by Frank Carey
He pulled on his white ponytail while his blue eyes darted from monitor to monitor as he thought about the events of the day. First, there was the call from his agents informing him they had made contact with the captain of the rogue League Warship Protector. They had even arranged for her to meet with him here at the asteroid to discuss their working together to end the war. She was on her way now and should arrive soon, but little did she know of his true plans for her mighty warship.
The second, more pressing problem was the intruder they detected and destroyed near the asteroid this morning. Video records of the incident showed it was the Martok Courier P'Kena, the private yacht of the Princess Arriska herself. A cleanup crew found no trace of the Princess's personal escape pod, so it was assumed she escaped. A detailed search was underway in the hope the pod and its passenger could be retrieved before the League or the Martok could do so.
"Capt. Troon?" a scan tech said from behind him. He turned and saw a pale, white-haired, blue eyed Erdexi descended from the Halcyon ruling class from long ago.
"Yes, what is it?" he replied.
"I found the escape pod."
Troon spun around. "Where?"
“Four hours at point zero one light-speed on a heading directly toward the Northcal Six mining operation.”
"She headed toward the League? Why?"
"Sir, she wasn't alone," the technician said as he brought up a vid. "Our telescopes picked this up." They could see the pod speeding away when a large ship appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the pod before proceeding on its way.
"Course and speed of that ship?"
"Heading toward us at one-tenth light-speed. It continued for another thirty minutes before dropping into FTL space. It proceeded on course for another hour before disappearing."
"You mean it cloaked?"
"No, sir. It disappeared. We can track both League and Martok cloaked ships. This one disappeared without a trace."
"That's impossible."
"That's what we thought sir, but the sensors are drawing a blank."
"Can we identify that ship?"
"We're working on it, sir."
"Work harder! And find it, fast. I don't need it to appear on our doorstep, understood?"
"Yes, sir,"
"Capt. Troon, your 1500 hour appointment has arrived." his assistant said over the intercom.
"Excellent. Feed and water them, and tell them I'll be there shortly."
"Yes, sir."
"Ah, the day is improving. Keep me posted," he said as the door closed behind him.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The LTV Melete prepared for battle as it approached the last known location of Arriska's ship. Muusta brought their limited weapons on line while running checks on their systems with the help of Silvestri. The Melete, like all ships that plied the spaceways at the edge of League space, carried weapons of self-defense. In her case, these included quad blaster arrays mounted amidships on the dorsal and ventral surfaces, and dual arrays port and starboard. Mounted to the rear was a bank of flare and chaff ejectors to ward off missiles, while mounted to the bow was an articulated fifty caliber Gatling gun controlled by the pilot. This setup had served the ship well for many years, and Tobath made it a point to keep it in tip-top shape. Muusta sat down in the weapons control chair and ran checks of the guns’ tracking systems which allowed him to control the four circumferential arrays as a single unit, letting him train a minimum of three arrays on one target for maximum fire power.
In the cockpit, Glit ran checks of all navigation and control systems while making last minute adjustments to her chair and seat belts. In battle, comfort was paramount.
Down in the lounge, Nersa and Kaylon led the others in preparing the ship for rough weather by stowing every loose object down to the pencils they used to write music. They instructed their passengers on evacuation procedures, where the weapons were, how to use the weapons, and techniques for repelling boarders--important information for anyone traveling through the pirate-infested frontier.
In Engineering, Tobath, Arriska, and Gloria ran final systems checks and stored all loose equipment. Before leaving, they activated the defensive system in Silvestri's room which would prevent anyone boarding the ship from accessing the NAVComp. NAVComps, especially advanced ones such as Silvestri, were prime targets for pirates.
When they prepared the ship as much as it could be, the crew and passengers, including Glit, assembled in the lounge for a final briefing. Tobath started by raising the master terminal from its storage space in the floor.
Once the terminal was locked in place, Tobath activated it and called-up a holographic image of the sector they were traveling through, the Melete's position marked with a flashing red dot while their destination was a flashing green dot.
Tobath said to the ever-listening computer system, "Silvestri, overlay P'Kena's course both actual and projected."
A solid green line extended back to Martok space from the green dot while a dashed green line extended toward League space, passing close to the Melete's current position.
"Princess, what happened around the time of the attack?"
Arriska recounted the events that led up to the destruction of the P'Kena.
"Silvestri, can you plot an approximate position for the origin point of the transmission the P'Kena received? Use the pod's duplicate Captain's log."
"Working... Plotted."
"A blinking yellow dot appeared just off the P'Kena's course line."
"Silvestri, plot all known systems within one light-year of P'Kena's last known position."
Nothing happened.
"Silvestri, plot all known Erdexi outposts within one light-year of P'Kena's last known position.
Nothing happened.
"League? Martok?"
Still nothing happened.
"Identify any known installations, lost ships, phantom observances, or space monster sightings."
Blank.
Tobath drummed his fingers on the armorglass surface, his retracted claws making a ticking noise. He looked at Gloria.
"Don't look at me. I've heard nothing about any outpost being built out here."
