The Girls From Alcyone (18 page)

Karen leaned forward, raising her voice, unnecessarily. "Remember—I've uploaded the
Morrigan's
schematics to your PCM. You should be able to deactivate the mine from either the bridge or the auxiliary systems in the engineering section." She stepped back out of the way, just as the lock-door slid shut behind her.

Sigrid listened to the sound of the air cycling out. It grew ominously quiet; her own breathing inside the suit's helmet was all she could hear now. She turned in time to see the outer door opening. Sigrid had never seen such a sight. She couldn't believe there were so many stars. Even on Alcyone, where there were no city lights to dampen the view, nothing had compared with this. There was little time to appreciate the view though, so Sigrid refocused on her task.

It was an odd-feeling to step out of the airlock and into space. It was difficult to believe she wasn't going to find herself tumbling down away from the ship, but as she pushed away, she floated freely in the vacuum.

Sigrid had never experienced weightlessness, but her enhanced physiology, her reengineered genetics, even her bionic systems, adjusted in unison; she had no difficulty orienting herself and she felt no sense of vertigo. The
Morrigan
was marked in her HUD and she could already see it moving closer while the
Agatsuma
zipped quickly away behind her. Using the thruster-pack, she oriented herself to face the small scout ship moving toward her. It was bearing down on her fast—very fast. Sigrid reached for the thruster controls, ready to blast out of the smaller ship's path, but then it slowed as it maneuvered in close to her.

It was a sleek-little ship, perhaps fifty meters in length, with a long, pointed nose. Its massive stern thrusters made up much of its bulk. She caught a glimpse of its forward viewport and bridge before the craft spun sideways and positioned itself beside her. A small airlock door slid silently open. She jetted toward it, then entered carefully, making sure her feet were positioned properly as the ship's gravity took hold of her. She monitored the atmosphere cycling in—there was something wrong with the oxygen content.

Gas.

They were gassing the compartment.

A deep voice boomed loudly in her helmet. "Welcome aboard. Please remove your helmet and suit."

* * *

Crewman James Skinner pulled the breather down over his face and hefted the riot gun they'd given him. Four other crewmen and the ship's XO stood next to him. All wore breathers, but the others were only armed with stun pistols. He couldn't understand what all the hype was about. He'd handled several prisoner transfers before, all perfectly—if he said so himself—and with far fewer precautions than they were taking now. What a load of fuss for just one little girl. He had to laugh. Pussies…

And the riot gun was a bit extreme. It fired an electrically charged net that would pin and pacify anyone unlucky enough to get hit with the thing. But why even bother with it; they'd already gassed the airlock. The girl would pass-out when she removed her EVA gear. If she refused they could always blast her back out into space, although killing her would lose them the bounty and all of their bonuses.

That
wasn't going to happen.

The XO looked through the small window in the airlock door, staring down at Sigrid's unconscious body. "She's out," he said, signaling to the crewman by the airlock to open it up.

All the men stood ready, weapons raised as the door slid open. Seeing the girl sprawled out on the floor of the airlock, Crewman Skinner lowered his riot gun.
What was the big deal?

The XO signaled the medic forward. He bent, checking Sigrid, first her pulse and then both her eyes, lifting each eyelid. He nodded to the XO. "Totally out, sir."

"Pump her."

"Don't need to—she's gone."

XO Keller considered, then dismissed his medic's advice. "Do it."

The medic shrugged, took a small syringe from his waist pouch and stabbed Sigrid's thigh.

Only then did the XO lower his own weapon. "All right, let's take her to the brig." He checked his wrist monitor—the environmental systems had pumped the last of the gas out. He pulled the breather off his face and took a deep breath. He hated wearing those things.

The quinuclidinyl-benzilate they'd dosed her with left Sigrid feeling quite nauseous, especially when the medic had followed it up with the sedative. He'd given her enough to put a horse out for a day. Sigrid did her best not to retch and kept her breathing low while the billions of nanomites scattered to combat all the drugs they'd pumped into her. Sigrid's bionics worked to keep her pulse low and steady, leaving little reason for them to suspect she wasn't completely down for the count.

