by Kal Spriggs
"Good," Forrest said. "Because we have to get out of here. Fast. I'm not going to let them take any more of our people. I don't care if they kill me, it's not going to happen." He met Elvis's eyes as he passed the next box. "I know what they did to Lieutenant Hersey and the others. It's worse than I suspected. Complete mental reprogramming. Marius Giovanni has Lieutenant Hersey running his personal communications. We're on the menu, too. We need to escape."
"Back to work!" One of the guards stalked over. Forrest realized he'd been still too long and moved to grab the next box. He kept his head down as he worked, but he watched the guards move out of the corner of his eyes. There were twelve guards here, a single squad. All of them wore body armor and carried slung rifles. Their squad leader had a stunner. All of them had batons, too, which they seemed to use more for directing prisoners than punishment.
The seventy or so prisoners could overwhelm the squad, but it would be a bloody affair. Especially in the broad, open hangar, where Forrest could see other guards on patrol, both up on the catwalks and around several of the vessels. In fact, even one guard in the wrong place with a machine gun might mow them down in droves as they dashed for the ship.
Better to do this in a corridor, he thought, hit our escorts by surprise and then slip aboard the ship. The longer they could go without the alarm going up, the better. It wasn't going to be easy. They wouldn't be able to plan it or rehearse it. Forrest didn't have any bridge crew and he didn't know if he could trust any of the other prisoners.
Any one of them could be brainwashed and put back in the group, Forrest thought, for that matter, any of my people who've been taken away can't be trusted. The very thought made his skin crawl.
As much as he wanted to rush the guards and race to the ship, he didn't dare. By the end of the day, the prisoners would all be exhausted. Most would be too tired and beaten down to think, much less to react with the speed and courage necessary.
He would have to wait until the morning, when the guards would be less alert and the prisoners had some energy. Yet his fear was that the guards would take more of their people. Could he let them do that? Could he sacrifice one or more of his people to get the others out?
Forrest didn't know. It was a decision that he just hoped he wouldn't have to face.
***
"Prisoner, step out of line," a guard grunted as Forrest and the other prisoners stumbled back towards their quarters. There was no mistaking who they pointed to, and Forrest stepped out of line with a roiling feeling in his stomach. Was this it? Had they noticed Elvis slipping away... or had Marius Giovanni simply decided to "process" him?
Forrest's mouth went dry as he saw the tall, handsome, blonde-haired man who stood behind the guard. He recognized Reese Leone and the look of brooding anger the other man gave him told him that somehow Reese knew about Forrest's relationship with Alannis.
"Lieutenant Commander," Reese said coldly, "I understand that the priority for you and your personnel has moved up." He nodded at the line of prisoners. "My people just captured two Colonial Republic cruisers, so we'll need the additional prison quarters soon."
Forrest's eyes went wide as he realized the implications. "Now," Reese said, "Admiral Giovanni notified me that you understand the process. Normally I'm not one to gloat, but you're something of a special case." Reese leaned forward, his voice pitched low, "This is over, Lieutenant Commander. I win. I always would win, you know. Alannis is my wife. Anthony is my son. You should have stayed away from them."
"Go to hell," Forrest ground out.
"Don't worry," Reese said, "I'm in a special kind of hell right now. I don't like what I've had to do. But I'll take care of Alannis. She's my wife, after all. And the day after tomorrow, after we process you, you'll be one more loyal officer. I might even find a place for you: working under me." Reese sighed, "I won't hold a grudge, Forrest. After you've been processed, our disagreements won't matter. It's just the way things worked out."
Forrest just shook his head, "You're insane. And your boss? He's a monster."
Reese gave a cold smile, "Don't worry, that won't bother you soon." He nodded at one of the guards. "I'm done, here."
As the guard shoved Forrest back into line, Reese called after him, "Thirty-six hours and then you won't care anymore!"
***
Reese sighed as the last of the prisoners stumbled away. He really hated his job sometimes.
He turned and walked the corridors until he came to Marius Giovanni's office, which he entered without knocking. He was expected, after all.
