The Tau Ceti Agenda

be able to help us out.'

'Captain,' Alexander Moore interrupted. 'I have an idea.' He shoved the AI Sienna Madira onto the teleport pad.

'Agreed,' Westerfeld nodded. 'Commander Boland. I recommend that you get out of there as quickly as you can. We'll take care of it.'

'Trick or treat, bitch!' Moore said to the AI-driven Sienna Madira.

'General, the propulsion system is locked on. Even if it were knocked out, at this point our trajectory will still take us to Luna City,' Maximillian said, nodding toward the bright silver and blue dome of the great metropolis in the Sea of Tranquility. The captain of the Phlegra tapped a few keys on his chair arm and moved several virtual icons around in his DTM mindview. Then he turned to Ahmi and said, 'We should go now, ma'am.'

'All right. Very good. Activate the QMT projector snap-back routine,' Elle ordered.

'Yes, ma'am. Recalling all personell to original Tau Ceti QMT projection in three, two, one . . .'

Nancy Penzington or Kira Shavi or . . . well, her real first name had been Nancy at least . . . sat with her back against the collapsed bulkhead of the Phlegra, hugging her knees and waiting for the end. The air hissed by her, and it was getting very cold in the corridor, and she was shivering uncontrollably. None of that really mattered at this point, since the ship she was trapped on was about to crash and explode in seconds.

Nancy, we did our job, her AIC consoled her.

Yes, we did. And hopefully it will save some lives or do some good.

It will. Boland will figure out what to do with it. Allison had had the time to read the data when she had finally decrypted it. There was some very interesting data in there and some contacts that went all the way up to the White House. The data was more important than Nancy and Allison themselves. The data was worth the sacrifice.

I hope it isn't too big for him.

He'll figure it out.

Nancy?

Yes, Allison?

I've really enjoyed being your friend.

Me too, Allison.

The ship started popping and crackling around her, and then white light filled her vision. Through the light, she caught faint glimpses of the ship exploding all around her. She braced herself for the pain of the exploding hot ionizing plasma rushing toward her. And, she braced for death.

'Damn! That's a fireworks show!' Fish shouted. The battle cruiser exploded into a cloud of vapor and orange and white plasma that could have only been generated from a gluonium explosion.

'Tyler ATC, this is DeathRay requesting a landing vector, over?'

'Roger that, DeathRay. Vector has been transmitted, and you have the ball.'

'Captain.' Alexander Moore turned to Westerfeld and smiled. 'Drop every AEM and AAI and tankhead and fighting mecha you have on Orlando and clean it up.'

'Yes, sir. Uh, you realize that I officially can't take orders from you.' Captain Westerfeld raised an eyebrow and grinned back at Moore.

'Well, consider that a recommendation from an advisor.'

'I'm not one to ignore good advice.' Captain Westerfeld smiled and finished with, 'Mr. President. Now, sir, if you don't mind, I've got a cleanup to take care of and you have a letter to write.'

October 31, 2388 AD

Oort Cloud

Saturday, 7:57 AM, Earth Eastern Standard Time

'CO, CDC.'

'Go, CDC,' Captain Walker said. The last shot from the mass driver had taken the hauler completely out, and it ruptured with violent orange plasma from every seam and weld joint. The hauler exploded, sending debris reeling in all directions. The remaining vehicles from the Separatist fleet scattered and fought for their very lives.

'We need to take evasives from the debris field, ma'am. The cloud is gonna be hell on the flight wing.'

'Understood, CDC. Air Boss!'

'Yes, Captain?'

'Pull the fighters in under the ship or spread them out from the debris cloud vectors.' Sharon looked at the tracks in her mindview battlescape and could see that if the Blair didn't take the brunt of the debris cloud it would be bad news for both the Madira and a large portion of the fighters. The Madira was still without her SIFs and propulsion and had been battered to bits. It couldn't take much more damage. 'Nav!'

'Ma'am?'

'Move us upward into the debris vector to cut off as much of it as we can. SIFs full power to upper decks, XO.'

'Aye, ma'am.'

The battle was winding down, from a large-vessel standpoint. The mass driver had turned the tide. The hauler and all the remaining battle cruisers except for one had been completely destroyed, which seemed to have knocked the wind from the Seppies' sails. The one remaining enemy battle cruiser was taking up station under the Madira, using it as cover from the mass driver. It was taking potshots at the wounded