captain kate's Blog

Obviously a disaster had started in the lab because what had been a neat orderly facility was now a disaster. The lights, which had been steady outside, were flickering, giving it a Dante’s inferno-type feel. A shiver passed up Kate’s spine as she moved through the room.

“Ebola shouldn’t move this quickly, Kate,” Reynolds said softly the horror showing in the knife’s edge tone of her voice.

“I would tend to agree,” Kate said. “However, the researcher’s Albright had were mixing it some other virus to make it more deadly.”

“Any ideas at which one it was?” Reynolds asked.

“Not a clue,” Kate said sadly. “I’m afraid it was above me to understand what they were doing. All I know is how deadly it was.”

“How did you learn that, Kate?” Loving asked.

“Well,” Kate said as she stepped into a room where there was a body with a gun on the floor. “I had entered a lab and was captured. In a bind, I broke free from the security guards and tossed the vial and a man while diving into the airlock. Unfortunately for him, and for me, he dropped it after the airlock door sealed. I sat there and watched them all die…right before my eyes. Well, well, well, what do we have here?”

She came to a stop before a glass that separated the lab from the medical bay. A coating of blood an tissue was on the glass, a bullet hole unmistakable. That explained it, she mused as she knelt to look at the man with the gun. He must have known when the virus got loose and shot himself. Poor dumb bastard was too close to the window, though, and the bullet allowed the virus to escape.

“Looks like we know how the virus escaped,” Kate sighed as she stood back up. “What we don’t know if how it broke out in here.”

Was it possible, she wondered, that the computer would have recorded the final moments in the lab? It was a gamble but it was certainly worth a shot. Without any knowledge of what happened, it would be nearly impossible for her to make sense of what happened.

Before disaster struck, she thought with a shiver.

“Maybe the log will have an answer,” Reynolds said as she went to sit down before a terminal.

“I was already thinking that,” Kate said as she stopped the doctor from taking the seat. “I’m going to try accessing it; the codes might still be Intelligence.”

“You’re the boss, Kate,”

Making herself comfortable at the computer, her eyes scanned the area around the keyboard. It couldn’t be this easy, she grumbled to herself, could it? No, it would be, she reminded herself, because if there was one thing that intelligence lacked, it was common sense.

As far as they are concerned, Kate sighed. Common sense is a bad thing!


The first attempt to access the database came back denied, which elicited a growl from her. She made a second attempt with no success, as a thought tickled her mind for the thousandth time. It stood to reason, she reminded herself, that if this was a secret biological weapons vessel, then the coding would have to be Intelligence in nature. The only question would be: did Johansson change the algorithms when he took command?

Which is something he should have done right away when he took command, she told herself as she entered the last code base she knew. That’s simple operations 101…when someone leaves who has the code: you change.

She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when the computer accepted her code. On one hand relief filled her body that her code worked in the first place. However, that was followed by a wave of bitter disappointment. Rear Admiral Johansson should have changed the algorithms when he accepted command. Who the hell knew how many people knew the code now, she raged behind her calm exterior.

This in one thing that I’m going to shove up his ass and break off, she thought with a sigh.

“XO,” Kate said as she activated her com unit. “I’m sending you a algorithm to the computer codes. They should work.”

“Thank you, Skipper,” he said. “Should I bother asking how you broke the codes?”

“Let’s just say that Intelligence is kind of lacking in that department,” she said, a bitter chuckle filling the air.

“Understood,” Paul said. “If we have any problems I’ll call. XO, out.”

Looking at her two compatriots, she let out a sad sigh. Without having to say a word, they were able to read her expression like a book. If intelligence codes were being used, it said, just how deep in the Government did the cover-up go? Who knew about this, and how much did they know?

“Well I think I answered the question about how much involvement the government had in all this,” Kate muttered.

She stepped out of the way, motioning to Reynolds to sit at the computer. The doctor was the best qualified to learn what was in the medical files. Closing her eyes, Kate took a deep breath, letting her mind wander while Reynolds worked.

Instead of a relaxing day-dream, random images starting to spill through her mind’s eye without warning. Whining, she saw the forests of Ireland surrounding her, while the sound of Marine weaponry fired off around her. A cry escaped her lips as she felt a bullet strike her cybernetic arm and bounce off.

Opening her eyes wide, she gasped as she felt Loving’s hand on her shoulder. Reacting on instinct, her other arm moved up to make a killing blow when she realized where she was. With a gasp, she stopped the move as voices broke through the haze in her head.

“Kate!”

“Captain!”

A cry of fear and confusion escaped her lips as she dropped her hands to her side. The faceplate of her suit was nearly fogged over from her racing vision. Just what the hell happened, she wondered, and what was going on?

“Take a seat, Kate,” Loving said as she and Reynolds helped Kate into a seat. Each of them kept a wary eye out for sudden movements.
“Take deep, shallow breaths and calm down.”

“Jennifer,” Kate croaked. “What happened on Ireland?”

“What do you mean, what happened?” Jennifer said. “You were there.”

“I keep seeing M1A1 sniper rifles,” Kate’s voice was small and weak in the speakers. It sounded to the both of them like her strength had been sapped right from her body. “And I don’t ever remember seeing any of them.”

“You’re kidding right?” Jennifer said with wide eyes. How could she not remember something so well known? That had been one of the biggest items covered up about the entire Ireland affair!

After several minutes, she had her breath under control and her faceplate cleared out. She sat there for long moments in silence, staring at the floor. There had to be an answer to this, she mused. She had lived everything she remembered, so it had to be true! Didn’t it? It wasn’t possible to steal someone’s memories, was it?

“I don’t remember any being there,” Kate said in a simple, matter-of-fact tone.

“Kate,” Jennifer said. “I don’t know what you’re trying to pull, but there were two different snipers in that compound. Both of them were armed with the latest sniper rifles.”

“I’m telling you, Jennifer, I don’t remember any of that,” Kate groaned. “Zero recollection at all.”

“Kate,” Reynolds said with great concern. “Are you feeling well?”

Before she could speak, more images flashed through her mind. Overloading her senses, she screamed as she faded into unconsciousness. Before anyone could react, her body fell to the floor with a thud.

Fleet Admiral Alex Beatty watched the smoke rise from the cigarette in his hand. A single hand rubbed his forehead while he looked at the holographic plot before him. Taking a deep drag on his cigarette, he blew it back out in disgust, his eyes never leaving the plot. The two images on the plot he stared at were twisting his stomach in knots as he contemplated them.

A snort of contempt escaped his lips as he glared at the closer transponder. While the vessel itself was just a heavy cruiser, the Fleet had hundreds of them, the woman commanding it was who worried him. He shook his head as he contemplated how she had ruined many carefully thought out plans over the years. Working alone, and not knowing whom she was up against, Kate Almir had found ways to cause major setbacks to President Carver and their cadre. That alone was enough to make Beatty burn with a hatred for her that would never be abated.

The damning thing about it all, he mused to himself, was that is he had his druthers, she would never have made it command! However, there were limits that even he, as Fleet Commander, could do to control BuPers’ decisions. While he could’ve overruled them, he would have had to have a good reason to do so. And telling them that the woman in question had interfered with illegal plans just wasn’t a good enough reason, he reminded himself as he took a deep drag on his cigarette.

You’ve lived one damned charmed life, Almir, his hatred nearing the surface as he glared at the Roanoke’s transponder.

As much as Almir’s ship worried him, it was the second, solitary icon that caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand on end. There had been no contact with the Toronto for over a day, and that wasn’t part of standard operating procedure for the type of operation involved. Having been stationary for the entire day, Beatty was worried that the worst had happened. While that ship is registered as a civilian craft, he fumed; it was far from it! If Almir stumbled upon that ship, it would be the end of everything they were finally in position to achieve!

Don’t let her learn about that ship, he found himself praying to a God he didn’t believe existed.

“Sir,” An ensign said as he entered Beatty’s office. In his hands he held a transmission copy for the Fleet Admiral. “We have received a message for Captain Almir.”

Beatty felt his stomach drop to the floor as the words sunk in. The walls of his office started to close in as his breath started to race. Jesus, this couldn’t be happening, could it? Almir was at the wrong place and the wrong time-again!

Leaving the Fleet Admiral alone to his thoughts, the ensign left as quickly as he arrived. Beatty looked at the flimsy in his hand, fearful of what it would contain. Oh my God, he mused, how could this be happening again? How could Almir be where she wasn’t supposed to be every time something terrible happened?

“‘Have received distress call from civilian science vessel. Proceeding at top speed to render assistance, out.’” Beatty read the message aloud, his anger reaching the flash point. Crumpling the flimsy up he threw it at his plot with a roar of rage. “Goddamn it!”

