A Greater Interest: Samair in Argos: Book 4 (80 page)

              Tamara looked at her with sympathy.  “That sounds like a hard life,” she said.

              Viktoriya’s tail thrashed.  “I don’t plan to be living this type of life forever, Ma’am.  I’ll retire in a few years and maybe start a security consulting company or something like that.”

              Tamara, despite the urgency and danger, suddenly felt a bit hurt.  “You’d abandon me?” she asked, her voice small.

              The wolf stared at her for several seconds, the serious train of thought short-circuited by Tamara’s response.  She blinked in confusion and the human woman began to smile.  She laid her ears back and yipped.  “Very funny, Ma’am.”

              “I’ll make sure you get a glowing recommendation when you do decide to set up your own shop, Viktoriya,” Tamara said.

              “This is very entertaining and everything,” Kiki said, her head swiveling around from side to side, ears perked.  “But if we’re really going, we need to go.”

              The serzhant snapped her long fingers in Tamara’s face, making her start.  She yipped again in amusement and then turned her back and waited.  Tamara put her left hand on the she-wolf’s back and with a loud bark, the serzhant ordered them all forward.

              Gants clawed at the back of his head, heedless of the pain as his nails raked his scalp.  Inertial dampener control had fallen.  The pirates had just rushed in and unloaded their weapons, and that damned powered armor of theirs had just mowed down anyone trying to escape from the other hatch.  A couple of consoles were damaged but controls were still on line.

             
What are they
doing
?  Fighting down the keel, capturing IDC, and now the fighting to take auxiliary damage control was increasing.  Almost fifty Army soldiers, fully an eighth of the ship’s contingent, and over a dozen of
Leytonstone’s
crew were firing any kind of weapons they had to try and keep the pirates out.  They were doing all right for the moment, as it seemed that the pirates were unwilling to fire off grenades.  It was an odd change from their normal operational pattern so far.  Also, it helped that the mechs couldn’t get close enough to get inside Aux DC, so the amount of fire that the pirates could bring to bear on the defenders was lessened.  But it was certainly not enough for the defenders to relax.  Clearly they wanted auxiliary damage control to be taken as intact as possible.

              But why?  It’s maddening.
  Yes, there were important things in there, but with the decompression safeties shut down and overridden from the bridge, the ability to vent the ship into space and kill the crew was lost.  It made no sense for them to be going there.  The engines were shut down, so even cutting fuel or rerouting systems wouldn’t do anything, not anything serious.

             
He turned to the specialist sitting at the engineering station.  “Specialist!” he barked, and she jumped.  “What is your opinion on why the pirates would be going for Aux DC?”

              The woman looked stricken.  “I don’t know, Colonel.  They could reroute power, cut fuel lines, power up or down the engines, but those aren’t good enough reasons to be pushing so hard for control of that compartment.”

              “Wait,” he interrupted, frowning.  “Engine control can be accessed from there?”

              She nodded.  “Well, yes, sir.  But only to bring them online or shut them off.  It’s not like you could navigate.”

              “Um, Colonel, that’s not true,” a young ensign piped up. 

It was Ensign… Laborteaux
, Gants remembered.  The man was a part of the ship’s steward division for this deployment.  “Explain, Ensign,” he ordered, rounding on the man.

Laborteaux straightened to strict attention.  “Sir, you would not be able to use the ship’s navigational computer, but the Aux DC can also fire maneuvering thrusters.  If you had a spotter, you could, in theory, fly the ship, sir.  A least at sublight speeds,” he corrected himself, his eyes fixed on a point on the bulkhead.

Gants sat back in the chair, heavily. 
That still makes no sense. 
“You think they’re trying to steal the ship?”  He waved a hand in the air.  “And how the hell do you know this?”

The ensign’s posture didn’t waver.  “I did a few shifts in Aux DC last month, sir, studying for my engineering quals.  I want to shift my specialty to engineering, sir.”

Gants grunted.  “I see.  So are they trying to steal the ship?”

The man looked uncomfortable.  “I suppose that’s possible, sir.  But even if they make us fly for the hyper limit, it isn’t as though we can’t get more of our own ships here in time to help secure the ship and keep outside forces away from the battlecruiser.”

“Outside forces…”  Gants said slowly, and then turned to his displays.  “Sensors, are we showing any other ships nearby?”

The sensor officer bolted back to his station.  “No, sir, only
Moxie-2
.  Nothing else within mid-range scan.  Just some cargo shuttles near the planet, sir.”

He considered this more.  “No, this doesn’t make sense.  They’re not acting like they’re trying to take the ship.  And what’s this nonsense going on down on the keel?  That group isn’t going anywhere near anything vital.  They’re just moving down the full length of the ship.  What possible purpose could that be for?  What’s so important about the keel?”

“Sir, they’re breaking through!” the sensor officer called, his voice a bit louder than was normal.  His voice carried in the much more sparsely populated bridge.

Gants checked his own feeds as the officer’s words struck home.  He looked at it just in time to see a dozen black-clad raiders rush inside of Aux DC, their weapons firing almost continuously.  Did they just overwhelm the defenders, or had they slipped some sort of surprise past them?  Damn it, he hadn’t been watching.  Of course, once inside, the pirates slaughtered those Army soldiers and crewmen that were there, dumping their dead bodies on the deck.  He cursed silently, but his fist pounded against the arm of the chair.

