Not the Man She Thought (25 page)

“You can go ahead,” she told the cabbie after the car had
pulled out of the driveway.

The cabbie did as she told him, parking in front of the
house.  Mallin had already gone inside by the time they did, and Laken
told the cabbie to wait for her before she hurried up the front steps.

Once again, Burl opened the door, and from the look on his
face, the butler was just as surprised to see her as he had been the day
before.

“I need to see Mallin,” she said before he could say anything.

The man looked down his thin nose at her.  “Master
Mallin is in a meeting at the moment.”

“Then I’ll wait,” she said, pushing past the butler and into
the foyer before he could stop her.

The butler’s mouth tightened, but to her surprise, he didn’t
argue.  Instead, he simply closed the door.  “If you’ll follow me.”

Burl led her down a hallway to a spacious sitting
room.  If Laken wasn’t so angry, she might have admired the beautiful
décor.  As it was, she could barely look at the framed holo-pics of Mallin
and his family without screaming.  God, she’d been such a fool. Then
again, maybe she was being too hard on herself.  If she hadn’t been so
besotted with Mallin, she never would have stowed away on Rade’s ship and had
the chance to fall in love with him.

Blinking back tears, she walked out onto the veranda. 
The early afternoon breeze played with her hair and ruffled her skirt, but she
paid little attention to it as she looked out at the plush lawn.  Men’s
voices were coming from the room beside the one Burl had shown her to, but she
didn’t pay much attention to them, either.  That was, until she heard the
words, “Marlon Prime” and “Federation trap.”

Her brow furrowing, she moved down the veranda until she was
closer to the room.

She didn’t understand exactly everything they were talking
about, but she understood enough to know that Mallin and the men with him, who
were apparently deeply connected with New Ashanti’s government, had formed a
secret alliance with the Federation, and that they were planning to betray
Marlon Prime during the supposedly “joint” attack on the Federation. 

Laken’s heart raced. She had to warn Rade. But how?

Then all at once, the answer came to her.  Whirling
around, Laken ran back into the sitting room, down the hall, and out the front
door to the waiting hover-cab.

“The spaceport.” she said.  “Quickly!”

Chapter Eleven

Rade stood alongside Kellen and the other ship’s officers
who would be taking part in the attack on the Federation.  They were in a
large briefing room on the Marlonian Command Ship, which was located on the
outer edges of the Marlon System.  The last time he’d been in a briefing
room like this had been back on Marlon Prime when he and Laken had been taken
to see Commander Vargas.  Though he tried to stay focused on what the
Marlonian Commander was saying now, he couldn’t keep his thoughts from straying
to the beautiful redhead.  Shit.  He had to stop this, or he was
going to get himself and his crew killed out there.

Clenching his jaw, Rade looked around the room at the other
men.  The group was made up of Marlonian and Ashantian ship’s officers, as
well as the other “Independent” fighters that had come over to the cause. 
To a man, their expressions were serious as they gazed at the large hologram of
the Marlon System projected onto the wall.  Every one of them knew the
risk involved with this plan.  If even one thing went wrong, the rebellion
against the Federation would effectively be over, because there wouldn’t be
anyone left to fight them anymore. 

On the wall, the hologram zoomed in on Marlon Prime, or more
precisely, a region of space directly over the capital city.  There was a
large glowing symbol in the center of the view that represented the huge
Federation Command-Class Cruiser.  The ship responsible for directing the
siege of Marlon Prime, it possessed almost the same firepower as the combined
rebel force.  Which meant that taking it out first was critical to the
success of the plan. To either side of the command cruiser, were two smaller
red dots that represented the next closest Federation ships.  In all,
there were a total of twenty four of them encircling the planet.

“Using the cloaking frequencies provided by Captain Karsten,
the joint Marlonian and Ashantian forces have been slowly moving toward their
respective attack coordinates,” Commander Vargas explained.  As he spoke,
two large circles, one blue and one green, appeared on the holographic
projection.  “They will be supplemented with auxiliary forces,” he added,
glancing at Rade and the other Independents in the room.  “To whom we are
most graceful.”

“Never heard a pirate ship called an ‘auxiliary force’
before,” one of the other Independents joked.

  
Everyone
laughed.

“The Ashanti force, here in green, will consolidate behind
the Zeres Moon, while the Marlon force will be hidden behind the moon of Rigal
the Lesser,” Vargas continued.  As he spoke, the blue circle blinked
several times in response to his statement.  “With the Federation sensors
cloaked, positioning behind the moons isn’t really necessary, but it will
provide a final level of protection if everything goes to hell at the last
minute.”

One of the Marlonians let out a snort.  “Like a few
moons would slow down the Feds if that happens.”

Vargas inclined his head as if in agreement.  “At the
signal, both forces will attack the Federation Command Cruiser with everything
they’ve got.”

“What if they get a distress call out?” someone asked.
 “With all of us focusing of the command ship, the other Federation ships
will be on our exposed backsides in minutes.  We won’t stand a chance.”

“That’s where we come in,” one of the Ashanti Officers
said.  “Based on Captain Karsten’s original signal data, we’ve been able
to create an effective jamming code.  That Command Cruiser will be
completely shut off from the rest of their forces.  With that, and the
element of surprise, they’ll never be able to handle all of us.”

Beside Rade, Kellen grunted.  “We hope.”

“After the Command Cruiser is destroyed, our two forces will
split, moving around the planet, engaging one federation ship at a time,”
Commander Vargas said.  “If fortune smiles on us, we may have this system
cleared of Federation ships within a cycle”

There was a murmur of agreement at that as the men gathered
in smaller groups and began to talk amongst themselves about various tactical
and logistical issues.  Rade and Kellen had just begun to talk with one of
the other pirate captains about a fall-back plan when the Marlon Commander
spoken again. 

