by Terry Mixon
“We risked contacting Angela. The Rebel Empire ships arrived at the gas giant and haven’t left. Our probes say they’re sending cutters and pinnaces from all ships down into the atmosphere. I’d wager they’re sending crew to the battlecruisers hiding there so they can use them to fight the Clans.
Veronica rubbed her eyes. “I think it’s a fair bet that those ships are going to move back toward the flip point or come to Archibald orbit before too much longer. We’re going to have to take that into account. If they show up while we’re in the process of stealing the freighter, that could get ugly really fast.”
Princess Kelsey crossed her arms and nodded. “Both missions have to be carried out tonight.”
“I think your best bet is to make the attack at the research center about one in the morning,” Cain said. “It’s far enough past closing that they won’t be expecting trouble, but it gives you enough time to finish everything before the early risers come in the door tomorrow morning. All you’ll need to deal with are the researchers and staff there overnight.”
“What about our new prisoners?” Talbot asked. “I’m going to hit them up for more information, but they know what Zia and I look like. That might get the Rebel Empire on our trail sooner than we’d like.”
Kelsey grimaced. “We’ll have to take them with us. Stun them again before you go and take them with you. Send them through the transport ring to the ship with the equipment. It’ll be good to have the aunt with us in any case, since this is her project. If we have questions about the process, we can ask her.
“We’ll want to make our move on the freighter around the same time. There are a lot of small craft flitting around the shipyard, so we shouldn’t draw undue attention if we don’t come too close.”
“The ship is ready for trials, so it won’t be inside the yard itself,” Cain said. “It’s going to be orbiting a short distance away. My people can get off the shuttle at range and use suit thrusters to land on its hull and gain access. We should be able to settle ourselves into a hiding place and wait to make our move with no one the wiser.”
“There we go,” Kelsey said. “That gives us about ten hours before we need to execute both missions. Zia and Talbot, brief your people and get some sleep if you can. Have someone take your noncritical gear back to your shuttles before go time. Leave nothing here at the hotel for the Rebel Empire to find.
“Veronica and I will go with Cain to our freighter. We’ll eat and sleep, too. Remember, if the Clans attack, we’ll be leaving in a hurry. If the Rebel Fleet warships come in, we might have to sneak away a bit more stealthily. If push comes to shove, Persephone will have to create a diversion.”
Talbot rapped his knuckles on the table. “This is it. We’re either going to succeed tonight or go down in flames. Let’s make sure we give it our best effort.”
“I’m feeling good,” Kelsey said. “Only one thing is bothering me. After disguising myself as Delatorre and everything, I never got to blackmail anyone.”
Zia laughed. “Maybe next time.”
Kelsey, Talbot, and her team moved back to their cargo shuttle as nonchalantly as they could. They traveled in small groups and did nothing to draw undue attention to themselves.
Even though she expected someone to stop them and try to extort money, everyone arrived at the shuttle without having been harassed. They returned to the freighter without problem.
There was enough time before they were to execute their plan for her to grow nervous and twitchy. With her implants, she didn’t require nearly enough sleep to get through until departure time.
Instead, she spent the time going over their scanner readings and refining her thoughts on how they’d get on board the freighter and what they’d do when they did. Cain Hopwood was smarter than she was and was sleeping until just about an hour before they were ready to launch, but she ran what she’d thought about past him as they were making final preparations.
“I think that looks good, as far as it goes, but we’re going to have to play this by ear. Once we get on board that freighter, anything can happen. I think it’s going to be relatively safe for us until then. Our suits are made to avoid detection so no one is going to see us coming.
“The problem is going to come in once we get inside the ship. There’s no telling where the crew is located. I’m hopeful most of them will be in their quarters asleep. Or if we’re lucky, not even on board. A skeleton crew would be ideal.”
She nodded at him and headed to suit up. “We’ll deal with the situation as we find it. Thanks again for your help. You guys have made our successes possible in so many ways. Rest assured that the Empire will remember this when we get home.”
A little bit more than an hour later, their shuttle detached from the freighter and headed away from the station. Word from Fiona had come in that the flip drive was complete and had just been delivered to the freighter. One major milestone complete.
Their cargo shuttle wasn’t passing close enough to the shipyard to be challenged, though it was at the very edge of what they thought they could get away with. The target freighter was still too far away to be seen visually. Even the shipyard was only a bright speck in the distance.
Thankfully, their stealth suits had overpowered thrusters and they had no lack of fuel to get to where they needed to go.
Even with all the pressure on them, Kelsey took a moment to admire Archibald after they stepped out into space. The planet was all greens and blues, just rising above the curve of the red moon. Wispy clouds covering a substantial portion of the planet’s surface. It was a beautiful world. Perhaps not as pretty as Avalon, but she had to admit she was biased.
“We’d best be on our way,” Cain said. “By my best estimate, it’ll take us almost an hour to get to the freighter. If everything goes to hell, I’d rather not be floating in space when it happens.”
