Prison Ship (35 page)

“Military Intelligence has transferred you to a secure location for your protection. Do you remember anything before you lost consciousness?”

Suzanne searched through the dense fog that shrouded her memory. She recalled a reception with many inquisitive guests. A burglar in her office. A computer transmission. A statue—

A barely audible cry escaped her lips. Her hands came up to her chest, groping for the object that should have been embedded there. Looking beneath her gown, she found that her skin showed no signs of ever being damaged.

The female doctor sat at the end of the bed. “We did a nice job of reconstruction, don’t you think?”

“How long have I been unconscious?”

“Almost two weeks.”

Suzanne caught her breath. Had she actually been asleep that long?

The doctor leaned forward, and whispered, “Military Intelligence suspected your life might still be in jeopardy so they released a false report of your death. Do you know who attacked—?”

Suzanne grabbed the woman’s hand. “Tell them that Jacob Steiner is in danger.”

“THIS is the U.S.S.
Marauder
to any vessel in the area, please respond,” Steiner repeated into the microphone for the sixth time, his voice becoming despondent. Only static answered him.

Simmons must have sabotaged the entire communication grid to prevent him from calling for help. The intercom system was out, too, except for the channel to the engine room—to Quinn. Steiner’s comlink lay shattered on the deck beyond repair. Without any form of communication, he couldn’t contact any of his security officers. He didn’t even know if they were still loyal to him.

He glanced over at the two blackened holes blasted through the security station. Without the monitors, he had no idea how many people he was up against.

A groan rose from the command chair, where Simmons had been tied up. The navigator opened his eyes. He struggled against the computer wires that strapped him to the chair.

“Good morning, Mr. Simmons,” Steiner said, his tone threatening.

The navigator stiffened. “What are you going to do to me?” “If you answer my questions truthfully, I’ll let you live.” Steiner yanked him by his collar. “After all, you saved my life earlier.”

A frown creased Simmons’s lips.

Steiner held up the AT-7 in front of the man’s eyes. “Where did this weapon come from?”

“Boon gave it to Mack.”

“Boon Wong, the computer specialist?”

Simmons nodded. “Yes, he’s Travis Quinn’s partner.”

Frustrated, Steiner slammed his fist into the armrest of the chair, barely missing his captive’s arm. He had been right in suspecting someone else.

“Where did he get the pistol? Steiner asked.

“The armory.”

Steiner pressed the muzzle into the navigator’s right nostril. “You’re lying. Only I have access to the armory.”

“That’s what I was told,” Simmons whimpered. “I don’t know any more.”

“Was it you who damaged the communication grid?”

“Boon told me to do it.”

“Was there anything else he instructed you to do?”

“To steal the ship’s Orders disk.”

“Why? What did he want that for?”

“I don’t know.”

Steiner thrust him against the back of the chair and paced around him. “Surely you must be aware that if their mutiny had succeeded, the U.S.S. would have destroyed this vessel. Why would you invite death?”

“Travis Quinn is taking us to the Centri System, where we could be free.”

Steiner glowered down at him. “Even if you made it to the outlaw sanctuary, you would have been pursued by bounty hunters.”

“Not if Boon removed our tracers,” Simmons answered.

“How could he do that?”

“He’s a cyberneticist.”

The hair on the back of Steiner’s neck rose as he realized the implications of what he’d just heard.

“Where’s Tramer?” he shouted.

MAXWELL opened his human eye and waited a few seconds for it to focus. He found himself staring up at a ceiling. Where was he? What had happened to him?

He tried to access his digital memory to find out how long he had been unconscious, but it didn’t seem to be functioning. It had never failed to work before. He attempted to move his head, yet it remained motionless. None of his appendages responded to his will.

His proximity sensors gave him a picture of his surroundings. He was lying on a table within a closed room, perhaps one of the engineers’ quarters on the lower level.

Maxwell vaguely remembered Simmons sneaking up behind him and injecting him with some kind of drug. Since it would have taken several men to carry his heavy metallic body here, a sizable mutiny must be in progress.

The door to the chamber whined open. Footsteps approached. A man—Boon Wong—leaned over into his face.

