“And where they go, Drackson goes too. I follow. Is there anything else of interest that you’ve dug up on these people?”
Roth smiled. “Yes, as a matter of fact. There’s another regular companion in the group, a young woman who goes by the name of Carla Casdan.”
“Laila’s daughter?”
“One of them. She has three of them actually. Triplets. And if I’m right, all three are presently on board the Deliverance. Although presumably, Carla will at this point transfer back to the Harpy. Perhaps her sisters will join her, I don’t know. However, I think I’ve probably spied on them enough.”
Merrick shook his head. “Forgive my impertinence but I’m not sure what else I’d call it.”
Admiral Roth smiled again. “I appreciate your honesty, Captain. You are quite right of course. Now, I imagine Laila should be here momentarily to tell us what she can about the situation.”
“I would have thought you two had covered that already.”
“A little, yes. I know about the government and the five families. The Ilian, the Ariadi, the Kamais, the Eras and the Valinski. However, it was very much a basic introduction. Anyway, as I said, our guest will shortly be arriving. Shall we?”
At Selina’s invitation, Lyla and Alia also transferred to the Harpy when Asten picked up Carla and Maia in the Lady Hawk. Their mother was going to remain on the Sentinel for the first stage of their journey in order to instruct Admiral Roth on the ways of the Minstrahn.
“Anyway,” Selina said to them, “you’re welcome to stay with us all the way in. There are enough spare cabins.”
Lyla gave her a smile. “Thanks. Although we wouldn’t want to impose.”
Selina shook her head. “It’d be no imposition at all.”
“Well, we might just take you up on that. I think we’ve covered the basic things we need to know with Mom.” She handed Selina a pad. “Here. I made notes so I can bring the rest of you up to speed.”
“Thanks,” Selina replied, glancing over it and then clipping it to her belt for safe keeping. “And Laila’s transferring back to the Deliverance for the next leg of the trip?”
“Yeah,” Lyla replied. “I guess we’ll find out then whether or not she needs us to come back as well.”
Selina nodded. “We can worry about that later. Anyway, let’s get this ship under way and then I’ll introduce you to the rest of the family.”
Amira Tellashi glanced over the running lights of the display in front of her. Brushing a loose strand of her thick black hair away from her face, she glanced at the handsome dark man behind her. Khamisi Ishara, presently manning the radar, was very much the general specialist of their little group. Tricky piloting, difficult mechanical repairs, complex computer algorithms... These were all part of his trade.
“What’s our position, Mr. Ishara?” she asked him.
“We’ve just passed the border of the Minstrahn Empire,” he replied. “For the past forty-seven minutes, we’ve been travelling through the outlying regions.”
“Very good.”
Sitting beside her, Lydia Analia stirred. “So, I guess we’ll soon find out whether there’s anything amiss.”
Ms. Analia, the forensic expert of the group, specializing in trace evidence analysis with a still impressive understanding of the other areas of her field.
“Oh, we know there’s something amiss,” said Imras Savaja, a Yloshi with a slight build, darkening brassy skin and the typical long arms of his species. “The only thing that remains is to see exactly what it is.”
Mr. Savaja was a little oddity in the group. He wasn’t gifted in anything technical but he had an uncanny ability to read people and could provide useful insights on a range of subjects. Along with Nesvarch Koraashi, one of the rock-like Vaschassi people, he made up the non-human part of the team.
Mr. Koraashi lifted his little gray plated head but said nothing, folding his chin back onto his chest and closing his eyes once more.
“Mr. Koraashi, why don’t you go to the cabins and rest there?” Ms. Tellashi suggested to him. “Warm yourself up.”
“I’m fine, Ms. Tellashi,” he replied. “I am just a little tired.”
