The man in uniform spoke first. “You’re relieved, Admiral Seeton, and you’re under arrest. I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment, and I must say, it’s a pleasure.”
“I don’t recognize your authority to relieve or arrest me,” Seeton said, sitting down and leaning back in his chair.
“It’s by my order,” the governor said.
Seeton placed his hands across his stomach. “That’s why I don’t recognize his authority. You’re not a legitimate governor, and you never will be. Both of you are a disgrace.”
A miniblaster was suddenly in the hand of Admiral Hogri, and it was pointed at Seeton. “Hand your weapon over, Harry. Carefully, with two fingers.”
Colonel Waverly spoke up from the corner. “I’d suggest you reconsider, Admiral.” Hogri and the governor both whirled to face him. Waverly’s blaster was pointed at Hogri.
“Who are you?” Hogri demanded.
“Possibly the last person you will ever set eyes on. Set your weapon on the table, sir, and while you’re at it, you might want to tell your Chessori friends that if I hear the scree… ”
He never got to finish his sentence. The scree started up, and Seeton, Hogri, and the governor collapsed. Waverly stared hard at the three unarmed Chessori, his blaster pointed at them. “Want to reconsider, my little friends?”
The minor buzzing in Trexler’s head faltered, then came back. Waverly didn’t hesitate. The sound of the blaster in the office was deafening. Trexler didn’t hesitate, either. He stunned Seeton, then moved out into the office to stun the rest of Seeton’s staff. Waverly came up with handcuffs from somewhere and handcuffed Hogri and the governor, then dragged them out of the office and handcuffed them to a stairwell guard rail. He went to a wall cabinet and pulled out a case of grenades and an armful of assault weapons. “Let’s go, sir.”
“We can’t leave Seeton. This place will be one of their first objectives.”
“Are you going to carry him? It’ll be ugly out there.”
“I’ll carry him as far as I can.” Seeton was not a large man, but Trexler was tall and spare: muscles had never been an important part of his job. Nevertheless, he got Seeton into a fireman’s carry and staggered out of the office behind Waverly.
They met up with Waverly’s four men huddling inside the front entrance. Waverly passed out weapons and grenades, they held a brief consultation, then Waverly came back to him.
“We’re moving out. About half of my guys are on the ground at the port. We’re going to work our way toward them.”
“I’m just a grunt here, out of my element, but can we hold the building? We know what the Chessori do to the men they find, and there’s probably a lot of sensitive information in here. Seeton wasn’t expecting this. I doubt if his guys had time to destroy much.”
“I’d like to, sir, but this will be a prime target. There’s no way six guys can hold it.”
“What if we got some help from my ships? And it’s got a big roof. Maybe we can bring a ship in to the roof and unload your guys there.”
“I’d love to, but that frigate isn’t a helicopter. Your guys are pretty new to this spaceship stuff. Is it possible?”
“Depends on what’s on the roof, how close the ship can get. We don’t want broken legs.”
“Get on the horn and see what support you can get. I’ll check out the roof.”
He detailed the lieutenant to check the roof, then sent a sergeant back into the building while Trexler spoke with his frigate. “Tom, did you guys make it out?”
“We did, sir, but we took some hits. Nothing serious. The rest of the squadron will be here in an hour or two, maybe sooner. They’re bulling their way through a bunch of Chessori traders. It’s not much of a contest, the Chessori are pretty thin-skinned, but there are a lot of them, and we can’t leave any behind us – if we did, they’d be free to work on Waverly’s guys. Our goal is to clear the port so we can finish our delivery and pick you up.”
“I’m in the sector headquarters building. We’re thinking about trying to hold it, but there’s only six of us. We’ll need some help. Once we’re secure, I want you to try to drop your Raiders off on the roof.”
“Okay. I’ll get started back.”
“Tom, you’re not an attack vessel, you’re a troop carrier for the moment. You can’t take any chances with your passengers. Send someone else.”
“Uh, sir, there are a lot of Chessori out here. They’re lifting from all over the planet and heading this way. We’re only one squadron at the moment.”
“Pass the word, then. The gloves are off. Another squadron can fast ship in.”
“Aye, aye, sir!” Trexler couldn’t see the grin on Tom’s face, but he could sense it.
It was surprisingly calm, Trexler thought to himself as he waited. He was huddled next to Waverly who was on his communicator. He quickly got bored and slid sideways to the door. He stared out toward the port looking for advancing troops, his blaster held at the ready. Nothing moved.
Suddenly a hand grabbed his belt and pulled him away from the door.
“Hold on,” he heard Waverly say into his communicator. Angry eyes stared at him. “What are you doing, Admiral?”
“Looking for the bad guys.”
“You want to get yourself killed? That’s not how you do it. You take a quick look, then duck back under cover. Then you think about what you saw, got it?”
“Uh… yah… sure.”
“Okay. If you saw something you want to shoot at, you now have a pretty good idea of where it is. Raise your weapon, then take a quick look, aim, and fire. Three shots every time, and only three, each one aimed, then get back under cover. Got it?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, what are you looking for?”
“Chessori.”
“No you’re not. You’re looking for movement, and you’re looking for parts of the Chessori. They’re not going to stand up and let you shoot them. Look for motion, and look for part of a head looking around from cover. You won’t see the whole head, just part of it. Got it?”
“Uh, sure.”
“And what are you doing with that pop gun? Get a real weapon. Here,” he said, giving Trexler his own assault rifle.
Trexler looked at it, then studied it.
“Have you ever used one of these before?” Waverly demanded.
“No. I’ve never even held one.”
“Sheesh!” Waverly put the weapon to Trexler’s shoulder, positioned his hands, arms, and head, then showed him how to fire the weapon.
“Every shot is aimed. Every single shot. I won’t have any of this wild firing, understand? Use the sights. If you don’t have time to aim, don’t bother shooting because you’ll miss. Are you getting all this, sir?”
“I think I need to practice some.”
“That you do. Practice looking, then practice aiming. Do not fire unless you are certain of your target, and make sure it’s not one of my men. You’re right handed. Get on the other side of the door. Use it and the window.”
“Okay. I’m Ray, not Admiral. Got it?”
Waverly smiled a grim smile. “I’m a colonel, and you’re a four-star admiral, sir. Now leave me alone. I have work to do.”
He went back to his communicator, and Trexler practiced his looking, then he practiced snapping the weapon up at things inside the building. He now had a much healthier respect for not showing himself at the door. He managed to get the window open, so he alternated positions between it and the door.
On one of his brief looks, he saw motion. With the next look, he discovered a small tank approaching with a squad of Chessori behind it.
“I have motion out here, Jim.”
“If it’s not one of my guys, shoot it.”
“I don’t think so. It’s a tank.”
Waverly didn’t even take the time to look. He closed his communicator, gathered up a spare weapon, and yelled, “fall back!” He scuttled across the lobby to a stairway. The sergeant who had been sent on an errand met him there, carrying two large weapons in his arms. Trexler picked up Seeton, then realized he’d have to leave his weapon behind. A sergeant picked it up for him.