Espero (The Silver Ships Book 6)
Page 30
Franz said. Reiko had linked the commander in, as Alex’s information grew dire, and he had hurried to join her on the bridge.
“Be careful,” Reiko said urgently to Franz. The warm, big-hearted smile she loved lit up Franz’s face just before he planted a long, deep kiss on her. “Decorum, Commander,” Reiko admonished before she kissed him back. “Now, go aid the president … but be a safe hero.”
After Franz exited the Tanaka, Reiko waited a quarter-hour and then commed Eric to communicate the details of the president’s call.
On Idona Station, Reiko had wondered more than once what it would be like to have an implant. As she reviewed her conversation with Eric, she marveled again at the tiny device’s uses. It was an odd conversation with Eric to say the least. Listening to her recording, Reiko had a growing certainty that Eric didn’t dispute her decision to withhold the information from President Drake. Furthermore, the three-way battle taking place in the Udrides’ domes would be over before the New Terran president would become aware of the event.
“He agreed with me,” Reiko said happily, and the few crew left on the Tanaka’s bridge looked over at their diminutive captain, who was smiling, her hands clasped behind her back and rocking happily heel to toe.
* * *
Once Alex closed his comm with Reiko, he placed his hands on his hips and studied the concourse, looking toward where the ambusher and a plasma rifle waited.
“Julien, any information you can access about the construction of these domes?” Alex asked quietly.
“Negative, Mr. President. If the designs are online, they’re housed on an isolated network.”
“Étienne, Alain, anything you can do?”
“We’ve been studying the layout of the concourse and have investigated some open rooms and their overhead to see if access between the levels was possible. It’s our conclusion that the gunman would hear us coming, creating an untenable situation,” Étienne replied.
Tatia regarded Alex expectantly.
“Okay, Admiral, you win. We fight beam with beam,” Alex said.
Tatia grinned and then sent,
As the Haraken trotted forward, his plasma rifle slung over his shoulder, Tatia turned to their SADE. “Julien, I will need your advice for this.”
The two humans and SADE walked forward along the concourse. Tatia and Mallory were careful to stay meters behind Julien as all three hugged the corridor’s inner curve. Julien stopped occasionally to test walls and overhead, calculating the infrastructure’s strength.
Mallory knew that a SADE’s avatar significantly out massed his New Terran body, but as quietly as he crept forward, he couldn’t compete with Julien, who made no noise whatsoever. At an office doorway, Julien slipped inside and Mallory followed him.
Julien sternly regarded the man for a moment.
Mallory looked at the SADE, trying to keep his mouth from falling open. As a new immigrant to Haraken, Mallory was still getting used to the concept of a cognitive, digital intelligence walking and talking. At times, he wasn’t sure how the SADEs thought. While he stared at the SADE, Julien broke into a grin.
Julien moved to the office’s far wall, quietly tore loose a table, which was anchored to the floor, and built a barricade for the rifleman to fire from behind.
Mallory took up his position, dialed down the power setting to its minimum strength, and aimed where Julien directed him. He pressed the firing stud, and the arc of energy tore a hole in the opposite wall and continued to burn through walls until the sound of an explosion reached them as the final structure absorbed the last of the beam’s energy.
“Quickly, Mallory,” Julien urged and hurried from the room.
Mallory exited as fast as he could, racing to keep up with the SADE. He could hear the pounding of the admiral’s feet behind him.
“Julien!” Mallory exclaimed, seeing the ambusher hurt but alive. “All that talk about killing humans, and you planned to have the shot dissipate before exiting the last wall.”
Julien smiled at Mallory, and said, “There was always the remotest possibility that I had miscalculated.”
“Okay, okay,” Mallory said, waving smoke aside. “Lesson learned … make that lessons learned.”
“What did I miss?” Tatia asked, coughing.
“My tutorial on SADE thought processes,” Mallory replied.
“Let’s get out of here to some place where we can breathe,” Tatia said. “Ensure you educate me later on your lesson, Mallory … every human continues to learn on that subject.”