"It's done," Reese said. He shook his head, "You're sure about this, sir?"
"I am," Marius nodded. "This is how it has to be. I know you aren't thrilled with this part of the plan... but are you willing to do what needs to be done?"
Reese bowed his head as he considered it. Ever since the failure of his abduction team on Faraday, Marius had shifted the plan significantly. The hardest part wasn't what they needed to accomplish at Kapteyn’s Star. That, in itself, was just a technical problem, one where they already knew what resources were required and how to apply them.
No, the problem was a matter of timing and of achieving the desired effect. And of course, Reese thought, the personal cost of what I'll have to do.
"Yes, my Lord" Reese said, his voice adopting a formal tone. He'd sworn his loyalty to Marius Giovanni. "I can do it."
"Excellent," Marius Giovanni nodded. "Everything is in motion. Time to let it all play out, right?"
Reese nodded. "If that's all, sir, I'd like some time to put some personal things in order."
"Of course, Reese. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help," Marius said.
Reese left without any reply. He took some time to wander the corridors of the base. He'd helped Marius to locate the facility, an abandoned research station in the 767A36 system, once used by Amalgamated Worlds to study the gas giant’s parent star.
It's value lay in the close proximity to Kapteyn’s Star. That was one reason that Reese's people had hit the Bowie at the ansible platform. They wanted to lay a false trail, for the United Colonies to think that the system was a dead end, that the ansible platform had just been a trap. The last thing that Reese had wanted was for them to investigate further and locate the base.
Of course, he'd pit Marius Giovanni's forces against the small fleet that Lucius had sent, but that would be counter-productive. And really, Reese didn't want to kill any more of them than necessary.
As he came to his quarters, Reese sat down on his bunk. He pulled up the image of his son and wife, the one that he'd acquired not long after her return to Faraday from the Ghornath's Sacred Stars. This was the first public photo he had of them together and happy. In his mind, he pictured himself with them. He could almost feel his arms around them, almost hear his son's happy laughter and feel his wife's warm breath on his cheek.
Reese felt tears well up in his eyes. That was what he worked for. That was why he had done everything. Soon Alannis would realize that. Soon, his son would realize that. It wasn't going to be easy. It might take everything that Reese had, but he'd make things right.
And if he didn't manage it, at least he knew that they'd be in good hands.
***
Chapter X
Alpha Canis Majoris System
Centauri Confederation
February 28, 2410
"That could be a problem," Ensign Thomas Mays muttered as he brought up a ship on the main screen.
Alannis's lips pressed in a flat line as she saw the shape and realized the scale based off the size of ports along the side. "That's bigger than anything we expected, is that a battlecruiser?" If so, she didn't recognize the class. It could be custom-built, possibly out of Tanis.
"Yes, ma'am," Ensign Mays nodded. "It's a Carillo-class, Tanis-built, they've only made four of them. At least, we only have four on record, but this one might be a fifth. Transponder reads Alexei Slivko."
"Great..." Alannis shook her head, "no
wonder they weren't crazy about coming to help. We're cutting into their customer base." The Alexei and nearly a dozen other vessels hung in close proximity to Yaitsik Station. Most of those larger vessels were civilian hulls, many of them probably smuggling or transports running illicit cargo.
At least two of them were clearly heavily modified, either to serve as pirates themselves or protective vessels for the pirate base. Ensign Mays continued to pull data off those ships, identifying weapons mounts, fighter launch bays, and other parameters for the follow-on force.
Three of the other large vessels were cruisers, which already meant that the pirates had far more firepower than they'd hoped. Clearly they had brought everything they had. One of the cruisers was an Azov-class, which Alannis recognized as a short-run class of ships manufactured by the Centauri Confederation. Her brother had faced one, once, being run by mercenaries working for one of the mega-corps. He said heavy energy batteries, light on missiles, she thought to herself. That wasn't good news given that the ships would be close enough to use those weapons batteries on Yaitsik Sation.
Alannis glanced at her best friend. Lieutenant Lizmadie Doko, United Colonies Marine Corps gave her a smile, "This is going to be fun."
