A King's Ship (Empire Rising Book 2) (33 page)

“They tried,” Jil’lal responded with a feral grin, “but they only sent one man. They should have sent three.”

“I see,” Anderson said carefully, “I hope you didn’t hurt him too badly.”

“He’s fine,” Jil’lal said with a chuckle, “he is the one confined to quarters now. How is Scott?” she asked more seriously. “Are you still able to look after her like this?”

“Yes, the Lieutenant is doing ok, at least as well as she can. Ferguson was here himself to see her. He wanted to assure me that he didn’t want Scott’s health affected by his removal of the Captain. I am locked into my sickbay. At least until we leave the Kulthar system. But Ferguson assured me that if I needed anything to help Scott all I had to do was contact him.”

“That is good,” Jil’lal said. “At least Ferguson hasn’t lost all of his honor.”

“What are you going to do now?” Doctor Anderson asked.

“Release the Captain of course,” Jil’lal said. “I don’t know what he plans to do about the Overlord’s fleet but he has seen us through so far. I think he has earned the right to finish this. Besides, as much as I want to go home the Kulreans don’t deserve what is about to happen to them. Even if they have been trying to meddle with my people for the last five hundred years.”

“And how will you do that?” Anderson asked.

“One of the marines is locked up in the general crew quarters. I think I can free her and together we should have a chance to fight our way to the Captain,” Jil’lal explained.

“In that case I think I have something you could use,” Anderson said as she reached into a storage box above her desk. “This is a hypospray injector, it will deliver a very strong sedative that should render a normal sized human unconscious for up to ten hours. All you have to do is press this end to the person’s skin and hit this button. They should be out within a couple of seconds. This injector is good for five shots.”

“Thank you doctor,” Jil’lal said. “If I manage to get the Captain out I will let him know that you helped me.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Anderson said. “The Captain knows whose side I’m on. Just don’t get yourself hurt.”

“I’ll try,” Jil’lal said as she turned to leave. “I’ll lock the door behind me so that no one knows I was here.”

“Thank you,” the doctor said.

Once she was outside sickbay she brought up the schematics to
Endeavour
and plotted out her next route. Being in the resistance had taught her a lot of valuable lessons and the first one had been that no one succeeds alone. She needed some back up and she believed she had found the perfect person to help her. Happy that she knew where she was going she trotted off at a brisk pace. She took a longer route where no crew members should be and she was confident that everyone’s attention was elsewhere.

Fifteen minutes later she was outside one of the smaller crew sections. Normally this section would house about thirty of
Endeavour’s
crew, now it was a prison as Ferguson had managed to trap all thirty in their rooms.

As she peeked around the corner of the corridor that led to the main living area Jil’lal was relieved to see that there was only one guard.
Here we go
, she thought.

She flung a small metallic bolt she had removed from a power coupling down the corridor. It zipped past the guard and struck the floor ten meters past him. He looked towards the noise and raised his plasma rifle.

Before the bolt had hit its target Jil’lal was moving and as soon as the guard began to turn she accelerated into a lightening quick sprint. No human could match her speed and she was on the guard before he had time to turn around and see what the approaching noise was. With two of her hands she fended off the guard’s plasma rifle and with the other two she held the injector up to his neck. With a click of the button the injector released its concoction into his system and within a couple of seconds he was slumping against her as she gently lowered him to the ground.
Powerful stuff
, Jil’lal thought as she brought up the schematic again and found Ensign Speer’s room.

With her datapad she easily overrode the command that was keeping his door locked and stepped inside. The room was dark and as she crossed the threshold four arms reached out and tried to grab her.

She jumped deeper into the room, in the direction her attackers would least expect. She turned her jump into a roll midair to gain some additional space for her to maneuver. As she came up she raised all four fists, ready to fight off whoever was trying to attack her.

Instead of a follow up attack “Jil’lal?” a voice asked quietly.

“It is me,” Jil’lal said. “I have come to release you.”

“Oh, thank goodness. We nearly got into a fist fight with you,” Private O’Brian said.

“I know,” Jil’lal said. “It is good for you that I held back.”

“Ha,” O’Brian laughed, “I’m sure it is. This is Ensign Speers by the way. We were locked in here together when Ferguson began his mutiny.”

O’Brian’s cheeks became a little redder when she introduced Speers but Jil’lal didn’t understand the cause. Dismissing it as irrelevant she moved on. “Well it is good that you were. The marine barracks is being guarded by ten of Ferguson’s men so there is no way I could have freed them. Getting you out was much easier and so here I am. I need your help to free the Captain.”

“Well we are willing and able,” O’Brian said. “Do you have a plan?”

“Yes, I think I can free the Captain myself. But I will need a distraction to draw some of the guards off. The brig is not far from the main engineering room. I think if you can cause a scene there it will draw off enough of the guards from the brig that I will be able to handle the rest of them,” Jil’lal said as she handed the unconscious guard’s plasma rifle to O’Brian.

“I think I can handle that,” O’Brian said, she hefted the plasma riffle with a big smile. “I can send Speers with you if you want.”

“No,” Jil’lal said. “I can move faster alone. Besides, your distraction will be more believable if there are two of you.”

