by Terry Mixon
Motion off to his left made him turn his head to see what was going on. It was Gunnarsdotter waving to get his attention. Once she was sure she had it, she began using hand signs to direct his attention farther to the left of their course.
He immediately saw what had captured her attention. There were lights from another ship closing in on the training ship. It would pass relatively close to them. Most interestingly, the pattern of the lights indicated that it wasn’t a Fleet vessel or small craft. It was some type of civilian ship.
That meant that it shouldn’t be here. Could this be the ship that was bringing the attackers to the training vessel?
Well, at the very least, the ship could provide them a ride. He made the command decision to board the ship. Since they were being jammed, he couldn’t challenge them, so he was going to have to do that in person.
If it was a ship full of civilians that was just off course, no harm, no foul. If it was a force on its way to attack his recruits, he was well armed, and they’d regret it.
Because they were in a restricted Fleet area, that relieved him of worrying about boarding the ship itself. If he’d had communications, he could’ve ordered them to heave to. Since he didn’t, those extenuating circumstances would cover his unannounced boarding of the vessel.
Because it was traveling faster than they were, they’d have one chance to meet up with the ship, and it was going to be a very bumpy landing. The programs in his implants were more than capable of calculating the incoming vessel’s distance and speed and matching it against their own. All it took was allowing his implants to direct the thruster pack to get them on an intercept course.
Once he’d double-checked the calculations and they were moving on the new course, he winced. They were basically going to slam into that ship as it closed with them, and he just hoped that no one was bounced back off or had their suits damaged to the point that they lost pressure.
Most approaches in vacuum were slow. This one was so fast that they barely had a chance to intercept before the ship ran them down.
When the ship was at its closest approach, Page maxed out his thrust and cut as much of the velocity difference as he could even as he slammed into the hull of the ship, scrabbling for purchase and turning on his magnetic boots.
He almost bounced off the damned thing before sliding to a halt against some antennas that absorbed his momentum at the cost of their integrity. That would probably set off an alarm, but they wouldn’t know why they’d lost the antennas. Or, because of the jamming, they might not realize the problem was mechanical right away. In any case, the marines had to hurry.
Of the fourteen marines he’d brought with him, he was astonished to see that twelve of them were on the ship and in good condition. The other two had bounced off to be left rapidly behind.
He hoped that they were okay. The trajectory that they were on kept them out of direct danger, and they could call for help as soon as the jamming field went down.
Locating an exterior airlock wasn’t difficult. Opening it also wasn’t a problem, since it was designed to provide rescue personnel access if there was some kind of accident. That would definitely set off an alarm on the bridge, so if this ship was here to cause trouble, this would alert them.
Once he was sure that everyone had their weapons ready, he activated the airlock’s emergency release. The exterior airlock hatch slid open, and half of them piled in, weapons at the ready.
Cycling the lock took thirty seconds, and that felt like an eternity. As soon the atmospheric pressure matched, the interior door cycled open, and the lead two marines entered the ship, already calling for surrender through their exterior speakers.
The craft’s nature was answered moments later when someone up the corridor opened fire with a flechette rifle, and one of the marines went down, injured but still returning fire. His people joined in and began advancing.
This had to be the attacking force that was coming to attack his trainees. He’d caught them before they’d gotten there, and now he was going to end them. They held their location until the rest of the marines were inside, and then he gave his orders.
“Advance and secure the ship,” he ordered via his speakers. “Take prisoners where you can. I want this ship secured in the next fifteen minutes.”
Andrea flinched violently as she watched JR die. The shocking suddenness of it made her want to vomit, but she didn’t have time for that. She had to save the rest of the platoon.
“We have hostiles aboard the ship,” she said over the ship’s all-hands channel so that her voice rang throughout every compartment of the vessel. Then she opened a channel to engineering and prayed that someone saw the flashing light on the console.
Moments later, Diana answered, and Andrea launched into giving her orders.
“Secure engineering and avoid contact with anyone not in the platoon, particularly the crew from the pinnace. They’re trying to kill us. This is not a drill. JR is dead, and we need to avoid any more casualties.”
Before the horrified Diana could answer, she killed the channel, drew the hidden stunner that Riggio had given her, and headed for the hatch. The ex-marine reached out to grab her, but Claudio beat him to it.
“You can’t go out there,” he said. “I don’t know where you got that thing, but they’re using real flechettes, and you’ll die.”
She shook his hand off her arm. “Sometimes the only thing you can do as a marine is to save someone else. Someone did that for me when I was a kid, and today might be my turn to do the same for all of you. That’s what it means to be a marine.”
“He’s right, you know,” Riggio said, stepping between her and the hatch. “They don’t know where we are yet, so they’re going to have to search for you. Now that they’ve killed someone, they’re going to have to kill everyone. If anyone survives to tell the story of what really happened here, you can be sure that the Empire will never stop hunting them.
