Unchained (27 page)

Grey pursed his lips. Cidra heard him
mumble, “Unprotected, with a long way to go.”

“
Launch the pod now,
Decker,” Grey ordered.

Decker replied, “Pod jettisoned.”

“
What pod?” Cidra asked as
she watched a streak escape from
Calíbre
’s side portal heading into
deep space. “Hyperspace?” She turned to Grey. “What’s going
on?”

He didn’t answer her, his eyes locked in the
direction of the jettisoned pod.

“
Grey?”

“
Diversion.” He glanced at
her. “I hope.”

“
Commander, they’ve just
jumped to hyperspace. Shall we follow?” Lieutenant Fiske’s voice
carried across the bridge.

Plass walked to the Lieutenant’s station and
studied the star map. It showed the tracking device moving away
from the planet at a projected trajectory of ninety degrees to
their original location.

Plass frowned. It didn’t
fit. To access the planet, they had to use the K12 with the
tracking device. According to his information, it was the only
vehicle aboard
Calíbre
capable of handling the brutal terrain and conditions of
Courf. So why would they come all the way out here and then leave
without even landing on the planet?

Plass contemplated the game. There was only
one explanation. If he was wrong, Major Berman would not be
pleased.

“
No, Lieutenant. Round the
planet at maximum speed, all systems on high alert,” Plass
ordered.

The Lieutenant turned to him. “But they’re
gone, sir.”

“
You have your orders.
Follow them,” Plass snapped. “Order Major Berman’s pilots to their
fighters.”

Fiske nodded and proceeded
to lay in a course.
Expunger
leapt forward toward the darkside of the planet at
full speed.

Decker’s alarm came through loud and clear.
“Captain, incoming! High and hot. One d’Hont cruiser, Bearing 180,
Mark 060. We’re heading in to cover you.”

Cidra’s heart jumped in her
chest. It was like a nightmare unfolding its hideous cloak. She
frantically checked the displays.
Calíbre
and the d’Hont cruiser
barreled toward them. It would be a race—to the death.

“
The bastards didn’t bite
on the tracker.” Grey’s hands moved quickly over the console. Cidra
could see he was trying to get more speed out of the tiny K12. She
watched the blips close in. Then a number of new, smaller blips
swarmed out from the d’Hont cruiser. The K12’s detection system
verified her worst fear.

“
Grey, they’ve launched a
dozen fighters. Saurelian.”

The transmissions
between
Calíbre
and the K12 came through
Expunger
’s bridge. Plass listened
intently. Captain Stone was aboard the K12. He didn’t hear Cidra
Faulkner’s voice or her name called from either vessel.

“
Fighters away as ordered,”
Lieutenant Fiske announced. “Visual on.”

Commander Plass turned his
eyes to the main viewport. Stone’s ship was closing on the K12
transport jet much too fast to bring it aboard. The two ships
passed by each other.
Calíbre
took a defensive position to protect the escaping
K12 from the oncoming attacking fighters.

Interesting
, Plass thought. There
must be someone or something very valuable on that transport jet
for Stone’s small ship to take on a fleet of Saurelian fighters
alone. He had a decision to make. The chances were far better that
Cidra Faulkner was aboard the larger ship, but his instincts
prevailed.

“
Order the fighters to
surround and guide the K12 back into tracker beam range,
Lieutenant.”

Lieutenant Fiske turned to
him. “What are your orders for
Calíbre
?”

“
Inflict enough damage to
render them harmless and immobile.” He was not taking any chances.
He didn’t want to blow up Cidra Faulkner if his instincts were
wrong.

“
Get out of range!” Decker
yelled over the comm unit.

“
Remind me to retrofit a
hyperdrive on this ship tomorrow,” Grey growled as he pumped the
K12 for more speed. At this rate, the Saurelian fighters would be
on top of them in no time.