"Silvestri, query pod databanks and bring up any recorded images of the two attacking ships."
"Working... Displayed."
Images of two ships appeared above the table causing Arriska to press against Tobath, her eyes wide. He put his arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. Reassured, she patted his hand and moved away... a small distance.
"Hey, I recognize those," Miriam said. "They were at the station and left a day later."
"Yeah, they took berths located some distance away from everyone else," Tolk said. "Remember, Silk. Didn't you have words with them?"
Silk closed xis eyes and thought for a moment. "Damn, now I remember. They bought a shit-load of supplies and took the last box of dried ramtha root, which I took offense at. One of them showed me her piece when I expressed my displeasure with their actions."
Nersa reached down and pulled something from a drawer and handed it to the Torsan midlin. It was ramtha root.
"Gods bless you, mistress!" xe said as xe hugged the Storen before opening the bag and eating a piece.
"Silk, what were their species?" Gloria asked.
"Erdexi, but unlike any I've ever seen. These had white hair blue eyes, and pale skin, like they were from the Torsan polar cities.
Tobath and Arriska looked at each other before she said, "Like Vreen, the one who led the attack on the Arriska. He could almost be mistaken for an albino, but two more out here? Could it be?"
"You two scare me when you talk like that," Erik said as he grabbed a root from Silk.
"Sorry," Tobath said. "Many of your League races come in multiple sizes and colors based on a variety of genetic factors influenced by environment and such. Erdexi and Martok have very little diversity. That's why Arriska and I look related even though we share no heritage. There is mention in our database that al
binism appears only in ruling-class Erdexi."
"I think the historians referred to them as Halcyons," Arriska said.
"So, we have two groups of Erdexi, one we now refer to as the Rhannans and the pale ones we think are Halcyons." Gloria said.
"According to captured Erdexi histories, the Halcyons left soon after we were driven out for reasons unknown. There was mention of them relocating to an ice world. It was thought that the Halcyons were from the colder northern climes of the Erdexi home world.”
"Wouldn't they have been wiped out when you returned?" Nersa asked.
"No. The Martok have no interest in ice planets, and there were no such places in known Erdexi space," she said as she started to shiver. Miriam grabbed a blanket from a couch and put it on her narrow shoulders. Arriska smiled at her and mouthed a silent thank you.
"Did this legend mention a location for this ice planet?" Gloria asked, intrigued by the possibilities.
Tobath stood up, looked at her, then Arriska before walking over to a wall where he touched three points on a panel. The panel rose to reveal a safe with a thumbprint reader in the center of its door. Inside was a black box the size of a hardback book. Tobath grabbed it, closed the safe and walked back to the table.
"Mistress, I need your permission to do something that can put this ship at future risk."
Nersa looked at him with a frown forming on her face. "What is that?" she asked, thinking he was holding contraband.
"A copy of the Martok Master Database current as of one month ago."
"How did you get that?" Arriska asked in amazement while Gloria just whistled.
"Do you know what that's worth on the black market?" Gloria asked.
"Yes, I do," he said as he looked down at his princess. "You have no idea how badly you and your mother hurt me. I figured I could get revenge by obtaining this and selling it to the highest bidder. I even found a buyer, but I couldn't do it," he said while pulling something from his pocket. It was a picture of him and Arriska. "I looked at this and realized I was still madly in love with you and could do nothing to hurt you, ever, no matter what you did to me, so I put the drive in the safe where it has remained."
No one in the room said a word. Arriska reached up and hugged him. "Thank you," she said, finally.
Wiping a tear from her eye, Nersa asked, "So, what's the problem?"
"If I load this into our system, our ship becomes a target for pirates if it gets out we have this data. I need the data to find this ice planet, but the database is too large for any of our portable devices," Tobath explained.
"How would it get out that we have it?" Nersa asked.
Everyone at the table turned and looked at their three passengers.
"Hey, we're not snitches," Silk said.
"I agree with Silk," Nersa said quite unexpectedly. "They've been accepted as family and know if they did snitch and put this family in danger I would personally rip their living hearts from their chests and eat them while they were still beating. Problem solved. Load the database," she said as everyone in the room, including Muusta and Gloria, took a step back away from her.
"Right," Tobath said. He looked down and saw he was now standing directly between a wide-eyed Arriska and his adoptive parent. He shook his head and inserted the drive into a slot in the table.
"Silvestri, master access code Arriska-eight-three-five. Voice print Artemis-bow."
"What's an 'Artemis'?" Arriska asked, unfamiliar with the term.
"Earth human goddess of the hunt. Your bow skills are unmatched anywhere I have been," he said. "Remember that hunt where you killed the tegra at one hundred yards with a single shot through its third eye?"
Now, the others took a step away from her. "You're all going to run out of deck," Tobath said as he brought up the database. "Silvestri, location of any habitable ice planets within five light-years of our current position."
A white blinking dot appeared on a direct line away from the wreck of the P'Kena and the supposed location of the source of the mysterious signal, in an unexplored part of Martok space.
"The database has information from almost one hundred fifty thousand standard years ago when the Martok and Erdexi were at peace," Arriska said as Tobath typed commands. A window opened next to the dot and data started scrolling inside it.
