Wings of Steele - Flight of Freedom (Book2) (30 page)

Doug Moorland dropped his hand to his side, deciding to change his approach. “And I'm sorry about that Mr. Steele,” he nodded at Lynette, “Mrs. Steele. That was not our intention; we were trying to protect her...”

“Against what?” Kyle snapped, “She was hiding from
you!”

“
No sir, she was hiding from the Russian,” countered Mooreland. “Restonovich is in custody and his men are dead.”

Kyle knew that wasn't the whole truth, he could feel it, but the agent didn't have any
tells
that Kyle could spot. Yet. “Go on...” he prompted.

“
Well after the fight we looked for her but she and her friend had disappeared. We're not sure how, or where they went, so we kept an eye on the house in case she came back so we could tell her she was safe...”

And there it was. His eyes went up and to the left, briefly, then they were centered again. He was a good liar, or more correctly, a trained liar. He decided to test the agent again. “And since you couldn't find her, you thoroughly bugged the house and let yourselves in on a regular basis to search the house for the girls and the equipment.” And there it was again. This time his eyes flicked down to the right before going up and left, telling Kyle he had an internal dialogue with himself before speaking his lie.

“
We didn't bug the house; it must've been the Russians...”

“
Sure... ” Kyle interrupted, standing up. He unfolded his six foot two inch frame, tucking the stainless revolver in the back of his jeans. “And I'm the Easter Bunny.” He pointed to the beach, “Go pound sand, before I decide to pound on something else.”

The agents backed down the stairs, “A little sophomoric, don't you think?” asked Pete Whitman. “We're here, off the record, to help you...”

Kyle couldn't help but laugh out loud, “
Help?
And just what would that look like? You people being so hell-bent on
helping
my daughter that she feels
hunted?
So afraid she has to call
off-world
for help? And your people shooting at the shore party that's picking her up..?” He saw Doug Moorland's eyebrows raise. “That's right, we saw the videos.
All of them
.” He advanced to the edge of the deck, fists clenched. Even at the age of sixty-two he had cabled arms like hefty tree limbs.

“
Wait a minute, we thought she was being abducted, we were trying to rescue her...”

Kyle shot a look at Whitman, “You should let him talk,” he growled, pointing at Doug Mooreland, “he's a much better liar than you are.” His eyes narrowed, shifting back to Mooreland, “
National Security
doesn't give you clowns carte blanche...”

“
I'm sorry to tell you, Mr. Steele,” interrupted Doug Mooreland, “but yes, it actually does. Your daughter was sending and receiving communication signals from space. We still don't know how she did it, what she used or what the communications were. But she got on a UFO... a
space ship,
for God's sake. The fact that you accept that as some kind of normalcy is disturbing. We need to know what that all means for the security and safety of this nation. And until we can figure that out, you can expect us to be around.
A lot.
We don't know if you and your wife are involved or not, so thank whatever God you worship that you haven't been detained. Because we
can
do that. And we can freeze assets, pensions, Social Security and properties if we want to...”

Kyle scowled; he wanted to simply pop the guy's head like a grape. “Unlawful imprisonment and government sanctioned legal theft. How nice, your mother must be so proud of you...” he backed away not taking his eyes off them. “Stay away from us if you want to make your next birthday. Oh, and you might want to watch the news tonight...”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

FREEDOM, NEW VANUS SYSTEM:
ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Jack was glad to be back aboard the Freedom and under way again, he wasn't cut out to be a station administrator. He figured a few more weeks of that and he would have been thinking about eating the business end of his .45.

In the Starlight Lounge, the thin man, Odello and his thug, Hughard, had been paid a visit by the new station administrator... accompanied by a supporting cast of armed Marines. Jack would've liked to have been a fly on the wall for
that
meeting. After a thorough review of his application for the lease, it was decided that Odello was not a good fit in the new station and his lease was revoked. The thin man and his cohort lost their sizable deposit on the nightclub and were immediately escorted off the station, instructed to never return again. Odello wasn't happy but then again he wasn't arguing either... After all, they were kind enough to offer him a generous choice - airlock or shuttle. Being a man of infinite wisdom, he chose the shuttle.

It looked like the wreck of the pirate frigate would be nearly consumed in the aggressive salvaging of useful parts, plating, workable systems, and material. Unfortunately, the GOD drive was not in the best shape, seriously damaged in the fight. A huge disappointment, Jack ordered it aboard the Freedom anyway, hoping Hecken Noer would get a chance to examine it and become familiar with the technology.

The additional personnel flooding into the new station began to fill the critical roles. It would be the Administrator's duty to make sure the proper staffing would cover all the different facets required to keep the station running, maintained and defended. To that end, in light of her excellent work with the logic programming and testing of the fighter drone fleet, the station's new administrator offered Maria a permanent position as the Fleet Air Boss, working with the station's new Air Boss. A major slew of programming improvements in tactics wasn't the only thing she'd accomplished. By having the mechanics remove weapon systems and add extra fuel capacity, she designed sensor scouts with extended flight time and reach. Another unarmed version was created and fitted with a signal relay beacon. This eliminated the need for the vulnerable, stationary relay beacons manually placed around the system. This allowed Flight Control to extend the fighters' reach literally anywhere in the system by redirecting the relay drones to a new area. With a bay the size of the station's, an organized team could launch about two-hundred-fifty drones in an hour. A formidable flight.

