by Kal Spriggs
Mel froze where she was. She saw the others had frozen as well. The security team had them dead to rights... and while two of them carried stunners, the others carried a mix of riot guns and pistols. They didn't have to shoot to capture, they could kill them in a crossfire.
Bob's contact walked over and kicked him. “Take that, you criminal piece of filth.”
The security men swarmed forward and a pair of rough hands grabbed Mel and forced her to the ground. She looked up in time to see the security men's leader emerge from the shadows. He was tall and obnoxiously handsome, with a shock of blonde hair and cold, dark eyes. Mel closed her eyes as she felt the cuffs close on her wrists. She put her head against the cold concrete floor and sighed.
***
The security men loaded all of them into the back of a van. Mel didn't miss how the van carried the Odin Interstellar logo rather than markings for police. She didn't need the reminder that Danzig's police were mostly subsidiaries of the megacorporations that ran the world. Corporate security wouldn't bother with a trial or imprisonment. One of the other companies that used labor might just stick them with a tracking bracelet and put them to work in a factory, but Odin Interstellar didn't need labor, it only cared about information.
The drive towards the corporate headquarters was quiet until Bob recovered. “That went well,” he said. “I think this is all going splendidly so far, don't you?”
“Shut up,” Mel said.
Bob gave her a grin, “What, you think they care what we say? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure they're monitoring, but they'll want to grill us for a while before they consider anything we say at face value.” He shrugged, “Deceitful people think everyone else is like them.”
Mel just shook her head. She didn't want to talk, right now. She didn't want to think. She just wanted to close her eyes and get this over with. At least, she thought, at this point, it is all out of my hands.
Time: 2045 Zulu, 24 September 291 G.D.
Location: Danzig High Orbit, Neu Emshaven System
Fenris felt odd.
Part of that was that for the first time in months, he was alone. He had come to enjoy having companions, something he could not have imagined as little as four months earlier. Part of it was that his systems felt odd and sluggish, he felt slow and stupid.
My systems are dialed down to appear to be an ore freighter, he thought. Indeed, the ruse had worked so far, poised as he was in High Orbit above Danzig. He looked much like the other automated ore freighters, a dozen more of them ahead of him in the queue to dock with Vulcan Mining Concern's orbital foundries and transfer ore out for their smelters. In every way that mattered, his systems were set so that he would appear to be nothing more than another freighter. So of course he felt blind and deaf.
Yet somehow that didn't feel like an adequate reason. He reminded himself to do a full diagnostic of his systems as soon as he finished with the mission. Something just felt wrong.
It didn't matter, though, he was here and he had a mission to do. Soon, he knew, Mel would be in position and he had to be in position to help. He had to play his role or else the entire mission would fail. He wished he could contact her, yet he knew that if he tried he might blow her cover.
Fenris tested his communications array again and checked the data packet again. It looked like a request for a software update, the type that a simple ore freighter would ask for if it noticed a glitch in its operations. Yet hidden in that broadcast was a data burst that would find the waiting transceiver on Danzig. At that point, the operation would begin. The data burst would appear to be distortion from a damaged communications array... unless someone looked closely.
But that shouldn't happen, Fenris knew. He was, to all appearances, a simple, automated ore freighter. They should never know what he really was... not until it was too late.
Time: 2100 Zulu, 24 September 291 G.D.
Location: Outer Neu Emshaven System
Captain Frank Bulpit-Grant looked up as he received a hail from the Vulcan Phoenix.
“Captain,” he nodded as politely as he could manage. He had avoided communications as much as possible with the captain of the new cruiser. Damned Frog, he thought with disdain.
“Captain,” Le Roi's face showed equal disdain. “My crew notified me of something odd, I wished to run it past you, since you are the senior man on station.”
It was amazing how much disdain he had managed to put into senior. Frank felt himself flush a bit at that. Somehow the man had heard that the Fleet had flushed him out of their ranks due to years without promotion, had he?
“Well,” Frank snapped, “I'd love to tell you how to do your job properly...”
He heard his bridge crew go silent, but he didn't care. He was sick of this job anyway and if they wanted to report him to corporate, then they could stand in line. He didn't have the family connections to rise higher in Guard Fleet, but he could always try mercenary life. While he hadn't seen combat, he knew enough of ship-handling that any number of companies would take him.
Besides, he thought, if I do that, I can claim residency through Hanet, which means I won't have to pay alimony any more to my ex-wife. That had a rather large appeal to him just now, especially since he had found out just yesterday that she was pregnant from her latest lover. Didn't want to have kids, my ass, he thought, she just didn't want to have mine.
Captain Le Roi's response was delayed by the transmission lag. Since he was almost at Danzig's orbit on his patrol, it was a good minute before Frank received a response.
“Well, Captain, explain to me this: my sensor crew noticed that the drive field on one of your ore freighters doesn't match the standard profile. Did your crews fail to do any more than scan the transponder?” Frank's console lit up with the sensor data even as Captain Le Roi spoke.
Frank spent a moment looking the data over rather than responding right away. If the Vulcan Phoenix's captain was correct, then Frank had screwed up. Granted, it would have been one of his sensor technicians, but it was still Frank Bulpit-Grant who would bear ultimate responsibility.
