"Manners will tell, they say."
"Tell what?"
"Damned if I know. I always wondered that, myself."
She giggled again, ending it with an "Oooo..." as some small motion touched something just right within her. That caused her to become somewhat more serious about things. Her posting became firmer and quicker.
T'Mar just lay there and admired her as she worked herself up to her climax. In due course, her motions became almost strenuous and she muttered something that he didn't quite catch.
"Huhm?"
"I said, 'Now would be a good time'."
"Ah. Yes. Sorry. I'll see what I can do, ma'am."
"Oh, shut up. No funnies while I'm working, here."
"Yes, ma'am. No funnies. Got it."
She chuckled, then shrieked softly, then groaned.
"Now, dammit!"
T'Mar hadn't been quite ready, but he released himself to her command in the matter, and a few strokes later he felt the tingling begin that heralded his own orgasm. Women know when a man is about to let go.
L'Tan almost slammed herself down upon him a few times to draw it out of him, and T'Mar felt an urge to tell her to be careful, but then it was upon them both, and neither of them had anything articulate to say for some moments.
L'Tan froze and grasped his thighs as he filled her, her nails digging into his skin solidly enough to leave rows of crescents when she finally released him. They remained locked together until he had no more to give, relaxing only when the sensations began to fade.
She lay flat on his chest and breathed deeply for a few moments, then kissed his shoulder and let herself roll off him, her finger to her lips to indicate silence. He respected her wish and simply lay there trying to catch his own breath.
After a few moments, he rose and went to the bathroom, returning with a hand towel that he placed between her thighs. Her legs clamped around it and she rolled on her side to face him as he got back into the bed.
"Showerinnamorning," she mumbled.
By the time he'd leaned to kiss her, L'Tan was asleep. T'Mar pulled the covers over her and then himself, then turned out the lights.
Chapter Fourteen
There was time in the morning for a long, hot shower and a quick breakfast, then L'Tan and T'Mar headed for the bridge. In the briefing room, wing leaders Gold, Green, and Blue were studying a couple of maps with T'Var. T'Mar followed L'Tan closely as she strode into the room and stopped by the table.
"Before anyone asks, I'm fine," she said.
"You'll still get the doctor's approval first," said T'Var. "Go. Now. I don't want to start this briefing until I hear from him. T'Mar, you stay here."
L'Tan saw that he wasn't going to budge. She turned on her heel and walked back out of the room, muttering something unkind about the Captain. T'Mar looked at T'Var and grinned.
"She's not hiding anything, T'Var. She's fine this morning."
"I hope so. No tricks, T'Mar. No heavy medications. I'll have both your asses if you try to fake it."
T'Mar shook his head and said, "No tricks; just a hot shower and a rubdown this morning. The bruising is almost completely gone, T'Var. She'll be fine."
"Like I said, I hope so. Now let's talk about you. When's the last time you piloted a fighter?"
"Two years ago. Same model as yours."
"Can you put one down without power?"
T'Mar nodded. "If I have to, yes."
"You'll have to. We'll modify the signature of one of the fighters to match theirs. You'll fake a hit and deadstick land at the local port. L'Tan will fly cover until you can get into one of the ships."
"I may have a better idea. Are you willing to hear it?"
"Go."
"Do you still have L'Tan's flitter in bay two? If so, don't waste a fighter. Tow it down to the surface and let me take it from there. We can put a smoker on one side and fake damage. That flitter's already been through hell, so it'll look the part, and I can set it to destruct. That'll clear the field after we get the other ship."
Gold leader said, "Sounds good to me, sir. We're down two fighters as it is."
T'Var nodded. "Okay, we'll use the flitter. Got any other ideas, T'Mar?"
"Just one. L'Tan, in the flitter with me, dressed all in black like most of their women wear, armed to the teeth to back me up while I get us into the other ship. Someone else can fly cover."
"We'll discuss it if it turns out that she's going along."
