Annals of the Keepers - Deception

by Christiaan Hile

  I decided to back out of the take down and retreated back to Mistuuk.

  “What’s wrong, Rels?”

  “We’re going to move,” I said.

  “Why didn’t you kill him?”

  I didn’t answer him and looked around. The guard had approached the far end of the row and turned down another side street He was heading back around to the front of the building our contact was in.

  “Let’s go. Now.”

  We moved up the road and to the side of the building. Most of the outskirts were abandoned, so no worries of stumbling upon residents and would-be eyes.

  The back of the targeted building had a staircase leading up to a door and one leading down to an underground room. We took the lower one.

  Mistuuk was on my side, his Slammer pistol ready. The little guy didn’t miss a beat as we approached.

  When we got down to the landing and the bottom-rear door, it was ajar.

  I pulled a pistol from my side. Mistuuk readied his.

  I motioned for him to hold.

  I pulled up my bio scanner and activated it for only a few seconds. I didn’t want our friends, whoever they were, to detect any active tech.

  There was one life form inside on the second floor. The readings showed Vrae. Given her stature, it was probably our female contact.

  The scan revealed she was in a kitchen area preparing food. No other life signs were in the building.

  I grabbed and slid the door open without making a sound when I heard the noise behind us.

  The guard had returned on his patrol.

  I signaled the Cuukzen in. I followed and, as fast and quiet as I could, slid the door back to its cracked position to avoid detection. Not that the guard noticed the gape in the door from his position, but you never wanted to give any reason for someone to check something that caught their eye that seemed out of the ordinary.

  We entered through a hall then to a flight of stairs. I went first. As we got to the top, I did another quick scan. No changes. No one else except the Vrae.

  I told Mistuuk to hold, as I needed to approach our guest from behind and muffle any surprise she may have upon seeing us.

  Not the best way to introduce yourself to a contact; but, with our Comondon friends outside, I’ll apologize afterwards.

  When the long-haired Vrae turned her back to me, I made my way from the stairs and approached her from behind.

  I grabbed her mouth and pulled her to me. My mask translated my apologies as she tried to scream and fight her way from my grasp, “Don’t worry. I’m not going to hurt you. Please, remain calm.”

  Her struggling slowed.

  “We were sent by Panu. We’ve come for the Gashnee Ancients.”

  Her body relaxed and she nodded in understanding.

  I released my hold and let her turn around to face me.

  Her big, beautiful eyes widened even further at the sight of my mask. A slight gasp issued from her full lips.

  “Oh, my apologies,” I said as I went to remove my disguise. It was a mistake I would soon regret, though.

  I was removing my mask to make her feel more comfortable without the sight of the bizarre, mechanical alien appearance when it hit me.

  The reason I regretted taking it off was, as I removed the seal and peeled it away, I had noticed that the contact that stood before me was not the old woman Blink had mentioned; rather, a very young and attractive Vrae female.

  This was not our contact.

  Who the hell was she then?

  I smiled while placing my draw hand down close to my side.

  This could get interesting. How interesting, is the real question and we were about to find out.

  Data Cell 31

  “I have never been more embarrassed in all of my professional career. I don’t appreciate being put in that position, Mordon,” The Sent-5 Assemblyman declared.

  Mordon Tallis stood up from his chair behind his desk, “I am sorry, Kayleon. It was not my intention to embarrass you. You’re far too kind a person, and far too great a mind, to have to be put in that position. Again, my deepest apologies.”

  The Assemblyman tilted her head down, her one red eye closed slightly. Tallis wondered if she was showing emotion through her robotic features. Not as a Human would, but as much as one could as an artificial sentient life form.

  “It’s not you, Mordon. I guess I had to see for myself what I already knew.”

  “What’s that, Kayleon?”

  “That Commander Parejas doesn’t like me in any sense. I felt his hatred for my kind. I could see it in his eyes.”

