by Chandra Ryan
After they pulled onto the docking station and secured the gliders, finding McNeal was easy enough. He was exactly where he should be, tinkering around in the mechanic’s quarters of the Hawk. Though when he walked into the room, McNeal didn’t seem as happy to find Adam there.
“What the hell are you doing back? I thought you’d be halfway to the rendezvous point by now.” McNeal kept his voice to a whisper but his gaze constantly flickered over Adam’s as if expecting to be watched.
His original intentions must have been apparent. At least to the one other person who knew who he really was. His stomach churned with nervous energy but he refused to walk away. This was right. He could do this. “That was my original plan but while we were gone I got to thinking about the mission.”
“Thinking? You got to thinking?” McNeal slapped him in the head as he spoke. “We don’t have the time or the luxury to be dicking around right now. Or did it escape your attention that we aren’t the only ones making a play for the captain?”
“No. I didn’t miss the attack.”
“Then what were you so busy thinking about that you forgot to complete your mission?”
“I didn’t forget. I came to the realization that we’re on the wrong mission.” Even as he said the words though, he could see McNeal’s expression close off. How did he ever think he could sell this?
“You can’t possibly be switching sides.”
He almost laughed at the idea. “No, not me. Her.”
“Are you insane? She’s been in the military for over ten years, her father is a career politician—and is responsible for drafting most of legislation that funds this damned war.” McNeal put down the tool he’d been playing with and stood so they were on equal footing. “She’s not going to turn.”
“She might surprise you.” She sure as hell had shocked him. “The girl has integrity.”
“And you seriously think a little ‘integrity’ is enough to throw away our only chance of getting this bill voted down? You do remember what this little piece of legislation would enable the government to do, don’t you?”
“It would make it so the military could order a burn off without presenting its case to a judge first.” He hadn’t forgotten anything.
“And don’t forget about the part that lets the military start using Subservients to do the burn offs. Assembly-line soldiers who can read minds, break codes and are virtually indestructible would be burning civilians out of their homes, no questions asked.”
“I know what’s at stake. But I’m telling you, if she knew what was going on, she’d be on our side. We could still make the kidnapping look legit but when we gave her back we’d have an insider with a high rank in the military.” Hope sparked in his chest as he said the words out loud for the first time. “We’d end the legislation and we’d finally have someone who could warn us about the raids. Think of what that’d mean.” His fingertips itched to touch his scar but he forced them to remain still.
“We’d be able to evacuate women and children before the burn.” The words sounded as if they’d been given grudgingly, but they’d been given and that’s all Adam cared about. McNeal stared at him for a second. “To turn her, you’ll have to tell her who we are.”
“I know.” It was a big risk but a calculated one. “She’s got a conscience. She’ll do what’s right.”
“She’s a military pilot.”
“She’s turned on the government before. She was the source for the sex-slave investigations. And she’s friends with the reporter who broke the Subservient story.” He still remembered where he was when he’d heard the military had created a sentient life form. As amazing as the story was, that the story made it out to the citizens was even harder for him to believe. Adam could only imagine the threats Michael had received. He almost regretted not telling Michael who he was when he had the chance. But too much depended on him staying anonymous right now.
“There’s a big difference between turning in corrupt politicians and turning on the military, Adam. They broke the law. The government isn’t breaking any laws.”
“That’s because they make and change the laws to suit their best interest. She’ll see that.”
McNeal ran his fingers through his hair and let out a tortured breath. “Fine, I’ll pass along the idea. But until we hear something back, we proceed with the original mission.”
He took his first deep breath since he’d started making his case. This would work. It had to. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. This is a long shot at best.”
“I know.”
“You’d better go do your preflight checks. The captain will suspect something’s up if we don’t keep up appearances. Oh, and channel seventy-five on the comm is secure. Use it for any mission communication.”
“Will do.”
It wasn’t a long walk to his quarters but the vicious thumping of his heart made the corridors of the small ship seem longer. If anyone could convince the Coalition to change course, it was McNeal. But could Adam convince the captain to switch sides? That was the real question. When he’d been pitching the idea, it’d seemed completely possible—even plausible. But he’d heard the disdain in her voice when she talked about the Coalition. Yes, she had honor. Did that honor outweigh her hatred for the rebel movement though? He had a feeling that everything would depend on the answer to that question. Punching in his access code, Adam took a deep breath as the door opened smoothly in front of him.
The room was exactly as he left it. With the exception of the view screen. It’d been fixed and all the wires were once again connected and tucked under the sleek desk.
Sitting down at his console, he did the preflight check and strapped himself in. There was always the possibility of a bumpy ride but after his talk with McNeal he was optimistic that things would go smoother now that a new mission had been laid out.
