The Prize: Book One (10 page)

Penn followed.  Outside the door, were two Esterian guards and a floating guard bot.  Even with the tangle-foot screen around it, he wouldn't even work up a sweat taking out the trashcan-sized robotic unit.  The easiest method was to jump on top and vanish from its sensor range.  The guards wouldn't last long either.  They'd hesitate a fraction of a second deciding whether to stun him or not, and that was all the time he needed.  To him, working out a solution to a given situation was as automatic as breathing.  What he'd do about Sub Major Ellis after that, he didn't know.  Instead, he followed the Sub-Major, his eyes trained on the tight butt under her OD pants.  Penn was impressed by the Sub-Major's cute tush, as well as the size of the ship.  Guessing a superdreadnought, by the sheer number of passageways, and elevators they took.  Superdreadnoughts were like wolves.  They ran in packs, along with about fifty lesser ships.  Whatever their mission, it shouldn't take this many, or this size of ship to transport him and the other members of the assault force to wherever they were going, so why the extra firepower?  The Director must be expecting trouble.

The tangle-foot field around the guard bot was such they had to crowd into the freight elevator to stay out of the edge of the field.  The bot stopped just far enough away so as not to shock Penn or the others, but he still felt a tingling sensation on the back of his legs from the edge of the field.  Penn turned around to face the bot and calculated the distance between the bot and the entrance to the elevator with a critical eye.  The massive blast hatch started to grind ponderously shut, and without warning, Penn hopped forward and kicked the bot backward.  The doors closed, sandwiching the lightweight bot between them with a metallic crunching sound.  The bot emitted an almost human squeal as it died in a shower of sparks, and a cloud of blue smoke as the doors crushed it.

"Penn!”  Ellis yelled over the strident sound of the alarm.

"I hate bots!”  He yelled over the sound of the alarm, grinning from ear to ear despite the pain.

"Damn it Penn!  I should whack you with a pain stick.”  She hissed in his ear.  Penn laughed as he felt something jammed into his back.

Penn shifted his weight onto his left foot as he couldn't feel the other.  He noted the shadow of a smile on his guards face, betting they'd run into the tangle-foot field themselves a few times.  The cybernetics team leader shot Penn a nasty look as he cleared the bot out of the way, shooting Penn a look as if he'd just killed his first-born.  Locked in place, the elevator didn't move until the maintenance crew verifying the door's seal integrity and shut off the alarm.  The moment they did, the doors closed and they continued their decent into the bowels of the ship.

At length, after negotiating numerous passageways, they exited into an immense hanger complex.  Penn still limped slightly as he following Ellis across the flight deck toward a group of soldiers, and an assault shuttle.  By the time they reached the group, the feeling in his foot had almost returned, thankfully in time should the opportunity to run present itself.  Penn looked around as he walked, noting the blackened and dented steel deck from countless takeoffs and landings.  To the uninitiated, seeing the open hanger bay doors and the stars beyond could be frightening, and but for the cold plasma screen covering the opening the hanger bay would be airless.  As it was, shuttlecraft and such could pass through the screen into space without the need to depressurize the hanger before departure.

