“Yeah. There is that.”
39 AU from Stree Prime
Corvette EDF Armidale
Two hours after Tika transmitted the signal, it arrived at the Armidale, 25 AU farther out in the system. Jim had been trying to get some sleep, but it was nearly impossible. He would drop off, then suddenly wake in a sweat, convinced that Rita had been captured and killed.
When the call from Captain Stewart came over his comm, he almost collapsed in relief.
“We have the recall signal, Commander.”
Jim heaved a sigh of relief. “On my way, Captain,” he answered. He threw himself into his warsuit and rushed to the bridge, settling into the jump seat behind Captain Stewart.
“Any problems?”
“No, they transmitted the coded pulse for A-OK. Looks like they pulled it off. We’re just about ready to go in.”
Jim nodded. In the holotank, he could see their position, 25 AU opposite the ringed gas giant that was their target.
“All systems ready for translation, Skipper,” called the XO.
“Good. Let’s do it,” Stewart said.
The tDrive engaged with its typical whine, and a second later, they were nestled up against the backside of the gas giant, just outside the ring system. Approaching in the near distance was the large moon Tosong, with the Stree space station clearly visible on the surface facing them.
“Comm from the Stree station, Captain.”
“Read it, please.”
‘Welcome and please put down directly beside the main building to the west. We’ll rejoin you on board.’
“Very good, XO. Lieutenant Hodges, put us down right there in that little flat spot to the west.”
“Aye, Skipper.” Hodges deftly settled the Armidale down on her landing jacks in a small flat area beside the Stree station. As the Armidale came to a halt on the surface, Jim jumped from his seat and practically ran to Rita’s cabin. As he entered, the status lights on the walls changed from red to yellow, and he heard the status change announced over his comm.
“Set Condition Yellow. Set Condition Yellow. That is all.”
At the same time, Rita’s android body opened her eyes in her bunk and smiled. She winked at Jim.
“Hello there, big boy,” she said. “Why don’t you come up and see me sometime…?”
“Welcome back, babe,” Jim breathed.
Phoenix System
800 Lights from Stalingrad
Luke’s second-in-command on the Security team was Bob Hardy. Hardy had been keeping a close eye on Turgenev - to the best of his ability. But there were many tasks for him to perform, and many crises for him to deal with. He couldn’t be everywhere at once. Thus he had missed the secret meetings that occurred between Turgenev, Cerutti and Kim.
That turned out to be a fatal mistake.
It was well after midnight, and Hardy was just about to go to bed. But the call came in over the radio - a riot in Apartment Block Four. Despite their dire situation on a new planet, despite their priorities of generating enough food and water to survive, people still found ways to fight. When the call came in over the walkie-talkie, Hardy rushed to the apartment block to assess the situation and assist his meager security team.
It was an ambush. As he ran into the lobby of the apartment block, Hardy was hit with a stun gun. Falling to the floor, he saw his own assistant on the Security team - Cerutti - leering over him. Cerutti’s hand contained a large knife. With a twisted smile, Cerutti slammed the knife down into him, over and over, until the universe no longer existed for Bob Hardy.
Stree System
Moon Tosong - Listening Station #14
Huddling in Armidale’s galley for debriefing, Rita, Tika and Rachel sat across from the senior Goblin Intelligence officer, Commander Hajo. Beside them, Jim, Ollie, Bonnie, and Captain Stewart listened as they finished up their description of the mission.
“It went pretty much as we hoped,” Rita recounted. “One of them managed to figure out what was going on and even got to the hatch of the life support module, but he wasn’t able to get in. After that, everything went per plan.”
“Good,” Hajo said. “OK. Next steps are underway. My Goblin Intelligence team has set up shop in the station. They’re going through the comm logs. We have five hours until the next routine check-in. By then, we should have the system figured out well enough to send in the next report without causing suspicion.”
“So. We have a foothold in their system now,” said Stewart.
“Right,” Hajo agreed. “This will be our base of operations from here on in. We’re ready for Phase Two.”
