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Breach Hall


“Theo, run!” Bechimo shouted inside her head. Jen Sin had jumped, but toward the bot, which was raising its weapon and—

She heard the hatch cycle, then Hazenthull flashed past—and something hit her in the back of the knees. She heard Bechimo shout as she collapsed. Her head hit the deck with a whack; her vision swam. She heard the fizz of an energy weapon discharging through the ringing in her ears.

“Haz!” Tolly Jones shouted, and the weight holding her to the deck was gone.

Theo rolled to her feet. Hazenthull was down, Tolly Jones kneeling over her. The bot—the bot was in a heap on the deck, the rifle a little distance away. She walked over and kicked the weapon to the far wall.

“Theo?” Bechimo asked cautiously, in bond-space.

I’m all right, she answered absently, turning slowly where she stood. For no reason she could name, she looked up, seeing the shiny new burn mark on the dull wall.

“It deloped,” she said.

Tolly Jones looked up, following her gaze, then looked over his shoulder at the downed bot.

Some of the tension went out of him, as he leaned back down.

“Haz? Field’s clear.”

“There is no more danger?”

“Well, there’s Cap’n Theo, but she’s with us.”

“Yes. I am rising.”

She came up to her knees, and Theo drifted closer, staring at the limp form facedown on the deck, leather jacket opened around him like wings.

“Jen Sin!”

She stepped forward—and stopped when Haz raised a hand.

“He lives. I took him down hard.”

Tolly knelt, and put two fingers against Jen Sin’s throat.

“He’s breathing and his heart’s steady. Might’ve hit his head.”

“He wouldn’t be the only one,” Theo said tartly.

Tolly offered a grin.

“Sorry, Cap’n. Came late to the party, and had to parse it on the run.”

“Not your fault,” she told him. “Mine. I should’ve backed away when Jen Sin told me to, but he was going to try to disarm it—”

“’Course he was. Can’t stop a Korval pilot from doing something—which you oughta know.”

“Indeed”—Jen Sin sounded wry, and slightly breathless—“it is nothing other than a defining trait of the clan.”

He rolled over onto his back, wincing.

“How you doin’, there, Pilot?” Tolly asked.

“I have once again established that my head is harder than hullplate. Apparently this must be verified periodically.” He took a breath.

“Cousin, you are unharmed?”

“Yes,” Theo admitted.

“Excellent. And the bot?”

“Deloped and fell down,” Theo said.

“Did it? I wonder why.”

He twisted into a sitting position, and extended a hand.

“Hazenthull, a boost, of your kindness.”

“Yes.”

She bent, wrapped a big hand around his forearm, and brought him to his feet, where he paused a moment, taking inventory, Theo thought, before he crossed to the fallen bot, and dropped to one knee beside it.

“I am,” he said, over his shoulder, “loath to leave it here. It was invisible to Tocohl, and seems to be part of a yet undiscovered grid. It may have kin.”

“I’m thinking we take ’im to Seignur Veeoni,” Tolly Jones said, going to the corner and picking up the rifle. “We’ll take the toy, too.”

Jen Sin rose, slowly.

“A reasonable plan, Mentor. Hazenthull, will you carry the bot?”

“Yes,” she said, and bent to gather the thing into her arms.


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