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  Another beam staggered Kira, this one warming her thigh. It had come from the pirate in the airlock that had remained to cover the others. She gestured at him with the uncharged laser rifle, making him duck behind the wall. The beauty of beam weapons was that they fired at the speed of light and the beams themselves were invisible to the human eye. Calling her bluff would have been a very dangerous gamble.

  Even with that threat momentarily averted, Kira had no idea how she was going to survive. The man near the senseless Tarn was a heartbeat from firing at her. The man who had slipped through the hatch to cover Captain Sharp had stuck just enough of his body out to fire at her. She winced internally, preparing to be consumed in a painful fiery death.

  “The wall!” the same voice inside her said. “Jump to it, spring off it, and put a round through the man ahead of you. Then use the laser to deal with the man in the hatch.”

  Kira stumbled and realized her body was her own again. Her stumble saved her, based upon the curse she heard from the pirate in the hatch. She lurched forward, knowing she only had a few feet to go. The laser rifle throbbed in her hand, a feedback control in the grip notifying her that the capacitors had recharged. She leapt to the side, dodging the beam from the man ahead of her, and then planted her foot on the side of the passage as instructed and boosted herself higher into the air so that she had a better angle at him over Tarn’s slumped figure. She fired and felt a jolt of exhilaration flare through her as he fell back to the floor and fed a growing pool of red liquid.

  Then her head hit the ceiling of the passage. She hadn’t considered what the extra boost might give to her already impressive height. She fell down, crashing to one knee, and struggled against the pain that threatened to tip her over. She struggled up while the remaining nearby pirate shouted something at her. She failed to make it out, so intent was she on her own course of action.

  She felt her right arm on fire even as it swung the laser towards him. The rifle broke in half as it hit him, but so, too, did the viewport on his suit crack. The pressurized suit hissed as air escaped from it and the pirate fell back, stunned by the physical assault. She fell on top of him, reversing her broken laser rifle and jamming it into his body time and again until she was certain he was no longer a threat. The sharpened fragments had pierced both suit and skin many times.

  “One left,” she whispered to herself without looking at the persistent pain in her upper arm. She dropped the broken laser rifle and considered picking up the pirates. She left it, realizing her own Toledo Systems MAR-7 was weapon enough. She smirked at the understanding that she knew the exact model number and specifications of her rifle. She wondered what else she knew, and then discarded the thought. If this worked out right, she would have more than enough time to have a long talk with herself.

  Kira dove through the hatch and tucked into a roll that left her feeling freshly bruised. She dimly heard Captain Sharp blurt something out behind her, but she ignored him. Killing the last of the pirate boarding party was all that mattered. There had been nine sensor contacts and eight of them were now down. Ignoring the pain, she pushed herself off the wall and rolled up onto her feet. She jumped ahead, each leg alternately driving into the decking to propel her into a different place as she closed on the airlock. She screamed in denial when she saw the door close ahead of her, spurring her to run faster.

  The door shut before she could reach it, though only by the barest margin. She crashed into it and beat her fists against it angrily. The green light cycled to red, indicating it was being depressurized, and then she felt as much as heard the machinery in the ship’s hull open the outer door to let the pirate escape. Nearly three minutes later, the light cycled back to green and the door opened. Kira stood ready, rifle held at her shoulder and her own body crouched into a shooter’s stance.

  Inside the airlock a mess awaited her. All four of the dead pirates had suffered varying degrees of explosive decompression. Blood, brain, and other tissue coated the walls, floor, and even ceiling. Kira’s eyes swept over it without feeling, and then she swore and stood up slowly.

  “Emily?”

  Kira turned to the source of the voice. Captain Sharp stood in the hatchway, plasma rifle in hand, though he still looked unsteady. Tarn was watching from where he’d gathered himself against the wall. His rifle lay across his lap and a small pile of vomit lay beside him. The name Emily had come from further down the passage, where Eric was walking slowly towards her. The engineer still cradled his arm where he’d been shot. Her eyes fell on the first man she’d assaulted, realizing she hadn’t finished him. Somebody else had taken care of that for her, someone with a plasma rifle, from the extent of the injuries to the body.

