Assault on Ambrose Station: A Seth Donovan Novel (13 page)

18.

I’d like to say that my time spent in that cell was fruitful, that I’d come up with all manner of strategies and contingencies, but the truth is that I simply got bored. Lieutenant Killian periodically hauled my arse out of my cell several times over the next few days for a little chat. I could tell he was getting more and more pissed each time we had our one-on-ones. Someone was obviously looking out for me, as the poor bastard hadn’t even figured out who the hell I was.

It took him until noon on the second day to work out that I wasn’t Able Serviceman Shore, whoever he was. Killian said that he did some digging around, and when Shore’s direct superior reported that Shore had indeed shown up for duty despite being locked in the brig we had our first big blow up. Killian almost dragged me to an interview room and grilled me for nearly two hours. I could see the frustration eating at him and he had looked like he wanted to smack me around a few times. He never did though, a shame. I was trying my hardest to hate the man but I could really feel for him. He was in a tough place. His sting operation had been a big affair, as far as military police operations were concerned. He had used a lot of assets and come up with next to nothing – just little old me.

He knew that if he kicked this up the chain of command it would be seen as a failure. Tefferton, the sorry sod who had gotten himself shot resisting arrest, died later that day. I put that death on Chief Markum’s head, and Wilson Graham’s. This put pressure on Killian to catch a break and I was being less than helpful.

The third day I was locked up, Killian tried another tactic. He tried being nice to me. Gave me a hot meal and coffee. Sat opposite me in the cell while I jammed the food into my head. He tried reasoning with me, trying to appeal to my sense of military pride. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I was a civilian now. I let him wallow in his illusion, since to admit I was a civvy would put the Dreaming directly in his line of fire. He tried to find a common ground with me, enquiring about my nano-proliferation implant and where I’d gotten it. I was curious about his, too, but knew that if I gave him a little, he would take a bigger bite. I wisely kept my mouth shut. Later that day, he came in ranting and raving, telling me I’d get shipped off station to a prison ship.

I knew it was a scare tactic, as there was never a prison ship in this system. He’d gotten nothing from me and I knew that to get me transported he would need
something
to charge me with beyond resisting arrest.

A few hours later, I was resting in my cell staring at the deck head, when I heard a very familiar sound. A loud pop smashed my eardrums and I rolled off my bunk onto the deck, ready to spring up. There was a loud ringing in my ears, but the sound was unmistakable – I’d just heard a party popper go off nearby.

The standard stun grenade uses electrical pulses to disorient nearby combatants, but my party poppers are old school shock-and-awe devices that let off great bangs of sounds and bright lights. I love them, I really do. They’re a great way to even the odds in a gunfight, and you don’t need to be close to use them effectively.

I got up and edged closer to the cell door, doing my best to peer through the small slot that I normally receive food through. I could hear several men, my ever present guards, moaning in pain and a shape covered the cell door. I heard someone pressing buttons on the other side, then the door opened.

“I hope I didn’t wake you, loverboy.” said Artemis, standing before me with a cocksure grin on her face.

“I was up, but you did startle me.”

“Did a little bit of wee come out?”

“What took you so long? I’ve been here for days?”

“Come on, we’ll talk while we run.”

She led me back out into the guardroom, where three men were rolling around on the deck. One saw me and tried to draw his sidearm but Art spotted him and delivered a swift kick to the chin. The man passed out cold.

“This way!” she led me through a hatch and down a passageway, I passed the interview room and wondered where Killian was. I also wondered where all the rest of the guards were. Normally this place was crawling with them.

“Where is everyone?” I asked as we dashed into a processing compartment, also empty.

“Distracted. Your buddies in Naga Team came through for us.”

“No shit? Hey, wait up.” I stopped in front of a set of lockers. I saw them put my things in here when they processed me. I fumbled with the locks for a few moments before Art got impatient and shoved me aside.

“Out of the way.” She drew her energy pistol and fired a shot into the lock. A shower of sparks and metal flew, and the door opened. I rummaged around and found a bundle of my things – my ablative coat and my stun gun. When Art saw what I was grabbing she rolled her eyes. “Couldn’t just get another jacket?”

“From where? My marine armour is toast, this is all I have besides the armoury’s infantry vests.”

“Men. Always fussing about what to wear.”

“Well, we can go now. And you still haven’t told me what kept you.”

“Max.”

“Oh.”

“How did you get in here, anyway?”

“Tac.”

“Oh. But…surely he can’t hack this level of security?”

“He can’t. I got myself in the last few layers. We’re good to go, but we have to leave right now.”

“Okay, okay. I get it. Let’s roll.”

