“They want a lot,” Alisa mumbled, too numb to fully process the threat.
“They’re arriving with a fleet of ships. I guess they feel they can be pushy.”
“What do you mean they want Admiral Tiang? Wasn’t he placed here at their behest? Isn’t he their spy?”
“That’s not the impression that I got. Maybe you should talk to them. Or better yet, why don’t you tell Stanislav that it would be nice if he could cause them to turn on each other again?”
Alisa looked through the glass wall to where Stanislav had moved to the foot of the operating table. “Stanislav is busy.”
“Convenient.”
“No,” she whispered. “It’s not.” She took a deep breath. “How long do you think we have before the Alliance arrives, Abelardus? Beck’s estimate was imprecise.”
“Fifteen minutes. They’re coming in at top speed.”
Alisa wanted to go to Leonidas’s side, not leave it, and her initial mulish thought was to simply ignore the Alliance—let them come and find whatever they were looking for themselves. But that would only end up with her ship stuck in someone’s grab beam and her whole team in a brig. She couldn’t be captured and taken away from this search when she was so close to Jelena. The children had to be in this asteroid belt; they had to be. And Leonidas… she had to give the doctors as much time as she could to pull him through and finish the surgery.
Go, Stanislav said softly into her mind as he looked at her through the glass. Alejandro’s and Tiang’s intentions toward Leonidas are good, and I’ll watch over him.
Alisa didn’t know if his only intentions were good, but she had no choice but to nod and walk out into the corridor. She didn’t want her ranting, pleading, or berating to disturb Leonidas, and she had a feeling she would be doing all three.
“Patch me through to whoever contacted you, Abelardus,” she said.
“Uh, I don’t know how to do that. Your comm board is old. I’m surprised there isn’t a tin can on a string dangling out of it.”
“I’m not in the mood for jokes now.”
“No? I thought you might appreciate a distraction.” For once, his voice wasn’t smug or grating, and it sounded like he genuinely wanted to help, but there was nothing he could do.
Not wanting to waste time educating him on the Nomad’s comm panel, Alisa reluctantly left Leonidas behind and ran to Command and Control. Assuming the comm station there hadn’t been damaged by the various fights, she could use the station’s system to contact the ships.
Mica and the others were gone, and the lights were dimmed, but Bravo Six stood by the doorway, in the same spot where he had been earlier.
“Beck didn’t take you?” Alisa asked, jogging for the comm station. Alarms flashed on holodisplays that hadn’t been up before, and a large view screen had come on, showing a fleet of ships approaching. Definitely Alliance ships.
“No, Lady Captain,” Bravo Six said. “He said I wasn’t invited.” The android, with his destroyed eye, managed to have a forlorn look. Even his tone sounded forlorn, or maybe that was her projecting her human emotions onto him. Those emotions were on edge, and she wasn’t sure whether she wanted to cry or punch something. Maybe both.
“You can come with me when I go,” Alisa said, imagining the android leaping into defense mode again when the Alliance soldiers boarded. If he did that against superior numbers, he would get himself blown up.
“Thank you, Lady Captain.”
She fumbled her way across the unfamiliar comm panel while reading the statistics on the ships. Eight of them, as promised. Was Admiral Hawk out there among the fleet? Or Commander Tomich? She didn’t know if either would be sympathetic to her plight right now, but she would prefer to deal with someone she had encountered before rather than a stranger. Unfortunately, as she scanned the ship names, only a couple sounded familiar, and only because she remembered them from memos and troop movements during the war. It was unlikely that any of them had the same captains.
She hailed the Star Hawk since she and her Striker had gotten a ride on it once. She didn’t remember the captain’s name.
It didn’t matter because nobody answered. Frowning, she checked to make sure the system was truly transmitting. It did not appear to be damaged, but two more attempts to communicate only resulted in silence. Did the Alliance comm officers believe there were Starseers in the station and that they were comming them? If the Alliance had figured out who was responsible for that earthquake on Arkadius, they would not be pleased with the Starseers right now. They hadn’t been pleased with them before, blaming even natural disasters on their presence on the planet.