Beatty kicked the side of his desk with a roar that shook the walls of his office. Looking at the dent he put in his dark, cherry desk, he felt a sense of regret from what he just did. He sat down heavily in his chair, his eyes locked on the ceiling as he leaned back. Just once, wouldn’t it be nice if the person finding the **** weren’t one Katherine Almir? Trying to kill her didn’t seem to work, he cursed, since she wouldn’t take the hint and keep her damned nose out of where it didn’t belong!

“Almir,” Rubbing his eyes he sighed. “Why does it always have to be you?”

The bile rose in his throat as Beatty looked at the manifest of the Toronto. She was carrying a full load of their best material on her, and Almir was going to find it! For the twentieth time he shook his head, cursing fate for its handling of the situation. To think, he told himself, we thought we had done everything to have “The Banshee” bottled up where she couldn’t do us any harm! Now she was going to be in a position to ruin everything again! Just what was it going to take to get the damned woman out of their hair once and for all?

Beatty leaned back in his chair, his eyes closed as he fought to regain control of himself. There was nothing about one Katherine Almir he took lightly anymore. After watching her single-handedly survive a squad of mercenaries hunting her on Selvior, there was nothing she did that surprised him. Thus, in reaction to her ability to overcome anything thrown at her, he had taken a different tack with her: he had taken to assigning her duties that kept her as far away from the action as possible.

Which obviously didn’t work this time, he thought as he rubbed her forehead. Two days…that’s all it would have taken for her to be at the far end of her patrol and well away from anything we were doing!

With a sigh, he opened his eyes and focused on a third plot image. Ten light years from Almir’s position, it was the wild card he had to play. If she managed to track the operations to that location, he could be rest assured that she wouldn’t survive that encounter. Which wouldn’t be a day too soon, he mused, if you ask me.

A wicked smile crossed his face as he contemplated life without Kate Almir. Chuckling with vicious glee, Beatty felt his blood pressure start to drop. Once she was gone, he reminded himself, everything would move forwards without anyone to stop it!

Beatty reached across his desk, his thumb hitting the switch the activate his com system. He surprised himself with how calm and measured his voice had become. With a shake of his head, he took a deep breath before speaking.

“Captain,” he said to his adjunct. “Will you please call Rear Admiral Johansson’s office and have he report to me, please.”

“Yes, sir,”

Beatty stared at the pack of cigarettes on his desk, and he felt the bile rise back up in his throat again. This was supposed to be the week he quit the damned things, but with the way events were transpiring that was going to be a fantasy. It was all Almir’s fault, he contemplated as he reached for the pack, and if she wasn’t in the picture he could’ve quit! Why wouldn’t the damned woman take a hint and keep her nose out of where it didn’t belong?

This time, my dear Captain Almir, he thought with an evil chuckle. If you misstep I’m going to definitely see that you die!

“Who are you?”

Captain Kate Almir opened her eyes to the question and sighed again. Floating in a black, formless void, she had to be dreaming again. None of this was real, she mused even though it did feel like it was a real experience. There was no way it could be, because she remembered going to sleep, so it had to be a dream! Didn’t it?

Before her hung a semi-transparent globe that had enveloped her in two flowing tentacles. Looking at it, she could see through it except for the wisps of white energy that floated through it. Something about it hinted at intelligence, but she couldn’t finger why she felt that way.

It’s probably because I want it to be, she thought sourly. After all it is my dream!

“What do you want?”

Frowning, she thought about the two questions it asked her. Who was she? She was just an escaped gladiator slave who had joined the Fleet four years ago and moved up the ranks. What was so special about that? Since she had gotten a taste of freedom, all she wanted to do now was to protect hers from ever being stolen from her again.

“Who are you?”

The same damn question again, she thought. And I answer it the same way every time and I get the same results each time!

“I am Katherine Elizabeth Almir,” She said. “Former gladiator slave.”

“You are so much more…”

The voice trailed off and then everything hit her at once. Visions of people she had never seen before rushed through her head, her eyes, making her squeeze her eyes shut. Placing her hands on her head, she saw people she had killed while working in Intelligence. Buildings and places she had never seen before flashed by her like a holovid movie.

With her hands still on her head, she leaned back and screamed…

…Only to jerk upright in her darkened compartment.

She looked across the compartment, her chest heaving, and the echo of her scream surrounded her. The stars outside her cabin streamed by with a serenity that she normally found peaceful. They held no peace for her at that moment as she ran her hands through her sodden hair. Shivering, she realized that during the insanity of her nightmare, she had kicked the covers off her body.

Another nightmare, she thought with a sigh, hoping what normally followed it wouldn’t this time.

The nightmares had started off slowly, she reflected, several years ago while in Fleet Intelligence. When they started, they had been very few and far between, but it seemed that the more time passed by, the more frequent they had become. Now, she thought sourly, they almost seemed to be a nightly companion.

When they first began, Intelligence had gotten concerned and ran an entire psychiatric evaluation on her. The extensive work ups weren’t successful in finding a cause, so they relieved her from Intelligence duty. Once she had entered mainstream Fleet operations, they seemed to go away. Now however, she reminded herself, they were back with a vengeance!

Everything about her was going to be a mess, she reflected. Why look in a mirror when she already knew the answer? Wiping a drenched bang out of her eyes, she looked down at her wet t-shirt. If this were a wet t-shirt contest, she thought with a snort, some guy would be happy as hell right now! Shaking her head at how it clung to her torso, she collapsed back onto the bed.

Oh God, she thought to herself as she shivered on the wet sheets beneath her.

Another sigh escaped her lips as she stared into the darkness overhead for long, silent moments. The sweat-soaked sheets beneath her started to grow cold as the first protest from her stomach reached her brain. Clenching her stomach, Kate rolled to onto her side, doubling over as the cramps hit her. She hissed as the pain spiked into her head, her stomach feeling like a vise was tightening down on it. A grunt was the only sound she could make as her teeth bared in agony, as the cramps got worse.

“Oh ****,” she groaned as she threw the sheets of her body and raced for the head.

The trip, mercifully short in a heavy cruiser’s captain’s compartment, was nearly too long. She barely made it in time, dropping to her knees before the head, her stomach switching into reverse. With a loud retching sound, she vomited into the head, the pain growing worse by the second. Fresh tears ran down her cheeks as the hit the evacuate button, her stomach feeling like it was on fire.

With the contents of her stomach having been emptied, the retching turned into dry heaves. Kate’s throat felt like it was on fire as the acid in her stomach worked its way up her esophagus. She held her stomach in her hands, weeping, as the blazing pain reached a crescendo before the spasms started to ease.

Kate flushed the head with the last bit of her strength, sending it far away from her. With her energy exhausted, she felt herself collapse backwards from her kneeling position. Her back hit the shower and she slid down until she was sitting on the floor, her hands running through her sweat-sodden hair.

She slid down the wall of the head onto her side, pulling her legs up to her chest. With her head on the cold floor, in a fetal position, she closed her eyes to everything around her. A shiver ran up her spine as the cool metal chilled the side of her face. As she lie they, trying to get her breathing under control, her mind raced, the tears flowing.

What I wouldn’t give for a second chance at life, she thought, a bionic fist pounding the deck in frustration. There are lots of things I’d do differently!

Pushing her head off the floor, she crawled to her hands and knees. With a shaking hand, she reached up and grabbed the corner of the sink. A sigh escaped her lips as she pulled herself to her feet. A single look at her disheveled appearance brought out a disapproving stare from herself.

“Come on Kate, get it together,” she growled at herself.

As she undressed herself, she found her eyes drawn to the spider web of scars around each shoulder. Without thinking, she ran a finger over each one, her skin on her torso the only one giving her any sensation. Cybernetic bionics, she thought, they make me feel more like a machine then a person!

While she ran a finger around her eyes, she looked down and saw the same spider web around her pelvis. Legs, arms and eyes, she thought, replaced with bionics due to extreme damage…no wonder she felt more like a machine then a person!

Electrical currents ran up her arms and legs, giving her the sensations of thousands of spiders crawling across her skin. A burning pain raced up her spine as her limbs ceased to work and she toppled forwards. Without being able to use her hands, she slammed face first into the concrete, her nose bloodied by the impact. A frightening thought crossed her mind as she realized with had happened.

The bastard! She thought. He has the shut down codes!

“I’m really sorry I had to do that, Captain,” he said as he rolled her onto her back. With a gentle touch, he used a tissue to wipe the blood coming from her nose. “But I needed you compliant if I was going to get my money.”

