No Medals for Secrets by Kay Elliott

Author:Kay, Elliott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-06-06T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

Interrogation

“By definition, a laser always moves at the speed of light. If you can see the beam, it’s already too late. The only way to dodge is to get out of the way before it’s fired.”

--Stanley Kim, So You Want to Be a Combat Pilot

Lai Wa Publishing, 2275

She half expected the ship to take off without her. Once on board, she could release that ugly fear, but she still felt some surprise when she got the gangway hatch closed up without feeling the shudder of Westwind lifting off. Her surprise doubled when she heard Carson yell from the cockpit.

“Wong!” he shouted with barely controlled alarm. “Get up here!”

Alicia hustled forward. Blood marred the deck, pooling at one point near the gangway hatch before leaving a trail. Someone must have dragged Woods into her cabin as soon as they had the body on board, only seconds before Alicia made it to the ship. In the tiny galley, Medina worked to strap their unconscious prisoner down into one of the chairs.

The cockpit door opened up before she reached it. Ravenell shuffled out backwards, dragging another limp body with him. Vargas was slumped in the young marine’s arms with too much of himself burned away to offer any hope he might still be alive. Beyond the two, Alicia saw the plate armor shield slide down over the shattered remnants of the bridge canopy. Carson sat in the captain’s chair to the left. Janeka moved out of the copilot’s seat, clutching her wounded arm to her chest as she shifted over to the ops station behind the two forward chairs.

“Sorry,” Ravenell grunted as he worked to get himself and their dead pilot out of her way. Alicia didn’t rebuke him. She pressed herself up against the bulkhead and the side of the hatch to let Ravenell by. Frustrating and ghoulish as this was, Alicia would never criticize anyone’s handling of such a task.

“Wong, take the chair,” Carson ordered, pointing to the vacant seat beside his. “We need you at the helm.”

Alicia blinked in surprise, but jumped into the seat as instructed. “I’m flying?”

“The fucking computer won’t recognize either of us,” Carson explained, jerking his thumb back at Janeka. “Something got locked in when the ship was hit. The system still recognizes you and Vargas as the duty bridge crew.”

“Oh shit,” she gasped. Alicia hit the security lockout on her control panel, calling up a screen for her password and leaning in for the retinal scan. Westwind had more security over its systems than most ships she knew of, but then, most ships weren’t built for covert ops. “Do you want me to pass control over?”

“No time. Get us in the air.”

Thankfully, the engines were still spun up and the thrusters warm. The ship was already set to go. Like Woods, Vargas had stayed at his job right up until his death.

Alicia swept her hands over the controls, bringing a holographic overlay of Westwind’s surroundings onto the canopy shield. The projection mimicked reality with such fidelity she could hardly tell she wasn’t looking through a window.

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