by Rodney Smith
He stood up and clasped Sensor Technician T’Get by the shoulder.
“Sensor Technician Second Class T’Get, you will not talk of this to anyone. I concur with your analysis. I am forwarding your discovery directly to the Imperial Analytical Cabal. If they concur with what you and I see, I will recommend that you be promoted immediately to Sensor Technician First Class. You have done a great service to the Empire.”
Sensor Lead Technician H’Talli left the Combat Information Center to seek an audience with the captain.
* * * * *
It was departure time for Kelly’s patrol. The crew was ready. The ship was ready. The captain was ready. “Exec, are we ready to lift off?”
LTJG Cortez looked up from her display, which showed green indicators from all ship’s sections and replied, “All sections report ready. Chief Billings has the quarterdeck. The gangplank is down. Awaiting your orders, sir.”
Kelly took a look around the bridge. All personnel were in their places. He envisioned his ship as a coiled spring ready to be set free. He keyed his communicator and said, “Chief Billings, bring up the gangplank and secure the quarterdeck watch.”
Kelly heard the gangplank come up and lock in place. He felt a slight pressure change in his ears, signifying a good seal on the gangplank hatch. Chief Billings joined them, reported the gangplank up, locked, and the quarterdeck watch secured. He took his position as Chief of the Watch. The ship was ready for space.
Kelly keyed his mike again. “Antares Base, this is Vigilant, requesting permission for take off.”
“Vigilant, this is Antares Base, you are cleared for take off. Good luck and good hunting.”
“Helmsman, take us up, standard departure, 0.5c once we clear the atmosphere. Yeoman, start the log.”
“Standard departure, 0.5c once we clear the atmosphere, aye, sir.”
As they cleared the atmosphere Kelly said, “Chief, Billings would you enter our course?”
“Aye aye, Captain. Navigator, your course is coming up.”
Kelly scanned the navigation screen for ships in their path and said, “Helm, as soon as we clear the minimum safety distance, engage FTL Power 4 and let’s get out of here.”
The helmsman entered and verified the course, then replied, “Course is locked in, minimum safety range in six seconds, five, four, three, two, one, engaging FTL Power 4.”
Kelly stood up. “Exec, you have the first watch. Chief Blankenship, join me in my ready room.”
As the captain and Chief B left, LTJG Cortez passed the conn to Chief Billings and checked on conditions in other sections of the ship. Gunnery was squared away. Sensors were squared away. The galley smelled yummy. Engineering was unmatched.
She went to Chief Miller and asked, “Chief, have you run diagnostics on the engine synchronizers?”
Chief Miller wiped his hands clean on the rag he always kept handy. “Yes, ma’am, I’ve run full diagnostics on the three active and two spares. All check out within 2% of specifications or better.”
“Good, the last word my old boss gave me was to try and discourage the captain from full stop to max speed runs if any of the synchronizers are more than 5% out of spec. If that happens with any of the active synchronizers, let the captain and I know immediately.”
“Yes, ma’am, will do.”
“By the way, Chief, what level G-force did the hull pull during our mad acceleration? My monitor was on engine instrumentation, not hull stresses.”
“Ma’am, my gauges showed a peak of 6 G’s on initial thrust, leveling off to 4 G’s upon climbing through FTL Power 4, and dropping to 2 G’s just before we hit top speed. We were well within specs for the stabilizers. They max out at 8 G’s.”
“Thanks Chief, good work.”
Connie worked her way back to the bridge, stopping off in the galley for a cup of coffee and a roll.
Staring out the view screens at the cosmos, now that the ship was on reduced patrol lighting, she could make out galaxies by the score. She didn’t think she would ever get used to the immense beauty of it. Connie really loved being in space.
Chief B leaned her head out of the captain’s ready room door and motioned her in. Kelly told her to come in and have a seat at the conference table.
“Chief B is going for some tea and coffee. When she gets back, we’ll go over a schedule for drills I want to run.”
Chief B was back presently with a tray of cups, a pot of tea, and a carafe of coffee. Kelly pulled a small container of sweeteners and creamers from a shelf.
As they fixed their drink of choice, Kelly began listing the drills he wanted to concentrate on. Between the three of them, they placed the drills into the various watch schedules, to spread the training benefit to the whole crew. While they were finishing up the task, a knock came on the door and Yeoman Benitez stuck her head in the door.
“Captain, message for you from Admiral Craddock.”
Kelly frowned. A message sent through deep space comms couldn’t be good news.
“Excuse me, all. I’ll need the room.”
