by Mike Tucker
The effect on the station was immediate. The vibration that had threatened to shake the teeth from Bill’s head finally subsided, and a gentle background hum took its place. Alarms suddenly cut off, leaving the control room uncannily quiet.
Delitsky was staring in disbelief at his controls. ‘She’s stabilising. No, wait … she’s lifting! She’s actually lifting!’
The Rig Chief slumped back into his chair, as the room erupted into exciting cheering. People were crowding around the Doctor, shaking him by the hand and thumping him on the back. Bill pushed her way through them to his side.
‘You did it!’
He glared at her indignantly. ‘Of course I did it. I’m the Doctor.’
At any other time, Bill might have rolled her eyes and told him to stop being so big-headed, but given that he had just saved the lives of every person on the rig, she’d let him off.
‘Of course you are. Sorry, I was forgetting.’
A sudden movement on the far side of the control room caught her eye, and she frowned as one of the surviving Ba-El Cratt in its borrowed pressure armour stamped into the room. Another followed, and Bill’s eyes widened in alarm as she realised that they both had g-Tasers grasped in their huge hands.
As more and more people became aware of the lumbering figures, the excited chatter in the control room faded, to be replaced with an uneasy silence.
The third of the Ba-El Cratt entered the room, pushing Officer Sillitoe in front of him. From the look of pain on the security officer’s face, and the way that he was holding his arm, it seemed obvious that he and the rest of his team had not surrendered their weaponry without a struggle.
‘What is the meaning of this?’ Delitsky scrambled from his seat. ‘Officer Sillitoe, what’s happening?’
‘Sorry, Chief,’ Sillitoe gasped. ‘They jumped us, clubbed a couple of the guys unconscious and took their g-Tasers. I tried to stop them but …’
He broke off, obviously in considerable pain. Jo Teske scurried across to control room towards him, but one of the Ba-El Cratt swung around its g-Taser to point at her.
‘You will all stand still.’ The hissing voice boomed around the room. ‘This facility is now under the command of the Ba-El Cratt Collective.’
‘His arm is obviously broken.’ Jo yelled angrily. ‘I need to help him.’
‘He tried to resist us. That was foolish. If he attempts to do so again, we will kill him.’
‘Why?’ snapped Delitsky angrily. ‘You came here asking for help and we have given it. What possible reason could you have for doing this?’
‘Two of us are dead.’
‘That was not of our doing.’ Delitsky pointed across the room at Jenloz. ‘This man—’
‘This man is a Cancri.’ Even through the speakers of the suit the venom was evident in the Ba-El Cratt’s voice. ‘And you are right, it is he who is guilty of causing the deaths of my brothers. But you have chosen to ally yourselves with them, to assist in their war against us.’
‘That’s not true, we—’
‘Silence!’ roared the huge figure. ‘Your collaboration with his species has helped bring about the destruction of hundreds of thousands of my kind.’
Delitsky went pale. ‘Hundreds of thousands … How?’
‘Because of the diamonds.’ The Doctor’s voice cut across the shocked silence in the control room.
‘Yes,’ hissed the Ba-El Cratt. ‘Because of your assistance in the Cancri weapons programme.’
‘Weapons?’ floundered Delitsky. ‘You mean the Cancri are buying weapons with the diamonds?’
‘No. I’m guessing that the diamonds are actually a vital part of the Cancri weapons,’ said the Doctor. ‘Presumably they are using them as some kind of Raman Amplification system in a projected energy weapon of some description.’
The Doctor’s explanation was just so much scientific gobbledegook as far as Bill was concerned, but it certainly brought him to the attention of the Ba-El Cratt.
‘Correct. Over the many years that the war has raged, both sides have become ever more efficient at creating protective armour. Now only weaponry that utilises crystalline carbon focusing arrays is effective. We thought that we had destroyed all Cancri diamond production facilities in our system. We soon realised that they must have an alternative source elsewhere. And an ally to assist them … By association you too have declared war on the Ba-El Cratt, and you all share their guilt. You will also share their fate.’ The Ba-El Cratt leader pointed at Jenloz. ‘But he will be first.’
