Cai holds Nyx princess carry with one arm, his rifle in the other as they run, “I’ve got six shots left and these are guard drones, not military, so if it’s only a few more it shouldn’t be a problem!”

  They round a corner, Twoey giggling as she hangs off of Cai’s back.

  Nyx wriggles from Cai’s hold, blushing as she realizes how he held her. She’s jealous of Twoey hanging off of his back, but reloads her pistol with a spare clip, and they get ready for a fight.

  The footsteps are right around the corner, and Cai moves to a doorway, crouching and aiming.

  Twoey nuzzles him as she stares at Nyx, grinning.

  Nyx knows Twoey is teasing her, but it doesn’t make her any less jealous.

  Roxy and Zone run into a vacant room.

  Cai shoots just moments after the first robot steps around the corner.

  It just misses a weak spot, staggering it for a moment, “Hostiles found. Engaging.”

  Nyx aims for the weak spots, but she’s only practiced once, so her shots hit, but nowhere that could stop it.

  Zone throws a microscope, hitting the second robot in the head as it rounds the corner, “Take that!”

  Roxy throws something too, a bottle of cleaner, “Eh!” which falls short by a lot.

  Cai fires again, hitting this time.

  The other robot fires at Cai just as he ducks back into the doorway, clipping Twoey.

  Twoey yelps, her right arm falling slack from the stun round, “Ow!” But still clings to Cai, licking the spot the stun round clipped her shoulder.

  Nyx fires more? rounds, hitting the robot and the wall behind it with sparks of electricity as they discharge.

  Cai fires again, the discharge finding its way past the armor, disabling it.

  There are more metallic footsteps coming from both directions.

  Sparks and electricity fly as Cai jumps into the room he’s using as cover, Twoey falling off of Cai’s back from the motion, though Cai catches her before she hits the floor, setting her down as she scrambles for cover.

  Nyx notices they’re ignoring her. Her pistol can’t hurt them, so they ignore her? She growls, feeling strangely annoyed, “You piece of shunk!” She rushes one, which gets its attention, and jumps on it as it’s bringing its gun to bear on her and starts bashing her gun on its optics.

  It grabs her, but shudders as another rifle round hits it, and Nyx jumps off as it slumps to the floor.

  The remaining robot fires on Cai, but a glass container with some liquid in it hits the gun, causing it to miss.

  Cai fires another shot as another pair of robots rounds the corner.

  A hit, but it’s still moving.

  Cai tosses the gun aside and soon comes out of the room with a large plastic tray, then charges the robots.

  Nyx reloads her pistol and charges, “Get sparked!”

  She shoots as the robots open fire on Cai. Rounds shatter the tray, one hits his leg, causing him to stumble. Nyx’s rounds shatter on the armor, sparking harmlessly until one hits a joint, causing the robot to shudder. Both robots jerk as they try to turn their guns on Nyx.

  Nyx hisses and jumps into a room, stun rounds sparking on the wall where she just stood moments ago.

  She hears Zone yell and throw something else. A shattering noise and a whoosh. He whoops, “Yeah! Burn!”

  More gunshots.

  Nyx pokes her head out of the doorway. Cai is on one knee, the remnants of his tray up.

  Both robots are burning, the one on the left more.

  Twoey throws a different jar of liquid, and as soon as it shatters, it too bursts into flames. It’s giving off an acrid smoke as it burns.

  It smells of chemicals, cleaner, and makes her lungs burn.

  Cai coughs, “Poison gas!”

  The robots spasm as they register the mess, “Emergency. Extinguishing flames.” A hatch opens on their left arms, and they spray each other with white foam.

  “Get into a room!” Cai shouts.

  Nyx notices the director’s room is still open, and it's close, “Be gettin’ in here!”

  Cai limps towards her as he drags a numb leg behind him, Twoey grabs his arm with her good arm, and Zone and Roxy rush to the hallway just as the robots turn their attention back to them.

  Zone closes the door and locks it, “Sorry guys! I didn’t know it’d be poison!”

  Cai chuckles, “Hey, it saved us.”

  Roxy is shivering in fright.

  Twoey rubs her right arm, trying to get the feeling back into it.

  Nyx turns to the unconscious director and the still paralyzed Heidi, “We be usin’ ‘em as hostages?”

  Cai turns to them, “No. We don’t have time to wait this out. In about half an hour, most of the people we’ve taken out will be moving again, and we’re out of ammunition.”

  Zone kicks the door, “Then how are we getting out?”

  Cai looks at him, “You four escaped on your own?” He turns to Nyx, “How did you escape, anyway? I was planning on letting you out myself.”

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  Nyx points to the drone hatch, “From there.”

  She gives Cai a smug grin.

  Cai smiles and nods, “Can you find us more guns and ammo? Preferably a rifle.”