Rachel bowed her head and scratched her forehead - a gesture that Jim recognized as a reflex action from her Human life, as androids didn’t itch. He had seen it before, and he knew it meant she was thinking hard.
“I’m not totally sold on this next step,” she said. “I’ve been thinking about it, and it seems to me we’re moving too fast. The original plan was to next take a small outpost somewhere on the backside of Stree Prime. Now you’re telling me you have a better plan. Are you sure about this?”
Jim, sitting across from her, glanced at Hajo, and then spoke before Hajo could reply.
“I’ve gone over this with Hajo, and I think his new approach is a much better plan. I think we were lucky to pull this station caper off the first time. I wouldn’t want to try it again. There’s such a thing as pushing your luck. Let’s go with Hajo’s modification.”
Rachel looked askance at Jim, but she acquiesced. “OK, Mr. Marine. You’re the expert,” she said rather sarcastically.
Jim gave her a fake glare. “Keep it up, sister, and I’ll put you over my knee.”
Rachel laughed. “You couldn’t even lift me up, buster.”
Jim rose and walked around the table to Rachel, accepting the challenge. With a huge grin, Rachel rose, ready for the test. Jim grabbed her around the waist and attempted to lift her. He was initially unsuccessful; he paused, looked at her in puzzlement, then tried again. With a grunt, he lifted her off the deck by a few inches. Putting her back down, he shook his head in wonder.
“How much do you weigh now?”
“81 kilos. Right at 180 pounds.”
“Damn. You’ve grown, little girl.”
Ollie laughed at Jim’s expression. “She’s a tad bit heavier than she was before,” he said.
“I would say,” Jim remarked, returning to his seat. The interlude had lightened the mood all around the table as Hajo continued.
“OK. Phase Two. We’re going to skip right over the part about capturing an outpost and go straight to infiltrating Central Command. My intelligence team has identified our best target. One Sub-Captain Elvenen, to be precise.
“Elvenen has just received orders to transfer from a little mountain listening post on the backside of Stree Prime to Command Headquarters at Komihu, their capital city. He’s taking his adjutant and aide with him. They’re to report day after tomorrow, Stree time.”
Hajo looked across the table at Rita, Tika and Rachel. “That gives us just enough time to map out the details, get you three to their base, and do the exchange. He’s the perfect patsy; he’s an Intelligence officer, he’s single with no apparent family entanglements, he’s being transferred from a remote, isolated base back to Headquarters, and he’s a communications specialist. What’s even better, he’s being promoted to full Captain upon his arrival at Headquarters. It’s damn near perfect.”
“But do we have to switch into male officers?” asked Rachel. “That scares the hell out of me!”
Hajo nodded. “Sorry. But it’s a male-dominated hierarchy. There are no female officers in the Stree military. There are a few in the enlisted ranks, but that wouldn’t help us.”
Rachel hunched her shoulders in a near-shudder. “I’m not happy about this,” she said.
Rita reached across and patted her hand. “Relax, Rachel. I’ve been there before. It’s not that bad.”
Jim grinned across the ta
ble at them. “You’ll get used to it quick enough, Rachel. Just remember not to get kicked in the crotch.”
Jim and Ollie snickered as Rachel blushed. Hajo looked puzzled, but finally smiled and continued the briefing.
“You’ll depart early tomorrow. The cargo is already loaded onboard the shuttle. Lieutenant Luda will be the bodybuilder technician. I’ll be your pilot. We’ll time it to arrive at 1600 tomorrow afternoon Stree time, an hour before they quit for the day. With any luck, most of the staff will depart early and we’ll have the place to ourselves.”
“Except for Captain Elvenen,” said Rita.
“Right. We’ve arranged a fake meeting - we set up an appointment for him at 1600 hours tomorrow to receive a classified briefing on his new posting at Headquarters. That should hold him in his office until we arrive. No way he would skip that kind of meeting.”
“We hope,” said Rachel.
“Yes. Exactly.”
Chapter Eighteen
Phoenix System
800 Lights from Stalingrad
Luke Powell sat at his desk in the Headquarters tent, head in hand. Bob Hardy had been a good friend. Luke was devastated by his murder. Beside him, Dino Cerutti sat quietly as Luke processed the situation.