Jack pushed away from the desk in his ready room and laid his e-Pad down, temporarily abandoning his notes for a break. Walking around to the chart table, he ran his fingers through his hair and called up their current sector, zooming out to see the gates to their destination, Veloria. Staring at the chart, his mind wandered. He wasn't sure how he felt about Maria's decision, whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. “What do you think, dog?”

Reclined on the couch, Fritz lifted his head, listening, his ears rotating. “About what?” he enunciated slowly.

“
About Maria...” he said, staring at the holo-chart.

“
What
you
think...” replied the dog slowly, slyly answering a question with another question.

Steele smiled, glancing at the Shepherd whose head was tilted to one side. “That's real good, buddy. When did you start studying psychology with the Professor?” The Shepherd just shook his head, his tongue hanging out in a curious grin. The Captain looked back to the chart and traced his finger on the holographic line to the disconnected planet. He didn't like being sidetracked on this mission, he could only hope the station capture was worth the loss of time.

The door from the bridge chimed. “Enter,” he called.

The door swished open, sliding into the wall and Maria Arroyo stepped into the ready room in civilian clothes. “Sir?”

“Have a seat,” he motioned to the chair in front of his desk and they crossed paths as he went around behind his desk to sit down. He picked up his e-Pad and paged through Professor Edgars' notes before laying it back down. “So, how're you doing?”

She sat upright, her feet flat on the floor, her hands resting in her lap. “OK,” she replied flatly.

“The meetings with the Professor going alright?”

“
Yes, just fine.” Her demeanor was cool, calm, measured.

He leaned forward, his elbows on the desk. “Y'know, you did a really
amazing
job on the drones. I'm very impressed.”

Her eyes flicked up to his, a small curl at the corner of her mouth. “I'm pretty proud of it...”

“And you
should
be,” offered Jack, “it was some breakthrough stuff.” He leaned back, “Impressed the
hell
out of the new station admin...” He was quiet for a moment. “I thought you might actually take the position.”

“
I thought about it,” she admitted, “for about a minute.” She seemed to relax a little. “No, this is home... and this is my family.”

“
Glad to hear it.” nodded Jack. He dumped the contents of a small envelope onto the desk in front of her, her rank pips and gold flight wings sliding out onto the surface. She stared at them, unmoving. “You ready to go back to work?” he asked.

Maria blinked, still staring at them. “You mean it?” She picked them up and moved them around in the palm of her hand with her index finger.

“As long as you're ready, you're in uniform as of now and I'll have Pappy put you on the roster.”

She rose rather suddenly, her hand clenched tightly around the bits of gold, eyes welling with tears. She blinked them back. “I'm ready.” She looked like she was going to burst with excitement.

“Good, I'll let Pappy know.” Jack stood and moved casually around the desk. “He'll probably be keeping an eye on you for awhile...”

“
That's OK,” she said quickly. “I won't let you down, Jack. I promise.” She threw her arms around him and squeezed tightly, “I'm sorry...” she whispered, kissing him on the cheek. When she unclenched, she darted out the door barely clearing the opening as the door slid open automatically, running through the bridge and down the corridor like an exuberant child with a new toy.

“
Escited...” commented Fritz, mispronouncing the x.

Steele stood there looking at the open empty doorway as it slid closed. “Yeah, I guess
so!”

■ ■ ■

“Captain, two minutes to the gate...”

Jack keyed the mic on his earpiece. “On my way.” He stepped away from the holo-chart and headed for the door, passing through to the bridge, Fritz dropping off the couch and trotting along behind him. Pausing next to Walt Edgars' chair, Jack patted him on the shoulder. “Thanks for working with Marie, Professor,” he said quietly.

“My pleasure...”

“
I put her back on duty, gave her wings back to her.”

Walt chuckled, turning to look at Jack. “Is
that
what that was... we
were
wondering.”

“
So you think she's going to be OK?”

“
Doctor - patient relationship my boy.” Walt winked before going back to his sensor readings. “She'll be fine.”

Jack sat down and pulled up his status screens, the multicolored swirl of the gate filling the big view screen ahead of them. “Are we using a probe?”

“No, sir,” replied Raulya. “The Archer took the lead on that. She launched one of the new sensor drones we got from the station. We should have information in a few seconds...” Forwarded by the Archer, the information came in on her tactical screen, “Got it.” She relayed it up to the big screen as an inset, the data and video feed showing almost a quarter of the system void of ships or movement. “Clear space, Skipper.”

“
Nice. Wish we had these going into Irujen. Woulda saved us a lot of headaches.” The three ships passed through the gate simultaneously in a vertical delta triangle formation, guns armed and fully manned, the Freedom with a flight of four birds ready to launch. As the view cleared, nosing through the gate, Steele hit his mic, “Tower, clear to launch.” The floor rumbled almost immediately, two Cyclones firing out of the Freedom's nose like torpedoes, their engines flaring. The New Vanus system had no
Class 014
type planets, the closest thing to something habitable being a
Class 12a,
which was considerably more primitive and not terribly stable yet. Though the most striking thing about the system was its motionless waves and swirls of iridescent blue dust. Steele eyed the sky. “Raulya, how are our sensors doing since the repairs?”