“Gentlemen, on more moment of your time, if I can. Marlon
Prime was able to outfit and deploy five more attack vessels in addition to the
ones we’ve already lined up.  In reality, they’re not much more than
shuttles that have been outfitted with guns, and each of them only has a
rudimentary skeleton crew.  To get any effectiveness out of them at all, I
need a captain for each of them.  I know what I’m asking of you, so I
would like to ask for volunteers first.”

The men were silent for a moment, but then several Marlonian
officers slowly nodded. 

They were still one short, Rade noticed, and when no one
else looked they were going to volunteer, he nodded, too.  “I’ll take one
for you.”

Vargas inclined his head.  “Thank you, Captain.”

Beside Rade, Kellen frowned.  “Are you sure about this?
You don’t know what kind of crews are going to be manning those ships. 
Farm boys, probably.  They could get you killed.” 

Rade gave him a small smile.  “I was a farm boy once,
too, Kellen. And the more ships out there fighting, the better.  Besides,
I know my crew will be in capable hands with you at the helm.”

Though Kellen’s mouth tightened, he made no comment.

Not that the first officer could have continued their
conversation right then anyway, because Commander Vargas was speaking
again.  After giving them some last minute instructions, he divided up the
auxiliary forces, announcing that Rade and several others would go with the
forces from New Ashanti forces, while Kellen and the rest would go with the
Marlonians.

Rade turned to Kellen.  “Take care of yourself, old friend.”

The first officer regarded him in silence for so long that
Rade thought he might try to change his mind about taking command of the other
ship again, but he simply nodded.  “You, too.” 

As Rade watched him go, he wondered if he had made the right
decision.  Not just about volunteering to command the other ship, but
about taking part in the attack on the Federation at all.  A week ago, he
probably wouldn’t even have considered doing anything so damn risky.  He
would simply have delivered the antidote like agreed, taken his payment and
high-tailed it out of the system to find the next job.  But then he’d met
Laken, and she had changed him.  Something about her made him want to be
better than the pirate he was, to finally step up and take a stand against the
Federation he’d spent so much time despising.  She would never know what
he was doing, of course, but he was still doing it for her.

* * * * *

Finding the salvage captain Kavan Durshay was a lot easier
than Laken had thought it would be.  Since she didn’t know where his
office was located or even if the man had one, she’d decided the fastest way to
find him would be to ask around the spaceport.  She’d started to panic a
little when the first several people she had talked to admitted they’d never even
heard of Durshay.  But then luckily she’d come upon a street vendor who’d
not only heard of Durshay, but had also known where his office was located.
While finding the salvage captain was a lot easier than she’d anticipated,
convincing him to help her was an entirely different matter, however.

“Are you out of your mind, lady?” he asked
incredulously.  “There’s no way I’m taking my ship or my crew into the
middle of a war zone, regardless of any favor I owe.”

“It’s not a war zone yet.” At least she hoped it
wasn’t.  The thought that Rade might even now be in the middle of a
gunfight made her stomach clench.  She swallowed hard.  She followed
the salvage captain as he made his way across the room.  “If you don’t
take me to Rade’s ship, then he and everyone else up there are going to be
slaughtered by the Federation.  Do you really want that on your
conscience, especially after what he did for you?”

In all honesty, Laken had no idea what Rade had done for the
salvage captain, but she thought it must have been something important for Rade
to mention it to her, and from the way Durshay flushed at her words, she
decided she was right.

“Even if I agree to take you up there, how in tarnation are
you even going to find Karsten’s ship? They could be anywhere.”

Laken tucked her hair behind her ear.  “If you give me
access to your com-computer, I can find them.  Or more precisely, I can
make sure they find us.  But that won’t matter if you’re not willing to
take the chance and help me out. Please.  Rade needs your help.”

Durshay said nothing for a moment, then he sighed.  “I
must need my head examined. I’ll tell ya, if you weren’t such a pretty lady, I
wouldn’t even consider this, but all right, I’ll do it.  I’ll take you to
Karsten’s ship, but if there’s even the slightest chance I’m going to get stuck
in the middle of a battle, then I’m out of there, you understand?”

Laken nodded, too relieved that Durshay had finally
acquiesced to worry about the conditions he’d placed on their agreement. 
She only hoped the fighting hadn’t started.  She couldn’t bear it if
anything happened to Rade.

* * * * *

“You’re damn lucky I recognized that Manze Distress
Code.  That stuff is ancient,” Dev said to her when Laken rushed onto
Rade’s ship an hour later.  “What the hell are you even doing here
anyway?  We’re about to start the attack.”

Laken looked around the cargo hold for Rade, but other than
her, Dev and Kellen, the place was empty. “Where’s Rade?” she asked as she
started for the steps.  “Is he on the bridge?”

“He’s not here,” the dark-haired woman said.

Laken whirled around, her brow furrowing in confusion even
as a cold dread settled into the pit of her stomach.  They were about to
go into battle with the Federation.  Where else would he be?  “What
do you mean, he’s not here?  Where is he?”

Dev glanced at Kellen, who answered.  “There were more
ships than captains, so he volunteered to take command on one of the other
ships.”

Laken’s frown deepened.  She couldn’t believe Rade had
left his ship and his crew, no matter how capable they were.  She turned
and started for the steps again.  “I have to contact him.  There’s
something he has to know.”