Seeton’s door opened as the briefing was in progress, and his executive officer stuck his head in. “The governor is on his way, sir. He’s accompanied by Admiral Hogri and three Chessori.”
Seeton’s eyes narrowed, and the two of them stared at each other. The man nodded his head. “I think they beat us to the starting line, sir.”
“I think you’re right. Activate the plan.” He turned to Waverly. “Are your men ready?”
“Not even close, sir. Most are still aboard ship, and they’re sitting ducks. If your confidence level is high, I’m going to speed things up.”
“Your plan wasn’t based on starting operations at the port, but it’s time, my friend.” Waverly turned away and began issuing urgent orders over his communicator. Seeton turned calmly to Trexler. “If they’re really making their move, this will be coordinated with the nearby Chessori traders. This could be timed with the enemy fleet’s entry into the system, as well. I’m afraid you’re stuck here for a while. It’ll be too dangerous for you to get back to your ship.”
Trexler reached for his own communicator, but Seeton reached out a hand to stop him. “It’s all taken care of, Admiral. My staff is alerting the squadrons as we speak. They know what to do.”
“It’s Waverly’s men I’m concerned about.” He called one of the frigates and spoke to the captain. “Tom, you’ll be under attack in moments. Get out of here.”
“We’ve unloaded less than half of the Raiders, sir.”
“The rest will have to wait. Every one of those Chessori ships at the port is armed, and it looks like the attack is beginning right now.”
“In that case, we’ll boogey. I’ll stay in touch, sir.”
“Let the squadron know, and get them moving in. They’re to take out every Chessori ship on the planet, and they might as well get started on those in space, as well. Every Chessori ship, understood?”
“Understood, sir.”
Seeton’s executive officer opened the door again. This time he left it open. “They’re in the building, sir.” He passed out three blasters, then turned and left. Seeton calmly buckled his on. Waverly, communicator still to his mouth, became a contortionist as he belted his own on. He checked the charge and left the flap open on the holster. Trexler followed his example, but he had never held a blaster in his hand before.
“How do I fire it?”
Seeton couldn’t help grinning. “All that firepower at your beck and call, and you’ve never fired a blaster? Amazing. Here’s the safety, and it’s off. Just point it, squeeze the handle here, that’s a second safety, and squeeze the button under your index finger.” He moved a visitor’s chair to each corner of the room adjacent to the door and motioned Trexler to sit. Waverly was still on his communicator.
“Jim,” he said, “It’s time. Have a seat, and I have a small favor to ask each of you.” Waverly signed off and put his communicator back in his pocket. “I hear this scree is pretty bad. There’s a stunner in my bottom drawer. Would you be kind enough to use it on me and my men if it comes to that?”
He stood up as footsteps sounded just beyond the door. Two men followed by three Chessori walked directly to his desk, not even sparing a glance into the two corners behind them. Did they even know Seeton had visitors?
The man in uniform spoke first. “You’re relieved, Admiral Seeton, and you’re under arrest. I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment, and I must say, it’s a pleasure.”
“I don’t recognize your authority to relieve or arrest me,” Seeton said, sitting down and leaning back in his chair.
“It’s by my order,” the governor said.
Seeton placed his hands across his stomach. “That’s why I don’t recognize his authority. You’re not a legitimate governor, and you never will be. Both of you are a disgrace.”
A miniblaster was suddenly in the hand of Admiral Hogri, and it was pointed at Seeton. “Hand your weapon over, Harry. Carefully, with two fingers.”
Colonel Waverly spoke up from the corner. “I’d suggest you reconsider, Admiral.” Hogri and the governor both whirled to face him. Waverly’s blaster was pointed at Hogri.
“Who are you?” Hogri demanded.
“Possibly the last person you will ever set eyes on. Set your weapon on the table, sir, and while you’re at it, you might want to tell your Chessori friends that if I hear the scree… ”
He never got to finish his sentence. The scree started up, and Seeton, Hogri, and the governor collapsed. Waverly stared hard at the three unarmed Chessori, his blaster pointed at them. “Want to reconsider, my little friends?”
The minor buzzing in Trexler’s head faltered, then came back. Waverly didn’t hesitate. The sound of the blaster in the office was deafening. Trexler didn’t hesitate, either. He stunned Seeton, then moved out into the office to stun the rest of Seeton’s staff. Waverly came up with handcuffs from somewhere and handcuffed Hogri and the governor, then dragged them out of the office and handcuffed them to a stairwell guard rail. He went to a wall cabinet and pulled out a case of grenades and an armful of assault weapons. “Let’s go, sir.”
“We can’t leave Seeton. This place will be one of their first objectives.”
“Are you going to carry him? It’ll be ugly out there.”
“I’ll carry him as far as I can.” Seeton was not a large man, but Trexler was tall and spare: muscles had never been an important part of his job. Nevertheless, he got Seeton into a fireman’s carry and staggered out of the office behind Waverly.
They met up with Waverly’s four men huddling inside the front entrance. Waverly passed out weapons and grenades, they held a brief consultation, then Waverly came back to him.
“We’re moving out. About half of my guys are on the ground at the port. We’re going to work our way toward them.”
“I’m just a grunt here, out of my element, but can we hold the building? We know what the Chessori do to the men they find, and there’s probably a lot of sensitive information in here. Seeton wasn’t expecting this. I doubt if his guys had time to destroy much.”
“I’d like to, sir, but this will be a prime target. There’s no way six guys can hold it.”
“What if we got some help from my ships? And it’s got a big roof. Maybe we can bring a ship in to the roof and unload your guys there.”
“I’d love to, but that frigate isn’t a helicopter. Your guys are pretty new to this spaceship stuff. Is it possible?”
“Depends on what’s on the roof, how close the ship can get. We don’t want broken legs.”
“Get on the horn and see what support you can get. I’ll check out the roof.”
He detailed the lieutenant to check the roof, then sent a sergeant back into the building while Trexler spoke with his frigate. “Tom, did you guys make it out?”
“We did, sir, but we took some hits. Nothing serious. The rest of the squadron will be here in an hour or two, maybe sooner. They’re bulling their way through a bunch of Chessori traders. It’s not much of a contest, the Chessori are pretty thin-skinned, but there are a lot of them, and we can’t leave any behind us – if we did, they’d be free to work on Waverly’s guys. Our goal is to clear the port so we can finish our delivery and pick you up.”
“I’m in the sector headquarters building. We’re thinking about trying to hold it, but there’s only six of us. We’ll need some help. Once we’re secure, I want you to try to drop your Raiders off on the roof.”
“Okay. I’ll get started back.”
“Tom, you’re not an attack vessel, you’re a troop carrier for the moment. You can’t take any chances with your passengers. Send someone else.”
“Uh, sir, there are a lot of Chessori out here. They’re lifting from all over the planet and heading this way. We’re only one squadron at the moment.”
“Pass the word, then. The gloves are off. Another squadron can fast ship in.”
“Aye, aye, sir!” Trexler couldn’t see the grin on Tom’s face, but he could sense it.
It was surprisingly calm, Trexler thought to himself as he waited. He was huddled next to Waverly who was on his communicator. He quickly got bored and slid sideways to the door. He stared out toward the port looking for advancing troops, his blaster held at the ready. Nothing moved.
Suddenly a hand grabbed his belt and pulled him away from the door.
“Hold on,” he heard Waverly say into his communicator. Angry eyes stared at him. “What are you doing,
