C17 Mortal Combat (Patreon)

Here's that other part...

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The airlock was growing close, a mere ten meters away. The hatch hung open, inset in a giant wall. One last geroo-sized corridor ran along that wall before the airlock, the bulkhead, and Daskatoma’s waiting ship.

Thojy stopped and turned, too tired to continue. He sucked in one ragged breath after another and held the helmet in front of him like a club.

Tori choked down on the cane, gripping it near the rubber stopper at the bottom so the hooked end faced her opponent. But like the plastic helmet, it was a lousy weapon too—a thin green tube of aluminum that Druka had optimized to be light-weight, not strong nor dangerous.

Still, she appreciated the delay and the chance to catch her breath. She’d keep up the chase if she had to, but she’d already pushed herself long past the point of exhaustion.

“Tell you what,” offered Tori between panted breaths. She wiped at her eyes with the back of a wrist. “Give up, come quietly, and I promise that I’ll forget that Besho and Guhash are in the airlock. They’ll be long gone before anyone realizes they left.”

Thojy’s mouth fell open, clearly appalled that Tori would try to use them as leverage. “You… You wouldn’t dare!” he gasped. “Besho is innocent!”

“Is she?” asked Tori. “Aiding and abetting a fugitive serial killer? We can call a judge if you like, but I’ll tell you right now, your son will be an orphan tonight if you don’t cooperate.”

“She’s safe!” hissed the white geroo with angry pink eyes. “She’s on the commissioner’s ship. You can’t touch her.”

“She’s in the airlock,” panted Tori. “That’s still part of the Sailor’s Gambit I, still in my jurisdiction.”

Thojy bit his lip for a moment and took a cautious step backward, toward the airlock. Then, he raised the helmet higher. “Counter-proposal,” he offered. “You let me and my family escape with Dask, and you won’t find out what Nija’s final moments felt like.”

Cold, thought Tori. She gritted her teeth and stared in Thojy’s eyes. She growled, “No. Deal.”

Tori swung first, but Thojy was anticipating it. He held the helmet up like a shield, and the cane glanced off of it with a hollow thong.

“Feisty,” he said, swinging the helmet, but Tori was still using the cane to keep him back. Without even deflecting it, the weapon tasted nothing but air.

“You know what your problem is, Tori?” asked the white geroo, swinging once more but still not connecting.

“A serial killer who doesn’t think he’s broken any laws,” said Tori, swinging the cane once more.

“No, your problem is that you’re so focused on proving that you merit surgery,” Thojy explained as he menaced her with the helmet, “that you’ve lost track of what the crew needs. They need an executioner to lead the way. I’m the key to better lives for thousands. I’m fixing this broken ship.”

“Yeah?” said Tori, aiming a swing at the wound in Thojy’s side. She connected this time, but poorly. He hissed in pain but more for hurting the fingers he held over the wound than for damaging the wound itself. “And do you know what your problem is?”

“An investigator who won’t accept that my leaving solves all her problems,” said Thojy. “Get out of my way and there’ll be no more killer aboard this ship.”

“Your problem is that you’ve killed too many people,” said Tori.

Thojy rolled his pink eyes and pushed Tori back a step. “Yeah, right,” he said. “Dask didn’t hesitate when he typed up his list of ten. I bet he could name ten more targets without even scratching his head.”

“You’ve killed so many people,” Tori repeated with the next swing, “you’ve forgotten that killing isn’t a normal way to solve problems.”

She swung twice more, once at his wounded side and once at his chin. “Regardless of whether one through nine were legitimate targets and ignoring ten which obviously wasn’t,”—she lowered her voice—“eleven was indisputably murder, and you need to pay for it. So, scoff all you want while the courts find you guilty of one through ten, but when they force you to take that big orange pill … I hope you realize that we’re punishing you for eleven.”

Thojy swung the helmet, and Tori tried to hit him when he came in close, but she over-committed, and he caught her with a leg-sweep. Now, she was flying through the air—the cane lost from her grip and all four paws scrambling to cushion herself when she hit the deck.

Landing on her side hurt terribly, but worse, Thojy was on her immediately, his knees straddling her hips, the helmet raised above his head in both paws, ready to deliver a killing blow—or as much of a killing blow as the plastic helmet might be capable of delivering.