“You bastard,” she spat. “You work for Johansson, don’t you?”

“Actually no,” he said. “I had a very generous offer financially for your return to someone.”

“Who would that be?” Kate asked as she tried to make her body move, but the bionic parts of her wouldn’t respond.

“That would be me, Katie,”

The voice that came around her fighter was so full of genteel malice that it moved like slime. Coating the wheels of her fighter, it enveloped her in its grasp, taking her breath away, as the shock struck her full on. It couldn’t possibly be him, she protested, he’s dead! Blinking her eyes rapidly, she hoped that she would find it was just a nightmare and she was going to wake up.

“It can’t be…” she whispered, her voice tiny and barely audible. “You’re dead!”

“Oh but it is me,”

A man stepped around from behind her fighter, his blue uniform glittering with real gold inlay. Several gold necklaces hung around his neck, and every finger was covered in a ring with a priceless gem. Moving with him, where six men in similar uniforms, sans the gold, and two more with antigravity gurney.

Fereni knelt beside her, and he ran a hand softly, almost like a lover, down Kate’s cheek. Running it up her other cheek, and over her chin, he reached down towards her chest. He watched Kate growl as her eyes grew harder, and he chuckled in response. There was nothing she could do about it, he mused, and she knew it too.

“Get your dirty hands off me,” Kate snarled, the threat empty in her current condition.

“Now, now, Katie,” Ferini said as he wiped a damp bang from her face. “Is that the way you speak to your lover?”

It took every bit of her discipline to keep from throwing up at that comment. Yeah he had been her lover, she thought, rage burning in her head. The man had repeatedly raped her during her time on Necko, and he claimed he “loved” her the entire time. It sure as hell was one funny way to show someone you love them, she snorted.

“**** you,” she said.

“There will be time for that later,”

“How are you alive?” she asked, the idea still not registering to her brain. He had been closer to the grenade explosion then she had been, and it had nearly killed her. In fact, she thought with a frown, it had killed her depending on your perspective.

“Every Games Master is cloned upon his or her’s death,” he said with the same half smile he always had. “So we live perpetually.”

Kate felt herself stunned into silence at that admission. So, she told herself, they cloned the bastard? How many lives had he lived then with the technology they had? Two? Three? Or was he even older then that, she wondered. With the cloning process, they were no way to know.

“Load her up,” he said to the men with the gurney. “We’re leaving.”

“Don’t trust him,” she said in a cold tone towards Kosloski. “This man can’t be trusted.”

“Speaking of trust,” Kosloski said. “Where’s my money?”

Ferini looked at him with the same half-smile he gave everyone. He looked at one of his guards, ever cultured to the end, and nodded at him. The man, in a move that was so quick it took Kate’s breath away, produced a silenced pistol. He pumped the trigger once and a small circle appeared on Kosloski’s forehead as his body toppled over backwards onto the concrete.

With a slight chuckle, the Games Master picked up Kosloski’s fallen pocket computer. Everything had gone exactly as he had planned, he told himself, and he hadn’t had to give up any of his money to boot! Now, he had Almir back, and she wasn’t going anywhere as long as he had the shutdown codes to her bionics, and the repeaters all over the complex. She was at his mercy, and she would learn that whatever her wanted, she would do!

“You’re a bastard, Ferini,” Kate said as the man started to push her towards his ship, which had been hidden from her sight.

“You’ll learn to love me yet, Katie,” he said. “Because now I will have all the time I need to win your over.”

Kate barely kept herself from screaming as they carried her away. She felt a slight pressure on her arm from a hypospray, and she knew nothing after that…

With a motion of the covering pistol, she was able to reach down into her inside coat pocket. Grabbing the leather case inside, she pulled it out. Opening it up to show her ID card, she handed it over to the officers before placing her hands back in the air. If they didn’t believe that, she told herself, then she would have no other choice but to take them out.

“Captain Kate Almir,” he read before he looked over at his partner. “You armed, Captain?”

“Yes,”

“What are you carrying?”

“A .45 caliber Kimber,” she said. “Ballistics should match it to the dead man in the kitchen only.”

“That much is true,” he said handing back her ID. “But did you have to decide to have the gunfight at the OK corral in the center of town?”

She sighed as she shrugged at the officer’s comment. Like they would have done anything differently in her shoes, she fumed. When someone is chasing you, and shooting at you, if you can fire back you do. Anyone in her shoes would have done the same thing, and the officers knew it too.

“Would you propose that I allow someone to shoot at me,” she said sourly. “And not fire back?”

“I definitely would not,” he said. “I just wish it had been handled differently is all.”

“If it could have been handled without a firefight I would have done that,” she said. “However, the other people didn’t give me much choice.”

“Who were they?”

“A Intelligence death squad sent to kill my contact,” she said.

“He must not be popular,”

That’s an understatement, she thought with a concealed sigh.

“I can’t say much on that,” she said. “It’s classified. Am I free to leave now?”

“You don’t have anymore bodies lying around here,” he said in warning. “Do you, Captain?”

“Nope,”

“Then go clean up,” he said.

With that, she turned and left, the relief showing on her face. God how she had to lie to them, she mused as she walked along the sidewalk. There wasn’t anything about her story; other then who she shot that was the truth. She suspected the officer knew that too, which was why he let her go. He knew how dangerous she was, and there wasn’t a chance of him, nor his partner, being able to handle her if she didn’t want to be.

Approaching the spaceport, she wondered what had become of Kosloski? Had he slipped away before the police arrived, or was he still in their custody? For his sake, he might be better off being in their custody, since Intelligence would have all their efforts on killing her-once they got the news she had escaped again. There was one thing, she reflected with a laugh, she was glad she wasn’t Johansson when he had to explain failing again!

Stopping outside the massive building, she looked around for anyone who seemed out of place. Just because Benton had said they were the only team here didn’t mean that he wasn’t lying when he claimed it. No, she was going to be careful with every step she took from here on out.

With me knowing too much, she thought. I’m a marked woman no matter where I go now.

Satisfied that no one was waiting for her, she stepped back into the building. Assailed by the smell of machinery and electronics again, she found it relaxing this time. Compared to the smell of gunpowder and explosives, she would take it any day of the week. Besides, she told herself, it meant she could relax for a moment because someone wasn’t trying to kill her at that time!

Worming her way through the equipment, she approached her fighter. A tired smile crossed her face as she appreciated what it meant to her now. With no future in the Fleet anymore, and no way to ever go home to Earth; this fighter was all she had left to her. It was her prized possession, the one item she owned that she would never trade or give away no matter who much money was offered.

With a tired sigh, she punched her security code into the keypad. All she wanted to do right then was to get into a clean jumpsuit and use some of the onboard water to wash the tissue and blood from her hair. It was hard to believe, she told herself, that it had been four hours since that happened!

And it will feel wonderful to get it out of my hair too, she told herself as she climbed up into the cockpit.

Hitting the controls to lower the canopy and darken it, she busied herself with cleaning her hair. As everything washed out of her hair, she sighed in satisfaction. While she had no idea where Kosloski was, she would go look for him after she had changed; there was no way she could do otherwise. However, after all the stress, and tragedy, she had experienced, couldn’t she spend some time on herself for a change?

She heard the com system in the fighter chime for her attention as she finished dressing herself. With a distracted eye, she looked up and noted that the message was from within the spaceport. Who would be calling her from there, she wondered. Could it be Kosloski letting her know where he was?

She reached for the button to activate the com unit, and felt her torso muscles go into spasms. Fatigue was starting to really effect how her body was reacting to her commands. If she didn’t get some sleep soon, she admonished herself, then she was going to find herself collapsing, and most likely, at the worst possible time too!

“Captain Almir,” Kosloski said. “You there?”

“Yes,” she said with a tired groan.

“I’m outside your fighter,” he said. “Can you come out?”

“I’ll be right there,” she said as she hit the canopy controls. Grabbing her sword, she hit the button for it to seal after she stepped out, and for the security system to activate in three minutes.

When she stepped off the ladder on the ground, Kate found herself nearly falling over. She had no idea how much farther she could go, but it wasn’t going to be much longer. The best thing she could do was to send Kosloski away to another world while she got lost herself.

And if someone jumped me right now, she thought with a moan. I couldn’t do anything about it if I wanted to!

She reached out to the fighter and used it to steady herself until she felt her balance return. It was time to send Kosloski on his way, she thought, and let him find his own place to hide. Both of them were wanted now, and they were going to have to live the life of a criminal for the rest of their lives, and that broke her heart. Wiping away a single tear with her gloved hand, she looked him in the eyes.

