Wings of Steele - Flight of Freedom (Book2) (21 page)

The Marines saluted, “Ma'am,”
Dayle Alaroot extended his hand, I love the artwork on your helmet... may I?” Without thinking, she handed it to him to examine and he passed it to the Corporal to his right without looking at it, the Marine setting it gently on the deck behind him.

Maria frowned, focused on the helmet behind the Marine Corporal like a child who'd lost a
woobie
to the washing machine for an hour. “What's going on here?”

The Warrant Officer was going to play this by the book - or as close as he possibly could. “Lieutenant JG Maria Arroyo?”

“Yes...” her reply was suspicious at best.

Dayle Alaroot flipped the e-Pad over in his hand and pulled up the charges, “Lieutenant, you are under arrest for;
sedition
- negatively affecting crew morale and attitude,
failure to obey a direct order
- endangering your craft and...”

“
What the
fuck
are you talking about you
ass...
”

She lunged at the e-Pad but was immediately restrained by the two Marines accompanying the Warrant Officer who continued to complete the charges, “...and endangering the ship and lives of her crew.”

“You're out of your mind
Jarhead,”
she snapped, “I know what I'm doing,
let me go or so help me God...”
her foot came up off the floor aimed at his crotch but missed by almost a foot, the Marines at her elbows holding her fast. She was seething mad, and struggled like a cat, spitting and snarling.

The Marines kept their composure but Dayle Alaroot was losing his patience, “Ma'am, I'm going to tell you this
once,
so listen up, we can do this
nice and easy
or handcuffed and hogtied. Your choice. Personally, I'd rather escort you
calmly
off the deck...”

“
Fuck you
, I'm not going anywhere with you...”

Dayle sighed, shaking his head, “OK, we'll do it your way... cuff her.”

■ ■ ■

Jack and Paul paused at the Marine sentry standing at the entrance of the short corridor, ”Number four, at the end on the right,” offered the Marine. Jack nodded and they stepped past, “Watch your nuts, sir,” came the quiet advice behind them. Jack waved without looking back, indicating he'd heard the sentry. The corridor was much narrower than the others throughout the ship, and the one-window doors for each of the eight rooms, four on each side, were on a forty-five degree angle facing the hallway entrance to offer better prisoner control and observation.

Another Marine at the end of the hall nodded as they approached, stepping forward to greet them, “Captain, Commander...”

“
Is she behaving?”

“
She got a lot more cooperative when we hogtied her...”

Steele's eyes widened, “Hoo boy, was that necessary?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“
Is she still...”

“
No sir,” interrupted the Marine, “but she
is
a fighter... you want one of us in there with you?”

“
Steele smirked, “No we'll be OK. I hope she knows better than to swing on me... cuz I'll deck her.”

The Marine smiled without responding, reaching past them to key the security code into the door pad. “Just knock when you're ready, sir...” The door swished open with a hiss and the two officers stepped into the small, sparsely furnished room, the door closing quickly behind them.

Maria lay on the sole cot against the wall, her back to the room and the door, “What...” she said flatly.

Jack and Paul exchanged glances before Jack spoke, “I would expect you to rise in the presence of a superior officer,” his tone was calm and even.

“Fuck off Jack...”

“
Excuse me?!”

She didn't move from her position, “Oh,
sorry...
Fuck off,
sir...
”

Steele's jaw clenched and he took a deep breath but it was Paul who hit the proverbial wall, roaring, “
PILOT,
get your
ASS
off that cot and come to attention
NOW!”
She bounced up to her feet like she'd been physically ejected off the cot. She wobbled for a second, the instant change of position leaving her a little lightheaded. “Pilot,” he continued calmly but firmly, “I have no idea what your problem is... and truthfully I don't give a rat's ass. After that absolutely
disgraceful
performance, your
total lack of regard
for your fellow crew members and your
complete disregard
of a direct order, I don't see that I have any other choice,” he extended his hand palm up, “give me your wings.”

“
B-b-but I was...”

“
YOU DON'T GET TO TALK, LADY!”
Paul roared. “
Give me
your wings,” he said calmly. Tears welled up in her eyes and her bottom lip quivered as she unpinned her wings with trembling hands. She fumbled with the clasp, finally freeing it, taking one last look at them before dropping them into the palm of his waiting hand. The tears broke free and rolled down her cheeks and she clenched her teeth to keep from sobbing out loud. Paul looked down at the wings in his hand, closing the clasp gently. “Our squadron is a
team;
our ship's crew is a
team
. As much as the members of our squadron need to be able to count on its other members, those two teams depend on each other for their very survival... and your actions tonight jeopardized not only the members of your squadron but the crew and well-being of this ship as a whole. That is totally unacceptable and
will not
be tolerated. You are formally suspended from flying for one month,
minimum
. You will need to prove to me that you are worthy of getting these back before I
ever
let you near another bird.” He clasped his hands behind him, “Is that clear?”

“
Yes, sir.” It was barely a squeak.

“
I'm sorry, I didn't
HEAR YOU!”