“You’re awake,” Wong said. “Wonderful. We can begin.”

“Begin what?” Maxwell snapped. “What have you done to me?”

Wong smirked. “I’ve made you better than you were before.”

“How? I cannot move.”

“You move when I tell you to,” the oversized man answered, seating himself at a table at the side of the bed. “Behold.”

A couple of computer tones chimed, then Maxwell’s right arm rose into the air. Maxwell couldn’t bring it back down. Another series of chirps commanded his mechanical body to sit upright.

“How have you done this?” Maxwell shouted.

“I’ve routed all your functions into this command box,” Wong answered.

Wong instructed Maxwell’s head to turn until he could see the small mobile console that held his body hostage. Wong tilted it up on its side, showing it off.

“It was quite easy to set up,” the man boasted. “I installed a bypassing receiver next to your central processing unit that overrides—”

“Release me at once, or I’ll destroy you,” Maxwell demanded.

Wong pressed some keypads on the box. “You’re in no position to be threatening me.”

Maxwell’s hand lifted up to his face, stopping inches from his human eye. The fingers opened and closed like the teeth of a claw, ready to dig into his flesh and brain.

The door slid aside. Maxwell couldn’t believe who he saw enter the room. Travis Quinn.

“What are you doing, Boon?” Quinn scolded. “You may damage our prize.”

Maxwell’s arm returned to his side.

Quinn stopped a few feet away. A confident smile twisted through his hard features. No doubt he controlled whatever was happening on the ship. For the first time in his life since his transformation, Maxwell felt truly afraid.

“So we meet again, Cyborg. I’ve waited a long time for this moment. I’m enjoying it immensely.”

“Boon Wong,” Maxwell said. “You are aiding a Separatist agent. After you have used up your usefulness to him, he will eliminate you.”

Wong chuckled softly.

“A waste of time, Cyborg,” Quinn answered. “He’s been with me from the beginning.”

Anger built up inside Maxwell for his failure to see what should have been so obvious. “So you are both spies,” he said. “Why would you be here on this ship now? Barker has already been eliminated.”

Quinn folded his arms and scowled. “I’ve always suspected that you were the one who murdered Joseph.”

“After I free myself, I will destroy you, too.”

Quinn tilted his head. “I’ve already made precautions for that event if it should occur. See this?” He displayed a miniature device secured to his wrist. “Boon has planted an explosive charge right behind your head. All I have to do is activate this detonator, and you die instantly.”

“Why wait then?” Maxwell screamed. “If it’s revenge you want, take it now.”

A devilish grin cracked Quinn’s lips. “I wouldn’t dream of depriving you of the glorious end I have planned for you. I need you to take over the ship for us.”

Wong typed on the mobile console. Maxwell’s body stood up from the table, and his breastplate dropped open, revealing the twin guns.

Maxwell screamed in rage at his helplessness.

“HOW many men are behind the door?” Richards asked.

Steiner scanned through the sealed entryway to the engine room with his tracker. “Eight.”

After leaving the command center, he had found Benjamin and his team inside the bar, trying to figure out what was happening. He was thankful none of the security team had joined Quinn’s mutiny. As a precaution, he had Eddie round up all the crew members who were not locked on the lower levels, and had them taken to the bar while the other two security officers helped him squelch the mutiny attempt.

“We’ll need to find another way down onto the lower level and surprise the renegades,” Steiner said.

“I agree,” Richards said. “Besides this central passageway, the only other route to the lower level was damaged in the battle with
Conqueror
.”

“What if we used the maintenance shafts at the top of the ship to sneak into the generating station,” Hulsey said. “From there, we could climb down onto the lower level.”

Steiner had forgotten all about the maintenance shafts. Only Daniels and J.R. ever went in them. Maybe Quinn didn’t even know they existed.

“How did you know about the route?” Steiner asked.

“I studied the entire layout of the vessel before coming on board,” Hulsey answered with a slight smile. “If I’m going to guard it, I need to know everything I can about it.”

“That you do,” Steiner said. “Let’s go up there and check it out.”

“No,” Richards snapped. “In order to get down onto the lower level from up there, we’d have to use the maintenance stairway.”

