Wing Commander Pilgrim Stars Chapter 21

Chapter 21
Book	Wing Commander Pilgrim Stars
Parts	3
Previous	Chapter 20
Next	Chapter 22
Pages	254-269

Dramatis Personae

Part One

• Commodore Richard Bellegarde (POV)
• Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn
• Comm Officer Wilks
• Space Marshal Sandra Gregarov (mentioned)
• Captain Amity Aristee (mentioned)
• Commodore James "Paladin" Taggart (mentioned)

Part Two

• Commodore Richard Bellegarde (POV)
• Space Marshal Sandra Gregarov
• Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn
• Comm Officer Wilks
• Captain Amity Aristee (mentioned)
• Doug Henrick (mentioned)
• Lieutenant Christopher "Pilgrim" Blair (mentioned)
• William Santyana (mentioned)
• Commodore James "Paladin" Taggart (mentioned)
• Admiral William Wilson (mentioned)

Part Three

• Kalralahr Vukar nar Caxki (POV)
• Second Fang Makorshk nar Caxki

Part Four

• Lieutenant Christopher "Pilgrim" Blair (POV)
• Lieutenant Todd "Maniac" Marshall
• Karista Mullens
• William Santyana
• Unnamed TCS Olympus Marines (14+)
• Unnamed TCS Olympus Specialist
• Merlin

Text

VEGA SECTOR, DAY QUADRANT

MCDANIELS WORLD

CS CONCORDIA

2654.128

0900 HOURS CONFEDERATION STANDARD TIME

"Message forwarded from the Barnicket Light, sir. The destroyer Windmar intercepted a distress signal from Aloysius Prime during standard patrol. They now have thirteen Pilgrim pilots in custody, along with twenty-one mercenaries and five troopships registered to the CS Olympus. They've interrogated the prisoners and forward the recordings."

     Commodore Richard Bellegarde shook a fist. "Yes! We have a trail."

     Comm Officer Wilks went on, picking up on Bellegarde's excitement and pouring some into his own youthful voice. "The Windmar tracked ion emissions and found the remains of three Fralthi-class cruisers and a Ralari-class destroyer. The emissions continue on past the battle's coordinates, and the Windmar's skipper believes that at least two Kilrathi capital ships are in pursuit of the Olympus."

     "Contact Admiral Tolwyn," Bellegarde said, then hurried across the bridge toward the lift. "Tell him to meet me in the map room."

     "Should I alert Space Marshal Gregarov as well?"

     "Not yet."

     "But sir, she instructed that--"

     "I'm aware of her instructions. And I wouldn't want you to disobey orders. Just give me and the admiral about ten minutes." Wilks grinned his understanding. "Aye-aye, sir."

Bellegarde had already pulled up the holographic map of Robert's Quadrant by the time Tolwyn arrived. The systems of Baird's Star, Tartarus, Dakota, K'rissth, and Freya glinted in three dimensions within a rectangular box comprised of hundreds of green cubes. The portal system of Port Hedland stood just outside the box, and a solid red line marking Aristee's last known trajectory curved from a point between Tartarus and Freya and headed on toward Port Hedland, where the line became dotted to indicate Bellegarde's projection.

     "What do we have, Richard?"

     He spoke rapidly, realizing that he should calm down--but the news represented their first real break in fifteen days. After he finished relaying the data to Tolwyn, he turned to a communications monitor and activated an audio-video recording. A muscular black man appeared, his face sweaty, his eyes like heavy gray sacks. Bellegarde thumbed down the volume and said, "I just glanced at a few of these interrogations before you arrived, and this one seemed particularly interesting. Man's name is Doug Henrick. Says he was taken by force and ordered to fly. Says the others were as well--that's why they sent off a distress signal instead of trying to hide from the Windmar."

     "Or they were just disabled, knew they couldn't make it back to the ship, and figured they'd lie so we wouldn't execute them for treason," Tolwyn said. "No, they willingly joined Aristee's force. They were either left behind or had second thoughts and went AWOL."

