The Key (53 page)

He urged his bird towards a big tank behind the engine of the flagship…

* * * *

Halliwell watched Hawkins bird get clipped by Jenkins, saw him struggle to regain control.

And fail.

It began to spiral, but he managed to point it toward the flagship. It smashed into the side. Fire flashed. The big ship shook, but it seemed to absorb the blow.

“Fall back!” he shouted. “All craft fall back from flag ship!”

For a moment, it looked like a dog shaking off fleas as their ships scattered from the area around the flagship.

Then a secondary explosion rocked it. Followed quickly by a third. The last explosion made it go away. The fireball engulfed several squadrons of Dusan fighters.

But when the debris cleared, there were plenty left to continue the fight.

* * * *

Sara could see the battle from the Dusan point of view. They were winning. She had to find the way to take the network out before it was too late. Her control of the connection faltered and she felt Adin almost sense her. She rushed into speech.

“The elder brother wanted Miri, too, but then something changed.”

“Something?”

“Their father became ill. The elder brother was the heir, the one who would lead their people.”

“That is the way of the weak. I had to earn my right to lead.”

Sara wasn’t surprised to hear that. Dusan had left a strong imprint of himself on his people.

“Miri’s faithless lover agreed with you. He wanted his brother’s inheritance. He began to plot and to plan. And then he found out something that…changed
everything
.”

“And what was that?”

“Miri, the woman he’d discarded, the woman he’d left to pursue his next conquest, was a scientist. And not just any scientist. She was the head of all the Garradian scientists. She controlled access to many…wonders.” Sara gave Adin an ironic look. “Apparently women weren’t always despised in this galaxy.”

Adin smiled, acknowledging the hit with a slight dip of his chin.

“Miri learned of Dusan’s…renewed interest and knew she had to leave, to hide from him. Her people faced a civil war. So Miri and the elder brother fled to one of their colonies on another planet. He asked her for control of the…wonders.”

“Not
so
different from his brother,” Adin said, ironically.

It was getting harder and harder to split her focus, but she could tell she was getting close.

“She told him that she needed a key. That she had to travel alone to retrieve it. He let her go.”

“Most unwise.” Adin smiled.

“Instead, she locked all the wonders…and left.”

Adin stared at her and she could feel him, hell, she could almost see him, putting the pieces together.

“What were the names of these two…brothers?”

“The elder was named…Gaedon, but everyone called him Gadi.”

He twitched slightly. Sara was so deep inside his head, she wasn’t sure if it was his brain or his body.

“The younger son was named Dusan.”

“That is not true.” His voice was intense, but controlled.

There it was, the channel she’d been looking for.

“There are no Dusan, no Gadi…just Garradians.”

She stared at him as she reached into the channel…

Adin’s eyes widened.

Energy flashed along the connection before she could disconnect.

It went through her mind like a ball of fire...

* * * *

There was a flicker of light, a kind of power surge, and the connection with Donovan went down. Halliwell could see an immediate shift in the Dusan’s…fighting. Xever was back in control. He didn’t need the connection to see it. It was playing out in the battle. Xever wasn’t just back on board, he was pissed off. He threw his ships against them with no concern for the men in them.

Donovan was dead or had been neutralized. That was the only explanation.

“Major Loren, launch the outpost defenses at your discretion.” Halliwell spoke calmly. It was their last line of defense. And it would reveal the location of the outpost to the Dusan, to Xever. “And you might want to prepare to evacuate the non-combatants.”

They had succeeded in cutting their way their way through the center of the Dusan Fleet, but now they were besieged on every side. As Halliwell began to think about his own possible retreat, it was as if Xever heard the thought. His ships began to flow around their positions.

There would be no retreat from this fight.

So be it.

The Gadi and Garradian ships were taking major damage. Some had lost communications and part of their weapons. Debris drifted everywhere, some the shattered hulls of ships, theirs and Dusan.