  There’s a loud bang on the door, causing all but Cai to jump.

  Zone backs away from the door, “The robots want in!”

  Roxy, still looking terrified, finally speaks, “Maybe he…” She looks at the director and lets out an adorable ‘eep’, “Has something?”

  Cai nods, “Yeah, and he might have my wrist computer in here?”

  They look around the room.

  Nyx pushes the Director off his chair, just because she feels like it, then rummages through his desk. Tablets, memory disks, holo discs, even a drawer with some things in wrappers that smell sweet.

  “Whoo!” comes Twoey’s voice. “Shiny!”

  Nyx pops her head up as she’s clutching memory discs and realizing dresses don’t have pockets.

  Twoey is standing in front of a lockbox, the unconscious director’s hand below a thumb sensor.

  “Mya!” Nyx drops the memory discs, “That’s bein’ my dum bracelet!” She jumps over the desk and takes it from Twoey, slipping it onto her wrist, “Mya! Mya!”

  Roxy looks up from a mini refrigerator, holding some apples, a bite taken from one, “You found it!”

  Zone glances over, “Oh! That’s the bracelet they stole from you?”

  Twoey looks happy Nyx got her bracelet back, then picks up an antique pistol and some live rounds, giggling.

  The banging on the door increases.

  Cai turns to Nyx, “Get to…”

  There’s a warning message on the Director’s computer.

  Cai walks over, “Huh, it’s saying there’s a breach on the top floor.” He presses a button and a camera feed shows up, revealing several armed men running through the smoke of a destroyed door. “Okay… is that the colony security attacking?”

  Twoey loads the pistol and chambers a round, “I leaked everything!” She pats his shoulder and looks at the console, “Stop the bots?”

  Cai groans, “Right… we might be able to do that from here.”

  Nyx smacks her forehead, why hadn’t anyone thought about that before?

  Twoey tugs Cai’s sleeve, “Mine. Okay?”

  Cai turns to her, “Do you even know how to use it?”

  Zone nods, “Seen lots and lots of movies.”

  Cai squints at her, “You know what, just keep the safety on and don’t point it at anyone…” He presses more buttons on the computer, “Okay… unlocking the system so the guard can get in… turn off the guard robots… and… done!”

  The sound of metal beating on the door stops.

  “Four guard robots left. All on standby.” He moves away from the desk and turns to Zone, “You… uh… you said you know where they might keep my wrist computer?”

  “Right, yeah. And I’m Zone.”

  Cai turns to Twoey, who just blinks at him, grinning as she pats the gun lovingly.

  Roxy moves next to them, “Twoey. Be polite, and put that away. You’ll hurt someone.” She turns to Cai, blushing, “I’m… uh… I’m…” More blushing, “I’m Roxy. I… I’m not good with men…”

  Her ears are now bright red, and Nyx bristles.

  Cai’s blushing too, “Oh, hi Roxy. It’s nice to meet you.” To Twoey, “You too, Twoey. You’re crazy, by the way.”

  Twoey kisses the gun, “John.”

  Zone groans, “She just binge-watched some ancient movies called John Wick before Nyx got here. Not sure what she sees in those ancient movies.”

  Twoey turns to Zone, “They’re cool!”

  Cai brightens, “John Wick! They let you watch movies like that here?”

  Zone nods, “Yeah. Not much else to do here.”

  Cai returns his nod, “Yeah. Videos and games on the Donati too.”

  Nyx isn’t interested in the conversation, and it annoys her they’re getting distracted, “Let’s be gettin’ goin’! We can be talkin’ later.”

  Roxy gasps as she realizes something, “Oh! Yes, Mr. Cai, we were hoping you would let us come with you.” She blushes, “Um… it’s just… it’s that… Nyx was telling us about you and… and the ship, and… We want to help.”

  Cai nods, “Okay, let’s talk while we look for my wrist computer.” He heads to the door, “This is too many people for the Donati to handle for more than a month or so, but…” He looks like he’s thinking, “Look, you can come. I’ll explain things if we get off Mars.”

  Twoey cheers, “Yeah, goin’ with Cai!”

  Zone rolls his eyes, “Yay… yeah, yeah, I’m coming too.” He takes the lead, “It’s just around the corner.”

  The door opens partway, jammed from the dents from the robots trying to break in. Zone, Twoey, and Nyx slide right through. Cai has a harder time, but just manages. Sophie gets stuck for a moment, Cai gulping at the sight as the woman has to maneuver her bust just right to get through, and Nyx isn’t sure if she wants to feel bad for her or be jealous.

  Nyx pulls on Roxy, “Let’s be gettin’ goin’.”

  She notices Zone is blushing as he watches Roxy finally get through the door and growls.

