Fatal Boarding (19 page)

So many began talking at once, it was
impossible to tell who was saying what. Preposterous suggestions
quickly splintered off into heated sidebar arguments. Someone
wanted the negligent parties responsible for the situation
disciplined immediately. Someone else insisted another ship be
dispatched to rescue us. A shrill female voice inquired whether or
not the life pods were available should someone choose to use them.
A course male voice demanded to know why the main engines weren't
operating yet. From the opposite side of the room, someone demanded
to know where the missing people were. Behind me, I heard someone
say that the meeting should be adjourned until the captain was
located.

The individual conversations became lost in
the irritated drone of nervous chorus. I suddenly realized how
appropriate it was that they had not been told of the Emissary. Had
that been the case, the elite group of trained professionals around
me would likely have turned into a lynching mob. Somehow, in the
midst of the confusion, R.J. managed to get their attention.

"Ladies! Gentleman! Perhaps it would be
constructive at this point to listen to what Commander Tarn has in
mind."

Every head in the room turned to glare at
him. In the tentative silence, Brandon looked at me and spoke with
indignation. "Why is he here? He's only a grade-five inspector.
This should be a closed staff meeting!"

It made me smile. "Well Maureen, since he
was the only one of us bright enough to figure out what was going
on, it would seem to me he has more right to be here than anyone.
We all owe him, possibly our lives!"

She huffed. "Mr. Tarn, you are not going to
presume command of this ship under these circumstances, are you?
You were not even a bridge officer on this mission. Surely Captain
Grey never intended you to be acting Captain."

All eyes shifted to appraise me. I wondered
who in their right mind would actually want command of Electra in
our situation.

"Let me put it this way, Maureen. I don't
intend to hand over the security codes entrusted to me by Captain
Grey, to anyone."

Brandon fumed. For once, she was at a loss
for words. I looked out over the room. They were waiting for a
quick solution to their common problem. They had argued themselves
into depression. I slowly straightened up and made my case.

"We have only one sensible option at this
point. We must protect the crew. The intruders are taking people a
few at a time. It doesn't matter why. We can't worry about
regaining control of the ship until everyone is safe. What I
propose is to move everyone into the tail section, have them hold
up in the service boom. There's no gravity back there, but there's
only one way in, and one way out. There’s plenty of distance back
there for a buffer zone. Security has already been sent and has
probably finished sectioning off an alarm barrier at the entrance
by now. They’ll have fan-type beam detectors at the entrance, and
will defend against anything that breaks the beam. We’ll monitor
the atmosphere, and isolate the tail if anything is detected. It
will force the bad guys to come to us, instead of taking our people
as they please. We can cut our losses there, and we can go on the
offensive. We’ll set up a series of traps in the access ways
they'll be forced to use. There is food and extra air already
available in the life pods back there. And, in a worse case
scenario, we will have access to the escape system."

Kusama stood at the back of the room. He
raised one finger to get my attention. "Commander, the bridge and
engineering would be unmanned. They could take control of the
ship."

"They could do that anyway, Paul. If they
get anywhere near you, you won't even remember it. They could have
moved on the bridge along time ago. The ship is right where they
want it, next to theirs. It's not the ship they want. It's the
crew."

"Why, why do they want us?”

I could not see who had spoken. "We don't
know, yet. I don't pretend to be able to answer all your questions,
and we don't have time to debate this. You must all spread the word
to your troops to head for the tail access corridor. I have
security teams already setting up along the way. Don't use the
intercom or the internet. We've got to keep this from the intruders
as long as possible. Go to the tail section and wait. Security will
be there. Don't gather personnel possessions; don't take care of
unfinished business. Hurry. We will have other operations going on
at the same time, but I will not discuss those right now. There is
no time for questions. Let's go."

They sat for a moment, as though it wasn't
enough. Someone seated behind me finally made a dash for the door,
and the chaotic procession began. R.J and I remained seated as they
pressed heartily past. Except for a few murmurs of unintelligible
misgivings, they remained morbidly quiet.

