Episode 70

A Professional in Operation

Apgar produced a handful of plastic zip-binders from a pocket and handed half of them to Shumway. They began with the two Marines, then relieved the two lieutenant's of their stunners and bound their hands before moving on to Benbow and Wooten.

“Are you sure you don't want to try anything, Miss Ascendancy Intelligence?” Barngate leveled his blaster at her, close enough for her to see 'Xishan Arsenal' embossed on the side of the barrel, and whispered a sadistic temptation. “I will make it quick for you if you beg me. No burning pain in your lungs, no choking, no coughing up blood. I watched Captain Kennedy die on the bridge. It looked like a hard way to go.”

York held his mocking gaze and shook her head. “I'll take my chances on a short reprieve, if it's all the same to you.”

“May I put in a word?” someone called out.

Barngate stepped back to locate the speaker. It was Hing Poy.

“As a Kangan, I disown you,” Hing Poy said. “Your ancestors must shudder in their graves.”

“I disown you, also,” Chun said steadily.

Norden stared at them, then smiled sardonically. “You'll have a chance to talk it over with your own ancestors very soon,” he promised.

Barngate laughed, then nodded toward Apgar. The deckhand handed him a mask, as Norden handed one to Shumway.

“They're going to gas the ship!” someone said.

“It does betray a certain lack of imagination,” York commented to the captain. He didn't see fit to respond.

“We're just going to sit here and die?” Tregaski protested. He lowered his head, hunching his shoulders as if to charge. Norden heard the desperation in the lieutenant's voice, spun around, and his finger tightened on the trigger of the Xishan.

“Stand down!” York barked as firmly as she could manage. “That's an order, Lieutenant!” Tregaski stiffened, staring at the weapon pointing at his chest, then slowly exhaled, the last remnants of hope dying in his eyes. “All of you, stand down!”

“That's better, Lieutenant,” Norden said. “Listen to the agent. Die with dignity, not like an animal raging against the dark.”

Disgusted, Captain Hull shook his head and glared at York. “Director Karsh will have to take the credit for this debacle,” he said icily.

“I imagine so,” she admitted.

Norden kept one eye on York as he raised his wrist to his mouth. “This is Commander Norden speaking. Proceed as directed in one decasecond from my count. Ten!”

“So, that's it?” one of the Rigel crewmen exclaimed incredulously. York thought she recognized Jack Ival's voice. “We just die?”

“I'm afraid so, my young friend,” answered Norden. “Console yourself in the knowledge that your lives were sacrificed in a noble and historic cause.” He nodded to his companions as he pulled his mask down over his face.

“Masks on, men” Barngate ordered.

York felt the tension swelling through the room. “Everyone stand down! Do not move! Do not move!”

“You heard her,” Captain Hull barked. “Don't move!”

“Don't move!” Tregaski snarled sarcastically. But the men's naval discipline held, even in the face of incipient death.

“Don't move,” York repeated. She scarcely dared to breathe herself as the three other saboteurs followed their commander's lead and donned their protective masks. Out of the corner of her eye she could see the fear on Tregaski's face, the bitter resignation on Hull's.

Then, for no apparent reason, Norden's weapon wavered, and he took a faltering step to one side. At that moment, York exploded from her seat and leaped towards Barngate, who was reaching up desperately for his mask with his free hand. She kicked him squarely in the chest, sending him reeling backward, then threw a precision-aimed sidekick at his shoulder that dislocated it and sent the Xishan flying. As she whirled around to find Norden, she saw that he and the other two Dai Zhani were clawing at their masks.

Tregaski came to life with a roar. Lunging up and forward, he smashed the top of his head into Norden's chin, knocking the smaller man instantly unconscious, then bull-rushed Apgar, knocking the big half-Kangan to the deck with a shoulder charge. He followed that up with a brutal kick to Apgar's head. Seeing both Draco men accounted for, she turned around and saw Hull standing over the prone man from the Rigel, his well-polished boot resting on Shumway's throat.

Hull raised a quizzical eyebrow. “So that was your play?”

“The oxygen canisters had a fast-acting soporific added to the usual mix,” York explained.

“Soporific?”

“A turbo-charged thienodiazepine the doc drummed up.” She nodded toward Benbow. “It's always a pleasure to see a true professional in operation. Your concoction worked like a charm.”

The doctor smiled and mock-bowed. “The pleasure was all mine, Miss York.”

“But how—?” Hull glanced uncertainly from Benbow to York.

“I was certain they would try it this way,” York explained. “They were amateurs. They didn't know the same trick seldom works twice, let alone three times. As soon as I saw they tried the same approach in my cabin that they utilized on the Rigel, I knew what their plan would be.”

“How did you know which masks to prepare?” Hull asked Benbow.

York grinned. “He didn't. He modified the canisters for every mask on the ship. If you're having any trouble sleeping tonight, take your pick and you'll be out in seconds.”

Hull started to answer, then jerked up his head sharply. “My God, what about the ECS system!”

“Seeing as how we're not already dead, I think we can be confident that we don't have a problem, Captain. Be patient and everything will presently become clear.”

A MIND PROGRAMMED runs every Sunday on Arktoons.