One Good Soldier

her, and it would take hours to cut her out with a laser cutter. There was no way that one mecha was going to dig her out in a few seconds.

'Hold on, we're coming to you. I'll blast you out if I have to.'

'Don't, Boland. I'm too deep in the ship. I did my job. I got some good info on the Separatists' plan. I'm downloading it to you now. I haven't even had the chance to read all of it. You read it and then figure out what to do with it. And don't share this with anyone that you don't trust completely, and be wary even of them. I mean it.' Nancy sat down in the corridor, listening to the air hissing through the cracks in the wreckage. She had done her job.

'That's defeatist talk,' Jack said. 'Now get your ass up and find a way out of there.'

'Sorry, Jack. I'm stuck here, and my air is running out.' She paused for a brief moment in thought. 'If you can't stop this ship, you have to get out with the data I just gave you. Now, go. That data is more important than I am.'

'Come on, Jack.' Fish pulled her mecha through the gash in the ship to the exterior hull. The Moon continued to loom closer. At their present rate of acceleration, they would hit Luna City in less than a minute. Fish rolled her bot over into fighter mode and throttled toward Earth. Then her blue-force system dinged at her. There were two supercarriers not far from their location. 'Jack, I've got two supercarriers Earthward.

'I see.' Jack thrusted his mecha up through the ship and outward into open space, where he toggled his bot back to fighter mode. He paused during the maneuver, only briefly but long enough to look back at the Phlegra solemnly. 'Godspeed, Penzington, or whoever you are.'

Jack? DeathRay's artificial intelligence counterpart (AIC) spoke into his mindvoice. The implant in his brain translated the computer's communication direct-to-mind, or DTM, through a quantum neural interface between the AIC and the user.

Yes, Candis.

Blue- force tracker identifies the nearest ship as the USS John Tyler. Perhaps it can stop the battle cruiser.

Right.

* * *

'Captain! We've got a major electromagnetic disturbance Moonward, and a Seppy battle cruiser just appeared out of nowhere!' the CDC officer of the Tyler warned the captain over the command net.

'What the hell?' Captain Westerfeld looked confused.

'Sir, we're being hailed by the CAG of the Sienna Madira.'

'Can't be. Wally's ship is way out in the Oort somewhere.'

'Well, sir, his security codes validate.'

'Patch him through.'

'CO Tyler, this is Commander Jack Boland of the USS Sienna Madira.'

'Commander, this is Captain Westerfeld. What can I do for you?'

'Sir, this battle cruiser is on a ramming vector for Luna City, and we can't seem to stop it! I thought you might be able to help us out.'

'Captain,' Alexander Moore interrupted. 'I have an idea.' He shoved the Sienna Madira robot onto the teleport pad. The corrupted AI inside the robot likeness of the great president from Disney World had been under the Separatists' control. But for now it was being jammed by President Moore's AIC temporarily, but that would only hold a few more seconds. When the robot AI broke through the jamming signal, it would most certainly detonate the multiple megaton gluonium bomb hidden within it. Gluonium bombs used the actual quantum mechanical force that held quarks together and were the most powerful weapons developed by man.

'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 robot look-alike.

'General, the propulsion system is locked on. Even if it was 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 chairarm 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 personnel 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