It only took a glance to see that Captain Le Roi was correct. The warp drive profile didn't even remotely match that of an ore freighter. It was plainly a military drive, despite the transponder. How, he thought, they would have had to pull transponder data...
His face drained as he remembered their earlier “guest” to the system. The Halo-class destroyer, either a pirate or some kind of corporate espionage. That was why he had slipped so close to the mining vessel and lain in wait. The bogie must have stripped transponder data off an ore freighter and communications codes to go with it.
“Move us to close transmission range of the Vulcan Phoenix,” Frank snapped.
It only took a minute and they were within a few hundred thousand kilometers of the other cruiser. Close enough that they could pass secure messages back and forth in real time.
Frank couldn't guess why the pirate, and he was almost certain it was a pirate, wanted to get into Danzig's orbit, but he damned well knew that the company wouldn't approve of him using Vulcan Mining Concern's transponder codes to do it.
“You're right,” he said and gritted his teeth as he said it, “the ship is clearly a plant. I'll radio the Guard Fleet picket, we can take it down with a surprise missile strike–”
“I think not,” Captain Le Roi interrupted. “Since this pirate has gone to so much trouble to get here, surely we should see what he is up to? Then, perhaps, we could find out his purpose and then discover who sent him. I think that corporate would want to know this, yes?”
Despite himself, Frank nodded slowly. In fact, if that information proved valuable enough, it might just cover for the fact that Frank had missed noticing the switch in the first place.
“Right,” he said. “Good idea. I'll talk to the Guard Fleet picket. If you would,” it still grated on him to ask the other man for anything, but he could at least admit that Captain Le Roi was capable, despite being an arrogant ass,
“please maintain sensor scanning of the target vessel.”
“Of course,” Captain Le Roi nodded. He cut communications a moment later and his ship swept away, his course headed towards Danzig's orbit.
Frank's gaze went to the icon for the suspect freighter. It was already in Danzig's orbit and Frank felt a wave of relief that someone had noticed the discrepancy before anything happened. Now, at least, he had an opportunity to salvage something from the potential catastrophe.
I've got you, he thought as he peered at the icon, and you don't even know it yet.
Time: 2330 Local, 24 September 291 G.D.
Location: Danzig, City of Neuhaven, Neu Emshaven System
She answered her comm unit with her pinky finger, without dropping the nail polish bottle or dripping any onto the counter. It was something of a skill she had developed over the years: the ability to apply make-up under almost any circumstances.
“Fraulein Bader,” Kaptain Sebastian Lokisen's voice spoke over her comm unit, “we have captured another group of criminals attempting to infiltrate our facility.”
Such a prim and proper type, she thought, always so focused.
“Oh?” she checked her hair in the mirror and then scowled as she noticed a lock out of place. “Excellent news, Kaptain. What was their plan, do we know yet?” She adjusted her hair and gave a sniff of approval. Perfection, she thought.
“It appears they wanted to purchase security badges to access our outer security. We also found maintenance uniforms in their equipment,” Kaptain Sebastian's tone was disdainful. He is excellent, she thought absently.
She didn't answer immediately as she looked over her attire one last time. She frowned then as she noticed a tiny spot of blood on the hem of the dress. Drat, she thought, blood is always so hard to remove from quality silk. She would have to change dresses. Luckily, that would take only a moment. It was always the hair and makeup that took the longest.
“Have them brought to headquarters immediately,” she said, even as she stepped over the prone form in the doorway to the bedroom. She stepped around a broad puddle of blood and then into the closet where she went through it until she found an appropriate business dress. She just hoped no one would question her change of clothes.
“Oh,” she said as she stepped back up to the mirror and examined the dress. “One more thing. Have a cleanup team come to my apartment. I'm afraid there's been an accident.”
There was the slightest hesitation in Kaptain Sebastian's voice. “Of course, Fraulein.”
She smiled slightly at that. “Thank you, Kaptain. That will be all. I'll see you within the hour.”
She cut the connection before he could respond and then slipped the new dress on. Her smile grew broad as she considered the effect of the dress, her makeup, and her assets. Whatever my other failings, I have exquisite taste in clothing, she thought.
***
Brian Liu shifted his hands and then pulled the tiny splinter of metal out of his hiding spot. The guards had followed Kaptain Sebastian's orders and left him alone to think. Brian hadn't counted on that, however, and he had slipped the shard into a crack between the floor and wall of his cell.
Even with his hands cuffed behind his back, it was only the work of a few seconds for him to open his cuffs. He stayed seated, though, as he watched the camera sweep back and away.
Brian leapt forward as the camera moved over. He was below it, then and he slipped the shard out and had cracked open the camera's case and pulled out it's guts before it could sweep back around. The camera disabled, he went back to his former position in the corner and took a seat.
He didn't have to wait long. The pair of guards arrived in only a few minutes. To give them credit, they checked him through the peephole before they came in. Only two of them, even with security batons, meant they didn't really have a chance, though.