We ran down another passageway, past an unconscious guard lying in front of an airlock.

“You didn’t kill anyone, did you?”

“No, Max was very clear about that.”

“Good.”

Through the airlock was a long passage that I knew was a pressurised gangway, into another compartment and we started to shimmy up into an air vent. I noticed the camera in the compartment dutifully recording us and mentioned it to Art.

“Tac’s got it.”

“Oh.”

So
, I mused,
my crew really did pull through for me
.

Somewhere along the vent crawlspace my interface overlay reconnected to the station’s network. A whole slew of messages appeared in the corner of my vision. I brought up a handful of them. Most were from Zoe, which was to be expected.

“How’s the ship?” I asked. We had been crawling for nearly fifteen minutes and my leg was starting to ache.

“Ready to fly. Max wanted it prepped and supplied before we came and got you.”

“Good. So that slime ball Markum came through for us, after all?”

“I guess.”

“You’re being very weird.”

“What do you mean?”

“I would have thought you’d be pulling the piss out of me for sure, rescuing me and all. Instead you’re actually being helpful. You’re answering my questions without your usual teasing. What’s up?”

“Nothing, I’m just focused on getting your cute butt out of here.”

“Bullshit. What’s going on?” I stopped crawling. She kept going for another few metres before stopping with a sigh.

“You can be a real pain in the arse, you know that?” she said.

“So I’ve heard. What’s the deal?”

She spun around and sat with her back to the side of the vent. There was enough room for us to sit almost comfortably. I gave my leg a rub.

“I’ve been doing some snooping around. Peeking at some high level stuff, if you know what I mean.”

“Not really.”

“Plans, Seth. Protectorate plans.”

“For Gossamer?”

“Yeah. Looks like a major withdrawal is happening.”

“What? How can they? But the Ghantri…”

“They’re leaving a token force behind, but most of the ships are being sent back to Eridani. They’ve been trickling the patrol ships through for weeks now.”

I sat there for a moment while that sunk in.

“I would have thought this would make you happy? This will make it easier for us to get to Ambrose Station.”

“True. But I’m not an idiot. I understand what’s at stake here.”

“So why is the brass pulling out?”

“You know what’s brewing in Eridani. A lot of these ships are on loan from Votus-Eridani governments, fulfilling their Protectorate treaty obligations.”

“You think the factions in Eridani are calling all their flock back?”

“Yeah.”

“Shit.”

“Yeah.”

We sat in silence for a few minutes. A war in the Eridani System was bad news. Bad news for everyone. The conceptual heart of the Network, Eridani was the main trade and population centre for over half a dozen star systems. War there would affect hundreds of billions of lives, disrupt trade throughout the Network and cause untold carnage in an otherwise relatively peaceful region of space. Add to this the very real danger of the Ghantri taking advantage of a weakened blockade and…and well, I couldn’t imagine the level of bloodshed that this would take to set right again.

First Mate Donovan, while it is a pleasure to see you again, might I suggest you and Ms. Derris vacate the vent duct, post haste?

Oh. Hi, Tac. We’re on our way.

“Let’s go. I’m sick of this station already.” I said.

“Me too.”

19.

An hour later, after we had met up with Tac and his new body, we strolled into the hangar the Dreaming had been assigned. My heart swelled when I saw her, sitting on her struts surrounded by a dozen military vessels that she shared the hangar with. The crew had been busy, I could see. Most of the damage to her had been repaired and I couldn’t see a single seam where the new plating melded to the old.

Gathered about the ramp leading to the aft cargo hold were Max, Zoe, Crege and several members of Naga Team. I couldn’t help but smile. I felt like the returning hero, rather than someone who had just escaped from a military prison. When Zoe saw me she let out an audible
whoop
and dashed after me. Tac made a startled sound while Artemis backed away with a grin on her face. I practically caught Zoe as she leaped at me, showering my face with kisses.

“We’re making a scene,” I managed between laughs, “Let’s get inside before someone notices.”

“Let them notice.” she said breathlessly, “I don’t care!”

“You should. I’m on the lam, remember?”

She grabbed my hand and practically dragged me back to the ship and the smiling gang. We all shimmied up the ramp and into the hold, away from prying eyes. I managed to extricate myself from Zoe long enough to give Max a hug and Crege a respectful nod. Sgt Kekkin gave me a stiff salute, which I returned, and Cpl Renthal and Harris shook my hand.

“Is that training smoke I smell?” I asked, coughing at the cloying scent.

“Sure is!” declared Renthal with a big grin.

“Do I want to know?”

“You sure don’t! Naga Team secret.”

“We’d have to kill you.” offered Harris.

