The Artemis Trap

by DN Farrell

  One space marine threw a hand grenade through the door, there was an instant flash of light and then smoke form the stun grenade. Then a small drone whizzed of off a perch, where it had been stored on one of the marine's shoulders. The drone flew into the corridor, where the royal guard were located and immediately it started to take out royal guards, with its mounted blaster gun. In response, the confused royal guards started to shoot back at the done, which was programmed to avoid their fire.

  Once firing commenced, the marines divided into two lines of six men each and promptly they ran into the corridor, and it was an easy job for them to start picking of whoever they saw using blaster fire directed at the drone. Also the image enhancement software, in their helmet screens, made it easy for them to see through the smoke, which had been set down by the stun grenade, which delivered a flash and then a plume of smoke. Furthermore their on board helmet computer could provide easy to follow graphics, which highlighted each of the royal guards and placed a target symbol on the largest area of their bodies, as they scrambled for cover.

  Within seconds the royal guard, who had been taking by surprise, thanks to the stun grenade and drone, had now been taken down, twenty two royal guards in total, in less than thirty seconds. Kell and Trellon waited patiently to receive the all clear from the squad leader. After a minute or so, they could clearly hear the squad leader shout over his inbuilt tannoy. "Coast is clear Colonel!"

  Kell quickly looked over at Commander Trellon and Trellon shouted out to him, "Kell you track down Du Brien, while I'll get the princess back to the king, before he starts worrying."

  Kell simply nodded and then running out into the corridor, he addressed the squad leader to follow him and within seconds kell and the marines where running through the castle dungeon system, in an effort to track own Du Brien.

  Meanwhile Trellon looked back at a relieved looking Chandrima, who had now dropped the facial hologram. "Let’s get the hell out of here." Trellon said. "Chandrima its best that you get yourself back to the ship and we switch your place with that of the princess, so as to save confusion."

  Chandrima nodded in agreement and then whipping out her communicator, she called out to the chief engineer. "Commander Karatio?"

  "Karatio here."

  "Commander, this is Lieutenant Chandrima, can you please beam me up and then send down the princess and Saron and Commander Trellon to the kings court room?" She asked.

  "It will take a bit of jiggling, but will do." The Chief Engineer replied. He had only stopped talking, for a second, when an open mounted Chandrima, for she was about to say something to Trellon, instantly dematerialized, leaving Trellon alone in the room. Then seconds later Trellon also dematerialized and found himself suddenly standing in the teleporter room; the sudden shift from one room to another always been a jarring realization. Then once over his initial shock, he saw that the princess and Saron where now joining him inside the teleporter cabin. As he looked at the princess, he gave a quick nod and then said, "Princess." Then once again there was a whirring sensation, the teleporter room shimmered and blurred out, only to be replaced seconds later by a shift in the blur and as the blurring cleared, Trellon, the princess and Saron, all found themselves in the court of the king!

  The Court of the King

  The king was taken aback, as it was not common policy to beam in directly to the kings court room, but he was obviously overcome with joy, at seeing his daughter alive and well. Hurriedly he ran over to the centre of the room and grabbed her up into a big bear hug!

  "My dear, dear child!” He exclaimed, while looking down into her deep dark brown eyes, and then with tears in his eyes, once more he brought her deep into his breast and hugged her hard. Now both father and daughter were crying and the few courtiers who were keeping vigil with the king, in the earlier morning hours in the court room, were ecstatic. Many of the courtiers themselves, breaking into tears at the happy site of the family reunion.

  Trell smiled, as did Saron and both men attempted to appear as professional as possible, while a large number of courtiers gathered around the king and his daughter.

  The Castle Courtyard

  Minutes later a dishevelled and confused looking Du Brien emerged from the dungeon system into the castle courtyard. He looked from left to right and then grabbing the right hand side of his own head, he seemed to be trying to make some decision as to what to do next, when he was suddenly interrupted.

  "Du Brien, you fool, come over here." Whispered a small rotund bearded man, who wore a scarf over his face.

  Du Brien looked over and instantly he knew the man, to be his fellow accomplice Ubek Qi Tan. He ran over to his co-conspirator, relieved to feel that he was no longer alone and that together they would work out a plan of action. Maybe he could hide out for a while and when UBek Qi Tan's ship came back for him, he could stow away on it and escape the clutches of the king, for surely the king would be obliged to provide Du Brien with a traditional traitors death, which consisted of death by flogging, twenty whips per day, until the traitor finally succumbed to his wounds, which would usually take a week or more before he would finally die!

  Standing now in the corridor, where Ubek Qi Tan was waiting for him, he exclaimed, "Ubek Qi Tan, you need to hide me, for the king knows it was me who was behind the princess's abduction!"

  "Stop you fool." Ubek Qi Tan whispered back towards him, his eyes aflame with anger, for Du Brien had nothing to lose by shouting out the name “Ubek Qi Tan”, but Ubek Qi Tan had everything to lose. For if caught by the king's men, surely they would torture Du Brien, for many days, prior to his execution and his tongue would loosen sooner or later; no Ubek Qi Tan was a ruthless man and he was had no intention of trying to hide Du Brien, for at any time he could be caught and bring Ubek into disfavour with the king.

