by Terry Mixon
That was a tough call, but that’s why they paid her.
“Carl, finish emptying the lab,” she told him. “Then get everyone to the freighter. Send the small ring next because I don’t want to leave it here when we go.”
He blinked at her. “How will we get the large ring out?”
“We won’t,” she said harshly. “We’re blowing it when we leave.”
The scientist grabbed her arm. “No! We can leave what we didn’t get. We still have time to get the large ring out and slip away with the small ring.”
Zia shook her head. “We can’t afford to lose any of this equipment since we don’t know what’s important. Stop arguing and get moving. You have ten minutes maximum. Maybe less. Don’t waste it.”
The young man nodded, his expression filled with anguish, and ran off.
“The marines we left in the security center ran into some trouble,” Talbot said, walking over to her. “It seems their replacements have begun arriving for shift change. Thus far they’ve stunned two new security officers. What are we going to do with them?”
“They’ll need to take them to the exit in ten minutes. We’re scraping the plan and blowing the large transport ring.”
The marine winced, but didn’t argue. “Copy that. We need to evacuate the building. The blast will wreck the labs and potentially bring the whole thing down. That means I need to get back to the shuttle with the last of the marines rather than going back with you.”
That was an added complication that she hadn’t really planned for. Still, she wasn’t a terrorist and didn’t blow up innocent people. “We do this together. I’m coming with you.”
The marine officer scowled at her. “That’s a needless risk. I’ve got this.”
“I’m sure you do, but this is my operation and I’m going to make absolutely certain that everyone gets home.”
She could see the calculation in his eyes. He wanted to argue, but he really didn’t have any options. Well, she supposed he could stun her and send her back to the freighter with the rest of the prisoners, but even being married to the heir wouldn’t save him from that kind of decision.
He must’ve finally come to the same conclusion because he sighed. “Then I suppose we best get this finished.”
Minutes later, everyone except for Talbot, herself, and two marines dressed in security uniforms were back on the freighter and they’d and sent the smaller ring back to the freighter.
“Time to get out of here,” Talbot said. “I’ve armed the plasma grenades and set them for ten minutes. We need to go help move the disabled security people.”
As a group, they left the research area and headed for the security center as the fire alarm went off. The marines on guard had triggered it so that they could clear all the workers out of the building.
A minute later, they arrived at the security center and the marines soon had all four unconscious security guards over their shoulders and the group was on the way to the exit.
For this brief window of time, her people weren’t going to have any access to the internal video feeds. They were on their own.
They’d almost made it to the exit when an older man in a suit confronted them. He seemingly popped out of nowhere, coming around the corner when the exit door was just in sight.
He scowled at them from under bushy white eyebrows that looked like caterpillars crawling across his face and put his hands on his hips. “What the hell is going on?”
Zia grimaced. They literally didn’t have time for this.
Kelsey had to admit that she admired how Commander Sommerville had handled the Clan frigate. He’d waited until he was certain the ship was as close as it was going to get before he’d opened fire. His unexpected beams had torn through the other ship in multiple places, crippling it instantly.
Unfortunately for him, his shots hadn’t destroyed the ship. It had been able to return fire with its missiles. He’d brought the freighter’s battle screens up in time to absorb the hits though, allowing the Q-ship to strike again.
That time, the frigate had exploded. One of the beams must’ve hit its fusion plant. The destroyed vessel had already launched its pinnace, but the blast took it out as well. The enemy had been efficiently eliminated.
Sommerville had immediately ordered the freighter to maximum acceleration. He only had a brief window to vanish from the Clan scanners and had been determined not to waste it.
That had been twenty minutes ago and the Fleet security elements were back in their barracks, presumably stripping off their armor and storing their weapons.
Timing was going to be tricky. She wanted to allow them enough time to disarm but not enough to scatter.
The Clan warships had just engaged the Rebel Fleet elements with crushing force. The fighting wasn’t over, but the victor was never in doubt. Only the battlecruisers remained and they were going down fast. She gave them no more than five minutes more.
It was time to get this party started.
“Tell me that we’re into all the command systems,” she told Bob Noble.
“Almost all of them. We have access to communications, propulsion, and navigation. We’re focusing on the tactical systems next.”
“What about scanners? Could we spoof them if we need to?”
He nodded. “With a little warning, yes. What do you have in mind?”
“I’m worried what will happen when Persephone turns up. I feel pretty sure Angela is closing in on us. This ship has better scanners than we’d planned for. If they spot her, I’d like to make the sighting look like a scanner ghost. We have to keep them from detecting my ship.”
The young man chewed his lip. “That’s doable. It would help if we knew where to find her. Can we send them coded instructions?”
Kelsey frowned. “The Clans will detect the transmission. That’ll make them wonder who we’re talking to.”
“It’s not as if this ship didn’t just paint a huge target on itself by blowing up their friends.”
