by Terry Mixon
She and Kayden had had sex, but this was still going to be awkward. Still, if she wanted them all to make it out of this alive, she was going to have to sell it.
Grace stepped up to Kayden and allowed her eyes to widen dramatically. “Honey, did you see what happened back there? It looks like someone shot the place up. What’s happening? Are we in danger?”
Even though she’d been speaking softly, she’d made certain to pitch her voice so that the Singularity marines would hear. She had to play this straight and make them feel sure that they knew what her reasons were for getting so close to Kayden.
If the merchant was surprised by her actions, his expression didn’t betray it. He simply grinned impishly back at her and put an arm around her waist.
“Just think of this as a display of our military power, dear. There’s nothing to worry about.”
Grace squeezed him more tightly and put her face next to his, stopping them both in the corridor. “Are you sure? I’m scared.”
“You’re perfectly safe. I promise.”
She put her lips next to his ear and whispered softly. “Anders thinks that they still have the original crew aboard. That changes the equation, and we’re taking the ship. You need to plan for that when you talk to the leaders.”
Kayden said nothing, merely kissing her on the forehead and gently pushing her back.
One of the marines shook his head at her display of supposed weakness. She could imagine what he was thinking and was pleased to see that her ruse had worked.
If they had to throw down on these marines—which was looking more likely by the second—the fact that they thought she was helpless and weak would work in her favor.
“Where is she from?” one marine asked Kayden. “Her accent is the worst I’ve ever heard. How can you stand it?”
“It grows on you,” Kayden said with a grin. “Besides, she can pronounce my name perfectly, and at volume, at the appropriate moments and with the right… stimulation.”
The marines laughed, and Grace had to school her face to keep from glaring at Kayden. He was going to pay for that later.
She didn’t know the layout of a heavy cruiser, but it didn’t seem like they were headed toward the bridge. Grace would’ve thought the captain would meet them in a briefing room somewhere close at hand in case he needed to get back to the control area quickly.
Instead, their goal seemed to be near the senior officers’ quarters based on the signs that were still attached to various locations to guide the original crew. That was another sign that the ship hadn’t been in Singularity hands for very long.
The marines led them to a hatch that was different than any she’d ever seen before. Someone had gone to the trouble of sheathing it in what looked like real wood.
Grace was no expert when it came to that sort of thing, but it was pretty and was probably expensive. What the hell was something like that doing aboard a Fleet warship?
The hatch opened moments after the marines signaled their presence, and the visitors were ushered into a briefing room. Like the hatch, it was far different than what Grace would’ve expected on a Fleet vessel.
Rather than being an ordinary briefing room, this was a VIP affair. The table in the center of the room was a long, thick, heavily polished tabletop that seemed to have been constructed from a single piece of lustrous wood. That would’ve made the tree that it was taken from massive and likely made it even more valuable than her initial guess.
The displays along the bulkheads encircling the compartment were also made of expensive-looking wood but closed in with what seemed like glass doors. They wouldn’t be glass, but something sterner. Glass could shatter and injure people in combat.
Inside the display cases sat a wide variety of knickknacks. She didn’t have time to examine them closely, but her guess was that they were some kind of archeological artifacts. They looked old.
The room had an almost diplomatic feel to it. Or maybe a corporate board room. Neither of which made sense. Diplomats wouldn’t have used a warship, and this couldn’t be something rigged up for a flag officer, because they’d have used a battlecruiser or superdreadnought as their flagship.
Whatever the answer was, it was going to have to wait until later. It was show time.
Legate Lucius Seven Fifty-Three sat at the head of the table with two Singularity officers flanking him. Though there was plenty of room at the table, there were only four other chairs in the room, and all were grouped at the far end of the table from the Singularity officers.
As Grace and her friends sat, the two Singularity marines took up positions along the bulkhead behind them. She surreptitiously eyed the distance between her and them. If she positioned herself well, she’d be able to reach them before they could get their weapons out.
Thankfully, the marines were unarmored and only had pistols at their waists. Based on the heft of the weapons, she thought they were flechette pistols rather than stunners. She’d have rather had the option of stunning people with the captured weapons, but beggars couldn’t be choosers.
Attacking the two would be dangerous, but she couldn’t allow them to get the drop on her and her friends. When push came to shove, she’d take these two out fast and hard.
Kayden took the center chair at their end of the table, with Anders and Kyle sitting on his right. That left her to take the seat on the left, and she positioned her feet and body in such a way that she’d be able to come out of the chair and straight at the marines on a moment’s notice.
Then she turned her attention to the Singularity officers. All three sported the same geometric pattern on their faces, though they weren’t of the same genetic heritage. She’d thought that the tattoos marked them as coming from certain genetic lines, but apparently, her understanding of that aspect of their society was incomplete.
Whatever the case, their appearance didn’t bother Kayden at all. He simply inclined his head toward them and waited for the Legate to speak.
