragged itself along the corridor despite its inability to do more than throw itself an inch at a time in her direction.

  It is one thing to read that these monsters are programmed to destroy even at the expense of their own lives, Meredith remarked.

  Our Queen has a rather unique approach to dealing with that, Sayomi replied.

  How about you two take your chit-chat somewhere I can’t hear it? Nickie snarked. I’m kind of in the middle of something here. She fired a round each time the Ooken looked to be regaining enough control to get up from the floor, wondering how it was recovering so quickly from each shock. How does Bethany Anne kill them?

  By the millions, Sayomi stated. She finds it much more efficient that way.

  Nickie contemplated the single Ooken she had to contend with. Shit.

  The Ooken was almost where Nickie wanted it. She laid off the taser rounds, switching back to regular kinetics, and stood her ground, giving it time to recover enough to move.

  Her plan went sideways the second the Ooken regained control of its central nervous system and whipped her with its tail, grabbing her around her armor’s collar with the prehensile end.

  Nickie shot the tail off at the root, catching it as it fell harmlessly away from her neck. Her armor was scratched and dented but still good. “Nice try, asshole,” she bitched, winding up to use the handy weapon she’d just made. “Let’s see how you like a taste of your own tentacle, huh?”

  The tentacle was slippery as fuck, but Nickie didn’t give a shit. She beat the Ooken with its own tail, noting that the teeth on the underside caused damage to the rubbery blue flesh. I’ll be giving that bit of info to Grandma. Want to bet we get Ooken tooth rounds soon?

  Nickie whipped the Ooken’s face with the tail, holstering her JD Special for the moment. She leapt for the Ooken’s back and looped the tentacle around its neck like a halter.

  The Ooken reared, shrieking with outrage as Nickie dug in her knees to pin the tentacles that protruded from its upper back and jerked hard with both hands.

  Nickie had tried to ride a wild bistok once. It was nothing like riding an Ooken. She fought to steer it toward the open elevator shaft, taking blow after blow from the tentacles she had no control over.

  Nickie, Meredith began.

  Not now, Nickie growled.

  Nickie held on as the Ooken bucked and fought, slipping in the blood pumping from its severed limb. She felt her armor give at the shoulder, then the pain of a plug of flesh being pulled from her body.

  She tightened her grip on the tail until the Ooken was forced to concentrate on keeping its throat intact. It screeched, helpless to fight the barbs of its own teeth cutting into its throat.

  Nickie jerked her ad-hoc reins and the Ooken staggered, one step at a time, closer and closer to the shaft. Her armor was almost shredded by this point. She ignored the pain, the bites, and the burning sensation they left behind and pulled hard on the tentacle, pushing off with her feet to propel the Ooken the final few inches into the elevator shaft.

  The Ooken threw its tentacles out to the side, the friction as it slowed its plunge causing an earsplitting shriek to echo up the shaft. Nickie dropped to her knees at the edge of the shaft and pulled a small but deadly sphere from her belt.

  She pushed the button to activate the grenade and dropped it into the elevator shaft before diving back and shuffling on her ass to get out of the way before the Etheric charge fried her as well as the Ooken.

  A flash of light whited the corridors out for a second as the explosion went off, and a moment later, the shaft emitted a hot, rubbery belch.

  Nickie’s left shoulder tingled as her nanocytes patched her up. She crawled back to the elevator shaft and glanced down through the sight of her JD special.

  She turned away from the gore-splattered shaft and worked on getting to her feet. Looks like Grandad John was wrong, Mere. Sometimes grenades are your friend.

  Meredith sniffed. Then I hope you have a few more “friends,” since Sayomi is busy taking care of another Ooken ship and there is a Pod landing outside the airlock.

  Nickie rolled her shoulder to work out the stiffness in her newly-healed muscles. I’ll deal. What’s this stiff shoulder about?

  You were poisoned by the bites, Meredith explained. And your armor has been breached in multiple places, so you need to be cautious.

  Nickie snorted with more confidence than she felt. I haven’t got the luxury of time to be cautious. The Ooken die just like everyone else. It just takes a bit more effort to make it happen.