Mr. Koraashi rounded up the team. He was the member who was the best at eavesdropping on what the average civilians in various places discussed when they thought no one else was listening and he was also the best at getting in and out of tight spots, both metaphorically and literally speaking. However, he found himself very short on things to do when they were on board their ship and had a tendency to listen to most of the shipboard conversation with his eyes closed. The others understood though and the Vaschassi, being rather impassive on the whole, weren’t known for being overly social anyway.
Gamma-Six, along with Gamma-Four and Gamma-Five, were acting as an unofficial vanguard for Admiral Roth’s envoy, scouting ahead of the rest of the group to make sure there were no nasty surprises waiting for them. And if there were, they could at least give the admiral some forewarning before the envoy stumbled onto them. Only the admiral, and possibly Captain Merrick, knew they were out here. Well, apart from the other teams.
That was something new. Previously, the teams had been unable to contact each other directly, having to relay everything through Admiral Roth. However, after Corinthe had been removed from power and the network had gone through a complicated but necessary overhaul, the admiral had relaxed that particular aspect of their security measures. They couldn’t contact each other any time but if there were reasons for several teams to collaborate - as there were on this job - temporary communication encryptions were put in place for the use of those particular teams.
One of those encryptions was used on the incoming call that Ishara received at that moment.
“Mr. Ishara?” Ms. Tellashi asked.
“It’s Gamma-Five,” he replied, switching on the communicator. “Six reads. Proceed.”
“Code amber, priority one,” came the reply.
“Copy.”
“Made a discovery. Transmitting co-ordinates now.”
Mr. Ishara checked his instruments. “Received. Unscrambling now.”
“Good,” the other responded. “Meet us there. Relay to Four but they can remain on course.”
“Understood. Over and out.” Mr. Ishara switched the communicator off and uploaded the now unscrambled co-ordinates to the navigation computer.
“Change of plans, Mr. Ishara?” Ms. Tellashi asked him.
“Gamma-Five have found something. It sounds like they need Ms. Analia.”
Ms. Tellashi exchanged a glance with her friend, who gave her a little smile. “Well, let’s go and give them her assistance.”
They arrived to the sight of a derelict vessel of an unfamiliar design, floating in the middle of nowhere. Another ship, Gamma-Five’s, was docked to its side.
“That doesn’t look good,” Ms. Tellashi murmured, looking at the charred sections of the hull where the ship had obviously taken hits.
“Do a slow pass before we head in,” Ms. Analia told her, leaning forward to get a better look.
“All right.”
“Whoever did this didn’t have the firepower to finish the job.”
Ms. Tellashi frowned. “How do you figure that?”
“Look. There are a number of blast hits overlapping each other but nothing was able to get through the hull.”
“Do you think this ship is particularly heavily armored?”
“I don’t think so. I think whoever did this didn’t have the kind of firepower that we’re accustomed to. Wait. Slow down!”
Ms. Tellashi did so. They were passing over the engines.
“The engines are a structural weak point on this vessel,” Ms. Analia said, pointing at them. “I mean, they often are but whoever did this really pummeled these ones. And from the number of scorch marks, they were at it for a while.”
“A pursuit?”
“Yes. And a long one too, by the looks of things. All right. Let’s have a look in
side. We can dock with the starboard hatch.”
It was a tricky maneuver so Ms. Tellashi handed it over to Mr. Ishara, who guided them in alongside the stricken ship and locked onto its side.
Inside the derelict vessel, the one woman and the one man who made up Gamma-Five made their way to the starboard hatch. “Did you take another look at the main drive, Khalin?” the man asked.
“Sorry, Epcar,” the woman said with a shake of her head. “I had another look but I still can’t work out why it melted like that.”
“Or why the other engine components didn’t,” Epcar mused. “Did you find anything in the computer logs?”
“Just the automated entry about the drive going offline,” Khalin replied.
“Well, let’s see if Gamma-Six can shed some more light on this mess.”
When they reached the hatch, they were greeted by two human women, a human man, and a Vaschassi and a Yloshi male. The woman in the front of the group shook Khalin’s hand. “We’ve had a little look at the exterior damage. Why don’t you give us the rest of the tour?”
