where he was hidden and calmly shot first the one on the left, and then the one on the right with his old Marine-issue blaster; one-two, like shooting wild birds in the marshes.
There were a couple of sickening thuds as they were thrown to their faces in front of Piehl.
The sergeant ran forward on the double. "What about those two, Captain?"
"Gone to the back of the line, sergeant."
The sergeant nodded with satisfaction. "Nice work, sir."
His assessment of things was simple: have an enemy, see the enemy, shoot him, move on.
"Time we were leaving, sir."
It was hard to understand. Outside in the street it was as if nothing had happened. The word was that it would take the second Drakon invasion to get anyone's attention on Regents and even that might go unnoticed. Nobody looked their way and they blended into the crowds of traffic heading toward the Central Tower.
As they passed through the Rotunda with its crowds in the tens of thousands, Piehl had an immediate and gruesome picture of what it would have been like if the action had started there.
When Piehl called and said he wanted to purchase information, he had a thought that his secure line might not be that secure. But he decided to keep the appointment as arranged.
The Broker was an ordinary looking man; short, slightly obese, dressed Fourth Imperium sloppy. There was nothing ordinary about the man's mind and after the credits were transferred he gave Piehl a rundown on the politics surrounding the King that left little to be told.
At the end of the interview he spoke candidly. "Look, Sir Aubrey, Claren Trone is your best bet. He was the old Federation's most determined enemy. It was Trone who pushed to have all surviving Legionnaires executed as a war criminals. He stays in the background and has great influence with the Star Lords."
"Is there any connection between him and the Worlds in the Dark?" Piehl asked.
"Of course. He's the silent but controlling partner in Far Reach Trading and Shipping."
Bloody hell! Piehl thought. That's the biggest shipping company in the Imperium.
"What is not generally known," the Broker went on, "is that he acts as a connection to all the riff-raff in the Dark Worlds, through the Out Worlds Trading Company. It's well hidden but he's the one who owns and controls it."
As Piehl and the sergeant made their way back to the docking bay Piehl realized he wasn't surprised by anything he'd heard. The problem was what would he do with it?
Chapter 7
Piehl decided to pull everybody in close until they were in space. At the ship Piehl took a quick status report from Shorty.
"It goes well, Captain. We should be done this evening except for some minor cleanup and a final load of stores."
"We're going to skip shake-down, Shorty, so there can't be any room for error." Piehl stood and walked over to a tool locker. He removed a bottle of brandy he knew Shorty kept hidden there, for ‘emergencies’, poured himself a shot and one for Shorty.
Shorty chuckled. He never had been able to put anything over on Piehl.
"Captain, the boys have been extra careful. They've double and triple-checked everything. I even cleared the docking bay and ran the back-up engine at standby power. It went fine. I realize it's not one hundred percent military power, but if I say it'll go, it'll go."
"I know, Shorty. You and your men have done miracles. I'll go forward now, see how the IMP is shaking down."
As Piehl moved toward the ship he stopped and stared at it as if he was seeing it for the first time.
I'll be damned. How the devil did I miss it. The men had put three coats of metal-seal in the green, black and gold of the Legion on the ship. Then they polished it to a high gloss.
By all the gods great and small, that's how a ship should look.
Their only concession to the times was a small Imperial Merchant flag away forward. Piehl was surprised they hadn't painted the full-sized Mars Legion sigil across the center of the hull.
He knew it was somewhere on the ship, no way they'd leave it off.
Piehl laughed to himself. If it wasn't for the Imperial seals and the correct codes some nervous captain in the Imperial Fleet will surely try to blow us out of the sky as soon as we leave the planet. Probably think he's in a time-distort, back in the old wars.
When Piehl reached the flight deck he spoke quietly. "IMP, bring me up to date."
"I am 99.93% fully integrated. I have done a down-load of all primary data copies to the back-up block in the aft hold."
"Good. Stand by, I'm going to transfer all data and events of the last four days. I want an interpretive study with a report. I'll take it in my quarters later." Piehl was brisk. He slotted a data cube into Imp’s reader.
"Right, Captain."
"Pass the word, all work crew and ship's crew in the docking bay at 21:00 hours. We'll party. There's a lot of M.L. troopers around the docking area. I want to bring in as many of them as possible.
Piehl went to the flight deck and was surprised to find every seat manned except for the captain's console. The Whistler had taken station in the Astrogator's cube and Flex was at the copilot's station. The Sufic major had Environmental Systems and Damage Control. The Lady Lociranou looking delicious in her light-weight jump suit was at the comm control center. Finally there was the sergeant, quite at home through the forward hatch, warming up the weapons control systems.
The Sufic major came to attention and everyone else stood by their positions.
"Captain's on deck!" The sergeant bellowed.
"Ease up, gentlemen, ladies. This isn't Legion cruiser. I’m not getting ready for a inspection."
They sat down, grinning. Piehl knew someone had put them up to it. Probably Flex. He wasn't displeased.
"What's this all about, Whistler?"
His pelt rippled rhythmically. "We have been running through several of the flight drills, sir. We're cross training positions, Captain."
Piehl sat down in the captain's chair and keyed in the overview. "Alright, Mr. Ing, carry on."
Piehl's eyes kept going to the Lady Lociranou. Great legs! Very trim, and a cute way of biting her lip when she concentrates. Damn, this won't do. How the hell am I going to avoid her once we're in space.
She turned and looked at Piehl. Then as Piehl continued to look she blushed and turned back to her console.
"IMP, everyone one up here seems to be posted. What's the Princess doing?"
"Aside from making strange facial gestures and body movements in the direction of Mr. Holtzman, which I interpret