He took the data drive from Yeoman Benitez while they all filed out onto the bridge, leaving him alone. He fed the data into his terminal and read the screen that appeared:
To: Commanding Officer, GRS Vigilant
From: Commanding Officer, Scout Force
Subject: Change to Orders
Proceed to patrol sector vicinity Rigel-Aldebaran trade route, rendezvous with Fleet Reporting Officer Bennett. Proceed to Rigel Station and, at first opportunity, contact Mr. Roger Delphant, of Debran Industries, to arrange meeting with Mr. Friedrich Debran, re: Disappearance, in sector, of Mrs. Julia Debran and two daughters, Christine and Sylvia. Extreme pressure to locate Debran family is being placed on Fleet by Senate Defense Committee Chair. You will be senior Fleet representative in sector, pending decisions being made at Fleet HQ regarding reinforcing your mission. Fully inform Mr. Debran of our intentions to locate his family and secure their safe return. Upon completing briefing to Mr. Debran, make all efforts to locate and return three Debran women and carry out original mission. Will advise. Good luck. Good hunting.
Craddock.
He called his exec, Chief B and Yeoman Benitez back into his ready room, “Yeoman, please log this message.”
“Exec, Chief we got a doozy handed to us. It seems a Mr. Debran of Debran Industries, Inc. has misplaced his family and has the Senate putting extreme pressure on Fleet to locate them. As we will be the Fleet presence in sector for the foreseeable future, we are…no, I am tasked with meeting with Mr. Debran and giving him a warm and fuzzy.”
Kelly printed the message and handed it to Connie and Chief Blankenship to read. They each read it in turn and passed it back.
“Chief B, did you notice the name of his go between?”
“Yes, sir, I did. I wonder if he is related to the late Charles Delphant of the Indigo Consortium? He must be or it would be too large a coincidence.”
Connie looked puzzled.
“Exec, Charles Delphant was the head of the Indigo Consortium, until he died in a suspicious office fire. Company executives travelling on their ships were meeting with K’Rang agents along the frontier and passing military and other information in exchange for large quantities of flamestones. The Vigilant captured enough flamestones to finance almost half the Valiant class of scout ships. We monitored several of their meetings and even snatched some K’Rang couriers. It gave us the info we needed to ambush the K’Rang invasion fleet at New Alexandria.”
Connie’s eyes got wider and wider as Kelly recounted the Vigilant’s exploits. She realized Scout Force was far different than her life in R&R had been. She had a lot to learn.
Kelly put the message into his dispatch case and concentrated on finishing the drill schedule. There was little he could do until he met with Alistair and had some idea of the situation. As the meeting broke up, he had Chief B get with sensors to dig up all they could on Mr. Debran and his company. He told LTJG Cortez to increa
se speed to FTL Power 5. There was no use dawdling.
* * * * *
The luxury passenger ship bearing Julia Debran and her daughters made the perilous passage to Barataria through the Pleiades star cluster. Thorson had made the journey many times and he knew just where to travel and when to signal the recognition code. It took him three days to complete the passage, because the ship developed an unfortunate tendency to drift off course as the occasional gravity eddies would stretch out their tendrils and attempt to pull them in. It was not a life threatening issue, as a tug would come get them out if he miscalculated and got sucked in, but his professional pride would not let him get sloppy. He took it slow and arrived at the moon of Barataria only two days behind his original estimate.
As he approached the artificial moon, its massive door opened to let him inside the cavernous globe left behind by that mysterious missing civilization. He called for gate assignment and was told to dock at gate 16. Security met him at the airlock and took the Debrans off his hands. He told the security chief to make sure nothing happened to them, as he would be looking in on them. The Ascetic didn’t even respond to the poorly veiled threat, but walked off with the three women to a detention cell, until the shuttle was ready to depart for the planet. A female Ascetic gathered up some clothes for the Debrans and followed along behind.
Chapter Nine
Shadow Lead Analyst G’Lon, of the Imperial Analytical Cabal, was reviewing the data forwarded from the Missile Corvette J’New. At first, he thought it must be some image projection of a ship from the D’Rin star cluster’s Human side. Those sometimes happened, but never at this distance. The hard spectral analysis of the ship proved it wasn’t a mirage. The best K’Rang astrographers had surveyed the star cluster for over a decade and pronounced it impassable. How could they have been wrong? Over 100 Shadow Force scouts in six ships had perished, verifying the impassability of this zone.
Here, if true, the Humans had an open path between two K’Rang main worlds. An invasion through this approach could split the empire. The Shadow Force Fleet and Imperial Fleet were still reconstituting from the debacle at G’Dranu, or New Alexandria, as the Humans called it. Fleet severely reduced K’Rang main world defenses to bolster the frontier against an expected Human counterattack.
