Tech Scavengers [Humorous, Action-Packed Space Opera]

Jeridan took it as a bad sign that he could hear gunshots echo throughout the building. They sounded distant, but they were persistent and sustained. The guards got tense. Those stuffing themselves at the banquet table dropped their food and drink and got into position around the room, readying their weapons.

"Damn it, that idiot is going to get caught," he muttered. "I was hoping he'd think up some brilliant plan to save us all. That's what I'd do."

"So why don't you?" Aurora asked.

"Why don't I what?"

"Think of some brilliant plan to save us all."

"What can I do? Oh, wait … "

He realized he still had the chain that contained his electronic disguise hanging around his neck. Patricia hadn't remembered to take it from him, probably because her mind was still reeling from the powerful lovemaking he'd treated her to. He had that effect on women.

"Right," he said, lowering his voice. "Let me think for a second."

"Don't burn out a synapse," Aurora said.

"Now's not the time for adolescent sarcasm."

"I wasn't being sarcastic."

"Shh. The genius is at work."

Aurora rolled her eyes. So did Nova, and for a brief moment Jeridan saw his former boss as a teenager. She must have been insufferable.

He scanned the room. The prisoners were all sitting on the floor, clustered in the center of the room. The guards had positioned themselves at the front door and at both doors leading further into the building. They barely paid any attention to the prisoners. The real threat was whatever was going on in the other part of the building.

Jeridan took a good, hard look at one of the soldiers, studying his features and uniform. He slouched so he couldn't be seen among the others around him and started giving instructions to his electronic disguise. He didn't have time to get a perfect match, but in the chaos he was about to create, maybe it would be enough.

"Mom," Aurora whispered. "Look over your shoulder. See if you can grab that champagne glass without anyone noticing."

"Keep your voice down," Jeridan whispered back. "You might interfere with the disguise."

Jeridan continued, ending his description with the command, "Don't activate the disguise until I command."

He leaned over to Nova and whispered. "You need to make a distraction, a big one."

"That's so obvious. They'll never fall for it," Aurora said. She had leaned in, too.

"Yeah, it will. They're already on edge because of the gunfight." Jeridan's statement was confirmed by the distant thud of what sounded like a stun grenade. "We just need something to get people jumping up. Only for a few seconds. Just long enough for me to make a run for the door."

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"That's why I asked mom to grab a champagne glass. I figured you'd come up with that dumb idea."

"It's not a dumb idea."

"They'll see you," Nova said. Aurora nodded.

"I'll hunch down. And when I get close to the door, I'll turn into a guard."

"Can you turn into somebody cool?" Aurora asked.

"I already am cool, you just don't appreciate that because you're a kid."

"Young lady."

"Prove you are by thinking up a distraction. I don't think throwing a champagne glass will be enough."

"OK. Move a bit away from me. Your breath stinks of champagne."

Jeridan edged away, looking nervously at the guards. None seem to have noticed their little palaver. Most were looking at the doors while only a few watched the prisoners, and they focused on the ones nearest to them.

Jeridan waited, trying not to look at Nova or her daughter. He could just make out them whispering to each other. Then Nova whispered to a scientist sitting near her.

Jeridan glanced at the people around his former boss and saw a message being relayed from one person to the next. They spoke so softly he couldn't even hear them from this close.

Nova's hand moved along the floor and grasped an empty champagne glass the person nearest to her had set down when they had been captured.

She flung it against a nearby pillar, where it shattered.

Aurora leapt up at the sound.

"A gas bomb! A gas bomb!" she shrieked, running through the crowd. Those prisoners nearby rose up too, shouting about a bomb. One even pretended to be choking in a good enough acting job that Jeridan would have been fooled if he didn't know it was a trick.

The rest of the crowd sure bought it. Many rose or scrambled away. Others dove to the ground and put their hands over their noses and mouths to protect themselves from the cloud of noxious gas they expected to envelop them.

Jeridan sprang up, kept low, and darted for the nearest door leading into the rest of the building, weaving through the crowd as best he could.

That wasn't so easy. Everyone was bumping into each other in their panic. The guards were shouting something but Jeridan couldn't hear. He doubted anyone could considering how loud everyone was.

Aurora was the loudest. He had lost sight of her but he sure could hear her, screeching in that high-pitched voice that cut like a shard of glass. The kid really was a good actress.

Then Jeridan saw a new problem. A lot of people were heading for that same door. He caught a glimpse of a knot of red and gold uniforms in front of it.

"Activate disguise," Jeridan said into his chain.

His jumpsuit transformed into the uniform of a member of the Royal Guard. Jeridan had been tempted to choose an officer but decided to choose one of the more numerous privates because that would help him blend in more. He couldn't see his new face and he hoped he looked enough like the man to pass muster in the riot Aurora and her mother had just caused.

You can always count on the Bradford family to create drama.

Some people near him cried out to see his sudden transformation. Most, however, were too busy running to notice.

He pushed through the crowd and nearly bumped into a line of soldiers pushing the crowd back.

"There's no bomb!" one of the Royal guards said.

The trick was wearing thin. The gas cloud should have expanded to fill the room by now. People were already slowing down.

"It's a delayed fuse, next to that pillar!" Jeridan shouted, pointing.

The authority of his uniform got people running again. Panicked prisoners pressed against the line of guardsmen. Jeridan slipped through and got to the door, the only one to make it.

He hesitated. What to do? He hadn't thought that far ahead. Getting away had been the priority and he hadn't really expected to get this far.

Try to grab a weapon? He was way outnumbered and there were too many innocents in the line of fire.

Perhaps he should slip away and try to find Negasi. Together they'd have a better chance, although he really didn't see how they could have any chance.

A guardsmen with the epaulettes of a sergeant came up to him.

"Where's your rifle, private?"

That decided it. Jeridan kneed him in the balls, grabbed the man's rifle, and burst through the door, planning to disappear into the back of the building.

Instead, he came face to face with a muzzle of a gun wielded by an enormous Mongol who looked like he was in a blood frenzy.