Tori screamed…

And then…

Nothing happened. Tori cautiously opened her eyes, relaxing only slightly where she cowered beneath him, trying to hold him at bay with spread fingers. A moment passed and then another. Thojy struggled and shifted his weight, pulled himself from her and stood. He didn’t offer to help her up. Instead, he put one palm back over his bloody wound and began hobbling the last few steps to the airlock.

“Wait!” Tori cried at his back.

But she didn’t need to because that was the moment when Sese dashed in from the side corridor and slid to block the white geroo’s path.

With a grin, Sese pointed her nightstick at Thojy’s face. “Drop it,” she said without even the decency to pant from exertion.

Tori might have presented a fair match for the wounded electrician, but it was obvious to all that he stood no chance against the big officer. He released the helmet, and it bounced once with a hollow bong before rolling to a stop.

“You okay, Tori?” Sese called without taking her eyes from the suspect.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” the prone geroo grumbled as she crawled toward her cane. “Just going to need my next pain pill a little early.”

Sese pulled a zip-tie around Thojy’s wrists but bound them in front so he could keep pressure on his wound. “Well, good job apprehending our suspect,” she said. “I really liked your battle cry.”

“I would have called it a scream, but thanks,” said Tori with a sore throat. She worked paw over paw up the cane, climbing back to her paws. “And thanks for getting here in the nick of time.”

“Of course!” Sese said with a grin. A pause, then her ears lowered in confusion, and she looked about. “And his family?”

A chill ran down Tori’s spine. If the legal system here was anything like it had been on her first ship, then Besho’s trial for aiding and abetting would likely be little more than a formality, and the punishment would probably be severe. She didn’t know that Thojy’s mate would face execution, but it wouldn’t surprise her either.

Tori swallowed. “Family?”

“Yeah, on the call, you said you heard Thojy and his family,” explained the larger gal. “She patched him up, packed up the cub and altar, and left with him. Clearly, she’s in on this too.”

“Leave Besho alone,” begged Thojy with tears in his eyes. “She’s innocent.”

Was she? Tori didn’t really know, of course, and in a fair galaxy she could trust the courts to decide that, but as things stood, she felt unsure.

Tori imagined Druka returning home, bleeding. She’d freak out! She’d do anything to help her mate and wouldn’t even question whether he’d done something to deserve it. She trusted her mate. Was Besho in the same bind now?

She tried to imagine Druka insisting that they escape onto the commissioner’s shuttle. That was harder, certainly. She wouldn’t want to leave her family, her friends. She’d listen to his reasons and try to understand what he’d gotten himself mixed up with. But this whole scenario felt eerily familiar. Only a day ago, she’d agreed to just that, though it was to a different commissioner’s shuttle. Regardless, she’d want Druka to be safe. She couldn’t just accept that he’d done something wrong and should be thrown to the court for execution.

Would that be aiding and abetting? Or just protecting someone she loved?

Tori stared at the crying suspect for a long while as she contemplated what to do. But in the end, she couldn’t see much reason to tell the truth. “Under duress, I suspect,” said Tori.

Sese’s ears perked, and Thojy inhaled sharply enough that he nearly gasped.

“I guess you weren’t in earshot yet when Thojy admitted that,” lied Tori. “She promised to meet him here at the airlock, but I suspect it was just a ploy to escape, since she’s a no-show.”

Sese turned to Thojy and made a condescending tsking sound.

“Personally? I suspect she’s taken the cub and is hiding out with friends,” said Tori as she brushed herself off. “She’s bound to resurface in a day or two. We can get a statement from her then.”

Sese opened her muzzle to reply, but if any sound escaped, Jintauroka’s bellowing covered it completely, “Daskatoma? What in the dead gods’ names are you doing here?”

Tori’s smile drooped into a frown. She glanced furtively toward the airlock where Thojy’s family was still hiding. “Get him out of here, okay?” asked Tori. “We won’t be able to preserve the scene anyhow if Inspector Jintauroka shoves Daskatoma back into the airlock.”

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xfA7nF_khk19_LOE7LYbr2xwTf2UzdZ5OhpUWak_RPY/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?