              “This can’t be happening.  What the hell is so important about the keel?  What is down there on the keel?”  His voice trailed off.  Then the beginnings of a horrifying thought came to him and his eyes widened.  There wasn’t time to try and fight the pirates off, if he was right, there was hardly any time for anything.  His brain rebelled against this idea, but watching the Army troopers and crewmen in Aux DC cut down to the last forced him to face reality. 
Leytonstone
and her crew were in serious danger and the crew was insufficient to the task of stopping the pirates.  The invaders had explosives and heavy weapons and damned impressive armor and his people were completely outmatched.

              He activated the internal comms.  “Gants to Paxton.”

              A moment later, the XO’s voice came back.  “Paxton here, Colonel.  I’ve gathered up a score of crewmen and we cleaned out the arms locker on deck six.  We’re approaching Reactor One now.  No sign of the enemy.”

              Gants shook his head, even though he knew that Paxton couldn’t see him.  “Understood.  Good thinking, but I don’t think that pirates are trying to seize the ship.  I think they’re trying to destroy it.”

              He could hear Paxton considering that.  “Yes, sir, I can see that.  But that means it’s more likely that they’re going to hit one of the reactors.  It makes the most sense.”

              Gants gritted his teeth.  “Yes, XO, you’re right.  But they’re
not
hitting the reactors.  They’re hitting alternate locations and we need to stop whatever it is that they’re doing!”

              Paxton paused.  “Aye, sir.  Where do you want us?”

              “You’re closest to Inertial Dampener control.  Get over there and check out what they’ve done there.  Do what you can to avoid contact for the moment, I don’t want you getting ripped apart by those damned suits of powered armor.”

              “Understood, sir.”  Paxton sounded as though he was already moving.  “We’re on our way now.”

              Gants leaned back in the chair, putting his fingers to his jaw.  He cut the connection and then opened another channel.  “This is Colonel Gants.  All non-essential personnel are to head for escape pods and the shuttle bay.  As you’re all aware, the ship has been boarded by hostile forces and I’ll be honest, they have been killing a great number of our crew.  We are working to prevent them from causing further damage, so in the meantime I repeat, all non-essential personnel are to report to escape pods and the shuttles.  That is all for now.”

              He closed the connection, but then turned to the communications station.  “Comms, send out a general distress call.  Inform the Navy of our situation and call for assistance.  Get us some help.”

              “Colonel!” the sensor watch called.  “The pirates are starting to pull back!  All three groups are moving back from their objectives.”

              “Damn it,” he said, watching on his own display.  The cameras were down, so they couldn’t actually see the pirates, but internal sensors were showing life signs moving back along the paths they’d originally taken.

              Paxton and the rest of his group were back behind a bulkhead where they waited as the pirates surged past.  They were fleeing from the ID Control compartment like scalded rats. 
That’s not fair.  They carved their way through our Army contingent, butchered a number of the crew and waltzed inside.  Now they’re moving with quickness back the way they came, moving in good order
.  He frowned, considering the puzzle piece again before him. 
How did they get aboard the
Leytonstone
?  There were no ships nearby and all three groups started off on the starboard side of the ship. 
He shook his head. 
Deal with that later.  Right now, gotta figure out what those bastards did in inertial dampener control.
 

              The pirates clomped down the corridor, turned a corner and were out of sight in less than a minute.  There were fewer of them than Paxton had in his own, though seeing those metal monstrosities made him think again that outnumbering the pirates would make any difference.  None of them seemed to take any notice of the large group of defenders, more than forty people, human, zheen and a handful of other races.  This was odd, really, he thought. 
You’d think that they would care that there was a large number of defenders showing up near them.  Not keeping an enemy at your back and all that.

              Paxton waited for another ten seconds before easing out into the corridor.  There was no onrush of feet, no gunfire, no explosions and with a wave of his hand, he moved forward.  He raised his stunner pistol and headed toward the control compartment.  He’d chosen to keep the stunner pistol instead of equipping himself with a more deadly weapon, wanting to make sure that someone with better marksmanship than he got said deadly weapon. 

              He pressed a control on his wrist communicator.  “Paxton to bridge.”

              “Go ahead, XO,” Gants’ voice sounded tense. 
Of course he sounds tense.

              “We’re approaching ID Control.  I’ll get to work right away to figure out what they’ve done.” 

              “Understood.”

              He walked up to the hatchway for the compartment, his mind screaming at him that there was something wrong.  He looked to the side, no real idea why, and noticed that small devices had been attached to the bulkheads surrounding the hatch.  An instant later there was a flash, a bang, great pain, and then nothing.

              “Sounds like the prey managed to find the presents I left for them, Lieutenant,” the combat engineer Septima told Yanakov, a grin of triumph on her face, following the series of
booms
that echoed down the corridor behind them.

              The lieutenant yipped.  “I saw you putting up devices, but I didn’t notice what they were.”

              “Claymores, sir,” she replied, shrugging.  “Half firing ball bearings and the rest needles.  I imagine that the group that was hiding in that corridor got the full blast of it when they tried to get into that compartment.”

              Now it was the lieutenant who shrugged.  “Not that it really matters.  Even if you only got half, I doubt the rest of them will have the stomach to carry on.  Certainly not with the haste they’ll need to undo your work in the compartment before we can reach the shuttles.”

              “No!” Gants shouted as the sensors updated, and all of the indicators of Paxton’s assault group disappeared from the display.  Thirty-eight people, members of his crew, slaughtered in under a second.  That was just the latest number, but a good fraction of his bridge crew and his XO were dead.  He put his head in his hands.  This was almost too much.

              “Sir,” Ensign Laborteaux said quietly.  “The pirate forces are continuing to move to the starboard side of the ship.”

              He looked up at the man.  “So what?”

              The junior officer gulped.  “Well, sir, they’re clearly heading toward something.  Maybe we can send what soldiers we have left over in that direction to try and stop them.”