“
Calíbre
is taking multiple hits. Too many fighters for our
gunners to handle,” Cidra reported. “The cruiser is opening up
on
Calíbre
now.
Direct hits. Move that bird, Coon.”

As if Coon heard
her,
Calíbre
dipped and rolled over the top of the massive d’Hont cruiser.
Her guns were firing incessantly, but causing ineffectual, surface
damage only. Compared to the giant ship,
Calíbre
looked like a pesky, little
insect.

Suddenly, a Saurelian fighter swooped over
the K12 and filled the main viewport. Cidra manned the guns,
shooting at will. The first fighter slid dangerously close on the
portside. Another fighter took up the flanking side, snuggling up
to the K12.

“
Hold your fire,” Grey
warned. “They’re too close. If they blow, we blow.”

Cidra detected six ships closing in
formation around them. “They’re blocking us in.”

“
At least they’re not
firing,” Grey noted. He didn’t have the time to wonder
why.

He slammed the K12 in reverse. The Saurelian
fighters shot out into the distance without them, but not for long.
Another group took up the vacated positions, tightening their grip
and completely surrounding the tiny K12. As the formation slowed,
Grey was forced to slow with them or impact on one of the
fighters.

Cidra watched helplessly. There were just
too many of them and they flew superbly. Under different
circumstances, she would have been impressed.

She glanced at the displays. A new threat
loomed. “The d’Hont cruiser is heading toward us.”

Abruptly the fighters peeled off, splitting
formation. The K12 shuddered violently. Grey’s hands stilled on the
controls.

Cidra looked at him. “What was that?”

“
Decker, get out of here,”
Grey ordered over the comm unit as he began to shut down the K12’s
main engines before the tiny ship was torn apart.

He couldn’t answer her immediately. He had
failed her. He turned to Cidra, his eyes dark. “Tracker beam.
They’ve got us.”

Decker cut in. “We aren’t leaving you.”

In the background, Cidra
could hear the shouts of the crew and alarms blaring aboard
Calíbre
. Checking the
displays, she could see they were now trying to outmaneuver the
full contingent of fighters. They would be lucky to get away at
all. Visions of the final moments of the Galena’s demise flashed
through her mind.

Grey slammed the comm unit on. “I said,
escape while you still can. That’s a direct order.”

As Decker began swearing, Grey shut off the
comm.

Cidra watched as
Calíbre
fired a few more
times and executed a stunning maneuver to shake the fighters. Once
clear,
Calíbre
shot off into hyperspace.

Suddenly, the battle ceased. The Saurelian
fighters began filing back into the bank of landing bays on the
starboard side of the big ship. The d’Hont cruiser now filled the
K12’s main viewport as they were being drawn toward a landing bay.
For the first time, Cidra took a good look at the cruiser. The ship
resembled the shadow of a giant knife, slicing through space.
Unbroken black covered the cruiser’s exterior. No lights, no
markings, no seams. Nothing to warn unsuspecting victims of its
deadly presence.

“
Would it do any good to
fire on that thing?” she asked quietly.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him
smile grimly. “If it would make you feel better, be my guest.”

Silence followed. Cidra’s eyes filled. The
words came out in a whisper, “We’re done, aren’t we?”

“
If they wanted us dead,
we’d already be dead.”

The uncontrollable shiver came through her
voice. “Maybe what they have planned for us is worse than
death.”

He couldn’t argue with that. It was the only
explanation for why they were still alive. He turned to her and
gathered her in his arms.

“
They jumped, sir,”
Lieutenant Fiske announced

“
Note their trajectory, but
let them go.” Plass turned and walked off
Expunger
’s deck toward the lift.
“Order Major Holtz to send a security team to Landing Bay Number
E-11 to greet our guests. I will be there shortly.”

“
Yes, sir,” Lieutenant
Fiske answered, highly pleased. The entire deck crew fairly hummed
with victory as Plass passed them.

