Rebel Princess(8)

"Sorry, Kiolani. I didn't intend to throw you into it like this." He'd planned it all out, his explanation, his excuses . . .

No response.

"Two Tau-15s, Kiolani. Security must have caught a glimpse of us on the  way in, been patrolling the area since we landed. Probably nothing to  get too excited about. They're atmos fighters. Another ten minutes and  they won't be able to catch us."

She knew that. Of course she knew that. Telling her was an insult.  Implying she was a typical Psyclid, ignorant of warcraft. Pok!

"But just in case . . . can you handle it? Or have you forgotten how?"

"Four years is a long time." Ice. Blue and brittle as the outer rings of old Saturn.

"We'll talk later, I promise, but the Taus are twelve marks out and closing fast."

"I can see that, Captain." The venom in captain shriveled his balls. Definitely not the reunion     he'd planned.

Tal spoke into his comm unit. "Turco, you and Stagg take the lasers.  Fire on my command only." He switched off the comm and concentrated on  coaxing the shuttle's speed up another notch. He'd swear the engines  laughed at him. Max plus ten was all they had. He turned to Kiolani.  "Are they coming in hot or just for a look-see?"

"Look-see. This is a Fleet shuttle, after all. Who knows, maybe we've an admiral or two on board."

"I wouldn't count on it. The rebellion's sparked a lot of itchy trigger  fingers. And there they are! Shields up." Tal glanced to his right,  ready to show Kiolani the correct control, but she was there ahead of  him, fingers poised.

For the first time she looked at him. "If we raise shields, they'll know we're not really Fleet."

Pok, but the girl thought fast. "Abort shields, but if they light us up-"

"Of course, Captain."

"Fleet channel, Kiolani. See if they want to talk. That'll buy us some more time."

"Identify. Shuttle, identify." No surprise there.

"This is Archer's shuttle, isn't it?" Kass said. "Can't they tell that?"

"We reconfigured the ident. For all our ships. Archer's the Gemma now."

"But she's up there somewhere?"         

     



 

"Cloaked and waiting. We just have to climb out of the 15s' range before-"

"Shuttle, identify or land immediately."

"Tau-15s hot," Kass intoned. "Engaging shields."

"This is where you earn four years of free meals."

"If they don't kill you, I will."

The Hierarchy-blast their short-sighted souls!-had told him he was crazy to attempt this mission, and maybe they were right.

The Tau-15s' first shots were the age-old warning across the bow.  Evidently, a Fleet shuttle, even an unmarked one, still had some power  of intimidation. Or, more likely, they were waiting for orders from  Central Command.

Beside him, Kass drew a deep breath, her gaze never wavering from the  flatscreen tactical display. Five seconds. Ten. Twenty. The fighters  loomed large and lethal on their tail. "Locked on," Kass murmured.  "Firing lasers."

Tal flipped on his comm. "Fire!" The shuttle's lasers zinged toward the  fighters just seconds before the shuttle shuddered, taking a hit.

"Shields down ten percent."

Interesting. He heard chagrin, but not even on Orion had Kiolani managed  to deflect every beam. "Almost there," he encouraged. "If they just  play with us another couple of minutes we'll leave them flat on their RP  asses."

"Four more 15s, twenty marks out," Kass announced.

"Fyd! No time to play dodge'em, even if the shuttle didn't move like an  overweight platidon. We have to scratch these two and outrun the others.  Can you do it?"

"Only if they fire missiles, and it doesn't look like they're going to do that."

Tal muttered a few choice words. If the 15s didn't kill him, Kass would.  And if Kass didn't, the Hierarchy would. They'd tried to tell him he  was risking too much for one little female Psyclid, and he'd told them  to take their fydding advice and shove it.

"Are you sure, Kiolani? Maybe something you haven't tried before?"

"Taus arming missiles!"

"Go for it." Tal shut up and let her concentrate. Ever since he'd seen  those zigzag trajectories on the hologlobe, he'd known she was for real.  Her powers extraordinary. Scary. And oh-so-valuable. Kass Kiolani, his  secret weapon.

