Michael Anderle - [Heretic of the Federation 03]

by Time to Fear (epub)

  Jimmy raced after her, picked her up by the collar, and dragged her to her feet. “What have we told you about doing the heavy’s job?”

  “That you’re glad I save you the bruises?” she asked, regained her balance, and pivoted to fire into the Dreth coming through an adjoining room.

  Jimmy kept her moving in the right direction and she kept firing. Piet ran on the other side of the big Scotsman, using him as cover, while Todd kept their right flank clear. Angus and Henry would have taken care of the rear, except the Marines were following and could do that much for themselves. It freed up the Hooligans to do what they did best.

  “Next room, Jimmy!” Ka shouted, “Five on the right, two on the left, and three straight ahead. I need the center terminal. Don’t blow it up.”

  “What about the others?” Reggie yelled.

  “All connected. Keep ʼem in one piece until I say otherwise.”

  “You heard the lady!” Todd roared. “Angus, Henry, Darren, you’re with me. Dru, Gary, Reggie, take the left. Clear either side. Marines, keep our tail clear.”

  “Is that like ‘mind the car,’ Sarge?” Gary asked as Todd bounded past the machines Ka said they weren’t allowed to break.

  “Nah, but if someone doesn’t, we’re gonna have company we don’t want to keep.”

  “Gotcha, Sarge.”

  “Ka! Are you in yet?” Todd called and took cover behind the door frame as more Dreth came into the room he wanted to reach.

  “Patience is a virtue, boss.”

  “And we all know what happens to virtue,” he shouted in response and fired a blaster from each hand as he pivoted around the door frame.

  Angus came after him, then Henry and Darren.

  “What did you do, Sarge? Insult their mothers?” Henry demanded as the Dreth blew a hole in the opposite wall and more poured through the gap.

  “Dreth have mothers?” Todd responded in Dreth and pitched a grenade toward the answering roar.

  “Aw, boss, did you have to?” Henry demanded. “Now, we’re gonna have to get our hands dirty.”

  Two of the Marines who’d moved forward to keep watch on the two sets of Hooligans exchanged looks.

  “They’ve been on ice for twenty years and they still act like this?”

  “Think about it,” the other Marine told him. “for them, this was like yesterday.”

  “Damn! I hate these electronics!” Ka muttered. “They’re playing havoc with my head.”

  “So? Get your head to play back!” Todd responded unsympathetically. “And don’t take all day, Corporal! I don’t think these guys like us to play with their computers.”

  “Too bad,” Ka snapped as her fingers flew over the keyboard. “They should learn to share.”

  “Oh, I think they got that part down fine!” Henry yelled. “They’re sharing their rounds and grenades just fine.”

  “Use your shields, you big babies.”

  “Jimmy! Get ready to pull her out of there on my mark,” Todd called.

  “Are we leaving, boss?”

  “Unless any of you have a witch in your pocket.”

  Cold flowed across the room, and the Marines felt an unspeakable terror.

  “Keep it together!” Jimmy ordered when he saw them hesitate. “They burn like all the rest.”

  “So you won’t let me in, huh?” Ka snarled. “Let’s see how you like it when there’s two of us. Piet!”

  “Almost there, your holiness.”

  “’Your holiness?’” one of the Marines mouthed, and Jimmy drew a hand across his throat to signal that part of the conversation was over.

  “Long story,” he said, “and we’re too busy to tell it.”

  “Hey!” Ka shouted. “Can you take the back off that unit and run a little explosive over it?”

  “I thought you said we couldn’t blow it up?”

  “Don’t stick a detonator in it then, but treat it like a cake that needs a strip of icing right down the middle.”

  “Er…okay?”

  “You are gonna love this,” she promised the machine.

  “I’m very sure it won’t.”

  “Well, can it be done on the way?” Emil demanded and looked at the repair they’d uncovered in Bio.

