He said, “If you want to come with me, then come with me.”
He started backing up toward the door. Jessica walked face forward with her gun up, guarding his back as he was guarding hers. There was something so amazing about the fact that she was a woman who was capable and willing to always have his back in battle.
They made the ship. Talon race to the controls and jerked the ship away from the prisons docking station, angling it upward and toward space. Jessica shouted, “What are you doing? We can’t leave Old Earth right now! We have to go back and fight for and with them!”
Talon said, “We are. But first, we need a better ship.”
Her mouth hung open. “What are you talking about?”
Talon said, “I’m talking about the fact that there is a Federation warship not far from here. And I intend to take it.”
Jessica looked from him to the resistance prisoners and the men who had left the control room to join up with this raggedy band of misfits and miscreants. The crew stared at him as if he had grown two heads and he gave them all his most charming smile.
“We need a warship.”
Jessica sputtered, “How in the name of all that is holy do you expect us to be able to take a Federation warship?”
One of the men from the control room spoke up. “If you could disable its flight controls momentarily, that would buy you time to get on the ship and to take it over as well.”
Talon gave the man a measuring glance. “Interesting idea.”
Jessica said, “No! It is not an interesting idea, dammit! It’s crazy! We have a ship, and we have to get down there right now! You caused the populace to rise up, and they’re down there in the streets fighting and dying while we’re floating around in space! That’s not fair! We can’t just leave them to die because of the consequences of your actions!”
One of the women who had been held prisoner for her part in the resistance got up off the floor and stood. Her filthy hands pushed her tangled hair away from her face as she peered at Jessica. “It is you. I almost didn’t recognize you because your hair is darker now. But it is you.”
Jessica said, “It is me! And there’s a revolution below.”
Cheers broke out of the mouths of those who had been imprisoned for being a part of the resistance. Talon let them have that moment, but only a moment because they had far more pressing issues than whether or not those who lived below were revolting against those who lived above. “I hate to tell you this. That is the least of your worries. The Gorlites are on their way, and the Federation has given them your planet.”
The entire deck went silent. Then one of the men they had rescued from the control room stood. He said, “Why? Why would they do such a thing?”
“Because there are those who would like to overthrow the Federation.”
A man stood. He looked at Jessica. “Is he telling the truth?”
“Yes, John, he is.” Jessica drew a deep breath. “It comes down to we fight on the side of the people now, and the Federation later—maybe—in order to keep that from happening, or we lose the planet forever.”
John turned to the woman next to him. “What do you say, Helen?”
Helen regarded Talon. The grime on her face and the bruises there too showed the ordeal she had been through. Her eyes went to the men they had taken from the control room. “They are Federation pawns. How do you know we are not being watched right now?”
“Then the Federation just discovered that they have an enemy within them,” Talon said.
One of the men stood. His voice was weak but grew in strength. “I don’t have any reason to fight for the planet or the Federation, in truth. My name is Five because I am the fifth born to my mother, by the way. But—but I have always wanted to do anything but stay in the control room of the prison and the bunks beyond. I want to be out of there, and if I fight just to end up there again, I don’t see any reason to fight.”
Talon felt for the man, and he knew an opportunity when he saw it. “If you fight and live, I will swear to you that you will never go back to the control room ever again.”
Five looked at the other man. “Seven?”
Brothers. Talon’s stomach churned as he finally saw the resemblance on their faces. That was why they had left together. They were brothers. Seven said, “If you swear we will never have to be there again, I will fight with you.”
“I swear.” Talon nodded at the two. “Maybe you can help us. What do you know about controls for ships?”
Five gave him a wide smile that exposed teeth that were too small and revealed the lack of nutrition in what diet he had been fed during his lifetime. “Oh, sir, we know everything about every control panel ever made for ships. They are made at the prison, you know.”
Talon hadn’t known that. His mouth sagged open. Helen sucked in a large breath. John put his hand out, and the two of them looked at the other resistance fighters.
John said, “You mean to take that warship, then.”