  “What? Who’s Emily?” She pulled herself away from the vision of the burned corpse. Something about the name seemed familiar to her. It was a pretty name, the same name she’d once called an imaginary friend she’d invented after her parents had died. Emily had helped her get through her grief and the horrible times that followed. Then one day she stopped thinking about her; it was as though she didn’t need her anymore.

  “Kira?” he asked, his tone sounding light and hopeful.

  “What, Eric? They’re all dead except the one that got away. He’ll either be back with reinforcements or they’ll just start blowing holes in the ship.” Kira turned to look back into the airlock. The macabre scene broke through her state of shocked calm, making her gasp. She stumbled back, her hand going to her mouth, and then she stumbled on something and fell on her butt.

  Kira looked over and saw she’d tripped on the foot of one of the pirates she had killed. She let out a yelp and scrambled away, putting her hand solidly into the puddle of blood from the dead pirate near Tarn. She gasped again and lurched away, climbing to her feet and looking for a place to run. “I killed them!” she stammered through trembling lips.

  “You kicked their ass between their shoulders and hit ’em so hard their grandparents felt it,” Tarn chuckled.

  Kira looked at him as he wiped spittle from his lips. He grinned and gave her a thumbs-up. Kira felt her stomach twist and this time she knew it would not be denied. She turned and felt it explode out of her, sending her to her knees as powerful convulsions threatened to tear her insides apart.

  Chapter 10

  Kira opened her eyes and found that she was lying in the bunkroom. On her own bunk, no less. She looked around and found it deserted. She frowned, trying to figure out what was going on. She didn’t remember lying down to sleep.

  Her arm ached, prompting her to look at it. It had been bandaged. Her chest and a few other body parts hurt as well. She picked up the sheet and looked beneath it, gasping when she saw another bandage on her chest. She threw the blanket down the bed and sat up. She was nude, aside from a collection of bandages. Another blackout? She groaned and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. At least she was still on the Rented Mule.

  Laying on the bedside stand was a torn up and otherwise abused piece of cloth. It was stretched out fully, showing her the extent of the damage to it. The chest was blackened and the right upper arm had a hole with the edges of the fabric melted and charred. Rips and scorch marks marred the fabric, but where it was whole it had a sheen to it that sparked her memory.

  Kira gasped as it came back to her. The pirates, the sniper rifle, the voice she had heard, and the name Emily. “What have I done?” she whispered to herself.

  She stood up on shaky legs. Her body ached, causing her to move slowly and stiffly across the room to a mirror. The bunkroom was communal, a necessity of limited crew space aboard the transport vessel, yet she was the only one in it. She stared at her reflection, noting the bruises in the early stages of showing color, as well as the edges of burn marks that appeared beneath some of her bandages.

  “I killed seven men,” she whispered again. She watched as her chin trembled at the memory of it.

  “Knock it off; it’s not like it’s the first time!”

  Kira gasped, her
grief forgotten. She spun around but with her body stiff and aching, she made it worse by falling to the cool steel floor. She craned her neck, looking all around the room but saw nothing. She climbed back to her feet slowly, groaning at the pain in her burned leg and bruised back. She glanced into the mirror again, with only a flicker of interest, and felt her heart leap into her throat.

  She spun again, looking behind her, but saw nothing. Back in the mirror, she saw a silhouette of a figure that seemed shrouded in shadow. It stood still, facing her back. “Em…Emily?”

  “You did well today, Kira. I’m proud of you. All the time and money I spent seems to have paid off.”

  Kira’s hand flew to her mouth, muffling her gasp. “You’re...you’re not real! I made you up as a kid!”

  The shadowed figure stepped forward slowly. The shadows began to lighten as though she was coming into the light. “I’m as real as you are, Kira. You sent me away, but I wasn’t ready to go. After all we’d shared — all the help I’d given you.”

