Free Defender: A Terran Times Tale by Viola Grace Page A

once.
    She unpacked and shifted the entire cargo while Toller watched. In her line of business, she had to make sure that everything went off without a hitch, and it wasn’t like she could run to a local electronics shop for additional supplies. This was her last stop before she hit the station in question.
    “The camouflage?”
    Toller paused and checked then turned and waved another worker over. A series of furious hand signals and the five packets were produced.
    Scotia shook her head and examined them closely. They were intact and had no frequency radiating from them.
    Toller flicked his fingers in apology and inclined his head.
    She checked for the half domes and nodded.
    “Shipment accepted.” She pressed her thumbprint to the manifest, and Toller took it from her with a polite nod.
    The loading and refuelling crew cleared the hangar as Scotia locked herself in her one-man craft and did a full systems check.
    She flicked the command console, and her ship moved over the drop site. A swift signal to station control and a red light pulsed on and off in front of her, going solid before the trapdoor opened to let her fall away from the station.
    Her comings and goings were not supposed to be recorded, so her triggering of the notice to the station control hopefully caused them to avoid her image.
    The Indianapolis was her pride and joy, an experimental stealth ship that was designed to carry one and only one passenger at any time with minimal cargo. It was perfect for her particular job of retiring Alliance facilities overrun by those who would abuse the tech.
    Her current assignment was the Ikanni station.
    The specs of the station were incomplete, but the original security officer was living on the planet below. She would be able to fill in anything that Scotia couldn’t figure out.
    Scotia cued up her music and cranked familiar tunes that she sang along with at the top of her lungs. She had no flight plan, no set trajectory, only the eventual destination. She had time before she had to run silent, and until then, she was going to enjoy herself. It wasn’t a holiday on a dreamy paradise planet, but it was as good as she was going to get.
    She did the slingshot manoeuvre around the sun and sped her ship toward the high-priority jump zone. It would be nine hours before she hit the zone, so she was going to have a little nap before skipping across star systems.
    “Sleep program.”
    The music decreased in volume and switched to slow ballads that would lull her into rest. She had two days of travel if she rushed, four if she didn’t.
    There was plenty of time to shape the charges and set the detonators to her particular signature.
    She set the alarms, the autopilot and the static broadcast.
    With a groan, she shucked out of her jumpsuit and folded it neatly. Being able to sleep in the raw was a luxury she enjoyed. Spending time alone meant that she could wear what she liked until the moment her work suit was required. If someone had told her back on Earth that she would go from working in a convenience store to doing EVA’s on a regular basis for the purpose of blowing up old stations and satellites, she would have called them insane.
    Humming along with the music, she folded down her bunk and slipped into it. The haunting strains of music flowed into her mind and helped her sleep. The music was the only thing that let her rest. She didn’t know what she would do without it.

Chapter Two
    T hree days later, Scotia had thirty charges keyed to her mental signature and a large problem on her hands. The station was broadcasting a signal that would block her charges, and with the Raiders crawling through it, she was going to have a helluva time getting to the control panels.
    It was going to be a combination of Plans A and B. Scotia would set the charges on the station and then try to find the needle in the haystack down on the planet below.
    She eased the Indianapolis into position, locking it into place with the lightest