Chapter 8
Hands bound, Taz and Lyra walked through the heavy doors of the squat detention center adjacent to the security office in Rho-277's administrative quarter. Their captors prodded them past security scanners to verify that they had no weapons, then down a dark corridor to a set of reinforced double doors. A guard buzzed them in. The doors hissed open to reveal a wide space. Seven prisoner lockups surrounded a central control station. A guard sat at the panel and nodded to the security troops as they entered. He sneered at the new prisoners.
Lyra saw Tess and Varun in separate cells behind a steel lattice. The guard hauled Lyra to Tess's cage, then pressed a key chip to her binders. The white glow of the confinement ray blinked out on Tess's cell and the grate slid up. "Prisoner advance!" ordered the guard. He put his blaster against the small of her back and shoved. Lyra stumbled into the cell. Tess caught her before she fell. The guard at the station threw a lever and the grate slammed back into place. He threw another, activating the cell's ray shield.
"Hey!" Taz snarled. His guard struck him across the back of the head with his E-11 and Taz dropped to his knees with a cry of pain. The others shouted angrily as the two troopers removed his binders and threw him into the cell with Varun. Taz spat curses as the door was sealed again.
"Silence, or you'll be stunned unconscious!" bellowed the guard.
Taz rolled over and sat. He put a hand to the back of his head. It came away bloody. He pressed hard to staunch the bleeding. The two guards left the way they entered.
"You okay, Oktos?" called Lyra from the next cell over.
"Yeah," he groaned, "You?"
"I'm okay," she assured him. The jailer shot them a nasty look.
He turned to Varun. "Guess we wore out our welcome."
"Ruatha," he spat the name. "She probably ran us through ISB's database. She arrested us at Tessa's parent's place."
"Do they know?"
"Amanda and Jerric? Yes. Tessa told them earlier today." he looked upset and resigned all at the same time. "I don't know if I could've kept the truth from my parents either, if I were seeing them for the first time in a decade. I knew that ISB bitch was going to be trouble." Then as an afterthought he asked, "What happened? Did you fall in a lake?"
Taz waved his hand. "Later. Did you get a look at the mining operation?"
"I was planning to do it today, but—" He lifted both hands in a gesture of futility. "I don't know the details, but Tafo and Ruatha said enough when they arrested us to pretty much confirm what we suspected about this place." Varun helped him up, and Taz sat on the bench at the back of the small cell.
"How do we get out of here?" Taz asked in a low voice.
"I don't know, but we'd better think of something fast," Numarkos said. "Ruatha's going to interrogate all of us, starting with Tess."
"Why her?"
"Tafo wants her." Varun spat, looking furious. "He threatened Jerric and Amanda's lives if she didn't comply."
"Tell me everything."
When Varun finished reciting the day's events, Taz swore, a long vicious string of invective. He leaned his head back against the wall, then winced from the injury he'd received.
"Are you alright? You got whacked pretty good."
"Yeah, I'll be fine."
"I don't suppose you've got any ideas for getting out of here?"
"Like what? You're the spook here. Don't you have some kind of trick up your sleeve?"
Varun smirked. "I'm not a field operative. What about, you know," he said, waving his hands in an exaggerated, mystical gesture.
Taz scowled. "I got a look at the controls. I might be able to move the levers that control the doors and shields."
"Give it a try. If one of us can surprise that guard—"
A buzzer sounded in the room, interrupting him. A small door opened beside the entrance and a battered service droid walked in bearing a plate with four bowls of some kind of thin-looking broth. "Meals for the prisoners," it intoned, turning its photoreceptors toward the guard. The man flipped switches and small panels opened in the cell grates, just large enough for the bowls to fit through. Lyra and Tess took theirs, then Varun and Taz. Taz looked skeptically at the food. Varun tipped the bowl to his mouth and drank. "If they wanted to kill us, they wouldn't bother with poison, they'd just shoot us."
Taz shrugged. "I suppose so," he said and followed Varun's example.
After he finished, he whispered, "Now?"
Varun shook his head. "We need to get out of here, but let's try in four hours. We all had a full day. If we're going to escape we should get some rest."
"Why four hours?"
"It's enough time for us to recharge, and It'll be deep into the guard's shift, when he'll be least alert."
Taz liked the logic. "Okay. I'll… try to let Lyra and Tess know." Taz called on the Force. This time he felt it almost immediately. He began to sense the people nearby. As at the temple, Lyra's essence felt the most vibrant to him. He wondered if she might be sensitive to the Force, at least a little.
Nanvarr had taught him not only to pull thoughts from others, but to send them too. Taz stretched out his feelings toward Lyra's presence in the Force and touched it gingerly. Escape attempt in four hours. Sleep now. Let me know you've heard me. She felt scared, uncertain, but also warm and defiant. Taz took unexpected comfort from her ferocity. He repeated the thoughts over and over.
After a time, Lyra tapped her bowl against the steel grate and addressed the guard. "We're done over here. Send your droid to get these bowls so we can get some sleep."
"Don't tell me what to do, Rebel," scoffed the gray-clad guard.
"I'm not a rebel. Imperial Customs Office."
"Even worse, a traitor," he sneered.
"Suit yourself, but when your droid comes along to collect them we might be sleeping, so unless you want to open this cell now…"
"Shut up," snapped the guard, but he pressed the call button for the droid.
"We're going to sleep?" Tess asked, shoving her bowl through the slot for the droid to take.
"Taz," she said softly, tapping her temple.
Tess looked confused, then astounded. She wondered briefly why he hadn't contacted her. Maybe he can't? Or he doesn't want to. "How long?" she whispered.
Lyra laid back on one of the cots. She drew her knee up and laid her hand on it, then tapped four times with her finger.
Tess looked through the grates at the guard. "You come anywhere near this cell while we're sleeping and you'll regret it."
The guard glared at her, but made no response. Hoping Varun and Taz had received her message, Tess took the other cot, closed her eyes, and tried to sleep.