Showing uncommon bravery, Delitsky stepped in front of Jenloz, his arms outstretched. ‘This man is part of my crew and is subject to our laws. If he has committed a crime against you then he will be punished but we will do it in our way.’
‘I am not interested in your primitive laws. He has been found guilty. He will die now.’
The other two Ba-El Cratt started to lurch forward, but the Doctor suddenly launched himself forwards, vaulting over the console and landing between them and the terrified Cancri engineer.
‘No,’ said the Doctor firmly. ‘I’m afraid I cannot allow that.’
‘Cannot allow?’ snarled the Ba-El Cratt.
‘No, sorry.’ The Doctor stared up at the huge figure. ‘Look, can I ask who am I addressing? I mean I’m terribly old-fashioned. I like names. I can’t start referring to you as “the Big Red Stompy One”, can I?’
‘Names mean nothing. We are the Ba-El Cratt. We are as one. We fight as one. We die as one.’
The Doctor shrugged. ‘Stompy it is then. Well, you claim that you are at war with the Cancri. If that’s the case, then there are rules. Murder is not one of those rules. I invoke Article Fifteen of the Shadow Proclam—’
Before the Doctor could finish speaking, the Ba-El Cratt leader raised its g-Taser and blasted him and Delitsky at point-blank range.
Chapter
18
Bill looked down at the Doctor’s expressionless face, willing him to wake up. Alongside her, Jo Teske was doing her best to revive Delitsky. Both of them had been unconscious for several minutes. Bill considered them the lucky ones.
The gravity pulse fired by the Ba-El Cratt leader had hurled both men across the control room, sending them crashing against the wall. As people had rushed forward to help them, the other two Ba-El Cratt had grabbed hold of Jenloz and dragged him into the middle of the room. Their leader had joined them, and all three had surrounded the diminutive engineer.
‘For crimes committed against the Ba-El Cratt, I order your immediate execution.’
Jenloz had just stared up at them defiantly, clasping his fist over his chest in salute. ‘For Cancri.’
Then – and Bill could still not get this image out of her head – all three of the Ba-El Cratt had begun to move, tightening the circle around Jenloz, the metal of their pressure armour screeching and scraping as they pushed tighter and tighter together.
Bill knew that the noises that followed would probably stay in her nightmares for a very long time.
Their brutal execution complete, the Ba-El Cratt had stepped apart, and Jenloz’s mangled body fell to the floor.
Ignoring the screams of horror and revulsion, the three armoured figures had ushered the bulk of the crew into the hangar bay, sealing the pressure doors, and warning of the consequences for everyone if any attempt to escape was made. A few unlucky individuals had been kept back by the Ba-El Cratt to assist them. Through the hangar bay windows, Bill could see them at their consoles, studiously keeping their eyes from straying to the tiny broken corpse that had been left on the floor.
‘What are they doing?’ hissed Nettleman, his eyes wild and staring. As far as Bill could tell, he was on the point of totally losing it.
‘They’re prepping the vault,’ said Laura, her head cocked on one side. ‘I can hear the big cargo shifters powering up.’
‘The diamonds?’ Nettleman croaked. ‘They’re going to take the diamonds? But they need a ship …’
‘Oh, they’ve got a ship,’ Laura pointed out grimly. ‘And it’s probably already on its way.’
There was a groan from the Doctor, and his eyes started to flicker open.
‘Jo.’ Bill waved her over. ‘He’s coming round.’
The two of them helped the Doctor to sit up, leaning him back against the hangar wall.
‘Take it slowly,’ said Jo, examining him carefully. ‘You were hit at close range with a gravity-Taser. You’re going to be groggy for a while. You’re lucky it wasn’t at full power.’
‘Delitsky?’ The Doctor rubbed at his eyes.
On cue, there was a moan of discomfort from the Rig Chief. Jo scurried over to him. ‘He’ll be fine. He’ll have one hell of a headache, but other than that …’
‘And Jenloz?’
Jo dropped her gaze.
‘They killed him,’ said Bill quietly.
