We followed the curve of the corridor. I saw some children playing in an open area, which made my heart pound worse. What the hell could we do?
Just keep going. We were almost to the admin section. I could see the sealed doors ahead. No guards were standing around to keep us out, either, but the door was closed and locked.
I tried the buzzer a couple times and snarled when no one even answered the comm.
Lisel leaned closer and sniffed. Then he stepped back and looked worried. "There's something dead in there."
"Oh hell," Bully 1 said softly. "How dead? Maybe two days? That's the last time any of us go in there."
"Can't be that long," I said. "We had a link to admin, or we couldn't have docked." I looked at Krisin, who just shook his head. "Could we?"
"Computer-controlled," he replied and moved up to the door. He pulled a long, thin device out of his pocket. "I wasn't on the control deck. I'm not sure if they talked to anyone at all. That sometimes happens, especially on stations like this one out on the edges of human space. Sometimes you only talk to the actual crew if there is a problem."
I nodded and watched what he did. So did Bully 1, but he didn't look as though he was going to protest. There was a definite look of worry on his face. When some of his people arrived, he just gave them a sign to stand down.
Lisel kept an eye on everything around us. I wanted to ask him about why the Catchin's reacted the way they did to his name. He was not honest with me about something.
This was not the time. Then I wondered if I would have time later. If any of us would have time.
If the administration people were all dead, that must mean the other people were ready to strike. I feared that before long, we would be in the kind of trouble that would make any questions of that sort superfluous and maybe a bit too distracting.
"I've got it," Krisin said as he stepped back slightly. He had his hand on the controls. "I don't think we want anyone else coming in to see this, right?"
"Right," Bully 1 said. "We don't need a damned riot. I'll put my boys on it. The locals are used to them being rude for no good reason."
I looked at him with one eyebrow raised. He just shrugged and went to talk to the others. I didn't think he told them that the others were dead. He even sent them around the curve of the hall, but he came back and gave a quick nod.
"Do it," I told Krisin and found myself holding my breath.
The scent from the room was not as bad as I had expected -- but then I saw that the robos had been very hard at work. The people must have been dead a couple days, so Bully 1 was correct. I'd seen people dead longer than this, usually when we tugged in a fighter that had taken a hit and never made it back home. We couldn't afford to lose those craft, but there had been times when I had wished not to see the remains of my comrades.
This wasn't so bad, maybe because I didn't actually know these people.
"Oh hell," Bully 1 said. He sounded very, very worried. "Why would someone do this? What are we going to do? This has to be dangerous!"
He was right, of course. I saw a couple boards with red lights flashing frantically. I took that in before I let myself look at the bodies. Those closest to the door had obviously died first with a quick shot through the back of the head, a laser path done with almost surgical perfection. By the time four or five had either fallen to the floor or slumped in their seats, the others had begun to notice something wrong. She could see the pattern of those who started to turn and those who had started toward the attacker.
"This is not right," Lisel said as he looked from one to the others who had fallen. "They should have heard the pistol if nothing else."
"Excellent point," Krisin replied. He had started working his way closer to the boards, obviously to see what was going wrong.
"Hey -- you," I said, tapping Bully 1 on the arm. "I don't know your name."
He looked at me, blinking as though what I said could not have mattered. "Most people call me Brick."
"Brick." I knew what a brick was, but I wasn't sure he did. "Not long after you were last here, something happened. Something in the next few hours. There would have been alarms."
"Alarms. Right. Some ship was coming in too fast. Scared the hell out of everyone until they got it under control."
Krisin and Lisel both nodded. I had another concern, though. Two, in fact that came in quick succession.
"These people have families, don't they?"
"Oh hell," Brick whispered. "They must all be dead, too. And even second shift -- what the hell is going on?"
"Raiders, I think," I said and did not mention the other stations. "What was the name of the ship."
"I don't know." He stopped and shook his head as though clearing it. "But maybe I better find out. Do you people know anything about this kind of equipment?"
"Not a lot," Krisin replied. "Start rounding up anyone you know who might help."
Brick gave them all a long stare, and she knew he suspected something more about them. The look he flashed Lisel --
"We're here with you. We need to figure this out," Lisel said. "Let's stop this from getting worse."
"You might be the problem. You might have set this up." His hand moved toward the weapon I hadn't realized he carried.
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