When we were alone, R.J. locked his hands
behind his head and leaned back. "It went quite well, all things
considered."

"Refresh my memory. Exactly what did we just
do?"

"What do you mean we? You just gave the
order to abandon ship and hide in the tail section."

"Me? What happen to you? I suppose when the
firing squad shows up, you're going to point at me and say, I'm not
with him!"

"Hey, I'm just here in an advisory capacity.
Besides, it would take a miracle for us to get as far as a firing
squad."

"And so now you're expecting me to perform a
miracle, I suppose?"

"I have to. It's the best chance I’ve
got!"

Chapter 21

A bizarre exodus within Electra began. It
was practically a confirmation that word of mouth was a faster
medium than electronics. In every corridor there were one or more
crew members dragging along too many personal possessions in a mad
rush toward the back of the habitat module. Within each operations
area, a struggle ensued to secure the area and protect the status
of our systems. In a reverse of what the intruders had done to us,
I had every system locked-out with encrypted access codes that
were, for all purposes, unbreakable.

During the process, my watch unexpectedly
began pulsing a horseshoe-shaped 'E’ and I knew immediately it was
a summons to the Captain’s quarters. All of the data available had
been transferred to the Captain’s terminal. It was possible this
was a sign that help would be proffered, and we needed all we could
get.

The Captain’s quarters were three decks
above us. I used the excuse that there was a Captain’s-eyes-only
priority alert that needed attention. I left R.J. and three
guardsmen worriedly standing watch in security with the entrance
monitored by a beam field. With two other swat members in tow, I
cautiously headed to level seven.

Outside the Captain’s door, the maintenance
panel verified no one had entered since the last visit. I handed
over my weapon and asked the team to wait outside, making sure they
understood shoot first, ask questions later. They were happy to
oblige. With a last look around, I ducked inside and let the door
close behind me.

I felt the change immediately. Her special
door was already open. The tall, robed form of the Emissary stood
glowing just in front of it. My eyes had to adjust in a strange way
to the special light, as the exhilarating sensation of her presence
once again became overwhelming. It suddenly dawned on me why Grey
had been so sparse in his description of her. It was difficult not
to become lost in the vision. Immediately I knew she was aware of
the evacuation, though she appeared unexpressive about it. I had to
catch my breath and swallow to speak.

“The intruders.”

She replied in my mind, “Rogues.”

And in that single word I knew that the
invaders were pirates from far outside our section of the galaxy.
Besides accosting us, they were breaking galactic rules I knew
nothing about. Before I could focus on another question, she
continued.

“They are found.”

I again understood her message. She now knew
enough about them that she was somehow able to mentally search the
ship and find and identify them. It made me wonder about their
mind-control capability, the biggest threat to us. Her response
startled me.

“No more.”

From that, I knew that, having found them,
she was now somehow able to prevent them from using mind control.
An involuntary pang of pleasure rose up within me, along with a
strong desire to pay them a visit.

Gracefully she stepped back, but her door
did not shut. Though it was not easy, I looked into her dark eyes.
For the first time, I saw concern. To my surprise, she was not
concerned for herself. It was concern for me. And in that moment, I
knew the task ahead would not be easy, and was not a guaranteed
win.

Her door closed and the golden light within
the room faded. The embrace of euphoria dissipated into the
desolate chamber of a missing Captain. I was left wanting more, but
that wasn’t going to happen. I did not understand the limits of
this being. I did not like feeling cut off. There should have been
more. Why was she treating us this way? Why couldn’t there be
understanding?