They walked Lenny back to the group. Alex looked at the dust and debris–covered man Julien held by the collar. He appeared to have only minor injuries but was sobbing uncontrollably, and Alex cocked an eyebrow at Tatia.
“Meet Lenny, Mr. President,” Tatia said. “Lenny’s upset because he didn’t get to see the people pop.”
Alex’s confused expression prompted Julien to hold up the plasma rifle, and Tatia looked pointedly at it and then at Alex, raising her eyebrows.
&nbs
p; “Oh … oh,” Alex said, his voice rising as comprehension dawned. He studied the inconsolable man, and Alex’s entire demeanor changed. “Yes, well, it was the opportunity of a lifetime. Wasn’t it, Lenny?”
At first, Tatia was aghast at Alex’s statement but intrigued when Lenny stopped crying.
Lenny regarded Alex and nodded slowly several times.
“You waited all that time,” Alex said sympathetically, “and you never got your chance. That’s a shame.” Alex gripped Lenny by the shoulders and asked, “Lenny, would you like to shoot your rifle for me?”
Lenny wiped his eyes and blew his nose into the crook of his sleeve. “You’d let me shoot for you?” he asked hopefully.
“There’s always a need for a good rifleman, Lenny.”
“I’m really good, mister. I’ve studied real hard. Mr. Toyo tells me I’m good.”
“I bet he does, Lenny,” Alex said, putting his arm around Lenny’s shoulders and walking him down the corridor. He opened his implant comm to his people, so they could hear Lenny’s responses to his questions.
“Tell me, Lenny, why is Mr. Toyo here?”
“He’s here for the Haraken fems. Wants them real bad.”
“Does he know where they are?”
“I don’t think so. Can I have my rifle back?”
“Not right now, Lenny. We just met, and we haven’t had the opportunity to get to know each other.”
“Oh, okay. Do you want to be my friend? I had a friend, but he was killed.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Lenny. That’s sad. So, Lenny, does Mr. Toyo have another rifle bearer with him? Not that he could find a better man than you.”
“Thanks for saying that, mister. No, Mr. Toyo only brought me. When can I have my rifle back?”
Watching Alex and Lenny wander down the concourse, Renée sent to the other Harakens,
-31-
Franz had commed Captain Cordova and relayed Alex’s request. With the Rêveur stationed fewer than 10 kilometers from the Tanaka, the flight was exceedingly quick. Despite that, when Franz eased his traveler into the bay indicated by First Mate Lumley, his controller signaled the implants of a mass of people waiting in the open bay.
The traveler touched down, and Franz signaled the hatch open. Harakens, dressed in environment suits, poured onto his ship. Within moments, a tech signaled the hatch closed, and Franz, who never left his pilot’s seat, commed the flight chief for launch clearance, received it, and was on his way to Udrides.
It wasn’t until Franz cleared the Rêveur’s space and settled back that he took stock of who was aboard. Cordelia was present, which helped explain the expedited turnaround.
“Commander,” Cordelia sent, when Franz’s implant pinged her.
“Good to have you aboard, Cordelia,” Franz replied.
When Mickey’s bio ID pinged back, Franz felt a sinking sensation. Alex had stressed to bring only shooters, and Franz knew for a fact that the engineer was unqualified with a weapon. Then again, there was a core of individuals in Alex’s orbit who only took directions from him.
It was a short flight for the traveler to reach Udrides, and it wasn’t long before Franz sent,
Franz brought the traveler level with the bay doors, which soon opened. It gave Franz concern as to how Cordelia could have cleared the bay of personnel so quickly.
Once on the deck and with the bay pressurized, Franz was about ready to repeat Alex’s instructions to wait, when his controller signaled the hatch opening. He dropped a few expletives, swapped his pilot’s helmet for an environment helmet, checked the stun gun on his thigh, and joined the exodus. That’s when he noticed the crew was carrying armloads of environment suits.