"Kinda inhospitable if you ask me," Alby said between chews of root. "No sign of habitation"
Tobath checked the metadata feed "This was from a flyby two standard years ago, part of the recolonization prep. It's been tagged 'n'tack.' "
"What the hell does 'n'tack' mean?" Alby asked.
"Ew!" Arriska replied while scrunching her face in disgust.
"Unsuitable for colonization," Tobath said. "Not worth our time to terraform."
Nersa looked at the numbers and asked, "Could someone be living there?"
"Underground, sure," Tobath said "The planet's core is hot with plenty of magmatic activity recorded. The Martok prefer to live in the open, one reason we hate the Erdexi so much. They forced us to live in spaceships similar to living in caves."
Tobath stared at the white dot as his mind processed data. Around him, the others waited, knowing he was about to come up with a plan.
"What'cha thinking, big guy?" Gloria asked while sipping her tea.
"Gloria, any idea what warships we have nearby?"
"None, they're all at the front."
"What about Protector?"
"Protector... Protector is no longer part of Space Command."
"Excuse me?" Nersa said. "She was the pride of the fleet. What the hell happened to her?"
"The captain and crew mutinied and went privateer. She's been hunting Martok ships with a vengeance."
Instead of anger at the thought of a ship hunting her kind, Arriska looked puzzled. "Are you sure about that? There have been no reports of Protector attacking any Martok asset. Quite the contrary, she has intervened in pirate attacks on five Martok colony ships. I personally recommended Capt. Thurgood and her crew for commendation, though it's a little difficult with our two civilizations being at war and all."
Gloria looked stunned. "My God, everyone at the Cube thinks she's a monster. Ciara has disowned her and her relationship with Ange's cousin, Jason--the guy she almost married--is at an all-time low. She's been painted as a Martok-hunting monster and... Shit, I am so blind," she said as she ran over to the terminal and typed in a series of commands so fast that no one in the room could follow. The computer beeped and an image of Capt. Ange Thurgood formed above the table.
"Go for Protector. Gloria? Where the hell's your suit?"
"I have no time for this. Are you alone?"
"Only the crew is here, if that's what you mean. Where are you?"
"Don't change the subject. What the hell are you and your genius meatball husband up to?"
"Excuse me? Wait a minute, who's that standing behind you? Tobath, is that you?"
Tobath gave a little wave as he moved away from the incensed Gloria.
"Wait a minute, Arriska? You've got the Princess of the Martok Empire with you?"
"Yeah, and the Queen of Hearts is at the bar having drinks with humpty dumpty. Please tell me you didn't mutiny."
Ange stopped and looked at Gloria and her face softened. "How did Ciara take it?"
"She cried for three days before burning every picture of you she had. She swore three vengeances and won't talk to me about it except to mention her plan to rip your heart out and put in on a pike. How do you think she feels?"
"I'm sorry, but I can't discuss it. Don't call me again," Ange said as she cut the connection at her end.
Gloria stood there seething, her claws fully extended while her breathing became more and more ragged. When her knees buckled, Muusta grabbed her and gently lowered her into a chair. Nersa brought her a glass of amber liquid and told her to drink.
"What is it?" she asked after taking a gulp and grimacing.
"Bourbon."
Gloria drained the glas
s. "Thanks. Capt. Thurgood's lying and has been lying about all of this."
"How can you tell?" Erik asked.
"I'm pretty good at reading people and I am convinced she's lying. She and her crew are up to something. She's in deep. We've got to do something to help her."
"How? We don't even know where she is?" Arriska said as she knelt and took Gloria's hand to comfort her while avoiding the claws."
"Silvestri, did you complete the trace?"
"Yes, mistress. It is up on the display as a purple dot."
They all turned and looked at the holodisplay. There, next to the dot representing the origin of the radio signal was a purple dot.
"Listen, I can't ask any of you to join me on this adventure. I suggest you return Arriska to her mother and then head out to the mine. I'll rent a ship there and head out alone."
The others looked at each other before Silk knelt next to her and said, "Yeah, and miss a good fight? Shit, like that's going to happen."
Gloria looked up at Nersa for help and perhaps sanity.
"Tobath is with us because of you and the people on that ship and the people at the Cube. My people consider that a blood debt, and we take those very seriously. We'll join you."
"What about you three?" she said to their passengers.
They looked at each other before Silk spoke for them all. "You have shown us kindness, and Glit is, well, special. We'd like to join you in this."
Nersa looked around the table with her heart filling with pride. "Then it's settled. What's the plan?"
"We go there," Arriska said, taking the role she trained for all her life, "board the Protector and help them with their plan."
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Ange leaned back in her chair and pressed the cold-water glass against her forehead in a vain attempt at warding off the headache she felt coming. She had argued with command about the cover story, but they refused to listen. Now Gloria calls having figured out the first of the plan. Did Blackbeard have days like this? she asked herself. A knock at her door roused her from her musings. "Come."
"Hey, you okay? You look upset?" Charlie said as he walked in, the door closing and locking behind him.
