Jenetta finally received a reply to her message from Captain Kanes. She had to lean forward for a retinal scan to begin decryption, and then sat back to watch.
"Hello, Jen. I hope that you're well. I bet those four gold bars on your shoulders are feeling pretty heavy these days, but hang in there, you're doing a great job. I know that the Admiralty Board is delighted with your performance.
"In response to your inquiry about a ship called the Cestwidge Explorer IV, the company maintains that the ship is not missing. Further, they report that no employees are missing, and that they have no record of employing anyone by the name of Maria Elena Morales or Sarah Lynn Hawkins. Payroll reports, filed for tax purposes with the appropriate governments, support that claim. According to its logs, the ship has never even visited the Argopp system. I've also sent that information on to Vyx in my message to him.
"Supreme Headquarters has decided to take advantage of the opportunity to turn Rivemwilth's base into an outpost. I'm sure that Vice-Admiral Raymond Burke will be in contact with you.
"Good luck, Jen, and take care of yourself.
"Keith Kanes, Captain, Intelligence Section, Higgins Space Command Base, message complete."
Jenetta thought about the message and the meaning of the information, trying to piece things together. The women had obviously lied. The question was why. In the absence of additional supporting data, or documentation such as fingerprints and retinal scans, speculation as to their identities and reasons for deception would be futile. It could simply be because they were wary of Vyx, or it could be something much more sinister.
Receipt of an incoming message from Admiral Burke interrupted Jenetta's reverie. She sat back to view the communication.
"Hello, Captain. I hope this message finds you well and the base situation quiet and stable.
"I know that you have your hands full with the Arrosian matter, but we have another task for you. We've decided to expropriate the former base of the Alyysian arms dealer named Rivemwilth for use as our first outpost in the new Frontier Zone. Captain Kanes has assured us that you're familiar with the situation there. You're to appoint a staff to man the base, make whatever modifications are necessary for its use as an outpost, and provision it. Having an outpost, which can serve as a supply depot, sixty light-years inside the Frontier Zone will be extremely useful to Space Command.
"Good luck, Captain.
"Raymond A. Burke, Vice-Admiral, Space Command Supreme Headquarters, message complete."
Jenetta frowned. A permanent outpost in the Frontier Zone meant permanent responsibility to keep it manned, provisioned, and maintained. Normally, Space Command bases rotate outpost staffs every six months. But the remote location of this one would make that difficult. She would have to establish the rotation schedule as being one year, at least initially. At seventy light-years from Stewart, the round trip was five to seven months. Rivemwilth's old base, already converted for use as an outpost, presented no staffing problems because of its location within regulated space. Quartermaster ships could re-supply it on their way to Stewart, and ships on patrol rotated the staffs. But all ships sent to the new outpost would have to be warships because of the higher threat level in the Frontier Zone.
Jenetta sent a memo to the base personnel officer to begin working up a list of personnel for the first deployment. She would also have to reassign one of the ships already assigned to patrol duties. That would leave them one patrol ship short for four months, and they already had far too few for the territory that they had to cover. But it was unavoidable. At least there were several additional ships on their way to Stewart, including the one carrying the diplomatic teams. It was unfortunate that they were still months away.
* * *
Chapter Nine
~ June 27th, 2275 ~
Vyx was thankful that he viewed the message from Captain Kane in private. Over the past few weeks he, Byers, and Nelligen had become friendly with the two women and an atmosphere of trust had started to develop. In just the time it took to view the message, that all changed. If the women had lied about their identities, their occupations, and the circumstances that led to their capture and enslavement, what else had they lied about?
Waiting until dinner before bringing up the subject, Vyx said, "Oh, Maria and Sarah, I received a message today that Space Command has already dispatched a ship to pick you up. They've requested that we send them handprints and retinal scans because they've found dozens of people on Earth with the same names as yours and they don't want to contact the wrong families regarding your rescue. After we clean up we can do the scans and send them off."
The two women looked at each other and then Maria said nonchalantly, "Okay, Vyx."
After the meal, Maria tried to avoid having her handprints and retinal image recorded, complaining of cramps. But Vyx insisted, saying that it would take only seconds to complete and then Maria could go to bed, if she wished. Vyx completed the scans quickly and attached them to a message that he had prepared earlier. After sending it off, he smiled at the women. "That's all, ladies."
"When do you expect the ship to get here?" Maria asked. She seemed to have fully recovered from the cramps.
"Oh, as early as tomorrow morning I guess. It might be two days, though. The ship was already in the Frontier Zone, responding to a call for help from a freighter with a temporal generator problem. They just have to divert slightly. You'll be on your way back to your lives with the mining company or your families real soon."
* * *
Maria shook Sarah's shoulder gently, and the two women climbed out of the enormous bed in Rivemwilth's bedroom that they had been sharing since regaining their freedom. They dressed quickly and quietly in the Tsgardi clothing that they had been using, and walked silently to the bedroom door. It was a little after 0300 according to the just barely visible chronometers in the very low illumination of the corridors.
