The Tau Ceti Agenda

Typical. But he must actually care for them to risk his neck for us.

'She will have you killed.'

'Not if you do this right.' He cut her last zip tie and then put the knife in her hand. 'Stay put. Dr. Ross will be back any second. Make it look like he let you loose.' Scotty turned for the door. 'Stop this ship from killing all those people.'

'Thank you. I will.' Kira rubbed at the healing hole behind her ear and could feel the soft spot where the bone was beginning to fill in. She palmed the open knife in her left hand and squirmed back into place as if she were still tied down. 'Now get the hell out of here.'

'Good luck,' he told her as he left.

Wasn't expecting that.

Hope it isn't a trap.

Me too. But don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

The door slid open, and Kira could hear the doctor's shoes squeaking against the floor. She lay still as if she were catatonic with her eyes open wide and not blinking. With the pain subsiding in her head, she could focus and control herself better now.

Wait . . . wait . . .

The doctor leaned over to check her with a diagnostic tool, and he looked into her pupils with his flashlight. When he did, Kira grabbed the back of his hair with her right hand and jabbed the knife into his temple with the left. The blade slid into his head all the way to the hilt. Kira twisted the blade, scrambling his brains around, withdrew it, and then stabbed him again, repeating the process. She tossed him to the floor and rolled out of the examining stirrups over on top of him. The deck plating was cold against her bare feet.

She quickly pulled his pants and shirt off and slipped them on. They were too big, but she managed to pull the slip fastener at the waist tight enough to hold, and she rolled the bottoms tight around her ankles. The shirt was still loose, so she tied it in a knot at her side. She hefted the knife in her left hand and backed up against the doorjamb, punching the open switch. The door hissed open. She looked around the doorway into an empty hall. It was clear.

Great. Now where to from here?

We need to stop this ship from getting to the Moon.

Engine Room?

Good a place as any to start with.

'All hands, all hands, prepare for QMT jump in ten . . .'

Chapter 17

October 31, 2388 AD

Sol System

Oort Cloud

Saturday, 7:31 AM, Earth Eastern Standard Time

'Captain Walker!'

'Go Nav.' Sharon watched the purple and white flashes of the hyperspace conduit swirl in front of her ship. The Blair was approaching the Oort Cloud Seppy facility, and from the latest communication from the Madira, it wouldn't be a second too early.

'Conduit collapsing in twenty seconds, ma'am.'

'Roger that, Nav.' Sharon tugged at her seatbelt again to make sure it was good and tight. It was. 'XO!'

'Aye, Captain?'

'All the forward SIFs at max and prepare for impacts.'

'Aye, Captain. Forward SIFs at max.' Commander Brasher tapped at her controls, and Sharon caught a glimpse of her XO tugging subconsciously at her own seatbelt.

'Nav. You got that secondary jaunt plan calculated?'

'Aye, CO.'

Okay, Marley, sound it off, the captain told her AIC.

Yes, ma'am.

'All hands, all hands, prepare for emergence from hyperspace conduit. Man all battlestations and prepare for incoming. Normal space in nine, eight, seven, six, five, four . . .'

The purple and white flashes of Cerenkov radiation swirled away like water in the bottom of a toilet bowl and then scattered off in all directions, vanishing. The U.S.S. Anthony Blair materialized in normal space at maximum normal space velocity only a thousand kilometers from the moon planetoid. The giant supercarrier loomed toward the mass driver suspected location as relayed by the STO of the Madira. The surface had been scratched up by what appeared to be DEG fire, but there was no sign of any direct hits or of the Madira for that matter.

'STO, I want full sensors on those coordinates looking for that mass driver tube,' Fullback ordered.

'Roger that, Captain.' Lieutenant Commander Zeke Caldwell toggled through mountains of sensor data being DTMed to him from the ship's CDC and from his own systems. There was nothing useful, yet. But as the ship's science and technical officer, it was his job to figure it out.

'Where is the Madira?' Commander Brasher asked.