Ronan: Ziva Payvan Book 3 (46 page)

They exchanged one more uneasy glance before the Durutians broke away, leaving her to sift through the data on the screen. Ship names. Crew manifests. Schematics of facilities on Forus. A list that appeared to contain the names of every known Nosti. After only a minute of searching, the stream of information seemed endless. There was no way she’d be able to choose relevant data to transmit to the Federation; it was
all
relevant.

“Find anything?” Aroska asked, helping a couple of straggling Durutians to their feet.

“There’s so much here,” she answered as her eyes pored over the text on the screen. “Transmission would take….” She shook her head.

“How long?”

“Longer than we have. Call Aura and make sure she’s ready to go.” She risked a glance back to the helm, where the three pilots were struggling to keep the massive ship steady. “We’ll need to get out of here fast.”

She continued reading, listening to Aroska initiate the conversation with Aura as she tried to decide what to do. There was always the option of just transmitting everything to the Federation and hoping something useful would get through before the ship was destroyed. It would be faster than standing there trying to decide what data would be most valuable. She’d at least mark the facility list and roster of names as priority and get them sent out first; with any luck, those files would transmit entirely and the Feds could act on it even if the rest of the information never made it through.

The ship was already connected to the rest of the Resistance network within the Core, so establishing a connection to the Federation took no time at all. Ziva initiated the transmission, beginning with the data on the Forus facilities, but hesitated for a moment with her eyes fixed on the roster.

You know your name is probably in there
.

Aura’s voice echoed in the background. “—but we’re holding. Between the
Intrepid
, the GA runners, and the Durutian ships, we’ve managed to keep any enemy fighters from landing in the bay. Squad of Res soldiers came in here with a mounted gun to take us out – took care of them too.”

You send that out and the entire galaxy is going to know who you are
.

“We were safe while the shields were up, but now they’re trying to fire on us. The ship’s already going down – they don’t care if it sustains more damage.”

“You said the ship’s going down?” Aroska said.

“It’s drifting. Stabilizers are gone. The GA’s been picking at it since the shields went down. They know we’re in here but they’re not going to wait forever. The soldiers have more of the same explosives they used to take out the generators. If we can remotely detonate a large number of them in the hangar, we can cripple this thing for good.”

Ziva swallowed, unable to help but sort the list by location and search for Haphez. Gamon’s name was there, struck through in red. Her stomach sank when her gaze fell upon her own name right below it. A quick glance around the screen revealed no way to remove it – the data was read-only.

There’s no more time to think about this. Just send it.

It was true. If they didn’t leave now, they’d be vaporized along with the ship. And if she didn’t send this list, the Resistance would continue its expansion into the Fringe. Another Ronan would eventually rise up, and innocent people would continue to die.

She added the roster to the transmission without another thought.

“Many of the escape pods are being jettisoned already, so you should have a fairly clear escape route. Get here as soon as you can.”

“Copy that,” Aroska said as he ended the call. “You ready?”

Ziva nodded, ensuring that the entire database was set to transmit before stepping away from the table. “I prioritized some data the Feds might find…interesting.”

“Good. Let’s get out of here.”

After a painstaking infiltration, it was always amazing how quickly the trip out of a place went. In this case, part of that was due to the fact that they weren’t tip-toeing around and weren’t running into Resistance soldiers at every corner. Those they
did
run into only ever managed a few half-hearted plasma shots before continuing on their way to the escape pods. Now that their secret – their presence – was out in the open, there was no reason to continue their little suicide game.  Saving themselves and preserving their way of life had become the priority.

By the time they made it back to the hangar, both were out of breath and Ziva’s pulse was hammering in her ears. Aura, a GA soldier, and several of the Durutians waited in the access corridor with weapons trained on the entrance. All the explosives Aura had mentioned were wired together along the corridor wall, fitted with a remote detonation receiver. The
Intrepid
sat undamaged just ahead, though the same couldn’t be said for two of the Durutian ships.

Aura gestured for them to hurry just as the first shots rang out behind them. A quick exploration of her belt told Ziva that her shield generator had been damaged in the fight with Ronan. Aroska darted forward and she ducked through the hangar entrance behind him, taking cover against the wall just inside the door. Aura took up a similar position on the opposite side, leaning away to dodge the spray of plasma that made it through the opening. She turned and fired several blind shots toward the approaching soldiers, slowing their advance and giving Ziva a chance to step away and reach the door controls.

Hurried footsteps echoed through the hallway as she hit the control panel. The door slid shut but hissed open again the moment she removed her hand. She pressed the button again, holding it this time. Blackened, melted wires jutted out beside her hand, the result of a stray plasma bolt. There certainly wasn’t time to fix it before the ship was destroyed, and the moment she let go, the Resistance soldiers would be pouring through. She looked over the door itself, searching for an override, but saw nothing.

