The Dead Fleet (Juggernaut #3)

Forty Nine

Grace approached the next corner and peered around it. She held up a fist. Tila ran into her.

'Tila when I do this, it means stop, alright?' she whispered.

'Is that a soldier thing? How am I supposed to know that?'

'Okay, good point.'

'Why are we stopping?

'Three pirates in the next corridor.'

'So shoot them!'

'I don't know if there are others nearby. We're near the mess hall.'

'Shoot them quietly?'

'When they get closer we'll take them hand to hand. How good are you with that staff anyway?'

'Pretty good.'

Grace slung the carbine across her back and tightened straps to secure it. She pulled a black stick from a holster and pressed a catch. A handle sprang up at ninety degrees. Grace closed her fingers around the handle and nestled the length of the stick along her forearm. It protruded past her elbow and her fist.

Tila adjusted the grip on her staff. It was already full length.

'Do you have a plan?' she asked her mother.

'Hard and fast, that's the plan. We're not here to make friends.'

I rarely am, thought Tila.

Grace held up three fingers, two fingers, one fingers, and the women attacked.

The pirates didn't even have time to shout.

Grace took the closest pirate. She stepped down to one knee and punched the pirate hard in the stomach. Winded, unable to shout. He couldn't raise the alarm.

As Grace ducked Tila whirled her staff above her mother's head and hit the second pirate square in the face. He went down at once, out cold.

Grace's pirate had doubled up, Their faces level, she pulled him down by his collar and slammed his head into the floor.

The third pirate went for a knife and swung it at Tila's face. She dodged and sidestepped. Now the pirate was between them. Grace stood up, reversed her grip and swung it like an axe at the back of the pirate's knee.

At the same time Tila spun the staff around and swung it at his face.

Caught between the two weapons the pirate flipped through the air and came to rest by his two companions.

'See, quietly,' said Grace.

Tila pointed at her mother's hand weapon with her staff. 'What is that?'

'This? A tonfa. Good weapon. Compact and versatile.'

'I still think you should have shot them.'

Grace unstrapped the carbine and readied it and turned to her daughter. Her face hardened.

'Tila, listen to me. I need you to understand something. This weapon is a tool. A dangerous tool, and while I am trained to use it I don't relish it. I didn't come here looking for a fight but sometimes that's what you have to do to survive. Right now we need to survive, so I'm going to use this to get us out of here. But don't be so quick to take the easy option. You'll find out it's harder in the long run. Easy answers come back to haunt you.'

'I'll find out? What do you think I've done in the last twelve years? How do you think I survived? I did what I had to do for myself and for my friends. I've never had a gun but I've had a knife and I did what I had to so that Ellie was safe. I know the price, but it's them or us.

Grace's face softened. 'Oh, honey, I'm sorry. For so long I wasn't there to protect you. You should never have had to go through that alone. I should have been there.'

'You're here now.'

'I'm here now,' Grace agreed. Her face hardened again this time with resolve, not anger. 'Listen to me. Everyone on this ship, everyone between us and our escape, is responsible for stealing the lives of thousands of colonists and for sabotaging the mission. They are responsible for tearing our family apart. For keeping you away from me.' She hefted the carbine again, feeling its reassuring weight. It emitted a faint hum as it powered up. 'And I am not prepared to discuss it with them anymore.'

The refinery ship lay before them, with an unknown number of pirates, criminals and murderers standing between them and their escape. Tila steeled herself with a deep breath. The staff was an extension of her hand as much as the carbine appeared to be an extension of her mother's.

Her mother. 

The last time she had seen her she had been the model commanding officer about to launch a new expedition. She had stood on the bridge of her ship in perfect control of the situation in her perfectly crisp uniform. Now she was here; armed and armoured, and dirty from the fight.

Her mother was back, and Tila wasn't letting her out of her sight. But for Ellie's insistence Tila stay it would have been an impossible choice. She had given Ellie her word. If Ellie hadn't refused it Tila might still be at the airlock wrestling with an impossible choice.

Tila flexed her wrist and bounced on the balls of her feet and felt her heart start to race as adrenaline surged for the journey and the fight to come. She watched her mother prepare for battle and was suddenly afraid. Afraid and guilty.

All of this was because of her. Her mother was about to go into battle because she had led her to this ship. Her friends were even now racing to escape the dead fleet and take their data chip back to Parador. She was afraid for them all.

But for Ellie and Malachi she could do nothing, not now. Tila feared for them, but remained pragmatic. For them she could do nothing, no matter how great her fear. But her mother was right in front of her. Right here. Right now. Was this the greater fear? That even though she was here, and could do something, she might lose her mother again?

They ran through the tunnel of the echoes of their footsteps. Tila gripped the staff tight.

No, she promised herself. Not again.