  Kira realized she was nodding. “I really am crazy,” she whispered.

  The figure shrugged. “I hated you, you know. I wanted to hurt you for what you did to me. You sent me away, after you were the only person who ever cared for me. But I couldn’t — if I hurt you, I’d hurt myself.”

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered to the woman in the mirror. It was obviously a woman; the shadows had faded to show a tall and shapely person wearing what Kira recognized as the bodysuit she had so recently worn.

  “I know you are,” she heard in her head. “You weren’t ready — I know that now. I’ve gotten tired of my life, Kira. Of our life. It was only half a life and it wasn’t the fun part. You’ve never had the good part, either. I kept it from you. That’s not fair, and I understand that. I want you to be whole again, Kira. I want you to live and to do everything you should do. I even like Eric, not as much as you, but I’ve only talked to him once.”

  Kira gasped. She remembered hearing Eric call Emily’s name in the passage before she had blacked out. No, not blacked out; she’d passed out. She understood that now.

  Emily stepped closer, the shadows fading from her face to reveal to Kira that she was staring at two images of herself in the mirror. One, the real one, in front of the mirror, and the other just slightly behind her and to her left. She felt her chin trembling again.

  “Be strong, Kira. You wouldn’t believe the things we’ve done over the years. Eight pirates was impressive, but we’ve pushed the line even further before. Now it’s all about you. There’s no tie to the money or to Kira Eskew, only Emily Bradford. My time is over; yours is just beginning. Live for us, Kira. Do all the things I could never do.”

  Kira felt the tears run down her cheeks. She nodded, both fearful and excited at the prospects ahead of her. “I won’t wake up and find Eric missing!” she whispered.

  “Eric might need you more than you need him,” Emily told her. “Now stop talking to yourself. It makes you look crazy.”

  Kira laughed at the joke. She wanted to turn but she knew it would do her no good. She watched instead as Emily stepped to her right, hiding completely behind Kira. She gasped, feeling something inside of her mind release. Millions of images and thoughts flashed through her conscious mind in a heartbeat, unrecognizable but now a part of her.

  Kira refocused on the mirror, and then reached up to wipe the tears from her face. She felt different, she realized. She no longer felt lost and inadequate. Kira turned, shaking her head slightly at the incredible weirdness of it, and then made her way back to her bed. She picked up the torn and burnt bodysuit and considered it. She glanced at her locker, where she had other clothes available, and then smiled as she slipped the bodysuit back on.

  She made sure it covered the most important areas and then moved at a stiff but deliberate pace to the bridge, where she expected to find somebody, if not all of them. She was in luck; Eric, Tarn, Captain Sharp, and Jeff were gathered when she stepped into the hatchway. They fell silent instantly, staring at her with mixed expressions.

  “Do you have my rifle?” Kira addressed Captain Sharp first.

  “Here,” Tarn said, turning and picking up her MAR-7 from his station behind him. She noted he sported multiple bandages as well, and had a steel rod with a cross piece at the top to use as a cane. She took it from him and glanced at the cane deliberately.

  “That LF grenade went off next to me. Shrapnel tore into my hip pretty good.”

  Kira nodded, and then began to turn away from him. She saw that Eric’s face was guarded. He met her eyes briefly, and then looked away before she could offer him a smile.

  “Hey, that’s an impressive piece of hardware you got there. Newer than what I’m used to. Then again, I never cared much for sniping. You got clearance for that thing?”

  Clearance? She glanced down at it, clueless as to how to answer him. “Does it matter?” she asked, remembering his own boasting about the military grade plasma rifles he’d acquired.

  Tarn grunted. “Only if somebody with bigger guns and a search order comes asking.”

  An image of herself filling out forms at an office and then transferring money from three separate accounts to a fourth account played through her head. “Yes, I have a security clearance for it.”

  He nodded and looked away from her. Kira frowned. He hadn’t been nodding to her; it had been for the Captain. She turned to face him. “This going to be a problem?”