Penn wrinkled his nose at heavy stench of lubricants and fuel as he looked around at the collection of ships, considering the available opportunities.  He also spotted three exit points from the flight deck should he decide to run.  This hanger didn't offer much in the way of ships to choose from.  Mostly lightweight inter-ship, or combat and assault shuttles, heavily armored, but not real fast.  With the dreadnought's surrounding battle group, there wasn't anywhere to run, so he dismissed the thought.  They were taking him to the planet, so why take the risk, other than to piss everyone off?   Men and bots moved back and forth between several craft, preparing shuttles and auxiliary craft for departure, or securing them after landing for refueling.  Penn looked up at the C&C center behind the armored plastaglass window high up on the long rear wall of the launch bay.  With the command and control center orchestrated all the activity down here under their ever-watchful eye, Penn knew he didn't have a hope in hell of launching any of these craft without disabling at least some of the defense systems.  That wouldn't have bothered him at all if he had someplace to run to like last time he escaped.  As they walked up, Captain Carras called the men to attention, Penn immediately recognizing him from the hotel.  He took in the wary glances some of the men and women gave him and Ellis as they approached, obviously recognizing them both as human.  The rest of the team by their color or facial structure were from different parts of the Empire and didn't have any particular axe to grind against anyone from Earth, except possibly Sergeant Jaxx.  He had the look in his eyes of someone who'd been on Earth and what to expect from humans.  Standing by her side it was clear the soldiers were wondered who he was.  His tan jump suit said civilian and typical of most soldiers, therefore, beneath them in some way.  He checked the group out with a practiced eye of a leader, sorting them into different groups.  Knowing Markoff as he did, it wouldn't surprise him if IMPSEC hadn't slipped a couple of ringers in as insurance.  One soldier in particular caught Penn's eye.  The slight sneer on his face as he looked at them said volumes.  Penn caught his name out of the General cross talk as the Captain went through the introductions.  Dana, Squad Leader Dana, and a Surl.  Unlike the Var class he didn't have the distinctive bony nose ridge or the dark brown skin like General Tandy.

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Ellis evaluated each team members, as Captain Carras walked with her down the line of men and woman, introducing them.  As far as Ellis could tell this was a mixed bag.  None came from the same unit, with just a few from the same planet.  That meant that without the language implants each carried, few, if any could talk to each other.  Captain Carras introduced her to Sergeant Jaxx and from the look of it he was one tough customer.  The Esterian Sergeant was three inches taller than Ellis, and he gave the impression he'd been doing this a long time.  His yellow skin was mottled with age and old battle scars.  His attitude toward her was carefully neutral, but she suspected he didn't like humans much.  One by one, she tagged their names and specialties and checked them off on her data pad.

              The biggest by far was Trooper Class.  He almost qualified as a giant, standing over seven feet tall, and built like a moving mountain.  Oddly, according to her spec sheet he was a sniper as well as one of two heavy weapon experts.  How someone that big could move so stealthily to be a sniper was something she'd have to wait and see.  Her data pad pointed up that several were Special Forces, and probably black Op specialists.  That presented a potential discipline problem as most Spec-Ops were by nature mavericks and loners.  Probably a lot like Penn.  As if she didn't have headaches enough baby-sitting him through this mission, she now had a dozen potential prima donnas’ to deal with as well.  Ellis let out an inaudible sigh.  So what else was new?  If anyone could do it, they wouldn't need her.

“Heads up people!  We have a mission to do.”  Her voice sharp and full of authority as she moved to stand in front of them.  ”Here's what I expect…”

While Ellis was going through her introduction spiel, Penn looked around the flight deck again, gauging his chanced of grabbing a shuttle, or maybe something more lethal and getting the hell out of here.  The itch in his neck reminded him of just how short a leash they had him on.  He heaved a soft sigh of resignation as Ellis motioned him to board the shuttle.  As Penn started to ascend the rear ramp, General Tandy showed up escorted by six, large, hard faced IMPSEC goons.

“Good morning troops - Sub-Major.”  Returning their salutes with a casual wave of his hand.  “I'd like to thank you all for volunteering for the dangerous mission…”  He started to say.

“Think you have enough moral support there Tandy?”  Penn cut in before the General could launch into his mealy-mouthed pack of lies.  He moved slowly away from Ellis, and the shuttle ramp into the clear.

“Watch your tongue, Penn.”

“Why?  Are you going to tell your bunk buddies to beat me up if I don't?”

Penn started pulling air into his system and clamping down on his stomach muscles in preparation for a fight, almost eager for Tandy to give the word.  This time he'd get a piece of the General's ass, despite what Ellis or anyone else could do.  He was disappointed, as with an effort, General Tandy controlled his temper.  His plan to come down to the flight deck and rouse the troops with his presence and a few stirring words crumbled to dust.  It didn't take a genius to see that Penn was just itching for another chance to hurt him.