Page 14 of Trusting Warik (Hissa Warrior #9)

Chapter 14

Nisha

Not only was Shift’s plan a good one, but they’d gone over it enough times that Nisha was sure even in the chaos of everything happening, everyone would remember their part.

The only person she was concerned about was Warik. He had the most dangerous job: going onto the ship and verifying everyone had been subdued. Images of all the things that could happen to him filled her head, making her want to lock him away somewhere safe.

“Now I understand why he’s so protective,” she grumbled.

What? Shift asked.

“Nothing, I’m just worried about Warik,” she said, cycling through the live vid feeds she’d set up on the passageway between their ship and Assist. They’d docked about ten minutes ago but had remained silent and kept the hatch locked. The others had tried to open the connecting hatch but failed. She watched them grow more and more concerned the longer it remained closed.

From the conversation she could overhear, they thought there was some kind of system failure. It was exactly as Shift had hoped. The Diniki weren’t alarmed, only concerned that something might be wrong with their companions.

As she switched to another feed, a crawler droid making its way from their ship to Assist came into view.

Warik will be fine, and I’ll be there with him to help, Shift said.

“It looks like you’re having a harder time than expected getting that crawler droid across,” Nisha commented.

These ships haven’t been maintained well , Shift explained. There are places that will cause damage if the droid moves over them.

“Slow is better than losing hull integrity,” Nisha agreed.

That was my conclusion also, Shift said with a teasing note in her voice.

The plan was as simple as it was brilliant. The first step was for Shift to integrate with the Assist’s computer. Then she was going to verify the children were still in growing vats. Once they knew the kids would be safe even if they messed with the environmental controls for the rest of the ship, Shift would change the air settings and within a few minutes, the Diniki on board would all be unconscious. Wearing a breathing unit, Warik would go over and carry all of them into a single room that Shift would lock.

Shift getting control was so important, they had three different avenues going at once. Shift was piloting the crawler. Malk and Warik were trying to get the paneling open next to the jointed hatch so they could get to the ship-station’s system without going through a door. It was slow work because they couldn’t make any noise that might alert the crew.

Nisha was working on sending communication packets to the Assist. They looked harmless but once opened, they would start a series of programs that would take down all the protective protocols keeping Shift out. So far, all her communication packets had been caught by their protection net, but she had plenty more to try. This would've been so much easier if there’d been a direct line of communication between the ship and the Assist. The entire place had been fixed, patched, and reworked so much that the computer had to be connected manually through the open hatch. It was dumb, archaic, and made their job much harder.

Warik and Malk are through our ship’s wall , Shift informed her. But it looks like the Assist was damaged here and extra plating was added. A lot of it!

“That’s not helpful,” Nisha grumbled. “I wonder if—”

The data pad in her hands went blank for a moment, then started displaying massive amounts of data.

“It worked!” Nisha yelled in triumph.

One of the data packets got through? Shift asked. Get me in there!

“I have to find my way around, give me a minute,” Nisha said even as she mapped out their database and set up a new command schedule. Once she was done making sure Assist wouldn’t obey the Diniki on board, she disabled all the new-entity safety protocols.

She’d never been so happy to see a “new program accepted” message in her life!

“Everything’s open for you, Shift. Integrate away!”

I’ll tell the guys they can stop working on the wall, Shift said. I’m already spreading through their systems. This thing is ugly and obsolete, it might take me longer than I anticipated.

“Make sure you go in with Warik when you open those doors for him,” Nisha said as she kept working on organizing and accessing systems through her data pad. Shift wasn’t exaggerating when she said the ship’s system was archaic. It wasn’t just out of date but according to the systems map, there was literal hardware missing.

Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to him, Shift said. Ah, there you are! I’ve got control of the environmental systems. Changing the air quality now. It shouldn’t take long before they all start dropping..

Nisha worked with her data pad until she could view the vid captures on Assist. She was disappointed but not surprised to find that half the vid captures weren’t working. She flipped through the operational ones until she found the Decanting room.

Twenty-five vats sat in five rows of five. All the indicators on the vats were in the green. The vid feed wasn’t good enough to read the tank displays, but she thought the children might be a few days from being Decanted.

For a moment, she froze, unable to think of anything but the little lives growing in those vats. Lives that would’ve been sold off to the highest bidder if someone hadn’t tried to get hold of her mother for information on Decanting technology. If it hadn’t been for one technical question, she might have never learned about them.

I can see what you’re looking at, Shift said gently. We got here in time, that’s all that matters. Now pay attention. I need you to help me track the crew.

“Right, on it,” Nisha said, forcing herself to go back to searching through vid feeds. “I think there are eight crew members, and I’ve found three down in the hallway outside the Decanting room. Oh, wait,” she switched vid feeds to follow a shadow that had disappeared from view. “Make that four. I think we hit them on shift change. It looks like two of them were heading into the room and two were leaving.”

Four down, four to go, Shift said.

Nisha wished she had been able to set up Warik’s topical implant so the two of them could communicate, but that hadn’t been possible with what she had on hand. At least Shift could keep him updated.

Warik says he’s ready to board , Shift reported.

“Good,” Nisha said, trying to find the other crew members. “But I’m worried he might have to go in blind. I can’t find the other four in the working vid feeds.”