I turned to Max, “How’s the Dreaming looking? I can see she’s all patched up on the outside.”

“We’re ready to leave, hundred percent resupply.” she said.

“No kidding? Markum came through?”

“We even managed to get our hands on half a dozen written off Interceptor Drones.”

“Written off?”

Crege cleared his throat, “Fat human called them
repurposed
refurbishments.
”

Max laughed, “Crege doesn’t approve. Thinks they’re junk. I’ll have you go over them with Cuts when we’re underway.”

“Sounds good. I’ll take them.” I said. The drones were a great boost to our resources. We’d more than likely need them eventually.

“Speaking of underway.” said Kekkin, “Warrior wishes to understand the urgency of your resupply, Captain Cooper. Warrior knows mission prep when he sees it.”

This earned a pain look from Max. She caught my eye, giving me a questioning glance. I nodded slightly.

“We’re not headed back to Eridani.” she said simply.

“That much is clear.” said Harris.

Artemis wandered past us, heading forward through the next compartment hatch. Her head was down and she was trying not to attract attention, I could tell. She probably thought Max would tell them about her role in our mission.

“Look, guys.” started Max, “You did us a solid helping us get Seth back. If it was up to me I’d let you all know what we were doing, but the truth is you’re better off not knowing.”

“Warriors can handle it,
kitrak
.” said Kekkin, adopting a taut pose, his beak held high.

“You really want to know?”

“Yes.” said Renthal.

“We’re mounting a rescue on Ambrose Station. A complicated contract, with lots of strings attached.”

Harris blew through his teeth, while Renthal took a step back.

“The nest of the
calak
should be avoided.” declared Kekkin.

“No kidding.” I said, “We don’t exactly have a choice. We
have
to get to the station and make the attempt. At first, it was just a job, but now it’s personal. I lost a piece of myself last time I was here, I intend to get it back - with interest.”

I hadn’t really intended to say that, I just came out of me. Zoe squeezed my hand, which she hadn’t let go of since she saw me. I looked over at Max, who was giving me a funny look.

“For Eric, as well. I want his death to mean something.” I added.

“First Mate Donovan speaks the truth,” said Tac, who until now had remained silent, “I witnessed his declaration over Eric’s coffin. It was rather touching.”

This raised a few eyebrows from Naga Team, who appraised Tac with fresh eyes. Max explained.

“Tac here is special. Not your ordinary synthetic.”

“Captain Cooper is correct. I…”

“Shut up, Tac.” I kicked his metal shin.

“Apologies.”

“I don’t suppose there’s any way to talk you guys out of this crazy job?” asked Renthal. I could see he really meant it, too.

“Out of the question.” declared Max, “We’ve already come so far, to turn around now would make all our labours up until now moot. I’m not pulling out, not for anything.”

“Warrior admires your dedication.” said Kekkin, nodding to Max, “Is there anything warriors can do to assist?”

We all answered in the negative at the same time. I added, “You’ve already done more than enough. I owe you guys big time for helping my crew get me out of the brig.”

“Nonsense, you’re a brother-in-arms. We’d do it again if we could.” said Renthal.

I smiled at the trio, “It’s been a real pleasure getting to know you guys. I wish we had more time to talk. Look me up when you muster out of the outfit, I’ll do my best to find employment for you.”

“Warrior appreciates
naga-zak’s
offer. This warrior will serve Naga Team until death.”

“Yeah I might take you up on that.” said Renthal, we shook hands.

“I’m with big guy, here. The sarge is crazy.” said Harris.

We broke up after that. Everyone shook hands and offered their well wishes, the two Garz’a muttering something about a duel in the future. Max sent me to my cabin to freshen up while the rest of the crew secured the ramp and started the pre-launch routine. I walked to my cabin with Zoe in tow, firing questions at me like crazy.

“What was the food like? They fed you, right? They didn’t beat you, did they? Were you treated fairly? Did they make you sign anything? Were you scared?”

The only way I could shut her up was kissing her when I got to my cabin. One thing led to another and…well, I
had
literally just gotten out of gaol. A man has needs that can’t be filled while locked in a small cell. She didn’t even mind that I hadn’t showered in nearly four days. At some point we felt the ship lift off and start getting underway. Max must have known what we were up to and left us be.

Afterwards, we lay in each others arms, just enjoying our nearness. I recalled my promise to Max, then. I needed to talk to Zoe, about our future. I had no more excuses. I started to build up my courage, thinking about how to start. Screw it, just say it, I thought.

“Zoe…we need to talk…”

“All hands!” blurted the PA system speakers, “Close up on stations! Secure for combat!”