  “It could, and the risk would be minimal, but…”

  He sighed. “It would still be there,” he finished, and his mind raced through the calculations. “Leave it as long as you can. If it’s not done by the time we transition, we’ll do it en route.”

  “Aye, sir.”

  Emil turned to the next problem. “Did you say her engines were up to speed?”

  “They’re out there testing them now, sir. I think Steph likes the new skip capabilities.”

  “As long as she doesn’t blow herself up,” he muttered, and the tech laughed.

  “Far from it. Our mages say the Tempestarii likes her suggestions and they’re implementing them now.”

  “Will that delay us?”

  “No, sir, but it’ll get us where we need to go faster.”

  “That’s what I need to hear.” The captain paused and tapped his lips with his forefinger as his mind raced.

  He glanced at the list and noted the checkmarks accompanying almost every item. Of the ones left unchecked, most were almost completed, and those left weren’t as urgent as getting to where they needed to be.

  “Call the Knight. As soon as she’s satisfied with her drives, we need to leave.”

  Jaleck was in the command center when a second round of alarms went off. She froze and lifted her head slowly.

  “Pirates?” she asked, but the technician raised a pale face and shook her head.

  “No, ma’am. They’ve arrived.”

  “But…they’re early.”

  The tech forced a smile. “Some would say that’s a virtue.”

  “Except when you’re early for the fight you’ve already started,” the admiral replied. “Then it’s a vice, and we need to break them of it before it becomes a habit.”

  “They are three days ahead of our calculations, War Leader,” a second tech confirmed, and they are destroying our early warning markers as they come.”

  “That will help us track their approach,” Jaleck acknowledged. “Why didn’t we have more warning?”

  “Two minutes, War Leader, I’m trying to… Aha.” The tech who answered was almost jubilant. It was an expression that quickly faded as he made his report.

  “They’ve come through Bregortha, most likely by way of Ergreg and Tavach. We have nothing in those systems, and we…” He avoided her gaze, and his face colored at the admission. “We didn’t add alarms there.”

  Jaleck lowered her head and rested her forehead along the line of her forefinger. “Well, we’ve learned,” she stated and looked at him. “Scramble the fleet. Get the ships in drydock as spaceworthy as you can but get them up as soon as they reach bare minimum. We’ll need every vessel we can get, whether it’s ready or not. Get them ready to go.”

  He nodded and spoke quickly and quietly into the comms and his fingers moved as he adjusted the frequencies for each call.

  “And they’ll need crews. Get the best you can for each vessel, and don’t turn away any volunteers. If they have the skills and they’re willing to try to save their world, use them.”

  She paused and stared darkly into a future she needed to avert. “If the Regime takes Dreth, we will lose another homeworld.” Her eyes burnt with dry fire as she added, “We can’t let that happen.”

  Her expression stilled as she went over her instructions and mentally checked off the items that needed to be achieved before the Regime arrived.

  At the end, she found one last item she needed to cover before she returned to her ship and prepared for battle.

  “Gralog. Send an update torp. Tell them to hurry.”

  John frowned as the cars wound onto the narrow dirt track beside a field.

  “How long did you say this would take?” he asked from the second vehicle.
>
  “Six hours,” Ted informed them. “Maybe seven. Why?”

  “I… It’s nothing,” the boy assured him. “It seemed long, is all.”

  “Don’t worry,” the AI assured him. “There’ll be rest stops along the way. I still have to have them washed, remember?”

  “I remember,” John told him. “And don’t forget food. We’ll need food too.”

  “You just had breakfast,” Remy protested from the first car.

  John held his tablet up and tapped the clock in the top right-hand corner. “Four hours ago, Rem. Four hours.”

  Ivy leaned forward and peered into the empty front seat. “It’s past his feeding time,” she whispered. “He always gets a little hangry if he’s not fed on a regular basis.”

  John flicked a spark of magical energy down the back of her neck and she shrieked in mock outrage.

