The Tau Ceti Agenda

Where are we going?

My guess is back to Sol space.

But why?

That I don't know.

Any idea what blew my cover?

I'm thinking the bullet wound or some blood on the airplane ejection seat?

But they'd still need a DNA sample that you hadn't fudged with to compare it to.

Perhaps we trusted that Elise Tangier too much. She must have gotten one somehow. Maybe in one of her sexcapades she kept some of your fluids. Who knows?

I was sloppy?

Sounds like it.

Shit. We've got to get out of here.

Therein lies the dilemma.

Kira struggled against her bindings and then moved her head up enough to look at herself. She was naked and zip-tied with her arms out wide and her legs spread over stirrups of a gynecological exam bed with zip ties around each foot and one at each knee. She struggled against them but that only managed to dig them deeper into her skin, making them more uncomfortable.

This can't be good.

No, it's not. You've been examined in every way imaginable. I fear that the worst part has yet to happen.

Any ideas?

I'm scanning for something to hack into that will help, but so far, nothing but a centrifuge in the next room will talk to me. After we left earlier, they reset all the security protocols. I'm still hacking away, but it will take a while.

Keep at it.

'Comfortable, I see,' a female voice said, following a hiss of the hatch sliding open. Kira struggled to get a better view. A slender woman in skintight camouflage pants, army boots, and a black, skintight, long-sleeve, armored pullover approached her. The black turtleneck led up into a ski mask of red, white, and blue stars and stripes and a long black ponytail of hair flowed up and out the back of it.

'General Ahmi,' Kira said, trying not to look back at the woman in a way that would give away her fear. But Kira was terrified, and there was little way of hiding that.

'They call me Her Majesty now.' Elle leaned in over her and slid a synthleather gloved hand down her cheek, to her neck, and then to her breasts. Elle lingered on Kira's nipples a bit and then dragged a finger sensually to her navel. Then instantly changing from sensual to angry, she slapped Kira across the face. The hit reawakened the pain from the rifle butt to the nose she had taken earlier, and her head rang like a bell with pain. She was most certainly lightly concussed, if not worse. Kira fought back at the pain and the stars surrounding her vision.

'Her Majesty, we are coming up on the facility in five minutes,' someone out of Kira's field of view said.

'Good, Scotty. That gives us time to figure out what our young friend here was doing on my ship.' Elle slapped Kira again and then seemed to lose her temper. As if something had snapped in the terrorist's mind, the slap acted like a final snowflake that triggered an avalanche of violence. Ahmi commenced to beating Kira in the face with her fists and cursing at her. The leather in the maniac's glove cut into Kira's nose, ears, and chin and left her face battered and bloodied. Kira was afraid that she would lose consciousness if the beating lasted much longer.

A few seconds of the crazed frenzy, and Ahmi stopped at the edge of Kira's limitations. The terrorist must have been a pro at torture, for she knew just when to stop before she rendered Kira useless. There was a splatter of blood on Ahmi's leather gloves that she licked away with almost sexual excitement. A doctor, or what Kira assumed was a doctor, entered the room beside Ahmi. He leaned over Kira and checked her vitals with a scanner and then held some sort of wireless sensor over her head.

'She has an AIC,' the doctor said.

Allison?

Don't worry, we're good.

Oh God, we are so fucked!

Stay calm. Don't stop thinking. There has to be a way out of this. In the meantime, put your mind somewhere else. Let's keep going through the data we got today. Maybe something there will buy us some time.

Good idea.

Kira did her best to ignore the doctor's pokes and prods and Ahmi's nonstop questioning followed by more violent frenzies. The Scotty fellow stayed quiet mostly and only interjected here and there.

'What were you doing on my ship?' Ahmi asked again, and slapped her across the face another time.

'She's not talking, Scotty. Suggestions?'

'It can't be a coincidence? Can it?' Scotty said. He leaned against the bulkhead and put his hands in his pockets. 'We haven't seen a spy in years, and now, on the day of one of our best moves, she shows up.'

'She's been here all along according to the Tangier records. Remind me to tax the hell out of Elise when we get back. Somebody should hang for this. Literally.' Ahmi pounded her fist against her open palm, causing the leather to