Only when he was alone in
the lift did Commander Plass relax. He gave his destination to the
lift computer. As the lift engaged, he began to rehearse the next
part of his plan. He knew Stone was aboard the K12, but he didn’t
know if Cidra Faulkner was with him. His brazen decision to capture
the K12 instead of
Calíbre
had been purely instinctual. If she wasn’t aboard
that ship, he would at the very least lose his command.

Trapped. He hated being trapped. Grey
glanced over Cidra’s head to the contingent of rifle-wielding
guards outside the K12. He frowned. They looked professional and
well-trained. The tracker beam had deposited them in the very
center of a large landing bay with the K12’s nose facing the
massive landing bay door. The closest cover was a stack of
containers fifty meters to their left. The exit was probably behind
them.

From his limited vantage point, he estimated
that twelve guards surrounded the jet. He mentally checked off the
armament on board. A couple of laser pistols and the K12’s forward
guns. There was no way he and Cidra would make it to the exit alive
with just the pistols.

He contemplated the closed landing bay door.
From the outside, it was nearly impenetrable. However...

He glanced down at the survival suits they
were still wearing and calculated how much oxygen they had left.
The plan solidified. He kissed Cidra on the head and placed her
back in her seat. She stared at him in bewilderment.

“
Don’t ask, just listen.”
He began to warm up the K12’s guns. The d’Hont security team
outside donned surprised expressions in unison at the whining sound
emitted from the transport jet.

“
Activate your suit. Set
the weight regulator to maximum. Grab your weapon. Go back to the
exit hatch and wait for me,” he spoke rapidly and without
emotion.

Cidra’s eyes widened in comprehension as she
watched him enter the firing sequence into the K12’s weapons board.
She opened her mouth to argue with his decision, but he stopped
her. “We don’t have a choice, Cidra. You know that. Besides, it’s
going to take a few passes for the K12’s guns to breach the bay
door. If those guards have any brains, they’ll be gone by
then.”

Cidra glanced at the guards backing away
from the K12 and sighed. He was right. She prayed they had brains
as she headed toward the back of the jet.

Grey finished setting up the sequence and
touched the controls to lock the K12’s landing legs to the landing
bay floor. The last thing he needed was the K12 spinning around the
bay in weightlessness, shooting indiscriminately. Dodging twelve
laser rifles was enough excitement for him.

Then he swiveled the K12’s guns toward the
landing bay door and fired. The opening sequence disabled the
containment field barrier designed to hold back cosmic space when
the door was open. Closely spaced blasts drilled into the middle
seam of the heavy door in explosion after explosion. The security
team scattered as the bay filled with smoke and fire. Ricocheting
blasts and sparks flew in all directions. The noise was deafening
and the reverberations sent shock waves through the floor. Several
guards turned their weapons on the K12. Cidra jumped at the bursts
that rocked the tiny ship.

Grey locked the automatic firing mechanism
and released the exit hatch in the back. He had his suit activated
and his laser pistol in hand by the time he was standing next to
Cidra.

“
The guns should breach the
door any second now.” Grey concentrated on the gunfire battering
the doors. He had a clear view from his position in the back of the
K12.

He turned suddenly to Cidra and grabbed her
around the waist. There was sharp sizzle and pop as the survival
suits’ force field helmets meshed for his kiss. Cidra gripped him
in quiet desperation. For a fleeting moment, she could almost
forget the world of danger surrounding them.

The absence of explosions broke off the
embrace. Grey looked down at her, his eyes silver and glittering.
“Do you trust me?”

Cidra nodded without hesitation.

“
Good. Then do what I tell
you. No questions asked.” He glanced out the front viewport. The
K12’s barrage had ruptured the door, the pre-programmed firing
sequence shooting harmlessly out into deep space. Now fully
decompressed, the landing bay lay in eerie silence.

He pushed Cidra behind him and opened the
exit hatch. The K12 decompressed with a hiss. With his laser pistol
raised high, he listened for any activity over the steady pumping
of the K12’s guns.