  Tallis moved to the couch and sat down next to her. “Like he should have completed the task of eliminating the Sent-5 program with you?

  “Yes,” she admitted.

  “I understand. I really do. I’ve had to deal with the commander for some time with his ardent stance on Marshal Law for the colony. He can be a very stubborn man.”

  The computer chimed, [Captain Nevlen Bossarios is awaiting entry, Assemblyman.]

  “Thank you. Have him enter,” he responded, turning towards Kayleon, “We will see what our friend has to say about the matter.” Tallis smiled at Kayleon and patted her on the shoulder for support. He stood to greet his guest, “Hello again, Captain. Thank you for coming.”

  Nevlen approached the two, “Assemblymen, I am sorry for my timing. My visit must be brief. I am called for a briefing amongst my troops.”

  Tallis gestured, “Please, Captain, tell us what you’ve heard.”

  “I first want to apologize to Assemblyman Qurinden. I thought Commander Parejas’ tone was uncalled-for during your visit.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” Kayleon replied.

  “I personally have never seen him so hate-filled towards anyone.

  Tallis interrupted, “Thank you for your understanding in this matter, Captain. We all know what the commander thinks about the Sent-5 program.”

  “I wanted to come and tell you about the Gashnee mission.” His remark grabbed Kayleon’s interest.

  “What Gashnee mission?”

  “It looks as though Parejas has teamed the Cuukzen we captured up with our Provost Marshal, Rels Sentel. They are looking for the Gashnee Ancients in the Greater Rings System as we speak.”

  “Fascinating,” Qurinden said.

  Tallis’ hand was to his chin in a curious look, “That’s strange. Why would he go search for something that was already deemed implausible by our lead Keepers regarding the Gashnee? Shouldn’t our focus be on the Kryth?”

  “Commander Parejas believes it to be a valid lead from what he has learned at the Adytum,” Nevlen followed.

  Tallis turned and walked about the office in thought, “This may come in handy. We could use this knowledge to get Assemblyman Qurinden an apology from the commander.”

  “I don’t want to press the commander. I don’t need the attention or an enemy within the Ordinance,” she considered.

  Tallis responded, “Yes. We wouldn’t put you in that position again, Kayleon. We will have the captain here help you in regaining the commander’s trust. Parejas owes you an apology and Captain Bossarios will help you in getting it. Won’t you, Captain?”

  Nevlen was taken aback, but agreed, “Yes. I will do what I can, Assemblyman.”

  She stood, “Thank you, Captain. It is good to know I have a friend in the military who doesn’t look at me as an abomination.”

  “Well now,” Tallis said, “it looks as if we have a plan to rebuild the trust between our two factions of government. We’ll keep this information between us, of course. Let us now go and have a good dinner out on the terra-deck,” directing towards Kayleon, “We’ve wasted too much of the Captain’s good time. He needs to get back to his duties.”

  “You haven’t wasted my time, Assemblyman. I enjoy your company and our conversations; to include your pleasant company as well, Assemblyman Qurinden.”

  She nodded towards the captain.

  “Very well, Captain. Let u
s part, so you may continue your obligations, and for us to fulfill a biological function; eating.” Tallis said with a lighter tone.

  Data Cell 32

  I stood there in the room looking at the beautiful Vrae female. I didn’t know how this was going to go. She wasn’t the old Vrae woman I was expecting; then again, her pleasant looks didn’t bother me for a minute. It was what was going to come out of her mouth. Nothing could have prepared me for what happened next, though.

  “Thanks for taking off the mask,” she said, broken, “I now know which language to use, Human.”

  Knowing my own language was a bit unsettling, even if she couldn’t speak it very well.

  She did use a good ploy to have me remove my mask, “Well played,” I acquiesced in return.

  Her pleasant stare didn’t last long after her greeting, as her wonderful lips widened with a sinister smirk.

  We had fallen into another trap. I couldn’t remember the last time I was schooled so badly, but it was back in my cadet phase, I’m sure.