“
Yes, sir,”
she replied with a little more force.

“
You have an attitude problem, lady. You're broken... and I don't have time to fix you, I have a squadron to run. You're on your own.” He turned to Jack, “Captain, I'll wait for you outside.”

“
Thank you, Commander... actually, let's meet in my ready room.”

■ ■ ■

Steele walked through the door of his ready room on the bridge, the door sliding closed behind him with a hiss. Paul rose from the couch against the wall, a bottle of water in his hand, “How'd it go after I left?”

Jack dropped a set of Lieutenant's collar pips on his desk, “I need a drink.”

“Holy shit, you took her rank?”

Standing at the minibar against the wall, Jack poured himself a short snifter of Diterian brandy, “Want one?”

“No, I'm good...”

Steele sipped and let the thick warmth run down his throat, clearing his sinuses and his head. “She is restricted to her quarters and common areas of the ship... I think because we have some personal history, she thinks she gets certain privileges. I think she was taking too much for granted... well, until now.” He sipped again, “Maybe a month with absolutely nothing to do will get her attention.” He pinched his lower lip in thought, “She doesn't have a CIA handler here, maybe she needs that kind of guidance...”

Paul stared down at the water bottle in his hand, “We don't have time to babysit, this is a military unit...”

“
Yeah, I know. She needs to learn how to play on a team without needing to have someone constantly show her how...” Jack watched the swirling dark liquid clinging to the sides of the snifter. “Yknow, it occurs to me that she got used a lot... the uncle, the husband, the CIA, maybe even the family.”

“
But we don't know the family part of her history,” added Paul.

“
You're right, we don't. But there's a definite pattern here and it had to start somewhere...”

“
Including the family is quite a leap,” Paul sipped his water.

“
Maybe, maybe not. What if the history started with the family. That might be why the CIA chose her, because she was pliable...”

“
And,” interrupted Paul, “that would mean she never recognized it for what it really was, she saw it as guidance.”

“
Right. Makes me wonder if all this crap she's been doing is some kind of cry for the abuse and deceit she's so used to, she sees it as guidance and doesn't know anything else...”

“
That would explain why she's so hung up on your dusty old ass; she's got a daddy thing going...”

Steele grinned, “That's cold, dude.”

“C'mon, you're closing in on forty...”

“
Hey, I'm a few years off yet... You should talk,
Pappy...
”

Paul smiled, “Getting back to our problem child, I think I know who might be able to help us on this
...
”

“
Our very own Professor Edgars?”

“
That's who I'm thinking...”

“
Good idea, I'm not ready to give up on her yet...”

CHAPTER TEN

UFW FREEDOM, IRUJEN SYSTEM:
SHIT & THE PROVERBIAL FAN

The gate transit between Longreach and Irujen was almost twenty-four hours; Jack wondered if that was how Longreach got its name.

It was twelve hours into the transit to Irujen and most of the Freedom's senior staff were in Steele's ready room on a split-screen video conference with the other members of the task force. The Admiral had received a communique from UFW Directorate on Tanzia. It seems that there had been no communications of any kind from Veloria in several months, and in light of the recent and ongoing unrest there, the Directorate was concerned about what events might precede a total disconnect from the Federation's allied network. The task force was being temporarily detoured from their pirate hunting mission to investigate the status of the Velorian home world.

Jack was concerned how Alité might react to the fact that her home world had literally fallen off the grid and how he might broach the subject with her. Though her parents, the King and Queen, had been initially informed of her rescue from the pirates and then again when Jack and Alité's son, Colton was born, they had made no effort to reply to the communiques. And in Alité's case, she had made no additional efforts to contact them... Walrick had explained to Jack that it was a
fall from grace
issue, that the royals would no longer view her as a member of the family.

None of it made sense to Jack... it was holding the
abducted
responsible for the
abduction -
that didn't register properly with the family values he grew up with. Mentally he shrugged it off because she had a new family now, one that wouldn't abandon her if things got tough. Maybe she was better off for it, at least he hoped so. In light of the stresses happening on Veloria, she was probably much safer here.

“
Mr. Steele...
Mr. Steele...”

Jack suddenly realized his mind had wandered off on a tangent, “Yes, Admiral...”

“You were saying you had an idea for improving our success in tracking down the pirates and their bases...”

“
Yes, sir. We need someone on the inside...”

“
Meaning a spy?”

“
Well, yeah. But in police work, we called it a deep undercover operative.”

Admiral Kelarez's expression was dubious, “How would you expect to accomplish something like that?”

“I'm simplifying this, but there's two basic ways,” began Jack, “you recruit someone from within their organization and send them back in, using them as an information pipeline, or, you send someone in from the outside in an attempt to burrow in as deeply as possible. Sending someone in from the outsides generally gives you more predictable control because you know the qualities of the operative going in. Someone who's an insider and has been turned has a higher likelihood of failure for a wide number of reasons. The latter is generally a little more difficult, but I think it will be more expedient in our case.” He waved his hand expressively, “There are certain risks and dangers either way you go.”