The Girls From Alcyone (33 page)

The corporal squirmed, considering his options. "Very well—you may contact the Major."

"Of course."

The corporal stepped back and allowed Sigrid to exit the vehicle, then followed her into the little guard booth.

"Oh, my…" Karen said. From her seat she could just make out the muffled sounds of a brief struggle and see a pair of booted-feet fly up into the air. The gate before them clanged open, rolling out of their way.

Sigrid came back and let herself into the car, straightening her hair and tunic. Karen couldn't suppress a snicker. Sigrid gave the girl a wink.

Hitomi tapped the glass and the car sped forward again, speeding across the tarmac past the rows of parked ships. They came to a screeching halt at the pad that held her ship, the
Morrigan;
Sigrid felt a strange tingling sensation at seeing the ship again. Her ship.

The first of the alarms sounded as she opened the car door. She glanced back at her two companions. She felt overwhelmed; there was so much she wanted to say to both of them, but there was no time.

"I can't thank either of you enough. You've taken an awful risk in helping me like this. I don't know how you'll be able to explain any of it."

Hitomi laughed. "My dear, this isn't
goodbye.
We're coming with you. Now, help me out of here. They'll be here in a moment."

Karen chuckled at the expression on Sigrid's face, then both girls helped the Lady Hitomi from the car. Hitomi took a moment to thank the driver before he sped quickly off.

"Will he be all right?" Sigrid asked, as they helped Hitomi up the stairs to the ship. They could already hear the sounds of vehicles speeding toward them.

"Oh, they won't give him too much trouble. They can hardly fault a chauffeur for driving his Lady to her ship now, can they?"

Sigrid sealed the ship behind them and they hastened to the bridge; the thrusters were already firing. The
Morrigan
tilted back on its tail before blasting skywards.

Selene greeted them as they helped Hitomi into one of the jump-seats. "Nice to see you again."

Sigrid stared at her companions. She knew she must look ridiculous, but she felt completely overwhelmed. "I—I can't believe you've all done this for me." She thumbed a stray tear from the corner of her eye.

Karen laughed. "Now don't you start or you'll get me going."

"But your career—
your life
. You can't go back."

"Oh, it was just a job." Karen paused, suddenly flustered, and looked quickly to Hitomi. "Sorry, Milady…that came out all wrong."

"That's quite all right. I understand, and you may dispense with the ridiculous title. My Board has relieved me of it. I am merely Kimura by name now."

Sigrid wasn't sure if she'd heard correctly. "Milady…?"

Hitomi frowned. "Yes, it appears I've been
sacked.
It seems the shareholders blame me for the recent attacks. And after our extracurricular activities on Earth…they've seen fit to strip me of my office. My son will head the company now."

"Mistress, I'm so sorry."

"Bah! Think nothing of it. We'll have time enough to lament that later."

Despite her easy dismissal, Sigrid could tell Hitomi was quite annoyed with the firing. It was a betrayal; nothing less than a coup.

The bridge door slid open and Lieutenant Lopez stepped in. Sigrid threw her arms around him. "Christian!"

Her tight embrace winded him; he grunted, exhaling hard.

Sigrid stepped back, embarrassed. "Sorry."

Christian flexed, probing his bruised ribs. "It's okay."

"I still say you're all crazy."

"I think you misunderstand," Hitomi said. "This isn't a
rescue
mission. Sigrid, I need your help."

Sigrid gaped at Hitomi, clueless as to what she was talking about. "Mistress…?"

"I need your help—the help of all of you. I have no intention of letting the Council, or anyone else, take my girls from me. Sigrid, we have to save them."

CHAPTER TWENTY

Search & Rescue

May 11, 2348

Sigrid stood in the center of what had once been the Academy grounds on Alcyone. Now, all that remained were the burned and collapsed remnants of the school and dormitories. Smoke still wisped up from the blackened piles of lumber and debris. The stench was raw and acrid, threatening to overwhelm Sigrid's sensors.

"Whatever happened here, we missed it," Christian said, waving the small scanner in a horizontal arc. "I can't find any life signs or any energy readings. I'm sorry, Sigrid."