If I knew that things were going to be like this, she thought bitterly. Then I would have stayed on Necko!


“I was worried about you, Captain,” Kosloski said as his thumb ran over the keypad of his pocket computer.

“Why was that?” she asked, feeling a twinge of suspicion grow in her stomach. The man certainly wasn’t acting like the same man she knew before the gunfight!

“Well, because,” he said as he pressed a button. “I would have been out my retirement money?”

“What are you talking about-“ Kate said as she went to take a step towards him, and all hell broke loose.

Stumbling into the street outside the refinery, Kate felt like she weighed three tons. The bone-weary exhaustion she had started to feel during her fight was starting to catch up to her, leaving her groggy and mentally slow to react. If it weren’t for needing to keep up with Kosloski, she told herself, then she would have gone back to her fighter and slept. However, until she knew he was okay, she couldn’t afford to do that quite yet.

Ahead of her, crowds milled around the streets, and the police were out in full force. That wasn’t surprising, she mused, given the number of shots fired and the people killed. She grimaced when she noted that they were all over the building where she had left Kosloski. Someone must have found the dead sniper she had left behind, she reflected with a snort.

Approaching the crowds, she tried to be careful to keep folks from seeing the blood on her. If too many people noted had blood-covered she was, then they were liable to alert the police, and it would cause more questions then she really wanted to answer. But, she told herself, if they did corner her, she would have to tell them who she was and why she was being shot at. To do otherwise would lead to even more trouble then talking to them would have been.

She worked her way through the throngs of people, her eyes downcast to keep from making contact. Everything about her was a mess; her hair was disheveled, and the knife cut through her jumpsuit stuck out like a sore thumb. The pale skin underneath stood out in stark contrast to the black material, drawing eyes to it like a moth to a flame.

I wonder if the idiot would have enough brains to go to the spaceport? She asked herself as she tried to change her direction.

The shear number of people who had come out to see the results of the shoot-out were staggering. There had to be a couple hundred people milling around, she told herself, and they were all watching the bodies being taken out. Feeling a twang of anger rising in her stomach, she wished she had been able to do the same thing, but she was too busy having to fight to stay alive! Boy did these people not know how good they had it!

Passing through the crowd, her luck finally ran out. Someone noticed her bloody condition and she saw out of the corner of her eye, a man talking to an officer. What a horrible time to have to deal with them too, she reflected as she saw a pair of officers coming her way. Picking up the pace, she tried to move through the crowd faster.

I really don’t have the time for this, she told herself as she started to clear the crowd.

“Hey you,”

She felt herself stop at the sound of the officer behind her. Every muscle in her exhausted body went taught with tension. There was no way to avoid having to interact with them now, she mused, all while she needed to try to find the man she had been sent to find. Could things on this mission possibly get any worse?

I’m afraid to ask, she thought.

“Yeah you,” the officer said. “Turn around,”

With a sigh, she complied with his request and she turned to face him. The man looked at her with hardening eyes, his face a mask. There’s no way he couldn’t think she wasn’t involved, she mused, not with the blood and tissue in her hair. The man would have to be a complete idiot to think she hadn’t been involved!

“Put your hands in the air,” he said.

Doing as she was told, Kate let her eyes lock in on his. The two officers, she thought, didn’t know what they were messing with. Even in her exhausted state, she knew could take the two of them out in seconds if she wanted. However, she mused, it seemed the best course of action was to keep her mouth shut until necessary.

“Who are you?” he asked as his partner covered her with a pistol.

She sighed in disgust at the question, because now it was time to talk. By the time she got through with them, she mused, she would be lucky if she caught back up with Kosloski! However, she would tell them what they wanted, and hope it wouldn’t take them forever to let her go.

“I’m a Special Ops Agent with Fleet Intelligence,” she said with a sigh.

“I’ve heard of you guys,” the officer said. “You’re real bad ass’s, aren’t you?”

“Something like that,”

“Was this your doing?”

“Yes and no,” she said with a shrug.

“That’s not much of an answer,” he said, suspicious to the core.

“I didn’t start the shooting if that’s what you’re wanting to know,” she said. “But I did defend myself when fired upon.”

“We’ve got a total of sex people dead,” he said. “Counting two gunmen. What was your role in that?”

“I killed the two gunmen if that’s what you’re asking,” she said. “But the others weren’t killed by me.”

“You have and ID on you?”

“If you let me drop my hands,” she said. “I have my Fleet ID.”

Kate looked at the brightly lit corridor around her and sighed. Another building, another mission, she reminded herself with a stifled curse. Why was it that she always seemed to get stuck with the worst missions? She could understand the fact that President Damon had confidence in her, but to always get the ****ty jobs??

Licking her lips, Kate crept down the hallway, one eye looking for cameras, the other for anyone moving. With the size of the plant an issue, it was going to take her a while to find where the biological weapons, if they existed she reminded herself, were located it.
Sometimes it would be nice if the bad guys were stupid, she mused, and then things just fell into your lap!

Alas that just isn’t going to happen, she told herself as she came to a stop at a junction of a corridor.

Feeling her eyes grow wide with surprise, Kate looked down the hall. A smile like a man seeing manna for the first time crossed her face. Now if that isn’t just too convenient, she reminded herself as she crept down the hall. With a silently, graceful move, she pulled her Kimber out of her pocket, her thumb cocking the trigger.

Before her was a woman in a lab coat, her back turned as she worked a door control. Hanging from the front of her coat was an ID card that resembled the one that Voltaire had to let her in. Kate couldn’t believe the possible stroke of good luck before her. Not only could she get a possible access code into the research areas, but also someone could tell her where they were!

“Good morning,” Kate said to her as she slipped the barrel of her Kimber against the back of her neck. “Do you mind us stepping inside?”

The woman before her froze when she felt the metallic barrel on her neck. Every muscle on her body went tense as she realized someone was standing there who could kill her. What did the strange woman want, her body language said. Was there a way to get out of this without dying?

“Ok, ok,” the woman, stammered. “Just don’t kill me, please God!”

“As long as you do what I tell you to do,” Kate said. “You’ll live. But don’t get any ideas that I won’t kill you because if I have to, I will.”

“I understand,”

“Now open the door,”

The woman reached onto her coat and pulled her card off. While Kate watched her with a wary eye, she swiped the door and they both heard it unlatch. Nodding at the woman, Kate signaled she wanted her to open the door. Once it was open, they both stepped inside.

Kate felt a tight smile cross her lips as she noted it was an empty office. This was going to be perfect, she mused, to both question the other woman and to hide her in. For the first time since she entered the plant, Kate was starting to feel optimistic about the completion of her mission.

All it took was one lucky break, she thought to herself.

“Now,” Kate said with her smile frozen in place. “I’ll take your coat and badge, please.”

The other woman didn’t bother to argue with her as she shrugged off her lab coat. If everyone responded this sensibly, she mused, then she wouldn’t have had to kill as many people as she had! However, she guessed it was just part of being human that people didn’t want to follow instructions-even when their life was in the balance.

“Do you have complete computer access?” Kate asked as she looked around the room.

“Yes,” she said, shaking. “We all do.”

Finding what she was looking for, Kate smiled to herself. While the room didn’t offer much more then a desk with a computer, it did have a closet to it. That was going to be the perfect place to hide the woman in, she mused, as long as she doesn’t do something to get herself killed.

Which I’m not particularly in favor of doing, Kate thought as she led the two of them towards the closet.

“Okay,” Kate said as she opened the door. “Get inside,”

The other woman looked at the small room before looking back at her. While there was enough space for her to stand in, the closet was going to be cramped and there was no door control on the inside. The lack of a door control was actually perfect, Kate reflected, since it will keep her from escaping before she could accomplish her mission.

“I won’t say it again,” Kate told her. “Don’t mistake my desire to not kill you with a lack of willingness.”

The woman’s eye grew wider at her pronouncement and she stepped into the closet. With a swipe of her hand, Kate hit the controls for the door. Watching it swoosh shut, she smiled at the fact that she didn’t have to kill the woman. You know, she chuckled, things just work out the way you want them to be after all!

Shaking her head in amazement, Kate slipped the lab coat on over her jumpsuit. She zipped it up, and stuffed her Kimber on the pocket. Now that she had computer access, she reminded herself, it was time to see where the labs were kept! After all that Voltaire did to get her into this plant, damned if she was going to allow it to go to waste.

Given the size of the facility, she was surprised that the corridor was empty when she stepped back out into it. Holding the access card in her hand, she started to find an elevator. The key to not getting caught, she told herself with a sigh, was to move around like you belonged there. As long as you did that, no one questioned whom you were because they figured you knew where you were heading.