The slow trip to the freighter was rough on her nerves, but Kelsey had gotten much better at dealing with that sort of thing over the last few years. She distracted herself by going over the deck plans that Carl had gotten for them. They needed to find a good hiding place and she wanted to be sure they were picking the right one.
The final approach was nerve-racking. If anyone observed them visually, they were screwed. She barely breathed until they finally touched down on the ship’s hull.
They’d decided not to use even low powered radio because of the risk of being detected. This was Cain’s operation, now. He’d get them inside without detection and deal with any unfortunate incidents involving the crew.
She couldn’t help feeling a sense of impending doom. This was the part of the mission where things usually went wrong. Often catastrophically wrong.
Five minutes later, Cain’s people had the outer airlock door open and he made a hand gesture for everyone to move into the airlock in groups. This was it.
32
After Kelsey and her people left, Talbot felt like a sword was hanging over his head. He kept expecting a call saying that they’d run into terrible trouble or to hear alarms outside the hotel and see security people rushing around.
That hadn’t happened. In fact, the shuttle had made it back to the freighter without any problem, reporting that the drop off had been smooth and without issue. That didn’t stop him from fretting.
He’d distracted himself by interrogating their prisoners. Not that they were being very cooperative. He’d thought the boy would be easier to get information from, but he’d proven exceptionally recalcitrant. He’d smiled and told them nothing.
That impressed Talbot. That level of resistance spoke to either a lot of training or some serious willpower. In either case, he’d had written off getting timely assistance from the young man.
Doctor Lipp was more talkative, but still told him nothing. She’d denied everything and claimed she’d received a call for assistance from her nephew.
Neither of them believed that, of course. Any reasonable person would’ve called security in that set of circumstances,
not grabbed her husband and some “friends” to go fight it out in her nephew’s apartment.
Bill Smith had gotten back from the woman’s dwelling a few minutes ago. He’d gathered a lot of data, but nothing about the project she was working on or the criminal activity she was apparently perpetrating on her employer.
To add to the complexity, the man had also brought back Lipp’s cats: a pair of kittens about four months old, both male. One was black and had a stubby tail and the other was a gray tabby. Both were playful and friendly.
What Talbot was supposed to do with them, he didn’t know. Still, the man was right in that he couldn’t leave them there. If no one came to check on them, they would die of neglect. Bringing them was the right thing to do.
As far as problems went, they were the least of his worries. Someone would take them back to the cargo shuttles and see them safely on the freighter.
The fact that Lipp had argued with him at least raised the potential that Talbot could get her to tell them something, so he made his way back to her room half an hour before he and Zia would leave for the center.
He entered the room without knocking. It wasn’t as if he was going to find her running around loose. She was restrained and under guard. One of the female marines he brought along on this mission even escorted her to the restroom.
When he came in, she was sitting up in bed. Two marines stood against the far wall and the female assigned to watch over her was seated at the small desk.
“My, doesn’t this look homey.” he said. “How are you feeling, Doctor Lipp?”
She gave him a hard look. “Let me be blunt. I don’t know who you are, but you’re not going to get any useful information from me and security is undoubtedly already searching for me and my family. Do yourself a favor and let us go so that you can get the charges against you reduced.”
He leaned against the desk and gave her a flat smile. “We both know that’s not going to happen. You, your husband, and your nephew were engaged in industrial espionage. If we get caught, you get caught. It’s unfortunate for you that we came along and upset your applecart, but your only path out of this as a free woman is in cooperating with us.”
She laughed, a bright sound under the circumstances. “You think highly of yourself. If what you said were true—which it isn’t—all we have to do is keep our mouths shut until you’re gone. It’s not as if you’re going to take us with you. You’re after information, not hostages.”
“Maybe. We’re after the research project you head at research center and we need that project to work. Taking you along might suit me fine.”
The woman shook her head. “Getting the data I can buy, but you’ll never get off the station with the equipment. It’s not just a couple of small handheld items. It’s easily double the size of a standard regenerator. Not something you’re going to put into your pocket and stroll away with, even if you could get access to the lab.”
Talbot grinned. “We’re not without our tricks, but let’s set that aside for the moment. Say you’re right and we get caught. We can tell them about you and maybe get a reduced sentence. You’re still screwed. Don't forget that we have your nephew's computer access and system as proof.
The woman eyed him for a few seconds. “Just for the sake of this ridiculous discussion, let’s say that your fantastic story is true. How does it benefit us to help you? If you succeed, you’ll bring all kinds of attention down on the research center. It’s going to ruin our operation no matter what.”
“Indulge me. It certainly seems as if your nephew has already penetrated the research center’s computers quite thoroughly. Why are you still here?”
The woman smiled slightly. “Hypothetically, let’s just say that some researchers are more paranoid than others about isolating their research from the network. But, given enough time, they’d have to turn something over to the managers. That gets critical details out into the general research network where a resourceful—if theoretical—thief can access them.”
