Part 8

"Well, so much for that, I guess."

Himitsu kicked at the bars as the cops left.

"Damn it! That was our last chance too . . . "

She knelt by her two fallen shipmates. Ken plopped down on the floor in a huff.

"Well, that's it for Plan B. What about Plan C?"

Himi didn't even look up as she pushed Koto's bangs out of his eyes.

"We didn't bring the flame thrower you idiot."

"Ooh . . . right . . . wait, what about Plan ZZ?"

"Ken . . . there is no Plan ZZ."

"Oh, wait, right, you weren't supposed to know about that one yet."

Mick managed to carefully shift Koto enough to sit up.

"Is he gonna be okay? I mean, he took a hell of a hit, it looked like. And exactly how many times does this sort of shit happen, that you have named plans?"

"You'd sleep better at night not knowing."

She uncovered a wide, bloody gash that started just above Koto's right eye. She pulled a rag from her pocket and pressed it to the wound. Koto stirred and batted her hand away.

"S-stop . . . that hurts . . . "

Mick worked his own handkerchief out of his pocket and contributed it to the cause. It gave him something to think about, and besides, it seemed to be cleaner than Himi's rag.

"So. That didn't work, and had the added side effect of taking him out of commission for a while. What do we do now?"

Ken lept to his feet.

"I've got it! Plan 28!"

Himitsu shot him a withering look.

"Do you have hamsters you're not telling me about?"

"Ooh . . . that's right, we could only use that plan once."

Mick looked up at them blankly.

"Hamsters..? Never mind, I don't want to know."

There was nothing to be said for the next few minutes. Koto seemed to be going in and out of consciousness, and Mick didn't have any ideas, so he just kept his mouth shut. So they all heard the unmistakable sound of a group of cops coming down the hall. There was at least twenty of them, and they stopped in front of the cell. For maybe thirty seconds, they just stared at the four criminals with no _expression. Finally, one of them said, "Get up."

Ken, following the sound of the other man's voice, latched onto the bars of the cell.

"Hell no! Leave them alone."

The cop who had spoken slowly turned to look at Ken. Suddenly, his arm lashed out in a vicious uppercut, and he caught Ken square on the chin, snapping his head back and knocking his glasses off. He fell backwards onto the floor.

"Shut up."

The cops raised nasty looking guns simultaneously.

"Get up. All of you. Or we'll kill you."

Himitsu stood slowly, making sure to put herself between the officers and her crew mates. Mick slowly shifted Koto over, and stood up as well.

"Look, we're not going to be difficult about this."

He shot Himi a pleading look that said, 'Please play along; it's not worth getting killed over.' The cops didn't respond, other than to adjust their aim a little. The lead cop unlocked the cell door.

"Out. Now."

Apparently, they didn't want to wait for them to come out on their own. Two of them took a couple of steps in, and each grabbed one of Himi's arms and started hauling her out. She thrashed but could not manage to break their hold on her.

"Stop! Stop it! Let me go!"

Another cop reached in and grabbed Ken's shirt and dragged him out with out even waiting for him to get to his feet. Someone else grabbed Koto by his hood and dragged him out the same way. Mick quickly held up his good hand.

"I'm coming, I'm coming, force won't be necessary."

One of the cops still grabbed his arm and yanked him along. Himitsu managed to wrench one wrist free but it was quickly grabbed by another guard.

"Damn it! Stop it already, they didn't do anything to you!"

Mick tried to catch up to Himi, but the cops were keeping them well separated. He didn't know what it was, but something was bothering him, a lot. Granted, they were potentially violent, extremely wanted criminals. But there was no reason to be acting like this. He looked around, trying to figure it out. All he got was the eerie silence the cops maintained, and the way they were marching in lockstep. That was enough that he thought he had a hint at what was going on, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He cleared his throat.

"So, uh, where we going?"

The cop in front of him didn't say anything, just spun around and smashed him in the face with the butt of his gun. There was a nasty crunching sound as it connected. Mick gasped, and tried to put his hand on his nose, which was now gushing blood in a truly impressive manner.

"Jesus, you broke my damn nose!"

Unable to take it anymore, Ken broke away from his own captor and managed to get an arm around the cop's neck.

"Stop hurting my crew!"

The cop Ken had a headlock on just reached up and pried him off. Then he held him at arm's length by his shirt, his feet dangling a few inches off the floor. The cop considered for a minute, then suddenly hauled him straight up into the ceiling, his head hitting with a dull crack. Then he dropped him flat on the ground, put a foot on his throat, and started applying pressure.