Making it to the airlock that led to the flight bay, the two women donned EVA suits they found hanging in lockers there. Byers' suit was much too large, so they used Nelligen and Vyx's suits. Although those suits were too large also, they only had to wear them long enough to get to the Scorpion, parked beneath the overhanging roof right outside the airlock.
With the oversize suits sealed and tested, they engaged the door opening mechanism of the airlock. Both immediately froze as the door rolled back. Vyx was standing there inside the airlock, with his laser pistol drawn.
What happened next surprised even Vyx. He would never have believed that anyone could move that fast in a bulky EVA suit, but Maria managed to execute a spin and kick that sent the pistol flying from his hand. Unfortunately, for her, the weight and bulkiness of the suit made her fall victim to the simple laws of physics. Sir Isaac Newton's first law states that a body at rest tends to remain at rest, while a body in motion tends to remain in motion. She lost her balance when she tried to stop, and the action of her spin caused her to keep turning. She crashed into Sarah, who was standing next to her, and both women crumpled to the deck. Vyx had recovered his weapon by the time the women had disentangled themselves and managed to stand up. He stepped back out of range of any more kicks.
"I'm impressed, Maria. That was a very bold move for someone who seemed so thoroughly subjugated. Overall, it's been quite an acting job. Now, remove our EVA suits. We have something else that you can wear."
Removing a small remote control from his pocket, Vyx pressed a button that initiated an emergency alert condition in the facility. Ten seconds after the alert lights had started flashing, and klaxons began to sound throughout the base, Byers and Nelligen came running down the corridor in their underwear.
Vyx watched the two women, with his pistol drawn, while Nelligen attached the leg irons to their ankles. They were now back where they started when the three agents found them, except that they had pillows and blankets this time. Vyx permitted them to keep the Tsgardi uniforms that they had been wearing, after he searched them for possible weapons, or a
nything that they might use to free themselves.
"This should prevent you from trying to leave again tonight," Vyx said yawning. "I thought that you'd never make a break for it. I was getting pretty sleepy waiting for you. I'm going to catch some zzz's now. We can all have a nice talk later this morning. Sleep tight."
The two women stared down at the floor and never uttered a word. Instead of putting the keys onto the hook inside the door, Vyx dropped them into his pocket and left the room. Nelligen and Byers followed, turning off the lights as they left.
Sleeping until after ten a.m., Vyx showered and shaved before joining Byers and Nelligen in the mess hall.
"How did you know that they'd try to escape last night?" Byers asked.
"I told them that a ship was arriving to pick them up today. That had to make them believe that it might be their only chance to get away."
"Why did they have to get away?" Nelligen asked.
"Space Command checked out their story. Cestwidge denies having any employees unaccounted for, denies that anyone with the names that the women gave us have ever worked for the company, and denies that the Explorer IV has ever been to the Argopp system. Everything the two women told us was a lie."
"What's the truth then?" Byers asked.
"I don't know. I've sent the handprints and retinal scans to Kanes, but we'll have to wait until we hear back. There's no sense asking the women. They'd only spin some other yarn."
"Then the ship isn't coming today?"
Vyx smiled. "No. That was just a lie that I used to get them to make their escape attempt immediately, if that was their plan. I didn't want to spend the next two months sitting in the airlock each night. That's how long it will be before a ship will arrive here to officially establish this as an SC outpost."
"I still can't understand why they didn't tell us the truth," Byers said.
"We'll find out eventually. Until then they stay chained up. Even if the Tsgardi smell is starting to dissipate, this base loses all of its appeal if we have no transportation off. There's a comfortable feeling in knowing that the Scorpion is ready to lift off at a moment's notice."
* * *
A little more than two weeks later, a message arrived from Captain Kanes at Intelligence. After viewing it, Vyx asked Nelligen and Byers to bring the two women to the communications room.
When they arrived, more than a bit grungy and disheveled from having spent the previous two weeks chained to the floor, Vyx tapped the play button again, and leaned in for the retinal scan. The image of Captain Kanes appeared on the screen.
"Hello Commander. Using the scans that you forwarded, we've been able to identify the two women. It turns out that they're ours. The brunette is Lieutenant Brenda Cardiz and the blonde is Lieutenant(jg) Kathryn Earlich. We haven't heard from them in almost a year. Their last known location was the Duzzero colony on Ferdic Three. They were working the same case as you, from a different angle. You should allow them to make their reports and then accord them all the courtesy normally afforded fellow agents in a secure location.
"Keith Kanes, Captain, Intelligence Section, Higgins Space Command Base, message complete."
Vyx turned to face the two women, who had stood quietly listening to the message.
"You're a Commander in Intelligence?" Brenda, formerly known as Maria, asked with surprise in her voice.
"Lieutenant Commander Victor Gregorian at your service," he replied. "You could have saved yourself two weeks of discomfort if you'd been a little more honest with us."