  “Problem? Maybe you hit your head but you just saved our butts. Near as we can tell, the pirates turned tail and ran away. Eric even went out on the hull to see about some repairs. No sign of ’em,” Sharp said. “You can sail with me anytime, navigator or security.”

  “Hey!” Tarn protested.

  “Shut your hole; you’re old and not much to look at. Kira here is younger, faster, and a lot nicer to look at!”

  Tarn chuckled. “Got me there.”

  Kira looked back and forth between them. “Aren’t you the least bit curious about how I did all that?”

  “Ain’t a one of us that doesn’t have secrets. A dark past, a mistake or a string of ’em. We wouldn’t be where we was without them. Long as they don’t threaten my ship or my crew, you’re entitled to them. One thing though: is it Kira or is it Emily?” Eric made a strangled sound at Sharp’s words, drawing glances from Kira and the Captain.

  “It’s Kira. Emily is— was a…well, I don’t know what she was. A survival mechanism, I suppose. She’s gone now, and I have to pick up the pieces and move on with my life.” Kira paused to stare purposefully at Eric. “If my life will let me, that is.”

  Eric met her gaze and after a long couple of seconds, he gave her an abbreviated nod. The butterflies in her stomach settled down, but it took a few additional moments for her to tame the grin that came to her face. She turned back to the Captain. “I don’t even know all the skills I have, nor what’s so special about me. It’s going to take a lot of time to figure out.”

  She paused, thinking about where to begin or what to say. She looked at all of them and noticed for the first time the absence of Kevin. “Hey, where’s Kevin?”

  Jeff stiffened and looked away. “He didn’t make it,” Eric said softly.

  “Pirates picked him off the hull on their way in,” Tarn said in his usual gruff voice. “Jeff was hiding on the other side; they never saw him.”

  “Oh. Um, I’m sorry,” Kira said. She was sorry, but in spite of having spent months on the same ship with the man she had never really gotten to know him. That and her natural compassion and empathy seemed diminished for some reason. She frowned, wondering if Emily was responsible for that dehumanizing trait. Not for the first time she wondered just what Emily had done while she was blacked out. “Okay, let’s move on. What’s next? How’s the Mule doing?”

  “Engines are good but the pushers are shot up,” Eric answered. “I can probably get some minimal thrust out of one of them. They took another shot at us after they left. A parting gift.�
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  “We were just discussing that very thing,” Sharp added. “Unless you’ve got any more revelations for us?”

  Kira shook her head, and then moved over to sit down at the navigator’s station. She noted that the seat had been adjusted to give her knees more clearance. She smiled and blinked away the sudden moisture that came to her eyes. Even uncertain of their future, Eric had still been thoughtful enough to help her. She pushed the thought aside; there’d be time to thank him properly, and messily, later. She checked her rifle over, noting it still possessed three rounds in the clip. She wondered if the case it had been packed in had any more.

  She turned and saw them all still watching her. She stuck her tongue out at them and put the MAR-7 down, and then pressed her data port against that of the nav station. Moments later she was reading data on her display and mentally injecting commands back into it faster than she could ever remember doing. New commands came to mind as well, slipping in with the old ones and allowing her to bypass just the navigational systems she normally accessed and giving her free rein of the ship’s computer. She smirked, wondering how upset Sharp would be if she routed the output of the display to the main terminal instead of just her own private one.

  As she sorted through the different sections she now had available, she stumbled across the cargo load. She surveyed it, feeling something nagging at the back of her head. “Hey,” she said, drawing the attention of the others while she continued to survey it, “when we lost our sensors, what happened?”

  “Energy blast, probably a charged particle beam. Too far for plasma or a laser,” Tarn answered.

  She glanced at him, nibbling on her lip. “You said something at the time. Something about our sensors being useless even before.”

  Tarn shrugged. “Yeah, they is— was.”

  Kira scowled at him. “What did you say?”

  “That they’re junk.”