“True enough. I’ll code a message for them to come in from behind. This ship is fast for a freighter, but Persephone is faster. Once Angela gets the message, she can communicate with us via tight beam and they’ll never know, right?”
Noble nodded. “Sure. We have control of the com system so I can lock out their detection of incoming signals directed at them. It’s not as if they’re expecting anyone to want to chat.”
It only took Kelsey a few minutes to code a brief message explaining everything to Angela. Bob Noble took it and had it sent moments later.
“We’re not waiting for her to respond,” Kelsey said. “It’s time to take this ship. If she gets back to us before then, I’ll let you handle the coordination.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
With that task handled, she turned her attention to the marines and recovery specialists awaiting her orders.
“Cain, you and your people take the bridge. There shouldn’t be much resistance there. I didn’t see any weapons and they can’t be expecting an attack from inside. Have your people lock out every system they can right before you go in or as soon as the alarm goes up from another group.”
“Got it,” he said with a nod. “Since Jason and Bob are into the systems, we shouldn’t have any problems.”
“I’d like to keep the command crew alive,” she stressed, “but if they resist too strongly, don’t hesitate to use deadly force to protect yourselves.”
She gestured for the marines to form up behind her and opened a com channel to Veronica. “Are you ready?”
“My marines are in armor and we’re ready to rock,” the former Rebel Empire officer said. “We’ll be in engineering in less than five minutes, whether we run into resistance or not.”
“Don’t get cocky,” she warned. “Those suits are powerful, but they don’t make you invincible. Mostly.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Kelsey laughed in spite of the grave situation. “Be glad it’s not a case of like mother like daughter. Yo
u’re go to execute your attack. Everyone, move out.”
She killed the com channel and led her forces into the corridor. They had access to the internal video feeds, but that didn’t guarantee they’d spot any enemy crewmen before they saw her or her people. They had to plan on an unexpected encounter ruining the element of surprise somewhere along the way.
To her astonishment, her group made it all the way to the Fleet security compartment without running into anyone. So far, Veronica’s team and Cain’s group had avoided discovery, too. This was going to be a devastating surprise for the Rebel Empire forces.
The hatch slid aside just as she approached. Time to make the magic happen. Or to make the donuts. She could never remember which was the correct saying.
It only took a moment to dump Panther into her system and the world seemed to slow as her cognitive response time raced far faster than a normal human could manage. She was ready for this fight.
Her implants were already in combat mode, but unlike the first time, she now knew how to retain full control of her actions and work in concert with the tactical computer inside her head. No one was going to die if she could help it.
That didn’t mean she wouldn’t seriously hurt someone. Like that bitch in command of these sadists.
The man coming out of the compartment barely had time to note her presence before she punched him in the diaphragm. His breath exploded out of his lungs as she ghosted past him.
Kelsey drew her stunner with her off hand as she stepped inside. The compartment was filled with people, most of whom were staring at her with shocked expressions.
“Hey there!” she said brightly. “Time to party!”
Her combat computer immediately flagged those who were armed and assisted her in aiming her stunner as she danced between two of the enemy. She had her primary target sighted and wasn’t about to let the enemy commander escape retribution for the indignities she’d heaped on her friend.
The marines flooding in behind her made the outcome of this fight a foregone conclusion since no one was armed with anything more than a stunner. Their timing had been excellent.
That didn’t stop a few people from bolting toward the compartment where they probably kept the lethal hardware and armor. Odds were good at least a few people were still in there, too.
To her credit, the security commander tried to delay Kelsey while her people dove toward the real weapons.
“You!” the woman hissed as she swung at Kelsey’s face.
Kelsey leaned her head just far enough to the side for the blow to miss before slamming the heel of her free hand into the woman’s face like a hammer.
The woman’s nose shattered under the blow and she somersaulted backward, already unconscious even before she slammed full length into the deck.
Payback was a bitch.
Two men were hauling weapons out of the makeshift armory when Kelsey reached the hatch, but they were far too slow to stop her from stunning them or their friends the security commander had been trying to protect.
By the time she’d made sure the compartment was secure, the fight was over. A few of her people were down, but only stunned. They’d knocked out the biggest threat to their dominance and capturing the ship suddenly became a lot more likely.
“All teams, status,” Kelsey said over the com.
“We’re at engineering,” Veronica said. “We had a surprise a few corridors back so expect trouble.”
As if summoned by the words, an alarm began hooting over the speakers. Don Sommerville’s voice came on a moment later.
“Intruder alert. All hands repel boarders. They’re near engineering.”
Well, he was a little late for that, but it would still make things more exciting than Kelsey preferred.
“Cain, tell me you’re about at the bridge,” she said.
“Just got here. The hatch is closed and locked. Jason, can you open it?”
