The Key (32 page)

Halliwell nodded. “I’ll let the
Patton
know.” He looked at the clock. “Be ready to go by 1400 Zulu.”

* * * *

Sara woke to a pounding headache and dry mouth. What—oh yeah, the gomers got her with one of those ray guns.

Crap.

Fyn said, don’t get shot. Now she knew why.

She rubbed her temples, but inside her body, her nanites were already working on the pain. Maybe not totally annoying to have them.

Sara sat up and looked around. There wasn’t a lot to see. She was back in a freaking cell. Okay, now she was starting to get really pissed. She got up and paced to the bars. Couldn’t see anything but hallway.

“Hawkins? You there?”

“Donovan?”

“You all right?”

“My fun meter is pegged, but yeah, I’m all right. What the hell happened?”

Sara sighed. “Apparently my…diplomatic skills need work. Did they get you with a ray gun?”

“No. I got swarmed. I heard you say crap and must have moved or something.”

“You were kind of out numbered, but thanks for trying.”

“Can I ask you one favor?”

“Sure.” Sara half frowned.

“Don’t tune any more pianos while you’re on box.”

Sara grinned. “Sorry.”

“So what do we do now?” He sounded like they could do something.

An optimist. Good man.
I wonder…

She reached out with her mind and almost immediately she… connected to the Gadi systems.
Cool.

Tracking, fire control, detention security—okay, now she was getting somewhere.

First thing to do was shut off the surveillance—no, not just shut if off.
Overload it. Don’t want them turning it back on at the wrong moment.

There was a flash and pop, with multiple echoes as it all went down. A slight smell of burning drifted into the air.

“Do you smell something burning?” Hawkins asked uneasily.

“Yeah…”

Now let’s open the cell doors…

“Whoa,” Hawkins sounded surprised. “My door just opened.”

“So did mine. Weird.”

“Is it a trap?”

“If it isn’t a trap,” Sara said, “they’ll probably come check it out.”

On the heels of her words, she heard the thump of approaching, booted feet. She flattened herself against the side of the cell, by the open door.

The first gomer who poked his head in got an elbow to the back of the neck. She also got his ray gun. She popped out and took out his back up. She took his gun, too, went and found Hawkins.

“Let’s go.” She handed him the other ray gun.

“Sweet. My first ray gun.”

“Just keep it on stun. I’d rather not kill anyone unless they force the issue.”

“Right.” He hesitated. “What was he talking about, who was Miri?”

Sara stiffened slightly. “Apparently I have a twin.”

“What did she do to get their skivs in a knot?”

Sara grinned. “Told him no?”

“If you can’t take a little rejection, you shouldn’t play in the pool.”

Despite his words, she had a feeling he didn’t get rejected that often. He was cute.

He followed her down a narrow hallway to the guard’s station. Sara sat down and pulled up a schematic of the ship on the console—not because she needed to, but so she didn’t have to explain how she knew where to go.

“We’re here. The landing bay is here. Not too far.”

“Okay, we make it to our birds, then what?”

Sara grinned at him. “I’m sure we’ll think of something before then.”

He nodded. “Okay, I got your six and may I say, it’s very nice.” He grinned at her. Okay, so he was very cute.

As they started down the corridor, he added, “So now we’re in the worst trouble you’ve been in?”

“Not yet.” Sara glanced back over her shoulder at him and smiled. “When we are, I’ll try to remember to let you know.” She’d need to be conscious, too.

“I’d appreciate an update.”

He seemed awfully cheerful, but there was also a determined light in his blue eyes. He didn’t get to be a top gun just by being a pretty face.

They reached a door that looked like the lift. She signaled for him to get on the other side, then hit the button. When it opened, three Gadi guards came out—and went down. Hawkins seemed to be enjoying his first ray gun. A lot.

Hawkins dragged the unconscious men clear of the door, so they could go in. As the doors closed, Hawkins looked at her.

“What’s to stop them doing that to us? Or just shutting this thing down?”

Sara looked up. “I’m taking a wild guess that they’ve never run into anyone like us. Or seen our movies?” She pointed to the access hatch. “I mean this is ET we’re dealing with. They might not even have movies.”