And that optimism grew after an easy takeoff until he found he was actually humming. But when the captain’s question about a system’s malfunction was met with communicator silence, his stomach twisted hard in his gut. There was only one reason McNeal would ignore the captain. The Coalition had decided to stick with the original mission. And with another party after the captain, they’d need to make their move quickly. He didn’t need to see the three ships simultaneously jump onto his radar screen to know everything was about to go to hell.
“Three hostiles on screen, Sans. Let’s charge up those torpedo bays and show them we aren’t going down without a fight.”
He typed in the codes to charge the weapons but one of the ships fired an EMP field at them and the room went black.
Damn! They hadn’t been ready for a fight. With the vessel only minimally shielded, critical systems like life support and communications would’ve been spared from the pulse, but everything else would be offline until McNeal got them back on. And if he was correct in his assumptions, McNeal wouldn’t be exactly rushing to their aid. They were a dead bird.
“Sans, we need you on the bridge.”
The captain’s always calm voice sounded frazzled as the hollow thud of another ship docking with theirs echoed through the silence.
“On my way, Captain.” His eyes had adjusted to the dark so finding his way to the hatch wasn’t a problem. When he punched in his code, though, nothing happened.
Tapping on his communicator, he said, “Sans to McNeal, I’m locked in the armory.”
When there was no reply, he switched his comm to the secure channel and tried again. “I need out of here, McNeal. My cover depends on it.”
There was a high-pitched drilling noise as the Hawk was breached.
“I need out of here, McNeal!”
“Sans, report.” The captain’s voice was tense even over the communicator static.
Switching channels, he said, “I’m locked in the armory. I’ve tried to get McNeal on the comm but he’s not responding.”
“We’ve been breached. I need my security here with me on the bridge.”<
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“Working on it, Captain.”
He needed to get out of this damn room. Picking up a flashlight, he ran it over the crates in the room. There were a couple weapons that still used explosives instead of electric charge. If he could find one, he might be able to cut, or even blow, through the door.
It only took him a minute to find a gun that resembled a blowtorch and dig a lighter out of his flak jacket but time was short and that minute felt like forever.
“Cutting my way out of here, Captain.”
“Make it quick, Sans.”
But already he could hear the sound of feet running past the armory toward the bridge. He was never going to make it. That didn’t mean he should stop trying though. He aimed the torch at the hinges of the door and kept the fire burning against the metal until first one gave and then the other. He was free. But he was going to need a miracle to save the captain.
Another blast rocked the ship as he raced toward the bridge. They were already crippled. Why would the Coalition fire on them? He decided it didn’t really matter. The only thing he cared about was finding and protecting the captain.
Unfortunately in order to do that, he’d have to shoot his way through a throng of Coalition soldiers who were currently between him and the door. These men were his friends. They fought together. It wasn’t supposed to go like this. He raised his weapon and took aim at the first man. It was just a matter of squeezing the trigger.
The ship shifted again as it was hit by another volley of weapons fire and he was knocked off balance before he could get the shot off. The man he’d been aiming at gave a quick arm gesture before shouting, “Mission’s been compromised. Retreat.”
Adam shook his head to try to figure out what was going on. There was no way the man had been talking about Adam. He couldn’t have known he’d been in the crosshairs just seconds before. And if he did, he would’ve fired on Adam. He wouldn’t have issued a retreat order. So what made the Coalition retreat when they were winning? He stepped back into the shadows of the corridor and watched as the men ran past him. They were obviously not going to give him any answers.
He waited until he was alone to advance on the hatch. “Captain, I’m on the other side of the door. Release the lock.”
“Are you alone?”
“I am. They gave the order to retreat, sir.”
The door sprung open with a hiss. “That’s what I was afraid of.” The captain’s voice echoed as he heard it from her and through his comm just a second later. “Sorry about that.” She turned off the comm and smiled weakly.
He stepped past her to look at the bridge view screen and his breath whooshed out of him. “There are five ships now.”
“Three are Coalition. They’re marked.” She zoomed in on the Coalition insignia emblazoned on the vessels. “But two are an unknown faction.”
He watched as the ships attacked each other for a few minutes before one of them remembered to fire on the Hawk. “I guess it’s helping us that they’re fighting each other as well.”
“The Coalition ships are withdrawing, though. As soon as they’re gone, we’re going to have their undivided attention.” She grabbed her head as she spoke.
“Are you okay?” He moved to go to her but stopped at a shake of her head.
“Just got bumped around a bit in the attack. Trust me, I’m better than my ship.”
“I’m pretty good with tech. Let’s see if I can get some of these systems back online while the Coalition is still providing some cover.”
“Sounds like a good idea.”
He pulled out his reader and went to the wall console to check the systems.
“Weapons and engines would be helpful.”
“Yes sir.”
“I’ll be working on shields.” She moved to the console next to his and started taking readings.