“Ten minutes until they arrive, Alisa,” Abelardus said over her comm.
“Is anyone on the Nomad now who can work the comm? Mica?”
“Mica is calibrating the e-cannons, Captain,” came Yumi’s voice in the background, “but I believe I can patch you through to the Alliance ship via the Nomad’s comm, if you wish to speak to the—”
“Yes, yes, I do,” Alisa said. “Hurry.”
Since the Command and Control room was of no help, Alisa headed for the corridor. She’d already left Leonidas for too long. What if he was—
She shoved aside the thought. Not now. She would worry later. She had to be the captain now.
“Come on, Six,” she said as she ran past the android.
Bravo Six trotted along behind her as she raced back to sickbay.
“You’re on, Captain,” Yumi said.
A second later, another voice spoke over Alisa’s comm unit.
“Captain Marchenko? This is Admiral Agosti leading the Alliance fleet Walking Thunder. I command the warship Arkadian Warrior. I demand that you cease scavenging the Starseer station, undock and move away from it, and prepare to be boarded. You will return Admiral Tiang to us in one piece without resistance.”
Well, since he asked nicely…
Forcing down the sarcasm, she managed a fairly polite response. “Why wouldn’t he be in one piece, Admiral? He’s busy doing a surgery right now, but if you want him back when he’s done, you’re welcome to him. I thought he was your spy.”
Several wordless seconds followed, only the hubbub of a bridge crew preparing for action audible in the background.
“You kidnapped Admiral Tiang,” Agosti said, sounding suspicious. And confused.
Oh, the power she had to mystify people.
“No, we didn’t,” Alisa said. Not recently. “We’re also not scavenging anything. I’m looking for my daughter. The Starseers have her. You can check with Commander Tomich—he should be up to date on my adventures.”
“Commander Tomich is being detained for questioning in regard to having dalliances with a known criminal,” Agosti said coolly.
“A known…”
“You.”
“What about Admiral Hawk?” Alisa asked. “I thought he was the one who put Tiang on our ship to spy on us.”
“Admiral Tiang was kidnapped. By you. Admiral Hawk was mystified as to why you didn’t let Tiang go when you released him.”
“Er, what?” Alisa paced, looking through the operating room windows to check on Leonidas as she tried to piece together what this Agosti was saying. Had some wires gotten crossed somewhere? Or did Hawk truly believe that? She thought back to when she had released him and his men in the junkyard, along with the Starseers who hadn’t elected to stay aboard. She’d been somewhat distracted by the weapons and combat armor being delivered at the same time, but she didn’t remember Hawk waving his hands and chasing after the ship after the Nomad took off with Tiang still aboard. She’d been certain Hawk had been the one to request that Tiang stay.
“I will speak to Admiral Tiang now,” Agosti said. “Put him on the comm.”
“He’s busy.”
“If you’ve done anything to him—”
“Of course we haven’t,” Alisa said, no longer bothering to hide her exasperation or frustration. “I told you. He’s in the middle of a surger
y. He’s trying to save someone’s life.” She hoped the doctors had dealt with the failsafes and that Leonidas was in the clear now that his heart had started again, but she could not tell from her position. He lay still on the operating table, his face pale, that device still attached to his chest.
“Whose life?” Agosti asked. Something about the way he said the words implied suspicion. Did he know why she had abducted Tiang in the first place?
“Someone who Hawk would have an easier time recruiting if you flew off and left us alone.”
It probably wasn’t the most tactful way to speak to an admiral, but she doubted kissing his asteroids would make a difference. It sounded like the right hand wasn’t communicating with the left hand again, and that Agosti and whoever had sent him out here had already made up their minds. A known criminal. Was that what she was now? How in the hells would she fix her reputation with the Alliance? Cooperate with the admiral’s orders? But if she did, they would take Tiang away in the middle of the surgery.