“Still no idea who did it?” Luke asked.
“No, sir,” Cerutti replied. “There were no witnesses. The security cameras in the lobby had been disabled. So far, we have nothing to go on. I’ve got my team canvassing the residents of the apartment block, but so far nothing.”
Luke sighed. “Keep at it, Dino. We have to get to the bottom of this. This was a planned attack - not an accident.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll keep my team on it until we figure it out.”
Luke turned his head toward Cerutti, hesitating. Then he came to some kind of decision.
“I’d better bring you into something, Dino,” he said. “Turgenev. He’s ex-Russian mafia. Hardy had been assigned to watch him, watch his contacts. We suspect he’s hooked up with some of the Koreans in Block Two. We don’t have any hard evidence yet, though. I need you to take over that surveillance. We need to find out what he’s up to, and soon.”
Cerutti nodded emphatically. “You got it, boss. I’ll get on it. We’ll figure it out.”
“Thanks, Dino,” Luke responded. “I’ll see you later.”
With a final nod, Cerutti rose and left, leaving Luke alone in grief. As he departed the Headquarters tent, Mark Rodgers came in, carrying two small bags. He handed one to Luke.
“Breakfast,” he said. “I assume you’ve been up all night?”
Luke nodded sadly. “Yeah. Thanks, boss.”
“Any leads?”
“No,” Luke said. “Not a clue. But it has to be Turgenev. Who else could it be?”
“Any evidence? Anything we can pin on him?”
“No. It was a very professional hit.”
“So what’s next?”
“Dino’s on it. He’ll handle the investigation and take over the surveillance of Turgenev.”
“Hmm… Do you trust him?”
Luke looked up at his boss.
“What do you mean?”
“Dino. He’s from New York City, right?”
“Yeah, I think so…”
“Well. Just saying. New York was a rough town. And Dino has some pretty rough edges. He’s pretty smooth with us, but I’ve heard some talk. He’s got a different face when he’s out in the ville. Pretty coarse with the people. Shoving people around.”
“Really? I haven’t heard that.”
“Just saying. Keep an eye on him in that regard.”
“I will,” said Luke.
Mark sat at his desk, opened the bag containing his breakfast, and started eating. Luke joined him, and they two sat quietly for a bit, thinking. The front tent flap opened and Zoe DeLong entered, followed closely by Rick Moore. They greeted Mark and Luke and moved to their desks.
“Any word from Bonnie?” Mark asked Luke.
“Nothing for a couple of days,” Luke replied. “Last ansible message stated they were on schedule and on plan. That’s all she said.”
“Fingers crossed,” Zoe said with a smile.
Luke acknowledged her comment with a smile. “Yep, absolutely.”
“Zoe,” Mark said, turning to her. “I guess you heard about Bob Hardy last night.”
“Yes, I did. I’m so sorry,” Zoe said, glancing over at Luke. “Any progress on the investigation?”
“Nothing so far,” Luke said. “But we should tighten up security for the Council members. I don’t think this is an isolated incident.”
Mark jumped in.
“He means this could be the first step in a coup. Let’s plan accordingly,” said Mark.
“A coup?” asked Rick. “You’ve got to be kidding, right? Who would try something like that while we’re fighting for our very survival here?”
Mark looked grim. “That’s exactly when they would try, Rick. When things are at their most precarious.”
“Let’s double the security team for the Council,” said Luke to Zoe.
“OK,” Zoe responded. “If you say so.”
“I think it wise,” said Luke. “I’ll assign another six people to you.”
Mark picked up the conversation, turning his attention to Zoe.
“Now…moving on. How’s Transport Four going?”
“It arrived from Stalingrad at four AM this morning, and we started shuttles at five. We’ve gotten thirty loads down so far, running all ten original shuttles plus the four new ones Transport Two brought us. We’re focusing on passengers first, getting them down and settled into Blocks Thirteen through Sixteen. We’ll bring the cargo down last - there’s nothing on the cargo manifest we need urgently.”