Ziva turned back toward the hangar. “Get to the ship!” she ordered, looking Aroska in the eye as she did so. “I’m not going to tell you again!”

The Durutians complied without question, and to her surprise, so did Aroska…or maybe he’d just gotten caught up in the crowd. Ziva watched them for a moment before returning her focus to the control panel and studying the path to the ship. She saw no form of cover; if the door were to open, they’d be picked off before they could reach the
Intrepid
, and if any of the explosives were hit, they’d all be dead in an instant.

“That goes for you, too,” she muttered in Aura’s direction, swallowing hard as she closed her eyes and listened to the angry shouts on the other side of the door.

“I don’t think so.” A hand settled over hers, maintaining pressure on the switch. “Go.”

Ziva turned and once again found herself on the receiving end of the same steely look she often gave people. Aura’s mouth formed a straight line as she used her free hand to pry Ziva’s out from under her own. The door held fast.

“I left someone behind once and I’m not going to do it again.”

Ziva took a step away, surprised by the ease with which she did. “And now you expect me to leave
you
behind?”

Aura didn’t even bother arguing. “You were right – I’m not convinced I did the right thing back then. Let me do the right thing now. I’m saving your life here.” She held Ziva’s gaze for another beat. “Go on! Go!”

Ziva turned, but rather than head for the ship, she beckoned to the Durutians who had been waiting in the corridor. “Where’s the remote detonator?”

One of them appeared in the
Intrepid’s
hatch and passed a small object off to Aroska where he waited at the base of the boarding ramp. He jogged over and lobbed the detonator to her. She caught it and pressed it into Aura’s empty palm.

“See if you can take a few of the bastards with you,” she said.

Aura gave her a terse nod and jerked her head toward the ship.

Ziva didn’t look back as she and Aroska sprinted across the hangar and up the boarding ramp. Taran and Mae and a handful of their soldiers were crowded into the cargo area and more lined the corridor to the cockpit. Ziva slid into the pilot’s seat and brought the ship up off the floor, following the remaining Durutian ship and the two GA runners out of the bay.

“
Soroya
to
Intrepid
,” a voice crackled over the comm. “We’re picking up your exit from the port docking hangar. Confirm.”

“Affirmative,” she replied. “You’re all clear – fire at will.”

The
Marauder
shuddered violently just as they cleared the hangar. Something large and heavy struck the rear of the
Intrepid
, and the ship listed sideways.

“No idea what that was,” Aroska said in response to the look Ziva shot him as she struggled to regain control. His eyes remained fixed on all the readings displayed on the control panel. “Shields still look good.”

None of the readings on her side seemed out of the ordinary either. Ziva risked a look down at the scanner, pleased by the dwindling number of red dots. She maneuvered the ship toward the edge of the battle as the other two vessels broke off and re-joined their respective fleets. “You got weapons handled?”

“Mmm hmm.” The targeting reticle danced across the HUD, zeroing in on the Resistance fighters that were no longer protected by the
Marauder’s
shield generators.

Ziva allowed herself a sigh of relief and started to open a transmission to Skeet, then opted to send it directly to Emeri’s office. Maybe Ganten would be listening in, and she wanted him to be well aware of the contribution she’d just made.

Minimized holograms of Skeet, Emeri, and even Zinni appeared on the projection pad in seconds. To her delight, Ganten’s rendered a moment later. None of them would be able to see her unless she got up and stood on the cockpit’s comm pad, but they’d certainly be able to hear her voice.

“We’re out,” she said before any of them could get a word in edgewise. “The Resistance flagship is doomed. Ronan is dead. I’ve got a massive packet of data en route to the Federation. Agent Stannist sacrificed herself so we could get out safely. We’ve got a squad of Durutians on board who need medical attention. We’re breaking off from the battle now – should be home within a couple of hours.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Emeri open his mouth to say something, but she ended the transmission and left it at that.

-59-

HSP Headquarters

Noro, Haphez

Night had fallen in Noro by the time the
Intrepid
touched down on the landing pad, though with the number of lights illuminating the platform, Skeet hardly noticed how dark the sky was. He began to move forward with the rest of the emergency personnel who had gathered to help the incoming Durutians, but the soft hum of repulsors behind him prompted him to slow down and wait for Zinni to catch up in the hoverchair the med center had provided her with. She didn’t even seem to notice she’d almost been left behind; her gaze was directed straight ahead at the figures making their way down the boarding ramp.

Despite the fact that Ziva had contacted them from the ship, he was beginning to wonder if she was even aboard. More ‘borgs spilled out by the second, some unscathed, some already patched with crude bandages, and some leaking blood and fluids everywhere they walked. When Taran Reddic appeared in the hatch, Skeet felt his face flush with anger. But when Mae came up beside him with her hand clamped over a nasty wound on her arm, the anger subsided a bit. After learning the truth, he could hardly blame them for their actions on Aubin, and their presence had obviously been a huge help in the battle. They deserved a warm reception now.

