The Tau Ceti Agenda

men when it came to women—because he tried to grapple with her and force her into a bear hug on the deck. But Kira knew better than to let that happen and forced herself up from the floor onto all fours and threw her head backward into the man's nose twice.

'Goddamn bitch!' he screamed. He grabbed at his broken nose with both hands while sending an alert via his direct-to-mind, com- net connection.

Security detail to maintenance office 13B on hangar deck C. Alarm klaxons sounded and filled the ship with flashing yellow lights.

The backward head-butt had stunned the man slightly and enabled Kira to work one of her legs free enough to direct a sweeping kick to his crotch with the heel of her foot. The blow to the man's private parts made him let go of her completely and clutch himself in pain instead.

Kira crawled like a bear from underneath him to avoid several telegraphed punches in her general direction as he recovered. She jumped to her feet only to find that a security guard was coming through the doorway and was raising the bad end of a stunner toward her. The young security guard hesitated too long before pulling the trigger, allowing Kira to slip under his line of fire. The blue electric bolt whizzed past her head, causing her hair to stand on end. The bolt made contact with the clumsy man behind her and incapacitated him. He convulsed from the stunning electricity dancing down his body and collapsed.

Kira spun around, placing her back to the security guard, while at the same time grabbing his wrist—the one with the stunner in it—with both hands. She then turned his hand, palm upward, and yanked his arm down, forcing her body upward and pushing her right shoulder against his elbow. The elbow snapped through at the joint with a clean break, causing the guard to drop the gun with a wail of agony and surprise.

Before he had time to complain a second time, Kira rammed her left elbow through his nose twice, rendering the young man bloody and unconscious.

Get his gun, Kira! Allison said into Kira's mind. I can hack the ID code.

Got it!

Kira hefted the stunner in her left hand, feeling the weight of it. The small red light on the safety lock flashed yellow twice and then turned green.

The ID code has been overridden, Allison assured her.

Good.

Kira poked her head around the doorway. The hallway was dimly lit with the flashing yellow security lights but was otherwise typical of any Separatist battle cruiser, except for the fact that there were three men and two women in uniform rushing toward her with firearms at the ready. And Kira was pretty certain that they weren't holding stunners. If only there had been a way to sneak on board through the ship's security with her handgun, she wouldn't have felt as vulnerable as she did with that damned range-limited stunner.

Shit! Kira thought to her artificial intelligence counterpart implant. We're cut off.

Yes, we are, Allison agreed.

The computer terminal that she had been hacking into was in a small storage clerk's office, which was two decks up from the lower and aftmost hangar deck of the ship. It was probably the maintenance clerk that first stumbled upon her and triggered the alarm. That was unfortunate for him. Unfortunate for Kira was the fact that her presence had been compromised, and there were guards coming for her. The data she had just stolen needed further study to understand what it really meant, but she was certain that it meant trouble for Earth. She had to analyze it in greater detail and find a way to get it back to the Sol System. First, however, she had to escape from the Separatist battle cruiser, get her hair dyed back to her normal color, change her costume, and blend back into her cover story without being exposed, all without getting captured or killed—piece of cake.

This is a lot like that time in New Africa when we got stuck in that meat truck for an hour during a firefight, Kira said through the mindlink.

Yes. We were outnumbered then and trapped. But then we had more ordnance with us, the AI reminded her.

And a rifle!

That would be handy now, Allison agreed.

Any suggestions? Kira checked the charge of the stunner. It was nearly full, a good thing.

What do we do when we are only slightly outnumbered? Allison asked rhetorically, fully knowing the answer. Just like in New Africa?

We attack! Kira leaped head first through the doorway into the hall, blasting blue electric stun bolts and dropping the larger of the men in a convulsive reaction to the eltrocution of the nervous system. She continued to fire as she rolled through a forward handspring to her feet, dropping another of the men —the second-largest. The element of surprise was working in her favor, for the moment.

The members of the security detail were clearly young and inexperienced with real combat situations and had been hesitant in firing their weapons as they approached. This slight hesitation was long enough for her to close the gap between them, making it more likely for them to shoot one of their own while trying to get her. Only one of them managed to take a shot at her, which passed through the outer fleshy part of her left biceps. Kira ignored the pain and pushed forward. Her rushing tactic forced them to go hand-to-hand, which was just what she had wanted.

With a headlong attack into them, she was able to target their weapons and even managed a couple of shots from her stunner, which went wide and sizzled into the bulkhead. At first there was a flurry of arm grabs, punches, kicks, knees, and head-butts. The end result was that each of their weapons was knocked free to the deck, and all of them were rubbing new bruises while they postured away from each other, readying like lions circling prey.

Get me access to their guns, Allison. Lock them out if you can, but get me access.

I'm on it.