“Captain!” Augustus said as the hatch started shutting on its own. He stepped out of the way and fired his shotgun, blasting the door’s turrets before they could activate.

“Move!” Natalya shouted as alarms blared over her voice.

Co jumped out the door in a single leap, jamming her shoulder against the metal hatch. Natalya and Sisi were slower, but Sisi adjusted her welpro and fired a gravity well, the pneumatically-controlled hatch grinding against its pistons as it struggled against the bubble of gravity.

The hatch stayed open just long enough for Natalya and Sisi to slip through. Blasts rang out in the corridor and Co shoved Augustus to the side, her gun blazing a white-hot path of energy.

“We weren’t supposed to go that way, right?” Co asked after turning the corridor in front of her into molten slag.

“Best route to the bridge is that way,” Natalya said, tilting her head the opposite direction as she pulled up the ship’s schematics on her datasheet.

“This wasn’t part of the plan,” Sisi groaned.

“Yes it was. Co? Let’s tear this ship apart,” Natalya commanded. “Move!”

Co tossed a grenade down the already-ruined corridor, the explosion heralding their passage as they ran the other way.

“Standard procedure in a Prosper capital ship in the event of an enemy incursion is to lock down the vessel,” Natalya explained as they ran through the corridor. Co fired her weapon every once in a while to keep any would-be ambushers hunkered down.

The rectangular passage ended with an aperture hatch labeled Stairway 5 at another T-shaped intersection. The hatch was already closing, so Natalya sprinted forward. As Natalya lunged for the door she stuck Jasper’s sword into the aperture, blocking it open. She spotted a pair of security officers running her direction down the adjacent corridor and opened fire with her carbine.

Co finished them off after leaping to Natalya’s side.

Natalya tugged on the sword’s hilt. She’d seen Jasper use the blade to cut through nano-fiber like it was butter, but the sword was nothing more than a doorstop in the partially-closed hatch.

Still, with the blade keeping the aperture unsealed, Co wrenched the hatch open, allowing them to slip inside the stairwell.

“It takes about two minutes for full lockdown and arming of security teams,” Natalya explained as they raced up the metal stairway. “That’s under normal alert status.”

“How long do we have if they’re guarding a Prophet prisoner?” Sisi asked.

“About thirty seconds.”

Blasts erupted from the stairs ahead. Co sprayed her weapon upward, sweeping it side to side. Sisi ducked for cover behind the woman, and spotted a fist-sized object falling toward them.

“Grenade!” Natalya warned.

Instead of diving away, Sisi activated her welpro and sent the grenade flying back up the stairwell. It exploded with the screams of the security guards. Pieces of the stairwell clanked as they ricocheted to the ground.

“Nice work,” Natalya said.

Sisi smiled.

The stairs partially collapsed above them, leaving a gap between the floors.

“Can I not take credit for that part?” Sisi asked.

Natalya strapped Jasper’s sword to her leggings. She made a running leap for the gap, grabbing hold of a broken piece of railing. The metal groaned as it barely held her. She hooked a leg onto the upper level and heard the rushing steps of a security team entering the stairwell above her.

Co made use of her enhanced legs and leapt beside Natalya, then leapfrogged from one floor to the next.

“Sisi, help Augustus!” Natalya instructed.

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“What? How?” Sisi asked.

“May I?” Augustus said, placing a hand over Sisi’s and gripping the welpro. “Let’s go for a ride, shall we?”

Sisi smiled and said, “Okay!”

Sisi fired up her welpro and shot across the walls, her device pulling her just like it had on the Zhou building, only this time Augustus rode along with her.

Co and Sisi reached the upper levels at the same time, Co blasting the security officers while Sisi flew Augustus close enough for him to spray the staircase with a shotgun blast.

Natalya stayed below, firing her carbine from long range to pin down the security team and allow her crew to close.

They soon cleared the stairwell and reached the middle floor. Natalya glanced at her datasheet and called out, “This is it!”

Co jumped and landed beside Natalya with a clang of metal. Sisi made a less graceful landing, but Augustus grabbed hold of the railing with his long-armed reach and kept them from tumbling over the side.

“What a ride!” Sisi exclaimed.

