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relatively little effort. It made navigating in zero G difficult for most civilians when the tubes went down, but Dave was used to operating

under much worse conditions, so he knew he could guide them to a safe

portal with little difficulty. The hard part would be staying ahead of

pursuit and avoiding any hostiles in whatever portal they chose.

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He kept his voice low as he bent to her ear, spooning her in front of

his larger body for the push off as he sent them sweeping down the tube, guided only by the utility clip on his belt, still attached to the rail.

"I'd like to try to make it back to Alex and the guys, if we can."

"Sounds good."

"We may encounter problems before we reach them though, so be

ready for anything. I'm not sure how far away we were when we

stopped." He chuckled wryly. "This little cutie was distracting me."

She punched his arm playfully, and with little force so as to avoid

sending them tumbling in the zero G tube.

"There was this big brute distracting me, so I don't know either."

He leaned in and kissed her neck, shoving them a little further as

they started to decelerate. It wasn't the fastest mode of transportation, but it was relatively quiet and would get them where they needed to go

without detection. Hopefully.

Dave saw a few stopped pods, but the occupants were either still

within or long gone. He raised his legs as they passed over the tops of the pods, Adele's body spooned inside his perfectly. She'd followed his lead very well so far and he was impressed. For a civilian, she knew how to

work as part of a team and follow direction. That was something rare, he knew.

A light up ahead, just discernable to his eye had him reaching for

the wall to slow their pace.

"We're one ring away from the bar," she said softly.

He nodded, not wanting to speak in case what he saw ahead really

was trouble. Light flared as he stopped them fully. Definitely trouble.

That flare held the unmistakable glow of rifle fire.

With a smooth motion, he stopped their progress near a side portal.

The smaller portals usually led to service areas of the station in civilian designs, which was a good thing in this case. He wanted to avoid the

populated areas and work his way to the more vulnerable parts of the

station if at all possible, but he had to find a safe place to stash Adele first. Alex, and his predecessor before him, had undoubtedly created a

network of hidey holes, but Dave had to find just one.

Unclipping from the rail, he muscled open the small portal and

pushed Adele through. She was surprisingly good in zero G for a civilian and after his initial push, she managed to coast with little corrective

motions off the walls, just a few feet in front of him.

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He hadn't really intended to make her go first, but he had to close

the portal manually so they'd leave no trail, and when he turned around, she was already ahead. There was no sign of trouble in this shorter tunnel and the soft glow of emergency lights allowed her to navigate safely

enough, so he let her go. There were no occupied pods in this tube,

though he saw a few empties in the various small stations they passed.

"Well, look what we have here."

A man's voice filled the tunnel, and a flare of blue light caught

Adele by surprise. Her hand flew up to shield her eyes, but Dave's

Enhanced vision had already compensated. He was moving before the

other man had even lowered his hand from switching on the portable

lantern. Dave used the zero G to his advantage, letting his momentum

carry him into the smaller man and into the wall behind. His opponent

had the wind knocked out of him while Dave appropriated the laser

cutter he'd held in one hand. Dave shifted his grip and held the man by

the throat, looking into his eyes with deadly intent.

"Holy shit! You're not one of them, are you?"

"One of who?" Adele had come up alongside and reached into the sleeve pocket of his coverall for his identichip.

"One of the jits, lady. They overran my section not ten minutes

ago."

"Jit'suku? Are you sure?" Dave shook the man slightly to regain his attention.

"Sure as shootin', fella."

"Stanlay Kowliki, biosphere maintenance tech," Adele read from his card, then stuffed it back into the sleeve pocket. "You maintain the plantings, right? You're a gardener."

The man nodded as Dave let up on his collar a bit. "They came in

through the biosphere hatch. Backed their ship right up to it and docked, though it wasn't made for such use. Usually only garbage chutes are

attached to the hatch, leading out scows that haul waste organics away

planetside."

"How did you get in here?"

"Service portal J-32." The man pointed behind him. "They hadn't found the service corridors yet on this side. Or maybe they bypassed 'em.

Not much over this way, after all. I heard on the comms they were

subduing the civilian areas first. Locking 'em down and gassing a few

parts of the more heavily populated areas."

"Do you have a plan from here?" Dave asked.

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Stanlay nodded. "I'm heading for my rooms. My wife is there with

our son and I'd like to be with them should the worst happen."

Dave nodded and let the man go. Adele handed him his light that

she'd retrieved. "Don't use the main tube. They're in there already. Use the side tubes and you should be okay for a while."

"I don't have to go far. Only the next ring." Stanlay assured them as he clipped in to the rail on the upper portion of the tube. Dave handed

him the small laser.

"God speed."

"Thanks, mister. Sorry I surprised you, miss."

"I'm sorry I clobbered you." Dave shook his head and chuckled.

Civilians. The man was eyeing him like he was a monster and seemed

relieved to have escaped with his life.

"Good luck," Adele said as the man pushed off and shuttered the light."Will he make it?"

She nodded. "I think so. The question is, will we?" She smiled up at him and his breath caught. He leaned down and placed a quick, hard kiss

on her lips.

"We will if I have anything to say about it."

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When the first explosion rocked the station, Alex hit the lockdown

command on his bar and broke out the weapons. The men, bless their

combat-ready hearts, were with him every step of the way. Luckily, aside from the vets and Della, the bar was empty. No civilians to worry about

except Della, and she seemed more than willing to follow Alex's lead

when he unveiled the secret passage he'd cut into the station's

architecture over the past few months.

