by Marc Stevens
“Commander!” Justice interrupted. “The Fury has just jumped into the very edge of our star system.”
There was only one way to get to the bottom of what was happening. I was determined to get a real no-shitter from Sael, whether she liked it or not.
“Commander, the Fury made a hard about turn and jumped away using its exact entrance coordinates. I am now detecting the telltale drive emissions of a cloaked Chaalt combat shuttle. I have taken the precaution of bringing the shield and weapons generators online and await further orders.”
“Justice, turn the BS and IST systems back on. What is the status of the shuttle?”
“It has increased its velocity to maximum. The shuttle could jump closer in system to greatly decrease its travel time. It appears that is not the pilot’s intentions. ETA forty-seven minutes.”
I took Tria by the hand and pulled her along till she was running with me toward the Legacy. “Justice, is the crew aboard?”
“Yes Commander, I have alerted them of our imminent departure!”
Justice was reading me like a book, and that was a good thing for a change. He now seemed like he was back to business as usual, and it helped calm my growing anxiety. We hit the boarding ramp, and it closed behind us. Justice launched before we could make it to the lift tubes. When we stepped onto the bridge, Klutch and Xul were sitting at their stations looking puzzled.
“Justice, what is Coonts’s status?”
“His overall condition is slowly improving but he will remain in an induced coma for the immediate future.”
I was going to revisit my decision to let members of my clan have access to the Oolaran weaponization programs. It has caused us more than a few unnecessary delays at inopportune times. Up on the view dome I could see a small blue triangle that was rapidly growing in size.
“Justice, give me a sitrep!”
“Commander, the shuttle has ceased accelerating and is now retro braking to diminish its forward velocity. I will recover the shuttle with the tow beam. The matrix is charged and optimized. I will take us to the Fury’s jump point and transition us to our last recorded DEHD core destination. I will plot a course through the system that will allow the matrix to recharge and then jump back to Alpha Base.”
I frowned, wondering what the hell we needed to jump out of system for. Tria answered my unasked question.
“Justice is attempting to mask the Fury’s jump into our star system. By using the Fury’s exit coordinates, we will be overlapping the transition distortions waves created by its passage. It will greatly complicate any attempts to track the Fury. Our actions and those of the captain piloting the Fury are intended to mask the ship’s whereabouts and transition points.”
I just nodded because I was still at a loss why it should even matter. The perceived cloak-and-dagger routine had me worried. Something stinky was up, and it had nothing to do with Klutch. Looking at the view dome, I could see Justice slowed our intercept course. We were fortunate our shuttles and the Daggers were at Alpha Base. The large Chaalt assault shuttle was going to be a tight fit in the hangar. We headed back to the down tube. It had to be Sael piloting the shuttle, but with all the skullduggery going on, I couldn’t be sure of anything.
We entered the hangar bay as the boarding ramp extended from the shuttle. Sael Nalen stepped out of the air lock and started in our direction even before it touched the ground. Her final step perfectly timed with the ramp making contact with the Legacy’s deck. She looked mad but not furious. I looked at Tria as she stood rigid and stared straight at Sael. Not knowing what to think or, for that matter, what to say, I did the same.
“At ease, Captain Burlor. I find your military demeanor distasteful after the childish tantrum you broadcast for all to hear! You have no idea what you have just done!”
Sael looked at me and knitted her eyebrows. “Stop that nonsense! Are you not the ranking officer on this relic?”
Sael threw up her hands and stalked away from us only to suddenly turn and come back.
“If you would have spouted that scat at any other time during the current crisis, I would have been within my rights to bring you up on charges and send you back to our home worlds to await a military trial,” Sael said, waving a finger in Tria’s face. “You instead played the part I expected from Nathan so perfectly, it was as if it had been scripted. I now fear you may have done more harm than was necessary. By declaring to one and all you will no longer help me attempt a rescue of the council, you have temporarily removed the targets from our backs. When the ruling council members are finally disposed of, we will be labeled as traitors and dealt with accordingly!”
Tria and I glanced at each other incredulously, then turned back to Sael. Consternation would be an understatement right at the moment.
“Sael, what the hell are you talking about, or should the real question be, what the hell have you got us into now?”
“No more secrets or political scat, Nathan. I have uncovered a plot that can change how my people are governed, and not for the better. My methods for discovering the truth have exposed my intentions. I am now a target for execution.”
She was going to say more, but everything went mute and our surroundings started turning brilliant white. When we returned to normal space-time, I called to Justice.
“Call a crew meeting in the conference room.”
I waved Sael on, and we went to the lifts that would take us to the bridge level. As we entered the conference room, the crew was just getting seated. Justice had arranged the seating so Sael would be at the opposite end of the table from me.