"Thank you, Christian."

The Academy had been attacked, there was little doubt. Dead Kimura Marines lay everywhere, but there was still no sign of the girls, not Suko or any of the young ones. And where was Dr. Garrett? Where was Rosa? If they were hiding, they should be able to get them on the comlink, but Sigrid's only answer was faint static.

"Chesna…" She bent over the woman's body, that still clutched a heavy rifle. Her face was black and caked with blood around her nose and mouth, her eyes open and staring skyward. The macabre sight fed Sigrid's growing sense of dread.

"This was no snatch and grab," Christian said. He picked up a discarded, broken assault rifle from the ground. "They had heavy equipment. Look." He pointed to the tracks on the ground.

Sigrid saw the tracks, but they didn't make any sense; they weren't vehicle tracks, at least none like any she'd ever seen before. These were more like giant foot prints.

"
Mechs
," Christian said. "They had bloody
Mechs
." He tossed the broken rifle to the ground.

Sigrid scanned her database; as far as she could see only Diego Systems were developing prototypes for such a weapon, but those had been little more than walking, armored shells. Her records revealed some scathing reports about the technology; while Diego's claims of the weapon's potential was grand, the project had so far been a disaster; only a few malfunctioning prototypes existed.

"There's no way
Independents
did this," Christian said grimly. "It looks like a whole battalion landed here."

Sigrid nodded. "Come on. We have to keep looking."

She led him through the ruins, out of the Academy grounds and into the woods. The place she sought was a little less than half a kilometer away. This was where the bunker was located, built by the Kimura Engineering Corps during the expansion. If the girls were alive, if they hadn't fled into the woods or been captured or killed, this was the only place they could be. The bunker was perfectly hidden amongst a dense copse of trees with the entrance buried under a deep pile of dirt and leaves.

Sigrid went straight to where the hatch was and stopped dead in her tracks. The camouflage had been cleared away leaving the hatch clearly visible. Like all the girls, she knew the codes, and she tried them now. The door refused to open. She tried several more times, to no avail.

"What is it?" Christian asked. "Is it broken?"

"I'm not sure." Sigrid scanned the hatch mechanism and drew in a sharp breath. Someone,
something,
had completely fused the locking mechanisms. Sigrid pounded her fists on the metal seal. "
Shit!
"

"What?"

"It's been sabotaged! The lock's totally melted away."

"They're not…they're not trapped inside?"

"No. They sealed them
out.
" Frantic, Sigrid scanned the area again, searching desperately for signs of any of them, but nothing turned up in her sensory modes. She tried calling out with her comlink. If the girls were in range, they'd pick up the signal. But there was still nothing. Not even the orbital satellites showed any sign of the girls, or survivors for that matter. Whoever had done this had been brutal and thorough.

Sigrid knew she would kill them.

She tried to remind herself that all wasn't lost—twenty-one of the girls had gotten off the planet before the attacks. They were already well on their way to the assignments that Hitomi had arranged for them. Hitomi had sent word through the Mercenary Guild to Marylyn Lawther to warn them of the danger. She had also asked her to personally look out for the girls who had been assigned to the Naval Academy.

But that didn't change the fact that Suko,
seven
other girls, forty-two little ones, Dr. Garrett and her staff, were all still missing. Killed or taken from Alcyone? Sigrid could only guess.

Her comlink chimed for her attention, followed by Selene's urgent voice. "
Sigrid, we just spotted four ships coming through the Relay. They're Kimura, and they're on their way.
"

"How long?"

"
Four days, best speed, as far as I can determine.
"

"All right. Thank you, Selene."

"That still gives us time to keep searching," Christian said. "There could still be survivors."

Sigrid wanted to believe him. She scanned for any signs of life, desperate to turn something up, but there was nothing. "They're gone. Everyone here is dead. Selene, you better come pick us up. I'll send you our coordinates."