Taz cracked his eyes open. He'd used the healing trance on himself, then fallen asleep. The lights were out in the cell, but he was sure the video monitors could still see him. Outside the cell he could see the guard sitting at the central control station, dimly illuminated by the overhead lights that had been lowered, but not extinguished. There was no semblance of privacy in a cell, and he needed a reason to get up. His exercises with Nanvarr, and his own experiences had shown him that he got the best result interacting with people and things through the Force when he could make direct eye contact.
Taz swung his legs over the edge of the cot and sat, making a show of rubbing sleep from his eyes. The guard glanced over at him, looking bored. This might be easier if they'd put a droid in charge of the overnight shift, he thought. He pushed up from the cot and walked to the toilet on the wall next to the cell door. The guard looked at him suspiciously. "What, you've never had to relieve yourself in the middle of the night?" He stood over the bowl and took care of his biological needs, keeping his eyes on the sentry. After a second, the man turned away.
When he was fourteen Taz had unknowingly used the Force to stop an assault by two Imperial upperclassmen. He'd never really understood how he did it until Nanvarr's lessons, and he'd refused when the Fereax suggested he practice on his fellow crewmates. Now he looked out of the cell and thought the guard might make a good practice subject.
He flicked a glance over at Varun. It looked like he was sleeping, but Taz figured he was awake and waiting. Tess and Lyra were over in the next cell, probably doing the same. He was pretty sure they'd gotten his telepathic message. And there was no way he was going to let Ruatha interrogate Tess, Lyra or any of them.
"Right." Taz mumbled. It took only a few seconds to feel the Force around him. He shuffled at the front of the cell. The guard looked his way. He found the guard's presence in the gray mist and pushed his thought strongly outward. He waved his hand suggestively and said firmly, "You want to go home now."
The guard blinked. "What are you talking about, Rebel? Go back to sleep before I hit you with stun gas."
Taz scowled and reached out for the man's presence. He read annoyance and hunger. Smiling to himself, he tried again. "The cameras aren't working. You want to turn them off."
The sentry blinked again. His hand moved to the console and he flipped a switch.
Encouraged, Taz continued. "You want a snack from the mess."
"I think I'll get a snack at the mess." The man got up and took a step toward the door.
Taz pushed even harder. "You won't need your code key. Leave it behind."
As the guard walked out he took his code cylinder from his shoulder pocket and dropped it on the floor.
When the door closed, Taz let out a nervous sigh. "It worked."
Varun was at the cell door as soon as the guard left. "How'd you do that?"
He waved his hands, mirroring the melodramatic gesture Varun had used before. "The Force. Lyra, Tess?"
"We're here," Lyra answered.
"Give me a minute. I'm going to try opening the cell door."
"Why didn't you just get the guard to do it?" Numarkos asked.
"Because he wouldn't have," Taz answered, annoyed. "Be quiet. I need to concentrate." He closed his eyes and focused. Finding objects in the Force was harder for him than finding people, but after half a minute the cell controls resolved from the haze in his perception. He wasn't sure how to manipulate a single control. Can I use the Force like a hand? He imagined himself tripping the small levers. Nothing happened. Taz had no idea how long the guard might be gone. He kept at it. After what seemed like a long time, the confinement ray flickered off. A second later the cell doors flew up into the ceiling. Taz released his hold on the Force and breathed out a labored breath. He was sweating and shaky.
Varun went to the controls and checked the surveillance cameras outside the detention center. The guard was just opening the door. If their escape was discovered then everything was over. "Back in!" he urged. "The guard's on his way!" The others hurried back to the cells and their cots. Varun pressed himself against the wall beside the door. The guard came through, licking the last of his early morning snack from his fingers. He saw the code cylinder he'd dropped and bent to pick it up.
Varun took a step and drove his knee into the man's face. The guard screamed for a half-second before Numarkos brought his elbow down hard on the base of his skull. The man flopped to the floor.
Varun dragged him behind the wrap-around control center and relieved him of his electro-baton. He released the others and rubbed painfully at his elbow. Then he grabbed Tess in a furious embrace and held her tightly.
Taz flipped through information on the data terminal. "Looks like his shift ends in two hours."
Over his shoulder Varun said, "See if you can loop the surveillance recordings so they won't know we've escaped. Then find the data vault. And see if they got Sera or Rei."
Taz nodded and got to work.
"What's our next move?" Lyra asked. "Head for the mines?"
Varun shook his head. "The mine's out. We need hard evidence. There should be a data vault somewhere. We need to gather as much information as we can, then get off this planet."
"What about my parents?" Tess said, looking alarmed.
Varun looked pained. "Sweetheart, we'll come back with a task force, I promise, but we can't help them if we don't bring intel about this operation back to the Republic."
"That could take weeks!" she pleaded.
"I know, Tessa, and I'm sorry, but we don't have many options."
"We can take them with us!"
"Their house is guarded and we're unarmed," Taz said, still working at the terminal.
"If we get caught they'll shoot us and be done with it," Lyra said.
Tess looked on the verge of panic. "If we leave them here they'll be killed!"
Varun looked torn. He pressed his lips into a thin line and turned on Tess, but before he could say or do anything Taz stepped in front of him. He grabbed Tess by the shoulders and shook her roughly. "Captain Tessalyn Daro!" he snapped, looking as cold as he could. "We can't afford compassion right now! If we don't leave, we die." He shook her again, harder. "If you stay, you die. That's all there is to it." He pushed her toward Varun, hating himself for what he was doing.
"Hey, Oktos you don't need to—" Lyra started, but he cut her off with a raised finger and a sharp look.
"You and Tess are our only pilots. One of you has to make it to the ship while Numarkos and I break into the data vault and get the intel we came for. You might have to fight your way out of here, but right now that's the only thing any of us should be thinking about—" He stabbed his finger toward Tess— "Not rescuing her parents. If whatever's left of the Empire is building a new fleet with kyber-enhanced superlasers the entire galaxy's at risk, not to mention everything we fought for in the last decade."
