Renegade Patriot

by Oscar Andrews

  Brad looked bored. “I suddenly realized I don’t really want to know what’s easiest to hack. My job is to kill things. I’ll go scout the flight deck so we don’t get surprised.”

  Ally scoffed, “Details too complicated for you, tough guy?”

  Brad frowned at her. “What’s your problem?”

  “She’s got a point,” said Neffy, “we don’t really need the super-soldier attitude.”

  Ally tried to get things back on track before the men started arguing again. “We should all look for a 4-man vehicle. Dr. Sacre was just here. If he hasn’t taken off, then we still need to rescue him if we can, and we’ll need the space.”

  Brad gave her a skeptical look. “Why exactly do we need to save some engineer? We’re in the middle of a burgeoning war!”

  “Dr. Sacre is the key to all this,” said Neffy, “and he’ll be killed as soon as Goliath has the tech.”

  “We don’t even know if they will ever have the tech. The New Atlantians were supposed to hand the device over to Delta Team, but they never got the chance. The third team took it – whoever they were. And I’ve already betrayed my employers by helping you get this far, so I’m not exactly eager to fall into their clutches.”

  Ally’s whisper was becoming more urgent and louder in the process. “Sacre is important! And I don’t just want to leave him to die here!”

  Neffy winced again. It was a poor choice of words, coming from her. But Brad was the one who was holding them back. “Look Brad, you need to understand something. We’re doing you a favor by bringing you along.”

  “If you really don’t think I have anything to offer I suppose you could look at it that way! I just don’t want to get caught.”

  Neffy smiled sarcastically. “What was that you said back at the hospital? You won’t get in any trouble, Brad. You can always just tell them you came along to keep an eye on us.”

  “You don’t have to sound so bitter about it.”

  “Who’s bitter? I just don’t trust you. Now help us look for a four-seater!”

  Brad threw up his hands in defeat and helped them search.

  +++

  On the FFS Troy, Commander Grace was listening intently to her team leaders as they issued orders for the assault on the cargo ship.

  “Blue team, you’re going in first this time. Red team, you’re processing.”

  “Blue team, this is a standard breach and clear. We breach the airlock, clear the corners, and move on. When you have a prisoner, hand them back to red team. We’re looking for Captain Klingerman, but also the two New Atlantian women as well as Dr. Sacre.”

  The details of tactics and procedures were so familiar to her that she didn’t pay too much attention to them. Her men were professionals and well-trained in operations like this one – but it was always risky, sending men through an airlock into a potential ambush. She remembered one incident as a young captain, when a smuggler desperate to escape prosecution had shot the man standing next to her directly through the head as soon as they forced the airlock open.

  “Target powering up, target powering up! Back off, back off!”

  Thomas’s voice sounded agitated. Any attempt to approach a ship too closely while it was in the process of jumping into hyperspace could easily be fatal to the approaching vessel.

  This was unexpected. “Thomas, report!”

  “Yes, sir. The target vessel is powering up its hyperdrive. They’re trying to run.”

  “Missile lock on the target vessel. Let’s see how they take that.”

  Under normal circumstances, the weapons lock would have been enough to convince the other vessel’s commander to power down his hyperdrive. There was no way a standard cargo vessel could power up quickly enough to complete the jump before the missiles hit – not at such close range.

  “Weapons locked on target vessel, sir.”

  Grace looked down at her holoscreen just in time to see the cargo ship disappear. They must have had a powerful new hyperdrive system installed in the old hulk they were using for this operation.

  She stared at the screen like she couldn’t believe it. Just like that, and their plan to rescue Captain Klingerman was totally shot. “Damn.”

  Thomas’s voice came over the holo, “The Goliath vessel is gone, sir. They jumped away.”

  “Stand down, Thomas. All teams stand down.”

  Grace dropped the call, then put her head down on her workstation and closed her eyes. She felt defeated. Captain Klingerman was gone, along with half the survivors from the raid on New Atlantia. Trent would be furious – no, beyond furious.

