Beyond the Veil

by Hamish Spiers

  Shortly afterwards, the communicator beeped, the display indicating that indeed a different frequency was being used.

  “They’re gone. I’ve terminated the transmission,” Selina said.

  “Good. Now listen carefully.”

  Carla struggled in the tight cords that pinned her arms to her side and wrapped around her torso, pulling her hard back against her chair.

  “You know that only makes it worse,” Aleida told her without looking back.

  “Well, you can’t blame a woman for trying,” Carla muttered, glaring at the back of her head. “Why would you want to help out this Lord Ilian anyway?”

  “I’m set for life here,” the mercenary replied, her tone conversational. “All my needs met and an almost endless supply of credits.”

  “In case you haven’t noticed, there’s not a great deal of currency exchange going on between the Minstrahn and the Federation, or even the Frontier worlds for that matter.”

  Aleida snorted. “Why would I want to go back to the Federation or the Frontier? I’d have to look over my shoulder on every wretched planet I land on.”

  “Well, you should have made better lifestyle choices then,” Carla murmured.

  Aleida swung her chair around and gave her a slap across the cheek that left her eyes watering and her ears ringing.

  “I don’t want advice on how to live my life,” Aleida told her, turning back to the helm controls. “Especially from a little brat like you. Half the reason I took Lord Ilian up on his offer to come out here was to get away from people like you.”

  “Lord Ilian’s been to the Federation?” Carla asked, breathing heavily and still reeling from the blow. She wasn’t sure, since she was more or less behind her, but it looked as though Aleida was smiling.

  The mercenary then chuckled. “Don’t like that, do you?”

  “Why did he go there?” Carla knew she was probably looking for more trouble but she thought as long as she was this woman’s prisoner, she might as well try to learn what she could from her.

  “Oh, that would be telling,” Aleida said, her voice drifting now to condescending. “He wanted a few people like us to help him out. The Minstrahn generally aren’t that good at subterfuge. I’ve basically been advising his people. It’s fun actually. Federation jobs were little. This is huge.”

  “Starting a civil war is fun?” Carla asked, bracing herself in case Aleida decided to take offence at the remark.

  However, Aleida seemed to be enjoying the conversation now. Carla shook her head. She was impossible to get a handle on. The only thing that was clear was that she was a sociopath.

  “It’s great,” Aleida replied. “Nothing else I’ve done has ever come close to being this big. And I still get to do some of the hands on jobs too so it’s not like I’m missing out there. Just recently, I helped some of Ilian’s men blow up a whole orbital station. Good times. Helped them take out some witnesses too.”

  For a moment, it felt as though the temperature of the cockpit had dropped by several degrees. Carla had known all along that Aleida was a killer. However, as she remembered her mother’s description of what had happened to those farmers, it felt more real. And Aleida’s lack of remorse was the most chilling thing she had ever encountered.

  Then for a moment, she wondered why Aleida had used Levarc weaponry when she must have had her own equipment. It didn’t make sense.

  She bit her lip. She was fairly certain Lord Ilian didn’t know his ties to the Levarc had been uncovered. And Ms. Tellashi would have mentioned it if Lady Valinski had told Aleida. So Carla knew she had to play this carefully. However, she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see if she could tease a little more information out of her captor.

  “Well, maybe it’s fun if you like working with inexperienced Minstrahn soldiers,” she muttered, feigning disinterest. To add to the performance, she turned her attention back to trying to ease some of the tension out of her bonds.

  “They’re fast learners,” Aleida replied, not turning around.

  She sounded somewhat distracted herself, Carla decided. So she pushed it a little bit more. “Maybe,” she scoffed. “Their weapons are still rubbish though. Nothing but energy blades and web guns. Or are you their supply officer too?”

  Aleida smiled. “I wouldn’t say all their weapons are rubbish.”

  So she had seen the Levarc weapons too, Carla decided. The admiral was right about there being a connection.

  “Well, we’ll see what happens when Admiral Roth catches up with them,” she replied.

