Starseers: Fallen Empire, Book 3 by Lindsay Buroker Page B

lurched to the side, hurling Alisa back from the hatchway. She skidded into a console as snaps and cracks erupted outside, echoing ominously inside of engineering. She accidentally kicked someone as she rolled to her hands and knees. Yumi? It was too dark to see anything.
    “Did one of those idiots set off explosives?” Mica demanded from flat on her back. She had also been thrown away from the bulkhead and lay in open view of the hatchway. “On ice ?”
    Afraid Mica did not realize she was a target right then, Alisa scrambled toward her and grabbed her shoulder. Shudders wracked the Nomad , but she could easily imagine the mafia man taking advantage. She found her feet and started to pull Mica out of the way. A thump came from outside the hatchway, and she heard someone’s heavy breathing.
    Alisa could barely see, darkness still reigning on the ship, but she whipped her Etcher across her body and fired as a man appeared out of the shadows. The figure froze, framed by the hatchway, then toppled forward with a thump.
    Before Alisa could recover her breath and string two thoughts together, a bang came from out in the cargo hold. Icy air swirled into engineering.
    “Is that damned hatch open again?” she growled, even as she and Mica scrambled to the side where they would not be easy targets.
    Footfalls thundered across the cargo hold. Alisa leaned her back against the engine housing and aimed her Etcher. She hoped that in the dark, the reinforcements would trip over the mafia thug crumpled in the hatchway.
    Another dark figure came into sight, a huge one this time.
    “Alisa?” came Leonidas’s voice a split second before she fired.
    She yanked her Etcher up, not trusting her twitchy trigger finger. But she reacted quickly enough to keep from shooting.
    “We’re here,” she said, trying to sound calm and professional and definitely not frazzled.
    A flashlight came on. It belonged to Yumi, who was crouching near the shield generator, trying to stay out of the way.
    Leonidas stood in the hatchway, a couple of fresh scorch marks on his crimson battle armor. He looked down at the man at his feet, then stepped over him and into engineering. He walked straight toward Alisa as Beck stepped into the hatchway, blood spattering his white armor.
    “I told you to keep the hatch closed,” Leonidas said, pinning Alisa with his gaze.
    “No, we’re fine here. Thanks for asking. How was your day?” She stuffed her Etcher into its holster.
    His lips thinned.
    “I didn’t open the hatch,” Alisa said, “just as I assume you didn’t hit the button to lower our shields right before the other ship fired. Weirdness is happening here.”
    “Yes, and my vote is to get out of here, especially since—”
    Another snap sounded from under the ship, and the deck lurched, dropping a couple of inches.
    “This situation is making it very difficult to maintain a serene state of mind,” Yumi announced. Her flashlight beam wavered. Her hand might have been shaking.
    Alisa didn’t blame her. She was trying very hard not to look at the man she had very likely killed—or the blood spattered on Beck’s armor.
    “What happened out there?” Mica asked. “You didn’t blow up the other ship, did you?”
    “In the midst of a frenetic battle on their ship, we may have inadvertently shot something important in engineering,” Beck said. “Something that cracked, smoked, and caused men to shout, ‘Abandon ship, abandon ship.’ Which we then decided would be a good idea for us too.”
    “There was an explosion, and the ice under their ship cracked,” Leonidas said. “It was sinking as we ran away, and we barely escaped before a massive chunk of ice broke, sank, and took them all down with it.”
    “Their ship didn’t float?” Alisa frowned at Yumi, more alarmed than ever by the sounds of ice snapping outside. “You said a ship would float, like a boat.”
    “I said this ship probably would, since it’s got a lot of air on the