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Why freeze them? Why not kill them? It’s the same thing. They’re not being rehabilitated this way. Maybe it’s easier on society’s conscience…

  Kita looked up. There were twenty floors above her. That’s a lot of people. I wonder if they ever thaw them out? And, why have a facility in deep space?

  She moved through the room, trying to imagine what crime could be so horrible to require freezing. Why wasn’t I frozen? I prefer unconsciousness to solitary confinement. Talking to yourself got old fast, and she’d exhausted the movies stored on the computer in her head. She needed to find the master computer to tell her if Valor and Defiance were among the frozen.

  Above Kita, guards ran onto the catwalks circling the room.“Freeze, Angel,” yelled a guard directly above her.

  “You mean figuratively or literally?” Kita said with a smile. She waved her hand. A pod ripped from the wall, flew across the room, and crushed the guard issuing the command. The guards opened fire with shocker rounds. Kita wiggled her nose and made herself immune to their effects. Waving her hands merrily, she ripped pods from the wall and hurled them at the guards, knocking them off the catwalks, or crushing them between two pods. She dropped pods on those guards still alive on the ground floor.

  After a pod crushed the head of the last guard, Kita cocked her head to one side. She felt two presences she hadn’t felt in a long time.

  “Snowy! Zen!” she called in a pleasant voice. The group waited in a doorway across the room.

  Snowy was an anthropomorphic war cat, with foot-long claws that extended from the tops of her hands and a fluffy tail nearly as long as she was tall. Zentix was a Diamock. Their bottom half looked like a goat, and the upper half looked like a quill-covered dog with bony plates on the chest, arms, and abdomen.

  “Let me handle this,” said Snowy. “She’s not the same as the last time we saw her.”

  “What’s happened to her?” said Zentix.

  “I think she found her missing god part.”

  Kita chuckled at her eavesdropping. Snowy knew her so well.

  “Kita! Are you alright?” called Snowy.

  “That depends. Are you behind my imprisonment?”

  Snowy let out a sigh and stepped out to face Kita. “No. We’re here to rescue you.”

  Kita chuckled. “I can rescue myself, thanks.”

  “From our reports, you were comatose and in solitary confinement.”

  “They weren’t wrong, but what point is it to be active when I have no way off this…facility.”

  “Then come with us. We’ll get you somewhere safe.” Snowy retracted her claws and waved Kita to her.

  Kita wagged her finger. “Ah-ah. You haven’t explained your new friends. Last time I saw a yellow uniform, it was shooting at me and carrying you off. I’m not going to exchange one cell for another.”

  “That’s true, but it’s a misunderstanding. Please, come with us, and I’ll explain.”

  “I’ll take my explanation now. I’m in no hurry, but I suggest you talk fast. I’m not sure how long your ships are going to last against Ragji’s cannons.”

  Snowy rolled her eyes. “I know it’s not worth telling you good people are dying saving you.”

  Kita sneered. “And I put my neck on the block to save plenty more. Look what it got me.”

  “Collector admits he made a mistake with the asteroid. He misjudged you and what you’re capable of—”

  Kita cocked her head with a devilish smile. “Tell me, what did he offer you to switch sides?”

  Snowy frowned. “He didn’t offer me anything—”

  “So what did you offer him to save yourself—me?”

  “No. I locked myself in the engine compartment of the ship and threatened to blow it up if I wasn’t given safe passage off. That’s when Collector came and talked to me. He’s a Djinn purist. He believes the other races make them weak. This facility has a hidden purpose. They cut up these prisoners and take them back to Djinn to be eaten. They believe it increases their warrior prowess.”

  Kita raised an eyebrow. Once upon a time, Snowy ate her enemies. Was Snowy finding a home among the Djinn?

  “It sure is easy to kill and eat your enemies when they’re frozen,” Kita scoffed.

  “They take what they can get. But, it’s bigger than some Djinn trying to relive their glory days. Collector understands what a threat the humans are, and unlike the Tet, he wants to do something about them. He has a sizable force in the quarantine zone. Like you, he has an eye for talent. He knows he needs you. Your actions on Veven proved it. He’s willing to give you what I know you want—”

  “And what is that?” Kita cooed.