The ships are coming closer, Stanislav spoke into her mind. I can’t do anything to distract them while I’m focused on helping Leonidas. Perhaps when he’s stable, I could—
Just focus on him, Alisa thought. Please.
“Leave the station and prepare to be boarded and arrested, Marchenko,” the admiral said. “Agosti out.”
The comm fell silent.
Arrested? Technically, that was better than being shot, but she wasn’t going to let herself get captured, not when she was so close to finding Jelena. She had to get her people back onto the Nomad and figure out a way to slip away into the asteroid belt. They would search the promising ones, and they would find the children. Then she could worry about the repercussions of now being a “known criminal.”
Alisa commed the ship. “Yumi? Are you still there?”
“Yes, Captain. I have the asteroid map plugged into your NavCom computer, and we’re ready to begin the search. If the Alliance ships let us go.”
“We’re just waiting on the surgery to finish up, and we’ll join you and figure something out. Are Beck and Mica there? Everyone except for me, Leonidas, Alejandro, Tiang, and Stanislav?”
“Everyone, yes, but Abelardus is pacing and talking about going over there to throw you over his shoulder and carry you back here so we can get out of here before the Alliance ships start firing.”
“What’s with everyone wanting to throw me over a shoulder?” Alisa grumbled. “Tell him to go wax his staff. We’ll be there as soon as possible. All of us.”
She stepped into the doorway again. As much as she hated interrupting the doctors, both of who appeared to be concentrating deeply, she had little choice.
“Alejandro?” she asked, figuring he would be slightly less involved—Tiang still seemed to be navigating nanobots. “How much longer? Is there any chance we can move this to the Nomad?”
He shot her an incredulous look. “Now?”
Something seemed to slam into the space station. The jolt threw Alisa against the doorjamb. Alejandro tumbled to the floor, while Stanislav and Tiang caught themselves on the operating table. One of the monitors beeped an erratic protest.
“Not helping,” Tiang said, rushing to fix something on his remote control.
“Captain,” Yumi blurted over the comm. “The lead warship is firing on the station.”
“Yeah, we noticed. I thought they wanted to search it.”
“Apparently, they don’t mind searching its half-destroyed remains,” came Abelardus’s voice from somewhere behind Yumi.
“Lady Captain,” Bravo Six said. “Do you wish me to do anything?”
“Get ready to carry Leonidas to our ship as soon as the doctors say it can be done,” she told him, eyeing the tubes hooked up to Leonidas. “And don’t forget his armor case. It’s self-ambulatory and just needs to be steered along.”
“Get over here, Alisa,” Mica said, sounding like she was leaning over Yumi’s shoulder in NavCom. “One of the Alliance cruisers is coming in to dock right next to us. We’ll be boarded in a second.”
“Put those Starseers to work delaying the ships, will you? Stanislav can’t be the only one who can confuse their pilots.”
“We’re working on it,” Abelardus said.
“Figure a way to wrap that up, Doctor,” Alisa told Alejandro as she leaned in and grabbed the big blazer rifle leaning on Leonidas’s case. “I’ll try to delay them.”
“By yourself? With one gun?” Alejandro asked, his feet back under him.
“Apparently,” she muttered.
Stanislav frowned at Leonidas, frowned at her, then strode after her as she headed for the exit. “I will assist you,” he said.
“Is his heart stable?” Alisa asked.
“The drug has kicked in and is keeping the heart rate lowered.”
She looked to Alejandro, who flicked a dismissive hand.
“Take him.” His lip curled slightly. Was he irritated that he’d needed Starseer help? “His heart has stabilized,” he added.
“All right,” Alisa said reluctantly. She would have preferred to have Stanislav at Leonidas’s side in case something else went wrong with the surgery, which seemed distinctly possible if the Alliance fired more weapons at the station.
Alisa thought about heading back to Command and Control, but what could she do when the station didn’t have weapons? There might be some more booby traps and defenses she could key into, such as flooding the corridors with gas, but that would affect her own people. Besides, the soldiers would likely come over in armor. Better to keep them from boarding the station altogether.