"You don't mean that, Taz," Tess said, looking pale and heartsick.
Varun glared at Taz. "You're a heartless bastard," he snapped.
"Call me what you want. I'm also right." Seeing her like that, Taz almost lost control of the hard shell he was projecting. To avoid the betrayal in her dark eyes, he grabbed the guard by the arms and dragged the unconscious man toward the open cell.
Varun turned Tess gently by her shoulders. "Your parents are resourceful, sweetheart. We have to trust them to take care of themselves. As much as I hate saying it, he's right." His glare lanced through Taz again. "We have to keep the big picture in mind." He pressed the stun baton into her hand. "As long as they don't discover our escape your parents are safe."
He glanced at the terminal where Taz had been working. "Looks like Rei and Sera are being detained in the security annex next to the hangar. You and Lyra get over there. If you can release them you'll have a better chance getting the ship out. But listen, if it looks like you can't do it without getting caught, you'll have to leave them, understand?"
Tess looked sick. Lyra answered for her, though she looked just as uncomfortable. "We've got it."
"It's half a klick from here. You need to move now."
Lyra added, "With Allegra we can cause the kind of havoc that'll make your parents the last thing on their minds." She glared at Taz, then held out her hand to Tess.
"I—" Tess started to say. Varun kissed her hard. "Get the ship ready for us. I'll see you soon." He flipped controls and the heavy doors opened. The two women hurried out.
Taz finished with the guard. He took the man's comlink, set it to the monitor channel, and clipped it on his belt, then went back to the panel and locked down the cell. He glanced at Numarkos, who looked angry. "What?" he demanded.
Numarkos's fist caught him on the corner of his mouth. Taz spun and fell to the floor, dazed. "That's for what you did to Tessa!"
Taz swore and spat blood. His mouth was numb from the punch. He felt a sudden flash of anger, but it passed in a second. I deserved that. And I got off easy.
Varun glared down at him before holding out his hand. "Get up."
Taz looked at him for a moment, then reached up and let the intel officer help him to his feet. He wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. "One of us had to be the bad guy." He picked up the guard's code cylinder from where it had been dropped. "If anything happens to Amanda and Jerric, she'll need someone to hate." His stomach lurched as he said the words.
Numarkos raised an eyebrow. "You should have just let me handle it."
Taz ignored him. "We've got one, maybe two hours before they figure out what happened and all hell breaks loose. We'd better get what we need and be gone by then." He walked purposefully out of the detention center, Varun close behind.
The first thing Sera did upon waking was to rub the back of her neck. Whenever she got stunned that's where it seemed to hurt the most. Getting shot twice made it feel like she'd been stomped by a stampeding herd of banthas. Reiko knelt over her, concern and relief competing on her pretty round face. Sera gave her a little smile and wiped a tear from her cheek. The young engineer sobbed and hugged her.
"There, there, Rei-sha," Sera soothed. "It was just a stunner."
"I know, but I was so scared you wouldn't wake up!" Reiko cried.
Sera sat up. She felt the normal dizziness and nausea that stun blasts induced, but she'd been trained to anticipate those aftereffects and fight through them. She glanced around. They were in a little cell that was secured by a door with heavy bars floor to ceiling. She didn't see a confinement field. Good news. Beyond the door was a spindly bipedal droid with a large head and pale blue photoreceptors, standing immobile next to an empty desk and chair. It looked inoffensive except for the stun baton in its hand. "I'm fine, Rei-sha." Reiko sniffed and nodded, a blush of color coming back into her pale, worried cheeks. "That's my girl," Sera said encouragingly. "Tell me what's happening."
"They brought us here about six hours ago. They got on the ship and took Yuzu and me. We saw them on the monitors when they overrode the ramp controls. Kalli wanted to fight but I told her to hole up and wait for further instructions."
"Probably a good move. She might have gotten herself, or you, shot to pieces if she'd tried taking them on."
"She wasn't happy about it, but she listened. They led Yuzu off to the hangars. Said something about being behind schedule with TIE maintenance." She screwed up her face angrily. "That nasty Archeson was there. Yuzu doesn't know anything about TIEs!"
Sera patted Rei's hand. "I'm sure Yuzu will be fine. Did you see any guards?"
Rei shook her head. "As soon as they put us in here they left. That TD-series service droid came in a few minutes later, but it hasn't moved, even when I called it."
"Hmm. They've probably got it on a short leash. Imps don't give their droids much autonomy." She stood, went to the cell door, and touched the bar. She got a nasty jolt for her trouble.
The droid turned its dark head her way. "Prisoners must refrain from touching the electrified bars."
"Thanks, metalhead. I'll keep that in mind," Sera said, shaking her numb hand. She grinned at Reiko. "Well, at least we know it's energized."
Rei looked glum. "Any ideas?"
She lowered her voice. "If we could get our jailer to come over here I might be able to catch his arm and drag him against the bars. The shock might short him out."
"That would be cruel, Sera-sha."
"But expedient. We can't afford sentimentality right now, my love. Escape is our first priority, okay?"
Reiko didn't look happy about it, but she nodded. After a minute her eyes lit up. "Ooh. I might have an idea."
"I'm all ears." Sera leaned in.
Rei whispered. "I was tuning the power converters when they came aboard." She scratched her jacket. Sera noted its metallic sheen and the distinct sound of fingernails over metal mesh. "It's electrically insulated. I could lean against that door all day without getting shocked."
"Not sure I follow."
"Push me into the door."
"What?"
"You know, like we're fighting. I'll fall against the bars. Most droids are programmed to respond if a human's life or health is endangered. It'll have to come over, either to break up the fight we're not really having, or to push me away from the bars. Either way, you should have your chance."
Sera thought for a second, then planted a big kiss on her lover's mouth. "You're a genius, Reiko Hudson. If we weren't in a pinch I'd kiss you all night."
Rei smiled at the thought. She took a step back and raised her voice. "—No, you're stupid! If you hadn't taken a swing at the Director we wouldn't be in this mess!"