The Doctor’s face hardened and, ignoring Jo’s protests, he struggled to his feet. ‘What are they doing now?’ he asked, swaying somewhat drunkenly as he tried to regain his balance.
‘They’ve started the automatic loading procedure,’ explained Laura. ‘It’s usually triggered when the mine reaches capacity. A high-security freighter is sent from Earth or Cancri and loaded with the cylinders in the vault. New empty cylinders are delivered and the mine starts filling them up again.’
‘And how long does this process usually take?’ asked the Doctor, still teetering slightly.
Laura shrugged. ‘Once they’ve managed to dock their ship, it could be less than thirty minutes. It’s one of the most vulnerable parts of the entire operation so the automatics are designed to be pretty quick.’
‘Then we don’t have much time.’ The Doctor spun to face Bill. ‘So Jenloz turned out to be one of our saboteurs. Who was the other?’
Bill pointed to where Rince was sitting forlornly on a crate in the middle of the hangar. ‘Him.’
Every face turned towards the Kollo-Zarnista executive.
‘Rince?’ Nettleman’s jaw was hanging open in disbelief.
Laura Palmer was equally incredulous. ‘Are you saying that he was responsible for wrecking the communications console? Surely Jenloz …’
‘Jenloz was a highly trained engineer. There are a million ways he could have disabled the communications grid if he wanted to without having to resort to anything as crude as the solution that our friend here tried.’ The Doctor pulled up a crate and sat down opposite Rince. ‘No, that was an act of desperation because Delitsky was going to call in the cavalry, and the arrival of armed guards would really not have gone down well with your pirate chums, would it?’
‘Pirates?’ Nettleman’s voice was practically a squeak.
‘Pirates. Buccaneers. Gem Raiders. Soldiers of Fortune. Call them whatever you want, the point is they’re out there, and they’re waiting for the word from their man on the inside.’
Rince looked at him wearily. ‘You’ve worked it all out, haven’t you?’
‘All except why.’
‘He’s why.’ Rince pointed accusingly at Nettleman.
‘Me?’ Nettleman shook his head. ‘Don’t you dare bring me into this.’
‘Oh, what’s the point, Donald? It’s over. Don’t you see? We’re going to die, so there’s no point in pretending any more.’ Rince gave a deep sigh. ‘All of the recent diamond thefts have been orchestrated by me, under direction from Senior Executive Nettleman.’
‘Rince,’ snarled Nettleman. ‘Be quiet.’
‘Oh, will someone shut him up!’ snapped the Doctor. He turned back to Rince. ‘Why?’
‘Because the Kollo-Zarnista Mining Company has a massive black hole in its pension fund. A black hole that Nettleman has been keeping quiet from the rest of the board because it has been his misappropriation of those funds, and a subsequent run of bad luck at the Olympus Mons Casino, that has caused it.’ The confession tumbled from Rince’s lips; he was obviously tired of keeping so many secrets and glad to finally have a chance to unburden himself. ‘Nettleman came up with a plan to gradually replace the missing funds by removing a small quantity of diamonds from each Cancri-bound shipment and selling them off through the black market. My job was to ensure that the books balanced, hiding the fact that the diamonds were being siphoned off.’
‘So what went wrong?’
Rince shrugged. ‘Carelessness on my part. A lapse of concentration. Nettleman got scared that we weren’t replacing the missing funds fast enough. He wanted to increase the quantity of diamonds that we were stealing. I made a mistake in the book-keeping, the Cancri noticed, so head office started an inquiry.’
‘And Nettleman made sure that he was put in charge of that inquiry.’
Rince nodded. ‘At first I thought that was perfect. No one suspected him, so I figured we’d easily be able to put things right. Then I started to realise exactly how he operates.’
Rince looked across at his boss, his dislike for the man plain to see. ‘He surrounds himself with people he can point to as the cause when anything that he does goes wrong. I thought that with him leading the investigation I’d be safe. What I was really doing was setting myself up to take the blame.’
‘So you came up with a plan of your own.’
Rince nodded. ‘I knew the diamond shipment schedules backwards, I knew the security protocols, I knew the transponder codes …’
‘You betrayed me!’ spat Nettleman.