She ran through the corridor toward the airlocks. Weapons fire slammed into the station again, but she kept her balance and kept running. Portholes in the docking area let her see the Nomad outside, as well as the cruiser Mica had promised, the other ship cheekily pulling up right beside them. An airlock tube was in the process of being extended.
The Nomad’s airlock hatch was soundly shut and likely locked. That was fine. Alisa had no intention of leaving yet.
“Do you want me to focus on that ship or the ones firing?” Stanislav asked from behind her, slipping a chain of beads out of some inner pocket in his robe.
“The ones turning this station into a rocking chair in an earthquake. I’ll handle this.”
Alisa pressed the butt of the rifle into her shoulder and fired at the airlock controls next to the hatch where the Alliance intended to dock. The panel melted under the sustained blast, sparks flying and smoke flowing upward.
“The Starseers are earning their pay, Captain,” Mica said. “One of the Alliance ships just bumped into another. Too bad they both had shields up. But now, one of the rear ones is firing at the others.”
Stanislav smiled thinly, and Alisa suspected he might have had something to do with that report.
“I do not wish to sabotage expensive equipment,” Stanislav said, “but in this case, it is preferable to harming people. I believe I can cause chaos without putting lives in jeopardy.”
“I have little problem sabotaging anything,” Alisa said, moving to the next airlock over. She melted the control panel on that one, too, as well as the already damaged one on the end.
Outside, the cruiser’s tube connected to the seal around the hatch. The soldiers might have trouble getting through the hatch with the controls broken, but it would only take them a few minutes with metal-cutting equipment to force their way in.
Alisa looked around the docking area, seeking some way to further block the entrance. Unfortunately, there was nothing, not so much as a potted plant she could have pushed into the way as an obstacle. Shaking her head, she retreated to the corridor, grabbing Stanislav and pulling him with her. His eyes were glassy, and he barely noticed. Whatever he was doing, weapons fire had stopped hitting the station.
From the mouth of the corridor, Alisa could shoot around the corner and toward the airlock hatch. She had to keep the soldiers from storming aboard and reaching sickbay, b
ut she doubted she could last long against them, or deter them greatly. Why had she taken off her combat armor? She would be fighting armored men, who could withstand a barrage of fire, whereas all it would take was one bolt to slip through and hit her in the chest to kill her.
A bang sounded against the hatch. Even though Alisa couldn’t see the soldiers through the tube, she had no trouble imagining an entire squadron of them there, ready to storm inside.
“Stanislav,” she said, tugging on his robe. “Can you do something to their airlock tube? Detach it maybe? Or utterly destroy it? That would be perfectly acceptable.”
“Ah?” He blinked a couple of times before focusing on her. “Oh yes, I see.” He looked thoughtfully toward the cruiser, then waved his hand.
Thanks to the portholes, Alisa could see the airlock tube detaching, the end floating upward like a worm lifting its head. Several soldiers in combat armor floated free, too, arms waving in surprise as they found themselves in the vacuum of space. Alisa did not feel bad about sending them flying. Their suits would keep them safe until their people could retrieve them.
“Good,” Alisa said, gripping Stanislav’s arm.
Her pleasure faded quickly. A few of the armored soldiers wore jet packs, and they activated them, steering through space and back toward the hatch. Before long, clangs reverberated through the docking area again. At least six men had found their way back to the side of the station and were trying to get in.
Alisa braced herself for the inevitable charge. While she could appreciate Stanislav’s Starseer powers, she would rather be standing here with Leonidas.
“Sorry.” Stanislav looked sadly at her. “You did say we should have adventures together.”
“I was thinking more like a father-daughter racketstar picnic rather than defending a space station from a fleet of soldiers.”
“Ah, you didn’t specify.”
“A mistake, clearly.”
More clangs sounded, and the metal of the inner hatch started to glow orangish-red.
Alisa touched her comm. “Alejandro? Any progress on the surgery?”
She shifted from foot to foot, keeping the rifle pointed at the hatch.
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