  She didn’t get it. What was so important about Neffy Klingerman? Not leaving a man behind – that she understood. But she didn’t understand why a mere captain should rate so much attention from Peter Trent, and even from the Council itself.

  It didn’t really matter why he was so important, though. The fact is, he was. She had lost the wunderkind (or enfant terrible?) and would soon have to face the wrath of the entire Federation Council. And that would probably be the least of her problems, when Trent found out.

  +++

  Ally was plugged in to a new-model Eagle parked in between two larger vehicles along the edges of the flight deck. She was staring intently at something no one else could see. Lights flashed along both of her temples, and Neffy knew she was in another world – the world of code, where she was having a conversation of sorts with the Eagle’s control systems. Neffy stood near her, keeping a lookout. Brad, as promised, was scouting the flight deck.

  Neffy was trying to work out a plan to rescue Dr. Sacre, but the more he thought about it the more far-fetched it seemed. Ally could hack into the ship’s computer systems, so they could get blueprints and floor plans without too much difficulty. None of those would tell them where the doctor was. At best, they could pick out a few rooms that might be useful for such a purpose and ask themselves where they would put an important prisoner if it was up to them. Of course, the people in charge of this ship could easily think differently, so they could find themselves in the wrong part of the ship entirely while the guards closed in on them. They could kidnap a crew member for questioning, but unless the person they kidnapped was important enough there was no guarantee their hostage would even know anything about the doctor. The more he thought about it, the less realistic it seemed that they could even find the doctor, let alone escape with him. And if Ally stayed behind here with their getaway vehicle powered up and ready to go, Brad and Neffy would still have to shoot their way across the entire ship to get back to the flight deck.

  He looked over at Ally, wondering if he should tell her what he was thinking and how she would take it. She seemed pretty fixated on saving Dr. Sacre, but maybe this was really more of an escape plan than a rescue mission. Would she be willing to accept that?

  Ally’s eyes closed, then opened again. “Okay, I’m in.” The door of the Eagle popped open hydraulically. Neffy saw something move out of the corner of his eye and noticed the holocam staring directly at them as they stole the vehicle. Someone, somewhere would be watching that holocam footage – especially with an alert out for escaped prisoners. It wouldn’t be long before security was right on top of them.

  He pointed. “We’ve got problems, Ally.”

  She looked where he was pointing. “Damn. If we’d seen that earlier, I might have thought twice about how we were doing this. Now we need to get going before they find us.”

  “What about Dr. Sacre?”

  “I don’t know, Neffy. I don’t know. Just let me get this started.”

  Neffy looked around the small part of the flight deck he could see from where he was standing. With so many vehicles parked all over the place, it wasn’t easy to see anything. There was no sign of Brad anywhere. “Where did that guy get off to now? He can be a real dumbass sometimes!”

  Ally climbed into the driver’s seat. “Just get in, Neffy! When I power up the car, he’ll hear it and come to us. I just have to do one more little code b
ypass…”

  Neffy didn’t get in right away. He didn’t know why, but he was worried about the possibility of leaving Brad behind. He felt stupid for his concern. For all he knew, Brad could just as easily be selling them out right now. His sense of loyalty to Brad was just a side-effect of being in several dangerous situations together. The man himself did not deserve the loyalty. And yet, he couldn’t help it. He wanted to give Brad a fighting chance to prove himself.

  He stepped forward a little to look for Brad and immediately spotted two security guards with weapons and laser sights up on the balcony, moving rapidly in their direction. He ducked back out of sight, hoping they hadn’t spotted him yet. As the car powered up, he heard them yelling. So much for that!

  Ally’s face was intent and focused, and the lights on her temple were flickering rapidly. He sat down in the passenger seat beside her. “They’re on their way! We’ve only got seconds!”

  “And I’m ready to fly. Hold on!”