And in between, it seemed that every bit of space left was filled with the flash of missiles, explosions, weapons fire. The rattle of gunfire was louder now within the
Doolittle
and the yells of men in combat were audible during lulls in the battle. An out of control fighter smashed into the ship sending a shudder through the bridge.

The HUD lit up, the Kikk outpost lit up with multiple bogeys, as Loren joined the fight.

And it still wouldn’t be enough.

“Shields are down to thirty-five percent.”

Well, one thing is for damn sure, Xever is not getting my ship.

He armed the self-destruct.

* * * *

Fyn was only one level below Sara’s position now. Xever had moved her to that room where she’d killed herself.

The one with the bed.

At the moment, she was alone in there. Not moving. Would explain why she was alone. Still about fifty Dusan between him and her. Twice that behind him, but they weren’t a problem anymore.

He checked the HUD. Someone had lived long enough to tip them off that he was in the outpost. Two groups were moving in on his position. At least ten men in each.

He took out the lights in the corridor, lowered his night vision goggles, turned them on and waited for them to find him.

* * * *

Sara woke slowly. Someone was pounding on her head with about twenty hammers.

Crap.
The nanites were trying to restore order. She could feel it. Lots of damage to repair.

She went to rub her aching head and…couldn’t. Her hand moved, just not toward her head. She tried the other one. It didn’t make it to her head either. She tried her legs. They seemed to be stuck, too.

She opened her eyes, though she really didn’t want to. The light stabbed into them with punishing force.

It took her a minute to figure out
where
she was.

The Supreme leader suite.

And
how
she was.

Chained to the bed.

Not good.

Memory returned in a painful rush. Adin had slammed her out of his mind like a bat to a ball. The hit was almost out of the park.

Okay, how bad was it. Was the baby okay? Had the energy feedback injured her—before she could finish the question, she could…see her own womb. A golden net of nanites surrounded and protected the baby. Might have to rename the little suckers. They were acting more like nannies.

That was the good news.

Her vest was gone, radio with it, but she still had clothes on. That was good, too. Probably wouldn’t last, but at least she hadn’t been stripped while she was unconscious.

Adin had done a lot of damage. Too many more of those and she’d be drooling down herself, despite the nanites.

She needed to improve her situational awareness. She tapped into the outpost’s sensors. Dots all over the place. No way to tell which dot belonged to Adin. Wait, dots were disappearing. One dot seemed to be kicking their asses. Cool. Had Kalian managed to get one of his guys back down here? Or had Henderson sent a guy?

She checked on the Dusan ships. Looked like both had been boarded. Small groups of dots were making larger groups of dots go away.

Only way she could help, was to try again…

Sara closed her eyes and reached out. Two transmitters down, two to go. At least now she knew the way. All she needed was time to get to it again.

Not that it was going to be easy. Now that Adin knew she could get into the network, he’d be watching for her.

Sara tapped in and stopped, waiting to see if he’d notice her—

The door swished open. She wasn’t surprised to see Adin enter.

“You are awake.”

He seemed almost relieved.

“I’ve got a bitch of a headache.”

He pulled up a chair and sat down, capturing one of her hands. It wasn’t hard to do. Her range of movement was severely limited.

She could probably have broken some of his fingers, but she couldn’t see the upside of pissing him off. A lot of downside, but no upside.

He played with her fingers, his expression…complicated.

“You have locked the outpost again.”

“Yes.”

A small smile quivered on the edges of his mouth, but he managed to suppress it. He held her gaze with his as he bent and nibbled on her fingers.

Not even a shiver.

“Turn it back on.” He kissed the inside of her wrist, but his eyes watched her.

He was close. It was easier to get in when he was close—

“Stay out of my head, Sara. You’ll get…damaged.”

Sara lowered her lashes. “I’m going to get…damaged anyway. I think we both know that I prefer…damage…to…this.”

She rattled the chain with her free hand.

He shifted his butt from the chair to the bed, his mouth moving up her arm. It felt…wet.

“What you…need from me, you won’t get this way.”

