Part 4 (2/2)

'Sir, I just got back from Loading Bay Two,' Nerren stammered, 'checking Mr Halcyon's flyer was fully loaded '

'That's what Tinya was supposed to do.'

'I She she delegated to me, sir. She'd come from your meeting, sir, so I a.s.sumed that you'd okayed it.' Nerren was suitably deferential even when fl.u.s.tered and scared, and Falsh appreciated that. 'When I got back I found her in your office, sir. Unconscious.'

'Show me where.' Falsh towered over Nerren as they entered his office.

Some of the bubblescreens were on, but none of the restricted views. There was no sign of disturbance elsewhere. The seas s.h.i.+fted and stirred, untroubled. The glowing eyes of the planets and moons stared in through the golden gla.s.s. As always he made a mental note to learn which satellite was which some day.

Then a pixelated star on one of the bubblescreens caught his eye.

'Security, sir,' chimed Nerren helpfully. 'Kitchens.'

'On,' Falsh snapped. 'What have you found?'

The screen flared into life. Falsh raised an eyebrow at the sight of his head chef standing puce and naked beside a young man in his underwear, watched 25 over by an armed guard. Overalls seemed strewn at their feet with excited abandon.

'These men have come into contact with the intruders,' the guard reported.

'From the looks of them, I'd call it wilful collaboration,' drawled Falsh.

The guard's face was perfectly straight, but his eye was blackened. 'Both men are on s.h.i.+ft and neglecting duties, sir.'

'First she hit me on the head, then he he did!' moaned the pants-clad little man. did!' moaned the pants-clad little man.

'I never hit you!' stormed Chef.

'Not you, the other other man.' man.'

'Wait a minute. She She?' breathed Falsh. So he'd been right, there was someone else a woman. 'Then there are three intruders at large that we know of. The woman must be the ringleader.'

'She is!' bl.u.s.tered Chef. 'She attacked me, clawed the clothes off '

The guard sagged a little. 'She overpowered me also, sir.'

'Give descriptions to Central Security. A full investigation of your conduct will follow.' Falsh blacked the screen in disgust. 'Alarm mute,' he began, and when the screeching had subsided, spoke in his most calculatedly tough tones: 'All decks. This message is addressed to all personnel. There are intruders on this station, two males and a female. Likenesses will be posted shortly. These people must be hunted down. I want them within the hour.' He cut the link, and the alarm leaped back up to full volume. 'Find them, d.a.m.n it, he whispered. 'That goes for you too, Nerren. Go.'

In his panic, Nerren almost trampled Tinya, who was swaying in the office doorway, rubbing the back of her head.

'The man, the agitator the Doctor,' she said. 'I found him in here. Searching for something.'

Falsh regarded her. 'And why were you you here?' here?'

'The woman who served you in the meeting,' said Tinya, her amber eyes narrowed with spite. 'You recall her?'

'No.'

'She left after I did.' Her eyes looked clouded, troubled with memory. 'She held me at gunpoint and forced me to call Nerren, get him out of the way.

Then made me take her here and hit me!'

'The ringleader was the girl who served me salad salad?' He clutched his stomach.

'I don't trust this. Sensors have picked up no s.h.i.+ps in our sector. Station defences are operating fully; the sentinel network can't be compromised. So how did these people breach the station let alone gain independent access to my boardroom?' He crossed to his spotless desk, checked the locked drawers.

'These people are laughing in our faces. And we don't even know what they want.'

26.'They're Old Preservers,' Tinya protested. 'Must be.'

'This organised?' He shook his head. 'Liaise with Security. Get descriptions circulated now now. They must have shown on the 'corders sometime.'

Tinya nodded. 'Are you aware of any any unlogged dockings or excursions from this station?' unlogged dockings or excursions from this station?'

Falsh stared hard at her. For so light a query there was suspicious weight to her voice.

'Since it seems I can trust n.o.body to do what I need them to,' he told her, 'I shall go through the records myself.'

She nodded before she left. Almost as if she'd expected that answer all along.

Trix was now skinning her knuckles beating on the blast door, just in case the guard the other side might hear. The fumes were starting to make her retch.

Her ears must be bleeding with the din, and the air seemed so hot it was scalding.

Giving up at last she turned around but couldn't see anything through the smoke.

'Doctor?' she called timidly.

Well, she wasn't about to start screaming for help at the top of her lungs.

She wasn't a screamer.

She'd just stand here by herself and roast to death when the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p left.

' Doctor! Doctor! ' she shouted. 'Where the h.e.l.l are you?' ' she shouted. 'Where the h.e.l.l are you?'

'Over here,' came his distant voice.

She stumbled towards it, through the weird luminous smog, she didn't know how long for. A ridge in the floor almost tripped her. Then she came up against something hard a wall?

' Here! Here! ' '

And suddenly a hand reached out from the blindness and dragged her into a cooler, darker place.

She sank to her knees, fighting back nausea, so relieved she could cry. Her eyes were streaming. 'Where are we?' she croaked.

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