The Insurrection

"lhis is the only hatch holding pressure, Major" "Yes, sir. we checked out all the others and came up empty"--he seemed unaware of his own grim double entendre?b there's atmosphere on the other side of this one." "How much longer, Major?" "We've just about got her sealed in, sir." He gestured at the plastic airlock. "Soon's we get a little pressure in there, we'll crack the hatch. Not that it's going to make any difference to whoever sealed it." Han nodded slowly within her helmet. Ater ten months, no one could possibly survive beyond that hatch.

"Ready, Major," a sergeant said.

"All right, Admiral," Bryce looked at Han, "would you like to go in?" "Yes, Major. I would." "Very good, sir." Bryce managed things smoothly, and Han found herself sandwiched between the looming combat zoots of a pair of Marine corporals as one of them fed power to the hatclg from her zoot pack. The hatch slid open, and the plastic lock creaked as its over-pressure bled into the cabin. The corporals moved awkwardly to either side to permit Han to enter first, and she pushed off through the hatch.

It was a tomb.

The first things she saw in her helmet lamp were the rags and plastiseal packed into a pair of ragged holes; one of the primaries that took out the command deck had passed through this cabin. Someone had kept his wits about him to patch those holes so quickly, and the angle of the punctures might explain why the cabin hadn't been searched they just about paralleled the passage outside, and the single beam had probably pierced at least a dozen suites. Much of first class must have died practically unknowing, and the raiders had probably assumed this cabin's occupants had done the same.

Her evaluation of the patches took only seconds; then she saw the bodies, and her lips twisted with rage. Children. They were children!

She counted five of the huddled little shapes, peacefully arranged in the beds as ff merely sleeping, and saw the body of a single adult--coma young woman--comat a desk to one side. A candle stub was glued to the desk with melted wax, and her head was a shattered ruin, wrought by the heavy-caliber needler death-locked in her hand.

Hah looked away and felt her belly knot.

There was no nausea--comonly a cold, deadly hatred for the beings who had wreaked this slaughter of the children she would never bear.

She mastered herself and bent over the stiff corpse of the unknown woman. There was an old fashioned memo pad magsealed to the desk, and Han eased it gently loose. Then she turned back to the lock.

"Dump the air, Major," she said, and for the first time she hated herself for sounding serene under pressure.

"And transport the bodies to da Silva." "Yes, sir." Bryce sounded wooden, and she realized he'd been watching his minute eom screen; he'd seen everything his corporals" pickups had seen. "We'll be taking them back to Cimmaron, sir?" "No, Major," Han said quietly. "It won't help their loved ones to see this. We'll try to identify them and then bury them in space." "Yes, sir." "I'm returning to the flagship, Major." "Yes, sir. Shall I assign an escort?" "No, Major. I'd rather be alone, thank you." "Yes, sir." Han looked up as Tomanaga entered her cabin. He'd seen the pictures of that cabin and knew his admiral well enough to sense the fury behind her calm demeanor, and he took the indicated chair silently, feeling his way through the storm front of her rage.

"Yes, sir," he said quietly.

"In the meantime," Han went on carefully.

"I'd like to tell you what it is. This, Commander, is a record of what that young woman endured." "Is there any ID on the attackers, sir?" "There is," she said coldly. "Allow me to summarize.

INSUS.CON Her name vJas Ursula Hauser, and she was a second-year student at New Athens--a philosophy major." Despite her hard-held control, Han's mouth twisted before she could smooh it. "A philosophy major," she repeated softly. "According to her notes, her cabin lost integrity almost immediately, but Ms. Hauser was a quick thinker, and she managed to patch the holes.

'Fhen, over the intercom, she heard the boarders killing the passengers, Commander Tomanaga." She looked up, her black eyes pits of flame.

"They lined them up, sorted out the ones they wanted to keep--the young, pretty women--comand slaughtered the rest in number three hold.

"But Ms. Hauser was determined they wouldn't get all the passengers. She knew a little about small cra, so she decided to try to steal a cutter and escape. She was on her way to this boatbay when she came across five terrified children from third class, ru

"She was certain they knew their primaries hd depres-surized her whole cabin block, so she took the children back to her cabin, hoping they would be overlooked and she could get them to the boatbay after the raiders left. But then they dumped the air, and there she was: locked into her cabin with five children, no power, no vac suits, no airlock, and no way out." Han's voice trailed off and she looked away from Tomanaga's pale face, speaking so softly he could barely hear her.

"So she did what she had to do, Commander. She fed each of those children a lethal overdose of barbiturates from her cabin medical stores. And when she was quite certain they were all dead, she sat down at the desk, recorded all of their names, finished her memo... and shot herself." Han stroked the pad. "She was nineteen, Bob." A long silence fell. Robert Tomanaga had never person- ally hated any enemy in all his years of service, but at that moment he knew exactly what hate was, and he under- stood the old, hackneyed cliches about "killing rages." "But, sir," he sought a professional topic, something to push the sick hatred away, "how did they catch the ship?

Surely her master didn't allow an unidentified ship into weapons range in the middle of a civil war!" "No," Hah said coldly. "He allowed a Republican cruiser patrol to close with him." "Oh my God. No "Tomanaga whispered.

"Precisely.

Obviously somewhat modified; they've replaced at least some of the hetlasers with primaries. But that was how he identified them to his passengers when he hove to. I doubt he ever learned his mistake." "Sir, what--his" "What are we going to do, Commander?" Han laid the pad aside almost reverently, and when she looked up, her eyes were carved from the obsidian heart of hell.

"We're going to find them, Commander Tomanaga.

We're going to find the vermin who did this, the vermin who used the honor of the Fleet to cover themselves. And when w.e do, Commander, I only hope they live long enough to know who's killing them!" "Admirali We're picking up something on the emergency distress cha

"Got it, sir! Oh-one-niner level, two-eight-eight vertical. Looks like a standard shuttle transmission."

"Thank you." Bob, raise Captain Onsbruck. I want one fighter squadron to take a close look; hold the other two back for cover. This could be legitimate or a trap, so tell the pilots to take no chances." "Aye, aye, sir." "Thank you." She punched buttons, and Schwerin's face appeared on her com screen.