  “Galina.” The hair stood up on the back of Kita’s neck. “He’ll put you at the head of his fleet so you can get her and give them the battle they crave.”

  Kita bit her lip. Galina: the betrayer, the murderer of her children, her jailor. Kita could taste the revenge, which tasted similar to the blood she’d drawn biting herself.

  But, there was a problem. It was one thing to go after Galina. It was another to target the UEE. They belonged to Defiance. She wasn’t sure how her girlfriend would react to her destroying the UEE’s Shadow Fleet. Maybe there’s another way. If she restored Defiance to her throne, then she wouldn’t need to destroy the Shadow Fleet. Once Defiance was in charge, she could turn on the Djinn and drive them from UEE Space. Earth sounded like a much better place to be than Tet space.

  “Ok, Snowy. I’ll talk to Collector, but what’s in it for me?”

  Snowy chuckled. “I told Collector he’d have to sweeten the pot. I’ve got three things.”

  “What three things does he have that I could possibly want?”

  Snowy ticked them off on her fingers. “Case, Jess…and Crypt.”

  “Crypt…” Kita whispered. Crypt, the soul reaper, was one of the twelve great swords made by the grandmaster bladesmith Earnan and presented to the Great Elder Vidic to carry as he guided the Arconian clans. The sword possessed the power to pull the souls from the living. Kita had carried the sword since finding it in her youth in the base of a volcano located in The Orient region of The Mass. Crypt had disappeared between the time Kita saved the universe and Galina’s forces recovering her body. How did Collector get a hold of it? “I want them, and I want them now.”

  “Unfortunately, Collector doesn’t have them. He just knows where to get them. They’re auctioning Jess, Case, and Crypt to the highest bidder. Collector is going to give you the people and material to free them.”

  “Something tells me Collector could buy them if he wanted.”

  “And what fun would that be?”

  Kita shrugged. Why buy it when you can steal it? “Ok. Lead the way out of here.”

  “Here. I brought you a bodysuit. I figured you’d need some clothes.” Snowy tossed Kita a bundle.

  Kita shook the bodysuit out and slipped it on. “Any idea where my swords and armor are?”

  “We sent a team to check a few locations. We’ll meet them at the shuttles.”

  “I’ll tear this place apart for them,” said Kita.

  “Hopefully that won’t be necessary.”

  Kita followed Snowy and her team down a short corridor. Snowy opened the door and led the group onto the ground floor of another cellblock. Like the previous, everyone was frozen.

  Attached to the ceiling, an arm lowered and grabbed a pod. It lowered to the ground and set it on a cart. The cart drove off through a door that closed behind it.

  “Another snack?” Kita asked Snowy.

  “I—maybe. I haven’t done it personally.”

  “You mean not recently.”

  “Ah,” Snowy’s nose turned pink, “no. Everything I’ve eaten has come from a vat.”

  “You sound disappointed.”

  Snowy raised an eyebrow. “And you sound like you’ve got your memory back.”

  “Most of it. There is one big hole. I’m missing a person.”

  Snowy smirked. “I won’t ruin the surpri
se for when we meet her. Wherever she is.”

  “Well, I’ll always have Case.”

  “I heard about Cotton. I’m sorry.”

  Kita shrugged. “It wasn’t working in the end. I tried, but she had her principles, and I had mine.”

  “Or the lack thereof…”

  Kita wrinkled her nose. “Humph.”

  Snowy raised her hand as a radio transmission came in. “I’m here, Sahara…Not in the armory? Try the warden’s office. I—Sahara! Don’t engage them. Retreat to the shuttles. We’ll get them another way.”

  “Problem?” said Kita.

  “The Fast Reaction Force from Ragji is in the facility. We have to go. We don’t have the firepower to slug it out with them, even with you.”

  “What about my weapons and armor?”

  “We’ll get them another way.”

  Kita huffed. “No. I’m not leaving without them.”

  “Kita, I’m not even sure they’re here. The intelligence reports couldn’t pin down their exact location. Here is one of several possibilities. You—”

  Armed men ran onto the first four levels of catwalks. They stood shoulder to shoulder. Their weapons pointed at Kita and her rescuers.