"Right..." Alannis shook her head. "I just hope I don't screw this up and get people killed."
"It'll be fine," Lizmadie said. "Now, shouldn't you be making the call?"
"Yeah," Alannis took a deep breath. She opened the comm channel herself, "Yaitsik Station, this is the La Muerto Negra, requesting permission to dock."
There was a long pause as whoever was on the other end got their act together, "La Muerto Negra, whose that on the comm?"
"Maria Avila," Alannis said, "Mark got tagged in the boarding op, he ain't dead, just winged him, but he sent me back with what we learned so far." She focused on the screen, keeping her face calm as they sent her image and audio to the base. "He'll be showing up shortly with the ships we captured."
A different voice spoke, "Do we have coordinates for Leone's people?" Alannis recognized Tomas Kanreich's voice from a recording.
"Not yet," Alannis said, careful to put as much of Maria Avila’s accent into her voice as she could. Beside her, Petty Officer Osborn gave her a nod, so apparently she sounded close enough. They'd also messed with the signal a bit, just enough to rough up the transmission. That should be easily explained by the shoddy maintenance that most of the pirates had. Hopefully it would be enough to counter any facial recognition or voice recognition software just enough. "We'll need to resupply, used a lot of ammo."
"Right," Tomas Kanreich snorted. "I hope your boss didn't kill anyone we need, it's getting expensive to keep our ships here and I'm liable to take that cost out of him. Go ahead and dock a berth three." His voice changed slightly, "I'll be there in person to greet you."
Alannis looked at Lizamadie, but the woman just shrugged. What is that about? Alannis wondered. She'd find out soon enough, she supposed. Tomas was the one that the Tau Ceti wanted captured alive, Alannis remembered. Perhaps this was the opportunity to do just that. "See ya in a bit," Alannis said, word for word a copy for what Nicole had said in other transmissions.
She cut the connection and sagged back. "Phew, that's done."
"As long as they don't blow us out of space," Ensign Mays muttered.
"Even if they do, my part is done," Alannis growled. Well, she'd probably have to meet Tomas Kanreich at the airlock or something. At least that shouldn't take too long.
Alannis looked at Lizmadie, "Please let Major Woods know that his personnel can move out as soon as we dock."
The Marines had split out three squads, dressed in a mix of military and civilian clothing, who would move into positions around the base to locate and identify any civilians. The rest of the Marine company had remained in powered armor, and as soon as the Fleet arrived, they'd head out. Alannis waited as Lizmadie conferred with her commanding officer.
In theory, once they docked with the station, Alannis's part would be over. Her orders at that point were for her and her crew to hold tight and wait for the raid force to arrive. After that, her brief stint as the commander of the La Muerto Negra would come to an end. In fact... she looked up, "I've got the helm," Alannis said.
The helmsman looked up, "Ma'am?"
"I'd like to take my command for its last maneuver," Alannis said. In theory the La Muerto Negra would receive a prize crew to return to the United Colonies. Alannis doubted she'd take it back, though. Her knowledge about Reese was too valuable for her to be gone for weeks.
Besides, the older Defiance-class destroyer would probably be either sold or scrapped. The cramped bridge and outdated systems were just the tip of the iceberg as far as issues. The ship hadn't seen a proper refit in decades and just on the voyage here they'd encountered numerous systems failures. With the build-up of new ships in the Faraday, Danar, and Nova Roma systems, this ship would be more valuable as a source of materials than as a vessel in and of itself.
And we don't want ships like it to end up in the hands of our enemies, she thought. She knew they did resale some vessels and she'd heard that the pirate turned privateer Tommy King always needed new ships. Lucius had mentioned that the privateer had quite the private fleet, though he hadn't spoken much about how Tommy King occupied that fleet... or who exactly his people fought.
Alannis adjusted the controls and brought the ship in towards Yaitsik Station's massive hangars, easing it in carefully through the broad doors and into the berthing area. The destroyer moved with far more grace than most people would have expected, and Alannis closed the last few meters into a perfect, textbook connection. I'll miss that, she thought to herself as the docking indicators all flashed green.