We stalked our way back to security, and
found ourselves walking the corridors of a deserted ship. It was
something I had never experienced on a large ship out of orbit. It
sent a further chill up my spine and made me walk a little more
briskly. There were creaks and groans coming from the
superstructure I had never before noticed. There were no vibrations
from the bulkheads, the hum of machine-life. I thought I sensed
someone behind me, looked over my shoulder and found a deserted
corridor disappearing into darkness. For a moment, I thought we had
taken a wrong turn, but then realized a storage compartment door
left open had confused me. It was startling how quickly things were
happening. I felt inadequate and stupid. I had set things out of
control. No, things were out of control anyway. Get your wits about
you, Tarn. You're jumping at your own shadow. Suddenly humbled, eh?
That was how the Captain had put it. I cursed myself and had just
begun to relax when a shrill cry echoed up the lonely corridor. We
stopped in unison, and jerked our weapons up. It had sounded like a
woman.

I cautiously led the way and peered around a
corner to look. At the end of the corridor, the dull red bar light
above the elevator illuminated. It had only been the whine of
elevator brakes as the car came to a halt. We hurried toward the
doors, but stopped and stepped back abruptly when they opened and
no one was inside. Impulsively, I fired a spread of three plasma
rounds into the car and watched them dissipate on the silver-gray
walls. We waited and listened.

Nothing. This was the elevator's home floor,
bridge officer’s privilege. The car had only been returning. We
moved into it and tapped three, weapons still poised. By the time
the doors opened for level three, I had once again regained some
composure. My fear turned to anger. It was time to be planning
retribution, not sticking my head in a mental ostrich hole. I
lowered my firearm, stepped out of the elevator, took a deep,
relaxing breath, and the lights went out.

On Earth, when the power fails, there's
almost always some light left. It may take some time for the eyes
to adjust, but usually you can at least make out shadows or shapes.
Inside a ship that is far from the nearest star, that's not the
case. When no artificial light source is available, you see
nothing. The pupils are fully dilated, the photoreceptors in the
retina ready to detect, but there is not a single subatomic bit of
energy to be had. Your nose can be one inch from a solid, white
wall, but you can't see it.

I had wondered what their next move would
be. They were probably just a bit dejected about their friend. And
now they knew we knew. This was their answer. Don't hurt the
harvest; instead create a floating tower of babble where so much
confusion exists that no organization can possibly be achieved. The
thing that astonished me the most was that the emergency lights
weren't working, a completely independent system with its own
batteries. Somehow they had overridden them.

We switched on our weapon lights and
proceeded cautiously along the corridor. Somewhere ahead blue light
glowed from an open door, and low voices resonated off the walls.
The blue glow cast eerie, changing patterns on the floor and walls.
As we neared, we recognized it as light from computer screens still
running. The voices sounded human. By the door, a beam detector was
still set up and running. With the greatest of care, I forced
myself to peer around the corner and into the room.

They were in a group at the far end of the
room, R.J, Pell, Nira, Doctor Pacell, and Perk. Perk's black
assault suit was still loaded down with firepower. He was seated by
a console, an automatic weapon resting in his lap, both hands
holding it, one foot propped up against the desk. Two other swat
team members leaned against the wall behind him. The doctor was
still in his white lab smock, the others in standard grays. They
seemed safe, but were watching the door as though the grim reaper
was due at any moment.

R. J. stood. Adrian! Thank God!

I gave a final glance up and down the
darkened corridor, and the three of us stepped quickly inside. The
alarm unit began chirping its warning until Perk tapped the
remote.

R.J stared at me as though I was a ghost.
"We were starting to think the worst..."

I tapped the door shut. "Just wandering
around in the dark, shooting at empty space. No problems at all,
really. What did I miss?"

R.J. opened his mouth to answer, but was cut
off by Perk. "The little bastards are playin' us, Adrian. They've
set up house on level two. The lights are all on down there. Like
we're bugs to them, and we'll follow the god dam light. They've got
the access ways staked out. As soon as you set foot on that level,
they nail you. Legrand, Patroni, and me went down there by a
service duct. Only reason I got away is I was still on the ladder.
I saw the guys below led away like children. Not only that, the
bastards got some doors locked open and others locked shut. No
local control. They made a god dam maze out of the ship. The only
way you can go leads you down to level two. Like rats in damned
laboratory maze. Shit, they're not even botherin' to round us up.
They think we're so stupid we'll deliver ourselves for
slaughter."