     "I agree. Anyway, this guy thinks Aristee intercepted one of our comm drones near Aloysius. He also says that she plans on modifying her hopper drive so that it'll create a much larger gravity well. He says that by one-four-eight, maybe sooner, she'll have it ready. Her next stop? Earth."

     "Convenient timing. Ten days shy of our deadline. But what if Mr. Henrick allowed himself to be captured to feed us misinformation? I'm sure he hasn't submitted to a cerebral scan--and even those can be fooled with the right training. I'm dubious because he knows too much for a pilot."

     "I thought the same, until I learned that he's had contact with Christopher Blair. They went to Blair for help in getting close to Paladin. He says the situation got too complicated and he and a few others decided to make a run when the cats attacked. They left behind William Santyana. Name ring a bell?"

     "Brilliant test pilot. Retired too young. I see Aristee's conscripted only the best."

     "Santyana wants out as well--but Aristee has his family on board. He's working with Blair and Paladin." Bellegarde paused to consider the tone he would use to deliver his next bit of news. He simply had to say it. "Sir, Henrick also says that there's some doubt as to Paladin's loyalty."

     "I'm not surprised."

     "I guess you were worried about him. Why?"

     "We'll leave it there. For now, we'll have to trust him. Paladin has rarely let me down."

     Bellegarde shut off the recording, then eyed the holograph. "Sir, I know that last week we sent the Tiger Claw and Fosubius battle group to Earth, but I respectfully suggest that we join them to strengthen our presence, whether Henrick is lying or not. We can't afford to ignore this. Aristee can jump to Vega and follow the Ulysses corridor right back to Sol."

     "That would be the long route, Richard. With her hopper drive, she might be able to jump directly from Port Hedland. In fact, she doesn't even need to reach that jump point. If our information is true, then right now she's remaining within interstellar space and buying herself time until her drive is ready. Trouble is, she's got the Kilrathi on her tail."

     "But she managed to take out three cruisers and a destroyer-- with no evidence that she used the hopper drive to do so. Considering that she has only one ship, I find that unbelievable. Or has she formed a battle group? But where would she get the ships and the resources? All of our vessels are accounted for."

     "She has another weapon, Richard. Access the datanet when you get a chance. Search for Pilgrims, extrakinesis or hypersensory perception. You'll find it interesting."

     "I found it interesting when 1 studied it as a cadet. But there were only a few Pilgrims with that power, and using it to kill was against their edicts, so most of them stayed out of the war. I thought we wiped out the ones who fought."

     "A lot more fought than history records. And we didn't kill them all. The escapees have had children by now. If we look at the Windmar's analysis of the debris, we'll find Kilrathi bodies with crushed organs, missing eyes, and other evidence of gravitic manipulation."

     "And they're powerful enough to destroy four Kilrathi capital ships? My God___"

     "During the war, they were even stronger. But the power drains them. That's when we struck."

     "So if Aristee arrives in Earth orbit with her hopper drive online, she can use her people to stall us long enough to engage the drive and draw Earth into the well."

     "Clever woman. Her plan would've been even more effective if Bill Wilson's timing had been better. He should have delayed his deal with the Kilrathi. They shouldn't have attacked Pegasus until Aristee's hopper drive was modified. That way if Wilson failed, Aristee could move in quickly and take out Earth. I'm speculating here, but I think the cats wouldn't wait, andWilson got cocky enough to take on the whole mission himself. He failed, and Aristee was left ill-prepared to accept the baton. But she's running with it now."

     "The Halstov battle group is at Port Hedland right now," Bellegarde said, pointing to a cluster of blue orbs on the holograph. "Let's move it to intercept. Between us and the cats, we'll take her out."