"
On our way.
"

Within minutes, Selene returned with the
Morrigan
. Their search of the Annex had turned up virtually the same results: death and destruction, but no sign of the girls, and no evidence of who had perpetrated the attack. Not only were the girls gone, but they'd cleaned out the facility; all the servers had been wiped clean of all information pertaining to
Project Andraste
. There was still no sign of Dr. Garrett or her staff.

"Where could they have taken them?" Karen asked.

"We don't even know who took them," Christian said. "There's no way the CTF did this."

"It's Sara," Sigrid said. "At least, it's the people she's with. I'm sure of it."

"But where?" Karen asked.

Sigrid didn't know. But perhaps there was someone who did. Sigrid thought back to the partial message she'd recovered from the CTF offices.

"Tarsus."

Selene looked at her skeptically. "I'm sorry, Sigrid, but I doubt Karl could have organized anything on this scale."

"No, but he knows who did."

Hitomi's eyes lit up. "
Gliese
."

"What? What is it?" Karen asked.

"It's a message we found," Sigrid said. "It mentioned Tarsus, among other people, Alcyone and…Gliese. This can't be a coincidence. There has to be a connection."

Selene's eyes narrowed. "That
is
where Karl was headed. But would they take your girls there?"

"I don't know, but I think that's where we'll find some answers."

"Gliese it is, then," Selene said, pushing the thrusters to their maximum.

They still had to deal with the four Kimura warships headed their way, standing between them and the Warp Relay. Crewed only by the six of them, the
Morrigan
was in no position to go into battle against such a superior force. Sigrid had assumed they'd employ the ship's new stealth system again, but it hadn't been necessary. Hitomi simply contacted the commander of the task force and explained the situation to him.

"Thank you, Admiral," she said, addressing the officer. "I hope this won't cause too many problems for you back on Aquarii."

The Admiral scoffed at the suggestion. "I have no direct orders instructing me to either detain your ship or apprehend you or your crew, Milady. We were only dispatched to Alcyone to investigate and bring back any survivors. Frankly, I don't think they wanted to put any of us in the position where they'd have to test our loyalties in this matter. You must know the Board's move against you was not greeted with enthusiasm
among the Admiralty."

"You are most gracious, Admiral. I must tell you, we found no survivors on Alcyone. But we were a bit pressed for time. I do hope you have better luck than we did."

"Milady—if I may. It's not just the Admiralty…I believe that you may find that there are many still loyal to you back on Aquarii. Your family helped build that planet. People won't soon forget your many contributions."

Sigrid could hardly believe what she was hearing. She knew that what the Admiral was saying bordered on insurrection.

Hitomi, for her part, brushed it off. "You are more than kind, Admiral. I thank you for the kind thoughts, but for the near future, I fear my path will take me away from Aquarii."

"We will all be looking forward to your return. Good luck in your journeys."

"And to you, Admiral."

Hitomi signed off, and indeed, the Kimura task force allowed them to pass through their ranks and onward to the Warp Relay. In less than four days, the
Morrigan
dropped through the relay to Gliese.

* * *

May 17, 2348

Christian Lopez sat back in his chair in the ship's Mess; his heels rested on the table and he was busy observing Karen as she presented her latest creation to Sigrid.

"It's pink," Christian said.

"It's not
pink
, it's magenta," Karen corrected as she helped Sigrid into her new uniform. Karen had spent the last few days altering Sigrid's special camouflage outfit. The old Kimura colors were gone; the one-piece suit was still largely black, but she'd replaced the Kimura red with a mix of white and
pink
trim. "I think it looks much more flattering—
sporty,
even." Karen seemed quite pleased with her creation.

"It's girly," Christian added.

Sigrid finished pulling the stretchy fabric over herself and fastened her gun belt to her waist.

"Well, as you can see," she said, sweeping an arm before Sigrid, "our ship's Master is indeed a girl." She put her arm through Sigrid's. "And
quite
a girl, at that."

Christian raised a brow. "Well, as long as you're not planning to dress us all in the same colors."

"Well,
I
like it," Sigrid said, pulling a short jacket over her shoulders. "Thank you, Karen."

"You're quite welcome," she said, sticking her tongue out at a bemused Christian.