  "You coward, you fool, you knew the risk and the rewards and now you beg to me like a scolded schoolchild!" Ubek said, his whisper escalating as he did so.

  "But Ubek you must hide me, for if the king catches me, surely his men will torture me and you will be found out, you must help me now, if you know what's good for you." He whispered back excitedly to a now angry Ubek Qi Tan.

  "Oh I know what's good for me alright." He said and taking out his blaster, he switched it onto full charge, which would leave no residue of Du Brien, after he shot him.

  Du Brien realizing what was afoot, stepped back into the courtyard and mumbled, "No Ubek, no, please..."

  Mentioning his name vocally once more, irritated Ubek greatly and with a grunt of anger, he discharged his weapon into Du Brien's chest. Du Brien instinctively raised his hands in self-defence, but it was no good, as the blaster round went straight through his arms and into his chest. There was an instant look of agony on Du Brien's face, for a fraction of a second, then the orange glow, which had started in his chest and which spread across his entire body, head and limbs, leaving an orange outline of where a body used to be, then tiny little sparks seemed to fly off in every direction and then that was it, Du Brien had been completely vaporised by the blaster, from close quarters at full charge levels.

  Meanwhile Colonel kell was just emerging from the dungeon system, when he heard the distinctive "Pew" sound of a blaster been discharged, and then out of the corner of his right eye, he could see the familiar orange flash of a man been vaporised by a blaster at full charge. As he swivelled his head around to the right, for a good two seconds or so, he could very clearly see the outline of Du Brien in a florescent orange glow and the bearded man opposite to him, whose face flickered in that glow. Kell could not make out the man clearly, all he could see was a small, rotund, bearded and angry faced looking man. A second later the glow dispersed into a ball of tiny sparks and the courtyard was dark once again, as it was early morning in the castle of the king.

  "Ooooiiiihhhhh!" Kell exclaimed instinctively and then immediately rebuked himself, for now he had unwittingly alerted the bearded man to his presence. The man stood back into the shadows and in
an effort to catch him, kell ran as quickly as he could, covering the one hundred feet distance, which lay between him and the man within seconds, but just as he arrived there, he saw the shimmering image of the bearded man, as he dematerialized before him.

  "Shit!" Kell exclaimed, as Du Brien was dead and his co-conspirator had gotten away.

  "Commander Karatio?" He shouted down his comms unit.

  "Karatio here?"

  "Commander one of the conspirators has just dematerialized in front of me, can you check for a teleportation trail, chances are he teleported to a nearby ship!"

  "There's no ships in orbit right now Kell, we're the only one up here." Replied a calm sounding Commander Karatio.

  "Then where'd he go to?"

  "I dunno kell, but I'm not getting any signatures up here, he must be still down on the planet somewhere."

  “Can you pinpoint where?”

  “Sorry kell, we are getting thousands of teleporter readings, he must have scrambled the signal, there’s no way we can track him down.” The chief engineer added fatly.

  "Thanks Commander." Kell replied and then then he met up with his squad leader and between them, they continued on with their search of the castle.

  Briefing Room A

  Everything had settled back down again, once the princess had been returned to the king and sitting in the briefing room, were all the senior officers including Trellon, kell, Chandrima, Comander Karatio, Doctor Caskew, Science Officer Jebelt, Intelligence Officer Quro and Communications Officer Pylor, were all sat around the round briefing room table waiting for the captain, who was late as usual.

  "It's been twenty four hours since the princess was reunited with her father and yet we're still up here!" Exclaimed Doctor Caskew, who after spending several days in a fairly comfortable dungeon, was now eager to get back down to the planet surface and at last do some activity, which in turn would make the fearful experience, which they had, more bearable thanks to the good which they could perform with modern medicine. Thousands of people had been killed by Comarin’s Fever, but thousands more could be saved, with several thousand people dying each day, the good doctor was very impatient to get going again. And his irritation had been added to when as soon as they arrived back on the ship, the Artemisian authorities sent back the one hundred and eighty six cases of IXSZ1, as well as all of their equipment!

  "All in good time Doc." Declared Kell, who was lighting up one of his environmentally friendly cigars.

  "Do you have to smoke this thing in here colonel?" Queried an irritated looking Lieutenant Quro.

  "What's your problem Lieutenant, I have the cigar set to neutral scent and its totally non carcinogenic, so what to you care if I light up or not!" Kell said back to him, his voice raising as he did so. While Quro could be a busy body, he wasn't going to go toe to toe with Kell, who could out bully any officer, whom he came in contact with.

  Kell started puffing away on his environmentally friendly cigar, while the others just kept quiet and starred out the Plexiglass viewing window, at the bright bluish greenish planet below.

  Finally fifteen minutes late Captain Jobi entered the briefing room. Everyone instantly straightened up in their chairs, as everyone was fearful for even the slightest reprimand from Captain Jobi.