“I’ve got a flechette pistol, and it’s my duty to see that you’re safe. Seal the hatch. If you have to make a heroic last stand, make it here.”
He didn’t wait for her to respond, turning on his heel and racing out of the bridge.
“Those were pretty words, but screw that,” Claudio snarled. “Those bastards killed my friend, and I’m going to make them bleed. Let’s go.”
She raced out of the bridge with Claudio and his squad at her heels.
Even though they only had two confirmed hostiles at this point, she knew that there had to be at least four. There was no way that the pilots on the pinnace were unaware of what the crew chiefs were doing. They’d have had to open the arms locker for them.
There had to be some other kind of plan in motion that would likely result in the destruction of this vessel. Fleet and the marines were probably supposed to think that everyone was killed in some type of engineering incident. An overloaded fusion plant would certainly do that.
Oh, hell. That was where the pilots were going.
She stopped at the first wall communicator and opened a channel to engineering. For long seconds, she was afraid that no one would answer, but Diana finally came on.
“Engineering.”
“You’ve got hostiles incoming, and they’ll probably want to overload the fusion plant. You’ve got to keep them out.”
“I guessed that. We’re locked down, but I’m not sure if they can get around it somehow. What do we do?”
“Jam it if you can. Use the airlock to get clear.”
“Copy that. If the pilots are coming here, maybe I should secure the pinnace. They won’t have sent a single person to take engineering, you know.”
That wasn’t a bad idea. Her friend was fast on the uptake.
“Do it. We’ll be out there as soon as we can.”
Without waiting for a response, Andrea killed the channel, raced down the corridor, and ran into the stairwell leading to the level where JR had encountered the hostiles. She could hear Riggio below her opening the hatch into t
he corridor at the appropriate level.
If she was going to make any difference in this at all, she had to catch up right now.
She pocketed the stunner, glanced over the railing, and vaulted over it. This was risky as hell, but if there was one time where she could use her physical enhancements to make a difference, this was it.
Andrea fell three flights and grabbed onto the railing when she got to Riggio’s level, slamming against the rails hard as she came to an abrupt halt. It felt as if her arms were going to be ripped out of their sockets, but she was able to maintain her grip and grin at the gaping Riggio as he turned in surprise.
“Dammit!” he said as he reached back and helped her over the railing. “Do you ever listen?”
“Only when it suits me. Stop bitching and tell me what the plan is.”
At that moment, someone down the corridor fired at them, and flechettes ricocheted off the upper part of the hatch he’d been about to go through.
Riggio and she both ducked, but he edged over to the hatch with his pistol at the ready. “I’ll do my best to take them down, but you’re going to have to follow me up and use that stunner to make sure. Good luck, marine.”
“Wait! That’s crazy. They know exactly where we are. You’re going to die.”
“Like you said, sometimes a good death is the best a marine can hope for. Make me proud.”
And with that, Riggio raced into the corridor, firing his flechette pistol at enemies she couldn’t yet see.
Without even thinking about it, she drew her stunner and followed.
41
Fei was pleased that Still Water quickly managed to find them a customs pinnace, complete with a trained crew, to pursue Dayton. Its regular duty was to inspect cargo in orbit. Occasionally someone tried to run, so the pinnace had to deal with any resistance when boarding.
She felt relatively confident that there was going to be resistance today. In that spirit, she made sure that she had a stunner on her person so that she didn’t have to use lethal force this time. She wanted Dayton alive.
While they now had the target cutter’s transponder information, that wouldn’t be useful with the jamming still active. Dayton’s crew had filed a flight plan, so it was the only thing they had to go on. It claimed that a small yacht named Exigent Circumstances was waiting for the cutter in orbit.
Still Water thought the ship’s name was hilarious, so Fei searched the data net and had found a reference to the term attributed to one of the premier universities of the Empire: the venerable Cornell University and its law school.
Its definition of exigent circumstances was “circumstances that would cause a reasonable person to believe that entry (or other relevant prompt action) was necessary to prevent physical harm to the officers or other persons, the destruction of relevant evidence, the escape of the suspect, or some other consequence improperly frustrating legitimate law enforcement efforts.”
Basically, they were using exigent circumstances to board Exigent Circumstances without having a warrant or announcing themselves. Irony, indeed.
Their attacking force was made up of Imperial Intelligence agents and customs enforcement officers. Each of those two groups had different skill sets that might prove helpful. If they could pin Dayton down, they might be able to collect a lot of damaging information.
Still Water wanted to see that the target ship lost power as soon as possible. It was difficult to move and fight a vessel with no power. Also, if any computers on board had incriminating evidence, it would be hard to erase that data if the machine was powered down.
Since all vessels had emergency power, the only way to make sure that no power was available was to completely take out engineering. It didn’t have to be destroyed, but if both the emergency power system and the standard fusion plant were taken offline together, the ship would be in utter darkness, and the crew and passengers would be trapped.
If, of course, everything went according to plan.