Either Keller was paranoid, or just overly cautious, because he had another crewman tie her wrists with a set of plastic binders.

Great; just what she needed.

They were taking her to the brig. She knew from the schematics loaded into her PCM that their route would take her in the vicinity of the Engineering section, one deck below.

The crewmen charged with handling her had a bit of a time passing her down the ladder to the lower deck. One crewman held her hands, lowering her down to two more crewmen below, who gathered her up in their arms. Even with her eyes closed, her sensory modules picked up the men's reactions as they handled her nearly naked body. She hadn't anticipated this as affording a
distraction
, but the young men seemed to be concentrating far more on her rear than the task at hand.

While they carried her, Sigrid took stock of the crew's location on the small ship. Five crewmen had accompanied her down toward the brig, and four more manned the engineering section. That only left three, presumably on the bridge.

They were approaching the brig. Sigrid knew she couldn't let them lock her inside. If she were lucky, the captain of the
Morrigan
had already transmitted the deactivation codes for the mine, but Sigrid had to assume it was still live. The auxiliary control center was only ten meters down the corridor from her current position.

Now was the time.

Sigrid slitted open her eyes. Two crewmen gripped her arms on both sides; the one on her right held a riot gun; he also had several gas grenades clipped to his belt. Perfect. She held back a smile.

Sigrid bent her knees and sprang to her feet. She hooked her trussed-up wrists over the first man's head, spun him around and threw him into the body of the other man who'd held her a moment before. Both crashed heavily into the wall. It was a simple matter to relieve the crewman of his riot gun; she snapped it out of his hands as he fell, off-balance.

Three crew charged at her from the direction of the engineering section and she fired, watching the net spread out as it pinned the crewmen to the bulkhead. They spasmed—quite satisfyingly, Sigrid thought. She winced at their cries as the power-pack discharged its potent dose of electricity.

Her sensors registered a warning. Sigrid ducked and rolled under the stun-charge that whizzed past
her head. In one fluid motion, she
liberated two of the gas grenades from the felled crewman, pulled the pins and rolled one down each direction of the corridor. Only the XO had time to get his breather back on his face, but in his haste he dropped his stun pistol. Sigrid stepped in next to him and yanked the mask off his face; he took one panicked, short breath and slumped to the grated, metal floor.

Sigrid tossed the breather aside. The nanomites in her system could probably handle the gas, but she was still feeling nauseous from the earlier gassing, so she held her breath. She could hold it for six minutes easily enough. She relieved an unconscious crewmen of his knife, cut herself free from the binders and massaged her chafed wrists. The brief skirmish had lasted just under sixteen-seconds. She scanned and detected no alarms. Good. Sigrid did a quick count; all five of her escort were down, along with three of the engineers; she realized there was one remaining and cursed.

She peeked into the cramped Engineering Room, but there was no sign of him. That meant he was either on the bridge or her information was wrong. The Auxiliary Controls were in front of her. She moved to the console, where her PCM searched and found the correct network access, linking her directly to the ship's systems. A number of security protocols tried to block her access as she worked her way through the firewalls.
Suko would be better at this
, she thought.
Suko was always better at decryption
.

It took longer than she'd have preferred, a little less than a minute, but she finally managed to break through the security and found the deactivation codes for the mine. She breathed a deep sigh as she confirmed they hadn't tried to detonate it yet. Her efforts had so far gone unnoticed on the bridge, but that would change shortly.

Sigrid stifled a giggle as she fed a worm-hack into the control systems—this was a little mischief Suko had shown her. It was fast-acting and, if it worked, would keep any of the command crew from doing anything until she could gain full control of the ship.

* * *

Captain Gregory Oslov leaned forward in his chair and peered over the shoulder of the helmsman in front of him. The bridge on the scout ship was so small he could see the consoles of most of the crew. He'd gotten into the habit of looking at theirs rather than his own master-console in the arm of this chair. He was a control freak, and he knew it.

