Duty and Obligation

by Sean Benjamin

  Hawkins nodded. “I do. Of course, it depends on what she knows, but I got to think she knows enough to make them move against her. They can’t trust that she won’t talk. When they asked to see the case against her and saw the evidence, they knew she was going down. There is just no way to talk around that hidden compartment and what was in there. That hidden compartment shows there is higher up involvement that goes beyond Yardley. Then it becomes a matter of who goes down with her. Looking at her ship’s schedule and cargo manifests, her ship was deep in the slave trade. I think she can name some AC management types. She would know the numbers of slaves transported by her ship, where they went, and who took them at the other end. She would know the shipyard where the false bulkhead was installed. If we can get that information, we can get records from the shipyard and get the names of other modified ships. Shipyards don’t talk about their work, but if they see their name out there as slave enablers, they won’t like that either. Officially she probably doesn’t know about other modified ships, but I bet she knows rumors and gossip about those ships. That would establish a pattern that reeks of corporation involvement. She knows enough to hang the AC Regional Office here in the Badlands for sure, and the AC knows she knows. The AC also knows that we know they are responsible for the cargo deals, the ship’s schedule, and the construction of the hidden compartment, so there is no way they can claim ignorance and blame this all on a wayward ship’s captain trying to make some money on the side. I think they first looked at trying to game the system by getting her transferred back to the Aurora Empire and to a friendly environment. By now, they will have figured out they can’t do that, and they will conclude they got to hit her. Their problem is, there are no hired guns on this planet and anyone coming in will stand out. They’ll probably try to smuggle someone in. I’ve talked to Greg Paulsen about it, and we will get more people around the jail, and I need to ensure we monitor incoming ships and their activities when they are here.”

  “No problem. We’ll give support with anything you need. The port authority is up and running. They can help in the monitoring.”

  Rafe nodded. “If we can intercept the killer or the hit team coming in, that would be great. It would also show Yardley this is not a hypothetical situation, and time is running out for her. Can we get a camera monitor feed off the customs station and run it into Greg Paulsen’s office? All arrivals come through there, and I want to have Greg Paulsen and his people see all newcomers. He’s a former Potenkan detective who has dealt with these types of people before, and his deputies will spot the non-natives coming in easy enough. There aren’t that many people coming to Agra 2 so it should be manageable.”

  “Sure. I’ll get something set up today.” She paused and then added. “The AC might sneak a hitter in by ship and land near the jail and just set up for the shot.”

  Hawkins nodded as his mind raced. “Hell, maybe they do both. They have to know that we know they will try to hit her. They have the assets for multiple attempts, and if we stop one of the attempts, they would assume we would relax after that, and a second attempt might be easier to do.”

  He paused for a moment in thought and said, “They probably know next to nothing about this planet, so the first thing they have to do is get a spotter in here—someone who can get the lay of the land and gather information. He or she will have to be part of an already established hit team as that person must already have the experience to know what information must be gathered. If I were them, I’d use a woman, but who knows what they will do. We need to watch the customs area. The spotter will be the first one here. The follow-on people will probably come in their own shuttle and land covertly near the town. Once the hit is done, there is no way anyone can get off planet in commercial transportation. Those avenues will be shut up tight. They will need the shuttle as a getaway vehicle to get off the planet and rendezvous with a larger ship in space. There will probably be a couple of hitters in the shuttle. If we can get the spotter and then the shuttle intact, that might end the threat for a while.”

  He looked at Lisa and smiled. “Flicker has flown in here many times. I bet we and Greg Paulsen know every clandestine landing spot within ten klicks of Benteen. There aren’t that many that provide cover and concealment and are within reasonable walking distance to town. Benteen has been around for a long time and most of the forests and hidden areas have been cleared for farming and for grazing. If we can get a warning beacon in each of those potential landing areas, we might get an early warning on the shuttle’s arrival.”

  Cassidy leaned forward in her chair. “I’ll coordinate with Greg and get some beacons in place. I’ll also assign a squad of marines to assist him in setting everything up.” She switched topics. “If there are real concerns about Yardley’s safety, I can transfer her to the brig aboard my ship. We can route lawyers to her there—even do the trail there. It’s not ideal but doable.”

  “Yardley had the same idea. She isn’t too wild about being bait. Moving her would be the smart move, but I want her to talk, and I think an attempt on her life by the AC will accomplish that. I know it’s chancy, but she needs to see the AC is not on her side. I think that process has already started, but she may be holding out hope that a last-minute AC legal maneuver will pull her out of this trouble. Until she gives up that ghost, she is not talking.”

  Cassidy looked hard at Hawkins. “Risky using her that way.” Rafe nodded and said, “I want the first attempt to happen to scare Yardley, but after that, we can move her to your ship to stop any future attempts.”

  Hawkins now switched topics. “I kept her ship, Tristan, off the admin sheets. I haven’t filed the paperwork required to claim her yet, so the registration system still has her listed with the AC. The Aeonian Conglomerate knows the ship is impounded, but it is not common knowledge in the quadrant. I would appreciate it if your people don’t mention the current status of the ship in any paperwork.”