Luckily, the jamming didn’t block regular scanners. They were able to see that the ship that they were supposedly chasing was still in orbit. It even had the cutter that had brought the passengers up from the surface still docked. That was easy enough to tell with scanners able to read the names and ID numbers right off the hulls.
The section of space where Exigent Circumstances was orbiting was fairly crowded. Their cutter passing by wasn’t going to raise any eyebrows. That would happen when they changed course and latched on to the target ship’s hull.
Because this was a customs vessel, it was outfitted with armored vacuum suits and weapons. The customs people were mostly limited to stunners with just a few flechette pistols for the officers, but that would do. The Imperial Intelligence agents had enough flechette rifles to provide necessary backup if it devolved into that kind of fight.
Right before they were set to dock, the chartered cutter disengaged and began heading back down to the surface. After a brief conversation, Still Water decided to let them go. Odds were that nobody they were looking for was on that boat. Dayton was making her escape, and they’d only brought her to orbit for pay. If need be, they could track them down later.
Their departure opened up a place to dock. As a small civilian vessel, Exigent Circumstances had a cutter of her own and one spare dock. With the spare docking port available, they wouldn’t have to latch onto the hull and make their way to engineering in a vacuum.
The real question was going to be whether or not they’d take fire as soon as they entered. Personally, Fei thought that if they acted quickly enough, they wouldn’t run into any substantial resistance. After all, Dayton wasn’t expecting anyone to know where she was.
That didn’t mean there wouldn’t be any fighting. A countess like Dayton would have a security force, and they would do their best to defend their mistress. It was Fei’s job to make sure that they failed.
The rented cutter had just entered the atmosphere when the customs cutter changed course and quickly latched on to the open port. Since the ship was often forced to board unwilling vessels, they had overrides built into the locks that either bypassed the electronics or mechanically forced the airlock to open.
In this case, the electronic version was sufficient to take out the security system, even though it was probably a high-end one. The customs people had all the manufacturer overrides, after all.
Fei noted that there was no one in the corridor outside the docking ring once they came through. It looked as if they’d surprised everyone on the ship. That wouldn’t last.
Still Water led his people and some customs agents toward the bridge. That was where he expected to find Dayton. Three of his agents took station in the docking ring to make sure no one used the other cutter to escape.
It was Fei’s job to make sure that power went out as soon as possible. They were almost to engineering when an alert began sounding over the speakers, and a warning was broadcast about hijackers. The enemy knew they were there.
The main hatch to engineering was already in sight when it started to close, so Fei raced forward and skidded through right before it sealed. If she’d been a few seconds late, that might have meant a grisly death, but she’d done this before.
The man who’d closed it gaped at her and then fumbled for a weapon on his belt. She stunned him and then began methodically picking off everyone else who was scrambling around the engineering area.
Since she’d stopped the man from locking the hatch, it opened right back up, and Imperial Intelligence agents and customs officers flooded engineering. In less than fifteen seconds, the fight was over.
One of the customs agents was a trained engineer and quickly gained access to the fusion controls and shut the plant down. The emergency lighting immediately sprang to life, but he went to a different set of controls and extinguished them in just another few seconds.
“All power is off,” she said. “So long as we hold engineering, we can keep it that way.”
“Set up a team to repel any
attempt to retake engineering,” Fei ordered. “I’ll lead a team to sweep the ship and make sure that we’ve got every single person aboard. I don’t want any surprises, and we need to make absolutely certain that no one escapes.”
She broke off from engineering with four Imperial Intelligence agents and started making her way forward. They stunned everyone they saw. They could sort them out later.
They were almost back to the docking ring when the hatch at the other end of the corridor opened, and half a dozen people raced out. In the lead was Dayton, clutching a heavy bag of some kind.
Fei brought her stunner up and shot the woman, smirking in satisfaction as she went down hard, the bag skidding up the corridor.
The agents also opened fire. In moments, the woman’s guards were down as well, having not had an opportunity to return fire.
She walked over to the unconscious woman and resisted the powerful urge to kick her. Instead, she settled for making sure there were no weapons on her and borrowing a pair of handcuffs to bind her. There was no way that she was allowing this bitch to somehow get away now.
Ten minutes later, the ship was secure. Still Water had them do another pass through, looking into every hiding place they could find to make sure that they hadn’t missed a single person. That proved a wise call, since they found two crewmen hiding.
That spawned a third search just to be absolutely certain they had complete control. That one came back clean.
With that accomplished, they brought the power back online and headed toward the orbital where Andrea was. It was time to bring this sorry mess to a close.
She just hoped that they got there in time to make a difference.
Page leapfrogged in front of the downed marine and put a burst of flechettes into the woman who had shot him. While she was well armed, she wasn’t armored. The burst tore her apart.
They couldn’t count on being protected by their armored vacuum suits against every attack, but in this case, it had saved someone’s life. They needed to end this fight as quickly as possible and on the most crushing terms possible.
