Destiny's Choice (The Wandering Engineer) (72 page)

“But
it's what we've got to work with right now. That and another.”

“What?”

“Well,
do you really want to go back to the dark ages?”

“Ah,
I gotcha.”

“The
natural desire to make a better living for themselves and their children.
Another factor we have in this equation.”

“An
important one,” Irons replied.

“Got
everything?” Bailey asked as he came out of his quarters. He patted the bag and
nodded looking over to the chief engineer. His personal things were all stored
in the navy duffel of course. Everything else was already on the launch.

“Yup.”

“You
travel light. Like a spacer,” the chimp said with a nod of approval.

Irons
smiled. That was a stupid observation. “Been one for my entire life chief so I
oughta,”

“Sorry,
forgot about that,” Bailey said with a snort.

“You
sure you want in on this?” Irons asked, looking down at the chimp.

“Wouldn't
miss it for the world,” Bailey growled softly. Irons snorted. They made their
way through the ship to the boat bay. When they entered the Admiral felt a
flare of energy and froze. Bailey did as well.

“What?”
he asked softly. Brown eyes studied the boat bay. He didn't see anything amiss.

“Keep
still.” Irons growled softly back. “Act like your feet are glued to the floor.
Heavy gravity.”

“Ah
Admiral. Chief. Sorry you are caught up in this,” Miss Willis said, coming
around the nearest stack of crates. She was dressed in a black stocking suit.
She was holding a stripped down Briev plasma gun in both hands. He was curious
about how she'd smuggled it on board his launch and onto the ship. She was good
apparently. Too good at her job. Too bad her time had just expired.

“What
happened to Chloe?” Bailey asked, looking over to the boat bay officer slumped
over her console. The white haired woman seemed okay from the brief scan Irons
shot her way. Her vitals were stable anyway. His entire focus was on the
assassin.

“She's
taking a nap,” Willis said with a nasty smile, glancing at the heavyset woman.
“Don't worry, she won't remember a thing. She'll have one hell of a migraine
though.”

“Teserac
poison,” Irons ground out, nodding. “That explains the mystery migraines Bryan
ran into. It breaks down in minutes once it wears off.”

Willis
cocked an eyebrow and then smiled nastily. “You're both strong I'll give you
that. That is at least ten gravities coming from that plate,” Willis said,
walking around them. From the look of it she was lining up so her back was to a
plasma conduit. No doubt attempting to conceal that a plasma weapon had been
used.

“Ah.
So, you rigged the plate to go off, and all the other traps?” Irons asked,
formally for the record. He could tell she had tried to scramble his
communications, but she wasn't the only one to have cards up their sleeve.
Cards he wasn't quite ready to play just yet. He wanted to give her just enough
rope to hang herself good and proper. They say confessions are good for the
soul.

“Yes,”
she smiled a nasty smile. “I had to come out in the open this time, since
you've forced my hand by stubbornly not dying.” She smiled a little bitterly
over that fact. “I'll say this about you Admiral, they made you a tough
customer. But not tough enough,” she glanced over her shoulder to make sure she
was positioned correctly.

“I
wasn't happy about the virus, I think my employers will not be happy when I get
back and explain to them just how unhappy I am about it. But that's neither
here nor there,” she shrugged aiming. She shifted, trying to get the marks
lined up just right. She wanted this to look good. She also wanted to see Irons
squirm before he died. He'd caused her no end of pain. It wasn't personal.

“Who
are you're employers?” Bailey asked.

“Now,
now, I'm not the ordinary villainess. I don't do monologues,” she said coyly as
she smiled again and leveled the weapon to aim carefully. “I believe the
gravity emitter will distort your shields. They shouldn't be functional.”

“Normally
yes,” the Admiral said with a shrug. “In this case...” His shields flared a
bright blue as she fired. The yellow and white plasma bolt sizzled against the
shield, energy arching down to scorch the deck and bulkhead. The air flashed,
popped, and crackled with the discharged energy. Circuitry in the path of the
discharge popped like popcorn. The lights flickered. Those near exploded in a
shower of sparks. Bailey looked around wide eyed. His fur was standing on end.
Irons glanced at him to make sure he was okay. He wasn't sure if it was from
the static energy or stress of the moment.

She
fired twice more then grimaced and threw the cut down rifle down. “No matter.
When I blow that hatch you'll be sucked out into the dark,” she said. She
turned heading to the hatch.

“Nope,”
Sprite said slamming the hatch shut and locking it with audible clicks and
thunks. Irons shook his head as Willis paused and started to turn back to him.

“As
I was saying, ordinarily, a grav trap would have distorted my shields. Had it
worked in the first place,” he said. He took a step as she turned. Her eyes
went wide. The door behind the engineers opened and security personnel came in
followed by the security chief and the captain. Both senior men were scowling
blackly, holding weapons.

Her
eyes darted for the plasma gun she had discarded. Irons morphed his hand into a
blaster. “Don't,” he warned.

She
licked her lips in uncertainty. “I can pay you a lot of money,” she said,
glancing at the captain, then the others. Her eyes shifted about, a rat caught
in her own trap. “A lot of money.”

“Save
it sister, we've heard all we needed to hear,” Bailey growled. The medic was
making his way through the crowd of security personnel to the slumped Chloe.
Security personnel in the front were holding him back, keeping him from getting
too close and becoming a hostage.

“So
what are you going to do?” she asked hands at her side. Irons detected the item
she palmed.

He
shrugged. “That is up to the captain. I am a passenger after all. I was the
wronged party, and I am a Federation Navy officer, so legally I suppose we
should hand you over to the local authorities,” he said. “Of course I could
have you charged under Federation law. But I think the locals...” He looked at
the stern captain. Ferguson nodded.

“You
mean in Pyrax?” Bailey snorted. “Oh hell no,” he shook his head.