  The Eagle lifted up, and Neffy saw Brad at last. He was running straight toward them and as he ran the security guards spotted him. One of them turned and repositioned himself to get a clear shot, and Neffy yelled. “There he is! Ally, block their shot!”

  Again, he didn’t know quite why he should care except for the fact that Brad was running desperately in their direction. But Ally did it, swooping in so close to the guards they had to dive for cover. She pulled up smoothly beside Brad and popped the door open.

  Gratitude was not Brad’s strong suit. He pointed to the back seat. “Move over, Ally!”

  The guards started shooting, and Brad had to duck his head down frantically. They heard breaking glass, and the sound of gunfire punching through metal from somewhere on the flight deck.

  Ally’s face was red with fury. “I’m driving, you macho asshole! You get in the back!”

  Neffy could hardly believe she was picking this moment to make a point. It seemed like there were bigger things to worry about right now than Brad’s offensive personal qualities. He leaned over and grabbed her by the shoulder. “Let’s just go, we don’t have time to argue about it!”

  Ally suddenly noticed that Brad couldn’t climb into the Eagle without crushing her and decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. She abandoned the argument and crawled in back.

  Shots hit the front of their vehicle with a whining crack as Brad clambered up into the driver’s seat. “Oh shit, here we go. Let’s hope we’re still on automatic.”

  They headed for the flight deck’s huge docking doors, which responded to the automatic signal from the Eagle and began to open. At first all three of them were just concerned to reach the doors on time, with the security guards still shooting at them as they flew. Neffy didn’t want to catch a shot to the back of the head when they were only a few hundred feet from the safety of outer space. He wished fervently for the car to speed up and then regretted it almost immediately.

  Their car shot forward, and Neffy realized with growing horror that the issue was not whether they could reach the doors on time but whether they would reach them too soon and explode on impact. If those huge metal doors didn’t open fast enough, the effect would be just like a bird flying straight into a transparent wall at high speed and losing its brains all over the plexiglass. The doors ground slowly apart as they sped merrily onward, and Ally screamed in fear as she realized their danger.

  “We’re going to hit!” she yelled. Neffy almost started screaming too, as he saw the thick doors of the docking bay seem to rush right at them. He didn’t know exactly how Trent’s teleportation link worked, but he was pretty sure exploding into a cloud of blood and bone was not something a teleporter would be able to fix.

  Brad banked the Eagle sharply. “No, we’re not!”

  Neffy and Ally were both thrown against the passenger side doors of the vehicle with a sudden wrench, and the Eagle slipped through like a piece of thread going through the eye of a needle. The impact knocked all the wind out of Neffy’s body, and he was still struggling for breath as Brad righted them again. Neffy finally yelled as they shot clear of the Goliath vessel. Brad had done it!

  Ally laughed out loud, and the laughter soon spread to all three of them. It seemed almost impossible, but Brad’s fancy driving skills had just saved their lives. The Eagle had just barely skidded through. Ally put her hands to her mouth and shouted, “WOO-HOO! That was one hell of a ride!”

  Neffy had to give credit where credit was due. “That’s the fanciest bit of driving I ever saw.”

  Brad’s ever-present grin looked unusually wide this time. “Me too – if I do say so myself!”

  Neffy suddenly had the bright idea of identifying the Goliath ship so they could track it later. He turned back for a look, hoping to get a serial number or at least a vessel model - but before he could see anything it vanished into hyperspace, leaving only a dusty trail of photo deposits.

  Neffy laughed again. “Guess they don’t like us anymore than we like them! They just went into hyperdrive…”

  Ally, in the mood for yelling, slapped Neffy’s seat from behind and said, “Fuck! There goes Dr. Sacre!”

  They all laughed stupidly, even though this meant they had failed their mission. At least they were still alive.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  Trent was amused at the harried expression Commander Grace was wearing on the holoscreen. She had just informed him of Neffy’s narrow escape from the Goliath cargo vessel. It must have been very stressful for her until she heard that he had made it out.