He stopped. “I don’t need anything from anyone.” He looked at her, his gaze hard. “What I want, I take.”

“Do you even know what you want?” She stared at him. “You think I came here to betray you, but that’s not the whole story.”

“What is the whole story?”

Sara wasn’t even sure. She knew that she felt…compassion for him this time. Her father had made him this way. He was a monster…but buried behind the monster, she thought she saw a longing for something different in his eyes.

He produced one of her knives. Sara stiffened.

“I was going to have my men strip you, but then I thought of this.” He put the edge of the knife under her tee shirt and cut, the cold edge of the knife sliding against her bare skin. “You cut up my gown. I’m going to cut up this uniform of yours. A little at a time.”

His gaze devoured the skin he’d exposed. It was hard to concentrate. On the upside, he’d have a harder time, too…

He bent down and put his lips on her bare stomach. His touch didn’t warm anything. The cold went deeper…and it flowed outward from her heart, until she felt encased in ice.

He looked up, as if he sensed…her lack of response.

Frustration was making a beachhead against desire.

“You will have to come to…terms…with me, Sara.”

“If those terms are…friendship...”

He leaned over her, his gaze roaming over her body, his hunger clear in his eyes.

“Then get…friendly.” He spread his hand across her bare stomach, his eyes watching her avidly.

“You don’t need another companion, Adin, but I think you could use a friend. How could you trust anyone? Everyone in your life is just waiting, aren’t they?”

His gaze narrowed. “Waiting for what?”

“To take what you have. To be…supreme.”

He stared at her for what seemed like a long time.

“It doesn’t have to be this way.”

“What way is this?” His brows arched, but his gaze seemed conflicted.

She moved the chains. “This way. If you…force yourself on me, you’ll destroy the part of me that you’re drawn to.”

“Such drama.” He shook his head. “The women I’ve been with are passionate and devoted to me. They would die for me.”

“If their passion and devotion is so wonderful, why are you here with me?”

* * * *

The bridge security teams set up behind shattered computer panels and trained their weapons on the entrances. The sound of small arms fire was almost deafening now and the time until the battle reached the bridge would soon be measured in seconds not minutes.

Xever’s counter attack had been brutal…

The Gadi and Garradian ships were barely functional and would soon be destroyed. The attack had softened suddenly though. Still no contact from Donovan, but Halliwell had some hope that while down, she might not be completely out.

The cloaked ships were still kicking ass, but there weren’t enough of them and their time was running out too.

Xever had deployed ships to assault the island outpost. Now it fought for its life, too. They were almost out of ammunition for the defenses that used ammo. Their power wouldn’t hold out forever either.

The cloaked ships could retreat, but they wouldn’t. He knew his men. He’d picked all of them. He still had one hand left to play. He gripped his pistol with one hand and hunkered down behind the cover of his chair with his finger hovering over the manual self destruct, just in case. His ears were ringing from the gunfire in the corridor outside.

He hailed all of his ships, waited for the connection. “Arm sierra delta on my mark.”
Arm self destruct.
It was a bitter moment.

And to the Gadi he added, “We’ll give you time to retreat, Commander. Try to cover you.”

“We will fight or die with you, Colonel.” Gaedon’s voice was calm and cool.

“It’s been an honor fighting with, sir.”

“And you, Colonel.”

He cocked his pistol and waited.

* * * *

Major Loren crouched behind the defensive barricade. On either side of him, men waited with automatic grenade launchers. He hoped to be able to hold the Dusan off long enough for the geeks and non-combatants to evacuate through the portal.

The city still had some defensive canons. It was impressive to see them set the sky on fire over their heads. The Dusan assault force was taking a beating, but some of them had gotten through. According to tracking, he had about three hundred bogeys approaching his position. And more ships were making it through and landing.

* * * *

Henderson and his team had captured the bridge, but it was turning into a trap, instead of a victory. Dusan soldiers were swarming their position from every direction. He hoped the Gadi assault team was having better luck.