“Thrilling! We must do it again sometime,” Augustus declared.

“Once we get through this door you can have all the excitement you want,” Natalya said.

“I thought the ship was on lockdown,” Sisi said.

“It is. But not all doors have security locks.” Natalya jabbed the butt of her carbine into the door’s small touchscreen. The screen shattered and Natalya reached inside to the exposed wires beneath.

“One of the things they train you for when you become a Duke is how to make your way around a starship, and basic override controls,” Natalya explained as she located the reset switch hidden beneath the touch screen.

“Why didn’t you just do that before?” Sisi asked.

“Because people were shooting at me before. And I’m not sure this will… huh. It worked.”

With a simple flick of a switch, the hatch slid open, revealing a narrow, L-shaped corridor.

Co held a grenade in each hand. She tossed one both directions and opened fire with her gun before the hatch fully opened. She stopped, looked left, then ahead. “All clear,” she said.

Natalya noticed that there were no security officers in either direction, but that didn’t stop Co from throwing another grenade down the hallway.

The four ran the opposite direction, Co’s grenade once more heralding their way as they reached a four-way intersection. Co’s attacks made quick work of a set of melted, burning turrets and shield emitters guarding the door. Through the smoke of the ruined defenses came a security team running around the corner.

Sisi fired her welpro, knocking the team back. With one volley from Natalya, Augustus, and Co they finished off the guards.

It helped for Natalya to imagine that these men and women were helping Qin. But she knew they were just doing their duty. Call it collateral damage, call it a necessary evil, Natalya didn’t think there was any justification for what she was doing. Certainly, saving one man didn’t make up for killing the dozen or so they’d already taken out. But Natalya wasn’t concerned about moral justifications. She wanted to save Jasper. She’d cry for the actions this forced her to take, and add them to the scales of good and evil she’d committed once she was back on Chimera.

“This is the bridge,” Natalya said, pointing past the smoking turrets to a thick door. It was a nano-fiber hatch sealed over with a shield emitter on the other side.

“How do we get through?” Sisi asked.

“Co, cover us in case anymore security comes. Sisi and I will—”

The hatch opened. Pul stood in the doorway.

“Good,” he said. “I get to kill you again.”

Pul fired his pistol, sending Natalya diving for cover. Sisi fired her welpro, Augustus his shotgun, and Co chucked a grenade at the man, ducking around the corner as it blasted Pul backwards.

“Hurry!” Natalya shouted, racing through the smoke and onto the bridge.

Natalya pressed the attack, keeping Pul’s shields up so he couldn’t get a clear shot.

With a shield pulse, Pul flew into the air and landed behind Natalya. Only Co’s blasts kept him from shooting her point-blank as he exchanged fire with the woman.

“Stop!” a voice at the center of the bridge commanded.

The floor of the bridge was a perfect square, the same dull metal as the rest of the ship, with a blackened hue that gave an aura of severity to the room. Its domed ceiling went all the way to the floor, reinforced by square pillars at the corners. Projector screens in the dome showed the stars all around them, and the yellow gas giant at the ship’s stern.

Consoles similar to those on Chimera, though made with blackened materials and polished with a newer look, were spaced throughout the bridge. Some were long, with ten crewmen standing side by side, manipulating touchscreens and projections that showed the status of weapons, engines and shields. Some were small, and at the front was the U-shaped cockpit with eight pilots responsible for directing the ship.

Each console was spaced around a central platform. The platform was square, with as many tiers as the Zhou building, and similarly shaped. At the top was what looked like a sphere split horizontally, consoles and projectors showing the ship’s status on the lower half, with viewscreens on the upper half.

Natalya turned and saw Qin standing on the platform’s lower step, his pistol leveled at Jasper’s head. The Prophet was chained, on his knees in front of the Zhou Chairman.

Pul didn’t stop, however, and even though Natalya and the others stayed still, he fired a shield pulse at Co.

“You too, Pul,” Qin said, pressing a button on the shield emitter attached to his arm.

Pul screamed in pain and fell to his knees, jolts of electricity arcing all over his body. He stared at Sisi and Natalya with rage-filled eyes, panting and grinding his teeth.

“You said I could kill them,” Pul said.

“I need something from them first,” Qin replied.