  “John I’m-a-Freaking-Talent Dunn!”

  He gave her an innocent look. “Yes, Ivy?”

  “Don’t you ‘Yes, Ivy’ me,” she snapped and shot the front of the car a pleading look. “Just feed him,” she told it. “Please?”

  Ted chuckled and the car turned onto a slightly wider country road.

  “I have organized a rest break in half an hour. There will be time for you to eat, but I advise only sending one into the café while the rest of you visit the restroom or remain in the car. It would be best if they did not know exactly how many of you there are.”

  “I can keep the three of us from being seen,” John told him.

  “And I can get the food,” Remy advised. “It’s not unusual for the driver to pay for the fuel and find snacks while his passengers visit the restroom, is it?”

  “Sometimes, the passengers go in for food, too,” Amaratne pointed out.

  “But only if he has them,” John pointed out. “If you open the rear door and simply stare through it as though checking for something, we can get out without being seen.”

  “Don’t forget to come forward to get me,” Amaratne told him. “I’ll tag you on the way past so you know to close the door.”

  “And getting in again?” Remy asked.

  “Once you’ve filled the cars, park near the restrooms,” Ted told him. “I’ll follow with this one, and the camera will show you pulling up and getting out, then returning, and nothing but the two cars staying stationary in between.”

  “We could simply wait for you to tell us when it’s clear,” John added. “No cloaking required.”

  “No,” Ted replied. “Your subterfuge will be necessary, or people will either see you or will notice the doors opening and closing on their own. You want to draw no attention.”

  “So getting back in will require me to open the door again,” Remy concluded. “I will make sure I have a good supply of snacks to unload.”

  “Promise?” Ivy asked, but he noticed he had the undivided attention of all three humans.

  “Only if you’re very, very good,” he told them.

  Ivy leaned back in her seat and pretended to pout.

  John asked, “Are we there yet?”

  Amaratne snickered.

  Ted sighed. “You had to provoke them.”

  They were dozing when Remy pulled up at the gas pumps but they woke quickly enough. Remy looked in the rear of the car until Amaratne tapped him, then he shook his head as though he’d forgotten something and went about the business of refueling.

  Once he’d parked the car beside the restrooms, the AI took his body inside, browsed the shelves, and tried to calculate exactly how much his companions would need to eat on the trip. As far as he knew, Ted hadn’t planned any other stops.

  The cashier’s eyes widened as he set his selection on the counter.

  “Is all that for you?” she asked, and he smiled at her.

  “This is the last stop for a very long while,” he told her, “and I haven’t had breakfast.”

  He gestured to the two cars. “That and the boss and his people want something.”

  “Did you leave in a hurry?” she asked, and he caught a hint of suspicion in her eyes.

  Remy laughed. “No, although I probably should have. The missus wasn’t impressed with a four-thirty phone call but the boss was insistent.”

  “Talk about your rock and a hard place,” she said, and he grimaced as he’d seen John do when thinking of something unpleasant.

  He thought about it, then borrowed a line from Amaratne—one he’d used after John had knocked Ivy on her tail one too many times. “This one’s gonna take more than flowers and a kiss.”

  The cashier giggled and blushed. “Try chocolate,” she advised. “There’s a nice little place off the A-28 if you want something better than what we have here.”

  Remy tipped his hat. “Thank you, ma’am. I think I can convince the boss to let me stop.”

  “I’d say he owes you one,” she told him sincerely and patted his hand before she processed his credit chip and handed him his purchases. “Have a good trip, monsieur.”

  Her voice stopped him as he reached the door. “I love your hat!”

  He smiled and touched the brim to her as he left.

  “So do I,” he murmured as he made his way to the car.

  The gravel crunched under his feet and he jangled the keys as he approached it.

  “Are you here yet?” he asked and heard John reply from near the restroom wall.

  “We’re here. We’re waiting for Ivy.”

  Amaratne’s snort confirmed the older man’s presence. “You know women and restrooms.”