“Why don’t we just release the rest of the crew members in this section? That would give us more than enough people to take engineering and release the Captain,” Speers said.

“I thought of that,” Jil’lal said, “but I wasn’t sure who I could trust.”

“She’s right,” O’Brian said. “Ferguson would have locked up anyone who he wasn’t completely sure he could rely on. Yet that doesn’t mean there aren’t more crew members sympathetic to his view. If we let them all out one of them might turn us in before we can accomplish anything. If you are confident you can get the Captain out, then I think we need to do this alone.”

“Ok,” Speers said. “I understand. I guess it’s just the three of us then.”

“Just the three of us,” Jil’lal agreed.

She then brought out her datapad and checked the time. “Do you think you can get to engineering in thirty minutes? We are locked out of all the turbo lifts so you will have to get there on foot.”

“That should be doable,” O’Brian replied.

“Then thirty minutes it is,” Jil’lal said. “Try to make as much noise as you can. If Ferguson thinks some crew members loyal to the Captain are trying to take over engineering he will likely send all the nearby troops to help out. If you can thin out the guards stationed at the brig, then I can make my move.”

“Good luck,” O’Brian said. “Say hi to the Captain for me and Speers.”

“I will,” Jil’lal said. “Just don’t get yourselves killed. You only need to cause a distraction, not actually take over engineering.”

“We know,” O’Brian said, “now get going or our distraction will be for nothing.”

Jil’lal nodded at O’Brian and Speers and headed off to her target. Ten minutes later she was heading down a long narrow corridor that would take her to the brig. Suddenly she stopped. In the distance she heard the familiar sound of human laughter. It was getting closer. As she listened for a few more seconds she was sure she could make out the soft thud of at least two sets of footsteps.

She glanced back the way she had come. It was over forty meters to the other end of the corridor. Whoever was coming would round the corner ahead of her and see her before she managed to get away. Without thinking she whipped out her datapad and connected it to the nearest door to override the lock on it. The door was registered as a secondary storage room and it had some additional security she had to overcome. It only took her a couple of seconds and as soon as the doors opened she burst in and turned to shut them behind her.

A noise from her rear caused her to spin around in alarm, “Hold it right there,” a voice said as a stunner was aimed at her.

*

Mallory sat in the bridge watching the Vestarian fleet, the Captain’s words ringing in his ears,
Coward
. He had been called a coward before, on more than one occasion. Yet now that one word cut him to his core. He knew it was because he had come to love his Captain. Somerville epitomized everything that Mallory had dreamed of being as a little boy, he led by example, was a master tactician and seemed fearless in the face of danger, and to top it off he didn’t even realize he had those qualities. And now Mallory found himself betraying his childhood dreams

Am I doing the right thing?
He asked himself for the hundredth time since he had sat down. Ferguson had made a strong case. At least that was what he had told himself when the First Lieutenant threatened his career.

There was no doubt that James would try and take on the Vestarian fleet, and he might get the ship damaged or destroyed in the process. Ferguson had said that was the height of irresponsibility, especially when the Captain had no orders about what to do about alien threats. They were supposed to be out hunting down Chang. Not tearing across the galaxy attacking alien planets and fleets.

Yet is it irresponsibility or bravery? Is it needlessly endangering RSN lives or is it leading RSN crew members to fight for the very ideals the RSN stands for? And is Ferguson doing what he thinks the Admiralty wants him to do or is he only trying to save his own skin?
Mallory couldn’t decide.

To distract himself Mallory looked back at the Vestarian fleet. They were forming up into an attack formation and heading towards one of the less populated Kulrean worlds. The image brought back another memory. James sitting in the command chair Ferguson now occupied. They were over Haven and had just fired off their last broadside at the alien fleet. To the crew it had looked like the battle was over. They had failed to stop the Vestarians.
Endeavour
was about to shoot past the planet and leave the Haven fleet to make one final stand before they were destroyed.

Then James had broken through the gloom that had set in on the bridge. He had ordered
Endeavour
to fly into Haven’s atmosphere to slingshot her around the planet. Mallory had been on the auxiliary bridge at the time but he had been watching the Captain on a holo display.

The look in his eyes had been infectious,
Mallory remembered.
He knew he could still win and he made everyone else believe it.
Mallory knew that those moments had been what had really changed him. The battle as a whole had set him on a new path but it had been James and his confidence that had awoken something inside him.
I want to be like that,
Mallory acknowledged to himself.
Then what am I doing?

“Everything ok Lieutenant?” Ferguson said, “you seem to be staring off into space.”

Mallory almost jumped out of his command chair. “Eh, yes Sir,” he answered as he made up his mind. “I just remembered I need to go and check on a few of our men. If you don’t need me here I better do that now.”

“Ok,” Ferguson said, “but don’t be too long, we need to keep a close eye on the Vestarians.”

“Yes Sir,” Mallory replied.

Once he got out of the bridge he made his way down to one of the storage rooms near the brig. On his way he tried to come up with a story that would explain his actions. In the end he settled on staying as close to the truth as he could. He had been forced to join Ferguson’s mutiny; now that Ferguson was distracted he was doing what he had planned to do all along, double-crossing Ferguson.