     "You're forgetting our order to recover that ship intact." He took a deep breath. "Now Richard, what I'm about to tell you is highly confidential and could get me court-martialed , but the time has come for you to know. Just after Aristee attacked Mylon Three, the space marshal persuaded the joint chiefs to recover the hopper drive at all costs. I mean at all costs. Aristee's targets were considered expendable. I viewed the holo of Gregarov's meeting with the joint chefs, and her fervor was, in a word, unsettling. So I've been doing a little digging since this all began. Called in a favor at Confed Intelligence, and my source just came through." Tolwyn took a step closer and lowered his voice. "For the past three years Ms. Gregarov has been receiving her-eyes-only intelligence reports regarding the Pilgrims' construction of the hopper drive. The system's components were assembled on all five of the enclaves and on McDaniel. Pilgrim engineers worked in isolation, and only one group knew how to assemble the drive. That group is on board the Olympus. Most of the other Pilgrims who worked on the components have been taken into custody."

     "So Gregarov stood by and did nothing while the Pilgrims assembled the drive?"

     "She wanted them to build it. Pilgrims were the original engineers, and the unit often requires a Pilgrim to assist in the operation. She figured she'd take possession before they could use it. Trouble is, the Pilgrims realized there was a leak and fed misinformation to Intell. Aristee got the drive online before Gregarov could react."

     The magnitude of what the space marshal had done sent Bellegarde toward the bulkhead. He raised his fist, thought better of slamming it on the durasteel. "She sat there in the wardroom and tried to blame us for civilian deaths. The blood's on her hands. Did she know about Bill Wilson as well?"

     "I'm not sure. In any event, you and I have new orders for which I take full responsibility. If we can't confiscate that drive, then no one else can have it." Tolwyn looked sadly to the deck. "And if that means destroying the ship and losing two of our own, then so be it."

     The hatch suddenly opened, and Space Marshal Gregarov carried her glare into the map room. "Lieutenant Wilks just summoned me here. When I asked him to report, he provided me with a lengthy description of a message forwarded from the Barnicket Light . Why wasn't I informed sooner?"

     She had directed her question to Tolwyn, but Bellegarde jumped all over it. "Why weren't we informed of your decision to allow the Pilgrims to build a hopper drive?"

     "Richard, this is neither the time nor the--"

     "I think it is," Bellegarde boldly corrected. "I think the space marshal owes us an explanation--and an apology."

     Gregarov lifted a derisive grin. "I heard you weren't much of a diplomat, Mr. Bellegarde. I got a taste of that in the wardroom, but now I really see what they mean. Guess the bottle can do that."

     He opened his mouth to launch a retort.

     "You can't blame this crisis on me," she went on. "But you have no conception of the forces at work here."

     "Then educate me."

     "I'm sorry, but I'm not at liberty to divulge that information."

     "Ma'am?" Tolwyn said, slipping between them. "It's highly likely that Aristee will get that drive modified and head back to Earth to create a gravity well that will consume planet. The Tiger Claw and the Fosubius battle group are already standing by there. I've left the Oregon and Mitchell Hammock at Netheranya. We'll join the Claw and post our battle group here to maintain the no-fly zone."

     Gregarov swung her head toward the holograph gleaming above them. "When you look at the stars like this, they seem

     I don't know

     deceptive. You don't realize that billions of people are out there living on those dots." She faced Tolwyn, her eyes welling up. "geoff, you have to believe me when I say I didn't know so many would die. None of us did."

     "You gambled. You lost. Now the bill's come due." Tolwyn raised a brow, then hustled toward the hatch.

     "Next time gamble with your own life." Bellegarde didn't wait for her reply. He double-timed into Tolwyn's shadow, leaving Gregarov alone with her remorse.

     Which wouldn't change a damned thing now.

Never before had Admiral Vukar watched so many brave warriors plummet to their deaths. The Pilgrims had squeezed their organs or had forced them to gouge out their eyes or even their hearts. The mutated apes had dishonored him and his clan on a scale once unimaginable. A single dreadnought escorted his flagship now, a single dreadnought depleted of its fighters.