As the first one stepped through the door and looked at the disabled camera, Brian leapt. He struck the first man with an open hand strike to the neck. As the other guard tried to swing his baton, Brian caught him by the back of the head and pulled him forward into the doorframe. Both men were down before they could say anything.
He dragged them into the cell. He didn't bother to try to take the uniform off either man; the doors and systems would react to their biometrics, not their equipment. From the intelligence Brian had, even their heart-rate would be a factor, so he couldn't use either man as a hostage to get him through security and escape.
Luckily, he thought, I'm not here to escape. He sat back to wait and he smiled a bit. This was going to be fun.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Time: 0030 Zulu, 25 September 291 G.D.
Location: Danzig High Orbit, Neu Emshaven System
Captain Frank Bulpit-Grant grinned as the “drone” freighter sent out a software update request. Ostensibly it wasn't anything out of the ordinary, but Captain Le Roi had picked up a “random” bit of static. It was encrypted, so they couldn't read it, but they could see it. That was all the proof that Frank really needed, but he agreed with Captain Le Roi that they should discover who the pirates were talking to... and why they had used Vulcan Mining Concern as their screen.
Rear Admiral Grossman, the commander of the Guard Fleet picket for the system, had already made contact with Danzig's law enforcement, who had ties to all the major corporations. As soon as they figured out who was at the other end of the broadcast, they would know why the pirate was here.
At that point... well, most likely they wouldn't need to capture them alive. Frank gave a smile as he considered that fact. I'll finally get a chance to get a kill under my belt, he thought. Not a bad thing, especially since there was almost no risk to him. Unless the Halo had any warning, his drive field would still be running at low levels to emulate a drone freighter. At those levels, it wouldn't take more than a single salvo to take down the drive field and, in all likelihood, kill the ship too.
It was possible that Guard Fleet would want the perpetrators captured alive, in which case they would offer them a chance to surrender... but most criminals knew that they'd be sent to a hell-hole of a penal colony like Caverna or Thornhell, unless the poor bastards were mutants, then they'd probably go to Electra or Darnassa. Odds were that they wouldn't surrender even heavily outnumbered.
In which case, he thought with a smile, I still get my first kill as commanding officer.
Yes, things were certainly looking up. It was just a shame that he had to feel grateful for Captain Le Roi for pointing it all out.
Time: 0100 Local, 25 September 291 G.D.
Location: Danzig, City of Neuhaven, Neu Emshaven System
Kaptain Sebastian Lokisen came to a halt in front of the Chief Operations Officer's desk and gave a crisp nod. “Fraulein, I have brought the prisoners. I have them downstairs in the holding area, however, some additional news has just come to my attention.”
He noticed that she was in a new dress and put that together with the body that his clean-up team had reported at her penthouse. Given the fact that they hadn't expressed surprise, he doubted it was the first time something like that had happened.
“What now?” Lindsey Baden asked. Her perfectly arranged hair looked ever-so-slightly damp, as well, as if she had needed to wash her hair for some reason. Interesting, he thought.
“Fraulein,” he nodded, “my personnel had time to go over some of the activities with Doctor Farber's work and they noticed several discrepancies with signal traffic through his device. None of it was by itself, warrant to investigate further, until approximately thirty minutes ago, that is.”
“Oh?” She looked bored.
“Doctor Farber's communications link received a large-burst of encrypted traffic,” Kaptain Sebastian said. “We haven't been able to decrypt the message itself, but we did track the signal to a vessel in orbit. I've just been informed by the authorities that Vulcan Mining Concern has alerted them that the vessel is a pirate, using stolen transponder codes.”
“What?
!” The Chief Operations Officer's face went pale. “Do you think it is tied to the prisoners you just arrested?”
Kaptain Sebastian gave a humorless smile, “Fraulein, I think it highly unlikely that the two criminal events are not somehow tied together. To further tie things together, the criminals we detained sought six security badges... and there were only five of them there.”
“That...” she shook her head, “that spineless coward. Bring the prisoners here, immediately. I want your men to escort Doctor Farber here as well.” She shook her head, “He has had unlimited access to our core network. This could be a disaster.” She shook her head, “We'll have to check the entire system. Have your men bring up the scanning equipment.”
She meant to have his technicians scan the core network for modifications or access logs of what Doctor Farber might have been after, which made sense, but standard operating procedure was to do so from inside the secure area to control access. The office was outside the primary secure area. Kaptain Sebastian cocked his head, “Here to your office, Fraulein?”
She gave a crisp nod, “I have all the authorization codes here. It will be easier than trying to move the equipment into the server room itself.”
He nodded, it was true enough that her office was the only one with full access, but it still startled him that she planned to let people work in her private sanctum. Then again, he thought, if she has proven one thing, it is that work is central to her life.
Her next words, though, convinced him of her true intent, “Besides, it will be easier to confirm the truth of what Doctor Farber tells us if we can scan his files at the same time... and to fix whatever he did once you make him talk.”
“Yes, Fraulein. I will have them bring it up at once,” He nodded and spun away, already on his comm unit. I love it when a good plan comes together, he thought. He reached his second officer. “Gunther,” he said, “bring up the scanner to the Chief Operations Officer's office.”