“All right,” Khalin answered, leading the group into the vessel. “Someone really went to a lot of trouble to take this ship out.”
“Like pursuing it at some distance at sublight speed?” Ms. Analia asked.
Khalin gave her a surprised glance. “So you’re our trace evidence analyst. How did you work that out?”
“From the scorch marks on the engines. How did you figure it out?”
“From the navigation computer.”
Ms. Analia nodded. “I might have a look at that in a bit. I wonder though why this ship wasn’t able to get to lightspeed and escape that way.”
“Because the drive is cooked,” Khalin told her.
“But the sublight engines weren’t affected? That’s odd. Any idea why?”
Khalin shrugged. “It’s got me. But I can show you where the main engines are if you want to have a look.”
“Thank you. Now, where are the poor individuals who were on this thing?”
Khalin’s expression was grim. “Everywhere.”
It was a rather morbid affair, walking through the corridors of the vessel and looking at the bodies that lay sprawled across the floor. There were eight in all. Seven of them were in their late-thirties to mid-forties, but one was a teenage boy. After looking at him and an older man and woman, Ms. Analia concluded that they must have been a family. She shook her head with grief at the slaughter. And that was what it was, for not a single one of them had been armed.
They then went aft to see if there was anything they could ascertain from the contents of the vessel. An inspection of the cargo hold revealed farming equipment and judging by its state, it was brand new.
“So,” Ms. Analia said. “Farmers. They purchased some equipment in another system - not their own - and most likely, they were on their way home when they were attacked.”
Looking at the faces of her companions, she saw that she wasn’t the only one who was sickened by what they had discovered.
“All right,” she said at last, “let’s have a look at the engine compartment.”
“Here,” Khalin told her, opening the hatch that led into it.
Ms. Analia looked around, brushing her hand over the casing for the main drive. “This overloaded somehow. Mr. Koraashi, can you pass me my equipment?”
The Vaschassi handed her a small metal case. Ms. Analia took a little instrument out and waved it over the casing. “A radiation blast.”
“What’s that?” Epcar asked.
“This particular component of the ship is more fragile than the surrounding engine components,” Ms. Analia told him, “which explains how the sublight engines were able to continue operating after this gave in.”
“And why did it give in?”
“The ship was hit by some type of radiation blast and it locked up the drive,” Ms. Analia explained, giving it a tap with the instrument in her hands. “However, it was still running when the blast hit the ship and it essentially strained itself to the point where it ignited and melted.”
“That would explain the smell,” Epcar commented. “The radiation blast is interesting though. It must have been triggered by a Minstrahn weapon. No one in the Federation or the Frontier worlds uses that type of weaponry on their ships. At least, not that I know of.”
“No,” Ms. Analia agreed. “However, it would only work on ships that had the old style single-layered shielding that Federation ships had prior to 86 C.S. It wouldn’t work with the dual layer reinforced shielding that we use on our ships now.”
“The admiral would want to know that.”
“Definitely. Either the Minstrahn are not as technically advanced as us in that area or they reached a point where they were satisfied with what they had and left it at that.”
“Yes. Maybe they didn’t see the need for upgrading things like shields and weapons,” the other replied. “I mean, they’re rumored to be a peaceful people.” He sighed and shook his head.
“Yeah,” Ms. Analia murmured. “That’s what I thought too.”
They left the engine room and everyone assembled at the front of the ship to have a look at the navigation computer and see if there was anything else there worth investigating.
“It’s got their point of origin,” Ms. Analia said after a cursory inspection. “We ought to check that out before the admiral gets here.”
“We can do that,” Epcar offered.
Ms. Tellashi nodded. “All right.”
Then something else caught Ms. Analia’s attention.
“Mr. Ishara, what do you make of this?” she asked.
