Read Pledge Allegiance for Free Online Page B

ROOM 1.
    The door slid open for me and I went through into the room beyond. A long table sat in the center of the room, with chairs lined up along its edges and at its head. There was nobody in the chairs. The two occupants of the room, a man and a woman, stood by the window.
    They turned when I entered.
    The man was tall and well-built with a strong angular face topped by a military buzz cut. He wore sergeant’s stripes on his arm. “Sergeant Hart, sir,” he said as I approached him. He stood stiffly at attention.
    “At ease, Sergeant,” I told him. He relaxed.
    The woman’s appearance took me by surprise. She was short and looked lithe beneath her clothing, which consisted of loose cargo pants and a white top. At least, the top was supposed to be white but it was covered in oil stains like the rest of her clothing.
    But it wasn’t the grease that surprised me; it was the fact that the woman was half machine.
    She had long red hair and a pretty face with green eyes and full lips. From the neck up, she was unblemished but her body was a combination of machinery and flesh. Her left arm and what I could see of the left half of her torso beneath the clothing were formed of dark gray steel with tiny steel cables running like tendons and veins over the surface. Her movements, though, were not mechanical or stiff in any way. Someone had done an amazing job of fusing the machinery to her body.
    “Tegan Prime, Captain” she said, offering her right hand.
    I shook it, looking into those deep green eyes. “You’re the head engineer on this ship?”
    She nodded. “I am. My team will keep her flying no matter what.”
    I liked her enthusiasm. Unlike Vess’s, it seemed borne of confidence rather than childish delight.
    “Excellent,” I said. “It’s good to be working with both of you. If you have any reason to see me, please don’t hesitate, no matter the hour.”
    Prime nodded at me and smiled. Hart looked straight ahead and barked, “Yes, sir.”
    “Are we ready to fly?” Vess asked Tegan Prime.
    “We are,” she said, nodding.
    “Then we should get underway,” he said. “Unless you have any objections, Captain?”
    “Of course not,” I said.
    “We really shouldn’t waste any time.” Then he frowned and said, “Where is Sumiko?”
    “Meditating,” Prime said.
    “Ah, yes,” he said. “Did I mention, Captain, that Sumiko Shibari is an onna-bugeisha from the planet Kamakura?”
    “No,” I said. “You didn’t.” I’d heard of the onna-bugeisha but never met any members of the Japanese female warrior clan in person. They were fine warriors, apparently, trained in many martial arts and also practitioners of a Zen-like philosophy that gave rise to their practice of meditation and other mind control techniques.
    I knew this mission was serious but Vess seemed to have assembled the most stoic crew members in the galaxy. Morrow and Baltimore seemed to dislike me, Hart was obviously stifled by his military zeal, and if there was an onna-bugeisha on board, she was sure to be the most solemn of them all. Only Tegan Prime seemed to have a normal demeanor.
    “I guess I should meet Shibari,” I told Vess, trying to hide my reluctance. I turned to Prime and Hart. “You two should head back to your stations and make ready for take-off.”
    They left the room, Hart with a hearty “Yes, sir!” and Tegan Prime with a smile and a nod. She may have been half machine but she was damned attractive.
    I assumed the Finch had the standard computer that was found in most ships, so I lifted my head slightly and said, “Computer, what is the current location of crew member Sumiko Shibari?”
    A female voice, that of the computer but sounding totally natural with no artificiality at all, responded. “Crew member Sumiko Shibari is currently in the gymnasium, Captain.”
    I looked at Vess. “Should we disturb her if she’s meditating?”
    “Of course,” he said. “Sumiko can hardly wait to see you. She’s probably