Dahms stood to one side of the portal watching and waiting as the door slid open. She was surprised, which made her a little wary, that any of these men weren't Thorne supporters. It must have been difficult for Thorne to find enough men to go along with his scheme. He undoubtedly raised the two commanders to their position of rank and then put them in charge of the two destroyers.
Or so it seemed. It was still possible that some of these men were good actors, and because of this she wasn't going to take any chances. She had Sam standing at the other side of the entrance with his phasor in the ready position. And Xilil was there to talk the two men into giving up their phasors.
Zorn was the first to step through the hatch. At first glance it was obvious he was shaken by the recent events. His face was pale and there were little beads of sweat, which had formed on his forehead—on this bitter-cold night.
"What the hell is going on?" asked Zorn as he stepped onto the entrance grid. "Three men, including the commander, on my cruiser are now dead. And you're trying to tell me that the Galaef is a prisoner?" His face started to grow a little red. He was angry and frustrated at the same time.
His phasor was holstered, but he had his hand on the butt.
"Damn it," he said, "Jos was a long time friend of mine." His voice cracked, and the last word of his sentence was almost inaudible.
"We've all lost friends," said Dahms warily as she watched Zorn's hand tighten on the butt of his phasor.
"And who the hell are you?" asked Zorn as he looked at Dahms.
"I'm second in command of the Newusa underground," she said. "I don't suppose you know much about Newusa. The fact is we have a tyrannical, self-appointed Head Councilman who kills people without thought in order to satisfy his greed.
"Several years ago, myself and several others formed an underground movement with the purpose of overthrowing our city government." She looked down the hall of the cruiser. "Now I find myself in the middle of a Galactic crisis. Something I didn't ask for, but here I am. And I'm going to do whatever it takes to save the Galaef."
"With all due respect Ma'am, I don't buy the story of the Galaef being a prisoner in that prison."
Dahms understood his skepticism. Only a fool would try to overthrow the Galaef. And for good reason. There were too many safety nets to cut through. "I'm sticking my neck out by telling you this, but the leader of the Newusa underground is a city councilman. I won't go as far as to tell you who, but because of his position he has access to a lot of privileged information. And when he tells me the Galaef is a prisoner in this prison," she gestured through the wall of the ship with her hand, "I listen. And when he tells me to free the Galaef and put him back in command of the Galactic Empire, like you, I follow orders."
"You have to admit," added Xilil, "both of the commanders acted irrationally when confronted with this information. And now one of them is dead."
"Yeah," agreed Zorn.
Dahms could tell Zorn wasn't completely convinced.
Zorn moved forward a step, and Brale moved beside him. He also had his hand on the butt of his phasor.
"So what now?" asked Brale.
Xilil didn't hesitate. "The first thing is to give up your phasors."
Zorn looked hesitant. "I don't know," he finally replied. "By the death of the commander and because Mace is in the brig, and by my rank, I'm now the new Captain and ranking officer of these ships. By giving up my phasor, I'm surrendering, and that goes against my orders."
Sam was starting to get irritated. He kept his phasor pointed at Zorn's chest. "Look," he said, "if you're true to your allegiance with the Galaef, then you can prove it by giving up the phasor. Otherwise we have to assume you're a threat to our mission to save the Galaef."
Zorn didn't respond.
"Do you understand the logic in what he's saying?" asked Dahms.
Zorn continued to hesitate.
"It only makes sense," said Xilil. "And I, for one, am ready to do whatever it takes to save the Galaef."
"Yeah," said Zorn, and then he added, "If the Commander hadn't gone crazy and started shooting at everyone, I would have never believed this story. But . . ." he said. He slowly pulled his phasor out of the holster and handed it to Dahms.
He looked at Brale. "Go ahead. Give it up."
Brale didn't hesitate to follow orders.
"Okay," said Dahms "let's go to the conference room. "We have to plan a strategy."
She stepped several paces back to let the three crewmen lead the way.
After everyone had entered the conference room, and everybody had been introduced, in not so ceremonial a manner, Dahms stepped up to the head of the conference table. It seemed to Dahms that all the men on this ship, with the exception of Mace—the Commander, and Bradon (who were locked up in the brig), were supporters of the Galaef. She deduced this by their actions and the way in which they had responded to the sudden events. Nevertheless, she would watch them carefully, and she would not assign them any jobs that dealt with handguns.
She would have put all of them in the brig, so as not to take any chances, except she needed them to operate the G15. None of her crew had any experience nor training in the handling of such a sophisticated piece of machinery.
Zorn, Xilil, Brale, Donn, and Phist sat at the far end of the table, while Sam, Gaal, and Xygliper sat near the head of the table. It was a dour group of men—each of them weighing their part in this melee and trying to guess the outcome.
*