It led from behind the bar down into the lesser-used service conduits

of the station, then into some hidden areas only a true professional would be able to find. It was there, in the bowels of the station, Alex had set up his lair.

He was more than just a simple barkeep, though the civilians

running the station knew very little about why his 'former' bosses in the spec ops community had placed him there and set him up in business.

The bar was a drop-off point and Alex was the conduit through which

high-level intelligence was passed.

He had hidey holes all over the inner workings of this part of the

station. They would definitely come in handy now. Leading his little

group through the cramped passages, he was surprised at how well Della

kept up.

"How are you doing, sweetheart?" Alex paused at yet another

doorway to key in his special code on a well-hidden lock. Della panted

softly beside him. She was a little out of breath from the quick-time pace they'd set through the conduits, but otherwise she looked all right.

"I'm good. Where are we going?"

"Someplace safe while we figure out the extent of the attack and

what we can do about it."

Della reached out and touched his arm as he entered the last of the

complex code. "What about my niece?"

Alex could see the worry in her beautiful eyes. "If I know Dave, he won't let your girl out of his sight and he's probably doing the exact same 29

D'ARC, GALE, KENT, MARCH

thing we are. He's looking for a safe place to assess the situation and

make plans. If he's close enough, he'll probably rendezvous with us.

Don't worry. He's a good man and an excellent strategist. He'll keep her safe."

"Colonel," Perkins sidled up next to them, "movement in the next tube over."

Alex nodded briefly and opened the hidden hatch. Relieved to see

all was clear, he motioned them through, careful to close and lock the

hatch behind.

They were in a small chamber. It was the first of his secret

compartments and it led to several other escape routes, but for right now, they'd be safe enough to discuss preliminary plans. Plus, there was a

secure computer hookup they could use to monitor what was happening

on the station.

"Jake," he ordered quietly, "power up and jack into the system."

With a nod, the quiet man named Jake rolled back his sleeve and a

flap of pseudo-skin that hid a small, state of the art interface. Along with Enhancement, Jake had undergone cybernetic implantation to augment

his already incredibly sharp mind. Alex knew only a few very special

brains could handle the implants and the kind of work Jake had become

expert at during his time in service. Now officially "retired," Jake reported to Alex while in the field. He was glad the man was here now.

His expertise would come in very handy indeed.

Jake blinked a few times as he came out of download mode. "Bad

news, Colonel. Jits have docked and infiltrated."

"How many?"

"At least one hundred, maybe one-twenty, judging by the ship they

arrived in, and they've got control of environmental. I countermanded the order to flood all tubes with sleep gas, but it'll be overridden shortly."

"We should be safe enough in here," Alex reassured Della as she gasped. "There are secure scrubbers installed in all my compartments and the gas will be vented as soon as they think everyone's been dosed, so

they can move around without cumbersome gear."

Jake nodded. "They already gassed the main shopping concourses

on all civilian rings. Lots of sleeping people everywhere on the station, and others locked in their quarters. All the civ rings are in lockdown and the station cops have been locked into their garrison. I can't override

from here."

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"So they've got the run of the station already." Alex cursed under his breath. Grave expressions met his gaze as he looked around the room at

his gathered troops. "Jake, were you able to get off an alert?"

"Affirmative, Colonel. It's on a subfrequency they'll probably never find. All your operatives on the station have been alerted. If they're

awake, they got my sitrep through their direct comms and if they're

sleeping, they'll get it when they wake up."

"Good man."

"Colonel,"

Jake

straightened,

his

expression

grim.

"The

environmental system just overrode my bypass command. The tubes are

flooding with gas, but it'll be a slow process because of the extent of the conduit network. Estimate at least six hours before they vent. The jits

want to make damned sure everyone's asleep before they venture out."

Alex turned and punched a button. A bench slipped out from the

wall and he sat heavily. "I guess all we can do for now is watch and wait.

Without gear we can't move in the conduits until that stuff has vented

and all my environmental gear is in the next compartment. Too far away

to get to before the gas reaches us."

"Do we have anything useful in this compartment? Maybe

something to eat?" Della asked.

Alex smiled up at her and patted the bench next to him. She sat at

his side and his smile turned wolfish.

"We've got rations and something even better." He pushed a series of hidden switches on the irregular wall surface and a secret panel slid back to reveal an arsenal. "We've got enough firepower to take back the station—if we use it wisely."

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Dave recognized one of Alex's more obscure signs just moments

after the tubes started to flood with gas. Inputting his code on the hidden mechanism, Dave managed to get the hatch open before either he or

Adele gave in to the pull of the gas, but it was a close thing.

Sealing the small compartment, the scrubbers inside the hidden

chamber immediately went to work on the contaminated air he'd let in as

they entered. He pulled a wide bench out from the wall and laid Adele on it. With her smaller frame, Adele had succumbed more easily to the

effects of the gas and was the next thing to unconscious.

For a moment, uncustomary fear hit him. What if it wasn't just sleep

gas? What if she'd been poisoned?

Dave tore through the supply cupboards to find a small med unit

that would monitor Adele's heart and counteract most common poisons.

He ripped apart the seals on her top, hesitating only briefly before

slipping her sheer under-tunic down her arms, baring her breasts.

He attached the hand-sized unit over her heart, relieved when it

glowed green with health. He had to lean in to read the findings and felt even better when the small unit registered sleep inducers only. He pushed a button to administer counteragents and the unit attached itself more