“No, Giacomo, no. Take it easy.”
“I won’t take it easy.” Giacomowas trembling.
“Don’t let him know he’s gotyou. I’ll get her back. I promise.”
Giacomo relaxed a little, thoughJohn felt that had more to do with the screen being off than his words. Thepilot’s eyes hid nothing. If anyone had ever doubted what he felt for Lorraine, it was perfectly clear now.
“Trust me.” John needed Giacomoback in control. “If he’s willing to give the guys back first, we’ll getthem. Then we’ll get Lorraine.”
Giacomo sat down slowly and Johnloosened his grip. He nodded to Tan, who put the transmission back on. He wasbeginning to feel hot; Giacomo was already sweating. It must have been thetension.
“I apologise for theinterruption. Our communications are not at their best.” It was the truth,although not in that particular instance. “You were saying I could have mycrew back…”
“I said you could have most ofthem back.” The Centauri refused to be led. “You may make arrangements totransport two of them to your ship.”
“In return for?” John’s eyesnarrowed suspiciously.
“As a sign of good faith. We areallies in this war.”
John considered. He didn’t trustthe Centauri, but he wasn’t going to give up the opportunity to get two of hiscrew back. “Bridge to transporter room.”
“Umm, sir, transporter’s notworking,” Gillespie reluctantly told him.
He looked across to Gillespie. His eyes closed momentarily and he muttered something incomprehensible beforereturning to the screen with a look of exaggerated exasperation. “It seems ourtransporter is not working. Would you mind…?”
“Certainly.” The Centauri wasconvinced he had the upper hand and the arrogance of his race oozed from him.
McReidy lightly touched John’shand on the console beside her. He couldn’t afford to glance away from thescreen, until it suddenly went blank. At least Tan was still awake.
“Yes?” John asked quietly.
“It’s not much,” McReidyconfessed. “At full strength, their shields can’t withstand our weapons.”
“We’re not at full strength,”Giacomo growled.
“Do they know that?” John asked. “Weaponwise, I mean?”
“Probably not,” Gillespieanswered. “They would have scanned us, so they’ll where we’re damaged, but notthe extent.”
“Kowalski here, sir. Boy, am Iglad to get back.”
“Who’s with you?”
“Red.”
“Get the transporter working. How many crystals can we afford to give up?”
“None. We only took –”
“I know what we took.”
Crystals or crew – it wasn’t achoice. If they had to crawl to Copernicus, he’d take that any day over theloss of one crewmember.
He wiped the sweat from hisforehead. “Is it hot in here or is it me? Looks like I’m going to have to beunreasonable.”
“What’s different about that?”McReidy muttered to herself.
“Put it back on, Mister Tan.”
As the screen came back on, Johnwas glancing at his crew.
“Are they back yet?” he asked,faking ignorance.
“I think so,” Gillespie covered.
“Two of your crew are back,” theCentauri confirmed.
John turned suddenly to thescreen, as though he was unaware that it was back on. “Oh… thank you.”
McReidy hid a smile. Bluffingwas something they were becoming good at.
“Now,” John continued. “As asign of good faith, I will give you back one crystal… in return for all theothers.”
The Centauri laughed loudly.
John didn’t mind. He was tryingto buy time for Kowalski.
“For one crystal,” the Centaurimanaged to compose himself, although he was still amused at John’s suggestion,“you may have another one back.”
It was hard bargaining, but Johnfinally managed to concede three crystals for everyone except Lorraine. Twowere refined and installed. Short of ripping them out of the engine core, heonly had one remaining to bargain with.
He was sweating. His jacketclung to him and the air was stifling. Gillespie had undone his jacket. Giacomo’s sleeves were soaked where he had been wiping himself. McReidy wasoverheated and flushed with colour. John felt the sweat begin to run down his faceand wiped it with his sleeve.
“How’s Sam doing?” he quicklywhispered out of the corner of his mouth.
“Not so good,” McReidy whisperedback. She kept her eyes on the console, searching for any other weakness theCentauri ship might have. Her ears were alert to the conversations going on.
The lights suddenly dimmed andthe consoles went off. The screen remained on, the image of the Centauricaptain pixelating for several seconds before clearing up.
John looked around as the bridgecrew worked madly to try to get their consoles back online. The emergencygenerators kicked in and power was restored.
“We just blew a crystal.” Gillespie confirmed what they all suspected.
John was out of time. He hopedit was Kowalski who caused the power surge because that was where he wanted thereserves to be.
“All right. That’s it. No morediscussions. I’m keeping the remaining crystals and I want my engineer back. Now!”
“Commander, you are hardly in anyposition –”
“Now you listen to me.” John’seyes were hard and he raised one hand and pointed to the Centauri foremphasis. His voice was cold, emotionless to anyone who didn’t know him. “Iwant my engineer back, and I want her back right now! If you do not return herwithin five minutes, I will quite happily destroy your ship!”
He anticipated Giacomo’s responseand his fingers dug sharply into the pilot’s tendons, keeping him in place.
This time, McReidy wasresponsible for cutting off the transmission. She turned on John. “Do thewords ‘without incident’ mean anything to you?” she hissed at him. “You can’tfire on them. They’re on our side.”
He couldn’t escape her glare, buthe avoided an answer. “Mister Kowalski, I want that transporter working infour and a half minutes. Power up some weapons. If they don’t give her back,I want to be able to punch a hole in their shields big enough to pull her out.”
“If they run, we can’t chasethem.” Giacomo’s voice shook slightly.
“Then we make sure they can’trun.”
The screen came back on. TheCentauri looked worried. He didn’t know if John was bluffing. “You can’t fireon us. When your government finds out –”
“My government is not here. Doyou really want to take me on?” The gleam in his eye reflected his intention. He knew exactly what he was doing.
The Centauri was at a loss. Hisjaw twitched, his eyes clouded in confusion and his
