Danica nodded. "There, Captain, you have eliminated the only other logical choice. Either you surrender any passenger the Dra-conians want, or we will all die."
See, Melissa. They will all die. You’ve doomed them all, and you'll finally get what you deserve . . .
Andrew slowly nodded his head. "Let's talk with them. If it's me they want, I'm willing to trade."
Danica smiled, but von Breunig snarled harshly. "No, Leftenant. The welfare of Silver Eagle'spassengers is my responsibility." He shook his head wearily. "We'll never surrender a single passenger to them. Never."
"I remove that responsibility from you, Captain von Breu-nig." The woman's voice, strong and clear, reached out from the back of the room and demanded the attention of all assembled. The crowd parted and she whom they had known as Joana Barker came slowly forward. Pulling the brown wig from her head, she shook free the famous gold of her hair.
Fighting back the tears, she spoke without a tremor. "I am the one they want. I am Melissa Arthur Steiner, and no one must die because of me." She lifted her head as everyone in the room, including Danica Holstein and Andrew Redburn, dropped to one knee.
Only the dwarf Clovis remained standing and dared break the reverent silence. "Oh, this makes it very interesting, indeed." He turned and rubbed his hands together. "Now wehave a Princess, and the Kuritans' second Invader,hauling an Overlord,has just arrived."
46
Pacifica (Clara III)
Isle of Skye, Lyran Commonwealth
24 May 3027
Master Sergeant Nicholas Jones nearly jumped out of his skin as the lights came on in the recreation room. All the Kell Hounds surrounded their Lyran Commonwealth Tech Liaison and cheered deliriously. Jones staggered back toward the door of the crowded room, his hands clutched to his chest as he feigned a heart attack, but Rob Kirk caught him and prevented his escape.
Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Kell stepped forward. "Master Sergeant Nicholas Jones?" Kell's features sharpened, and the Master Sergeant snapped to attention. He gave a salute, which Kell returned smartly. "At ease, Sergeant. We're all friends here."
Another round of yells erupted as a smile blossomed on Jones's face. Kell raised his hand, and his people grew more quiet. "In honor of your thirty years of service, Sergeant, we wish to present you with some tokens of our esteem."
Cat Wilson stepped from the crowd and draped a brown leather jacket over Jones's shoulders. As the Sergeant looked down, he saw the Kell Hound insignia on the jacket's left breast and the Captain's bars on the shoulders. "Sir? I don't understand . . ."
Kell smiled and laughter rippled through the throng. "It's simple, Captain Jones. You've been elevated in rank, breveted, in fact. Now we'll confirm that in the computer and it will travel out with you. I hope no one finds out what happened so that you'll get the higher pension, but that may not work out. At the very least, however, you'll travel in luxury back to Tharkad."
"But sir, I won't be leaving for another six months because the Intrepidleaves tomorrow and I've still not been cleared to board her." Jones's appreciation for the gift fought with his desire to avoid abusing it on Pacifica.
Kell laughed and Salome Ward brought the Sergeant a mug of stout. "Captain, would we let such a thing happen?" She waved Jones to a table in the back of the recreation room. "We have everything under control."
* * *
Two floors above, Meg Lang's fingers danced across the keyboard on Pacifica's central computer. Austin Brand stood behind her, hands on her shoulders, just barely within the circle of light coming from Dan's flashlight. He looked over at Dan and smiled happily.
Leaning against the computer itself, Dan smiled benevolently and kept the light centered on Meg. Glad to see you've worked things out, Meg.She gasped slightly and Dan leaned forward. "Have you got it?" he asked.
She nodded and Brand gently squeezed the muscles at the back of her neck. Meg looked over at Dan. "Got it, Captain. Now, you just want me to move the day ahead by one?"
Dan nodded. "Yes, as soon as the clock passes midnight. On Pacifica, the 25th becomes the 26th. It'll confuse a few folks, but it'll get Jones out of here on the Intrepid."Dan laughed to himself. "It'll also cause the jump troopies a bit of trouble, but I'm sure O'Cieran won't mind that."
* * *
Chu-iOguchi could not conceal his agitation. Sho-saKame-kura frowned at his subordinate. Can you not comport yourself in a more orderly manner, Oguchi?Staring at the man through the half-light, Kamekura nodded his head curtly. "Hai,what is it?"
Oguchi swallowed hard. "It is the 26th, Kamekura-san!"
"What!" Kamekura's roar filled the cavern and caused several soldiers to freeze suddenly before they scurried out of sight. "How is this possible?"
"I do not know, Kamekura-san. I set an alarm on my computer terminal for five minutes past midnight on the 26th and it just started beeping at me. I checked, and it is the 26th!" The Chu-istared blankly at his commander. "What do we do now?"
As Kamakura stood abruptly, he smacked his head on the low ceiling. With a smothered curse, he felt his scalp for any traces of blood, but his hand came away clean and dry. "It is obvious, Oguchi-kun. We attack. Our ninja infantry will get there by four
in the morning and blow up the jump troop barracks. Others will slip into the main building and kill the officers. The rest will kill whatever MechWarriors they can find, and then our Pantherswill destroy any further resistance they offer."
* * *
Dan Allard held his autoloading shotgun by the pistol grip and walked over to the Comcenter window. He brushed back the blinds and laughed as he looked out. "Come see this, Cat. Half of O'Cieran's folks are drunk and the other half are asleep."
Cat levered himself up from the desk. "Three-thirty in the morning. They ought to be asleep." He tossed a rag down over the assault rifle he'd broken down and had just completed cleaning. Joining Allard at the window, the big black man laughed deeply. "Rick will have them going full steam momentarily, and will turn this into an exercise in preparedness."
Dan nodded and returned to his chair. He glanced at the seven monitors informing him about the various perimeter alarms around the base. He punched some information in on one keyboard and frowned as the computer spit more data at him. "Damn! It looks like we have a bad IR sensor out in the northern sector."
Cat frowned and started to reassemble the rifle. "The jumpers didn't head out that way? They might have fixed it just to get us out there in revenge for our plan to get Jones shipped out."
Dan shook his head. "No. O'Cieran's got them heading out south, away from Branson's Swamp. He said his men knew it so well that they were getting careless." Dan typed quickly. "Nuts. The wind coming in off the swamp must have knocked down the sensor or wrapped wet leaves around it again because I'm getting nothing."
Cat screwed the rifle barrel back on to complete the weapon. He slammed a clip home. "Want me to go check?"
Dan frowned. "Safety in numbers, remember? I'll call Salome and get her to take over for us here while we recon the sensor. Only take a couple of minutes for her to get down here."