Sera raised her eyebrows for a second, then put on a menacing face. "Watch who you're calling stupid, or I'll flatten you."
"Prisoners will refrain from aggressive behavior while in custody," the droid said, and took a step toward them, its stun truncheon extended.
Sera pressed close to Rei and whispered, "Punch me as hard as you can, and forgive me Rei-sha."
Rei looked aghast, but Sera nodded urgently. The engineer balled up her fist and struck as hard as she could at Sera's torso. Sera let out a grunt, then grabbed Rei by her jacket and threw her against the bars. She knew her lover's size and weight intimately, and she tried to be as gentle as she could. Reiko stumbled backward and fell against the bars with a thud. She gasped, then let herself slide to the ground and faked a spasm as though she were being shocked.
"Emergency! Emergency!" cried the droid, then emitted a shrieking alarm as it rushed to the door. As soon as it put its hand on Reiko's back Sera surged forward and grabbed the droid through the door. She dropped to the floor, put her boots against the bars, and heaved as hard as she could. Reiko rolled away as the droid, off-balance from bending down, found its head pressed against the bars. Electrical arcs raced from the energized grate to the droid's cranial plates and its photoreceptors. The shrieking stopped and it uttered gibberish, flailing for another ten seconds or so while Sera kept pulling. Finally, its digital cries died away and its eye sensors dimmed. The droid's limbs went limp.
Sera let go, then reached through the bars and snagged the stun baton. She glanced over at Reiko, who looked alarmed. "Are you okay, Rei-sha? I didn't hurt you, did I?"
"Fine," Rei assured her, getting to her feet.
Sera handed her the baton. "Can you do anything with this?"
"Maybe," Rei said, thinking hard.
"Make it quick if you can. That alarm it was making might have alerted whatever security staff is around."
Rei pointed to the upper corner of the cell bars. "Can you see if there's a box up there, on the outside?" She held her hands about thirty centimeters apart to show the approximate size.
Sera got her head as close to the bars as she dared and looked up at the corner. "Yeah, I think I see something."
"That's the door controller. Look for a metal contact plate on the bottom. It should be square, or maybe round."
Sera moved her head this way and that. After a few seconds she pronounced, "Maybe. It's hard to say from this angle."
"Okay. That's a maintenance port. Two or three shocks from the baton might overload it, at least temporarily." She handed the baton back to Sera. "Wait!" she added, stripping off her jacket.
"Good thinking. That's my girl!" said the ex-commando, putting her arm through the insulated jacket sleeve. She reached through the narrow gap in the bars and, working blindly, pressed the baton's two probes to the underside of the box where she thought the maintenance port was. She moved it around, tapping the electrified end of the truncheon repeatedly against the control box. After a few seconds she heard a buzzing sound, followed by loud pops and crackling sounds. The odor of burnt insulation made her want to sneeze.
She pressed her arm against the bars and pushed. The door stuck for a second, then yielded, swinging out. Reiko uttered a little cry of joy, but Sera was already at the desk, rummaging for anything useful. She turned on the monitor and frowned. Two uniformed men with blaster pistols in hand were jogging toward the little security annex where they were imprisoned. She motioned for Reiko to crouch, and she did likewise.
They guards stormed in and stopped at the sight of the empty cell and the fallen droid. In that moment, Sera jammed the energized baton into the nearest guard's groin. He staggered and yelped as she surged up and swept the heavy rod around in a swift backhand, striking the other guard in the throat. He clutched involuntarily. Sera put the probes against his chest and triggered it. The second guard writhed, then collapsed.
"Wow!" Rei said, eyes wide with amazement. "You're really good at that."
Sera flashed a grim smile. She searched the men, collected their weapons and code cylinders, handing one of each to Rei. Then she dragged the guards to the cell door, put their arms through the bars, and secured them with their own binders.
"Just a second," Reiko said. The fallen droid was beginning its reboot sequence. She hated seeing restraining bolts on droids, but just this time, she was glad for it. Rei flipped a switch on the stubby cylindrical bolt, powering down the droid. "Okay, all set."
"Good," Sera motioned with the muzzle of her DH-17. "Let's go."
The door to the holding area opened into a short corridor, with another door opposite. Sera peeked through the little window into a small room. There was a panel that looked like a comm station, but nothing else. At the back, over a heavy blast door was a sign, illuminated in green, that read Tactical Control Center.
"Think that's where the weapon emplacements and deflectors are controlled from?"
"Probably," Reiko said. "They brought me in right at shift change and I saw techs going into a lift behind the doors." She peered through the window. "Looks like it's ray-shielded. I don't see a switch panel or a socket for a code cylinder. That probably means it can only be opened from the control center, or on some kind of schedule." The engineer scowled. "I'd have liked to get down there to deactivate the base's weapons and shields, but we'd have to blast our way in."
"Not in the cards," Sera agreed. "Let's get back to Allegra, then figure out our next move."
Tess & Lyra moved furtively from building to building. They avoided the paths with their lights and surveillance cameras, and stuck to the shadows. As they neared the residential block, Tess thought about going to her parent's house.
Perhaps guessing her thoughts, Lyra whispered, "We're likely to raise an alarm wherever we go, Tess."
"I know that," she whispered back, sounding urgent and desperate.
"Look, I won't tell you what you should do." Lyra looked intense. "I can't tell you how badly I miss Allegra and my parents every day. I'd give anything to have them back, so I know what you're going through, believe me. All I'm saying is we've got one shot at this." She could just see the Daros' house in the early morning gloom. "It looks like there's one guard outside. We could probably get the jump on him, but we don't know what we'll run into after that." She waited a beat, then said, "I'm with you, whatever you decide."
Tess had tears in her eyes. She looked torn, and at a loss.
Lyra took her hands. "What would Captain Daro do?" Tess stifled a sob. Lyra hugged her tightly while Tess shook and cried silently into her shoulder. She could guess the toll the decision was taking on her.
