Unchained (28 page)

“
Wait here.” He stepped out
of the K12 slowly. The effects of walking in weightlessness were
neutralized by the survival suit’s max gravity setting. Still, the
going was slow as he circled the K12. Red warning lights flashed
along the walls. The absolute silence was eerie and alien. After he
was sure it was clear, he motioned to Cidra and resealed the K12’s
hatch behind her.

She quickly scanned the strange, morbid
spectacle. Everything in the bay was in slow motion—even the frozen
bodies floating about. She shuddered, hoping that at least some of
the guards had escaped before succumbing to the frigid vacuum of
space.

After making a thorough visual sweep of the
dead bodies, Grey reached up and snagged one out of the air.

Cidra gasped. “What are you doing?”

Grey spun the dead man horizontal toward
them.

“
Getting his security pass.
We’ll need it to move around the ship.” Grey relieved the dead man
of his authorization card and laser rifle. He grabbed Cidra’s arm
just as she headed to the exit doors that led to the cruiser’s
interior.

“
We’re not leaving that
way.” He pulled her toward the battered landing bay door,
circumventing the K12’s incessant gunfire.

Cidra stared at his determined expression.
“We can’t stay here. There’s no way two of us are going to hold off
the entire crew of this ship.”

Grey grinned at her. “I don’t plan to be
here when they come barging in that exit door.”

“
The K12? You know the
tracker beam will just pull us back in,” Cidra prodded as Grey
stopped them in front of a wall display screen.

He scanned the display
quickly, getting his bearings. Then he began working the controls
to bring up different views of
Expunger
’s layout.

“
We aren’t going to use the
K12 either.” He slipped the dead man’s security card into an
authorization slot. As he entered commands, a grid of boxes lit up
on the wall display. Suddenly the damaged heavy landing bay door
groaned and opened, giving a glorious view of deep space. More
lights flashed on the wall display, blinking red and
green.

“
Perfect.” Grey withdrew
the card from the slot and turned to Cidra. “Set your boots on
magnetize. We’re going for a walk outside.”

She took one long look at the gaping bay
entrance and the expanse of endless space. Fear crept into her
voice. “You can’t be serious.”

Grey stepped to the edge of the bay. “I
don’t have time to argue. This is the only way out of here. This
bay is going to be crawling with d’Hont in a few minutes. We only
have to go down one level. I figure about thirty meters.” He
casually peered far over the edge of the great abyss.

Cidra held her breath as he reached out and
drew her along with him.

“
I can’t do it,” she choked
out, closing her eyes at the absolute void before her.

Grey wrapped an arm around her waist and led
her out onto the exterior skin of the cruiser. “You have to. Now
look down at the cruiser’s surface. If we lose contact with the
ship, we’ll become a permanent part of the universe.”

His casual warning forced her eyes wide
open. The stars were a brilliant backdrop and crystal clear like
she had never seen before. It didn’t seem real. She looked down at
her boots firmly planted on the vessel’s exterior. They were
already outside.

“
Shouldn’t we use a
tether?” she suggested desperately even as Grey was dragging her
with him.

He smirked. “We should definitely use a
tether. But I don’t want to leave any clues how we escaped.
Besides, they’ll figure we’d have to be insane to try this without
one.”

Cidra clenched her teeth
and took another reluctant step forward. “Little do they realize
we
are
insane.”

Grey’s only response was a wide grin.

The effort of walking in fully magnetized
boots was more than she could have imagined. The boots clung
stubbornly to the metal skin, making it difficult to advance.

A dreadful thought overwhelmed her. “How are
we going to get back in?”

Grey kept her moving with one boot at a time
clamping tightly to the cruiser’s skin. “I opened all the landing
bay doors on the ship. Hopefully no one will notice it until we are
inside again.”

Cidra glanced at him, her face white.
“Hopefully? What happens if they close the doors?”

Grey kept his eyes down. “We pray they don’t
jump to hyperspace.”

Commander Plass stepped out
of the lift at Level E and into the throes of a high alert status.
Long, narrow light bars along the corridors flashed red, the
distress siren wailed and bands of security guards raced past him.
He could hear the echoes of guards shouting and automatic warning
messages ringing through
Expunger
’s passageways.

Something was very wrong.

He returned to the lift and addressed the
onboard computer. “Locate Major Holtz.”

A sterile female voice replied, “Major Holtz
is in the Security Center.”

“
Take me there.”

The short journey gave him a chance to get
his displeasure under control. He had no doubt that the prisoners
had escaped and that Major Holtz’s forces had failed a simple task.
It was a failure Plass planned to exploit fully.

The lift halted and the
doors opened onto Level B. Commander Plass marched down the
corridor and into the Security Center, the heart of
Expunger
’s defense
system. The mood was urgent. The dark circular room hummed with
activity as human and computer-generated voices buzzed. Harsh
lights illuminated anxious faces of the officers at their stations
around the perimeter.

The professional female
voice recited present systems status. Plass listened to the rundown
to orient himself with
Expunger
’s current
condition.

In the center of the room,
a full blown, detailed schematic of
Expunger
floated in a massive holo
deck. The transparent replica displayed the current status of all
systems aboard. Plass noted the red areas lit throughout the ship.
Trouble spots.

Major Holtz appeared and gave his Commander
a stiff salute. “Sir, we have a problem.”

Plass’ eyes narrowed at the man. “So it
would seem. First, explain the situation. Then you can tell me why
I was not notified immediately.”

Major Holtz was a tall man, lanky and lean.
Brutally short white hair held a direct contrast to his ruddy
complexion and wide-set blue eyes. A careful and thorough officer,
his dissatisfaction with their predicament showed on his face.