  He put on a thin smile and used his driest voice. “Well, that must have been a relief.”

  Commander Grace replied sarcastically. “Indeed it was! I suppose I should be thankful that my flight deck team eventually alerted me to Neffy’s safe escape. And only thirty minutes after it happened!”

  Thirty minutes that ranked among the worst of her career. Thirty minutes of thinking she had lost Trent’s best agent and would have to deal with the consequences. Thirty minutes of mental torture.

  She forced herself to smile. “All’s well that ends well, yes?”

  Trent returned the smile. “This hasn’t ended yet. In any case, I’m grateful to you for getting Neffy back, Commander Grace. And for moving this investigation forward. Any idea where they might have gone?”

  She shook her head. “Unfortunately, there is no way of tracking the Goliath ship. However, we’ve been uncovering information that suggests Goliath Industries has been responsible for multiple conflicts around the colonies. The motivation is unclear, but I can only assume they’re profiting somehow.”

  Trent pressed his lips together. “Hmmm. If that’s the case, then we have a rogue company pursuing its own agenda in defiance of the Federation. That’s a bad precedent indeed. It’s hard to believe they’ve been provoking wars intentionally; I can’t think of anything more irresponsible under the circumstances. Unless we stop them, instability could spread like an infection across the galaxy.”

  Trent’s holoscreen flickered. He sighed in irritation. “Sorry about the connection, Commander. I’m at Cygnus Station. They do well enough out here, but it just isn’t the same as good old T3.”

  Cygnus Station was the Federation administrative base for the Cygnus Quadrant. In relative terms, Trent might as well be in the next room over. Commander Grace grinned a little mischievously. She had always liked Peter Trent, but she also needed to know whether her decisions had attracted scrutiny. “Cygnus Station? How long are you there for?”

  Was she trying to flirt with him or only worried that she might be in trouble and trying to make light of it? He returned her grin, figuring it would do for either interpretation. “Only a few days. Don’t worry, Commander Grace, I’m not here to check up on you or question your decisions in the field. I do understand that Neffy tricked you.”

  Neffy was supposed to be back on T3 under wraps, undergoing official questioning for lying to the Drewdonians and other possible misdeeds. Instead, he had suddenly appeared at
the FFS Troy and resumed his duties, without any permission from his own superiors. If Grace had known that, she would probably have thrown him in the ship’s brig and waited for further orders instead of sending him down to New Atlantia with the ground team. Of course, there had been that message from Trent’s holo asking her to give Neffy all possible aid and assistance…

  Grace wasn’t going to just let that go. “Have you figured out how Klingerman was able to send a message from your device?”

  Trent was hardly likely to confess that he’d been passed out in Neffy’s quarters with a belly full of Thai food when the incident happened. “I’ll look into it. He’s a clever boy.”

  Grace didn’t say anything for a moment. Trent figured she must be chewing on that one, wondering about the strange bond between Trent and Neffy. When she finally replied, she adopted the tone of a child passing notes in class. “Do you want me to tell Captain Klingerman you’re in the quadrant?”

  “That isn’t necessary. As I said, I’ll only be here for a few days.”

  That isn’t necessary is not the same as saying no, don’t do that – and Trent never said anything without careful thought. “I have to get going in a moment, Commander Grace. Is there anything else?”

  She nodded. “One more thing. Zahra Hidalgo has disappeared.”

  “The woman who recruited the New Atlantian rebels?”

  “Yes. When the New Atlantians came to arrest her, she was already gone.”

  “Of course she was. Leave it to me, Grace. My people will deal with her. As for Neffy, tell him not to return to T3 just yet. There’s a warrant out for his arrest.”

  Grace looked somewhat nonplussed by this. One of the most powerful men in the Federation had just casually told her to help a fugitive avoid the law.

  “I’ll…I’ll tell him that. I mean, yes sir.”

  Trent flicked the holo off without saying goodbye, removing the only light source in his private quarters. Alone in the darkness, he contemplated his next move in total silence.