After perhaps fifteen seconds Tess lifted her head. "Enough," she chided herself with a sharp whisper. "Captain Daro would think about her crew and her mission. Thanks, Lyra," she said, wiping tears away.
"Any time, partner."
Tess sniffed. "I'm going to believe in Mom and Dad. Let's go."
Lyra gave her hand another squeeze. "We'll come back for them, I swear."
"You bet we will."
After a few minutes moving quietly from house to house they reached the end of the base's domestic quarters. The landing platform and hangar were still over two hundred meters distant, with nothing but grassland around. They crouched and went on, staying out of the light spilled from the nearby pathway. It took another twenty minutes of careful, deliberate movement to reach the hangar. The broad building was bathed in bright light. Allegra's Heart sat on the landing platform, completely inert. They stopped a dozen meters away and knelt on the moist ground and wet grass.
"Dammit. They powered her down. I'll need at least five minutes to get Allegra off the ground like that."
"We need to find Rei and Sera."
"The annex is on the other side." Lyra pointed. "Let's go around the back."
The hangar stretched more than fifty meters. Harsh industrial floodlights mounted on the back wall of the reinforced structure cast glaring circles of light. Little blinking red indicator lights showed where motion sensors provided additional security. Lyra knew the arrangements at Imperial hangars as well as she knew how to plot an orbital approach vector. She led, pressing against the rising rocky terrain behind the hangar, staying just out of range of the lights and detectors. She whispered thanks that there were no stormtroopers on sentry duty; the sensors in their helmets almost certainly would have spotted the two women even in the darkness.
A little alley ran between the hangar and the security annex. From their position, Lyra could just make out facing doors between the two buildings. The hangar's side door was open, spilling light. The faint sounds of maintenance work emanated from within. She pointed to the corners of both buildings. "There's no way to get there without being seen by those cameras."
Tess screwed up her mouth. "If there's no help for it then we might as well just walk up there. Maybe they won't look too closely and we can pass for overnight shift workers." She slipped the baton into her belt at the small of her back and covered it with her jacket. The two pilots walked toward the buildings, trying to appear casual. When they were a few meters away, the door to the security annex slid open. Tess froze for an instant, but they were already committed; She took another step forward.
Two figures emerged, one taller than the other. They looked around and saw Tess and Lyra. The taller one started to raise her blaster.
"Rendix!" Lyra hissed, as loudly as she dared. She and Tess closed the distance.
Sera lowered her weapon. Rei put her hand to her chest and let out a relieved sigh.
They flattened themselves against the hangar wall. "We didn't see anyone else in the annex, but no telling when the shift will change," Sera whispered. She chanced a quick look inside the hangar through the little door. For such an early hour, there was quite a lot of activity. Droids and a few humans worked at the half dozen TIE fighters. A woman wearing the uniform and armored carapace of an Imperial ground trooper herded Yuzu from one fighter to the next, where he seemed to be performing some kind of work through a maintenance panel on the bottom of each ship. Sera flicked her eyes around the room and saw three others, similarly uniformed, all armed with blasters. The nearest was only a couple of meters distant, but facing away. She recognized at least one of them from her earlier fight and capture.
Sera whispered to the others. "Four armed guards. One's watching Yuzu. Looks like they've got him doing some kind of work on the TIEs." She forestalled Reiko's look of horror with a raised hand. "He's okay, Rei-sha." To the others she said, "They're the same guards who captured me. They'll probably recognize me if I go in." She thought for a minute, then motioned them all into the security annex. The two captive guards were beginning to stir. Sera stunned them both with her blaster. "Watch the door," she said, tossing the gun to Lyra. She stripped the uniform from one of the guards, took off her clothes, and put on the gray Imperial coverall, belt and cap.
Lyra handed back the blaster. "You look like you have a plan."
"I do," she said, stripping the other troop. "Get into these clothes."
"Me?"
"You and I are going into the hangar. I'll try to get you into one of the TIEs. You can give us some cover while Allegra gets away. Maybe take out the shield and the weapon emplacements while you're at it."
"We can't disable them from here?" Tess suggested.
Reiko shook her head. "They're underground, behind a ray-shielded blast door."
Sera looked at Lyra. "I'm counting on them being slow to respond to a TIE, so if you can create a diversion by knocking out those batteries—"
Lyra picked up her idea. "The IFF system in the TIEs won't trigger the batteries' auto-tracking systems. If I do it right I should be able to target the cannons and missile tubes before they know what happened."
She looked at Tess and Rei. "You two need to get Allegra powered up and ready to go. We'll pick up the others, then rendezvous somewhere to pick up Lyra and get the hell out of here."
"That sounds… risky," Tess said.
"I'm open to other ideas, Captain."
Tess gave it a moment's thought but screwed up her mouth. "I can't think of anything better. What if they scramble those TIEs to come after us?"
Lyra said, "I'll take the Striker. It'll fly circles around the TIEs in atmosphere and it outguns them. It's got proton bombs, too. If they're loaded it'll make a mess out of that deflector generator." She turned to Tess. "You take Allegra."
Tess shook her head. "Allegra's your ship. I'll fly the TIE."
"I trained on TIEs, Tess. I'm the better choice." She stripped off her jacket and put the Imperial's boilersuit over her clothes.
"She's right," Sera said to cut off further debate.
"Allegra looked completely powered down," Lyra addressed Reiko as she zipped the suit and strapped on the broad black belt.
Rei scowled. "I can cold-start her, though she won't like it."
"Shields and repulsors are first priority. Weapons after that," Sera said. The Imperial uniform was a poor fit on Lyra, but it would have to do. "Nimor and I will go to the hangar. You two head straight for Allegra's Heart. I imagine it'll get lively in the hangar soon. We'll try to give you time to get the ship powered up. Watch for Lyra's exit. You'll have to be ready to move by then."
Rei nodded tightly. She hugged Sera as hard as she could, then she and Tess slipped out the annex door.
Sera looked at Lyra. "Ready?"