  My first reaction was to give her a warm greeting with my pistols. My second was to introduce her to the Cuukzen and have his Slammer remove that smirk right off her Vrae face. My third thought was broken by the sound of heavy footfalls behind me.

  The Comondon was on top of me as I turned to look. He must have had a shroud-veil, as he was not picked up on the bio scan I did earlier.

  I never had time to react before I saw the micro-lash around the bull-beast’s neck. His forward movement was halted and drawn backwards as Mistuuk lassoed the large figure.

  The Comondon stumbled over, the wee Cuukzen kneeling behind him, sending him crashing to the floor. Mistuuk was up, pointing his Slammer pistol in my direction. My second choice had come through.

  “Down, Rels!”

  I dropped to the floor where I stood. The sound that reverberated in the small dwelling would get the guard’s outside attention for sure, maybe even the ones a few blocks from here.

  The room the Vrae was standing in was splintered to pieces as the Slammer rounds exploded outward, ripping into everything. Glass shattered, metal shredded, and anything that wasn’t solid and bolted in place blew into a fine powder.

  I got up and drew both my BT-10s. I looked back at the Comondon, who was choking on his own blood from the constriction-wire placed there by Mistuuk.

  I waved Mistuuk to the main entrance to expect more guests. I entered the dust-filled kitchen, looking for parts of our Vrae substitute. What I found on the floor was more disturbing than finding her body parts. Lightly coated in the floating dust on the floor, it wasn’t another artificial.

  It was a grenade blinking up at me.

  She was gone.

  “Get down!” I yelled and ran towards Mistuuk.

  Boom! The blast engulfed the area, propelling us against the door. Furniture shrapnel followed next, behind the concussion blast.

  I didn’t have time to collect myself before the door we were laying against began to open.

  “Down the stairs and back to the path,” I told Mistuuk, “You cover our back from here on out.”

  “I got them,” he responded. The usual whimsical tone associated with the little guy was replaced with a cold grasp of the situation we found ourselves in.

  I thought of the take down of the Comondon and his instant reaction to assaulting the Vrae female after. He’s starting to come in handy.

  The trap seemed set. Whoever the Vrae was, she not only knew we would be here, but now knew who I am. We were falling behind and on the run.

  I looked at the scanner. Seven life forms incoming, “We have three coming through that door. I’ll clear the stairs to the rear. Meet you there.”

  I ran towards the back stairs we came up, just in time to see the snouted face of the bull coming up.

  My pistols strafed the stairwell they were ascending. I caught two as they collapsed on the stair casing.

  I heard the sound of my partner covering his end, as there was no mistaking the resonance of the Slammer going off.

  The door to the bottom room was open when the other two retreated. I could hear the sound of rain coming down outside. At least it was night and we would have the cover of darkness to aid us, if we got out of the building alive.

  Mistuuk came up from behind, “Front’s clear. Targets are down. I trapped the hallway behind us. Should give us a good defensive flank.”

  I just stared at him. Who is this guy? A sound snapped me back to the door, “We have at least two outside, probably more. I was thinking flashers and smoke set to a three second delay.”

  “Sounds good. We should head around to our left, away from the ship. I’m guessing they know how we came.”

  “Right,” I agreed as I put on my mask. Need to be able see when those flashers go off, “Ready?” I looked at Mistuuk.

  He was placing on protective goggles as well. “Ready?” He said.

  “You thought of everything, didn’t you?”

  The little guy just smiled at me.

  I set the devices and hurled them out the door, “Go!”

  They detonated. The flashers went off first, five rapid flashes, followed by the smoke bursts.

  We exited and made our way opposite our ship.

  Plasma bolts flashed in all directions. I could see several Comondons moving around in the smoke blindly, trying to grasp what had happened. A few of their own bolts found their own men. Screams from the beasts issued as we ran past.