The Major reported to his superior officer
crisply. “There has been an incident in Landing Bay Number E-11.
The landing bay doors have been destroyed and containment breached.
Every member of the security unit assigned to the area is dead. And
the captives have vanished.”

Plass glared mercilessly at
him. “Define
vanished
.”

Major Holtz cleared his throat. “My men have
scoured the entire bay. There is no sign of them. They could not
have entered the corridor outside the bay. Our secondary security
units were already on their way. They would have been spotted. We
think they may have been expelled from the bay during the rapid
decompression.”

Commander Plass didn’t believe that for a
minute. “How many prisoners?”

“
We visually identified at
least two—a man and a woman.”

Plass suppressed a smile. His hunch had paid
off. She was here. “What about their transport?”

Holtz reported grimly. “Still in the bay.
That’s how they destroyed the bay door.”

Plass cursed himself. Apparently he had
underestimated his foe. How else could two virtually defenseless
prisoners have caused so much trouble?

“
Were there any other
spacecraft in the bay?”

The Major shook his head. “No, sir. The bay
was empty.”

“
Lock out all the aircraft
on board. I don’t want them escaping in one of our own ships,”
Plass ordered. “You have a search plan in place?”

Major Holtz replied, “Yes. The landing bays
are first on the list.” He paused. “There is one other unusual
item. According to the ship’s computer, the Lead Security officer
in charge of the prisoner’s escort issued some peculiar orders
during the incident. Doors and exits throughout the ship were
opened randomly including the majority of landing bay doors. The
on-board lighting and communications systems have been reset.
Several secondary systems were shut down. Since the Lead Security
officer was among the dead, we are treating it as a systems
malfunction.”

Plass stilled as the swirl of confusion and
facts began to settle. “Did this Security officer still possess his
authorization card when you identified him?”

The Major looked momentarily stunned. “I
don’t know.”

Plass continued,
eyeing
Expunger
’s
schematic. “Are the landing bay doors still open?”

“
Well, yes.” Major Holtz
sounded surprised. “We were about to override the command and close
them.”

“
Don’t override,” Plass cut
in. “Not yet. Lock out all the internal exits of every landing bay
surrounding Number E-11. Send security teams,” he pinned the Major
with a warning. “
Competent
security teams, to wait outside the exits for
further orders.”

Major Holtz looked confused. “Yes, sir. But
why only those bays?”

Plass ignored his question. Let the man
figure it out for himself. “After the security teams are in
position, close the bay doors and flood the bays with audio stun
bursts. That should bring our guests to their knees. Then open the
exit doors and send the teams in. Remind your men to capture the
prisoners alive and unharmed. Maximum restraint, Major.”

Holtz’s face reddened. “My units already
have those orders, sir.”

Plass took a step closer to his Chief
Security officer. “Then tell them to get it right this time.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Grey added a shower to his wish list as he
helped Cidra back inside the lower landing bay of the d’Hont ship.
Sweat slicked the inside of his survival suit, evidence of the
tremendous energy it had taken to scale the cruiser’s exterior. His
legs were shaking from exertion and he was still trying to get his
breathing back to normal. It had been the most grueling
thirty-meter walk of his life.

Not that he was complaining. They were lucky
enough to end up in a deserted landing bay before anyone realized
the bay doors had been opened. The next best thing would have been
a nice, fast ship to escape in. No lucky break there. They stood in
the middle of an empty bay.

Grey tugged at the back of Cidra’s survival
suit, releasing the seal so she could remove it. “All we’d need is
one of those Saurelian fighters. We could be clear of this bucket
and into hyperspace before they knew what happened.”

“
They’re only single man
fighters,” Cidra reminded him.

From behind her, he slipped Cidra’s suit off
her shoulders. “Then it should be real cozy. They were designed
by...”

“
Don’t say it,” Cidra
groaned. She stepped out of the suit.

Grey chuckled. He stopped when she turned
around. Perspiration soaked her blue flightsuit in all the right
places. It took him a second to recover.

“
Your turn,” she said
softly, her blue eyes hooded. He unleashed a slow, sexy smile and
spun around to let her help him.

Without the hindrance of the survival suits,
they moved quietly through the landing bay. The silence was
unsettling. The only sounds were their footsteps on the hard
floor.

When they reached the closed exit door to
the corridor, Grey pushed Cidra behind him and lifted the laser
rifle. He stepped into the door’s activation field, but it didn’t
open as expected. He frowned and slipped the dead guard’s pass into
the authorization slot. Nothing.

Cidra asked, “What’s wrong?”

“
We’re locked
in.”

Suddenly the open landing bay doors began to
close, cutting off the glorious view of deep space.

Grey ran a hand through his hair. “And there
goes the other option.”

“
I think we’ve got bigger
problems than that.” Cidra’s eyes took on the far-away look that
Grey had seen before.

Then all hell broke loose.

“
Dropping out of hyperspace
now. Outside
Expunger
’s scanner range,” Coon announced and spun around in his chair
to face Decker. “If you don’t stop that pacing, I’m going to have
you medicated.”

Decker stopped and glowered at him. “Stick
it, Coon. I’m in no mood. I want a complete status report on all of
our systems. I want all scanners at maximum range and the automatic
warning system on. I want every available body working on repairs.
And I want them now.”

“
And I thought Captain was
tough,” Coon muttered as he spun back around to carry out the
orders. “Anything else?” he sing-songed sweetly.

“
As a matter of fact, there
is one more thing. Your single, most important duty.” Decker bent
over Coon’s shoulder and punched in a command.

A star chart arose from the
bridge’s holo deck in front of Coon’s station. From the center of
the display, a healthy beacon signal was transmitting to
Calíbre
.