The man in question let them stew for about ten seconds before he started talking. “Ever-Loyal Warrior was recently captured in battle. We’re taking her to a shipyard for refit, but we’ve suffered an engineering casualty. One of her two fusion plants became unstable, and we were forced to shut it down. That leaves us with only one, and its behavior has now become suspect.
“Our escorts left us here to go investigate the attack in the Aponte system and will return in a day or so, but I’ve come to the conclusion that it would be prudent to send your ship back to Aponte to bring back trained technicians skilled in the maintenance of fusion plants to perform what repairs they can. I don’t want to see my new command suffer a complete power failure before I’ve even had her six weeks.”
The officer leaned back slightly in his chair and considered them. “Now, tell me what you can tell me about the attack in Aponte. Were you at the transshipment center or merely somewhere else in the system when it occurred?”
“We’d docked at the transshipment center and were transferring cargo, Legate,” Kayden said deferentially. “I’m not sure what exactly happened, but there was an alert sent to all the ships as we were finishing up, indicating that a destruct sequence had been initiated and the timer was very short. We had less than half an hour to disengage our ship and gain as much distance from the transshipment center as we could.
“I have no idea what prompted such action, because no one from Control contacted us directly. No general transmissions were sent about why the transshipment center felt the need to destroy itself either. Frankly, I was unaware that facilities like that were even equipped to self-destruct.
“In any case, there were still many ships, either docked or too close to the transshipment center when it exploded, and they were destroyed. That’s really all I know.”
The Singularity officer frowned. “This is going to require more investigation, so I may have to divert to Aponte myself once I’m confident that my remaining fusion plant is stable.
“I’ll want my
people to go over everything that you recorded during the incident and question any of your crew that might have seen or heard something of note. You will make them and your systems available as soon as you return to your ship.”
Grace blanched inside. If the Singularity put people aboard Bright Passage, the chances of discovery went through the roof.
We’re going to have to execute Kyle’s plan, she sent to Anders through her implants. If they board us and start digging into everything, they’re going to find the marines or something else sketchy. This would be far more invasive than a customs search. What kind of position does Kyle need to be in to get into their system?
He’s working on it, Anders said. There are access ports underneath the table, and he’s taking his apart so that he can connect the implant reader right now. If he can do it, we might be able to end this fight in the next minute.
Keeping a vacuous smile on her face, Grace glanced over at Kyle and saw him attentively paying attention to the Singularity captain. There was no indication from his posture or expression that his hands were busy trying to get their equipment connected by touch alone.
She was impressed. That took a lot of skill. As a marine, she could disassemble and reassemble her weapons in the dark and under fire, but she’d never thought of Fleet officers as being able to do the same sort of thing. Kudos to the redheaded man.
The Legate stood, and his men stood with him. “I think I’ve given you enough information to carry out my instructions. My officers here will accompany a squad of marines back to your ship and began going through your files and interviewing your crew immediately.”
Kayden stood smoothly, and Anders and Grace followed suit. Kyle didn’t. In fact, he dropped out of sight under the table, drawing everyone’s attention.
“What is your man doing?” one of the secondary officers asked, obviously confused.
Moments later, an implant port appeared in Grace’s virtual perception of the room. Kyle had gotten them in. His idiotic plan might just work after all.
Without saying a word, Anders threw himself at the three Singularity officers, with Kayden following a beat behind. Kyle rose and followed them.
Taking that as her cue, Grace launched herself at the marines who were still gawking behind them. Neither of the men had even begun reaching for their pistols by the time she reached them.
No matter how capable they were, the men were starting this fight from the unenviable position of having been taken completely by surprise and having vastly underestimated her capabilities. She had no intention of allowing them time to recover.
Grace planted one foot squarely between the first marine’s legs with all her strength and instantly disabled him. One down.
The second man had only just begun to realize how much trouble he was in when she grabbed his arm, twisted herself around, and used the leverage to flip him over her shoulder. He slammed face-down into the deck with bone-jarring force.
While he was momentarily stunned, she pulled his pistol out of its holster and took a couple of steps to the side, glancing at the weapon quickly to make sure that it was similar in function to the ones she was familiar with. It was, and it only took a moment to flip the safety off and have the weapon ready to fire.
As the man she’d kicked in the crotch was still curled in a ball and unable to defend himself, she leaned in and retrieved his pistol as well, stepping clear of them both and making the second weapon ready to fire.
Grace half turned to assess how the fight was going, making sure to keep her prisoners inside her cone of vision, as well as watching the hatch to be certain that no one came in and surprised them.
One of the secondary officers was down with Kyle on top of him. The Fleet officer was pounding him in the face with his fists and seemed to have the upper hand.
Anders and the Legate were trading blows in the far corner of the compartment, while Kayden and the remaining officer were battling on the other side of the table.
The merchant was getting the worse end of the deal. The officer was far better trained in hand-to-hand combat and was in the process of whipping his ass.