"Sure."
"Listen, if things go sideways I may have to start shooting. I know those are Imperials in there, but I need you to be—"
"You don't need to say it, Rendix." She looked anxious but resolute. "I'll do what I need to for my ship and crew."
Sera gave Lyra's shoulder a squeeze. She adjusted the cap low on her head and they walked into the hangar.
Big fixtures on the ceiling ten meters overhead cast plenty of light, but the tall solar collectors on the TIEs reached nearly that high, and they cast broad shadows so that only slashes of light splashed on the hangar floor. Lyra and Sera chose a path that took them behind the TIEs, as far away from the guards as they could get. There was one standard TIE closest to them. The next ship was the Striker, the only one of its model in the hangar. Built for air superiority, it sat only a few meters high, its two long solar collector wings angled down to act as landing skids.
A tech droid moved on tripod legs from the center of the fuselage where it had been working. Sera stood at the rear of the fighter. So far, no one seemed to be paying much attention to them. Lyra started to climb up one of the structural ribs on the wing, heading for the pilot's hatch on top of the craft. The tech droid skittered over to her. "Technician, interior maintenance has already been completed. There is no need for you to enter this vessel."
She adopted the tone she'd used in the Customs office when addressing droids. "I'll decide when maintenance is complete," she snapped.
"I'm certain that's not necessary, ma'am," said the droid in a reassuring tone.
"What's your designation?"
"Five A nine KDY dash four dash Q seven, ma'am," it replied. "Is there a problem?"
"Yes, you're challenging my orders." Sera glanced at her with a we-don't-have-time-for-this look. Lyra shook her head. "Nevermind. I'll take over from here. Report to droid maintenance at once."
The tech droid swiveled its head briefly, then said, "Very well, technician," and trundled off. Their conversation attracted attention from one of the uniformed guards, who was watching from several meters away. Lyra started up the wing strut, hoping the guard wasn't the curious type. When the man took a step in their direction her heart sank.
"Get going," Sera said out of the corner of her mouth. "I'll take care of this." Lyra ascended the wing. Sera stepped under the solar collector, into the shadows. When the other guard got within a couple of meters, she waved and said, "Quiet night, huh?"
"So far," the man agreed. "What's going on?"
"Orders from the Director's office," she said, thinking fast. "Sounds like they want to run some patrols tomorrow. They want this one flight-ready."
The other man pursed his lips. "I don't remember anything about patrols being ordered for tomorrow." He wasn't accusatory, but there was an edge of disbelief in his voice.
Sera tried a chuckle. "You know how it is. Somebody gets an idea in their heads and poof, there goes the regular ops schedule." She heard the hatch close and the whine of power systems starting up on the Striker.
The man tilted his head. "No, that doesn't usually happen around here," he said slowly. The disbelief in his tone was turning toward suspicion. "I know most of the technical staff. You don't sound familiar." He started to shift his E-11 blaster from where it rested in the crook of his arm.
In Ballista training, the cocky seventeen-year-old Sera Rendix had been given a stun blaster and told to square off against her hand-to-hand combat instructor, Senior Trooper First Class R'dak Rokostod. The Filvian stood seven meters away, armed with a stun baton. Like every other recruit, Sera was convinced that her blaster gave her the upper hand. No sooner had the start signal blared than she found herself stunned and on her back with Trooper Rokostod's toothy Filvian snout hovering over her. She tried again, and again, but the result was the same. Despite her best effort, and the efforts of every other recruit in her squad, not a single one could bring their weapon to bear before Senior Trooper Rokostod punched the business end of his stun baton into a solar plexus or kidney or groin and triggered the punishing electrical shock, laying each one of them flat on the ground, writhing in pain.
Following the practical exercise, Sera and her fellow recruits had learned all about reaction times, the fractions of a second needed to observe an action, recognize it as a threat, then make their bodies move to counter it. By the time all that had happened, a reasonably fit being in standard gravity could cover the seven meters before their opponent had time to get their hand on their blaster, much less clear the holster. And Senior Trooper Rokostod was at the peak of physical condition.
Sera smiled from the shadows, recalling the lesson. She didn't have a baton or a knife, but she hardly needed one for the task at hand. Without a warning she shot from the Striker's shadow, grabbed the guard's throat with one hand and slammed the other into his temple. The man slumped. Sera wrapped her arms around his waist to keep him from falling.
A human worker pushing a repulsor cart laden with a power regulator looked over and said in a much too loud voice "Hey, is that guy alright?"
Sera swore. Another guard started her way. "Game's up," she said to herself, dropping the unconscious guard and taking his blaster. She saw Yuzu not too far away and began edging toward the droid, looking for cover. She dove behind a big tank of coolant just about the time the approaching guard figured out that Sera's tall, fit body, red hair, and green eyes didn't match any of the technicians she knew.
A streak of crimson red plasma tore through the air where her shoulder had been a second before. They aren't bothering with stun settings this time. Sera peeked around the tank and snapped off a return shot, mostly to keep their heads down. The tank was on repulsors and she pushed it along as she moved, "Yuzu!" she yelled through the sudden noise and chaos that enveloped the hangar for the second time that evening.
The droid looked her way. "Mistress Sera!" he exclaimed, raising his arm in recognition. Yuzu's Imperial minder reached for the droid caller on her belt.
Sera urgently motioned for him to approach, flipped her blaster to stun, and fired at the woman. The shot enveloped her in blue ionized plasma, overloading her nervous system. She collapsed, the caller rolling from her slack fingers. "Two," she said, keeping track of the guards she'd disabled.
The other two were farther away but headed toward her at a dead run. At the same time, loud klaxons blared throughout the base. Either someone had raised the alarm in the hangar, or their escape had been discovered. No matter, Sera thought. She had more important things to worry about. Like getting Lyra out of there.
Yuzu hurried over. "Mistress Sera, whatever is happening?" he said, sounding alarmed.