  “Yes,” Aleida said, and she definitely sounded smug this time. “That should be interesting.”

  The Deliverance raced through space in a manner that had once seemed impossible to even the greatest minds in engineering. But it still wasn’t fast enough for Laila.

  “Captain Ah’ness?”

  The Tollum turned to her, his feathers ruffling with anticipation. “Yes, Ms. Casdan?”

  “Are we nearing the Kallianem system?”

  “We are.”

  “Then I’d like you to start emitting a wide-spectrum hailing signal. See if my daughters are out there.”

  “If Lord Ilian’s down there, he might pick up on that,” Ah’ness pointed out.

  “I don’t give a damn about Lord Ilian,” Laila told him. “But for the benefit of any eavesdroppers, say we’re lost travelers wondering what happened to the long-range communications.”

  “Right, you are.” Ah’ness turned away to get the signal set up.

  14. Several Reunions

  “If you want something done,” Lord Erama said happily as he came through the door to the officer’s lounge, “give it to Phalamkian engineers.”

  “Going well?” Zak asked.

  “I’d say we’re ahead of schedule. Well ahead of schedule.” He sat down opposite them both, giving Maia a smile as he picked up his drink and had another sip. “However, it’ll still be a little while before the team is ready to head out to Felarias. In the meantime though, I’d like to take a group out just to familiarize ourselves with the place.”

  “Good idea,” Maia said. “Although I think we should probably bring a few Battle Titans in case we run into any unexpected trouble. It’s literally in the middle of nowhere out there and if any Levarc forces show up this side of the Minstrahn Empire without warning, then I’d rather be ready.”

  “You think that’s likely to happen sooner rather than later?” her father asked her with genuine concern.

  “It’s just a hunch,” Maia told him. “But I don’t think we should go out there without the means to defend ourselves and to defend Felarias as well.”

  “I don’t intend to,” Lord Erama replied.

  The Goddess eased down on the flat rocky outcrop, its landing gear locking in place. Alia looked around. There seemed to be plenty of room left for Aleida’s ship. She’d picked the location well. However, Alia was still ahead of the mercenary. She had landed very close to the forest that lined the edge of the outcrop. It’d been tricky, but she had managed it.

  “Asten, go!” she shouted.

  “Right,” came the reply.

  There was a hiss of the hatchway opening and Alia got just a glimpse of Asten before he disappeared into the undergrowth.

  “How’s that, Aleida?” she said to herself. “We’ll get everything we want, don’t you worry about that.”

  Up above them, Aleida’s ship was now coming in as well. Unsurprisingly, she landed as far away from Alia as she could, minimizing the amount of cover they could use. She was right up on the edge of the outcrop, with barely two meters between her ship and a sheer drop to the ocean that lay below them. Alia hoped there’d still be enough cover for Asten to get in his shot.

  “All right,” she said, climbing to her feet. “Let’s go.”

  Selina got up and followed her out of the cockpit. In the back of the ship, Lord Ilian was still very much unconscious, which helped them in a couple of ways. Firstly, the dead weight of an un
conscious man would make it harder for Aleida to get him into her ship. Secondly, they didn’t have to listen to his pompous complaints about how he ‘protested his treatment’. Alia protested the way he was plunging an entire sector into civil war for his own ends but he didn’t hear her complaining.

  “Are you sure it was safe to stun him again so soon?” Selina asked, looking at the slumped lord in concern.

  Alia shrugged. “Safe enough. I checked the manual on stun effects before I shot him. He’ll probably feel a little ill when he wakes up but he’ll be fine. Besides, he was annoying me.”

  “Yeah,” Selina agreed, lifting one arm over her shoulder while Alia took the other arm. “Me too.”

  As they came around the back of the ship, Aleida was already waiting for them in front of her own, Carla beside her.

  Alia’s heart leapt as she saw her sister, her arms pinned to her side by tight cords, her hair disheveled, jerking back and forward as the mercenary yanked her towards them.

  Aleida smiled in amusement at seeing Alia’s distress. “Sorry. I didn’t have any cuffs.”