After spending several minutes wandering aimlessly, she found the building to be frustratingly large. At this rate, she mused, she wouldn’t find the labs before next week, much less get back out of the building when she needed to! Why couldn’t there be some people moving around when you needed them to be?

Rounding a corner, she felt a smile break out on her face as she spotted a pair of white-coated people moving along a corridor. They might be able to lead her to the elevator, she thought, so following them might be her best bet. Taking a deep breath, she fell in a little ways behind them and started to follow their entire steps.

A woman could get lost in this place for years, she thought as she took the time to memorize where she was. They ought to have maps on the walls for their own people! Sheesh!

A chuckle of triumph rose in her throat as she rounded a corner and spotted the elevators before her. Finally, she mused as she checked her chronograph, it only took her an hour to find the damned thing! Approaching it like she belonged, she kept her card in her hand.

The researchers she was following continued on past the elevator, while she stopped. Reaching out to hit the call button, she took deep, level breaths. All she had to do now, she reflected, was to make her way to the labs. If Albright were as smart as she thought he was, then he would be keeping them on some sublevel that wouldn’t be accessible for anyone without clearance.

Let’s hope that this lady has clearance, she thought as the doors slid open for her.
When she stepped inside, she felt her spirits drop. Standing inside was a security guard, his pistol holstered to his hip. If she didn’t have clearance, she thought, then he was going to know right away! Damn it! There was nothing like getting this far and having the possibility of detection be riding the same car as her.

“Morning,” he said pleasantly.

“Good morning,” she said, keeping her attention on the door controls.

She fought the urge to raise an eyebrow when she saw the buttons for two sublevels. That had to be where the labs were, she told herself, if they even existed in the first place. The only problem was what would she do if the woman’s pass card didn’t work? With the guard in the car, it wasn’t like she had a place to go if it happened either. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the button for the lowest level.

“Please swipe your security card,” the computer said.

Pursing her lips, she barely kept from cursing at the machine. It figured that it was going to ask her for an ID card, she mused, especially with a guard in the damn car! With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she pulled her card out and swiped it.


“This card is not recognized,”

Looking at the guard, she shrugged at him to try to show that she didn’t know what was happening. Fifty million people worked in this facility, she thought, and she had to pick one that didn’t have an access card! Well, this was going to get interesting very fast if she didn’t get approved soon.

“Those scanners are junk,” the guard said as he took her card and swiped it. He then swiped it himself.

“This card is not recognized,”

“Recognize this,” he muttered as he swiped his card for her.

“Card recognized,”

“There you go…” he looked at the card, noticing the picture of a blonde haired woman on it. He then looked up at Kate, his eyes growing wider by a fraction.

Without waiting for him to make a move, she leapt into action. Taking a step faster then he had time to react for, she slammed a fist into his stomach, doubling him over. Stepping behind him, she grabbed his neck in both hands and twisted with all her strength. The rifle shot sound of his neck snapping sounded like an explosion in the small car as his lifeless form fell to the ground.

“That would’ve been a boring conversation,” she said as she wiped her bangs from her eyes.

A groan escaped her lips as she reached up to touch her aching head. Whatever he had used this time to drug her, she thought, it was certainly potent if the busy little nanites in her body couldn’t break it down. She moved her torso and jerked straight up in shock.

“What the hell?”

She looked down and found herself in a king-sized bed with silken sheets covering her nearly nude body. The bastard had undressed her; she fumed as she clenched her hands into fists. While he had left her bra and underwear on, she was completely naked otherwise.

Finding her eyes drawn down to her pelvis, she traced the faint lines that branched up into it. She felt her mind drawn back to the day she awoke on the Hornblower with Matthews for the first time. Headstrong as she was, she had ripped a sheet off her body before the skin had grafted over her bionics. There’s nothing like seeing her legs with flesh forming over them, she reflected, to realize that things would never be the same again.

Closing her eyes on the memory, she took a deep breath to clear her head. In its place, she felt the familiar rage at Ferini start to build inside her head. If it hadn’t been for him, she raged, then replacing her legs wouldn’t have been necessary! Everything was his fault, and no matter how much it cost her, he was going to pay for her suffering!

Clone or not, she thought. He’ll die again for this!

Looking around the room she was in, she came to realize it was the exact same one she had fled from five years ago. Everything was just as she had left it when she escaped his grasp. Could had have honestly left it like this, she asked herself, in the hope that he would get his hands on her again? Unfortunately, knowing the man as she did, she already knew the answer to that…

Tossing the sheets off her body, she slipped across the room. Running a hand through her hair, it came back somewhat greasy from lack of washing. That meant, she reflected, that he had to have kept her under for two days at least. With a sigh, she headed for the shower, suspecting her would want her to give him another audience.

As the water ran over her body, she touched her face with a hand. Every time they healed her, she was amazed at the tiny little nanites. The beating that Ferini’s guards had given her were one of the worst she had received in a while, and yet, two days later there wasn’t a scar of bruise from it. If there was one thing she found herself thankful to Matthews for, other then being alive still, it was the little machines in her body.

Lathering herself up with soap, she found herself thinking about what was happening outside Necko. Out there here friends were laboring to prevent darkness from enslaving the galaxy, and she was stuck here! Sometimes, she raged, it seemed so unfair about how things happened to her. It was almost like she had to suffer before she could be victorious over her enemies.

“Which is what I’ve been trying to tell you, little one,” Brown said.

“Jesus, woman,” Kate said as she jumped in surprise. “How about some warning next time?”

Brown’s chuckle filled her head, as the other woman seemed to be pleased with her accomplishment. Yeah, Kate mused, it’s easy to sneak up on someone where one is living in their head. She’d love to have seen Brown try that in real life! She might have gotten up lucky, and only had a couple of bones broken!

“You know,” Kate said as she set her head on the side of the shower in exasperation. “You seem to show up at the worst possible times!”

“Or maybe the best,” Brown said. “It depends on your viewpoint.”

Alex Abernathy sipped on her red wine with a contented sigh. Leaning back in her chair, she looked out over the vista of Washington DC. It was amazing, she thought as she twirled her wine around her glass, how little the masses knew. She knew it would blow their mind if they had known that the government itself had been behind the Galactic Trade Center attacks.

And they’ll never suspect us of being behind the rash of ‘enemy attacks’ on our colonies, she thought with a smirk.

She looked at the night sky beyond her window and contemplated the moves she had made. The betrayal of Almir to Ferini was something that she hadn’t shared with her superiors. While it had been unfortunate for Almir, it was a perfect situation for her. Seizing the opportunity, she had sent her best operative to deal with the woman.

Who will terminate her with extreme prejudice, she thought as she turned her chair back around to face her desk.

Before her was a holographic design of a complex that her people were building. The facility was for mining raw ore from the moon to support the coming war efforts. Holding thousands, it was also a facility where the dissidents and undesirables of the New Order could be housed until they could be eliminated. If they died while in slave labor, she thought with a shrug, then what skin was it off her back?

The com system on her desk chirped for her attention and she answered it. A typed message came across her terminal, which took her just a second to read. Killing the terminal again, she turned back around to face the skyline. Sipping at her wine again, she could help by start to chuckle.

“Oh my dear, Captain Almir,” she said. “I think you’ll have a nice surprise waiting for you from Operative X when you try to escape…”

###

She had taken the job as maid to keep her cover from being blown. It was an easy job, she told herself, allowing her to keep an eye on both visitors and slaves. Abernathy had been worried about her being able to penetrate the security that Ferini had, but it had been absurdly easy. He was so wrapped up in his conquest of Almir, she mused, that he had let his guard down at the worst possible place.

Watching Ferini strut himself made her want to laugh at the stupidity of it all. When in training, the very first thing that Abernathy had taught her was to never let your duty become personal. Once you let your personal emotions get involved, she heard her commander say a thousand times, then your ability to complete your task goes out the window. Business is business and pleasure is…well its pleasure.

It was just going to be a matter of time before Almir tries to escape, she thought as she clenched her hand into a fist. And when she does, I’ll be waiting for her…

###

“Jesus Christ!” Paul breathed.

When they entered the courier ship, the first thing they had noticed was the number of weapons stored aboard. Handguns, rifles, assault rifles and automatic machine guns lined the passenger compartments. Throw in a few grenades, and Reyes had given them a virtual weapons depot to use on this mission.

“You’d think we were going into war with the Ragnar,” he moaned as he shook his head.

“And a pilot attached to us too,” she added. “Giving us complete privacy from prying eyes. What more could you ask for?”