  Clearing the smoke, we came to the end of a row of buildings along a cliff-side bluff, “Here. Down the alley,” I said.

  We proceeded up the alley, unscathed and in a full sprint, through the torrent of rain. We would try and make our way around the opposite side and back to the ship. That idea was cut short by the smell of burnt plasma right above us.

  The first explosive bolt hit a conduit line that was traversing the buildings in front of us. Sparks showered the alleyway. We landed behind a venting pipe to one of the buildings.

  “Sniper,” Mistuuk observed.

  “Yeah. To our front, about fifty meters ahead.”

  Another bolt impacted the vent. Hissing steam shot from its side.

  I looked back down the alley of mud and dirt. I heard an explosion.

  “I set some traps, Rels.”

  “Good work. That’ll buy some time.” I looked around at our options. “This is a good trap we find ourselves in. Sniper holding us down until more troops arrive.”

  “That’s what I would do,” Mistuuk commented.

  “Yeah, me too.”

  Another explosion rocked behind us.

  “How many traps did you set?”

  “I set four, Rels.”

  Two more to go, I thought. I knew we were outnumbered and the ship was being guarded. Someone knew we were coming and wanted us dead. No chance of a live capture here. Whoever she was, she knew what she was doing.

  Looking around, I noticed the ore lift running above the buildings. An ore cart traversed the mag-track. That’s our way out, I thought.

  “Mistuuk, the ore carts. We can use them as an escape route to the other side of the town near the factories. The carts will give us cover.”

  “Good thinking, Rels.”

  “The lift is two blocks up past the alley. I’ll hold off the sniper until we can make the corner.”

  “I’ll cover our flank,” he said, just as a third explosion went off.

  “Move,” I ordered, raising my pistols towards the sniper and releasing a rapid barrage of ten shots from my repeater pistols.

  The sniper got off an inaccurate shot as my rounds impacted around the rooftop they were positioned. I continued to fire to keep them distracted as we moved. Plasma bolts started to flash past us from behind as the last of the devices Mistuuk set went off.

  “We have Comondons approaching from the rear,” the Cuukzen called out.

  We made the corner and continued down the row towards the ore lift.

  The streets bega
n to come alive as our little foray caught others’ attention. Lights were coming on late into the night while miners and merchants emptied into the streets from the commotion.

  We ran through the crowd to the other end of the town, near the edge of the open pit.

  Auto-haulers loaded ore onto the carts to be lifted up to the mag-track system. The behemoth machinery ran eighteen hours a day and all through the night. They loaded the mined product to be taken to the factories on the other side of the rim.

  This was going to be our transportation out of here.

  I blew open the gate enclosure to the lift. An ore cart was about to be filled by a hauler, but we filled the space instead by jumping into the cart. The large arm which was going to drop mineral in the cart detected it was full, moving to the cart behind and unloading its cargo there.

  Our cart got moved to the lift and began the fifty meter ascent.

  “I’m pretty sure the Relentless is being guarded,” I said as I opened my holo-wrist link.

  It flashed open and scrolled up my ship’s commands.

  “What are you doing, Rels?”

  “I’m going to have the Relentless take off and rendezvous with us somewhere else. Then, I want to find out who our mystery girl is.”

  “I know who she is.”

  I stopped what I was doing to look at my partner. “Really?”

  “Yep.”

  “Who is she, then?”

  Before the little guy could open his mouth, the impact of plasma bolts hit the side of the cart.

  I sneaked a peak over the edge.

  There she was, the sniper, firing while running over rooftops towards us.

  Our Vrae contact’s substitute was not an ordinary female of the Vrae Empire, she was different. She made the last rooftop with ease as she bounded over, landing and rolling without missing a beat. She was headed straight for the lift scaffolding.

  “She’s never going to make it,” I said as I watched her leap from the edge of the last building she was on, over the fence we entered, landing on the side lattice work of the lift tower, “Okay, never mind. Who the hell is she?”