Task Force Mars - Kevin Dockery [125]
The man’s face was swarthy, needing a shave. His eyes were dark—too dark to determine to which of the three empires he belonged. He glowered at the lieutenant as Jackson halted and stared at him.
“Does he have a translator in his ear?” asked the officer. His suit contained the software to translate any known language into his own earpiece, but he wouldn’t be able to communicate with the prisoner unless the fellow was wearing a device of his own. Fortunately, these translators had proved to be very common among space travelers, and Keast quickly confirmed that the pirate was wearing one.
“Your ship is gone,” the lieutenant declared bluntly. “We chased it off and they left you and your comrades behind to die.
The pirate merely smirked. “We’re all going to die,” he spat, after a second.
Abruptly he convulsed, his eyes rolling back in his head. White foam drifted from his clenched jaws, and by the time Baxter pressed a hand to the man’s neck, there was no pulse to be found.
“He suicided, L.T,” declared the electrician’s mate grimly. “Musta had some secrets he didn’t want to share.”
Only then did Jackson turn his attention to the Shamani crewmen who were drifting through the compartment, checking the bodies of the slain pirates. The newcomers abruptly parted, moving to open a path and saluting a new arrival, an officer who came gliding in to the increasingly crowded compartment.
From the alluring outline of this person’s suit, Jackson guessed her to be female. Even so, he was shocked when she removed her helmet to reveal an attractive, olive-skinned face with startling—and unforgettable—crimson eyes.
“Consul Char Kane!” Jackson declared. “This is a surprise!”
“No less for me, lieutenant,” said the Shamani consul de campe. It made sense for a high ranking diplomat to be on the ship, of course, but the SEALS officer was nonetheless startled to recognize the alien official who had been their companion for so much of their first mission. “This vessel was my transport. When we were attacked by these pirates, I feared we were doomed.”
“Are you on your way to the Centauri conference?” he asked.
“I was,” she said. “But we have more pressing problems right now.” Jackson gestured for her to go on, and she continued. “I heard what that prisoner said, and it has been confirmed by the reports of my own crew.”
“What is it?” the lieutenant asked grimly, fairly certain he wasn’t going to like the answer.
“These pirates—they have occupied the hold of this ship for several hours. There are apparently no survivors of their boarding party, but I am certain they have left a powerful nuclear bomb on board. It could detonate at any time.”
Starstrike: Task Force Mars is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A Del Rey Books Mass Market Original
Copyright © 2007 by Kevin Dockery and Douglas Niles
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Del Rey Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-0-345-50047-2
www.delreybooks.com
Table of Contents
Dedication
Attack on Mars Research Station #3
One: Weigh Out
Two: Mission to Mars
Three: Down in the Valley
Four: It’s Personal Now
Five: Counterattack
Six: Treachery
Seven: Tezlac Catal
Eight: Through the Void
Nine: A World of Trees
Ten: Ambush Applied
Eleven: A Trip to Town
Twelve: Turning the Tables
Thirteen: Out of the Frying Pan
Fourteen: Custer Had It Easy
Fifteen: Fight in the Skies
Sixteen: Olin Parvik
Seventeen: A Phone Call
Eighteen: Nuclear Diversion
Nineteen: Prison Break
Twenty: Unfriendly Skies
Twenty-One: Alliance
Copyright