"How were we supposed to know that all of you are working for Intelligence?" Brenda asked. "As far as we knew, you were just traders in illegal arms. We never actually saw the bodies of the Tsgardi that you say you killed. It could have all been a ruse to get us to reveal our true identities, and the ship coming to get us might have been another Tsgardi vessel. Knowing how few Space Command vessels are on patrol in the Frontier Zone, it was a little too convenient that one would suddenly be available to pick us up with just a few days notice. What would you have done in our place?"
Vyx scratched his chin. "The same thing I guess. It's a good thing that I was able to stop you from making it to my ship."
"Why? The SC ship would have picked you up."
"My ship is booby trapped. If you somehow managed to get past the entry hatch explosive charges, trying to activate the ship's launch controls would surely have blown you and it into a thousand pieces."
The women stared at him impassively.
"The Space Command destroyer Ottawa should be here in six weeks to set up this base as a Space Command Outpost. You can grab a ride back with them when they leave."
"Where are you going?"
"We'll be heading back to Scruscotto. We'll wait here until the Ottawa shows up though."
"You don't have to stay on our account."
"We're not. We're staying here because those are our orders."
Brenda nodded. "Can we take showers and put on clean clothes before making our reports?"
"Suit yourself. You have the run of the base again. But please don't try to get into my ship. I'd hate to see you splattered all over the moon's surface, almost as much as I'd hate to lose my ship."
After a good night's sleep in a bed, the women were in a better mood. They began opening up now that they knew they were in the company of fellow agents.
"You said that you killed Rivemwilth," Brenda said. "How?"
"I didn't say that I killed him. I said that he made the mistake of cheating my associates and me, and that he was in Hell. I've established myself as an unsavory, but reputable, member in the criminal circles. I contracted to move his arms cache to this new base from the old one. We borrowed a large transport from Space Command at Stewart, telling Rivemwilth that I stole it during all the confusion at the new base. Space Command installed a special tracking device so that they could follow us out of sensor range. Upon receiving a call from me, they were to move in and take the ship. I'd removed all the detonators from the torpedoes so they couldn't explode, and the laser arrays would short out after a couple of shots.
"Everything was going well until Rivemwilth double-crossed us and left us marooned at his old base with all the com gear destroyed. He only got two weeks into his trip before the explosive charges that I had rigged, let go. They shut down the light engines, locked all the airtight doors wide open, and blew a couple of dozen holes in the hull. Everyone on board was incapacitated in minutes. They died of asphyxiation a few minutes later. Space Command moved in and took the ship after observing it sitting in space for a month, but it was a month too late for those aboard. Rivemwilth's body has been positively identified."
"Then you really do booby trap your ships?"
"Of course I do. If I'm not around to stop them, anyone attempting to steal a ship of mine won't get very far. They may not even get inside the doors. Now, how about telling us about you?"
"As Kanes said, Kathryn and I were working the stolen weapons case. We were in Duzzero following the trail of a crate of laser rifles allegedly sold to a particularly nasty character named Nuxxisty, a Cheblookan. He was looking to foment a tiny rebellion on his home planet because of an excessive property tax bill on his ranch that resulted in it going on the auction block. We intercepted him before he could return to execute his plan and we recovered the rifles. During the interrogation, he gave us the name of the seller and we moved in, but they had a lot more help than Nuxxisty told us about. They took us down, and we found ourselves in the brig of a Tsgardi transport when we awoke. The rest of the story that we told you is true. They transferred us to a small ship and brought us here. I imagine they intended for Rivemwilth to interrogate us, and then sell or turn us over to the Raiders as slaves. Rivemwilth's delayed arrival, and your timely arrival, saved our skins."
"You're sure that the transport was Tsgardi? Not just a ship with Tsgardis working on it?"
"Oh, absolutely. There was junk piled everywhere in the corridors. No captain, except possibl
y a Tsgardi, would ever allow that. Tsgardi never throw anything away if it has the remotest possible value."
"I wonder what a Tsgardi transport ship was doing near Ferdic Three. They rarely come into normal GA space unless they're on a mission."
"They were probably dropping off the crate of rifles. Ferdic Three isn't that far inside the border."
"An entire transport vessel to drop off a crate of rifles? Times aren't that tough. It has to be something much larger. If they dropped off the rifles, it had to be just a side errand."
"There haven't been any raids in normal space since the Battle for Stewart, and most people think that the Raiders are gone for good. Space Command has even mothballed Carver, according to what you've told us."
"The Raiders aren't gone for good; they've just gone underground for a while. I doubt that we'll ever be able to eradicate them completely. And if we did, some other criminal group would simply spring into existence to take their place. Except in outer space, nature abhors a vacuum. The Raiders have merely returned to their old businesses of drugs, gun running, prostitution, and slavery. They had grown so large fifteen years ago that piracy had become not only possible, but a logical extension of their growth. But by becoming such a serious threat to interstellar commerce and passenger traffic, they made themselves a prominent target. And by becoming so active, they lost their ability to hide effectively. We were able to find their fleets and some of their bases, and destroy them. Just for the record, by the way, Captain Carver isn't mothballed. She's the supreme military commander for this entire region of space. She's the one that dispatched the destroyer to make this an outpost."
Milor! Page 9