"Ken!"

Himi was panicking, her normal deadly composure long gone, but she could not manage to get away. Koto was trying to claw his way free. Ken was their captain and without him they were desperate. Ironically enough, Mick was the one who actually managed to get loose. He bolted over to Ken, and hit the cop with a flying tackle that knocked him off the captain. Ken choked, and gasped for air.

"You okay, dude?"

Ken seemed too dazed to respond. From the bruise already forming on the brunette's forehead, Mick figured he had a nasty concussion, at the least. And then, suddenly, he didn't think about that, or anything else, because another cop had come up behind him, grabbed his left arm, and hauled him to his feet with it. Mick screamed as agonizing pain lanced through his left side.

The cops started walking again, hauling Himi and Mick along, and dragging Koto and Ken. Mick struggled to keep up with the cop holding him, trying to keep the yanking on his arm to a minimum. His face was dead white, and his broken nose seemed to be largely forgotten at this point. Finally, the cops seemed to have gotten where they were going, a large room that sort of resembled a med bay. They unceremoniously dropped Ken and Koto in a pile in one corner, and shoved Mick and Himi over by them. A quick look confirmed that there was just far too many for even the four of them to take out, and by this point, Himi was the only one still in any shape to fight.

Himitsu scrambled to her hands and knees, staring in horror at her fallen comrades. Ken, Koto, and Mick were in so much pain, and she hadn't been able to help them. Tears slowly began to gather in her eyes. With a strangled cry of rage she turned and launched herself at the closest cop. She punched him over and over again, raining largely ineffective blows on the man. She sobbed as she screamed.

"You! How could you?! You're a monster, you understand that, and I'll kill you! I'll kill you for what you've done!!!"

The cop looked down at her and punched her in the face as hard as he could. Then, as he was raising his hand for a second blow, he suddenly stopped, tilted his head as if listening, nodded, and shoved her out of the way. She ceased to have any meaning at all to him as he stepped around Mick, and picked Koto up bodily. A second cop picked Ken up, and they started carrying them towards what appeared to be a pair of tables with restraining straps.

"Oh, god."

Mick tried to stop them, but someone else grabbed his arm, and held him back.

"What's going on?"

He didn't care if he got hit again, he didn't care if they killed him for talking. But he had a horrible feeling he knew what this place was. Himi lunged after them, trying to get to her friends. But two cops shoved her backwards, and then grabbed her arms.

"Wait your turn."

It was a low, hoarse voice, quite unlike any of the cops they had heard before, but much louder than it should have been. Mick suddenly realized that they were speaking in unison.

"Wh-what's going on?" he demanded again. And finally, the cops responded, using that same creepy way of speaking in unison.

"Ports are to be deactivated."

If it was possible, Mick suddenly looked even paler than before. "D-deactivated? Shit..." Then, suddenly, he started fighting as violently as he could. "NO! You can't do that!"

If they deactivated the ports, they'd deactivate the neural nets attached to them. It wouldn't cause him, or Ken, or Himi anything more than some minor pain and a hell of a lot of inconvenience, but they could be repaired. It would either kill Koto, or turn him into a vegetable. His nets were too extensive. The cop paid no attention.

Mick tried to wrench his arm away from the cop to no avail. The cops strapped Ken and Koto to the tables, and left the room. Most of the others followed. The only ones who stayed behind were the ones holding on to Mick and Himi. Desperate, Mick looked around wildly. He didn't know what was going on, and he suspected it was vitally important that he figure it out. He chanced to glance at a computer terminal, and had to look again to actually realize what he had seen. He'd been on police ships before, and he knew that usually, the terminals displayed the police logo. This time, it was displaying a logo, but it wasn't the right one. It was a rose. And, as he watched, it seemed to go even further into bloom. Suddenly, he knew, with terrifying certainty, what the problem was.

"Shit!"

Sheherezade.

A technician came in, and totally ignored Himi and Mick. He went over to the table Koto was strapped to, and pulled a terminal on a wheeled cart over to it. Then he started hooking some cables to his ports. The boy's eyes went wide and he screamed. Luckily, this distracted the cops just enough for Himitsu to finely break free. She kicked one man in the jaw and threw her shoulder into the other man's chest knocking him over. She spotted a large wrench sitting with some other tools and grabbed it. Managing to avoid her captors, she sprinted to the tables and quickly knocked out the technician.

