Pay Me, Bug!

Chapter 32

WHEREIN Our Hero, Having Settled Matters to His Satisfaction, Considers the Relative Merits of Mercy and Justice

Eleven agents were dead, ten more were badly wounded. Carsons and Laris were both alive, though hurt from the two-G fall. Of Grif's crew, Cutter had been wounded in the arm by a gauss pistol and Morgan had taken a shot to the gut. Both would live. The others had only superficial injuries.

Ktk wanted to know what the hell was going on.

Amys explained the situation to Ktk as Grif and Cyrus ran a diagnostic to make sure no ship systems had been adversely affected by the fluctuating gravity. The ship was fine: aside from some scoring on the walls from stray gauss pistol bursts, there was no trace of the fight.

An hour later Grif, Amys, Cyrus and Hari were in the Wardroom reviewing the situation.

"Gurgan and Vod are guarding the brig," Hari reported, ridges on his face fully extended. "Armed to the teeth. They will shoot anyone who tries anything that looks even remotely suspicious."

"Good," Grif said. "How are Morgan and Cutter?"

"OK," Cyrus said. "I just came from the medibay. Morgan spent a little time in the autodoc while it fished flechette rounds out of his gut, and is now resting in his quarters. Cutter put his arm in a sling and claims he's fine."

"Good," Grif said. "Amys, excellent job. Just out of curiosity, how badly did you hurt your, ah, escort?"

Amys smiled. "He's in medibay now. He'll recover."

Grif poured everyone a glass of Stellis. "How is Ktk?"

Cyrus chuckled. "Ktk is upset that it missed the entire thing."

Grif laughed. "I think they might have surrendered sooner if Ktk had been involved. Nothing quite so disturbing as seeing a two and a half meter bug floating around the ship, wrapping tentacles around the necks of its opponents."

"I'm glad the ship came out OK," Cyrus said. "The grav plates are getting old, Grif, and we never did get around to upgrading them. We're going to need to do that soon or the next time we do this she'll hurt herself."

"Yeah," Grif agreed. "Some of the plates in Bay Three sounded like they were straining pretty hard. Well, that's something to worry about later. Right now I need to go talk to our prisoners and see if there's any reason I shouldn't kill them."

"I'll come with you," Amys offered, and they went down to the brig together.

"What are we going to do?" Amys asked as they made their way aft. "About this job, I mean? Scrap the whole thing and go home?"

"That's where I'm leaning right now," Grif said. "I don't see the point."

"Yeah," Amys agreed, then she frowned. "On the other hand… it means we'd have to deal with a very ticked-off Alef Halge."

"I don't particularly care," Grif growled. "Goddamn mutineers."

The brig was on deck two and hadn't been used in some time--they'd used it as an extra storage room for a while. It was simple and effective, a single room sealed off with a plasteel door and wall, making it completely transparent to the jailers. It was set inside an outer room where Gurgan and Vod stood watch.

Six people sat in the brig: Velis, Bennet, three other agents, and one scientist. Three scientists were tending to the wounded in the medibay. The fifth scientist was one of the wounded in the medibay.

Velis sat on the floor, lost in her own thoughts. Bennet sat on one of the benches in the room, also staring off into space. The scientist and the three agents were sitting together, talking quietly.