     They continued pursuing the supercruiser, and Tactical Officer Makorshk had twice during the past fourteen standard days led a team charged with lightening their load and increasing their velocity. Perhaps they could narrow the gap enough to make one last assault on the supercruiser. Still, during their last strike, they had thought that the Pilgrims with telekinetic-like powers would be recovering from destroying the cruisers; he and Makorshk had not figured that more Pilgrims waited in reserve, and those fanatical apes had effortlessly plucked his last cruiser and the destroyer from the sky.

     At the moment, more Pilgrims could be standing by, waiting for them to make a move. No, Vukar would not recklessly throw away his warriors' lives, despite the honor of dying in battle and the heat of the blood frenzy that left him tense and sweating at the end of each day. There had to be a way to disable that lone ship and take possession without springing the enemy's trap.

     "Kalralahr?"

     Vukar stirred in his meditation chair, then reached to the comm display's control panel. Makorshk stared back at him, the folds of his face loose and forming an expression of despair. "We've jettisoned the last from engineering and crew's quarters, but we've only brought velocity up to one-two-nine KPS. The drive's beginning to superheat. The Kot'Akri reports the same. Our prey continues to lead by nearly one hundred and eighty thousand kilometers. Ion emissions remain stable. We have a distinct trail."

     "But we won't get close enough to launch another ship-to-ship assault. It is a physical impossibility."

     "Yes, but we do have two weapons left. Our fighters and our Skipper missiles. We've given the Pilgrims too much time already. They'll jump soon. We're at maximum velocity and as close as we'll get. The time has come."

     Vukar drew nutrient gas through his broad nostrils and exhaled in a burst. "If we send fighters, they'll simply kill our pilots with their minds. And if we launch Skipper missiles, we won't disable the ship--we'll destroy it. Perhaps no one is meant to have that drive."

     "It may take a few hours, but we can replace the warheads in our Skippers with low-level explosives and program them to lock on to ion engines. The photon cloaks should help to get them close enough. Fighter interdiction will be the Pilgrims' only way to stop them."

     "What makes you believe our Skippers can evade their counterassault?"

     "We can launch our fighters to keep theirs busy. We outnumber them nearly three-to-one. But most of our pilots won't make it back. They'll either run out of fuel or exceed the ten-hour life support limit."

     "Or have their hearts crushed, their eyes torn out."

     "We have no defense against that, but we cannot shame ourselves and our clan. If we die, we die with honor. Perhaps you believe that you've already sent too many of the hrai to their deaths. But Kalralahr, not a single life was wasted--all fought with honor until the end. So should we."

     "You sound more like an elder than a tactical officer," Vukar mused. "It seems you've found your way in a changing universe. And you remind me of my own."

     "Kalralahr, I knew that one day we would embrace in death. Whether it be here or on the challenge ground hardly matters. Know that I've despised you to the core. But you have done something no other officer would: you let me speak, and you listened. For that, I owe you my life, and there is no one else more worthy to receive it."

     Vukar scrutinized the young warrior, probing for insincerity but discovering only a stalwart commitment to the words. Makorshk had come a long way, and Vukar felt even more justified in delaying the challenge. "Give the order. Modify our Skipper missiles. Prepare our fighters for launch. I'll be here or in my quarters. Alert me when the time comes."

     Makorshk bowed and reached to end the link. Leaning back in his meditation chair, Vukar considered what he would do if this final assault failed. Any other kalralahr would not entertain the possibility of life after such a disgrace. Vukar's duty would be to return home and commit zu'kara before the clan elders. But Makorshk's sense of independence had become infectious, and Vukar suddenly believed that failure should not cost him his life

     "After all of this, after all that's happened, we've changed nothing."

Blair sat on the edge of the cot and glanced idly around the sick bay. He had spent the past two weeks recovering with the others in the long room lined with too many bunks and filled with too many nasty smells. His body temperature had dropped five degrees and hadn't risen for nearly ten days. A non-Pilgrim might have died from such a long period at hypothermic levels, but Blair's physiology had kept him alive. Barely. He finally turned to Karista, who sat next to him and stared blankly across the room. "Did you hear what I said?"

     She nodded. "Sounds like you've given up."

