David Drake - When the Tide Rises

Lampert's young guard staggered forward. His mouth was open but the pain was too great for him to force words out. The last inch or so of a writing stylus projected from his lower back; it slanted upward, so most of it had been rammed through his kidney. Tovera twitched the sub-machine gun from his nerveless hands.

The flicker of light to the starboard side of the compartment was a length of beryllium monocrystal-deep-sea fishing line-snaking out on the end of a two-ounce sinker to wrap the neck of the chief guard. Hogg jerked back hard, cutting the man's throat to the cartilage. Bright blood sprayed for yards. If it weren't for the protective glove, the thin line would've severed Hogg's fingers as well.

Adele shot the guard to her left; Lampert had called him "Darrell." The borrowed pistol was a full-sized service weapon; she hit him in the temple as she intended, but the butt recoiled hard into the web of her hand and the slug-osmium instead of the light ceramic beads she was used to-punched through the skull and whanged into the hull plating beyond.

The last guard, "Bill," grabbed for the charging handle of his sub-machine gun; he hadn't switched the weapon live when he came aboard. That'd probably been a safety measure, since an accidental burst of gunfire in a spaceship-a series of steel boxes-could kill a dozen people in a heartbeat.

Adele swung the pistol onto the new target. The pistol's unfamiliar weight meant she'd overcompensated to bring the muzzle back after the initial heavy recoil. Her shot hit the sub-machine gun's receiver, blasting out a spray of aluminum, copper, and the transformer's iron core. The slug wobbled through to take the guard at the top of the breastbone as blue sparks flared, melting the remainder of the receiver stamping.

A scoring computer in Adele's head sneered, Center of mass, not a safe stopper on a real opponent. It'd been good enough. As Bill lurched against the bulkhead behind him, she shot him again. His head was tilted back, so the slug took him in the throat and exited through the top of his skull.

All the aides wore sidearms, but only one besides Blyth seemed to be aware of the fact. He dabbed his hand down toward his holster, his eyes wide and staring.

Adele swung. Tovera's sub-machine gun ripped a burst and another burst, toppling the spacers in the corridor. Hogg saved the aide's life by kicking him in the crotch and, as the fellow doubled up, chopping him on the back of the skull with the pommel of the knife in his right hand.

"What?" said Lampert. "What? Wha-"

The minister dropped to his knees. He gulped, then spewed vomit over the corpse of the guard thrashing at the end of Hogg's fish line. Adele couldn't tell whether Lampert was still trying to speak or if his grunts were simply those of mindless nausea.

Adele looked at the pistol she held. The pressed-steel barrel shroud had faded back to the dull gray of its phosphate coating, but heat still made air passing through the ventilation slots tremble.

"Cease fire!" said Daniel, rubbing his knuckles. Lieutenant Blyth lay face-up on the deck. The side of the aide's jaw was angry red and already beginning to swell. He hadn't been a threat, so Adele hadn't been aware of his presence after she took his pistol.

The aide who remained standing was trying to unbuckle his pistol belt, but his fingers fumbled as uselessly as so many sausages. His face was blank and he couldn't look away from the muzzle of Tovera's sub-machine gun. He'd lost control of his bowels, but he didn't seem to be aware of the fact.

Daniel slid onto the command console and switched fields with forceful keystrokes nothing like Adele's dancing wands but every bit as precise. The ship trembled as machinery worked, though Adele didn't understand what was happening until hatches began to clang shut.

Adele's first shot had blown a bright divot out of the bulkhead beyond the guard; a film of osmium drew a soft luster over the cratered steel. Around it was splashed a much wider circle of blood and brains.

She rotated the power switch, turning the pistol off instead of merely putting it on safe; then she dropped it onto the guard's corpse. At point-blank range, the powerful slug had scooped out his skull like the remains of a soft-boiled egg.

"Ship, this is Admiral Leary," Daniel said over the PA system. "All personnel, prepare for liftoff in one hour's time. All leave is cancelled. All personnel should be at their stations. Six out."

Hoppler and Seward were coming around, though the former's pupils weren't the same size. He'd need the Medicomp or there'd be danger of coma and death. Lampert had taken off his gold sash and was using the back of it to wipe his mouth.

Two spacers sprawled in the corridor. One lay on his carbine and the other, face-up on the deck, gripped his weapon to his chest like a funeral lily. They probably wouldn't have interfered, but they'd been armed and Tovera had decided not to take a chance. Adele would've made the same decision if she hadn't been busy killing other people at the time.

She walked over to the communications console. Hogg was carefully cleaning his razor-thin line on the jacket of the guard he'd nearly decapitated. She stepped around him. It was time for Signals Officer Adele Mundy to resume her duties.

Daniel started to connect with thePrincess Cecile himself, then realized he needed to talk to Vesey privately and didn't know how to be certain he'd really locked out everyone else. He didn't want even the veteran Sissies to know everything about the present situation. Besides, his right hand hurt from the punch that'd decked Lieutenant Blyth.

And besides that, he was trembling. A lot of it was adrenalin that he hadn't burned off but, well, his eyes'd happened to be on one of the fellows with sub-machine guns when Adele blew his head off. He'd seen that sort of thing before, but not quite so close or so clearly.

He flicked a blob of something off his left sleeve. Very close indeed.

"Officer Mundy," he said, pleased that he sounded unconcerned. The cruiser's systems were on standby, so he didn't need to use the intercom to be heard without raising his voice. "Connect me with Captain Vesey personally, if you will. Ah, privately, that is."

"All right," said Adele, though Daniel was guessing at what the faint words were. Her wands flickered; though in truth, that was a regular thing when Adele had her data unit out, and having the data unit out was a regular thing when Adele was awake.

"Hogg, lend me your knife," Tovera said. Hogg thrust his right hand into his pocket and tossed her the weapon, then resumed coiling his line.

Daniel couldn't pretend he liked Adele's servant or even liked to be around her, but at times like the one just past Tovera was more valuable than a squad of armed spacers. And she was perfectly loyal to Adele, a virtue that by itself would justify even a poisonous reptile in Daniel's mind.

He'd feel better when the wounded were taken to the Medicomp and the bodies-including the parts of bodies-had been removed. He didn't want to do that until he had a cadre he could trust aboard theLadouceur, though.

"Six," Vesey said. "This is Sissie Five. Go ahead."

Daniel smiled. Vesey was thePrincess Cecile 's captain in fact as well as by title, but she insisted on using the callsign of a first lieutenant. That was a completely unnecessary display of humility, and if it'd been any other ship Daniel would've put a prompt end to it.

It was theSissie, though, Daniel's first command and the foundation of his present success. He wouldn't insist on that deference, but under the circumstances he wouldn't protest Vesey's behavior either.

"Vesey, I want you to send me twenty of your top people, strikers and leading spacers," Daniel said. "Especially send Harrison to me as bosun."