Moments later, the security specialist came on the channel. “Negative. They’ve manually locked it down. We’ve cut most of their controls, though. They’re deaf and blind in there.”
“They’ll wait,” Kelsey decided. “Veronica, we’ll mop up the rest of the ship, but you’ve got to take engineering intact. We’re counting on you.”
With that, she killed the com and started directing her people to secure the weapons and to start clearing the ship of hostile crew. That would take a while, but without heavier weapons, the enemy was screwed. The ball was in Veronica Giguere’s court now.
38
Talbot spun the old man around. “The fire is spreading, sir! Come on!”
The man tried to resist. “Let go of me! We have to clear out lab seven and eight.”
“Can’t. That’s where the fire is.”
Or it would be in a shade over five minutes.
Based on the way the man was dressed, he was an executive here. One that was bound and determined to run in where a bunch of plasma grenades would end him.
When the man made to argue more, Talbot clamped a hand over his mouth, picked him up, and ran for the exit. Awkward to say the least, but not impossible when death was racing up behind him.
He didn’t stop at the alley, either. He kept running toward the cargo bay. He didn’t stop until a low thump behind him told him the plasma grenades had detonated. Only then did he release the man.
Thankfully, the man was content with swearing at him and running back toward the now burning research center.
“The clock is ticking,” Talbot said he gestured for the marines to set the unconscious security guards down. “We need to be gone before station security gets spun up.”
Fifteen minutes later they were at the cargo bay. They got in without issue but found a large cluster of men and women in cargo handling coveralls trying to bypass the locks on their cargo shuttle.
“Can we help you?” he asked dryly when he and his marines arrived behind them.
The group turned to him almost as one. They each had an expression of fearful despair on their faces.
One woman stepped forward. “Is this your shuttle? Please, take us with you. We can pay!”
He recognized the woman who’d given him a hard time smuggling the small ring onto the station. What had her name been? Associate Supervisor Franzen.
He was about to shut her down when Zia put a hand on his shoulder.
“We’re not going to the planet,” she said. “We’re going to make a run for the outer system in our freighter. We might never get back here if we escape the system.”
“We don’t care,” the woman said hoarsely. “Those Ghosts destroyed all the Fleet ships in the system and are on the way here. We don’t want to be here when they arrive. We can work our way. We know cargo better than anyone else you’ll ever meet. And we can pay. Whatever you want.”
“Step away from the hatch,” Talbot ordered, shooting Zia a look that expressed his basic disagreement with what she was doing. Not that he was going to dispute her right to make the call. She was the flag officer, after all.
He let her get inside and head for the shuttle’s control area before he allowed the cargo handlers in. Even that was more than he’d bargained for as others came over and joined the first group once it became obvious the shuttle was about to depart the station.
If there’d been more people in the bay, he’d have had to start turning people away. Cargo shuttles could hold a lot, but even so, the large crowd only barely fit.
Talbot noted with some irony that there were a few station security uniforms in the crowd. Even a number of enlisted Fleet crewmen. All told there were probably a hundred people packed into the shuttle.
He entered with the last two marines and sealed the hatch behind him. “Search them. Confiscate anything that could be used as a weapon. We’ll offload them as soon as we get back to the freighter and lock them up.”
That done, he joined Zia on the flight deck as she was lifting off. To be safe, he locked the hatch behind them and strapped into the co-pil
ot’s couch just as she turned the shuttle to face the main bay hatch.
“Did we get clearance?” he asked.
“No one answered,” she said as her hands moved across the controls. “I assume control has abandoned their stations because of the impending attack. Let’s hope they didn’t lock the hatch or this will be a very short trip.”
He felt his gut tighten, but the main hatch began opening before he had a chance to really get worried. It led into a massive airlock so they weren’t clear just yet. Still, if one hatch opened, odds were good the other one would, too.
A few minutes later they were clear of the station and on their way to the freighter. It had left orbit as soon as Zia signaled they were in space, so it took a bit longer to catch up with it than would be normal. With the incoming ships it was best to be sure the freighter was one of many others running away, so he understood the need not to delay.
They docked with the freighter half an hour later and he finally started breathing a bit easier. They still had to get clear of the system, but that was Zia’s problem. Nothing he could do from this point forward would make a difference in their escape.
She unstrapped and stood. “I’m heading for the bridge. We’ll boost for the outer system, away from the other freighter. The Clans should be busy with conquering Archibald and not worried about the scattering civilians. Get everything secured, including our new passengers. Then get some rest. I’ll call you as soon as I get word from Kelsey.”
Once Zia had departed, he directed the crew to start unloading the new prisoners. He had no idea what they’d do with these people once they got to Pandora, but that was a problem he could solve later. For now, he wanted a beer and a place to rest while he waited for word on wife and the rest.
Veronica ran behind the marines as they rushed toward main engineering. The crew there knew they were coming and the hatch was already sliding closed.
