Twisting out of his grip, she grabbed the front of his tunic and yanked him down to the deck as a stool moved through the space they'd just been filling and slammed into the bulkhead.
"… do."
Getting a di'Taykan horizontal was never a problem. Torin took the opportunity to turn up Alamber's masker while they were lying face-to-face. Getting back up again required a jab in a sensitive place.
"Ow!" His hair flattened. "What's your hurry?"
"I told you. I have things to do." She held out a hand and, when he took it, heaved him up onto his feet. The di'Taykan were tall but not usually very heavy, and she still had the benefit of the station's lower gravity. "So talk."
He twitched his tunic back into place, adjusting the layers until it looked exactly like it had when he started as far as Torin was concerned. "It's about your implant," he said, leaning in-although, given the noise level, he could have been shouting and not significantly raised the odds of eavesdroppers.
The Corps installed implants in sergeants and above. As everyone knew who Torin was, the electronics built into her jaw were no secret. She raised a brow.
Alamber's gaze flicked out over the Hub, settled on Big Bill for a moment, then returned to Torin's face, his smile as self-satisfied as a cat's. "I found Nia after you left." He touched the side of his nose.
It seemed Nia's scent, even with her masker turned all the way up, had been stronger than her ambient scent in the room. "And?" Torin prodded, keeping most of her attention on the fight.
"What went on between you and Nia-if I'm not invited to join, well, that's none of my business. But it did make me wonder what you were up to, trin, so I checked things out. I could smell Krai by the boards. Not on the boards." Alamber wiggled his fingers triumphantly at her. "He wore gloves but not boots so I know where he stood, I know how he got in. He's good, but he doesn't know the system like I do. I haven't cracked the wave yet, but you're using your ship as an SP, blocking the station's rider. If you've got someone on the side who can crack Big Bill's code-and, hello, you do-I want in on whatever shit you're doing." He pursed his lips in a mockery of a kiss. "Or I tell Big Bill what's up."
"And you haven't already told him because…?"
His shoulders rose and fell, the movement all grace and faked nonchalance. "Big Bill's got this nasty habit of taking bad news out on the messenger. Just figured I might get a better deal from you."
She didn't have time for this.
"All right, fine. I have to…" Torin yanked him sideways as an unlaced boot slammed into the bulkhead. "… prove I'm invaluable right now, so go to the Star and wait for me there."
"Nice try, but I'm going to need the entry codes, trin."
"Nice try, but if you don't already have the entry codes, you're of no use to me." As his eyes darkened and he grinned, telling her everything she needed to know, Torin grabbed his shoulder and spun him around to face the hatch. "Go. Ressk's still at the ship. Tell him I sent you."
The moment the door closed behind him, she tongued her implant, direct to the Star. "Ressk, Alamber's incoming. Take him out, stuff him in the head. I'll deal with him later." *Take him out? How?*
"You're an ex-Marine, his balls have barely dropped. Try not to hurt him." Breaking the connection, she moved into the fight.
Torin could have taken the path of least resistance to Big Bill's side, read the movement of the brawl and put herself where it wasn't, but she'd wanted to hurt someone, had wanted to rip Mackenzie Cho into pieces for so long now that she ducked under a wild blow, drove her shoulder into a beer-stained stomach, straightened, and threw the woman onto a pair of di'Taykan, all three of them kicking and flailing as they hit the deck. Close, but not quite. She blocked a piece of broken kiosk being used as a club, then jabbed stiffened fingers into a solar plexus. Spun and smashed her heel into the side of a knee. Cracked a nose with her elbow. Narrowly missed having a piece bitten out of her forearm, drove it instead in under the chin and stepped over the Krai now gasping for breath to stand at Big Bill's side.
The Grr brothers ensured a relative circle of calm, but the brawl was a mindless beast reputation would not affect. If they fought their way to a hatch, and Torin had to assume they could or they were shit bodyguards, they'd leave Big Bill undefended. No one would go after him deliberately, but in the heat of the moment, accidents happened. The space around them suggested a couple of accidents had already tried to happen. Given the amount of blood on the deck, an orange-haired di'Taykan would not be getting up.
One of the brothers licked his fingers clean. The other swallowed and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Enjoying yourself, Gunnery Sergeant?"
Torin pulled her lips back over her teeth. "I was just heading out to find you. I've finished the designs for training facilities."
"So quickly?"
"Yes, well…" She swept a disdainful glance over the crowd, noted that Mashona had worked her way out of the fight and stood watching, drink in hand, with a group from one of the bars, Werst was happily dancing around a di'Taykan and two Humans directly in front of the decompression hatch leading toward the ore docks, and… Torin frowned as a vaguely familiar Human male caught her gaze. His expression lifted the hair off the back of her neck-it was recognition on a macro scale. Not of her personally, but of what he thought she was. What. Not who. When she turned toward him, he disappeared behind a clump of di'Taykan. Trained instincts said follow him, but the situation required her to remain where she was. "If this lot is any indication," she continued, the pause lost in the continuing chaos, "then the sooner they begin training the better."
"No argument," Big Bill sighed, arms folded. "Can you stop it?"
"It? This?" Good question. If they were Marines, or even Navy, then yes. She could stop the fight and temporarily stop a few hearts. No one made senior NCO without having learned to sound like a lifetime of authority figures all rolled into one-parents, teachers, jernil, bosses, sheshan. No problem being heard either as Torin would bet high that Big Bill could patch his slate into the Hub's screens. Unfortunately, this lot was not predominantly military.
However…
"Fights like this have a limited duration." Turning a gesture into a signal for Werst to break it off, Torin snorted. "With no actual goal…" She frowned. "I assume they're not fighting for something?"
One of the Grr brothers snorted.
The other one said, "Never are. Fighting for shits and giggles. Scoring points. An opportunity for cheap revenge. More assholes than usual, that's all."
Sounded like a definitive sitrep to Torin. "If that's the case, then it won't last much longer."
Areas of the Hub had already devolved to groaning and bleeding and, given the number of slates out among the spectators, payoffs had clearly begun. Without Werst's involvement, the Human and one of the di'Taykan had slumped down to the deck in front of the hatch, looking miserable. The second di'Taykan continued to yell something about family honor and, possibly, ducks, but no one paid any attention.
Torin could see two dead-besides the di'Taykan the Grr brothers had killed. There might be more among the sprawled bodies, but those three she was certain of. She'd given the order to start the fight they'd died in. Not the first time… but the first time she didn't give a H'san's ass.
"I think it's safe enough now for you to move on." She turned so that Big Bill got her full attention. In order to stop him from heading to the ore docks, she had to become his primary focus. "Do we go to your office or the smelter to discuss these plans?"
"I was on my way to the ore docks."
Past tense. She had him. "Success?"
He seemed amused by her oblique question. Not a problem. He could be amused by whatever the hell he wanted as long as he continued to focus on her. "No, not yet. But I thought it best, given the contents, to do what I could to remove foolish temptation."