One Good Soldier

downward to an auxiliary equipment room beneath and behind it.

'Hmm, that is kind of stupid. There are no SIFs around the SIF generators?' Jack pondered out loud.

'Yeah, that seems a bit uncalculated for Ahmi, doesn't it?' Candis added.

'Well, if you take into account that there is a garrison of soldiers that usually stands guard there, I'm not so sure,' Allison answered.

'Well, were I to attack from the air or space or even with tankheads, I'd go for the SIF generators first.' Jack replied. That gave him an idea.

'Hey, that gives me an idea,' Nancy said.

'Me, too. You go first.' DeathRay turned to the CIA agent and pointed. He smiled at Nancy. She looked a lot different than he remembered her. Her hair was a different color, and shorter, her body was very tanned from what he could tell, she was in amazing athletic shape, or at least the enemy compression flight suit she wore suggested so, and she looked much younger. Jack was sure she had been rejuved fairly recently, maybe within the last four or five years.

'Okay. We see about commandeering some mecha.' Nancy didn't seem to even flinch at the thought of stealing enemy fighters. Jack just figured that her time here must have really made her proficient at getting what she needed. 'Stingers or Gnats would be fine. We autopilot the Lorda into the SIF generators, and then we burst into the penthouse with the fighters. There you teleport her out of danger. Then we fight our way out as best we can. Or not.'

'Okay. That's more or less my plan. I figured you being a secret agent and all, your plan would be more sneaking around, breaking and entering, and getting out without being detected.' Jack smirked at Nancy with his left eyebrow raised.

'I prefer the direct approach sometimes,' she said. The tone in her voice almost sounded to Jack like an invitation to flirt with her. Some other time he'd consider it, but right now, saving Dee was the only thing on his mind.

Saving Dee was the only thing on Alexander's mind. He and Sehera and his two loyal Marine bodyguards had rushed across the Sol System to the QMT facility in the Oort Cloud. They boarded the USS Anthony Blair only seconds before the jump to Tau Ceti. Alexander and company were led to the bridge by the XO of the ship as the QMT teleport occurred. Before they reached the bridge, the entire remaining U.S. Naval Fleet had teleported to a three-minute hyperspace jaunt from the planet Ares. That put them about four-and-a-half astronomical units from the planet. Their location was directly out of the ecliptic plane of the Tau Ceti system above Ares.

'Mr. President.' Rear Admiral Lower Half Sharon 'Fullback' Walker addressed him as he stepped onto the bridge of the supercarrier. The rest of the bridge crew stood at attention and saluted. Moore promptly returned the salute.

'Please, as you all were. Admiral Walker. Thank you for, uh, entertaining us today.' Alexander smiled at her through thin lips. His sense of humor had left him about the time he realized his daughter was in trouble. Sehera stood beside him, and the other two marines stood behind him quietly.

'My pleasure, Mr. President. What are your orders, sir?'

'I'm not here to give you orders, Admiral. I know two things about running a supercarrier, and diddly is one of them. We are here to take this system back from the goddamned Separatists, and I am here specifically to find my daughter, who has been kidnapped by Elle Ahmi!'

Admiral Walker gasped. 'My God, sir! We had no idea. We are at your disposal, sir.'

'No, Admiral. Once we have found Deanna and gotten her safe, we'll get out of your way. My guess is that the Seppies must have detected our QMT by now. Shouldn't we be getting the battle plan under way?' Moore nodded to the admiral.

'Uh, yes, Mr. President. We have. I'll have the long-range sensors looking for your daughter.' Walker turned to her crew. 'STO, start looking for the First Daughter's AIC emergency beacon as soon as we get into range.'

'Aye, ma'am!'

'As soon as you find her, Admiral, my team and I will be teleporting down as close to her as you can manage,' Moore said, motioning to his wife and the two bodyguards with him. The four of them were wearing AEM skin suits. 'We'll be in the QMT deck getting our suits on.'

'Uh, sir, we need to speak . . . privately. If you'd join me in the briefing room.'

The president was ready to cut the Admiral off on the spot but looked around the command deck and thought better of it.

'After you, Admiral.'

With a nod from the admiral, the STO joined them, as did Sehera and their