A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 Read Online Free

order at them, and they rushed through the door.
    The security force missed the golden opportunity to ambush them.  They were ready and waiting, their stunners pointed, but none of them fired.  No one could say, exactly what it was they were waiting for.  But then it was too late.  One of the deputies fired his stunner, catching one of the boarders, a zheen, square in the face.  The insectoid crashed to the deck plating, unconscious.  The others raised their weapons and fired but in a ragged progression, no real concentrated fire. 
    The boarders cut them to shreds.  Assault rifles opened up, chattering noisily in the confined metal corridor.  A pair of plasma grenades were tossed at the couple of bits of small cover that two of the deputies were trying to hide behind, blasting it to ragged bits and scorching the metal.  In just under twenty seconds, all twenty of the deputies were dead.
    “Move it!” the leader called and they all hustled forward.  They stopped briefly to ensure the deputies were dead, using their blades when necessary and pulled the bodies to the sides of the corridor to clear the area.  They also stripped any access data cards, communicators and weapons that were still functional, dumping it all into a duffel.
                 
                  The operations crew watched in horror as the entire security contingent was butchered without a single casualty on the invaders’ side.  Before blasting it out, one of the zheen invaders looked up toward a security camera and hissed. 
                  “We’re going to die,” Katie said, putting her head on one hand, leaning on the console.  “That’s it.”
                  “We’re not done yet,” Silvio said soothingly.  “We can still beat this.”
                  The other operations workers stared at him as though he was speaking another language.  “Are you insane?” one of the men snapped, panic etched on his features.  “We can’t get out of this.  We’re dead!  They’re going to kill us?  Screw this.  I’m out of here.  I should have left with the others, not stay around to get slaughtered.”  The man was up and out of his seat and running. 
                  “We need to get out of here,” Katie demanded, getting to her feet.
                  “No!” he cried, turning to face her.  “We have to stay and try and protect this station!”
                  “Are you kidding me, Silvio?” she said, using his given name.  “We have no chance of doing that.  Those soldiers are going just kill everyone.”  She turned to the other workers here in the command center.  “Get the escape pods,” Katie ordered.
                  “You don’t have the authority to give that order,” Silvio bristled, grabbing her arm.
                  The woman shook him off and snarled at him.  “You’re a fool.  Fine, stay here and die.”  With that, she joined the others hustling for the pods in the next compartment. 
                  He just watched them go, standing dumbfounded in the middle of Operations.
     
                  “Captain,” Kufazik reported from sensors.  “I’ve got five escape pods launching from the mining station.  “No, seven.  Ten.  Eighteen.”
                  “Toward us?”
                  The zheen consulted his display.  “Two of them are.  The rest of them are on a vector in system, heading in the general direction of the habitable planet.  It’ll be a long time before they get there, though.”
                  Skygexx considered.  “Disengage from Skale ,” he ordered.  “Then move us off and close on those pods.  Get the tractors warmed up.  I think we have a few prisoners to snag.”  It wouldn’t be many, he knew, but if he could even grab five or six technicians off those pods, they would be