Adam shook his head with frustration when the systems didn’t come online. “The systems should’ve reset from the EMP by now. There has to be something else keeping them off-line.”
She nodded and typed. “It looks like a couple of breakers are flipped in engineering.” She shook her head as she kept typing. “But that can’t be right.”
“Hang on. Let me see what my reader says.” He double-checked her findings and got the same result. “Looks like you were right. They’ll have to be manually reset.”
She shook her head. “But that means they were thrown manually. Which could only mean that McNeal…”
He let the words remain silent between them for a moment. “Right now it doesn’t matter how they were thrown. We need to focus on getting them reset.” He took off toward engineering before she even had a chance to give the order. McNeal had done this and Adam would undo it.
“Two of the Coalition ships have already left. Only one is hanging in the fight.” The captain’s voice sprang across the comm, startling him.
“Let’s see if we can get the systems up before they pull out as well.”
The door to engineering was locked but it only took a few seconds for Adam to override McNeal’s security codes. Thankfully since he served with the Coalition, he knew all their tricks. “I’m in engineering. It should only be a minute now.”
Except McNeal had torched the breaker system. Maybe he didn’t know all their tricks just yet. “Fuck me. This has been shot to hell. It’s going to take me longer than a minute.”
“We’ve only got a couple of seconds, Sans.”
“Then tell me which system you want up first.”
“You work on engines. I’ll see if I can bypass the breaker for weapons from the bridge.”
“And Aimes can take the shields.” This might be her ship but he was used to taking charge in a crisis. And this had definitely reached crisis level.
“Sounds like a plan.”
The panel was still a little warm but not hot as he peeled the metal away. That suggested the damage had been done before the other group of raiders showed up. He hoped that meant McNeal had only intended to strand them, not leave them defenseless for a slaughter. That gave him some amount of comfort.
Once the panel was removed he found the maze of wires he’d been looking for. During his years with the Coalition, he’d jumped and hotwired more ships than he cared to remember. It was a menial job thrown at the new recruits and he’d hated every minute of it. It’d been a waste of his time. Only now, as he grabbed wires and started stripping them, it didn’t feel like such a waste. He twisted them together systematically until the circuits for each of the drive systems were complete.
“Engines should be up, Captain.”
“Even jump?”
“All of them, sir.”
“Then let’s get the fuck out of here.”
He couldn’t have said it better himself.
Chapter Five
Renee’s back was stiff and her head throbbed as they punched a hole through the universal veil. She always hated being in null-space but this particular trip was extra excruciation. Not only was she in pain, so was her ship. It’d been breached. It was hobbling through the universe with its guts held together with duct tape and luck.
She growled at the image. When she got a hold of the bastards responsible, they’d be lucky if the worst she did was toss them out an airlock without a suit on.
The Hawk shuddered violently as it came back into regular space and for one brief moment she was afraid even exhaling would cause the ship to fall apart at the seams. When it held, she finally relaxed. “Systems report.” Her voice cracked as she gave the order. She wasn’t usually one for shows of emotion while in uniform but she reasoned that a little break in her voice was acceptable under the circumstances. It wasn’t until Sans started rattling off the list of damaged systems, though, that she truly knew how dire the circumstances were.
Their jump had drained most of the energy left on the ship. What little was left was being used to keep life support up and running. They were stranded. “Bring up the view screen. Let’s see if we can figure out where
we are.” She needed to focus on her next move. She had to come up with a plan. But before she could decide where she was going, she had to know where she currently was. It took a moment for the screen to flicker and come back to life but when the picture cleared, she found she couldn’t believe her eyes. It was just too good to be true. “Aimes. Tell me that’s Ontesys I see on the screen.”
“That it is, sir. It was the last destination entered into the jump drive.”
“Finally, we’ve caught a break.” She took a deep breath and allowed herself to relax. “Let’s radio the base and get some mechanics up here to patch up my bird.”
“I wouldn’t do that, Captain.” Adam’s voice shattered her newly found sense of hope as he walked back onto the bridge.
“And why not?” She was surprised to find she’d stopped entering the coordinates at his suggestion.
“Until we find out who attacked you, I think we should be careful who we trust with our location.”
“But you can’t possibly think the military was involved?” It was beyond ridiculous. She started going through the long list of errors to see how badly the communications array was damaged. Maybe she could reroute enough energy from life support to get a short message through if the array was salvageable.
He grabbed her hand and pulled it away from the command pad before she could finish entering the sequence though. “Even if the military is innocent, there could be a mole.”
She had suspected a mole earlier. But still, her ship was crippled and drifting in space. She didn’t have many options right now. “What do you suggest we do?”
“It might be best to go off the grid until we have a better grasp on what’s going on.”
“We can’t go anywhere in our current condition. How do you figure we could get off the grid?” Aimes asked the very question she’d been about to.