‘I betrayed you?’ gasped Rince in disbelief. ‘You were getting ready to throw me to the wolves. I knew that you had a reputation for finding other people on your team to take the fall for you, but I was naive enough to think that it would be different this time. That we were partners. It was only when I hacked your personal server …’
‘You hacked me?’ Nettleman looked outraged.
‘Oh, come on. You were quite happy to use me to break into the company mainframe to do your dirty work. Did you really think that I wouldn’t also check up on you, just to make sure that you were playing fair? Well, guess what, Donald? You weren’t.’
‘And you thought that hooking up with pirates was the best option you had?’ Bill raised an eyebrow. ‘Bit of an overreaction!’
‘You think so? Attempting to defraud a Federation-backed diamond franchise isn’t something that ends with a smack on the wrist and a note on your personal file. It ends with you being shipped off to one of the penal colonies, and I really have no intention of spending the rest of my life digging ore on Cygnus-A or Varos.’
‘So these friends of yours, these pirates. They’re waiting for a signal from you, correct?’ From the urgency in his voice, Bill could tell that the Doctor was starting to come up with a plan.
Rince nodded. ‘If everything had gone to plan, Nettleman and I would have completed our investigations here with the conclusion that security on this mine was substandard and in need of total overhaul. We would then have recommended the immediate shipment of the diamonds back to Earth and Cancri. During the loading procedure, my job was to doctor the records to make it look as though the source of the diamond theft was here, covering up for my earlier blunder.’ He shot a look at Nettleman. ‘It seems that what was actually going to happen is that I was going to be caught in the act, making him the hero of the hour.’
‘So you planned to get the entire shipment stolen instead.’
‘I met a woman who said she could provide a ship and a way out if I could get her the inside information she needed. It seemed like a good plan.’
‘He’d still have been able to pin the blame on you,’ Bill pointed out. ‘You’d still never have been able to go back to Earth.’
‘No.’ Rince shrugged. ‘That’s true, but a least I’d have a fortune in diamonds, and there are enough planets in the outer colonies where you can be comfortable. If you’re rich enough.’
‘So this heist.’ The Doctor was getting impatient now. ‘How was it going to work?’
‘The diamond freighter used a sensor-scattering array to stop any
ship getting a clear lock on it. That can’t be disabled. I know – I tried. So, instead I was to place a subspace transponder inside one of the diamond strongboxes. When that box was loaded onto the ship …’
‘The pirates would be able to get a sensor lock.’
‘I’d already given them the access codes to the airlocks. From the timing simulations that we ran it looked as though they should have been able to get on board, take the diamonds and escape before the security teams realised what was happening.’
‘So they are just waiting for you to tell them that the freighter is on its way to Earth and for you to give them the frequency of the subspace transponder?’
‘Yes.’
‘Excellent!’ The Doctor seemed very happy with the information. Bill couldn’t work out why.
‘I don’t see how that helps us,’ she said. ‘The freighter isn’t here, and the transponder is in his cabin.’
‘But the pirates are still out there,’ said the Doctor.
Any explanation he might have been about to give was halted as the door to the hangar hissed open and one of the Ba-El Cratt lumbered into the room.
‘Oh, look, it’s Stompy,’ cried the Doctor cheerfully. ‘How’s the diamond theft going? You seem to be having better luck than I did. All sorts of alarms went off when I tried it. Not my fault of course. That was down to my pudding brain of an assistant …’
‘Silence!’ bellowed the Ba-El Cratt. ‘Your endless prattling serves no purpose. Thankfully I shall not have to listen to it much longer. As soon as our ship is re-pressurised …’
‘Oh!’ The Doctor regarded the alien carefully. ‘Don’t tell me that you’re leaving already? You only just arrived.’
‘Our mission was only ever meant to be one of intelligence gathering. The capture and interrogation of a Cancri raiding party had alerted us to the fact that they had another source of diamonds far beyond our system. We were to locate the source of those diamonds, and to learn who was assisting them. We have successfully completed that mission. The acquisition of the diamonds from your mine is an additional bonus. One that will greatly assist our own war effort.’