Franz was the last off the traveler, but Cordelia sealed the hatch just as Franz’s feet hit the deck. He raced to get to the front of the group, who were already streaming toward the main concourse. After his first view of the mutilated dead, Franz attempted to avert his eyes as best he could.
“Mickey,” Franz said, before passing the senior engineer.
“Franz,” Mickey acknowledged.
Franz kept running until he caught up with Cordelia, who was in the front and holding back her pace to allow the humans to keep up with her. “Do you know where we’re going, Cordelia?” Franz asked.
“Forward in time, as we’ve always been doing, I suppose,” Cordelia replied calmly, despite the hurried pace, which had Franz breathing deeply.
When Franz frowned, Cordelia relented from teasing him. “I’ve received Julien’s vids of the action from the moment our people stepped off Alex’s traveler until we arrived. I shared it with those in the cabin, but chose not to interfere with your piloting. Suffice it to say, circumstances are dangerous. Toyo’s people are killing in any manner they can. The one individual employing a plasma rifle for Toyo has been eliminated, and the girls have not been located.”
“Anyone hurt?” Franz asked.
“One of our troopers and a good many of Kadmir’s people have been killed by deadly stunner fire. Those who were only partially stunned were dispatched with knives by Toyo’s people. Kadmir’s people are wearing brown; Toyo’s people are wearing red.
Cordelia slowed as they came near the infamous concourse barricade. A red-uniformed individual in a doorway was stirring, just recovering from Alex’s stun gun blast, and Cordelia summarily stunned him in passing. Following Cordelia’s example, the group stunned Toyo’s people, who were returning to consciousness. It must be said that some were stunned who were as yet comatose — but it was the thought of the Harakens to pad the odds in their favor.
* * *
Linking with Captain Shimada, First Mate Lumley sent,
Francis chuckled before he sent,
Reiko belly laughed at the image of the long-serving and even-tempered UE captain acting out like a spoiled child.
* * *
Having gleaned all the information Lenny had, Alex turned him over to the care of two troopers, who were told to keep a close watch on him, but since one of the troopers carried Lenny’s plasma rifle that seemed unnecessary. Lenny walked closely beside the Haraken, occasionally reaching over to touch the weapon as if to reassure himself that it was still there.
Knowing that there were no more plasma rifles to face from Toyo’s guards was of little consolation to Alex. He had to
find a means of preventing Toyo’s people from getting off a single shot from their insidious hand guns at his people. That thought was underlined by the image of two troopers carrying Nestor’s body back to the traveler. In conversation with Tatia and Julien on how to proceed, Julien volunteered a section of an ancient Terran vid in which a company of men with single-fire rifles defended a compound against a much larger force.
“They refer to this arrangement as stepped fire,” Julien explained.
“We can use this,” Tatia said, “adopting it to the corridor, staying to the curves for the leading forces in multiple positions, and laying down fire from prone forces on the floor … just farther back.
Julien and Alex modeled the troopers’ positions for maximum firing effect and minimum exposure. When they were finished, Julien sent the plan to all implants. Everyone had assigned positions. Each twin would lead a small group along the corridor’s curves. When the enemy was contacted, two troopers would kneel in front of and one beside each twin while the escort remained standing.
Three tiers of troopers would hold central corridor positions, prone, sitting, and standing. They were positioned a little farther down the corridor. Although slightly more exposed to fire, it would require attackers to extend themselves past their cover to get a shot at these troopers, making themselves a good target for the twins and troopers on the concourse curves.
When all was ready, Alex marched the company along the main concourse until Étienne, stationed on the outer curve, spotted the first red uniform.
As soon as Toyo’s guard spotted Haraken blue, he shouted warnings to his comrades. Immediately, Alex’s forces fell into their assigned positions and fired at any and all potential targets.
Since Haraken stun gun fire was invisible to the naked eye, Toyo’s people made the mistake of sticking their heads up or out, as the case was, to fire their weapons, only to be met by walls of energy. Within moments, half of Toyo’s people were downed, and the Harakens in the central positions were slowly advancing by ranks and maintaining a continuous rate of fire.