motioning six humans in before him. He struggled with a heavy gun, took aim, and burned a hole through the wall of the communications compartment, then motioned the humans forward. They managed to pick off two Chessori guarding the outer door which allowed access for the rest of the team. After that, Josh’s men used standard room clearing procedures to work their way through the remaining spaces. An hour after entering the ship, the communications section was secure.
A couple of hundred Chessori hounded Josh’s men and the cats as they fought their way through the ship. Josh issued directions to his troops when they became lost, and he sent reinforcements where necessary. The worst battle took place in the armorer’s section where the Chessori had unlimited access to weapons, both personal weapons and heavy guns. These Chessori were true fighters and highly skilled, possibly the ones assigned to root the Great Cats out of their positions on the planet.
A battle raged for hours with little progress, though with great damage to the ship. Mike eventually ordered everyone to retreat to safe locations, then ordered the gunners aboard Stardust to hole the ship in that exact location. The Chessori that didn’t perish from the blasts were evacuated into space by the escaping air. No one wasted the effort to retrieve the bodies.
The cleanup took more hours, but once the last Chessori succumbed, no Rebels proved willing to challenge the cats. It was simply a matter of time as they cleared the vast spaces of the cruiser. The ship was still in grave danger and would never sail again, but the task now became securing it against its own destruction.
Forcing the Rebels to do the work was no problem at all. They were simply told they could not abandon the ship. They would save it or perish.
The cruiser’s captain was brought to Stardust with the last batch of wounded. Josh had left the bridge to check on his wounded men. Otis and Mike stood up as the captain entered the bridge escorted by two of Josh’s men.
“Your name?” Otis inquired. The man’s expression only hardened. It was clear he would not talk easily. “It’s your choice, Captain,” Otis stated plainly. “You can talk now with us, or you can do it later with the experts. I have no interest in what you might tell us anyway.”
The man remained mute. Otis ordered Josh’s men to escort the prisoner to the designated brig area and to secure him hand and foot.
Mike added, “You searched him, right?”
“We did, but we’re not real sure what to look for,” answered the senior sergeant. “What if he has implants or something?”
Mike turned to Voorhees for guidance.
He shrugged. “Who cares if he kills himself?” He held up a hand to forestall argument. “Okay, I’ll detail a crewmember to keep a watch until the medic can check him out, but not before the medic has seen to each of our men. We’ll strip him until then. Let him play with himself if he wants to.”
Then Voorhees brightened and turned to Otis. “Should we just give him to your men?”
“Hmm,” Otis mumbled deeply in his throat. “They’re probably hungry by now. Let me think on it.”
The prisoner showed his alarm but did not speak. He was taken away.
The battle was over, and they had won. Mike and Otis took a break and headed for the lounge. Stepping into the central shaft, Otis chuckled.
“Remember the first time you rode one of these?” he asked grinning. Mike just rolled his eyes, remembering how he had felt about falling down the shaft.
“You’ve come a long way, Sire. I call you a cub no longer. Today was a great day for the Empire.”
Mike thought through the events of the day and shrugged. “As usual, I’m just the hands and feet of the experts, doing their bidding. Josh, Voorhees, and his Chief came up with the strategy we used against the cruiser. You put your breaching plan together with incredible swiftness. I’m impressed, Otis.”
“You led today, Mike. You led well. That included choosing what advice you would use from the experts. It was a very good day, and to top it off, you saved my world from tragedy. Brodor is in your debt. We will not forget.”
Mike nodded absently. Otis took him by the arm, turning Mike to face himself and looking him in the eyes. “Hear me well, Mike. Brodor is in your debt. Think about what I say. We have long memories and do not forget our obligations.”
Mike responded as First Knight. “Sir Otis, Brodor has pledged itself to the Queen. I will not accept anything less or more. Therein lies your duty. Do not forget it.”
“You truly are learning to lead, Sire,” Otis responded with his toothy grin. “That doesn’t change the fact that we have long memories.”
Chapter Twelve
Juster entered Struthers’ office to find him asleep on the couch. He turned around and left, gently closing the door behind him, advising Jirdn that Struthers was not to be disturbed. Jirdn understood and nodded. Struthers had not been sleeping well lately. Perhaps with a little extra sleep he might return to a semblance of his old self.
It was just as well, Juster decided. He wasn’t in the mood for another tirade, and this one would be deserved. He had sent the picket force at Brodor in to attack the planet without Struthers’ approval and had lost touch with the ships. He would take the blame, and that was okay, but what had happened? No one knew what defenses Brodor had, but surely they weren’t capable of taking out a cruiser. And not a hint of what had gone wrong.
He slumped in the chair behind his desk deep in thought. How had the cats done it?
R eba
Chapter Thirteen
Reba didn’t know it, but she and her men were destined to lead the Queen’s first major assault against the Rebels. The battle would take place at Orion III, and its outcome would heavily weight the scales of success or failure for the Queen.
Among her one thousand men from Earth, she alone knew the mission, she alone spoke the language, and she alone was responsible for ensuring her soldiers were prepped and ready to go on arrival at Orion III. In addition, she had yet to earn the trust of her men, a motley group of special operations soldiers chosen from across the globe.
Reba and the group’s commander, Colonel James Waverly, a middle-aged, barrel-chested Ranger with wide- set eyes and hair showing the first flecks of gray, had eight weeks to pull the men into a viable fighting force. They lifted from Earth two months after Mike and Trexler, all one thousand men crammed aboard a trader headed for Orion III. She had no idea if Val was still there, but she allowed herself to hope.
She and Waverly drove the men unmercifully, and the men reveled in the hard work. Reba went into the ship’s net to begin their training, using the net to communicate with everyone at the same time regardless of which compartment they were in. She lectured them on Empire politics, descriptions of the expected situations they would encounter, an explanation of the Chessori scree, and lots and lots of language lessons. The men would be issued translator devices before going into action, but they needed to learn the language of Empire as soon as they possibly could.
She worked with Colonel Waverly and his command staff to develop tactics for the missions she anticipated, then she joined Waverly and a small group of hand-picked veterans to test those tactics, making modifications when needed before disseminating the plans to the rest of the troops. Waverly and his staff then supervised long hours of squad practice, ensuring the men learned their way around the ship, knew how to open and secure doors and