Paul settled himself onto one of two luxurious couches in the lounge while Brooks did too. Feeling the craft accelerate away from space dock, he knew the problems were just beginning. There was a possibility that the Skipper could already be dead, he mused, which wouldn’t bode well for them. Or their cover could be blown, which would be even worse since the Games Masters were known for killing the people who tried to infiltrate their organizations.

“How about being able to live until I’m gray-haired and old?” he asked with a smile. “That’s all I could ask for.”

“Good luck,” Brooks’ tone was deathly serious. “Because we either get the Skipper out or die trying.”

Paul looked away to hide the involuntary shudder he had…

If Tina Brooks had a weakness, it was singing in the shower. Off-key as hell, she liked to sing to any and every song that came to her mind. The noise of her singing had become such an issue while aboard the Roanoke that she had installed a sound-blocking force field around her shower. This had managed to quiet the train of complaints that had flooded the Skipper’s office.

Unfortunately for the people on space dock, they had no such luxury. As the steam from her shower enveloped her, she was busy singing “Lady Marmalade” by the ancient earth performers ‘The LaBelles.’ Feeling free of the burden she had been under since arriving home, she had let herself go. Maybe, she mused, it would help her to clear her head over what it was about the Skipper that bothered her so.

“Hey sister, go sister, soul sister, go sister,” she sang. “He met Marmalade down in New Orleans, strutting her stuff on the street…”

The sound of the holovid in her living quarters interrupted her song. Damn it, she mused, couldn’t she even be able to take a shower without someone coming to her with a problem? The job that Beatty had assigned her was more of a full-time babysitting gig then it was a real job. Never before in her life had she seen so many people who needed to be watched over!

“Damn it,” she cursed as she stubbed a toe trying to step out of the water.

She reached over and grabbed her towel, using it to dry herself off. Since she could set the holovid to show just her head, she didn’t worry about dressing herself. Whoever had timed their call for when she was in the shower, she mused, deserved a special place in Hell. How was she supposed to have a life if she couldn’t even get a shower without being bothered?

“This had better be good,” she muttered as she activated the device.

A familiar face appeared on her screen, and she felt her breath hitch. She hadn’t heard from him in years, especially since he had retired, so why was he calling now? However, she mused, his calling her meant one thing: that something major was getting ready to happen that her expertise was needed for.
Otherwise, Reyes wouldn’t be on her screen right this second.

To say that Brooks wasn’t an engineer, but an Intelligence Agent would only be half true. Reyes had recruited her shortly after she had graduated from the Academy and added her to his ranks of deep-cover sleeper agents. As the years passed by, she came to realize that her combination of intelligence and training on the Fleet’s latest technology made her a perfect cover agent for him. So, without Fleet knowing anything about it, she had been reporting their new discoveries to him for years now.

Which certainly means he needs something from me that’s more tangible, she thought. Or we wouldn’t be having a conversation.

“Commander,” he said. “I trust you have been well?”

“As well as expected, sir,” she said. “Keeping the Skipper on the right course, and out of trouble was quite a challenge.”

“I imagine so,” he said with a chuckle. “Speaking of Captain Almir…that is why I have called.”

She felt her eyebrows rise in surprise as she took in what he said. No one had heard from Kate since she had left, she thought, and it was downright worrisome to her. After spending as much time with the Skipper as she had, for her to be out of contact this long was not in character for her. If something had happened to Kate, she didn’t know what she would do…

“Do you have any information on her?” she asked, the anxiety showing in her tone.

“She’s alive, Commander,” he said. “So you can relax-not much-but you can.”

“If I can’t relax, sir,” she said. “Where is she?”

Reyes spent the next several minutes bringing her up to speed over Kate’s trip to Haven. When he was finished, she felt the blood drain from her face. It would be difficult, she mused, at best to rescue her from that planet. A mission like that couldn’t be carried out by her alone either!

“Sir,” she said as she ran a hand through her sodden hair. “I’m going to need someone else with me.”

“I understand that completely, Commander,” he said. “Which is why I’m activating Commander Paul too.”

“Sir,” she said with a sigh. “Is that wise? While I need to help, Kate isn’t stupid! If she suspects us of working for you, she’s liable to kill us and go completely rogue.”

“It’s your job to make sure she never knows, Commander,” he said. “But I expect you and Paul to get to Necko at the earliest time possible and work on getting her out of there.”

“I understand, sir,” she said.

“Is everything ready for her return?”

“All we need is Lieutenant Loving and her,” she said, feeling sick on the stomach that she was going to have to lie to Kate again. Wasn’t it bad enough that he had stacked her entire command crew-sans Loving-with deep cover Intelligence agents? Did they have to keep manipulating her still?

“Just make sure they’re both there when they need to be,” he said. “Reyes out.”

Brooks sighed as she stood in the center of her room, her damp form growing colder. For long moments she stared at her desk before she turned and went back to finish her shower. This time, though, she didn’t feel like singing.

Walking through the corridors, Kate made sure her steps were confident and purposeful. With the bright light contrasting the black jumpsuit with her complexion, she looked like a warrior out for a kill. Which she was, she reminded herself, if she thought about it. There was no way she could get to Ferini directly-yet-but she would keep her eyes out for ways to try to disable the ship if possible.

That might be my best bet for survival, she thought with a shiver that was unnoticed by the guards.

There was nothing special about the corridors they walked down; other then the lack of people visible. For the size of vessel they were on, she mused, there should have been crewmembers in her sight as they hustled about doing their duties. The entire ship couldn’t have been automated to carry just Ferini and his guards, so where was everyone?

If I know him, she thought with a snort. He’s probably using slave labor to run this ship!

Even though she tried to make her movements appear confident, she had no clue what was waiting for her in the gym. One thing was for certain, she mused as she saw little black boxes spaced regularly along the corridor. If those were repeaters for his shut down codes, then there was nowhere onboard that she could go without him being able to recapture her with the push of a button.

A sigh escaped her lips as they came to a stop before a door. Whatever he had up his sleeve, she reflected, it was waiting for her on the other side of that door. A quick glance at the two guards besides her told her there was no way she could avoid entering the room. If she didn’t go voluntarily, they would make sure she went in one-way or the other.

“Step inside,” one of them said, his voice harsh and cruel sounding in the empty corridor.

She raised her arms at the guards in a conciliatory gesture. Mea Culpa she tried to say to them with a slight shrug of her shoulders. After the beating they had given her earlier, she thought, they should have known she wasn’t going to try to resist them. As long as her bionics was powered down, there was no way she could fight them and win.

And despite the comments from others, she thought with a weak smile. I might be crazy-but I’m not suicidal!

“That’s a nice thing to know,” Brown said with a chuckle.

You stay out of this! Kate admonished her with a groan.

“Well boys,” she said, using her sarcasm to hide the dread she was starting to feel. “Don’t just stand there; how’s about opening the door?”

The two men growled their displeasure at her, but they did what she told them to do. Ferini must have warned them not to do anything to her, she mused, not unless they had do. That was a fact she stuck in the back of her head for usage later. Wiping her bare hands on her jumpsuit, she watched the door slide aside.

When she stepped through the door, she could barely contain a groan of doom. She had been right, she told herself, Ferini did have something up his sleeve-and it wasn’t good. Standing in the center of the workout mat, he was surrounded by hamburger on three out of the four sides. Everyone looked at her with a hungry expectation that made her heart sink even further.

The bastard sure did cover things from all angles, she thought with a sigh.

Behind her the door slid shut and guards she hadn’t seen filled in the fourth side. As she stepped onto the mat, she looked them over as a funny feeling raced through her body. It was something she had a hard time describing, the feeling wasn’t something that had burned like when her bionics had been shut down. No, this was more like a feeling of increased energy, like she had taken several cups of coffee in a short period of time.

I think my bionics are powered back up, she thought with a mental smile.

“So nice of you to join us, Katie,” Ferini said in the same bland and cultured tone he always used.

“Keep calling me ‘Katie,’” She muttered. “And I’ll rip your vocal chords out.”

“I think you would have a hard time getting past all my men,” he smiled at her, a cold, ruthless smile crossing his lips. “I think you recognize this?”

For the first time, she noticed he was holding her katana and scabbard. With an admiring eye, he turned the handle over in his hand, looking at the shiny blade. Gleaming in the bright lights, he swung it a few times, his eyes lighting up at how easily it moved in his hands. It was obvious, she reflected, that he admired the superior workmanship that went into making the sword.

