Page 58 of Bernadette

“I can get at least one thing right when it comes to him,” Doljen muttered as he left the bar and headed for the spaceport.

* * * *

Halmiko’s head came up at the sound of a distant hum. Tumsa, who’d walked with him to the end of the spaceport docks and continued to do so on the way back to the ship, glanced at him questioningly.

“Nothing. Probably a frequency resonator on someone’s ship. Damned things sound almost identical to close-contact shockwave emitters,” he said.

“Only a Nobek would know the difference,” Tumsa chuckled. His demeanor was sad, but accepting of their situation.

Halmiko wished he could cope so well. He put up a strong front, but inside, he was devastated.

His clan was over.

Furtive movement ahead caught his attention. He growled as he caught sight of the two Adrafs he and Kom had nearly tangled with. They trotted from the direction of theRoguetoward Fod’s carrier.

“That can’t be good.” Tumsa had taken note of them as well.

Halmiko broke into a run, simultaneously yanking his com out of his belt pouch. “Security Head Kom, I just saw unwanteds near the ship.”

“Fod’s guys again?” Kom replied immediately.

“Yeah, I—shit! Men down outside.” He’d sighted the figures of Burken and Dakmo lying on the ground next to theRogue.

Curses erupted from Kom. Halmiko and Tumsa reached the first of the Nobeks, Dakmo, and knelt next to him.

“No sign of injury. He’s breathing. He just appears to be unconscious,” Tumsa said after checking his pulse.

“It was a shockwave.” Halmiko could have punched his own skull in for failing to respond to his first instinct. “Kom, search the ship. Those bastards have been on board.”

* * * *

Bernadette glanced over her shoulder as Hal and Tumsa charged onto the bridge, seconds after her arrival. The trio joined Kom at the security podium.

A part of Bernadette said she needed to order Tumsa out. He wasn’t a member of the crew, but her focus shifted from him quickly. She narrowed on the vid monitors Kom brought up.

“You didn’t send Dr. Z out for Burken and Dakmo, did you?”

“Do I look like an idiot? Don’t answer that. I commed the port’s medical team. They’re already checking on our guys outside.” He swore as his fingers flew over his console. “Sons of whores. The surveillance system was jammed. I’ve got no footage of what they did.”

“Trace the path of interruptions. They couldn’t have interrupted the entire ship’s vid systems.” Bernadette forced herself to not shove him aside so she could pound his computer herself.

“They went to the engine room.”

“Is the live feed up?”

“Yeah, it was restored after they did whatever they did.”

“Show me.”

The engine room came up on the large vid Kom had brought up that filled the forward area of the bridge. Computer banks blinked standby patterns.

“No one is in there,” Kom noted. “Probably a good thing, considering our engineer is a Joshadan. Those Adrafs would have taken him out easy.”

“Yeah. Does anything look wrong?” With her crew out of immediate danger, Bernadette concentrated on finding something out of place. A mechanical and engineering prodigy, she knew the room and its layout like the back of her hand.

“There. By the plasma tubes. See it?” She jabbed a finger to point out the foreign device to Kom.

“Timed explosive. Ship-wide alert; evacuate theRogueimmediately!” He was already out the door, with Halmiko on his heels.

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