“What?”
Willis said darting glances at him then to the others.

“You
honestly think we'd trust that den of thieves and murdering swine? We have our
own code of justice missy,” Chambers the security chief snarled. His fingers
tapped a rhythm on his thigh. “So, one shot at mercy lady, who paid you?”

“You'll
get nothing out of me,” she said, lifting her chin. “So you might as well send
me down to the planet,” she said defiantly.

“I
was curious if you were working alone,” Irons said. He studied her readouts
carefully. He toyed with the idea of throwing names at her to see which she
reacted most strongly too. He abandoned the idea almost immediately, the others
seemed done with waiting. “But it seems you are the lone assassin type.” She
flushed a little at that. From her responses she had acted alone. He was glad
to know that, he still wanted to know who was behind her, but he was pretty
sure he could guess.

This
time the Admiral smiled, turning to the captain. He turned back to the
assassin. “You don't deny attempting to kill me and killing crewman Dallas and
the others?” he asked.

“You
caught me red handed remember?” she asked with a snarl. She glanced at the
guards on either side of her. Neither had moved within arms reach. “Just how
did you deactivate my trap?” she asked, hands on her hips.

He
snorted. “You might have gotten around the bot so you could loop the video, but
Sprite was there watching when you did. And you may have looped it, but you
didn't loop my launch,” he said. He waved to it. She glanced that way, face
cold and eyes flashing and then looked back to him. “When she detected the
first anomaly she checked the feed from it. And lo and behold, there you were.
You underestimated her.”

“Ah,”
she frowned.

“The
trap... well, I cut the power the moment you sent the signal to activate it,”
Sprite said smugly. “Can we get this over with soon? We need to go through her
gear and get back on schedule. Kiev will be in range in two days.”

Willis's
eyes widened. “Wait you...” she scowled. “Then how...” Her eyes darted back and
forth.

“All
a trap,” Bailey said with a feigned yawn. He loved seeing the psychopathic
bitch squirm. “One you fell for. Neat. Catch a saboteur in her own snare,” he
chuckled an earthy chuckle. Willis scowled, face red in shame. He turned to the
Admiral and jiggled his ears. The Admiral snorted.

“I
just wish we had done something like this sooner. For April's sake. For those
you killed,” he growled a little as two guards came up behind the woman. “Just
a moment.” He raised his right arm and a blue bolt arched out. She spasmed in
place then fell to the ground. “There.”

“What'd
you do? Kill her?” Bailey asked as a guard toed the girl.

“Check
her hands. She's got something in one. A weapon of some sort,” Irons advised.

The
guards opened one tightly clenched palm. Blood dribbled out of the hand. A
small knife was there between her fingers. The other hand had a tiny capsule.

“Flash
bang I bet,” Bailey sniffed. “Or poison gas.” He turned to the captain. “So
what do we do with her now?”

Ferguson
studied the situation for a moment and then nodded, straightening and adjusting
his uniform. “I take it you recorded and broadcast this entire incident?”

“Still
recording actually, I haven't broadcast it ship wide yet. I was about to,”
Sprite said happily.

“You
can pause now,” Chambers said. “We all know her for what she is,” he nodded to
Irons in grudging respect.

Bailey
turned brown inquiring eyes on the captain.

Ferguson
grimaced. “As you said chief, we have our own way of justice. One I plan on
putting into motion now,” he said firmly. He motioned to her. “Take her to the
nearest airlock and seal her in. I'll be along behind you Ed in a minute.”

The
security chief nodded mutely at the two guards.

“What
are you going to do sir?” Bryan asked, looking up from working on Chloe.

“What
has to be done.”

There
was a whistle from the overhead speakers fifteen minutes later. “Ladies and
gentlemen, your attention. For those of you watching the monitors, please be
patient. Those with children or weak stomachs are asked to look away,” the
captain said firmly.

Irons
was proud of the man. He may be putting what he thought was his career in
jeopardy but he was doing the right thing. He was standing up for his crew and
his ship.

“For
the past several months we have been haunted by sabotage. A person was damaging
this ship, killing and injuring this crew to perform a paid assassination. This
was someone we trusted, someone we knew. We trapped that person a few minutes
ago. You will most likely be startled and dismayed to discover the identity of
the culprit.”

On
the LCD screens the feed from the Admiral's shuttle played out. A few people in
the wardroom and rec rooms gasped at seeing little Miss Willis, the friendly
buxom blond turn out to be a ruthless killer.

 “I
assure you her guilt is genuine. We have her own recorded confession of her
misdeeds. She has shown no remorse for the death of crewman Dallas, Zerek,
Ciera Dawn,  or the others. Or the injuries and damage she has inflicted,” the
captain's iron voice ground out. A small window opened and played the events in
the boat bay from minutes ago. When it was done he continued. Her confession
left more than one person rattled.

When
the recording reached the part where the Admiral had stunned her it froze and
the captain's voice returned, stern and full of righteous wrath. “And now she
is going to be punished.” The feed cut to a view of the airlock once more. She
floated there, looking around, a little muzzy.

“Miss
Willis do you have any last words before I pronounce sentence?” the captain
asked politely. She flipped the camera the bird then looked at the outer
airlock door window and gulped. Tears sparkled around her eyes, drifting free
to float around her. To be spaced was a spacer's worst nightmare. To drift,
helpless in a suit was one thing. Explosive decompression was something else.
At least it would be quick. Not however painless to her, Irons thought without
a touch of remorse over what was about to play out. She did deserve it after
all.

“Eloquently
put I suppose. Very well then. Miss Willis for the crimes of multiple sabotage
of this ship, endangerment of her crew and passengers, murder of three crew
members, and maiming of four others, I hereby sentence you to death. Sentence
to be carried out immediately.”