  “Let’s just get this over with,” Alia told her.

  “Sure,” Aleida replied, still smiling. “But first, tell your friend to come out of the woods and put his weapon on the ground.”

  Alia sighed. “Asten!” she called out, her voice filled with resignation. “Aleida’s onto us.”

  They waited for a few moments before Asten emerged. Just before he got there, Alia thought she saw something moving near Aleida’s ship but when she looked again, all she could see was a rock. She put it out of her mind and turned to see Asten come around the back of the ship. He walked until he was slightly in front of her and slid his gun across the ground. And in that moment, Alia saw that all hope wasn’t lost. Behind his back, hooked to his belt and out of Aleida’s sight, was a deactivated wrist blade.

  “All right,” Aleida said. “Your friend can take a few steps back and stay there. Then you two can bring Lord Ilian over here. Since he’s still unconscious, you can also both get him into my ship.”

  “Now, wait a minute,” Alia told her. “How do we know you won’t shoot us in the back or something? I don’t like this.”

  “Then you shouldn’t have stunned him again,” Aleida replied. “Then he’d be awake right now. Although, that’s hardly my fault now, is -”

  She suddenly winced, her back arching, and with a gasp, she collapsed to the ground. As she was still clutching Carla’s cords, Carla went down too. But she scrambled back up again quickly enough. Before satisfying her curiosity as to what happened to the mercenary though, she put her boot hard into her thigh.

  Everyone then looked to the shadows under Aleida’s ship and what had appeared to be a rock now unfolded into a Vaschassi, gun in hand.

  “Mr. Koraashi!” Carla exclaimed in surprise.

  “Yes, it is I,” he replied, switching on a communicator. “Ms. Tellashi, we have Lord Ilian and Aleida both. The situation is under control.”

  “Copy that,” came the reply. “We’ll be there shortly.”

  Although the others were relieved that Carla was all right and that everything had more or less worked out, they were a bit worried when Ms. Tellashi and the others arrived. They had shut out Admiral Roth’s special unit and had risked losing Lord Ilian again. They had most certainly forfeited their fee - and that didn’t even seem like an issue now - and they were probably in far more trouble than they knew.

  “I know why you did what you did,” Ms. Tellashi said. Picking up on their nervousness though, she smiled. “But don’t worry. No one’s in trouble. In fact, there’s no reason why Admiral Roth has to know any of this.”

  “Are you serious?” Alia asked, her voice laced with suspicion.

  “Perfectly serious. You were worried we would take Lord Ilian back to Minstrah and abandon Carla.” She shrugged. “I probably would have done the same thing if I had been in your position.”

  Then Mr. Savaja, the Yloshi, spoke up. “And according to Mr. Koraashi, you might have managed to get her back without losing Lord Ilian.” He turned to Asten. “He saw the wrist blade that you had hidden from Aleida, Asten. That was fast thinking.”

  “Thanks,” Asten replied.

  “Anyway,” Ms. Tellashi said, “Carla is safe and Lord Ilian is still in our custody.” She glanced at Aleida, lying in a slump where she’d been shot. However, Mr. Koraashi had only stunned her. “And we have a bonus as well. All in all, I’d say things could have been a lot worse. Now, we just need to decide what to do next.”

  “Well,” Alia told her, “speaking for myself, you’re welcome to take Lord Ilian and Aleida wherever you want. I’d be glad to be rid of the pair of them.”

  “Actually, we were rather hoping that you might help us out there. Neither of our ships have much capacity for keeping prisoners so I’d like to take both of them back to the Harpy.”

  Selina shrugged. “No problem. It’s the most logical choice.”

  “Great,” Asten said, stepping up beside her. He then glanced at Aleida’s ship. “And I might fly that back too. It’d be a shame to leave a perfectly good ship here. We can decide who can keep it later.”

  “You can have it,” Ms. Analia told him. “Consider it a bonus for everything you guys went through.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Don’t mention it.”