     "What else can we do? She's getting her hopper drive ready as we speak. How are we supposed to stop that while we're under guard?" He raised his head toward the two Marines posted just outside the open hatch.

     "I don't know." She stood with a sigh of frustration. "Today they're moving you back to the brig. Our esteemed captain gave me the honor of escorting you. I almost wish she had killed me. Maybe she already has. The guilt

     it's a slow poison. I tossed away everything I believed in."

     "No, you didn't."

     "The others needed me during the attack. While I was helping you, I was also back in. Some of them were like you--they wanted to feel too much. They would've died."

     "Why did you wait so long to tell me?"

     "It's my problem, not yours. But I'm weak. I guess I need your help now."

     "You don't need me, and you didn't do anything wrong."

     "I did exactly what she wanted. I sold out." Karista crossed to the opposite cot and sat with a huff. "I don't even know who I am anymore."

     Blair closed his eyes, and, reaching out with his mind, he moved beside her, slid an arm of gravity over her shoulders, and held her close. "You're someone amazing. And I am honored to have you as my pair."

     Murmurs came from near the hatch, followed quickly by two distinct rounds of conventional gunfire that echoed violently through the bay. Blair opened his eyes as the two Marine guards slumped to the deck, wearing bloody jewels on their foreheads. William Santyana stepped over them, turning his pistol on a medic seated at a bank of monitors near the hatch.

     "Please," the medic said, raising her hands.

     "Get back," Santyana ordered, waving his pistol toward the rear of the bay.

     The medic had no trouble complying.

     "What are you doing?" Blair asked Santyana. "This isn't going to work. We already played this out. We get to the flight deck, launch, and they shoot us down."

     "We're not going to the flight deck, Mr. Blair. The hopper drive is almost ready. We'll be jumping to Sol within the hour. Look, I never wanted this job in the first place. And I'm supposed to be retired. But I'll be damned if I sit around and let this bitch kill more people. We're going down to engineering. I want you and Karista to keep those engineers busy--give them a mental itch they can't scratch. I'll take care of the drive."

     Blair looked for Karista's reaction. She looked impassive but did get to her feet.

     "What are you waiting for?" Santyana asked him. "Should have your sea legs back by now."

     "Yeah," Blair moaned, then tightened the sash on his Pilgrim robe, slid into his sandals, and started for the hatch to retrieve one of the Marines' rifles. He scooped up the weapon and turned to encounter a familiar, cocky grin.

     "Long time, no see, Ace. Looks like push has come to shove, and we'll really see where your loyalty's at." Maniac jabbed the muzzle of his rifle into Blair's chest. "Don't let me influence you in any way."

     "I won't," Blair said, then slapped the barrel away. "You look like shit."

     Maniac rubbed the blond stubble on his chin. "It's called being locked in a supply room for two weeks--my reward for racking up a dozen kills. They let me out to shit and shower. That's it. Believe it or not, I asked about you. They wouldn't tell me jack. I should have went back to my cell." He crossed to pick up the second Marine's rifle. He thrust it toward Karista, who kept her arms at her sides. "C'mon, sweetheart. You need some firepower. Or are you going to use that

     " He fluttered his fingers near his temple.

     She sneered and pushed past him.

     "What'd I say?"

     Blair shook his head in disgust. "She's not some carnival freak."

     "With an ass like that? Of course not."

     Santyana, who had skulked along the corridor to reach the first intersection, waved them forward. Maniac shouldered the second rifle and charged ahead of Blair.

     "We have to get by the torpedo launch bays, pilots' quarters, environmental controls, and the aft storage area," Santyana said. "We'll drop anyone who gets in the way. Do not hesitate. Understood?"

     Blair glanced back to Karista. "You don't have to--"

     "It's all right," she said firmly, perhaps more for her own benefit than his.

     "Coffee break's over," Maniac said. "It's not like no one else heard those shots or that medic's not going to call for help. Let's haul butt."

