Ninefox Gambit (The Machineries of Empire, #1)

by Yoon Ha Lee

Cheris couldn’t make his voice go away and she couldn’t stop reacting like him. As a Kel, she couldn’t help responding to the orders, either. She was going to go ahead, pick up the gun, try – Jedao started to laugh in earnest. “I’m going to enjoy watching you die, fledge.” The Kel called their cadets that, or inferiors who fell out of line. All her muscles locked up in spite of her intentions. The luckstone felt leaden in her hand. She had taken comfort from it since her mother gave it to her. It gave her none now. “You have no idea whether that gun works as advertised on full strength,” Jedao said contemptuously, “or how it works if it does, and you never asked. The Kel don’t get smarter, do they? Go ahead, pull the trigger.” The Nirai technician wouldn’t have lied to her – She knew nothing of the kind. “Think about the name of the gun, fledge. You know what a chrysalis is. Where do you think they put me when it’s time for retrieval? I have to go into a container, and your carcass is handy. Remember that despite the fact that I’m a traitor and mass murderer, one of us is expendable, and it isn’t me.” It was horribly plausible. She fired again, but wildly. Sparks; a dance of staring eyes. Again and again. No better luck. “Honestly, Captain,” Jedao said, biting down on her usual rank, “if this is a typical example of Kel competence, no wonder Kel Command keeps using a man they despise utterly to win their wars for them.” Cheris tried to make herself keep firing. Couldn’t. T...