He checked the chronometer again. His XO had reported that they'd captured the girl and were on the way to the brig, but that report was two minutes old. Oslov wasn't about to relax until she was safely locked away. He didn't know much about the
package
, only that she was to be regarded as extremely dangerous. She'd been given the highest threat-rating by their commandant.

He was distracted for a moment by the flashing light on his communications panel. The
Agatsuma
was hailing him again, eager for the deactivation codes, no doubt.

"Not just yet, my friends," Oslov muttered, tapping his fingers on the arm of his chair.
Not until she's safely stowed and secured.

He checked the time again. It had been too long. Oslov wasn't quite panicking, but the hairs on the back of his neck bristled. His XO should have reported by now. He banged the com with the back of his fist, opening a channel.

"Keller—report!" He waited. Silence.
Fuck.
"Chen. Hiller!" Only the squelch and rasp of static answered back. The helmsman turned around in her chair and shot him a worried look. Oslov stared down at the small console attached to the arm of his chair. One light blinked like a beacon—the switch that would send the activation command to the mine he'd laid for the
Agatsuma
. Could he really do it? Could he blow up an entire crew of fellow Mercenaries? Would it make any difference?

He looked up at the helmsman. "What's the position of the
Agatsuma
?"

"No change, sir. Still just sitting there, ten thousand klicks out."

"All right. Lock us down until we can figure out what's going on. No one gets in here, you hear me?"

The young officer worked furiously at her controls, then a bewildered expression spread over her face.

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure, sir—everything checks out, but…nothing's working. I don't…I have no control!"

"Mother…" Oslov jumped to his feet and banged his head,
yet again
, on the low ceiling. He drew his sidearm and moved quickly to the door. Too late—it slid open. Captain Oslov was too seasoned a professional to be surprised or shocked at the sight of the small, nearly naked girl in front of him. He didn't want to hurt her; he wasn't a violent man, but orders were orders, and he didn't hesitate in his duty. He fired his weapon, point blank.

The speed at which she moved didn't seem possible. She became a flickering blur before his eyes. His slug pierced the air where she'd just been standing and exploded against the bulkhead down the corridor. Oslov's mouth fell open and his hand went slack. This time, he did hesitate. He stared wildly at her as she leveled the riot gun at him. The blast knocked him backward, sending him tumbling over the back of his captain's chair and pinning him up against the helm and navigation's consoles. He felt the surge of electricity judder his system; his eyes rolled back in his head, but not before he saw the girl leap over him; he heard a sickening thud and his helmsman's screams, then everything went black.

* * *

Sigrid pushed the unconscious body of the helmsman from her chair onto the floor, taking a moment to relieve the woman of her uniform jacket. She hit a switch on the control panel, deactivating her worm program and restoring control to the bridge. She took care to ensure that the auxiliary controls remained locked out; she still had to worry about the missing crewman, probably hiding somewhere on board.

Mercifully, the ship was small and she soon found him, snoring soundly in his quarters. He'd somehow slept through the entire action. Sigrid snorted at the comedy of it as she sealed him into his quarters before returning to the bridge. The
Agatsuma
was out of range of her implanted comlink so she used the
Morrigan's
transmitter
and thumbed the channel open. The loud sound of cheering from the
Agatsuma's
bridge crew was a welcome assault to her ears. She put the image up on the forward viewer and smiled at the relieved countenance of the captain and the crew behind him.

"Well done, Ms. Novak. Is the ship secure?"

"Yes, sir. I've gained control of the bridge and I've locked out control through the rest of the ship. The crew is incapacitated. I've also deactivated the mine—I think you'll find it's quite harmless now."

The captain nodded acknowledgment. "Very well. Stay where you are—keep the bridge. We'll come alongside and send a boarding party aboard. I…don't know how you did it. We can't thank you enough. I'm sure there's a hefty commendation bonus in this for you."