Krigara’s voice floated out of the bridge speakers. “I’m in the fighter. Do you want me to deploy?”
“Hold for a moment,” Janwar murmured. He wanted to see what would happen next.
The figure in white crept along the exterior of the transport until he reached the front window. Tucking one arm in a handhold, he raised what looked like a tronium blaster in his other hand and fired.
Soval grunted. “He must be new.”
All nodded. Every space-faring craft—large or small—constructed during the past two centuries bore windows made of indestructible stovicun crystal. If the Kandovar had indeed been destroyed, Janwar did not doubt that the dislodged windows floated through space, wholly intact, sporting nary a crack.
When it became clear that the window would not break, the figure holstered his weapon and gave the occupants a gesture known throughout alliance-occupied space to be obscene.
Elchan laughed. “I don’t think he appreciates being left behind.”
Janwar battled amusement as the figure crept along the shuttle’s exterior once more. “Any movement from the warship?”
Kova shook his head. “All is quiet there. Engines appear to be at full stop.”
This was so odd. “Follow the transport.” They’d piqued his curiosity now.
The transport began to swing back and forth in an attempt to shake off their furious shipmate. But the white figure clung tenaciously to its surface. Not far from the shuttle’s front window, he again anchored himself to the shuttle with one hand and fired a continuous stream from his tronium blaster at the edge of the hatch.
Quiet fell once more as all watched, unable to guess the outcome.
“What’s happening?” Krigara asked.
“The figure in white is trying to cut into the transport.” Janwar nodded to Srok’a. “Send him the feed.”
A moment later, his cousin let out a disbelieving laugh.
Elchan frowned. “He can’t really cut his way in, can he?”
“With a tronium blaster?” Janwar shook his head. “It might heat the metal enough to make those inside nervous, but it won’t penetrate or puncture it.”
“What are those things on his back?” Krigara asked.
Two dark stripes Janwar had initially thought part of the suit’s design moved back and forth as the figure was jostled. “Enhance visual.”
The transport’s image grew and sharpened, as did the figure in white.
He frowned. “I think they’re swords.”
As though hearing him, the figure holstered his blaster and drew a long sword. He took a moment to reposition himself on the transport’s surface, kneeling with both feet wedged beneath a handrail. Then he angled the blade downward in front of him, gripped the hilt at the top, drew it back over his head, then plunged it down into the metal he’d just heated.
Janwar stared.
Again the man drew his sword up and drove it down into the metal.
“That grunark is very determined,” Elchan said.
Too bad he wouldn’t succeed. Janwar found himself rooting for the odd figure. Aside from rescuing Taelon, Lisa, and Abby, this was the most entertaining thing he’d witnessed in years.
But even heated, that metal wouldn’t give. It was designed to withstand atmospheric entry and planetary temperatures that would instantly kill— “What the drek?” he blurted and leaned forward once more.
A little plume of atmosphere rose in front of the figure.
“Did he just pierce the hatch?” Soval asked, eyes wide.
“How is that possible?” Krigara blurted, watching the feed down in his fighter craft.
Janwar could only stare. “I don’t know.”
The sword rose and descended a third time, then a fourth.
This time he saw it sink into the hatch’s edge! No being Janwar knew of possessed the strength to accomplish that aside from the cyborgs the Akseli military had created.
Yet that was no cyborg. He knew that with absolute certainty. Years ago, the Akselis had announced that they’d decommissioned and destroyed all their biomechanical creations. The chances of encountering one on a Gathendien ship were nonexistent.
The plume of venting atmosphere grew.
Returning his sword to the sheathe on his back with an ease that bespoke years of practice, the figure reached down and tugged at something.
Janwar gaped as the man wrenched the hatch open, exposing the cramped control room and panicked Gathendien warriors inside.
None wore suits. Some bore weapons that venting atmosphere yanked out of their hands and deposited outside. All scrambled to hold on to something. One was sucked into space, arms, legs, and tail waving. The figure in white reached in and yanked another out as easily as he would a helpless little gravi even though the Gathendien was big and bulky with muscle. Then he yanked out another and another, something that became easier as the cold and absence of breathable air slowed their struggles and weakened their hold.
Another hush settled upon the bridge of the Tangata as all watched in stunned fascination.
His mission complete, the figure in white sat back on his heels—toes still tucked in a handhold—rested his hands on his thighs, and lowered his head as though catching his breath.
Janwar had never seen anything like it. “Any movement in the warship?”
“None,” Elchan said. “Only a few life forms remain. None are moving.”
“And the ship remains stationary,” Kova added.
Janwar kept his gaze on the white figure.
“What do you want to do?” Kova asked.
He pondered it a moment. “Disable cloaking.”
How would that figure in white react when an unidentified warship suddenly appeared beside him?
“Disabling cloaking.”
Janwar knew the moment the figure saw them from the corner of his eye. His heaving chest stilled. His helmet rose. Then the faceplate turned their way, the massive ship reflected upon its surface.
A heartbeat passed. Then the figure threw up his hands in a gesture of exasperation Janwar had seen Lisa make a time or two while she blurted, “Are you kidding me?”
Vuan, if it didn’t make him smile and bite back a laugh.
Some of his crew didn’t bother, their laughter filling the bridge.
“I’m starting to like this man,” Soval declared, his deep voice full of mirth.
Janwar was, too. But he would still have to capture and interrogate him… along with the rest of the Gathendien crew.
The figure in white clambered inside the transport and disappeared from view.
Like the Gathendien warship, the transport now floated before them like a ghost ship. “He isn’t going anywhere,” Janwar decided after a couple of minutes. “Elchan, I want you to join Krigara in his fighter and board the Gathendien ship. We need to know if those life-form scans are accurate. Gear up in case they are. There may be a contagion of some sort.”
Elchan left the bridge.
Janwar turned to the Rakessian brothers. “Srok’a, Kova, take a second fighter and accompany them.”
Nodding, the two rose and departed.
If the scans were wrong and the ship was still heavily populated with soldiers, Janwar was confident the four would nevertheless be able to fight their way to the bridge and commandeer the ship. They weren’t the most feared pirates in the galaxy for no reason.