“And Transport Three?”
“Departed back to Stalingrad yesterday. Transport Five is enroute. Everything is on schedule at the moment.”
“Excellent. What’s our total population now?”
“With Transport Four, we’ll have 12,000 people on the ground by the end of this week.”
“Wow. It’s getting a little scary, huh? Rick, what’s the farming status?”
“So far, we’ve got 1,500 acres of grass for cattle planted across the river to the east. It’s coming up well, things look good over there. The grass seems to like the planet. On the crop side, we’ve got 3,000 acres planted in vegetables, and another 3,000 being planted in wheat right now. Turgenev may be a son of a bitch, but he knows how to motivate people. He’s getting the job done.”
Mark grunted. “But…that’s not nearly enough for the full population, right?”
“Right,” replied Rick. “We’ll need another 8,000 acres of grass across the river for livestock, and another 8,000 acres of farmland on the east side. So we’re not even half-way yet.”
“Do we have enough food to make it?”
“Barely, if the rest of the Goblin transports get here on time. Assuming they all arrive before the Stree attack, and all the food is on board, and we don’t lose any bringing it down from orbit, and we don’t lose any in the warehouses, and we don’t lose any crops, and the in-vitro cattle grow on schedule, and the cattle can eat the transplanted grass, and Turgenev can keep people motivated…”
“I get the idea,” Mark grunted. “Just keep on top of things, Rick. Our lives are on the line here.”
“I know, Guv.”
“And don’t call me Guv,” Mark sighed.
Stree Prime
Stree Shuttle 868
The Stree shuttle the team had liberated from the Tosong listening station was not large. It had just enough room for a flight crew of two, and either fourteen people in the back or 80,000 pounds of cargo. It was lightly loaded at the moment - with Hajo and Rachel in the cockpit, 2,000 pounds of crates and equipment in the back, and Rita, Ollie, Tika, Luda, and Liwa sitting in fold-out jump seats beside the cargo.
If everything went as planned, they had all they needed.
If every
thing goes right, thought Rachel. So many things can go wrong.
On approach to Stree Prime, they were challenged by Approach Control.
“Now we find out if the entry codes are still valid,” said Rachel in the cockpit. She leaned forward and triggered the transponder. Seconds went by with no response.
“Oh, crap,” she said.
Then: “Shuttle 868 cleared for approach. Have a good day,” came over the radio.
Rachel nodded in relief to Hajo, who continued their approach to Stree Prime. Their target was on the opposite side of the planet from the Stree capital city of Komihu. Nestled in a mountain range that stretched for 4,000 miles across the backside of the planet, it was a backwater area where they were reasonably certain they could pull off the next phase of their mission.
Entering the atmosphere, the shuttle buffeted a bit before it settled down to stable atmospheric flying. Soon they were over the curve of the planet, hidden from the capital city. In another half-hour, they were on approach to the small spaceport that was their destination.
The spaceport was mostly deserted. Most of the crew who worked at this small facility would already be gone, headed out for the day. There were a couple of small shuttles parked on the apron, and that was it. There wasn’t a Stree in sight anywhere.
Gently, Hajo hovered the shuttle and moved it to a parking spot, put it down on the skids, and shut off the engines.
“Showtime,” Tika said in the back. Unbuckling, Tika, Luda and Rita walked to the back of the shuttle. Rachel came out of the cockpit and stood, staring, as the three prepared to leave.
The seven of them had switched to the spare Stree bodies they had brought from Stalingrad. The bodies were humanoid, short and squat. A small thatch of hair at the very top of their heads splayed in all directions, unmanaged as was the custom. Their faces were rounder than a Human’s, but otherwise quite similar. Compared to a Human’s, their nose was angular, almost square.
Upon first seeing a hologram of a Stree, Rita had remarked that they looked like short, fat Buddhist monks.
“In fact,” she had added, gazing at the hologram, “they remind me of that Great Buddha statue at Kamakura, Japan.”
Remnants: Broken Galaxy Book Five Page 13