Hawkins looked up, then he looked at Sara. “I like the way you think.”

He crouched down and cupped his hands. Sara stepped in and he hoisted her up. She was able to open the hatch and check it out. It was doable. She dropped back down. And she knelt down and cupped her hands.

“Ladies first.”

“Actually, I’m thinking I’ll stay down here.”

“And do what?”

“Play dead.”

His brows arched. “I see where you’re going.”

He must have seen the same movies she had.

He stepped in her hands and she managed to boost him up, though it was a near thing. She may have brass ones, but she was still a girl
.
Once Hawkins was in position, she lay down on her back, with the ray gun on her chest, her hand clasped loosely around it. Hawkins crouched in the opening, covering her with his ray gun.

She followed their down progress in her head. “Get ready,” She whispered.

He wasn’t to know she’d been messing with their sensors, giving false echoes all over the ship—and giving the Gadi a false read of incoming bogeys. Even with all that, Gaedon would know they’d head for the landing bay and their ships. He had to take the threat of incoming seriously, though. She could see all the ships, with most of gomers in them, leaving the landing bay.

There were still about twenty gomers left, though. And it looked like there were five covering the lift access. Twenty-five guys—who weren’t used to fighting dirty, she’d bet. Still doable.

The lift stopped. There was a pause, the doors slid back. Through lowered lids, Sara saw the five men hesitate. One of them spoke into some kind of fixed communication station.

“Commander, the woman is down. No sign of the man.” He signaled to two of his men to secure her. And then turned his back on them.

Bad move.

Sara waited until both men were bending over her to open her eyes.

“Smile.” Their eyes widened, but that was all they had time for before Hawkins dropped them. As they went down, Sara took out the guy on the communication station first, then the other two.

Hawkins dropped down beside her.

“Go out low and fast. There’s cover, if you break right.”

Luckily he didn’t stop to wonder how she knew that. He nodded and dove out, rolling to the right, firing as he went. Sara followed on his heels, doing a diving roll to a cabinet of some kind. Energy bursts passed over their heads. Sara connected with their ships and started prepping them for take off.

“I think I counted about eight per bird,” Hawkins said.

Sara tapped into the ship’s surveillance for this bay. All the men were crouched around the craft, as if they’d been ordered to hold them at all costs.

“Your bird is closer.” And he had his gear on. “If you can get inside, you can cover me. There’s another one of these things a couple of yards from here, to the left. Fire while you run. These gomers confuse real easy.”

He got ready.

Sara crouched, ready to pop out. “Now.” She rose up just enough to clear the cabinet and fired repeatedly as Hawkins took off toward the next one. She kept firing until he was back under cover.

Then he popped up and fired, giving her time to join him. Sara ran for it, shooting as she went. Felt a few blasts sizzle past her. Had time to note they’d taken about half the Gadi guards out of the equation.

Odds were getting better.

“I count ten down,” Hawkins said, when she was beside him. “Probably more on the way.”

“Yeah.” Sara had shut down all the lifts, but he wouldn’t know that. “They’ll expect us to do the same thing again.”

She tapped into the video again. They were still trying to cover the birds, but now they’d formed a single line along the only access. She just stuck her hand out and fired about five times. Dropped a couple and scattered them. She pulled her arm in as a couple of them opened up on their position.

Even without the lifts, more of them would get here soon.

Sara looked at Hawkins. “What do you think? They’re going to flank us if we get pinned down here for much longer.”

“Let’s go for it,” Hawkins said. “Are we there yet?”

For a minute she didn’t know what he was talking about—

“Oh, right. No, this still isn’t the worst yet.” She wasn’t dead.

“Okay, on the count of three—”

He did the count and Sara jumped up, firing and running and dodging. She heard Hawkins curse and dived behind some kind of almost barrel looking thing. He was holding his leg, but he’d found cover. At least he wasn’t out cold.

Sara jumped up again and fired deliberately, making sure to hit each of the remaining guards in the chest. She ran back to Hawkins and helped him up. The bay doors tried to close, but Sara stopped them. On sensors, she could see the fighters turning back. Gaedon must have figured out she was messing with his head and recalled them.