“Yeah,” Hulsey replied. “What’s the problem?”

Richards glared at him. “The stairway is a hundred feet high. If we try to traverse it, we’ll be vulnerable to enemy fire.”

Steiner held up his tracker. “With this I can determine where each one of the mutineers is. If we act fast, we’ll have them under submission before they can fire a shot.”

Richards shook his head. “Too many things can go wrong with your plan.”

“Don’t worry, Ben.” Hulsey slapped him on the back. “We can do this.”

Richards mumbled to himself.

Steiner led them to the rear of the second level. After he opened the entrance to the maintenance shafts, they crawled through the tight tunnels, past three junctions, until they reached a small room, just tall enough to stand up in. A sealed pressure hatch stood on the far wall.

Steiner hastened to the control panel embedded inside the frame of the doorway and typed in a password. The barrier slid aside, revealing a seven-foot-high, narrow-walled tunnel bathed in bright red lights. Thick cables lined the sides, stretching a hundred feet to a generating station at the opposite end.

“No one is up here, except for us,” Steiner said, glancing down at the screen of his tracker.

“I’d feel better if more than one of us were armed,” Richards said.

Steiner still had Palmer’s gun under his belt. Since the security chief hadn’t joined the mutiny, Steiner decided to trust him with the extra AT-7.

With both security officers trailing behind him, Steiner started through the crimson-colored accessway. The walls were little more than three feet apart. The scent of charged air became more pronounced with each step. Flashes of electricity lit the other end of the passageway. Crackles of thunder grew louder.

Inside the generating station, lightning flared among six rows of conductor posts, creating a strobe effect throughout the vast room. The rumbles from the collapsing air pockets ran through the deck plates.

The tracker’s display flickered from the magnetic interference. Then Steiner saw them. Six tracer implants registered deep inside the reactor chamber. Since they were perfectly motionless, they must be the bodies of Daniels and his engineers. Steiner forced his sorrow from returning and continued to their goal.

Inching toward the maintenance stairway, Richards searched around the generators with the muzzle of his AT-7.

“No mutineers are anywhere around,” Steiner assured him.

“Considering all this electrical interference, I don’t trust what that device says,” Richards said.

Steiner stepped out onto the balcony that overlooked the top of the stairway. A hundred feet below, the chamber lay empty. No sentries had been posted in this section at all.

Richards locked eyes with Steiner. “If we get caught during our descent, we’re all dead,” he whispered.

“Would you prefer to stay here until we’re done?” Steiner asked.

Richards glanced at Hulsey, then shook his head. “If we must do this, we’ll do it together. I’ll go first.” He started down the steps, keeping his AT-7 trained on the chamber below.

Steiner followed right on his heels, keeping his gaze riveted to the tracker. Hulsey brought up the rear.

When they neared the bottom, Richards climbed over the railing and jumped the remaining ten feet to the floor. He aimed his pistol down the corridor leading to the engine room, waiting until Steiner and Hulsey reached the ground.

Richards handed his gun to Hulsey. “Cover me. I’m going to prepare for the worst.”

Richards went under the stairway, where large storage bins had been stacked, and started pushing one out toward the base of the steps. Steiner thought the man was overreacting but decided to help him anyway. Together, they created a small blockade.

When they had finished, Hulsey led them along the corridor leading toward the control cubicle for the engine room. Several tense minutes passed before they arrived at the end of the passageway, where it emptied into the main junction.

People conversed with each another just around the bend to the left. On the right, shadows from a gathering of men danced upon the sealed door to the reactor chamber. They seemed to be working on something.

A distinct hum grew, followed by cheers. Steiner recognized the sound of a laser cannon charging up to fire. How could that be?

Hulsey snuck up to the edge of the corner and peered around the side. “What the hell?” he mouthed.

Steiner hurried to the spot and stole a glimpse. Rex, Bo, Midas, and Sanchez had indeed assembled a laser cannon and were preparing to discharge it. Boon Wong paced around them with an assault rifle slung across his shoulders. The most startling sight was that of Tramer standing perfectly still against a far wall, his human eye fixed directly on Steiner.