I’ve gotten access to the internal sensors. Unfortunately, they’re as bad as the vid feeds, Shift reported. Don’t worry, Warik’s going in with five droids at his back. That’s enough for me to sacrifice one per crew member and still have a droid left over.

“Let’s hope no sacrifices have to be made,” Nisha muttered. A bio systems warning went off on Assist, relayed through the data pad in her hands. “Warik should go in now, or the crew will die. They can’t live in this environment for long.”

Maybe we should let them die, Shift said.

“I wouldn’t be sad about their deaths, but we need them alive. They’ll know if there are any more places where they’re growing kids,” Nisha reminded her.

I’ll tell Warik it’s time, Shift said. Don’t you worry, the warrior and I will take care of this, no problem!

***

Warik

“I can help,” Malk said even as Warik pushed him back beyond the umbilical hatch air lock. “Please, let me come with you.”

“No,” Warik repeated, then looked at one of the five droids waiting behind him. “Can you stay here and make sure he doesn’t follow me?”

“Nope,” Shift answered through a droid. “All of us are coming with you.”

Warik looked back at Malk. “If you try to cross before I’ve finished, you could force me to divide my attention, and I could get hurt. Do you want that?”

Malk’s ears drooped. “No, I’ll wait.”

“Good boy,” Warik said gruffly as the door slid shut and audibly locked.

“Don’t worry, he’s not going anywhere until Nisha or I let him out,” Shift assured him.

Warik held up the breathing mask but didn’t put it on. He slid his gaze to the droid closest to him. “If anything happens to me, you need to keep Nisha and Malk safe.”

“I’ve been keeping Nisha safe long before you,” Shift said, sounding a little affronted. Then her voice got softer. “Besides, nothing is going to happen to you. I’m here to stand between you and danger.”

As she spoke, all the droids waved an appendage at him. It made Warik want to smile. He wasn’t sure Shift was going to be as helpful as she thought she’d be, but he was glad he had someone at his back.

“Whatever happens in there, thank you for fighting at my side,” he said, feeling that this occasion called for a little formality. “May Diminish and Brimming watch over us, lighting our way and protecting us from danger.”

“We’re a long way from your moons, warrior,” Shift teased. “But I bet they’re here in spirit.”

That was probably as good a response as he was going to get from the AI, so he donned his mask and checked for pressure. When he was sure it was fitted and working, he signaled Shift to open the door.

He had his plasma rifle shouldered and ready when the hatch between the ships hissed and slowly slid open. Normally, he’d be concerned with how sluggish it moved or worry about the noise it was making, but that would need to be addressed later. He had bigger concerns at the moment.

The second the hatch opening was wide enough, two of the droids shot out in front of him, moving as fast as their tracks could go. Two more flanked him as he walked through the fully opened hatch, and one stayed behind him. She was determined to protect him.

“Don’t get too far ahead,” he warned Shift.

“Right,” the droid to his right said as the ones in front slowed.

It wasn’t long until they came across the first unconscious Diniki. As they’d rehearsed, one of the droids grabbed the Diniki by a leg and dragged him off to a storage room they’d decided would be where they held everyone.

“One down, seven to go!” Shift announced cheerfully.

“That we know of,” Warik reminded her.

They moved through the station slowly, checking every space big enough to hide someone. Warik refused to be caught if one of the Dinikis had figured out what was happening and took refuge in some dark space. It was unlikely, but he wasn’t going to take any chances.

“Here!” Shift exclaimed. That came out of the droid next to him but could mean anywhere.

“Directional language,” he reminded her, even as he turned a corner to find one of the lead droids dragging off another unconscious Diniki. There were three there, so Warik remained on guard while the droids dragged the males off to the storage room and returned.

“We’re so good at this!” Shift announced, one of the droids jerking around in place. Probably Shift’s version of a happy dance.

“We’re not done,” Warik said, even as he tried not to react to Shift’s excitement. He never expected missions to go smoothly, but this one seemed to be breaking the mold. “It’s bad luck to celebrate too soon. Wait until we’ve cleared the entire place.”

The droid stopped moving so abruptly it almost toppled over. “Right, sorry. No celebrating here! Just a droid doing a job.”

The formerly dancing droid shot off to scout a nearby room. Eventually, they found all eight of the crew and locked them in the storage room. None of them were hiding anywhere but even after they found the last one, Warik insisted they continue a cautious and thorough search. He had a bad feeling that everything had gone too smoothly. Nothing ever went this well.

Shift reminded him that they needed to restore the environmental systems or the Diniki would die. He agreed and once his mask buzzed to tell him that the air was acceptable for breathing, he reached back to unlatch it. It was a relief to pull it off and hook it to his belt behind Shift’s relay.

“This is it,” Shift declared as they entered the room full of growing vats. Except for the neatly set up rows of tanks, the room was a mess. There were crates stacked on top of each other. One corner was taken up by empty Decanting vats and the gel used to fill them, all pushed together to make room. Trash was piled in the other corners making the entire place smell like rot.

“Disgusting,” Warik grumbled as he searched the room. He didn’t want to, but he made Shift disturb each large pile of trash to make sure there were no surprises hiding among the debris.

After that was all done, Warik straightened up and slung his plasma rifle over his shoulder. The droid next to him twirled in place, taking in the entire room.

“Is that it?” Shift asked. “Did we win?”

Warik rubbed a hand over his head and let out a long breath while taking in the room around him. “I think so.”