There was something surreal about watching two missiles streak across a  viewscreen, headed straight at you, Tal thought, particularly when you  knew the shuttle's shields were nowhere near as strong as Archer's, let  alone Orion's. Sitting there, stoic as a Spartan, knowing that unless  Kiolani performed a miracle, they were dead.

Incoming . . . incoming . . . turning . . . turning. One missile zigged  harmlessly off into space. One continued to turn . . . doubling back in a  gradual U-shape, heading toward its source.

All the action was behind them, but the viewscreen was brilliantly  clear, and, by Omni, if he weren't seeing it, he wouldn't believe it.  Not even for the war games on Orion had she managed this. Go, baby, go!  Almost . . . there . . .

One of the Tau-15s disintegrated. A wing spiraled off . . . stopped  spinning, as if caught by an invisible hand. It steadied, then headed  straight as an arrow toward the second fighter, sending debris from both  ships tumbling toward Regula Prime far below. Kass was slumped in her  seat, head down. The slight noise he heard might have been an echo of  the yip he'd once heard on Orion, or nothing more than a whimper of  relief.

Tal checked the four blips on the viewscreen. Too far away. In ninety  seconds they'd be above the 15s' flying range. They'd made it.

The hangar bay doors weren't fully closed behind them when Tal gave the  order to break orbit and head for the closest wormhole at flank speed.  They might have lost the atmos fighters, but after what had just  happened, Fleet was going to launch the nearest huntership and a whole  swarm of Tau-20s. The race to the jumpgate was on.

And no help from his little Psyclid this time. Whatever she'd done back  there had taken its toll. Tal ordered Stagg to find quarters for the  drooping little figure, then raced for the bridge. Kass Kiolani was a  problem he'd have to face later.

Fleet forces were still ten marks out when the scout ship slipped  through the gate and into the protective tunnel of warped time and  space. Knowing he could safely leave Archer, now named Gemma, to its  bridge crew, Tal stepped into a lift that took him down one level to  officers' quarters. No trouble finding Kiolani. Hers was the room with  the sergeant wearing the brilliant red of an Imperial Marine standing  outside.

Sergeant Joss Quint saluted, stepped aside. Tal knocked. No response. He  knocked again. No response. Unsure whether he should be concerned or  angry, he raised his hand and waved it in front of the auto-pulse. The  door slid open.         

     



 

At least she hadn't locked it.

Tal stepped inside, the door sliding closed behind him. The lights were  set on dim, and he could barely see her, lying on her side on a single  bed that was big enough for two of her. Her back was to him, and somehow  he got the impression she'd assumed that position after hearing his  knock. Pok! Nothing about this reunion     was going the way he'd planned.

He stood by the bed, studying her motionless form. Too still. She was  faking it. He'd just saved her life-again-and she didn't want to talk to  him.

Maybe she had the right. She'd just saved his life as well.

Fine. Great. So he'd do the talking.

Tal lowered himself onto the bed. Ha! He caught her inadvertent shift  closer to the wall. Time to be captain, instead of Tal Rigel. There was  no doubt he was considerably more skilled at giving orders than  indulging in social interaction.

"Stop sulking, Kiolani. Even my parents don't know."

A short pause, shock ricocheting through the small cabin like a missile  gone amok. She sat up with such a sudden burst of energy he thought she  might go for his throat. Amber eyes raged only inches from his face.  "How could you?" she shot at him. "How could you let people who love  you, the people closest to you in the whole universe, think you're dead?  And me-you abandoned me. For years. Let me think I was never going to  get out. And you just waltz in-Kiolani, do your magic, and oh, by the  way, I'm alive!"

Tal backed off the bed. Unfortunately, the small cabin didn't allow much  room for pacing. Five strides forward, five strides back. Five strides  forward . . . You've come so far, Rigel, you can't lose it now. She's  not just a female you find attractive, she's a weapon. And you need her.  She doesn't have to like you.

Oh yes, she did. Because if Kass Kiolani turned on him, he wasn't sure  what he'd do. And there was worse to come. He had to warn her.

"Firstly," he said, "my so-called death was a secret that couldn't be  shared. The slightest hint that I had faked my death and that of my  crew, and my father would have lost his seat on the Council, probably  his Fleet rank as well. He might even have been tried for treason." Tal  paused, steepling his fingers before his face. "As for you . . ."