“Let’s see.” The Gamma-Six general specialist had a look at the communication equipment and tapped at the keys for a few moments. Then taking a breath, he stepped away. “The crew were trying to hail someone the entire time they were being chased. And whoever was behind this attack was jamming them every step of the way.”
“Do you think they might have been calling for help, perhaps?” Ms. Tellashi wondered.
“Possibly,” Mr. Ishara replied, looking at Ms. Analia to see what she thought of it all.
“Hard to tell,” she said. “Now, there’s one more thing I want to have a look at. Let’s head back to the hatch where the other party broke onto the ship.”
“What is it?” Khalin asked her.
“I’m not sure,” she confessed. “But I saw something there before that I want to look at more closely.”
“Look at this blast damage,” she said as they neared the area. She indicated it in the corridor around them. “Now, assuming they were all using handheld weapons, this is completely disproportionate to the amount of external damage they were able to inflict on this ship.”
“You’re right,” Khalin agreed. “How could they inflict so much damage inside the vessel when they could do so little outside?”
“Could it be they just wanted to cripple it?” Epcar suggested.
Khalin shook her head. “No, that doesn’t work. If they just wanted to cripple it, why did they kill everybody on board and not take anything?”
“Maybe they were simply pirates and they didn’t know what this ship was carrying,” Epcar said. “They chased it out of that system back there, trying to cripple it to the point where they could board it. They then entered through that hatchway, killed everybody and went to see what they had in the cargo compartments. Then when they saw it was just farming equipment, they left empty-handed.”
“I suppose that could work,” Khalin replied, still doubtful.
“It’s a good theory,” Ms. Analia said, “but it’d be very difficult to inflict the type of light scoring we saw without causing more serious damage. That looks like the result of a sustained bombardment from lightweight weapons. Also, to cripple the ship, they would only need to disable the engines and, possibly, its shielding. However, there were scorch marks all over the hull. So whoever did this was trying their best to destroy this ship. And when they realiz
ed they couldn’t, they settled for boarding it and killing everyone instead.”
She crouched down and picked up some pieces of metal shells.
“What is it?” Khalin asked her.
“Grenade fragments. The attackers used a grenade to blow the hatch open.”
The others waited while Ms. Analia studied them in silence. Whatever she saw in them, she was clearly worried.
She took a deep breath. “I think the admiral had better see this.”
6. Omens
General Kellahav gazed at the main viewscreen on the Adjudicator’s bridge and turned to Captain Teráji. “Is my task force assembled?”
“Yes, sir,” the captain replied. “The Adjudicator, the Resilient, the Charioteer, the Liberty, the Inexorable and the Majestic are ready and awaiting your command.”
“Excellent. Signal all ships to move out and prepare for lightspeed on my mark.”
Kellahav did not know whether his ships would really be needed. Most likely, they would wait in the void between the Frontier and the Minstrahn Empire until Admiral Roth and his envoy returned, and that would be the end of the assignment. However, if they were called on, they would be ready.
Laila Casdan smiled at the officers on the bridge who looked her way. It felt a little uncomfortable being a guest on board this ship. Everyone seemed to be doing something all the time, while here she was, doing absolutely nothing. However, the admiral wouldn’t be long.
A few minutes later, she heard the sound of approaching footsteps and both Admiral Roth and Captain Merrick had returned.
“My apologies, Ms. Casdan,” Roth told her. “Something has come up that requires my attention.”
“Trouble?”
“It could be,” he replied. “We’re going to have to change course slightly and make an unscheduled stop.” He gave Merrick a nod. “Captain, signal the rest of the envoy. Make sure that the Deliverance and the Harpy are duly informed of the change of plans.”
“Yes, sir.”
Laila watched as the captain went to carry out the order and turned back to the admiral. “So, what’s going on?”
“My forward scouts have discovered a crippled vessel not far from here. A group of farmers, who had just visited the Cepheis system to purchase some new equipment, were found on board. All of them had been murdered.”
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