He pulled up short when Zinni stopped, unable to get her chair through the congestion at the end of the platform. They watched from a distance as Ziva and Aroska finally emerged from the ship, bloodied and bruised. Aroska moved down and began ushering some of the Durutians toward the containment area that had been set up inside while Ziva sealed the ship and disappeared around the back of it.

Skeet waited another few moments for the crowd to clear before he and Zinni wandered over.  They found Ziva standing up on the edge of the starboard engine housing, examining a severely dented area that had been blackened upon reentry.

“She took a beating,” he observed, trying to keep his tone as upbeat as possible. “Damage to the heat shielding?”

Several long seconds passed before Ziva came up with an answer. She held perfectly still and stared straight ahead at nothing in particular before lowering her head. “Looks like it. A piece of debris hit us on our way out of the flagship’s hangar. Whatever broke off must have burned up during reentry. One of the thrusters is exposed.”

“Is it bad?” he asked.

“It’ll be fine.” Ziva jumped down, wiping her greasy hands on her already-soiled pants. “How’s it going on your end?”

There was something in her manner that Skeet didn’t like, something about the way she changed the subject that made him uneasy, but he shrugged anyway. “Going well,” he answered. “All but one of the officers from the
Vigilance
have been found, and Emeri has devoted half the ops teams to tracking him down.” He gave Zinni an approving glance. “And the docs say our dear intel officer will make a full recovery after some good old fashioned R-and-R.”

“And the fleets?”

“Still going at it, but Resistance numbers are already way down. Your friends helped, and taking out that flagship was a huge morale drain.” He paused, considering for a moment what must have gone down on the
Marauder
. He studied Ziva’s blood-stained clothes, realizing blood splatter like that certainly wouldn’t have been the result of a gunfight with plasma. His eyes were drawn to the black bar attached to her belt.

“
What are you going to do with it?”

“I guess I’m going to stop Ronan.”

Well, she certainly had. Skeet made a point of fixing his gaze on the kytara before giving his head a subtle tilt toward Zinni.

Ziva picked up on the cue and looked down at the intelligence officer with the same shame in her eyes that she’d shown while explaining her secret to Skeet. “I wanted to tell you,” she said.

Zinni shook her head and struggled to stand up, ignoring Skeet’s offer for help. “Don’t worry about it,” she said. “You did what you had to do.”

Skeet couldn’t be sure, but some of Zinni’s discomfort seemed to have abated. He was by no means pleased with circumstances either, but after recognizing what was at stake and what Ziva had accomplished, he couldn’t help but relax a bit as well. It wasn’t like she’d ever flaunted her strange abilities, and the only times she’d ever used them, it had been for good.

“I should have never even revealed myself,” Ziva muttered.

The look on her face told Skeet she didn’t believe the words coming out of her own mouth. “That’s not true,” he said. “Tarbic would have died at Dakiti and Ronan would still be here, wiping us all out. The Resistance has had this plan in motion for a while. Imagine trying to come clean about the nostium if there weren’t already people willing to help you keep your secret.”

Zinni shifted her feet and turned to look when the door across the landing pad opened. “Speaking of….”

Skeet turned as well and found Aroska rushing toward them, eyes frantic and focused solely on Ziva. It was difficult to tell whether he was shocked, afraid, or angry. Perhaps it was some combination of the three.

He pushed past the two of them and took Ziva by the shoulders, breathing hard. “What did you do?” he demanded.

The confusion only remained on her face for a moment. She set her jaw and shrugged away, turning back to the door and watching as Emeri emerged with a pair of agents, Taran Reddic, and three of the uninjured Durutians.

While her expression morphed into one of mere disappointment, Skeet and Zinni could only stand there, bewildered. “What
did
you do?” Zinni said.

Without looking at any of them, Ziva drew her pistol and handed it stock-first to Aroska, then passed him her kytara as well. She kept her hands in plain view as she stepped away and moved toward the approaching group. “My name was in those files,” she muttered.

Over the past couple of days – and throughout the past couple of hours, especially – Skeet had grown accustomed to the look of dismay on Emeri’s face, but it was worse now than he’d ever seen it. “You realize there’s no way I can get you out of this,” the director said as he came to a stop in front of Ziva.

She nodded and glanced at the HSP officers and Durutians who had formed a perimeter around her but had yet to draw any weapons.

Reddic stepped forward, removing his finger from his earpiece. “Ziva Payvan, on the authority of Colonel Adrian Matney…” His words seemed forced, his voice strained. “I’m placing you under arrest for crimes against the Galactic Federation.”