  Chapter 20 Nickie

  Station Wreckage, Airlock Corridor

  Nickie held onto the guide rail to steady herself against the impending suction. Her heart was slow and strong, her breathing regular and deep.

  There was a lull in the pounding and a drop in the corridor’s air pressure, which signified that the Ooken had broken through the emergency seal on the exterior of the hull.

  Nickie brought up her arm to shield her faceplate from a peppering of sharp permacrete flakes when the inner seal exploded outward in a spray of dust. The Ooken forced its way through the resulting gap.

  Nickie’s jaw dropped as another Ooken followed it. Double fuck. Her imperative was taking out the first Ooken before the second squeezed its freaky self through the hole. She dipped a hand to her belt in the knowledge that her only way out of this was going to fucking hurt.

  Nickie activated the grenade and launched it at the space between the two Ooken, then dashed around the corner and pressed herself against the wall with her Jean Dukes Specials held ready in case of a fuck-up.

  The resulting explosion granted Nickie’s wish in the same way a waterfall would quench your thirst.

  She thanked her Grandma Jean for the protection of her armor as the nearest Ooken was thrown into the elevator corridor. It bounced off the wall and landed in a messy heap on the floor.

  Nickie’s legs shook from the impact, although most of the force was absorbed by her armor. She took three steps to give herself a dual view of the unconscious Ooken and the airlock corridor, turning both her JD Specials on the unconscious Ooken when she saw that the entire airlock corridor was filled with solid permacrete.

  Unless the second Ooken could breathe that shit, it wasn’t coming after her any time soon.

  The Ooken on the floor stirred, then flowed to loom over Nickie in that half-suspended position she was beginning to hate.

  Nickie sprayed the Ooken with the remainder of her basic kinetic rounds, driving it backward. The half-moment to she paused to think saved her from the attack that came.

  It lashed at her with tentacle and claw, emitting a shriek that burst Nickie’s eardrums.

  Nickie ignored the pain, choosing to focus on the upside to temporary deafness. “Fucked yourself there,” she yelled, blocking the tentacles as they came at her. “Now I can’t hear you bitching. Win for meeeee.”

  The writhing nightmare didn�
��t seem to understand her. It whipped two of its thinner tentacles at Nickie, trying to pull the same distraction technique the Ooken she’d wasted earlier had almost succeeded with.

  Nickie ducked and whirled, stepped and fired.

  A tentacle fell to the floor, but another managed to snake around her ankle and jerk her leg. Her boot locked to the floor, and Nickie raised the other to stamp on the tentacle around her ankle. “Grabby assholes,” she bitched. “Doesn’t matter where I go, there’s always some fuckwit who wants to get his slimy hands on my body.”

  She shook the tentacle free and dived at the Ooken, past caring about anything except making sure it breathed its last—and soon—so she could get Grim and Toby out of here.

  Nickie, NO! Meredith yelled in her ear.

  Too late.

  Nickie plowed into the Ooken, driving them both backward.

  The Ooken resisted, using all of its tentacles to manipulate the space around them as they fell. Nickie found herself disoriented by the writhing tangle she was caught up in. She dropped her weapons, instinct driving her to tear her way free as the Ooken cocooned her in its deadly embrace.

  Nickie’s efforts to reverse the situation as they hit the floor only gave the Ooken more opportunity to tighten its tentacles around her. She growled, twisting and turning, doing anything she could to prevent the Ooken from getting a grip and crushing the life out of her. Meredith!

  Just hold on, Meredith begged. Help is almost here. Fight it, Nickie. She cut the warnings shrieking throughout Nickie’s armor, pointless since every plate of it was crumpled and cracked.

  Nickie’s mind went blank as her world was reduced to the life or death battle to draw breath. She bit, and kicked, and squirmed, to no effect. The harder she fought, the tighter the Ooken squeezed.

  Nickie’s vision swam, and every nerve of her body screamed in pain as the Ooken’s tentacles bit into her with a hundred thousand tiny teeth.

  Meredith. Where was Meredith? She didn’t want to be alone at the end.

  Her blurred vision was overlaid with dark spots as the smaller tentacle around her neck cut her air supply off completely.