"Whether she goes or not, I'd still like the backup."
"I can ask for a volunteer. Anything else?"
"No, not at the moment."
T'Mar sat down at the table and studied the town in which he'd be landing the stolen ship. The building housing the targeting laser - and presumably the refugees - had been outlined in red.
T'Var's pad beeped. He saw who was calling and said, "Excuse me, group," then walked to his command chair. A few moments later, he returned to the briefing room and keyed the monitor screen to corridor two.
The picture snapped into being; L'Tan was heading back to the bridge, her long legs carrying her in quick strides that many men would have trouble matching. Her expression one of determination.
"The doctor passed her, just barely," said T'Var. "Now it's my turn."
For some moments they watched her unwavering passage through the corridor, then T'Var tapped off the display as she approached the bridge doors. T'Mar and the others looked at him.
T'Var shrugged and said, "She looks fit enough to me."
As L'Tan entered the briefing room, T'Var waved her to a seat before she could speak, and said, "There's been a change. We're using your flitter and you're now playing the role of a native girl."
Whatever L'Tan had been about to say became, "A what?"
"You'll be T'Mar's on-site cover while he steals a ship. You'll be dressed as one of their women. Your flitter will make an emergency landing, you'll run to one of the other ships for shelter, and you'll blow the flitter on the way out."
L'Tan absorbed the change, considered it for a moment, then said, "Okay."
"T'Ren," said T'Var, "You're in charge of making the flitter read as one of theirs. People, we have the technological upper hand, but don't get too cocky. Two or three of their fighters can take down one of ours, and when they see you coming, they're going to launch everything at you."
He called up a view of the surface that included both continents and tapped a spot on the northern continent.
"The refugees are here. We have no way to signal them to be ready to go and no idea of their condition, so we have to allow as much as fifteen minutes for pickup."
Blue team leader L'Nil cleared her throat and asked, "When do we go?"
T'Var said, "1100 hours, L'Nil. It will be 0400 in the strike zones. Okay, people. T'Ren will finish the briefing. I'm going to see how Tac's coming along with our plans for suppressive fire. Their main forces are concealed underground and heavily shielded, but they'll have to come out to intercept you. When they do, they'll have to drop their shields, and that's when we're going to pound them."
T'Var left the room and all eyes came to rest on T'Ren. The rest of the briefing was quick enough.
"You all know what you're to do," said T'Ren. "We gather again at 1030 hours on the launch deck. Dismissed."
"That's it?" asked L'Tan.
T'Ren stopped near the door. He looked back at her with a smile and patted his top right jacket pocket.
"Well, there really isn't anything more to tell about the mission, but I have some of my poetry with me, if you'd like to hear some of it."
There was a sharp laugh and a groan.
"Oh, no, please, not the poetry," said L'Nil.
"I'm hurt," said T'Ren, doing his best to appear so.
"Get over it," said, L'Nil. "You're a pilot, not a poet."
"Maybe it's just that you have trouble understanding complex..."
"Complex?" she interrupted. "Complex? Try another word, Gold leader. My stuff is co
mplex. The stuff you write is incomprehensible."
T'Kin rose from his seat, leaned toward T'Mar and whispered, "This is not a new discussion. I'm getting out of here."
T'Mar and L'Tan followed him past the arguing flight leaders and out the door.
An hour later, T'Ren took them to see the flitter that been rescued with T'Lan.
"It's back in perfect running order," he said. "We've torn a large flap of the back open so the insulation can burn visibly, but we decided against adding a smoke device. Only the forward portion of the flitter will be shielded, to give the impression of battle damage and to protect you two."
Pointing to the console, he said, "Toggle this switch to the left to make the flitter read as one of our fighters. To the right, it will read as a civilian transport vehicle."
He then pointed to a drone craft lying in the cargo bed of the flitter.
"You'll switch off your fighter identity and release this drone. It will continue to follow me and cover your absence from the formation. When you get closer to the port, where the Eiranians can see us, one of us will fire at you, putting a shot through the insulation flap to set it afire."