She didn't get the opportunity to pilot a ship very often, hadn't really since she stood in as a shuttle copilot on the Constellation's last cruise. Unlike her brother, she loved flying. She'd had her pilot's license long before she joined the Academy and had long dreamed of piloting a vessel in space.
"Good dock ma'am," the helmsman reported as he checked his indicators.
Alannis nodded and turned to Lizmadie, "I'm headed down to the docking bay, we'll see what Tomas Kanreich wants and hopefully your CO will have his Marines in place soon."
Lizmadie nodded, "He says to get him away from any escort; we can avoid a firefight that way." She nodded at the pistol that Alannis wore. It was the one they'd taken off of Maria Avila's body, a TaurTek snub-nose. Alannis also wore some of the woman's clothing, retrieved from her quarters, and a pearl-handled knife, worn in a belt sheath. "You feel comfortable with that?"
Alannis patted the butt of the pistol, "Yeah. I've also got a stun wand." She'd tucked the stunner down her boot, so it would be easy to draw and somewhat concealed. Not that she hoped to use it, but she wanted to be prepared. A stun wand delivered ten thousand volts of electricity as well as a mild tranquilizer on contact. The electricity should lock up an opponent's muscles for long enough for the tranquilizer to work.
They walked down the corridor and Alannis glanced at her friend, "You okay with having to stay aboard?"
Lizmadie shrugged, "My platoon is the one that was split up and my personnel will be all over the station. I don't mind helping to guard the ship, though if things go wrong and we're in a fight I won't complain."
Alannis shivered as she thought back to the fight aboard the Throne of Kopal Pesh. The endless waves of faceless troops in their black body armor, silent as they charged over one another to die. She'd had enough fighting then to suit her for a lifetime.
But I'll do it again, she thought, and I won't shy back from it here if it proves necessary.
***
Tomas Kanreich was a tall, broad-shouldered, handsome man, with blonde hair and blue eyes. He looked startlingly like Reese in person, with a charming smile and friendly expression. The odd similarity took Alannis aback and she stumbled and nearly fell as she walked forward to greet him.
"Maria," Tomas said, "glad th
ings went well at Porax Station. Have you got time to tell me about it in person? I know you've probably got a lot going on since Salazar is out of the loop."
Alannis fought the urge to draw her stun wand. For one thing, there were too many witnesses. For another, this was exactly what they wanted, to get him away from his escort. She gave him a friendly smile in return, "Sure thing, we can go to my office."
"Gerhard and Hans," he nodded at his bodyguards, "follow me. The rest of you, wait here." The snap of his voice was cold, authoritarian. This was a man who turned on the charm to those he wanted and didn't waste it on those he considered his inferiors. He looked back at Alannis, his face friendly again, "Lead the way."
Alannis nodded at Lizmadie, whose gaze went to the teams headed out. Alannis knew that she'd send people to support her at her offices, but the risk now was that she'd do something to alert Tomas. The terrorist didn't have any obvious connections to Maria Avila, but there must be some reason he was here.
The main priority would be to keep him and his bodyguards off their comms. The Marines could take them down in the corridor, but it would be best if Tomas could be separated from his bodyguards. She could hit him with the stun wand and his bodyguards could be taken down safely and quickly.
She just hope she didn't need to keep up the charade too long. The longer this went on, the more likely he'd notice something out of place.
She led the way to her office and she heard Tomas Kanreich snort behind her, "You're in Salazar's offices, I imagine he'd say something about that... if he could."
Alannis froze and looked back, but Tomas's smirk suggested he approved. What the hell is going on here? Alannis didn't know, but she had the feeling that she'd better figure it out soon.
"Gerhard, Hans, you can wait out here," Tomas said. "I think Maria and I will be fine in private."
As Alannis stepped through the hatch, she heard him close it behind them. "Cleverly played, Maria. I almost bought the line about your boss staying back to interrogate Reese's personnel."
