body nearly lost among the much taller Humans.
“What about the fleet?” Adam asked. “They’ve been laying buoys since they left.”
“Yes, that might work, but they are many thousands of light years away. Not knowing the comm frequencies for them, we would have to be much closer than we are now to make contact through traditional means.”
“Then we’re just going to have to take one of these ships,” said Riyad Tarazi matter-of-factly. As the former leader of the Fringe Pirates, absconding with a stolen spaceship was second nature to him.
“Target one of the smaller ones in the back,” Adam said, feeling now as though he may have a few bruised or cracked ribs. “We’re going to have to lift off without causing too much alarm.”
With the others helping him, Adam made it to the main entrance to the tent, and then before heading out into the open, he turned to Tobias and asked, “How did you get away?”
Andy Tobias grinned. “Sherri raised such a shit-storm that they just had to let us go.”
“She did what … they just let you go?”
Riyad put his hand on Adam’s shoulder. “Let’s save that for another time. The clock is ticking, my friend.”
They moved single file out of the tent and along its perimeter, crouched down in what shadows they could find. Across the wide landing field they could see a number of the Klin spaceships looking like gigantic metal mushrooms reflecting the light of Juir’s moons. There were no security lights around the ships; that would have only highlighted them for any Juirean counterattack, even though that possibility was virtually nil at the time. Only a few stray Kracori still walked the grounds and none of them appeared to be on sentry duty. Such was the Kracori’s confidence in their position on the planet.
“In the back there, that’s one of those A’s with a crew of around twenty-five.” Adam said. He looked around at the rest of his team. “How many weapons do we have?”
Tobias held up his single MK-17 and grinned. “That’s it – one gun?” Adam said. He took a deep, painful breath. “These are not your typical run-of-the-mill aliens we’re dealing with. They’re strong, fast and tough. About the only advantage I see we have going for us is that they don’t know squat about martial arts. No offense Sherri, but they fight like girls.”
Sherri sent him a smirk and patted his cheek. “Not all girls.”
“I hear that.” He tried to flash a smile through his broken lips but failed miserably. “But we’ll have the element of surprise. Kaylor, Jym, stay back in the access shaft until we get the ship secured. Okay – let’s roll.”
They darted from shadow to shadow under the forest of Klin starships, which always appeared to be much bigger once you got close to them. At the last one on the field, sitting almost half a klick from the cluster of tents, they crouched near the sliding entry door on the extended pedestal under the ship. The door was shut but there would be no reason to require a security code to open it. Rutledge slapped the operating panel and the door quietly slid open.
Inside the wide, round base was a winding staircase surrounding the central elevator tube. The elevator was used primarily for moving freight and equipment into the ship while crew used the stairs. With Tobias and his MK in the lead they began a slow, silent ascent up the stairs.
At the top they entered into the central generator and storage room, circular in shape, following the natural curvature of the ship. Beyond doorways on the outer wall of this room was a concentric hallway that wrapped around the entire ship; off this corridor where entrances to various other compartments, all set toward the ship’s exterior. There was another level above this one with two concentric corridors and more compartments. Topping it all off was the bridge, a prominent dome sitting in the middle of the disk.
Seeing that Adam was in no condition to engage in another fight with a Kracori, he was the last to enter the generator room at the head of the stairs. He heard a soft click and looked to see Tobias motioning with his hand. Tindal and Rutledge had already spotted it and were moving in that direction. It was a flash rifle, sitting on a table at the other end of the room, as conspicuous as could be. The young petty officer reached it first and snatched up