L'Tan asked, "Won't it look a little odd if you don't continue on to shoot up the port?"
"We'll start a run, hit a few of the outlying ships, and then be called away to assist elsewhere. Each of you take one of these."
T'Ren handed each of them a coin-sized device.
"It's pressure-activated," he said. "Squeeze it hard enough to dent the center and it will send a distress signal for about ten minutes."
Examining the device, T'Mar asked, "What's the range?"
"They'll be able to hear it on the Alliance."
L'Tan nodded. "Good enough."
"By the way, Stardancer," T'Ren said with a grin, fingering the heavy black clothing she was wearing, "Nice outfit. Where's your veil?"
"In my pocket, right next to the stunner I may have to use on you. Speaking of personal weapons, where are they?"
"Go to the arms room and draw what you think you'll need, then report back here. T'Var has final say, but he'll probably go along with your choices."
As they walked to the arms room, L'Tan asked, "What's your preference? Rifles or pistols?"
"Grenades," said T'Mar. "Most shootouts happen at close range. When you shoot, the other guy sees your flash. If you use a grenade, that's not a problem. Second choice would be an E-rifle. If I can see it, I can hit it."
"I prefer rifles, too, but we'll need something concealable, so get yourself a pistol. No reason you can't have both."
"Well, yes, ma'am. Aren't we bossy today?"
L'Tan glanced up sharply at his tone.
T'Mar grinned and said, "No sweat. I'd planned on taking a rifle, a pistol, and six grenades, if they have the new, smaller ones."
"Why so many?"
"They can open locked doors, too, and clear the area inside a ship before we go in. I'm just not a trusting soul, I guess."
Each of them signed out a rifle, a pistol, and six of the small grenades, then they headed back to the flitter. T'Var and the pilots were gathered around or on it, sitting or standing as they chatted about the mission.
"Fifteen minutes to go," said T'Ren.
T'Var stood up and said, "I'd better get back to the bridge. We're going to target their known underground fighter facilities and try to blow them when their shields drop between their first and second launches. Even if we miss the first volley, it will knock down a lot of the fighters in the first wave, and the second volley should seal the openings or make them difficult to use. The light batteries will knock down as many fighters as possible, but cycle time is six seconds, so a few will get through. Stay alert and stay out of our target zones."
The group broke up as the Captain left. With a few waves and good wishes, the others headed for their fighters as T'Mar and L'Tan boarded the flitter and took their seats. T'Mar turned the flitter on and put the shields up.
T'Ren's voice asked, "Ready for towing, Stardancer?"
L'Tan glanced at T'Mar as he checked the systems monitor. He nodded.
"Ready," said L'Tan.
"Okay. Two, three, and four get a lock on the flitter, slave your systems to mine, and signal when ready."
Seconds later, the flitter lifted into position just off T'Ren's right wingtip, then the whole group moved toward the bay's open doors.
L'Tan's fingers were drumming on her rifle.
T'Mar made a show of leaning his seat back and relaxing, then grinningly asked, "You nervous, ma'am?"
L'Tan fixed him with a flat glare and said, "I prefer to do my own flying."
Her mood didn't improve during the trip to Eirania. The flitter had no fixed canopy, relying on its fields for shielding from the elements. It was as if the two of them were sitting in open space for several minutes, and then the squadron hit the atmosphere.
The forward shield expanded to encompass the entire flitter, as per its programming, but the bubble of bright light caused by the heat from entering the atmosphere at high speed was almost unnerving.
The light seemed to emanate from directly in front of the nose of their flitter and quickly became too bright to look at, even with the field opaqued to maximum.
"Damn," said T'Mar, shielding his eyes with an arm. "Was it like this when the nuke went off?"
"No. I was in the Alliance's shadow. I watched on the screen."
"A good thing they caught on and followed you. If the fields're glowing like this now, I doubt they'd have been able to take a nuke."