“Can’t feel my damn leg.”

They reached his bird. She helped him get up and inside. Sara could tell they didn’t have long.

“Get the hell out of here,” she said. “I’ll be right behind you.”

She ran to her bird and scrambled into her zoombag in record time. Hawkins was already lifting off. She gave him a thumbs up, and he shot out into space.

Sara dropped into her seat, latching her harness, her hatch closing and her bird rising, even as she struggled to get her gear in order. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw men flooding into the bay.

She got her shields up. She didn’t want to fire on them unless she had to. Gaedon was being Delta Sierra—a dumb shit, but she didn’t want to kill anyone. She turned and targeted a spot in front of them, the barrel thing. It exploded, forcing the gomers to fall back. Sara turned around and floored it. Her bird shot out the hatch, and she made a hard right. On her HUD she could see Hawkins and the incoming Gadi ships.

They were racing to cut her off. It was clear they had no interest in Hawkins.

It was going to be a squeaker.

Her bird was faster, but they were closer.

“Make your hop, xray,” Sara ordered.

“I’ll hop when you do.”

They were going to cut her off—

Suddenly her HUD lit up with…friendly dots. Lots of little ones and a big one that her sniffer said was the
Doolittle.

“Bravo Zulu! Perfect timing, home plate.” Sara did some victory bat turns from sheer relief.

“Hooyah!” Hawkins shouted.

The Gadi ships hit their space brakes and Sara was able to zip through the fighter screen, do another bat turn and take her place in the screen.

She mentally toggled the scrambler on the
Doolittle
, so the Gadi couldn’t monitor their communications.

“You two all right?” Halliwell asked.

“We’re both Sierra Hotel,” Sara said. “Sir, there’s a chance the situation isn’t completely gooned. If you want to try talking to them, the head gomer is Commander Gaedon of the Gadi Federation. He’s not a total Delta Sierra. And they can’t fire on you. All their systems are down. That should make them…reasonable.”

She was already working to restore those systems she’d gooned up—though their weapon systems could wait until Elvis had left the building.

There was a pause, as if Halliwell was thinking.

“Okay.” Another pause.

Sara undid the scramble just in time.

“Commander Gaedon, this is Colonel Steven Halliwell of the Earth ship,
Doolittle.
You appear to have had a…misunderstanding with my people. Would you care to discuss it before we start bumping heads?”

Sara could almost follow Gaedon’s thought processes. If he didn’t accept the olive branch, he had no chance of getting close to Sara. Or of finding out more about them.

On the other hand, he was a proud man, who had just been out witted by a girl. Would he climb down or would pride win?

“Colonel Halliwell, this is Commander Gaedon of the Gadi Federation.” His voice was calm, but Sara thought she heard a sigh in it.

So he was smart. Good to know.

Twelve

       The fighter screen didn’t return to mom until she was back in position above Kikk. The Gadi would be sending a small delegation—in a small ship—to confer with them, in a few days. When they withdrew from Gadi space, Sara’s last act was to restore all the Gadi weapons systems.

She and Hawkins got to be first in the hawk circle, so she was already out of her bird and out of her zoombag when she saw Fyn clamber out of one of the ships.

Her heart leapt, then steadied. Just because he was back on the ship didn’t mean he was back in her life. He still had a wife down on Kikk. And Colonel Halliwell was waiting to debrief them. She only had time to meet his gaze, before she had to follow the Old Man out of the bay.

Outside his wardroom, Sara stopped, flushing a bit. “Can I hit the head first, sir?” She was way over due for a pee.

He looked amused, but nodded permission, signaling for Hawkins to go in with him. When Sara joined them, Hawkins was almost at the end of his report. Sara waited quietly and when he finished, Halliwell said, “Glad you made it back. Colonel Emerson wants you back on board the
Patton
a-sap.”

He saluted, giving Sara a look of regret before going out. Sara was glad to be alone with the Colonel. No way she could give her report in front of anyone.

“Have a seat, Donovan.” He looked at her for a long moment. “Bad luck the Gadi happened to be in the way of your hop.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did they ever say what they were doing there?”