It had been a gift to her from Reyes; she remembered the day he gave it to her. With her prior training in swords, he had recruited a Master from Earth to train her in the ancient oriental art of the sword and martial arts. While he skills had been excellent for Necko, they were deficient when the Master took her under her wing. By the time she had finished her training, she was as skilled with martial arts, and the sword, as any ninja and samurai warrior had ever been.

“This is fine workmanship,” he said to her absently while looking at the blade. “Where did you get this?”

“From my Master on earth,” she said simply. “After completing training.”

“It’s an amazing piece of work,”

“You didn’t bring me here to talk, Ferini,” she said. “So get on with it.”

“Impatient are we, Katie?” he smiled at her again. “Then so be it, I brought you here to see how your fighting skills were. Since I can’t have a child with you, I can at least hopefully make money off you fighting.”

The sound of running water filled the bathroom its resonance overwhelming all others. Wisps of steam floated in the air, giving it the appearance of being full of fog. A clear shower curtain hung the length of the stall, with a single form seated on the floor. Hidden, just barely, by the noise of the water was the sound of a woman weeping.

She sat on her haunches, her back to the spray, her legs pulled tight to her chest. The water ran down Kate body, her long raven-colored hair hanging down over her face and eyes. Weeping softly, she tied to pull her legs up even tighter to her body, as the steaming water tried to wash away the dirtiness she felt.

The bastard had done it again, she told herself as she stared at the floor. For years he had raped her before, and she was sure when she had seen him die in the grenade explosion that she had been rid of him. Unfortunately, like everything else in her life, it had been a cruel joke. There was no escaping Ferini, she told herself with a long sigh.

Fortunate for her there was no way he could reproduce through her! This was one time she was thankful that the grenade had taken her ability to have a child from her. In no way, no how, did she want to be carrying a child that came from the monster to term. While she hated the idea of killing a life that was innocent, there was no way she would have carried Ferini’s bastard to term.

God I am so unclean, she told herself as she looked at her legs…

…Feeling her mind flash back to when Ferini was finished, she shivered involuntarily. After he had climaxed, he had looked at her in panting, smiling pride. He had reached down and tousled her hair with a touch that she would have loved if it had been done by anyone else.

“Oh I have loved you so much, Katie,” he breathed.

“Go to hell,” she said, turning her tear stained face away from him.

“You really shouldn’t talk to me like that,” he said before he stroked her hair again. “You might come to love me.”

“It will be a cold day in hell before that happens,”

“You should really relax, Katie,” he said. “We could ever have a child together. Imagine it! A child with your warrior genes and my intelligence, it could rule the galaxy!”

She surprised herself with the strength she had to look back at his face. A harsh laugh of derision and contempt escaped her lips as she looked deeply into his eyes. Looking back at her, Ferini was confused about why she was laughing so. He had only told the truth, so what was she finding so funny?

“That’s one dream you’ll have to forget,” Kate said after she finished laughed. “Because I won’t be having anyone’s kid!”

“You will if I wish it,”

“Don’t flatter yourself, Ferini,” she said. “Even you can make something out of nothing!”

“What are you saying, Katie?”

The big moment of truth had arrived, and she knew it would allow her a chance to let some more vitriol out. It was his fault, she raged, that she couldn’t have children anyway! If he hadn’t had his guards trying to Jennifer and her with a grenade, then she would still be able to have a child! Better yet, she would still have her real arms, legs and eyes to see with!

“Your dumb ass did more to me then make me have to be rebuilt with bionics,” she said. “The grenade also caused the doctors to have to have a hysterectomy.”

“What?”

“Ah yes, Ferini,” she said with a chuckle. “You, and only you, are responsible for the fact that I can’t have children!”

A hand lanced out without warning and grasped her throat. With a look of rage, he started to squeeze on her windpipe, causing her eyes to grow large with fear. Beating uselessly at his hand, Kate tried to break his grip on her throat. If he didn’t let go sometime soon, she mused, he was going to choke her to death!

“You’re lying!” he snarled as he let up just enough to let her speak.

“No,” Kate gasped. “I’m not.”

Releasing her arm, he forced them both onto the glass over her head. The freedom to be able to remove her face from the cold glass was enough to make Kate relax a bit. If there was any consolation, she told herself, he wanted her to fight for him. Thus, he wasn’t going to do anything to kill her unless he had to.

But that doesn’t prevent him from hurting me, she thought with a groan.

She barely kept a growl from escaping her lips as she felt his breath on her neck. He leaned in closer, his face inches from her ear; his warm exhalations would have tickled it had it been someone else. A shiver of disgust ran down her spine as she felt his tongue touch the base of her earlobe. This was going to be the worst experience in her life since leaving Necko, she told herself with a sigh.

He removed his hands from her back and she felt them trail down to her upper thighs. The son of a bitch was going to feel her up, she mused with a frown that would have swallowed the Grand Canyon. Has hands started to move up her shapely thighs, apparently not bothered by the fact that under the skin was metal and not flesh.

He always was a pervert, she thought as she rolled her eyes in disgust.

“Be patient, little one,” Brown whispered in her head. “Just let him have his fun…you’re worth more alive then dead!”

Lady, she thought as she closed her eyes for a moment. Do you think I’m frigging stupid here?

“I was just saying…”

When his hands reached her firm buttocks, a growl escaped her lips despite Kate’s best efforts. The bastard, she raged in her head, how she wanted to reach back and knock his teeth down into his stomach! How dare he touch her ass like she was a piece of meat! She had lived enough off of Necko that she knew how much she was worth not, and it was more then this!

“I see you kept your ass as tight as ever, Katie,” he whispered in her ear, as she felt him rub himself against her. It was impossible to miss his arousal as he pushed against her. “You don’t know how much I’ve missed you.”

“Oh I can tell,” she said coldly. “The pea shooter in your pants doesn’t get any bigger even on your clone!”

With a roar of rage, he grabbed her hair in his hand and ripped back. She screamed involuntarily as he yanked her face backwards until he was looking into her eyes. The genteel banality that he had been using was gone; in its place a snarling, murderous tiger had replaced it. Staring at her, he spoke in short, clipped words that were edged with rage.

“Don’t you insult me like that, Katie,” he said. “I am your Master and you will respect me!”

“Respect you?” she said, smiling at him despite the tears that threatened to well up in her eyes. “That will never happen!”

“You know, Katie,” he said. “I think its time you get taught some respect.”

With a snarl, he spun around and sent her sprawling across the room. A terrible tearing pain in her scalp made her yelp as she hit the floor and slid into the bed. Reaching up to her head, she looked at his hand and snarled. In his hand, he held a small amount of raven-colored tresses.

The son of a bitch, she raged. He pulled my hair out!

“Take her,” he said to the two guards with a snap of his fingers.”

As she pulled herself to her feet, Kate saw the two men lunge for her. With a yelp, she leapt to her side, and made a forwards roll to her feet. The lack of full speed on her bionics might slow her down, she told herself, but she was far from helpless! It was time to use some of the skills she had learned while in basic training!

“Watch your left!” Brown warned.

Kate saw the glimpse of movement and she lifted her arm to try to block the guard. However, without her usual speed to work with, she was late getting into position. The man’s fist was only slightly deflected from striking her in the face. As it slammed into the side of her chin, she felt her body lifted from the deck. For a single, nauseating moment, she flew through the deck, only to slam into it.

Before she even had a chance to react, the second man grabbed her by the back of her jumpsuit. With a roar of power, he threw her across the room. She slammed into the wall; the impact bone jarring, felt like it loosened every tooth in her mouth. Sliding to the floor, limp, Kate hurt so badly that she could hardly move. All she could do was lie there in a pile, moaning in pain.

She heard Ferini’s footfalls as he approached her position. There was nothing she could do about him, she told herself, not in the condition she was in now. If she tried to resist him, the only result would be her own pain, at the very least, if not her death. No, she was locked into playing his sick, perverted game no matter how much she hated it.

He reached down with a calm grasp and pulled her to her feet. Without a word, he dumped her onto the bed and crawled on top of her. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind what he was going to do, but what could she do to stop it? Until she could stop him, there would be a tab run that he would ultimately have to pay for.

Especially with his desire to force himself upon me sexually, she thought as a tear ran down her cheek.

“Now you can make me feel good,” he whispered to her. “Or I can shut down your bionics and do it anyway, your choice.”

“You don’t have much choice, little one,” Brown whispered in her ear.

Damn the ****er to hell! Kate thought as she clenched her eyes shut.

With a mechanical motion, she helped him undress…

With a flash of light, she felt herself flying through time and space again. Below her, the Earth spun on its axis with a pace that was dizzying to try to comprehend. Giant space stations were built, lived and were scrapped before her very eyes as the time raced past. It was as if the whole of mankind’s existence was flashing before her very eyes.