     Santyana took point, with Blair and Maniac two meters back in flanking positions. Karista kept tightly behind Blair, and he felt the necessity of protecting her tighten his muscles. They reached a stairwell without incident and ventured down into the torpedo launch bays. Massive conduits stretched overhead, with the multicolored tubes and the loaders themselves off to their right. A young specialist lifted his head from a loader's display panel.

     His last act.

     The poor boy took a 2.3mm caseless projectile the hard way, and Santyana did not bat an eye. Four other specialists raised their hands from touchpads as the quartet jogged by. Maniac fired a round into one of the control units, which reacted with a sizzle and a brief puff of smoke. The specialist near it shrieked and shined the deck with her rump.

     They forged on through the bay, nearly slipping on a freshly scrubbed floor and winding through narrow passages made even narrower by the intestine-like rubber ducts mounted to the bulkheads. Somewhere behind them, a klaxon rang out and wound Blair's nerves a little tighter. Another hatch leading to a stairwell came up quickly. They filed into it, beat a chaotic rhythm on the durasteel, then finally emerged into a corridor lined on both sides with hatches: the pilots' quarters.

     "Here's where we catch a break," Maniac said. "This shouldn't be a secured area."

     But he had spoken too soon.

     Three Pilgrim Marines rounded the corner of an intersecting passage, their movements tight, deliberate.

     Santyana and Maniac dove for the bulkhead to their left, while Blair dropped to one knee. "Down," he instructed Karista.

     "Hold your fire!" Maniac shouted. "We surrender."

     The three Marines spread out and cautiously advanced, their knees slightly bent, their rifles held high and fixed on Santyana,

     Maniac, and Blair. "Weapons to the deck. Now," the lead Marine instructed, her face growing more flush by the second. Barely moving his lips, Blair whispered, "Karista, we have

     "Shhh. I know. Close your eyes."

     He left himself crouching on the floor, and in his thoughts glided up to the Marines with Karista at his side. She glanced at him, the pain and resignation renewed in her eyes. "We don't have to kill them. Watch." She shifted up to the lead Marine and placed a hand on the woman's chest plate. The Marine gasped, dropped her weapon, and reached for her throat even as Karista shifted to the next and repeated.

     Blair went to the third Marine and touched the armor, imagining a force that would partially constrict the Pilgrim's airway. The guy's breath came in a weird crackle, he tugged at his collar, then fell back toward the bulkhead.

     "C'mon, asshole."

     Who said that ? Blair blinked hard and focused on Maniac, who had grabbed his wrist and now yanked him to his feet. The three Marines lay on the floor, contorted and barely able to breathe. Karista stood staring at them in a trance that sent Blair toward her. He touched her shoulder. "You all right?"

     She shivered. "I guess so."

     "Hey, lovers," Maniac called out. "This is great. You got 'em flapping like fish, so let's go. Blair, you can give her that tongue bath later." He hustled off toward Santyana, who had hunkered down at the intersection.

     "Sorry about him," Blair said. "He has a few psych problems. Can't help himself. It's all in his profile. You can read it yourself."

     She didn't buy that and began to say something, but the sudden pounding of boots from the stairwell sent them dashing toward Santyana, who suddenly sprang into the intersection and pumped automatic fire into the passage to their right. He reached the other side, took up a position behind the corner, then sent off another salvo of suppressing fire. "Five comin' at us," he cried.

     "And more back here," Blair relayed, hazarding a look over his shoulder at the Marines bounding from the stairwell.

     Santyana ducked back and turned his weapon on the nearest hatch control. A triplet of fire rendered the panel a smoking piece of tattered metal, but the hatch did not open. "Only works in the movies," he said with a snort, then waved them over. "Come on!"

     Maniac bolted across the intersection, opening up on the Marines advancing from the right. He reached the other side and jogged on toward Santyana.

     "Take my hand," Karista told Blair. "Drag me over there. I'll slow them down." She lifted her head toward the Marines Maniac had evaded.

     "But what about them?" Blair asked, gesturing to the group coming up hard to the rear.

     "There's, just too many. We'll try to outrun them."