  “I heard that,” came the hissed reply as water ran inside, and John snickered.

  “You’re in trouble now.”

  “It’s only the depth that varies,” the admiral replied morosely.

  “Yeah?” Ivy’s reply sounded clearer and the water had stopped running. “Well, let’s hope it doesn’t get any deeper. Whoa!”

  “What?”

  “Remy bought the shop!”

  The AI opened the back door of the second vehicle. “Get in,” he ordered, “or all these will go in with me.”

  “And me,” Amaratne added and sounded gleeful at the prospect.

  “Is…is that an apple?” John asked as someone lifted the fruit from the bag.

  Remy wished he had a hand free to slap the marauding fingers as other items disappeared from what he was carrying.

  “I hope your magic trick is sufficient to hide floating food,” he muttered as the car dipped beneath their weight.

  “We’re in,” John told him, took the bags from his hands, and added, “It is and it hides floating shopping bags too.”

  Remy stooped forward as though handing one of the bags to the occupants. “Don’t make yourselves sick.”

  “Nope, we’ll merely make ourselves fat,” Amaratne sniped in return as Remy opened the door for him to get into the car they shared. “Seriously, three apples will not balance the amount of junk food in here.”

  “The girl believes I missed breakfast,” Remy told them as he settled into the driver’s seat and opened the comms between the two vehicles. “Why wouldn’t I eat a ton of junk food to compensate?”

  “That’s a good point,” John conceded, as the AIs reversed the cars out of their parking places and turned them onto the road.

  “I have one more stop to make in order to maintain the illusion,” Remy told them, but he wouldn’t elaborate until after he’d pulled into a side road half an hour later.

  “Seriously?” Amaratne asked when he returned and handed a box of very expensive hand-made chocolates through the window of John and Ivy’s vehicle.

  “Seriously,” Remy told him and showed him the second box. “I didn’t forget you.”

  Ivy took the first box from his fingers.

  “Well,” she declared and peered happily at it, “if I die before we get there, it will be from chocolate!”

  “We’re here,” Ted announced, and Ivy sat bolt upright.

  The car hadn’t quite stopped but it was
slowing. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and yawned to ease the pressure in her ears, he pulled a little off the road.

  “Hurry,” he told them. “I can’t stop long.”

  “Remy?” Ivy asked.

  “Don’t worry. I have more than enough computing space to drive both cars.”

  “I’m here,” Remy assured them from the shadows as the lead car eased onto the road.

  The second car followed and John hefted his pack. He nodded at the admiral’s suit.

  “You look a little out of place.”

  “I won’t when we’re inside the base, trust me,” Amaratne told him.

  He led them out from under the bridge and into the underpass to emerge cautiously on the other side, where a stile separated a public reserve from the road.

  “This guy you’re supposed to look like,” Ivy began. “How much trouble will he be in?”

  The admiral smiled. “No more than he deserves.”

  “That good, huh?”

  “No, that bad. Whatever the Regime does to him after we’re through? It won’t be enough.”

  “I’m not sure I want to know.”

  “Good, because I don’t need you that annoyed. You need to focus. Tell me what we’re doing from here.”

  “First, we get into the base,” Ivy began. “John does his magic disappearing trick, Ted makes sure we don’t get picked up by the sensors or cameras while we cut our way in, you and Remy look for the central nodes, and John and I go upstairs to insert the code to talk the satellites into taking a dive.”

  “Nice overview,” Amaratne told her and puffed slightly from the weight of his suit. “Now, tell me the route you and John need to take.”

  They walked as they talked and moved swiftly through the trees while Ted tapped into what base systems he could.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The Tempestarii came out of nowhere with the Knight tucked safely inside.

  “We’re here,” she told Emil, “and the torpedo is online.”

  He looked at the comms team, but the team lead preempted his question. “We’re going as fast as we can, sir, but she’s changed the encryption again.”