  “Sure. I noticed Tristan is nowhere to be found. You got her hidden?”

  Hawkins smiled. “We got her in close orbit at Agra 5 and are doing some work on her so she will be ready for our use. We’re putting our ad hoc missile system on her. The longer we can keep it from being common knowledge that we have her, the better for us.”

  Now Cassidy nodded and changed subjects. “Just got a message that may interest you. Emerald was out on patrol and ran into a convoy with Goth escorts.” She hit a couple of computer keys, and a star chart materialized over her desk. She pointed to an area, “Here are six freighters with a heavy cruiser and two-destroyer escort. Emerald called for a boarding, but the escort intervened and Emerald settled for shadowing the convoy. Emerald is paired with Gunfighter. Gunfighter closed in and our two ships shadowed the convoy to the planet of Combina and the convoy disbanded. They’re all still there as of right now. Emerald will keep me informed. I’ll forward what I got so far. I assume you will hear from Gunfighter soon.”

  Rafe nodded and looked at the star chart. “That’s Green Squadron’s AOR, Admiral Muller’s command.” He frowned as he thought through the problem. He looked at Cassidy. “Most ships have nothing to fear from us, only those with something to hide would go through the trouble of joining a convoy. Muller knows that, and he knows we know that. He is hoping to use convoys as a lure to pull us to a battle.” Hawkins smiled. “We might accommodate him but not yet. I have another mission taking priority.”

  He shifted in his seat. “We are going to hit a jail on Bolindale.” He talked quickly to forestall questions. “To answer the obvious question of why, that particular jail has many bad memories for us due to their treatment of some of our people years ago. They are continuing to do this type of treatment to this day. Several guards are involved, especially where women prisoners are concerned.”

  Cassidy nodded. She knew of many prisons, jails, and detention centers in various systems with the same reputations. She didn’t need a detailed explanation. “Why has it taken so long for you to get to it?”

&nb
sp; “My fault. Always something more important to do, and I didn’t want to risk assets on a target of no importance or strategic value in the big scheme of things. The fact is, if we complete a successful mission there, it will change absolutely nothing in a strategic sense. We have some slack now in our schedule, and it’s time to act here. This is pure payback and nothing more.

  “We are also actively searching for the Brie light cruiser Fusilier. It’s payback on her too. You know about Redemption?” Cassidy nodded, and Rafe went on. “When we get the timelines for both missions worked out, I’ll forward it to you.”

  Lisa nodded. “I’ll look for it. Good luck on both.” She paused and added, “especially the raid on the jail.”

  She looked down at a notepad to ensure she had covered each topic written there. She hadn’t. She looked up at Rafe. “Do you know an Argus Colandra? I understand he is a big deal on Potenka.”

  Hawkins nodded. “He has Colandra Enterprises there. He was a big investor in Sunrise but pulled out with the other big Badlands investors and helped bring them to their current mess. A while back he put a hit out on me but it didn’t work out. To get back at him, we stole 150K in gold krone using his credit cards, but I returned it to him just before the Sunrise affair.”

  Lisa stared at him. He shrugged. “Enemies, friends—it’s hard to tell the difference sometimes. It is the Badlands after all.”

  Lisa smiled. “What is he today?”

  Rafe smiled back. “I’ll go with ‘friend’ but don’t put that in writing anywhere. I haven’t heard what he is planning so that could easily change.”

  Cassidy nodded. “He is asking about coming to Agra 2 to organize the shipping of farm products around the quadrant. He says he has put together some independent freighters willing to work as a team to set up a steady transportation system from all the Agras to other planets. He wants to meet me and Agra leaders to get the process started. He also mentioned building a factory or two around here to process and package the crops and meats here for shipment to planets that are too far away to receive the fresh stuff. He sounds ambitious and I’m wondering if it is too good to be true.”

  Rafe smiled and shook his head. Leave it to Colandra to move into the vacuum created by the Sunrise retreat with such a far-reaching plan. “To be fair to Colandra, he is a very smart businessman and if anyone could pull this off, it would be him. If he just stuck to business, he would be fine but sometimes he wants to make himself into a big mover and shaker so gets involved in things that aren’t business, and it doesn’t work out well for him. If he is not trying to be the second coming of Sunrise, it would be a good thing to have him here. He does have vision and know-how to organize so he could be a real asset to this area. He actually could pull off such a plan. I suggest meeting him with an open mind and a vigilant eye.”

  Lisa nodded. “I will do that. This is too good an opportunity to just dismiss out of hand, so I’ll let him come in and see what happens.” Rafe nodded in agreement and Cassidy went on. “I see things are going well on putting Shane’s people on Agra 5. Is everyone going there?”