“Which is it, little one,” Brown said.

“So,” Kate said softly. “My previous self helped turn the tide of the war against Hitler. I imagine what she did saved millions of lives in the long run.”

“It did that,” Brown said. “Because if D-day had failed, Hitler would have had time to develop the a-bomb before the Allies and would have won the war.”

“Did we have anything to do with that?”

“We did steal the plans and send them to the allies,” Brown said. “It was our last contribution to the war effort.”

“Why was that?”

“Because Hitler discovered out treachery shortly thereafter,” Brown said. “And he executed us.”

“That seems to be a recurring theme in our lives,” Kate said, realizing for the first time she was speaking aloud.

“It is, little one,”

With a sigh, she opened her eyes to the cabin that Ferini had picked for her. A cabin, she thought with a snort, more like a de facto prison cell! There was no way he was going to leave anything in there that she could use as a weapon! Not after their escape five years ago, and not if he was smart either!

Whatever drug he had used definitely packed quite a wallop, she thought with a groan. Her head, normally clear as a mountain sky, was throbbing in time with her heartbeat. However, as she lay there, she could feel it starting to subside slowly as the busy nanites in her system metabolized the drug.

And they can’t move fast enough for my liking, she thought as she raised a hand to her head on instinct.

She stared at her gloved hand for several, long moments as she though back to Haven. That bastard Kosloski had gotten her shut down codes, she fumed, and he had used them to immobilize her. That was the entire opening Ferini had needed to recapture her! If there was a worst situation for her to be in, she couldn’t think of one.

Trapped on a ship with the man who raped me repeatedly, she thought, headed back to the hell I escaped from…there isn’t much worse that could happen.

“Oh there is much worse,” Brown whispered in her ear.

“Honey,” she said with a growl. “There isn’t much worse then the man who has me in his grasp again.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Yes I am,” Kate said as she climbed back to her feet.

Surprised that her legs and arms still moved she walked over to the window to look out. As the stars streaked past the armored glass, she found her mind racing. If he had used her shutdown codes, she told herself, then how was she able to walk now? There was no way Ferini would be dumb enough to allow her to keep her full power. While it didn’t give her an earth shattering advantage over a skilled opponent, it generally gave her enough to win.

He isn’t going to want that, she thought to herself. Ferini will want to have to advantage, which is typical of him.

Behind her the door to the cabin slid open…

There was its demand again, the voice probing yet not harsh. While whatever was asking expected an answer, it wasn’t cruel of capricious about it. No, it seemed to take the tack that if you ask the question enough, then someone would eventually answer it. Even if it was from annoyance with being asked fifty times, she mused, it must think that an answer is an answer.

“Who are you?”

“Okay, okay,” she said with a sigh. “I’m Kate Almir.”

“What do you want?”

What did she want, she found herself making a face at the question. Wasn’t it obvious what she wanted? She wanted to live, of course! To be able to live a life of freedom, where she didn’t have to look over her shoulder for someone coming to kill her. That, and that alone, was what she wanted.

“I want to live,” she said.

“Who are you?” it asked again.

“I’ve already answered that,” Kate said.

“You don’t know now who you are,” it said.

Without a warning, she felt the tendril start to move over her body again. Caressing her bionic arms through her jumpsuit, it held her feather-light. As it reached her hair, the energy field (or was it an entity, she wondered) tousled it, played with it and seemed to enjoy itself with her raven-colored tresses.

“I would listen to it,” Brown said for the first time in a long time in Kate’s head. Where had she been, Kate wondered, when Ferini had made his move? “The oracle will help you understand more then you can ever realize.”

A sigh crossed Kate’s lips as she continued to feel like she was having a psychological breakdown. If Brown was real, she fumed, why didn’t she lift a finger to try to warn her of Ferini? Now she had been drugged and she was looking at some giant blob of energy that kept asking her the same questions again. Was there a way to get off this ride, she asked herself, because it was starting to become painfully obvious that the only ending would be in her own madness.

“I am Katherine Elizabeth Almir,” she said, holding her chin high. “Orphan, escaped gladiator slave, Special Ops Agent, Captain in the Interstellar Fleet.”

“You don’t know who you are,” the voice said almost contemptuously.

“Why don’t you tell me who I am then?” she said, the annoyance showing in her voice.

“That isn’t the question you should be asking,” it said. “You should be asking: ‘Who am I?’”

“Then tell me,” she said with a cross sigh. “Who am I?”

“That is the right question…”

###

…The dark expanse disappeared, replaced by a cityscape that she had never seen before. She tried to look around but she found that her head wouldn’t move. Wanting to grit teeth she couldn’t control, Kate sat back and rode as a visitor to whatever she was witnessing.

“What is going on here, Brown?” she demanded.

“You’re being shown who you are,”

“That doesn’t answer me question, damn it!” she swore.

“Patience, little one,” Brown said. “Patience.”

“If I hear that one more time…”

Kate let her voice trail off as she watched an ancient automobile pass before her. Belching out noxious fumes from its exhaust, the car rolled by on its four solid white walled tired. Along for the ride, she couldn’t look at it closer to try to see what era it was from, but she could tell it was at least four hundred years old.

Where are we? She asked Brown, and noticed that the other woman was silent.

As they walked, Kate could see the building surrounding them on either side. Old row house type design, she noted, which were common in the early to mid twentieth century. As the view shifted to one building in particular, she found her attention drawn to it. A three story building, it had two men in jet-black uniforms guarding the door. On either side of the entrance flew a red flag, with a white center that held a black swastika symbol.

Nazi Germany? What are we doing here Brown? She thought, remembering the symbols from her military history classes.

The other woman was silent again as they approached the doorway. As they stopped before the two men, Kate watched a hand extend out from the bottom of her vision, with a small leather case in it. One of the men took it, and opened it up. After several seconds, he handed it back to her and spoke to her in German, which she found she understood every word.

Which is weird since I’ve never taken German! She thought.

“Good morning, Captain,” the guard said.

“Good morning, Lieutenant,” Kate heard a voice that sounded just like hers.

“The general is expecting you,” the Lieutenant said.

“Then I won’t keep him waiting,” she said with a laugh.

“Good thinking,”

The hand disappeared from view again as the woman started to move into the building. Kate raised en eyebrow in surprise again as the woman came to a mirror. Looking into the mirror to check her appearance, and Kate took a deep breath in surprise. The woman, she told herself in shock, looked just like she did!

“Is this why you’re so silent, Brown?” Kate asked her hitchhiker.

“You’re learning, little one,” Brown said, obviously pleased.

“So this woman we’re riding with,” she said to the other woman. “I take it that she’s another version of me?”

“An earlier version, like myself,” Brown said. “But the same person.”

“How many times have I lived-and died?”

“Even I don’t know that number,” Brown admitted. “I would say you-I-have died a thousand times, only to be born a thousand and one.”

“That’s confusing as hell,” she mumbled. Why was it that she got the feeling that Brown wasn’t trying to answer her questions.

Turning her attention back to the matters at hand, Kate watched with interest, as her past self started moving again. Her eyes tracked their movement as the woman climbed up a curving staircase to the third floor. Whoever this ‘General’ was, Kate mused, he had his office on the highest floor of the building. If height was any indication of importance, or power, this man had to be really high up in whatever organization this was.

“The SS,” Brown whispered in her ear. “The personal army of Adolph Hitler. That is what this organization is.”

Kate felt her blood go cold at the information that Brown gave her. The SS, she mused, she had studied them too in class, but she had forgotten what their uniforms looked like. A nasty bunch of bastards, they were the ones who had done the dirty work for Hitler: rounding up and murdering millions of “undesirables” from his Third Reich until the Allied forces had defeated them. Not before, however, millions had been killed in the slaughterhouses they had run for their crazed “Fuhrer.”

When the woman stopped at a doorway that was guarded by two men, Kate found her attention drawn back to the present. Feeling like she was a hitchhiker herself, Kate watched the woman be admitted into the office beyond. Once again, she noted, Brown was staying oddly silent during the whole thing. Could this be because she didn’t know what was going to happen, or was she going to wait for Kate to figure it out?

As they entered the office, Kate followed the woman’s eyes as she scanned it. There was nothing special about the office, she mused, other then the older Nordic and Aryan art spread throughout it. The man sitting behind the desk was smallish built; his round spectacles giving his mouse-like face a more scholarly look.

“Captain Heinlein,” Heinrich Himmler said has he looked up from his desk. The small mustache above his lip looked so out of place, Kate noted from her vantage point. “Please make yourself comfortable.”