To even things up, Grace fired a flechette into the officer’s leg. The injury would be bad but probably not lethal. Still, the man’s survival wasn’t her problem. Mission success was.
The man staggered and gasped, allowing Kayden to punch him in the gut before throwing him to the deck and stepping clear of her field of fire.
The distraction of her shooting the man gave Anders the opportunity he’d been looking for to lay a truly impressive right cross into the Legate’s jaw. The Singularity officer’s head snapped around, and he struck the bulkhead with a thunk as he reeled back before sliding bonelessly to the deck.
Anders turned toward her. “I’ve activated every antiboarding weapon on the ship and received responses from most of the system. Not all of it, unfortunately. There were some sections of the ship that might not have fired. We need to get your marines over here as quickly as possible to secure the ship. Make the magic happen, Grace.”
With implant access to the secondary systems available, she was able to link up with the com system and send a signal to Bright Passage. She encoded it with Imperial Marine headers that would immediately forward the message directly to Na.
We’ve ambushed the ship, Fei. Execute Operation Pincushion immediately.
With the order given and no response expected, Grace turned her attention toward the hatch. If there was a counterattack, she’d need to hold this room against all comers until help arrived. She only hoped that her platoon arrived in time to save the day.
30
One Twenty-Four had just finished going through Fei’s familiarization training with the boarding pods when a chime came over the speakers set into the top of the container. The woman hurried over to the panel beside the door and accessed it quickly.
After a few moments scanning whatever was shown, she tapped the screen again and spoke, her voice ringing out over the overhead speakers. “All marines to the boarding pods! We launch in sixty seconds!”
Even as the marines in the container were rushing into the pod behind her, One Twenty-Four took a step toward Fei. “What about me?”
“I need you to go back to your quarters, Little One,” the woman said briskly. “It’s still possible that the enemy will send boarders to Bright Passage, so keep your weapons with you and wait for us to come back. If the crew gives you any orders, obey them.”
Without waiting for a response, the marine rushed out of the container.
One Twenty-Four only considered her options for a moment before turning around and following the marines into the boarding pod behind her. If they were going to be fighting for their lives—and for hers—she was going to be fighting with them.
The boarding pod was large enough to hold an entire squad. Since she was dressed in the same style armor as everyone else, there was an excellent chance that they wouldn’t realize that she wasn’t supposed to be there.
She was grateful that the marines were focused on their own tasks, since that prevented them from noting her short stature. None of them even gave her a glance. As Fei had said, if one acted as if one belonged, those around them only saw what they expected to see.
Her mentor had mentioned that this particular pod was the one that Anne Marie Scott had been assigned to, so she wasn’t running any risk of them running out of seats.
None of the marines paid her the slightest bit of attention, all of them focused on their own tasks, so she strapped herself in.
The squad leader, Sergeant Andy Tanaka, came in last. He threw himself into his couch and quickly strapped himself in just as the hatch closed.
Without warning, a crushing weight slammed onto One Twenty-Four’s chest, jamming her into the acceleration couch and taking her breath away. She’d never felt anything like the pressure.
Lacking implants, she wasn’t able to mesh herself with the rest of the marines but heard the squad leader counting
down the time until impact. Even that small number of seconds felt like an eternity.
In spite of the acceleration, his voice was impossibly calm and level, seemingly unaffected by what was happening to them.
As his count hit zero, their pod slammed into the heavy cruiser and came to an abrupt and immediate halt. She was thrown forward against her straps and was deeply grateful that she’d tightened them as instructed.
She expected the marines to exit through the same hatch they’d used to board, but the sides of the pod blew off and provided them with broad access to the wrecked compartment that their pod had come to rest in.
One Twenty-Four had no idea what the room had been used for, but now it was filled with debris. Her HUD indicated they were in a vacuum, but her armor protected her.
Without waiting for orders, the marines around her began piling out. Not wanting to be left behind, One Twenty-Four clumsily released her restraints and followed.
She was the last one out of the pod, but she wasn’t far behind everyone else. Her cover seemed intact. Everyone was focused on the marines setting up a portable airlock around the hatch leading into the ship.
“Form up around me,” Tanaka ordered over the squad channel once that was done. “Our target is the bridge. If you see anyone moving, stun them. If you see anyone with a weapon, you are authorized to use lethal force. Move out.”
Without another word, the marines arrayed themselves and began flowing through the airlock and into the corridor beyond. The airlock could only hold three marines at a time, so that took several nerve-wracking minutes.
Uncertain of exactly where she was supposed to be inside the squad, One Twenty-Four decided it was probably safer for her to remain near the back of the group so that the squad leader didn’t see her. Every opportunity he had to observe her meant one more chance that she’d be discovered.
Sadly, he was waiting for her as soon as she came through the airlock.
“Dammit, kid,” he growled over a private channel as he grabbed her arm when she came through. “I saw Anne Marie’s beacon, but I didn’t think a single thing about it. What the hell were you thinking?”