  "At ease." He said flatly and with that everyone relaxed a bit. Captain Jobi took up his usual chair at the far end of the round table and then he ignored everyone for a couple of minutes, while he leafed through his papers and electronic gadgets. What papers he was looking at nobody ever knew, for he would not tell anyone what he was reading or writing, but it seemed to be that he read voraciously through various reports and statistics, relating to any and every situation which they came across, as Federation officers. Meanwhile everyone kept mum, knowing all too well, from experience, that the captain would not tolerate even the slightest hint of noise; his senior officers simply sat in silence and stared of into the distance, in an effort to pass the time, until the captain was ready to address them.

  "Hhhhhhhm." The captain cleared his throat and began to speak, without looking up, as he seemed to be absorbed by something which he was reading, in one of the papers in front of him.

  "I have just been down to see the king." He said and then briefly looking up, he looked over at the various officers, in front of him, then looking back down again at his notes he went on. "The king sends his regards to all of you and his deep appreciation especially to Commander Trellon, Colonel Kell and Lieutenant Chandrima, for their bravery and innovativeness, regarding capturing the conspirators."

  The captain, once more looked up from his papers, then leaning forward and holding his two hands tightly on the table, he gave his analysis. "The king is happy with us and the relationships between Artemis 11 and the Federation are,” he paused “good." He said, while wobbling his head slightly, as he said the word good, indicating "good" in the loosest sense of the word. "And we are leaving within the next two hours to our next assignment. There’s been a large explosion on Space Station Alpha and rear admiral Rayon wants us to investigate it."

  “When was the explosion captain?” Trellon asked, as he leant forward on his seat with an urgent expression coming over his face.

  “Two hours ago, there are hundreds of casualties. The bomber Rabil Rangha let of a bomb at the Space Navy headquarters.” Replied the captain matter of factly.

  “The space navy headquarters, shit captain that creep has got some nerve!” Kell piped up, only to be cut across by an excited Commander Trellon. “You know for sure it was Rabil Rangha captain?”

  “He used a special chemical explosive, which is his calling card, the explosive been capable of going undetected until all of its constituents are mixed minutes before the bomb detonates, besides this they have visual records of a man fitting his description walking past the space navy HQ, half an hour before the bomb went off.”

  “He’ll strike again captain, he has promised to destroy the space station before.” Lieutenant Quro noted, to which the captain nodded and then said, “Very likely Quro all our Intel indicates this.”

  "What about the medical program captain." Doctor Caskew enquired, while looking over at the captain and leaning forward on his chair, with an inquiring look on his face. “You can beam myself, Science Officer Jebelt, our equipment and the boxes of IXSZ1 down to the planet surface, then pick us back up in a few weeks when you have caught Rabil Rangha or when everything has blown over.” To this the captain simply starred back at Doctor Caskew, so the doctor added, “You don’t really need a science officer on board while tracking a fugitive and my assistants Nurse’s Renk and Palover can cover my duties for a short period of time.”

  "No." The captain replied flatly, while looking over at the doctor, with a disinterested look on his face. "The king feels that it would be imprudent at this time, to run the medical program."

  "Imprudent captain!" Exclaimed the doctor. "More than thirty thousand people have now died of Comarin’s Fever and at least another fifteen to twenty thousand people will die!" The doctor said with rage rising in his voice, as he fed the statistics back to his fellow officers.

  "I know doctor and I'm in agreement with you." Said the captain, with the disinterested look on his face now transmuting into a state of mild interest in the topic. "But there is nothing we can do about it. Our job here, in the Kolatian Quadrant, is to uphold the treaty of San Orora, whereby we prevent the Argillean war from spreading outside of the Quadrant. That's our main purpose."

  "And our second purpose is to reach out to the people of the Kolatian Quadrant, in an effort to win them over and befriend them, so that they disengage their co-operation with the Analusians and Galbraggians and the Vis Yar rebels." Trellon cut in curtly, while fiddling with a pen between his fingers.

  "I know Trell." Replied the captain, while looking over at his commander. "But it's not that simple."

  "The king's head is feeling kind a loose, isn't that the case captain." Kell said, while leaning so fa
r of off his chair, as to nearly fall off of it.

  "Yes precisely colonel." The captain replied. "The king's administration is hanging by threads. His own guard turned against him and his second highest aide was the main conspirator, who in his course murdered the king’s chief minister!"

  "But what about the dying people down there?" Asked the doctor, the look of outrage on his face still persisting.

  "I think doctor, there is nothing which we can do, the king fears that some people will misconstrue our medical program as been a Federation scheme to indoctrinate the planet." Intelligence Officer Quro explained to the doctor, while sitting with a slightly bored expression on his face, as he obviously felt he was explaining something which needed no explanation.

  The Doctor looked around the room for support, finally looking over at science officer Jebelt. But Jebelt just looked over at him with a defeated look on her face and shrugged her shoulders slightly, before folding her arms and looking back over in the direction of the captain.