She grabbed his arm and pulled him into a reasonable imitation of a crouch. "Lyra's in that Striker. She's going to cover us so we can get to Allegra."
"That's a marvelous idea, Mistress. I don't have to tell you that these last few hours have been a particularly stressful ordeal for a droid of my model." He stopped suddenly and tilted his domed head. "Did you say Mistress Lyra is in the TIE Striker? Oh, that won't do at all!"
Sera continued to fire at the approaching guards. Her aim was hampered by the effort of pulling the coolant cart, Yuzu's body, and avoiding the scattering techs and droids. The Striker started moving toward the wide mouth of the hangar. "What's the matter?"
"Well Mistress, when those brutish Imperial taskmasters set me to work on the fighters, I was instructed to check all of the flight and combat subsystems. I have to say, Sienar Fleet Systems software is quite rude—"
"Software complaints later, Yuzu!"
"Oh yes, of course, Mistress. While adjusting the flight systems, I made sure to cross-connect the anti-theft circuits in all of the TIE fighters with their combat systems."
"Great. What does that mean?"
"If Mistress Lyra uses any of the Striker's weapons, the anti-theft system will activate, ejecting the pilot and disabling the craft!"
Sera swore. "That's a disaster!" She fired at the lights overhead, sending sparks cascading through the air and casting even deeper shadows. She'd covered half the distance to the hangar mouth when she saw what she'd dreaded. Four stormtroopers sprinted into the hangar. As soon as they saw her they opened fire, punching big holes in the coolant tank. Sera fired back and changed direction, angling to get behind the moving Striker.
"Oh, not to worry, Mistress, I took the liberty of setting an override sequence. I'm not programmed for slicing, but I thought under the circumstances it was quite clev—"
"Fine, Yuzu, fine. Get on your comlink and tell Lyra!" she shouted over the shriek of blaster bolts. The coolant tank was rapidly becoming useless as the stormtroopers' accurate fire took the metal cylinder apart chunk by chunk. Worse, another four had entered from the side door and were moving to bracket her. She heard Yuzu's voice calling out a sequence of commands. Sera glanced toward Allegra's cockpit and saw lights. She smiled at the sight. Now she just needed to get out of the hangar without getting killed.
Tess and Reiko stepped across the permacrete toward Allegra's Heart. No one knew who first started calling the YV-929 model a 'flying brick' for its square, ungainly appearance, but both of them knew the truth. Despite her awkward, compact shape, Allegra was a tough ship with a vicious bite.
Rei tapped the stun baton nervously against her leg as they walked. When the Imperial troops had arrested her, two of them had stayed aboard. She'd taken the precaution of locking down all of the systems before they boarded, but who knew what kind of damage she'd find, not to mention that they would have to overcome the troops that were probably waiting for them. She started breathing hard as panic crept up on her. If Sera were with her, she'd have felt at ease. Sera could sweep any threat away. She glanced over at Tess, who wore a concerned, determined look.
They heard shots erupt behind them as they stopped at Allegra's landing strut. Tess gripped her blaster and tilted her head toward the boarding ramp controls on the strut. Reiko shoved the baton in her waistband and opened the panel, intending to bypass the controls. Instead, the ramp hissed and opened on its own. Cold fear trickled down the engineer's back as dim light spilled from the ship, backlighting a tall figure. She clamped her hand on the stun baton and uttered a little whimper.
Before the ramp had finished extending, two bodies in Imperial uniforms rolled down it and flopped onto the permacrete. Below, Tess and Reiko looked up, nonplussed. As the light improved, it began to gleam against a curvaceous golden body and long shiny black limbs.
"Kalli!" cried Reiko, sprinting up the ramp with Tess close on her heels.
"Mistress Reiko, Captain Daro, I hope you don't mind that I cleaned up some garbage that was cluttering our wonderful ship while you were away."
Tess ran for the cockpit. Reiko palmed the ramp switch and went to the circuit bay. "You're a gem, Kalli! Give me a hand getting Allegra started, will you? We'll have to do it cold."
"I'm happy to lend my services, Mistress Reiko, but cold starting the reactor will increase the chance of a catastrophic hypermatter containment breach by twenty-eight point oh—"
"I know Kalli, but we don't have time to be gentle. We need to go now!" Reiko worked furiously, both hands flying over the controls as if they had minds of their own. Kallista plugged into the ship's computer and began bringing systems online as power flowed from the reactor into the converters and distribution bus. Tess hooted from the cockpit and fired up the repulsors as Allegra's systems started humming to life.
Lyra jumped into the tight pilot's seat, strapped in, and put on the comm headset. Beyond the round cockpit window she could see her precious ship, and she prayed that Reiko and Tess would be able to get her running quickly. She began the preflight procedures, careful not to fire up too many systems. She wanted her exit to be as much of a surprise as possible.
Despite her earlier assertion to Tess, Lyra hadn't been at the controls of a starfighter in nearly six years. She'd made it most of the way through TIE training at the Alui sector academy before she failed to make the cut of the top pilots. Everyone below the cutoff line had to find other postings— command crew on a capital ship, or piloting smaller craft like shuttles and transports. The Customs office came calling, and once her ire over her family's deaths had cooled, she saw the wisdom in working in a service where she wasn't likely to be flying through combat zones all the time.
The training came back to her in bits and pieces. Strikers were still officially classed as experimental craft when she was in training, and she'd never flown one. It shared many of its systems with its cousins in the TIE family, but between the differences and her long absence from fighters, she had to move with more deliberation than she wanted.
The tactical scopes flickered to life. Two of the four wing-tip laser cannons weren't charged, but the pair of heavy cannons beneath the cockpit were. She let out a little yelp of joy when she saw that the bomb chute was loaded with six devastating ArmaTek proton bombs. She slaved the bomb chute controls to the pilot's yoke just as the shooting began in the hangar. New urgency drove her, and she fed power from the Striker's compact reactor to the repulsors. Visibility in any TIE was poor, and with the Striker's long fuselage she had to rely on the inadequate rearview camera to see what was around her. Her best hope was to make a run at the weapon emplacements and the shield generator as soon as she could.