“Why is engineer Coonts not present?” Sael asked.
“He exercised his right of free choice to undergo Oolaran modifications. Unfortunately, his Grawl anatomy did not respond well to some of his choices,” I explained. “Justice is confident he will pull through, but for now he is recuperating in the med bay at Alpha Base for an undetermined period of time. Before you start ranting about the devil that haunts me, he did not receive any of the imprinting protocols.”
Sael’s mouth opened then snapped shut. She mumbled under her breath loud enough for us to hear, “Your madness must be contagious.”
“Okay, Sael, give us everything you got, and for all of our sakes do not leave anything important intentionally or unintentionally out.”
My statement garnered me a frown, but she let it go with a clearing of her throat.
“The new military council has no interest in saving the legitimate leaders of my people,” Sael began. “They are in fact planning to destroy the research facility and all inside of it. It will later be divulged as a last-ditch effort to save the Chaalt race from the Prule. All military vessels including the Fury have been recalled in preparation for the assault. Those of us who are not one hundred percent behind the current leadership will be ordered to stand down. The current administration wants no confusion or the appearance that not all stand with them. As you already know, all information on the lab and any knowledge of its existence is classified. As the Principal Investigator of my people, I have stretched those rules to the breaking point. Some may assume I am within my authority, but I can assure you the conspirators now serving on the council will see it as treason. I was attempting to reach you on an open IST channel to say that the meeting you requested with me would have to be put on hold due to an undisclosed military crisis. IST transmissions are monitored, and it would have given several in our intelligence community information they previously did not have access to. It would have instigated a large number of inquiries. I did not expect Tria to reveal that I have already alerted you with highly restricted information.”
I looked over at Tria, and she was staring holes through Sael. We knew one thing for sure: this was not just Sael being the pain in the ass she had proven to be in the past.
“Sael, start at the very beginning so we can wrap our heads around what you are telling us. Are you saying that the Prule Hivemind is nothing more than a pawn in a much bigger game?�
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“Not necessarily a pawn, Nathan. It was an enabler! Its takeover of the research facility has allowed certain military council members an opportunity to change the course of the Chaalt people’s future. They intend to return my people back to the militarized society we once were with the military council firmly in charge of the government.”
“Sael, how exactly did you come to this conclusion?”
She didn’t like the interruption. But I didn’t care for the drama without some background facts.
“I started getting a bad feeling about who was being ordered to make a direct assault on the facility. Most were seasoned veterans, and I personally knew many of them. Several were close to retirement and would have undoubtedly been elected to leadership positions. They were ardent supporters of civilian governance. My network of trusted allies alerted me the commanders in charge of the breach teams were getting almost no information. They were being sent in blind against our very best defensive weaponry! To me, it made no sense, so I made a visit to the fool who was placed in charge of the operation. She was an officer with considerable rank, but it came from her service in strategic supplies. Her combat experience was running munitions freighters into combat zones. She was so far out of her depth she just sat wringing her hands at my inquiries. That is when she revealed her orders did not come from her normal chain of command. They came directly from the new military council. It did not take me long to determine that the council member responsible for the orders was Gredda Porsha’s commanding officer before being asked to join the council. I knew then things were not as they seemed.”
I could tell Tria was getting pissed. She finally put words to her piercing stare.
“If Gredda Porsha was in on this, she will die when they destroy the facility.”
“If Gredda is at the lab. We only have circumstantial evidence suggesting she is there. I believe at some point when the true conspirators come to light as our saviors, Gredda will somehow be reincarnated as a hero of the people.”
I sat looking up at the ceiling shaking my head.
“I have been collecting the evidence, Nathan,” Sael said. “I found out that Gredda and her elite strike team were the first to enter the Prule lifeboat. They spent several days on the wreck before they allowed anyone else aboard. They claimed they were making a detailed security inspection. In fact, they did, but I believe that a lot of the conspiracy was planned during that time. My covert sources have informed me that Gredda’s strike team medic is also an advanced AI specialist with extensive military chip knowledge. I believe she made it possible to gain access to the ID chips and codes necessary to commandeer the council’s shuttle.”
Klutch was rubbing his bullet head. He squinted at Sael. “Someone would still have to convince the council members to willingly board the shuttle and tour the facility. Who has the power to persuade so many of your leadership to visit the lab?”
“There is only one person on the leadership council with the power to sway so many to her will: Corra Galvic. A great many solar rotations ago she was an Operative in the military. During my investigation I found that many of her records seem to have vanished. When you have been a Senior Operative as long as me, you know where to look for intentionally buried and obscured records. I found data that indicates she was Gredda’s regimental commander when she was inducted into the services.”
