Pixie Hazard, Archibald Bradford [100 best novels of all time .TXT] 📗

sealed it back on her head with a hiss.

Only to hear Donnie screaming at her over the coms.

“-the fuck are you Sledge?!”

“I’m here Skipper! I got the hostage, he’s alive, but Billy-”

“Never mind that! The rads are spiking again! The reactor’s done! Eva already bailed! Now get your ass out of there!”

Clutching her prize tight, Maria released the hold her boots had on the wall and kicked off towards the hatch.

“How long?” She said tersely even as she sailed through the hatch and into the corridor.

“We got less than two minutes before this ship is a nuclear dust cloud! We’re jumping off. Junkers took the lifeboats, I’m blowing out the airlock we came in through!”

Maria kept moving, one arm clutching the rattled Bryan tight.

“We need a suit for the civvie!”

“No time! Eniella’s coming in close, he’s going into vacuum!”

Bryan wasn’t privy to the conversation as the noise cancelling effects of Maria’s suit prevented it, so he didn’t hear her curse at her captain.

“We’ll never get him on the ship in time! His odds of survival-”

“Are better than if we left him on a ship with an overloading reactor!” Donnie roared; “Get down here marine!”

Within a minute she had linked up with her captain who was standing by to blow the airlock and wearing a thoroughly annoyed expression that nobody could see.

Now speaking over the intercom, Maria addressed Bryan.

“Listen up cutie. You have to let all the air out of your lungs. Exhale as hard as you can!” She put her armoured hand against his mouth when he started to speak; “No time. This bucket is gunna blow, so we’re getting off! If you want to live, exhale right now!”

He had barely finished doing as she said when she gripped him tight and Donnie pressed the detonator.

The airlock blew outwards and the three of them tumbled into space.

The silence was deafening, but Bryan wasn’t even aware of it as the zero-pressure environment caused his tissue to swell painfully when the moisture in it began to vaporise.

This led to a horrible pins-and-needles sensation that overwhelmed him at the rapid drop in temperature caused by the water vapour leaving his skin.

Meanwhile his lungs felt horribly deflated and his eyes felt too large for their sockets as his awareness dimmed while the two marines scrambled to get him into the Pixie’s airlock.

The image of Maria’s smiling face, surrounded by the floating halo of her hair, popped into his mind right before he blacked out.

__________

Billy did her best to save her new patient’s life while Donnie, Maria and Eva watched from the secondary airlock off of the forward corridor that led to the cockpit, infirmary, and tac-ops.

“I’ve got a pulse but both lungs have collapsed. Kyle, help me get him into the infirmary. I’ve got about three minutes to get his brain oxygenated before he’s a turnip.”

“That the clinical definition Billy?” Eva joked.

Maria elbowed her in the ribs, though both of them were still in their armour, doing their best to stay out of Billy’s way as she and the mechanic carried their new passenger out of the room.

“Settle down you mopes.” Donnie said tiredly before activating the wall coms; “Davie, with the Junkers finally off our asses let’s get back to Kentis and collect our payday.”

Eva snorted as she checked her weapon.

“Here I was looking forwards to a bubble-bath.”

“I’m not running a spa.” Her captain snapped, then winced as her body reminded her that she had been shot very recently.

“You better get to medical and have that looked at Skip.” Maria said with a gesture at her damaged armour.

“Billy’s busy.”

“Cool, but if you bleed out in your suit we’re burying you in it. Be like shucking an oyster otherwise.” Eva said while inspecting the dried blood all over her own armour.

With the captain distracted by Eva’s snarkiness, Maria reached out to the coms unit on the wall.

“Hey Billy, got another patient for you. Skipper’s been hit.”

They could hear the controlled urgency in the doctor’s voice as she paused in her work to reply.

“I should be getting paid overtime for the number of people on this ship currently injured. Get her out of her armour and to the infirmary. Shoot her again if you have to.”

She knew her captain too well.

Donnie leveled her best withering glare at the towering blonde and the gory redhead before relenting to the pressure from them.

“Fine, we’ll take a breather. But no fucking bubble-baths!”

“Wouldn’t think of it Skip.” Eva said with a smirk.

Shortly after Maria and Eva had helped the frustrated skipper out of her rig and ensured that she made it to the infirmary without stubbing her toe, they headed below deck to the charging stations in the drop-pod ready room, pausing briefly to stow Donnie’s damaged rig in the armoury for Eniella’s inspection.

They were mostly silent as they helped each other out of their suits, but when they were nearly finished, Eva spoke up.

“Hey, so why come the skipper couldn’t reach you for a bit on that shitty boat?”

Maria shrugged, trying to brush off the question as she locked her armour in place in its charging station beside Billy’s.

“I dunno, star-gnomes?”

Eva nodded, as if accepting the bullshit excuse.

“Cool, because you know, the only other way that she wouldn’t have been able to reach you would be if you had taken your helmet off. But you’re not some wet behind the ears FNG who would do that in the middle of an op... right?”

In some ways it was worse for Eva to be the one dressing her down for her reckless behaviour, but Maria accepted her lumps with grace and aplomb.

“Yup, not a chance would I ever do that. Like I said: star-gnomes.”

Eva sucked air between her