  “All right,” Ms. Tellashi said. “That’s settled. Now, about our next move. I’m sure you’ve discovered by now what Lord Ilian’s pals have done to the long-range communications.”

  “Yeah,” Asten told her. “We noticed.”

  “So since we can’t contact Admiral Roth, I think the best course of action would be to head back to Minstrah.”

  “Good,” Asten agreed. “Then let’s get back to the Harpy and get going.”

  Just then, Mr. Ishara stepped out from his unit’s ship. “My friends, a large ship has just entered the system, sending out an open hailing signal.” He looked at Carla and Alia. “And I’ve identified it as the Deliverance. Do you want to answer it?”

  Laila was almost fainting with relief when she saw them. She hugged Carla, then Alia, and, for a moment, they felt as though they were five years old.

  “Mom, you’re embarrassing us,” Alia told her, but without any sting.

  “I should never have let you run off like that,” Laila replied, shaking her head and letting Lyla come through to see them as well.

  “She was worried sick,” she told her sisters.

  “Must have known something,” Carla murmured, giving Alia a knowing look.

  “All right,” Laila told them, sitting down and waving them to the lounge across from her. “Out with it. What happened down there?”

  Now they felt as though they were fifteen.

  “Oh, it was nothing,” Alia replied. “Anyway, we don’t want to worry you.”

  “Too late for that,” Laila replied, giving her wayward daughters a wry look. “Believe me.”

  Sitting down on an armchair between her mother and her sisters, Lyla shook her head with a smile.

  “And we’ve got to get back to the Harpy and all that,” Alia said, making one last attempt to get out of it.

  “Oh, that’s okay,” Laila told her sweetly. “I asked Selina for the co-ordinates when we were downstairs, so I can drop you off when we get there.”

  “Oh, you’re taking us there now?” Alia asked. “Um... that’s very kind of you.”

  “Not at all,” Laila replied. “Now stop all this stalling and get on with it.”

  When the Deliverance reached the Harpy, Laila went across with her daughters. Minutes afterwards, both ships were under way, heading for Minstrah by the most direct route.

  Laila wasted no time seeking out Ms. Tellashi and her team. She introduced herself politely and got their names - at least their last names - shaking their hands as she did so but she didn’t waste any time on small talk.

  “All right, are they awake?” she asked, nodding
to two closed doors behind them.

  “They’re still a little groggy,” Ms. Tellashi replied, “but they’re awake.”

  “Perfect.”

  “Ms. Casdan,” she said, “you know we can’t permit any violence against the prisoners. Now I don’t know what you have in mind but -”

  “What? Worried that I’m going to take a wrist blade to the woman who kidnapped my daughter?” Laila asked, her eyebrows slightly raised. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to harm them. But while they’re still a bit out of it, I thought it’d be good to get some information out of them. I want to find out for starters whether Aleida knows anything about the Levarc. Carla thinks she does because she mentioned the Minstrahn dissidents having other weapons. She also said our friend Lord Ilian has been to the Federation before. Did you know that?”

  “Yes. She told us,” Ms. Tellashi replied.

  “Well, I for one think we should find out a bit more about that.”

  “They will either lie to you or tell you very little,” Ms. Tellashi said. “Besides, there’s probably not a great deal they can tell us that we don’t know already.”

  “You believe that?”

  “I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t.”

  “Well, do you mind if I talk to them?”

  Ms. Tellashi sighed. “No, it’s all right.”

  “Good.”

  Laila walked past them and nodded to the doors. “Where’s Aleida?”

  “On the left.”

  “Thanks.” Laila opened the door and stepped inside.

  “You look a lot like those two brats who gave me all that trouble,” Aleida said as the door slid shut. She didn’t look groggy at all. And although her hands were cuffed and she was restrained in a chair, her poise and her gaze were defiant.

  That was okay, Laila thought, as she sat down in the one other chair in the room. She’d seen her type before and she was the type who would talk simply because she didn’t give a damn.

  “What, got no tongue?” Aleida sneered.

  Laila just looked at her.

  Aleida leaned back with a snort. “Fine, play your stupid games.”