The look of disbelief was slowly disappearing from Tria’s face. It was being replaced by shock at the revelations Sael had uncovered.
“Why would Gredda kill personnel thought to be her allies?”
“I believe she tried to recruit them to her cause. Some may have voiced doubt; it is obvious the council’s shuttle pilot did. Three of the five slain were also next in line should something happen to seated council members. At the time of the assassinations, several of Gredda’s strike team members had orders and transfer records indicating they were training on the frontier of the exclusion zone. My sources could find no records at any military barracks on any of the frontier worlds documenting their presence or training schedules. I believe they were committing the executions necessary to ensure no interference with their plans. It would be foolish of me to think they are not actively pursuing me.”
“Please correct me if my interpretation of your data is faulty,” Xul said, taking his turn at deciphering Sael’s conspiracy theory. “You are saying that ousted members of your military council are attempting to perpetrate a coup using the very real threat of an imminent Prule machine infection?”
“While that is an oversimplified explanation, you are essentially correct. We are not talking about just any former members, but ones specifically cast out for the unsanctioned espionage against you and the rest of Nathan’s clan.”
The more I heard, the more I didn’t like it. Now I wondered what Sael meant by Tria playing my part. Were we being used as well?
“What the hell were you saying about Tria playing my part?”
We were all scowling at Sael. This was quickly turning into a Throgg hump of epic proportions with each new revelation.
“Nathan, Tria’s IST transmission was undoubtedly recorded,” Sael said. “While I would have preferred to have you be the one to vent your anger at me, Tria did it for you and unwittingly revealed my complicity. There is the real possibility that the two of us will now be known as the traitors who turned their backs on our people in the face of a military crisis. I am sure the new powers to be will broadcast it far and wide that we have chosen an alliance with you over our own people. Once the research lab and everyone in it is destroyed, military law will inevitably be put into place for an indefinite period of time. The conspirators will move quickly to fill the void left in the governing body. A select few members of the ruling cast will remain, but the military council will be firmly in control. When the dust finally settles, they will come for Tria and me. Once I have been judged and executed, they will enact their revenge upon you by taking what you cherish most, or kill you all trying.”
The scent in the room was horrific and eyewatering, but no one said a word.
“Why haven’t they destroyed it yet?” I said through clenched teeth.
“Because, Nathan, the Hivemind broadcast a message that was picked up by military and a small number of civilian networks. It is wanting to bargain the lives of the council members for its freedom. We have legitimate video showing that most still live. I know for a fact the council will never give the Prule its freedom. The wasted lives of my allies, was to give the appearance: the new council would exhaust all options before terminating the facility. I personally believe it was also a message to me to forgo interference if I wished to survive. I chose to ignore the warning. I have collected what I believe is enough evidence to convict them all of treason. It will have been in vain unless we have lawful leaders willing to listen.”
I had great hopes that we would one day find a race not tainted by corruption. It was chipping away at my faith to find that even the most advanced races were not immune to its poisonous touch. It took more than a few deep breaths to calm myself and the beast within me. Justice would make it a waste of time.
“Commander, sensors at Alpha Base have detected the faint transition signatures of Chaalt dark energy drives. I now have a solid lock on a cloaked three-ship formation. They are skirting the edge of our star system very close to the exit transition coordinates of both the Fury and the Legacy.”
If Sael didn’t think we could track her people’s warships while cloaked, she for sure knew it now. Judging by her reaction to Justice’s alert, she obviously had doubts.
“Justice, give me some options!”
“Seven minutes till minimum DEHD core charge. Alpha Base defensive shields and weaponry are in standby mode awaiting your orders, Commander.”
Sael’s eyes widened. I saw a look on her face I had never seen before: sheer panic.
“Nathan, you must not attack my people! That is exactly what the conspirators want to happen. You will become an
enemy of the Chaalt if you do this!”
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Tria gripped my arm but said nothing. My crew sat stoned-faced and ready to follow orders no matter the outcome.
“Sael, I have no intention of firing the first shot,” I said. “However, I will not give them an opportunity to attack my base of operations.”
I did not like the limited number of choices available to me. If I was going to force their hands, I would have to reveal some of our capabilities to do it. The captains of those ships needed to know they did not have a marked advantage.
“Justice, bring Alpha Base’s shields online but do not open the weapons silos.”
“Shield dome active, Commander!”
Sael looked at me, then cast her eyes to the floor. She knew I just gave away a secret to her people that I would not have done were it not for her being here.
“Commander, the Chaalt ships have ceased cloaking and have transitioned. They have entered a high geosynchronous orbit above Alpha Base and are requesting they be allowed access.”