  “Kind of slow, aren’t you?” said Kita to the soldiers. “I’ve been loose for ten minutes.”

  “Drop your weapons, get on your knees and put your hands behind your heads,” instructed one of the soldiers.

  “Well, see, that’s a problem. My weapons are built into my hands.” Kita smiled as flames leaped from her hands and marched up her arms. When they reached her torso, the flames engulfed her.

  “Take her down,” yelled the soldier.

  The soldiers fired, but the bullets hung in the air around Kita and her group. Kita laughed wickedly. “You got your try. My turn,” she yelled.

  Snowy pushed her team back into the doorway as the bullets landed in front of them. “Run, go!” she ordered. “Go through the far door back to the shuttle.”

  Snowy and her team sprinted across the bottom of the cellblock. Bullets hit the floor around them. Snowy wasn’t surprised the soldiers missed. Kita was watching out for them.

  The far door opened ahead of them revealing a team of soldiers. Snowy phased in front of her team and blasted them with a sheet of lightning. Behind her, Kita laughed maniacally as she tossed the pods around, crushing the hapless soldiers.

  The station shook, knocking Snowy and her team to the ground. There was a low moan of stressed metal.

  “Christ on the cross,” yelled Snowy. “Masks down, prepare for decompression.”

  Her team closed their helmets’ faceplates and switched their breathing to internal. Snowy didn’t have to do anything. Her body was rated for space, and she carried a canister of air for when she needed to take a breath.

  A loud crack reverberated through the facility. A ripping sound followed. Several decks worth of pods crashed down in the middle of the cellblock.

  “Go, go, go!” cried Snowy. “She’s going to rip this prison apart.”

  Snowy and her team dashed through the maze of empty corridors. Ahead of them, a pair of decompression doors slammed shut.

  “Charges?” asked one of Snowy’s team members.

  “No time,” said Snowy. “Everybody touch me.”

  Each member of the team reached out and touched Snowy. She phased, transporting the entire team to the other side of the doors.

  “Move,” she yelled.

  They reached the first of three doors they had blasted through to get to the cellblocks. The facility shuddered, throwing everyone sideways into the wall.

  “Come on, Kita. Keep it together long enough for us to get off,” muttered Snowy.

  They reached the second door as an elevator door opened. Snowy’s team brought their weapons up.

  “Wait! Don’t shoot!” said a soldier wearing the same yellow armor as Snowy’s team.

  A Djinn female wearing custom yellow armor led the new group. She raised her visor, revealing a sand-colored cat-like face with big brown eyes.

  “Sahara! We have to hurry. Kita’s ripping this place apart,” said Snowy.

  “What about saving her?”

  “Don’t worry about that. We’ll pick Kita up when she’s done.”

  “How is she ripping this place apart?”

  “That’s a long story, but the short version is she’s a god.”

  “A what?” Sahara said skeptically.

  “A god—able to control the universe and everything in it. Last I saw her, she’d lost that power, but she’s found it again. And now she’s got months of imprisonment to take out on someone.”

  “Kita sounds wonderful,” said Sahara in a sarcastic tone.

  “She...can be. She’s just cranky.”

  “I get cranky when I wake up, and I just hit the alarm clock.”

  “This prison is her alarm clock.”

  The group turned a corner into the docking area. Prison guards were trying to open the door to one of Snowy’s shuttles.

  “Hey, back off,” yelled Sahara. She drew a pair of haladie daggers from her back and threw one, hitting the unarmored prison guard in the neck.

  “Sorry to spoil your escape, Warden Kiiz, but these shuttles belong to us,” said Snowy.

  Kiiz, a large Djinn male, turned and snarled. “No dirty inbred female orders me around. You will submit.” He drew a pistol.

  Snowy’s team fired. Kiiz crumpled to the deck.

  “Care to insult me?” Snowy said to the other guards, a mix of Djinn and Verisom males.

  “Pathetic sandkicker males, obeying a dirty female?” snarled one of the Djinn guards.