  Zone coughs, then runs ahead, stopping in front of a door, two down after the round the corner, avoiding the downed guard robots.

  He pauses at the robots, “I still can’t believe you took those down with one shot, Cai.”

  Cai shrugs, “I’ve been in deep space for a hundred years. I’ve done a lot of target practice.”

  When Cai says that, Twoey pads up to him with her usual deadpan expression, which soon turns to a grin, “Teach me! So cool!”

  She whispers something to Cai, which causes him to choke a laugh and blush, then look at Roxy and Nyx, “Yeah, I’m not sure about that.”

  Nyx looks at Twoey and Cai and wonders what she said. Though knowing Twoey, it was probably something weird or made no sense.

  They enter the room. It looks like a standard storage room with shelves, drawers, and cupboards.

  Zone heads to a cupboard with a lock on it, “It’s probably in here.”

  Roxy stops and gives Zone a look of suspicion, “Zone, how do you know where everything is?”

  He scratches his chin, “Well… Uh…” He blushes, “I may have been seeing Gwen in here…”

  Twoey lets out a deep laugh as she looks through a cupboard, pocketing a heavy torch.

  Nyx wonders what’s going on.

  Roxy gasps, “Zone! She’s two hundred years old!”

  “Hey! She’s nice, and she lets me do stuff.” He blushes, “Not like that! Uh… well, just sometimes…”

  Roxy blushes deeply and glances at Cai.

  Nyx notices Cai is looking around the room, so Nyx helps look too. She wants nothing to do with Zone’s love life.

  Wait… Why did Roxy glance at Cai? She normally cowers from men, and she just met him. But she’s only seen Roxy with the orderlies. Men who have only taken her to needles and drugs.

  Twoey pushes past Zone as she and Cai find only random supplies, “Move.”

  She points her gun at the lock.

  Everyone’s face turns to shock, Roxy gasping, “Twoey! That’s,” Twoey shoots the lock off, “dangerous!”

  Cai groans, “And you could damage whatever’s inside. Nice thinking, but you know bullets ricochet, right? You could have hurt one of us.” He holds his hand out, “Maybe I should hold on to it until you’ve had proper safety training.”

  Twoey looks guilty for once and hands Cai the gun, “Got it, hubby!”

  Cai’s eye twitches, and he blushes.

  Roxy squeaks, “Hubby?”

  Nyx feels her jaw drop. She knows Twoey is teasing, but she still hates it, “He’s not bein’ your sparkin’ husband!”

  Twoey sticks out her tongue and grabs his arm, grinning. She’s totally teasing her, “Cai.” She looks up at him, and pouts, “Marry you? Marry Roxy and Nyx too! Have lots of babies!”

  Cai’s eye twitches, then he groans deeply, “You know, you shouldn’t tease people like this. And no, I’m not starting a harem. And Felis and humans aren’t compatible.”

  Zone clears his throat, “Uh… They fixed that… Felis and humans having deaf kids…”

  Cai looks at Zone, “They did?”

  Nyx, Twoey, and Roxy look at him too.

  Zone scratches his chin, “You know how I have my own room? Well, I’ve been staying with Gwen. They said they wanted to see if I could have babies without defects. If the mod worked… it was me or you, Twoey. And I already liked Gwen… I’m gonna have a boy with her. I think it was three months along? Said he’s got my ears and can probably hear. The first half-Felis that isn’t deaf.”

  Cai looks confused, but turns to the now opened secure cabinet and pulls out some bags. Nyx notices them as the bags they had on them when they got caught. Cai’s wrist computer is there too, with a tag: Don’t tamper with. Will destroy itself.

  Twoey puts a hand on Zone’s shoulder, “Whoa! Aunt Twoey!”

  Roxy’s still blushing, “Oh… congratulations.”

  They hear footfalls approaching, and Nyx feels her hackles rise and her ears twitch toward the door, “Security be comin’?”

  Cai puts his wrist computer on and tucks Twoey’s gun into his waistband, “We’ve wasted too much time talking. I can’t believe we’re talking about Zone’s love life when we’re trying to escape… But I guess as soon as we turned off the bots and let the colony security in, the tension kind of went away, didn’t it?”

  Everyone turns towards the door as the footfalls get louder and they hear shouting, “Hands up!” or “Freeze!” as the colonial security sweeps through the lab.

  Nyx grabs her bag, and when she looks inside and sees her clothing and even her wrist computer are there, she feels relief. The drawing of her and Cai is there too.

  Twoey is next to her without her noticing as she looks up, and she’s grinning as she looks from the drawing to Nyx, before heading right back to a shelf to grab whatever she sees.

  Cai takes his own bag, “Okay, everyone hold your hands up when they come and do what they say.

  No one objects, and they wait, Twoey shoving a few things into her modest cleavage.