***
As soon as Kennedy was upand around, Decker apprised him of her wish to visit the Intabet.After one of the sparring sessions they’d initiated to aid in Con’srecovery, she gave him the broad outline of her idea. Conunquestionably approved; he immediately insisted on leading themission and suggested they set out as soon as they could do sosafely. Deck had already informed him about the attack she’dsuffered in the float-ways and about the sample of the worm she’dgiven Aqila and Bly – who were presently at work on theanalysis.
Con said, “If I know thosetwo – and I do – they’ll definitely devise a way for us to detectthose worms.”
“Once they do that, themission is a go for us?”
“As far I’m concerned,yes, but you’re forgetting one thing – we’ll need Lindstrom’sapproval, too.”
“You think he’ll giveit?”
“Only one way to findout.” Kennedy sent a request for a meeting with his CO andLindstrom quickly granted them a timeslot for the following day at1130 hours.
Unfortunately, the morningof the meeting they had lingered over their sparring session alittle too long and had to rush to clean up and be there on time.When Decker’s hand-held buzzed with an urgent message, she pulledit out, muttering, “Come on, Lindstrom. We’re not even two-minuteslate.” After reading the message, she gasped, “Oh, no!”
Con asked,“What?”
“There’s been a securitybreach of the shuttle. Unauthorized personnel attempting to accessthe piloting controls.”
“Did you do the checktoday?”
“I sent Finnegan. Shelogged a ‘status satisfactory’ almost thirty-minutes ago.” Deckersighed, saying, “Maybe she set it off accidentally somehow. I’llcomm her.” Moira almost immediately answered the hail; Decker couldhear, not one but two alarms blaring in the background. “Finnegan!What the hell is going on?”
“I don’t know. I simplysat down and switched on the computer and the shuttle wentcrazy.”
“Are you in the pilot’sseat?” When she got an affirmative answer, Decker had to take adeep breath to avoid throwing a few choice words at the rattledgirl. She wanted to ask why she was sitting in the one place she’dbeen explicitly warned not to – but first things first. Deckerremotely logged into the piloting controls and cleared all of thealarms.
“I’m so sorry,” Moirawailed. “I didn’t mean to—”
The system status wasstill flashing red so Deck warned, “Get up and out of the pilot’sseat, now, before you reactivate the alarms.” The systemimmediately turned green, indicating Finnegan had vacated the seat.Naiche snapped, “Why were you sitting there with the system powered up? Iwarned you several timesthat it had biometric controls in place – didn’t I?!”
“I don’t know what thatmeans. I wasn’t going to fly it – I merely wanted to show Bingualand Lootan—” Finnegan stopped abruptly and Decker could hear somechirping noises in the background.
“Is there someone therewith you? Are you okay? What’s going on?”
“I’m fine. It’s only twoMaykure kids I met. They’re really nice. They didn’t mean to causeany trouble, they just asked me—”
“Let’s back up a fewsteps,” Naiche ordered. “Start with where you met two Maykure.”After a few minutes, Decker was able to piece together Moira’sscrambled, slightly incoherent explanation. “Okay, listen to mevery carefully. Get yourself, andyour little friends, out of that shuttleimmediately. Make sure you activate the system locks and believeme, we’re gonna have a little chat when you get back,about—”
Decker was interrupted byan ear-splitting scream from Finnegan, accompanied by furiousbarking from Kayatennae. “What’s wrong now?” Moira was sobbing thatsomething had crashed onto the roof, something big. “Okay, okay,calm down. It’s probably a tree or a rock or something. I doubtvery much it’s a peerazu. There have been no tremors and nosightings in days. Just hold on and I’ll check it out.” Naiche usedthe remote access to check the sensor readings; she almost droppedthe hand-held at the results.
Kennedy, who’d beensilently listening to the entire exchange, must have noticed herreaction. He reached out a steadying hand. “What is it? Is it apeerazu?”
“No,” she breathed. “It’stwo of them.” Deck quickly marshalled her wits. She told Moira tostay as calm as possible and hunker down – help was on the way.“Get in the very center of the shuttle and stay low. We’ll be thereas fast as we can.”
She and Con raced toLindstrom’s office – formulating a rescue plan on the way. Kennedyand Decker quickly agreed that it was time to break out one ofthe Aurora’s small flying crafts.
Lindstrom was easilyconvinced to approve their plan. Maddox, who’d been summoned alongwith Croker, was a tougher sell. “There must be another way,” sheinsisted. “We promised the Maykure we wouldn’t use our smallvessels! I gave my word.”
Decker urged, “There aretwo of their people trapped in that shuttle, too. They’llunderstand. It’s the best way to get those peerazu away from thatshuttle quickly – while still maintaining a chance of surviving theencounter ourselves. In fact, it’s the only way.”
“How will you even fightthem? Our vessels have no weapons.”
“We know,” Kennedy said.“We’ve faced this situation before. Deck will fly it and I’ll hangout the hatch with a rifle.”
Maddox tossed up a hand insurrender. “I suppose I must allow this since you say there is noalternative – but I do so under protest.”
“Duly noted,” Lindstromsaid. He nodded at the Tactical leads. “Proceed with yourmission.”
Croker tugged at Con’ssleeve, delaying their exit from the room. “It would be much betterif you both could shoot. Would it not?” Before Decker could snap atwhat an obvious but useless statement that was, he added, “I willfly the ship so you are free to do just that.”
“No, not a good idea,”Decker said. “You don’t have any battle experience.” She and Contook off in a run towards the docking-bay.
“But I wish to help,”Croker insisted, sprinting alongside them. “I won’t let you downagain.”
Kennedy stopped long enoughto say, “I sincerely believe that. I do. But this isn’t the time.I’m sorry, but three lives are at stake here.”
Croker nodded sadly. “Thengo! I wish you all the luck.”
***
Decker settled into thecontrols of the compact ship, named the Alba. It was much smaller than ashuttle and was obviously meant for no more than fouroccupants.
Con asked, “Yougood?”
She scanned the controlpanel. “Yeah, pretty basic. Piece of