  Hawkins shrugged. “Don’t know yet. I just sent a message to all the other captains to consult with their crews and families and see what they want to do. They are kicking it around within the other two squadrons right now. All the new Marbellans are going there so it is already a two-squadron house with Charlie and Delta there. Some people, including me, are concerned that putting everyone there would make it too tempting a target and there would be no way to keep it a secret for long.” He paused in thought and added. “It would be nice to settle somewhere permanently and the Agra 5 people have been really good to us. I like the idea but just have security concerns.”

  Cassidy said, “I always keep two ships here for base security. I’ll move one there if you think it would help.”

  “I hate to tie up one of your ships for perpetual picket duty. I think the Goths would leave the colony alone, but we got other enemies who are just crazy enough to think they could pull off a raid and get away clean. If we do move everyone there, I would dedicate one of our ships for the overwatch. Might be a good deal for them. Rotate ships every two weeks and allow them to have liberty parties down on the planet to see their families as long as the ship is manned for combat. That might get the job done. I could also set up our raiding patterns so we have at least one other ship nearby while on patrol.”

  “That would be good. We could set up comm between us for a quick reaction force out of this base. I think we can make it reasonably safe. At least as safe as it ever gets around here.” Lisa smiled as she made the last remark. She went silent for a second and then said, “I have an idea. I have two reinforced platoons of Royal Marines here. They are assisting the engineers now, but they will need training areas and barracks soon enough. If you don’t have a problem with it, I’ll talk to the Agra 5 people about setting something up on their planet, and we can keep one platoon here and one on Agra 5 doing training. We’ll rotate them back and forth. Gets the Agra 5 people in on the gravy train of military construction, and they can build the facilities we need to support a platoon there so we don’t have to build them here. Will decrease our workload here and we will have a quick reaction force already in place on Agra 5 if trouble comes there. Whoever wants to hit your people will think twice about bombarding Royal Marines of the Aurora Empire. The marines have a couple of surface-to-space missile systems called Slingshot. They’re short range, but it will give bombarding ships something to think about.”

  Rafe smiled in response, “I think that is a hell of an idea. I’ll run your ideas by my captains and get input from the families. They are the ones who would be in the target area if anything happens. I think they will like it though. If they don’t, I can’t imagine a better deal coming along.” He stood up. “One final thing and then I’ll get out of your hair and let you get back to it.” Cassidy stood up with him as Rafe went on. “I don’t know who you hear from back in the Empire. Skyler Mallory and I trade comms now and then. She just got Mackenzie back and is picking her up at the Zelenka shipyards and heading to Home Fleet at Wanderlust.”

  Cassidy nodded. “I got a comm just a few hours ago from her. She deserves her ship back. I’m happy it happened. My old contacts at Naval Headquarters tell me there are rumors of an offensive being put together. A big one.”

  Rafe shook his head. “I hadn’t heard that, but there is no reason I should have. Glad to hear it is a possibility. I hope it is the first step to a sustained push to win the damn war.”

  Lisa nodded. “Since we are on the topic of comms going back to the Empire. I send weekly sitreps back to Naval HQ. I include the Queen as a blind copy on these sitreps, so the Royal Navy doesn’t know that she knows of events here. She requested it that way. With Cobalt involved in the taking of Tristan, I am sure the Queen will take an interest in the incident. In the report, I included who owned Tristan and the plan to try the ship’s captain for slave running under Measure 200. I also expressed concerns about the prisoner’s safety as we believe her former employers might take a run at her. Just letting you know that the Queen knows.”

  Rafe smiled. “I glad she knows.” He paused as he considered his next statement. He decided to go with it. “The Queen has never been too fond of Lord Cunningham having two private squadrons at his beck and call. I would not be surprised to see her move against Cunningham with this information.”

  Cassidy shrugged. “Nobody in the Royal Navy is happy with a competing private navy so that maneuver would be welcomed in most circles.”

  “The Empire needs a major victory in that damn war. Hopefully, this offensive will be it,” Raferty said as they walked out of Cassidy’s office together.

  Chapter 6

  Later that day a monitoring station was set up in the customs location at the surface point of debarkation for the planet. The camera recorded all arriving individuals and sent the images to the Benteen police station and the security building on the new Royal Nav
y base.

  Under Greg Paulsen’s direction, beacons were placed in all the covert landing spots within ten kilometers of the town. He had used most of them himself while working with Flicker and knew how to set up the beacon at each site to provide an early warning if a shuttle dropped in there in the dead of night. The beacons would send an alarm to the police station and to the navy base before the shuttle had even shut down her engines.

  Greg Paulsen agreed with Raferty’s reasoning that the team would send a spotter to Benteen as their first move. Accordingly, he took steps to prepare. The monitor at the customs area recorded all incoming traffic. Paulsen watched the recordings live whenever possible and reviewed all the ones he missed. He had his deputies also scan the recordings.

  The majority of ship traffic to Agra 2 was freighters working the produce trade. The recent lifting of the embargo had opened the planet to trading of all types, but that traffic was still in its infancy as contracts and procedures were lagging behind the political developments, so even this commercial traffic was not all it could be. These trading ships rarely dropped off passengers and, even if they did, these people still had to pass through customs.