Here goes nothing, she thought grimly and pushed the atmospheric fighter forward.
Surprised droids and techs dove out of her way, but her nervous grin turned sour as she saw stormtroopers jump from the back of a speeder truck. It was the first she'd seen of the Imperial shock troops since landing at Rho-277, and she wondered where they'd come from. It dawned on her that there might be another part of the operation they didn't know about. The thought made her nerves jump a few orders of magnitude. As klaxons began blaring she saw that there were lights in Allegra's cockpit. Her grim smile returned and she began turning the fighter to line her cannons up on the other TIEs in the hanger.
Without warning her comm crackled to life. She jumped when Yuzu identified himself.
"Yuzu, it's Lyra. Is everyone alright?"
"Mistress Sera is engaged in combat at the moment. Mistress Lyra, I have a message of utmost importance! Your ship's anti-theft circuit is active. It will be triggered if you use any of your weapons."
Lyra let out a sharp curse. Intended to discourage Imperial pilots from defecting, the anti-theft circuit was controlled remotely, probably by Tafo or his lieutenant, she realized with a start. "Is there an override?"
"Yes, Mistress. Please put the flight systems in diagnostic mode, then enter the following sequence to disable the anti-theft circuit." He waited for Lyra's confirmation and gave her the codes to enter. Lyra's fingers tapped away at the keyboard displayed on the flight computer panel.
"There they are!" Tess yelled as she watched Sera make a break for Allegra's Heart. Yuzu came behind as fast as his legs would carry him. Dozens of maintenance workers and droids swarmed near the mouth of the hangar as Lyra's Striker emerged and began turning around. Twenty meters away the stormtroopers opened fire.
Reiko tripped the ramp switch from her seat at the copilot's station. She saw a stormtrooper with a sergeant's white shoulder pauldron drop to one knee and raise his blaster. She screamed as he fired directly at the fleeing Sera.
Sera heard a shot and a loud squawk. She looked back to see Yuzu stagger, sparks erupting from his leg. "Yuzu!" she shouted and turned. She raised her rifle but civilians ran through the line of fire between her and the trooper. Other white-armored troops were closing in fast.
Yuzu raised his head. In a static-laced voice he said, "Flee, Mistress!", then lurched to the side as another trooper fired. A woman in red coveralls with a full head of wiry gray hair had run into the gap between Sera and the droid. Yuzu threw himself into the path of the plasma bolt. He fell on the platform and didn't move.
Sera screamed furious curses, then dashed for Allegra's boarding ramp. Inside, she ran to the auxiliary turret controls that Reiko had installed in the Engineering section, but the laser cannons were dead. She slammed her fist on the panel, enraged but impotent. She heard Reiko's cries over the intercom and scaled the emergency ladder to the upper deck, then sprinted to the cockpit where her lover fell into her arms, sobbing uncontrollably. Sera held her and nodded to Tess. "Let's get going."
Lyra's voice came over the speaker. "Tess, everyone okay?"
"Yuzu didn't make it."
There was a brief pause. "Sorry to hear that. I was going to take out the other TIEs but there are too many civilians around. I'm going after the weapons and shields. Things might get loud. Be ready to move."
"Got it. Good luck."
"To us both," Lyra said, sounding tense.
The TIE rose on its repulsors, turning slowly. Lyra fired the ship's heavy canons at the first quad laser turret. It exploded in a spectacular fireball. If they didn't know we'd escaped yet, they do now. The other turret began tracking. Lyra backed off, gaining more altitude to be sure its fire would be directed skyward. She slipped the Striker sideways as a burst erupted, passing by her starboard side, then triggered her wingtip guns. The green bursts of supercharged ions and plasma peppered the rocky terrain below the turret. Adjusting her aim on the move, Lyra walked the fire up the hillside into the turret's traversing mechanism. It burst apart, sending shards sliding down the slope behind the hangar.
The stormtroopers below began harassing the TIE with their blaster rifles, but Lyra was well beyond their effective range. She couldn't discount the possibility they might have heavier weapons though, so she nudged the TIE higher. Guessing that the missile battery was meant for longer-range engagements, she drove forward until only fifty meters separated her from it, then opened fire with the heavy cannons below the cockpit. The eight tubes shredded in a coruscating burst that lit up the pre-dawn sky nearly as bright as day. She turned the ship in a circle, getting a look at the chaos on the base below. More stormtroopers, a whole platoon at least, were pouring out of the manufacturing facility. She didn't stop to think about why they were coming out of a factory, but keyed her comm. "Tess, come in."
"I've got you, Lyra."
"I'm going to hit the shield generator. As soon as I do, get out of here. I'm going after Taz and Varun. They should be somewhere in the admin section near Tafo's office, unless I miss my guess. Head east and find someplace to put down. I'll contact you with a rendezvous."
"Will do. Bring our boys back, but be careful."
"That's the plan," she said, trying to sound upbeat, but falling short. "Lyra out." A TIE slid from the hangar and started rising toward her. Lyra applied thrust from the ion engines, put her bombing reticle on the array of semi-circular deflector shield generators, and triggered the bomb release twice. A pair of the thirty-centimeter spherical proton bombs dropped from the chute on a parabolic arc and impacted the generator as she steered the Striker away from the base. They exploded with an enormous concussion and blast wave. Lyra checked her scanner to verify the shield had come down, then gave a little triumphant shout. Her pursuer turned on an attack vector. She pushed the Striker into a climb, expecting to see green plasma bolts from the opposing TIE. When nothing happened after a few seconds she turned the ship. A satisfied smile lit her face. The TIE lay in a freshly gouged divot on the ground, its solar collectors discarded nearby after being jettisoned by the anti-theft system. High in the air, she saw the pilot's seat descending on its miniature repulsors after its forceful ejection.
Thanks Yuzu. You were a good droid. Looking determined, Lyra swung back toward Rho-277's administrative complex.