“So, you have some specific project that you need information on that you’ve been unable to access. We’ve gotten a basic list of projects from your nephew’s computer. Which one are we talking about?”
“Let’s pick one at random,” she suggested. “Just pulling one out of the air, research project 471DC-3.”
“How startlingly specific,” Talbot said, amused.
He accessed the list of projects in his implant storage. The receptionist/hacker had picked up a vast amount of data on current and past projects during his intrusion. All of them had the same kind of identifiers. If a project name got out, it wouldn’t tell anyone what the researchers were exploring.
Interestingly, there was no data available on the project she named. No indication it even existed.
To avoid hinting at the woman that he had implants, Talbot stepped out of the room for a few minutes and got a cup of coffee before coming back in. He sipped at the hot drink and stared at her.
“Your nephew doesn’t have any information on a project like that,” he said coolly. “Your hypothetical example might just be too hypothetical.”
Doctor Lipp chuckled. “Or perhaps it’s so classified that all information revolving around it is kept isolated from even the research network.”
“I suspect we’re going to need your assistance in using the equipment, and contrary to what you think, we can get you off this station. You’re going to be coming with us simply because your knowledge will be helpful. That’s happening one way or the other.
“As an incentive, what if we broke into that other research area and the data for you? We’re already going to be in the facility, so it shouldn’t be too much additional trouble to take an extra set of computers.”
She raised an eyebrow at him. “That would hardly do me any good if you killed my nephew and me. How do I know that you’re not planning something dastardly for us?”
He laughed. “Dastardly. I like that. Look at it this way. We used stunners when you attacked us. Why would we suddenly change to something more lethal?”
“No one had seen your faces at that point,” she pointed out somewhat reasonably. “You didn’t expect my nephew to come home early and you certainly didn’t expect me and my husband to come after him. Now that you have us, you might decide we’ve seen too much.”
“Want proof we’re taking you with us and will let you live? Life doesn’t allow for that level of certainty, but we broke into your house and rescued your kittens. A black one and a gray one. They’re already off on our ship where you will join them. If we intended to murder you, we probably wouldn’t save your cats.”
She stared at him with hard eyes but slowly nodded. “I’m inclined to believe you. Since I’m in a bind, I’ll take a chance and help you. Getting caught at this point might cost my life and I no longer have any control over events.”
Veronica waited for her turn through the freighter’s airlock a little nervously. Cain Hopwood and his recovery agents had led the way inside and had already reported no contact with any of the crew, but that didn’t stop her from feeling on edge.
Princess Kelsey was leading a team to find a hiding place near the bridge. With deck plans provided by Carl Owlet, she had a couple of places in mind that would allow half their force to be ready to seize control of the ship at a moment’s notice.
She was in charge of a second team that would seize engineering, but she had one task to perform first. She needed to make certain the flip drive Carl had ordered was safely stored away in the cargo holds.
Team one had already headed out for the bridge, leaving her people waiting for her to give them direction. Veronica consulted the map and pointed down the corridor. Their initial target was a computer interface rather than a hold.
It was positioned on the bulkhead exactly where she’d expected it. Doctor Rehnquist stepped forward and quickly unlocked the interface for her.
Since she had a delivery number, it was a simple matter of consulting the cargo database
and having it spit a hold number back at her. Five seconds after she had access, they were on their way to the correct hold.
It was roughly on the way to engineering. In fact, it was close enough that they could wait inside the hold for Princess Kelsey’s signal to attack.
The scouts in front kept a close eye out for any randomly encountered crewmen. If someone popped up, they’d have to stun them and that would be bad. Anyone that went suddenly quiet could have their friends looking for them in just a few minutes.
They arrived at the hold without encountering anyone. A different specialist applied her talents to opening the hatch. After a few moments, it slid aside and gave them access.
Half the team entered the hold with their stunners up, searching for trouble. The compartment was unoccupied and Veronica made her way to join them. The tech closed the hatch behind them.
Veronica quickly realized that the scale of the hold was significantly larger than she’d envisioned. A carrier might be roughly the same size as this ship, but she hadn’t seen any open areas this large aboard Audacious.
The large hold reminded Veronica of the manufacturing area at the shipyard. The ceiling rose far above their heads and various crates of cargo were strapped to the deck and piled high. It looked somewhat risky to her if the ship had to maneuver, but all the crates were stoutly strapped down.
They spread out looking for the flip drive. Less than a minute later, one of her teammates called her over. She’d found the flip drive.
Only, she hadn’t. The order number indicated this was a different flip drive.
“Keep looking for our cargo,” she ordered, somewhat confused. “It has to be here somewhere.”
They found it after another five minutes of searching. It looked identical to the first one they’d found. That made Veronica wonder what was going on. Why would someone be shipping a flip drive on this freighter? It was only scheduled to be doing in system trials.