     With a nod, he seized her wrist and pulled her toward the intersection. As they crossed into the open, he spotted twin lines of Marines lying on their stomachs along the passage. The first two soldiers in each row rolled onto their backs and clutched their throats.

     "We're across," he told Karista, then tightened his grip on her wrist. Her eyes refocused, and it took but a few seconds more for them to break into a sprint.

     They jogged straight for about fifty meters, the Marines behind them thankfully holding their fire. Conventional rounds fired within the ship could cause serious damage--not that Maniac and Santyana cared about that. It also seemed likely that the jarheads had been ordered to take them alive.

     The corridor dead-ended at a sealed hatch whose control panel flashed the usual authorized personnel only warning.

     "Hey, you can't pick locks with that little power, can you?" Maniac asked Karista.

     "No, but I can shut mouths."

     Maniac's lips sealed, his eyes bugged out, and he began to groan under Karista's gravitic gag. She let him suffer a few seconds more, then freed him. "Hey, honey," he said, his lips and tongue moving spastically. "Take it easy."

     "Everybody back," Santyana cried, the status light on his rifle's underslung grenade launcher flashing red.

     "Let's make this a quick bang," Maniac warned. "Hunting party's just down the hall."

     They retreated about eight meters from the hatch, and even before Blair could find a spot against the bulkhead, Santyana rang the doorbell with his concussion grenade. A terrific thunderclap reverberated through the corridor, succeeded by a muffled burst as the hatch blew inward.

     "I always like to make an entrance," Maniac mumbled as he followed Santyana into the rising smoke.

     Blair put his hand on Karista's shoulder and ushered her in behind Maniac. Shouts to halt echoed from behind them, and Blair smiled over a sudden idea. He thought himself in front of them and moved swiftly through the ranks, tripping one, two, three, a fourth Marine. The five or six others behind them collided into the heap of tangled limbs. Too easy. Too funny .

     Then he took himself back, his eyes now watering from the smoke. They passed onto the first catwalk of the environmental control bay. Scores of monitors walled in the rectangular room, and at its center lay the fifteen massive, drum-shaped air recyclers that rose five meters to the overhead.

     Wasting only the few seconds it took to appraise the surroundings, they darted across the catwalk and took a stairway down to the operations level. The five techs assigned to the station had already gathered near the first drum to regard them with curiosity and a healthy measure of respect.

     "You're not authorized to be in this area," a gray-haired tech, probably the department head, shouted.

     "Very good," Maniac returned. "You got any more keen observations before I pick your nose with a round?"

     The Marines in pursuit reached the catwalk, and a trio made it to the stairs much sooner than Blair would have liked. He spotted the next hatch that would take them into the aft storage area.

     Once again, they would have to stall the Marines so they could blast themselves a course.

     Damn it, if we only had access to the security network, we could open the hatch before we even get to it.

     Wait a minute. Maybe we do . "Merlin. Activate."

     Blair had to grin as the old holographic assistant jogged next to him on a course of air about shoulder height. "You realize you're killing me, don't you, Christopher?"

     Why Merlin had chosen to jog was beyond Blair, and he hardly had the time for an explanation. "Get into the security network and open that hatch."

     "You make it sound so simple."

     "Just do it!"

     "What is that?" Karista asked.

     "My holographic assistant. I would've introduced you to him earlier, but he tends to embarrass me."

     "He lies, Ms. Mullens. Oh, how he lies."

     Santyana reached the hatch, and as he glanced at the control panel, a string of lights switched from white to green. He faced them, confused.

     Blair winked at the holograph. "Very smooth, Merlin."

     "You kidding? I didn't do anything. I'm still trying to break into the net."

     "Then who opened the hatch?"

     "I'll trace the command. Well, I can't. I'm blocked."

     "Who cares who opened it," Maniac called back. "We'll thank them later." He followed Santyana into the next passage.

     Karista slowed as she reached the hatchway. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

     "I thought you didn't need to ask. But yeah, I am. Just be ready."