  Snowy snarled and leaped at him. The male raised his arms and extended the short claws on his hands, as Snowy’s much longer claws sliced through his arm. She landed, plunged her claws into his chest, lifted him over her head, and slammed him to the deck.

  “Anyone else want to call me a dirty female?” Snowy demanded of the remaining Djinn guards.

  The Djinn bared their teeth, glaring at Snowy, but stood aside at the behest of the Djinn males that made up Snowy’s group. Only Sahara and her slender frame stood out among them.

  “Come on, let’s go,” said Snowy.

  Her team members opened the shuttles, and the two teams boarded.

  “So, now what do we do?” called Sahara to Snowy over the shuttle’s comm.

  “We let Kita have her fun and pick her up when she’s done.”

  Kita floated amongst the wreckage of the prison. She stopped when she came to a locked, reinforced composite metal box. Taking the corner, she pulled, bending the lid back until it tore from the hinges. Inside was her missing weapons and armor.

  At last!

  She removed Dusk and Dawn. The black blades’ edges gleamed in the starlight. After admiring them, she sheathed them on her back. On the bottom was her bow, Midnight. With a flick of her wrist, she extended it, checked it, then collapsed it and stowed it on her lower back. She pulled out her upper arm and thigh pads—containing her collection of throwing stars—and strapped them on.

  The head of a guard floated in front of Kita. Smiling, she poked it and sent it spinning in a new direction. Her only disappointment was finding Warden Kiiz dead. She had wanted to gut the bastard and strangle him with his own intestines.

  A flash from below signaled a battle still raged. Ragji fought against its attackers, though the attackers were down three from six. Maybe it’s time to even the odds and show Collector my power.

  After exiting the debris field, Kita picked up speed and aimed at Ragji’s aft section. As she traveled, she generated an energy field. Kita halted a thousand yards from Ragji and threw the energy field at the ship.

  The energy field struck the aft starboard side and exploded. The force caused Ragji’s aft to drop and the bow to rise. The three engines on the starboard side exploded, adding a new vector of rotation to the ship.

  Kita flew through the tangle of debris into the damaged s
ection of Ragji. Twisted and torn metal stuck out like bones. Sparks flew into space as dangling wires grounded out. She found a corridor torn in half. Her boots touched the friction carpet. After taking a step, she felt the familiar tug of gravity. The wounded beast still lives.

  The corridor ended at a pair of emergency decompression doors. Kita ignored the laws of physics and glided through the doors. The corridor split.To the left, it disappeared around a corner; the right led to a door. She heard a single voice come from the left. Curious, she turned invisible and walked toward the voice.

  Around the corner, she found a Djinn in an engineer’s jumpsuit, complete with a toolbox. He was speaking to someone over a video console.

  “I have no readings beyond this section. It’s like it’s not there,” said the engineer.

  “Did you do a visual inspection?” snarled a Djinn in an officer’s uniform.

  “The decompression doors are closed and won’t open until the pressure is equalized.”

  “Override them! We’re not getting any power from engines six through twelve.”

  “No one is answering in—”

  Kita turned visible and slammed her hand into the Djinn engineer’s back. She wiggled her hand around and grabbed his spine, then jerked her hand back and forth and broke the bones loose. The Djinn collapsed, hitting his muzzle on the console on his way down.

  Kita held the bones covered in blue blood up to the camera. “Visual inspection is your ship is missing a large chunk.” Kita dropped the bones on the console and smeared blood on the camera lens.

  “Who are you?” demanded the officer.

  “The one girl wrecking crew.” Kita slammed her fist into the console. You think they’d just look out a damn window.

  Kita followed the corridor. To her surprise, this section of the ship was empty. In her mind, she expected to see people running around. They’re probably at battle stations or helping put out fires and repair damage.

  She reached a door that was renforced and required authorization to open. Kita shrugged and walked through it.

  The walls tapered inward, funneling her down a small hallway. A blinding light kept her from seeing ahead of her. Exiting the hallway, she stepped into a round room filled with barricades. She was in a security checkpoint—a hard point meant to help repel boarders, a favorite tactic of Tet warfare.