Mick looked around for some way to help her. The cop holding his arm still had a death grip on it, and, try as he might, he simply could not get it loose. At least Himi would be able to keep them away from the other two. She was armed now, and a force to be reckoned with. His eyes lit on a button. It was small and inconspicuous, and Mick suddenly remembered that all ship med bays came with an emergency release system. The button even seemed to be within reach. The only problem was, it was on his left side, and he wasn't flexible enough to kick it. But this was an emergency. Himi couldn't hold them off and hit the button at the same time, and in a very short while, there would be more cops in here, and the odds of their survival would be practically nil. So he focused all of his energy into making his dead arm move. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and he couldn't help yelping. It hurt a hell of a lot.

It felt like his arm was on fire, only a magnitude worse. But it was definitely moving. With a convulsive effort that made him shriek in pain, he finally got his arm up high enough to reach the button. Swearing continuously under his breath, and trying not to pass out, he just managed to exert enough pressure on the button to press it. He slumped over, the only thing keeping him from falling over was the cop holding onto him. Then he looked up, trying to make sure it had actually been the right button. It was. The straps holding Ken and Koto immediately snapped loose. Himi wasted no time in pulling Ken to his feet. She pulled Koto up as well, shoving the still dazed boy into his arms.

"Keep him safe."

The woman took Ken's right wrist and placed the wrench in his hand. The door that the technician had come through opened. The reinforcements were here. Several more cops poured into the room, guns raised. Nobody said anything for about a minute. Then one of them lunged at Himi. Even though Ken had the wrench, it was fairly clear who was the actual threat. She sidestepped the attack quickly and slammed both fists down onto the back of the man's neck. He was felled easily and she quickly snatched up his gun from the floor. She trained the weapon on the remaining cops.

"Nobody has to die here, just let the four of us go."

Mick looked over at Himi.

"That's not going to work, you know. They're not really running on all cylinders."

Indeed, as he said it, two more cops attacked, heedless of the gun.

"Well it was worth a shot anyway." She flipped the gun in mid air and swung it easily, knocking out both guards. "I guess we'd better try and make a break for it."

"Yeah."

Mick glanced over at the terminal again, and he got an idea. He had no idea if it would work, of course, but it was worth a shot. And the damn gorilla who had been holding him was finally distracted enough that getting away was easy. He twisted out of the cop's grip, and ran for the terminal, praying that they would be too busy with other matters to stop him. He worked at the keyboard, and was amazed that none of the cops realized that he was going to be a problem. It only took him a minute and a half to finish.

"You might want to cover your ears."

Suddenly, all the communications systems started blaring feedback. Reflexively, all of the police covered their ears and tried to block out the sound. He waved frantically at Himi, bellowing over the noise.

"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!"

"Don't have to tell us twice!"

Himi took off towards the exit but stopped when she realized Ken wasn't fallowing her. The alarm, while saving them from the guards, had make it impossible for him to tell where he was. She grabbed his wrist and started physically pulling him out of the room. Koto grabbed a fallen gun off the ground.

"Payback's a bitch!"

He fired quickly, hitting as many guards in the legs and arms as he could before the thing ran out of bullets. Only then did he follow the others. Mick took the lead, since he remembered the way out, and Himi was busy with Ken.

"I figure we got maybe four minutes to get back to the ship before she finds the hack and gets everything straightened out."

"She? What are you talking about? I know this is strange but . . . damn! How could I have not noticed!?"

"Don't worry about it. I'm still not sure how she's pulled it off. Less talk, more running away."

He skidded around the last corner. Oddly, no one was guarding the ship.

"This is what I love about automata. Let's get the hell out of here."

Just as Mick was trying to open the air lock, a very large hand grabbed him and threw him across the hallway.

"I'm takin' this ship!"

It was a large, very ugly man, and clearly not a cop. Mick shook his head, dazedly.

"Of course. I was so worried about the cops, I forgot the other prisoners."

Ken shook his arm free of Himitsu's grip and stalked over to the man.

"Sure, go ahead, we don't want it! Just let us leave this damn place!!"

The big man blinked.

"Whatever, dude. Just don't get in my way." He glanced down at Koto. "An' gimme that gun!"

The boy's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Ken."

"Right."

The man only got to see Ken's insane smile for a second before he was bashed over the head with the wrench. After two hits the man was on his knees, one more and he was on the ground. Ken was starting to loose track of the number of times he'd hit the man when Himi finely spoke up.

"That's enough captain, lets go."

"Huh? Ooh . . . right . . . ya, sure, let's go."

Mick shook his head and got to his feet. He finally got the airlock open, and was wise enough to make sure he was out of Ken's way. As soon as they were all on board their own ship Himi ran for the bridge.