"I knew damned well they couldn't. Without the Alliance between me and the blast, I'd have been toasted to a fine ash."
T'Mar grinned. "Glad they missed you, ma'am. You've been good company."
T'Ren's voice said, "Fifteen seconds, people."
"Copy that," said T'Mar, pressing the 'engage' button.
The drone lifted from the deck of the flitter and hung suspended only a few feet above them. As the flight group passed between mountains, T'Ren spoke again.
"Switch to civilian in five... Four... Three... Two... One... Now."
L'Tan toggled the transponder switch and two things happened at once. The flitter immediately acquired the flight characteristics of a damp sponge and the drone flashed away from above them.
The onboard computer took a split-second to assess matters and make a course change, then dropped them to within a hundred yards of the surface for what would appear to be evasive maneuvering.
As they rounded the base of the mountain between them and their goal, two fighters from the overhead formation pretended to spot them and peeled away to chase them.
The flitter computer and fighter computers synched so that some very near misses were possible during the brief chase; misses near enough that their static charges made the flitter's fields glow at their edges.
As the port facility neared quickly, the computers lined up flitter and fighter for the coup shot, and one of the beams lanced through the flitter's hull, setting the exposed insulation afire.
A long plume of roiling black smoke billowed behind the flitter as the fighters appeared to consider it done for and screamed past it to attack the port.
T'Mar tilted the flitter as if the left stabilizers were failing and aimed it at one of the military transports, allowing himself to be seen struggling with the controls as he made the flitter touch the concrete and begin a long, scraping slide that ended mere yards from the transport's landing pad.
"Let's make this look good," said L'Tan. "I've got the rifle bundle. Pull me away from the flitter and help me get up, then head us toward the transport."
"I'm setting the timer for twenty. That ought to give us time to get out of here one way or other."
"It's supposed to be ten."
"I don't think ten's enough. Sorry. Code's locked. Let's go."
Two, then three nearby guards were running toward them. T'Mar made a production of pulling L'Tan from the crash. She wailed and screamed a
nd clutched something tightly in her arms as he made it appear that he was trying to make her leave it behind.
As they neared the transport and the guards neared them, L'Tan let the wrap fall off the bundle and shoved one of the rifles at T'Mar. The surprised guards were cut down and T'Mar aimed his rifle at the transport's hatchway, firing quickly at the shadowy figures within. Two fell, one did not.
T'Mar activated one of the grenades and heaved it into the airlock, then ducked with L'Tan to one side of the doorway. There was a brief shriek and a bang. The hatch remained open.
Rushing past the man on the airlock deck, they raced into the corridor beyond the airlock and headed for the control room, firing at the few soldiers who'd been stuck with guard duty on such an unfortunate morning.
Someone more alert than the others pinned them briefly at a bend in the corridor. They traded a few errant shots during the encounter and ducked for cover, but then neither side dared show themselves.
T'Mar activated a grenade, counted to three, and threw it to hit the far wall of the intersecting corridor. It bounced off the wall and disappeared around the corner, accompanied by someone's scream. A second later, it went off and the corridor was silent.
"I think you got him," said L'Tan.
"Don't know what's around that corner. Got your makeup kit with you?"
"No. I really didn't think I'd need it today."
"In that case, give me one of your grenades and I'll toss it farther down the corridor before we risk it."
She handed him one and he moved up to the corner. He activated the grenade and counted to five, then threw it around the corner and ducked back. As soon as the grenade went off he was up and running toward the control room door.
L'Tan was up and running, too. She saw the sentry lying on the floor some yards beyond the open control room door, his rifle lying some distance from him, then saw a second rifle and realized that the first grenade might not have been enough.
Stopping behind T'Mar, she said, "One guard, but two rifles."
T'Mar pointed at the doorway. "Look inside the control room."
Her cautious peek revealed another guard sprawled across a console.
"If anyone's still alive in there, the next grenade should take care of him."
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