"What are you doing?"

Ken called after her.

"I'm gona ram those sons of bitches and end this!"

"Oh no! Not with my poor baby you're not!"

"Whatever. I just wanna get the hell out of here."

Mick was in sad shape. His smashed nose was still trickling blood (and his shirt was ruined), the whole of his upper left side hurt, and his head was throbbing. He reached for port cable, thought better of it, and looked around.

"You guys got a keyboard?"

Koto ignored Ken and Himi fighting over whether or not the steering the ship into a collision course would be a good thing or not and pointed to his normal work station. Amidst the different displays and connection ports was a large keyboard.

"You wanna help me? I'm gonna get into their file system and delete the logs for today. I don't want to have them coming after us when they snap out of it, or any of their coworkers coming after us."

Koto blinked slowly at him for a few seconds.

"Aah, good idea. I don't want another shooting on my record."

He rubbed his head a little, smearing some blood on his hand, as he dragged an extra chair over to the work station.

"I really wouldn't worry about that. If things go the way I think they will, they won't remember who shot them, and we weren't the only prisoners."

Mick completely ignored the 'another shooting.' Now wasn't the time, and anyway, he wasn't sure he wanted to know. He started logging in.

"Man. They put all these safeguards in to prevent people from tampering with their data, and not one of them blocks an analog hacker."

It would take them a few minutes, at most, to tamper with the logs. Mick and Koto found their way to the logs easily enough, and made the changes. As they were starting to log off, Mick hesitated.

"Wait. We need to be a little sloppier, but not in the identifying sense."

He started mucking with the data.

"Messing up a job on purpose . . . god I haven't done that in forever."

"Neither have I. Which is why they wouldn't think it was us. From what I've seen, any hack that is flawless is automatically attributed to you guys, and my own reputation isn't much different." He screwed up a few more files. "Frankly, I'd just as soon lay low on this one."

"Aah, you have a point . . . "

His patience for his crew mates had apparently reached its end.

"Ken! Himi! Shut up already and just fire on them!"

The two brunettes stared for a few seconds then grinned slowly. As Mick finished up with the hack, something on the system feed caught his eye. He peered at the monitor for a few seconds.

"Christ!"

He jumped up, and ran for the front of the ship, getting there just as a dull popping sound echoed through the hull.

"Jesus," he said softly. From the front windows they could see the police cruiser pin wheeling slowly a short distance away. "She blew the goddamn airlocks."

Himi slammed her fists down on the consoles.

"Fuck. That's . . . that's just sick."

Mick sat down, suddenly dizzy.

"Every single fucking time, she's crazier. Have you guys noticed this?"

"Wait a second . . . " Ken turned to stare at him, "what just happened here?"

"Sheherezade infected the whole damn crew, and the ship's systems. That's why I didn't log in like I normally do. Too damn dangerous. That's also why they were acting like a bunch of zombies."

"Huh? But then . . . she . . . she could have killed us at any time."

Mick closed his eyes.

"I'm not entirely sure she wanted to. Deactivating our ports would have, in theory, been enough to keep us from meddling. But I don't know what was going on. It was possible that she was just being a sadistic bitch, playing with us first. But I really do think she's nucking futs."

"Wait . . . that last bit didn't sound quite right . . . and would someone please answer the phone?"

Himi sat against the console.

"That ringing's in your head idiot. Besides, we have more important things to deal with right now. If Sheherezade could do all that, then we can't trust anyone."

"No, we can't. So we'll just have to stay on our toes. Besides. It's not like we're much into the trusting people, anyway." He sighed. "I just wish I knew how it was even possible that she can do that."

Suddenly, Mick felt even dizzier than he had before, and there was something wrong with his vision.

"Uh... I'm terribly sorry, but I think I have to pass out now. Please excuse me."

And with that, his eyes rolled back in his head and he slid off the chair into the floor. Koto managed to grab him before he hit the ground, but couldn't keep the both of them upright. Himitsu sighed.

"He probably just needs some sleep. I'll take him back to Ken's room. And as for you kid, you need stitches."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do, you're still bleeding. I don't want any arguments."

"Okay, fine, I give up."

Himi staggered a little when she picked up Mick but managed to carry him fairly easily.

"Ken, is the backup autopilot on?"

"Huh, oh, ya. It looks like we should be able to get pretty far even with the damages."

"Good, then you're going to bed too, at least until the ringing stops."

"Aww, but -"

"No whining!"

"Right, yes mam, okay."

------ (1) - shameless plug for our upcoming story titled Haku's Journeys