He set up an emergency meeting with Master Tactician B’Gotil, of the Imperial Staff, to brief his findings. He also forwarded a message to the K’Rang Fleet Personnel Directorate, recommending approval for the promotion of Sensor Technician T’Get and an appropriate award for Sensor Lead Technician H’Talli. A short call to the captain of the J’New sent it on an immediate sortie to monitor the location where the Human ship was detected.
* * * * *
Kelly reviewed what the sensor section found for him on Debran Industries. Friedrich Debran was the second son of industrialist Johann Debran. His brother, Wilhelm, had been appointed as Chief Executive Officer for Debran Industries, Inc., but died in a ground car accident before he had been in the job for a month. Police had investigated the accident, thought that there was something suspicious about it, but couldn’t find any hard evidence of wrongdoing.
Kelly reviewed the growth of Debran Industries, Inc. since the changeover. Friedrich did a very good job as CEO. He grew the business and diversified the company to include light manufacturing, electronics, mining, shipping, entertainment, and armaments. The net worth of the company had grown by 300% under his stewardship. There were more than a few securities commission concerns on some of the mergers, but they always went through, such as the 51% controlling interest in the Indigo Consortium after the mysterious fire that killed Charles Delphant, the Indigo Consortium’s former CEO and brother of Debran’s chief of staff.
It was obvious that Debran was politically connected and could get his way when needed. Kelly checked political contribution databases and found extensive contributions to Colonial Party candidates and causes. Kelly found a think tank sponsored by Debran that was frequently quoted in news reports, supporting the Colonial Party agenda.
On the personal side, Friedrich had been married to Julia Deirdre Halscomb since 2295.08.03. He had two daughters: Christine, 26, and Sylvia, 21. The daughters were frequent subjects of tabloid gossip and Tri-Vid celebrity shows. He checked out their photos and saw they were lookers. Most of the pictures were taken in high-end locations and hotspots with them in little to no clothing.
Kelly pulled up some photos of Mrs. Debran, which showed where the girls got their looks. She conveyed a sense of grace and style in every photo, whether posed or candid. Kelly looked up her family and saw she was from an Old Earth banking family, and had a fortune of her own that may have rivaled Debran’s. Kelly wondered if theirs was a marriage of two great families for commercial purposes or for love.
* * * * *
Sally Halstead was uncharacteristically whistling while she prepared the evening meal. One-Eyed Pete suspected it had something to do with the new dishwasher she’d convinced him to hire.
One-Eyed Pete had no interest in Sally beyond her ability to cook excellent meals and make him a lot of credits. If young Russell Obwobwo made her happy, Pete was happy. He did get a kick out of watching the two of them trying to be discreet and failing miserably. The two were smitten with each other. He could see it in their eyes and their inability to avoid brushing up against each other. They did make an odd couple. You wouldn’t think a young, strong, handsome man would feel attraction towards a pear-shaped, plain woman ten years his senior or vice versa, but they did.
Pete was happy to have Russell around. In addition to keeping Sally beaming, he had a green thumb when it came to growing herbs. A small shipment of live herb plants and seeds came in on a captured ship. Russell convinced Pete to bid on them and established a small herb garden, which produced many more fresh herbs than Sally could use. Pete sold these to his fellow restaurant owners at a tidy profit. Russell had already repaid his own purchase cost with the profits from his herb garden. Pete had plans to expand the herb garden next year.
Pete’s reverie was halted as two members of the Ascetic Guards, a Deacon, third-class and an Acolyte, second-class, entered the kitchen through the delivery door. He moved to intercept them, thinking they had come in the wrong door.
“Gentlemen, can I help you? Our dining room is through the glass door on the street front.”
The senior guard pulled a pocket tablet out and said, “We have a special order here to be filled.”
Pete came up to them and looked at the tablet.
“Gentlemen, we can provide you with the first and second meals on your list, but the third is not available on Barataria. If it were, it would be here in my kitchen. Sally, come look at this.”
Sally came over and perused the menu on the tablet and then exploded, “Pearlfish! What dumbass thought they could get pearlfish? Those are embargoed from export out of the Spica system. They’re on the endangered species list, fer chrissake. Nobody can get pearlfish. How about wingfish in a butter sauce? Those I got.”
The two guards looked at each other with looks of pure puzzlement. Their simple diet included nothing on the tablet. The senior guard pulled out a communicator and spoke briefly. He put away his communicator and said the wingfish would be fine, then asked if they could be ready in 30-45 minutes.
Sally threw up her hands and said, “Who is this for? It’s obviously not someone that’s been on Barataria for long, if they think we can get pearlfish.”
The guards were unresponsive to her query, so she pulled ingredients out of her larder and started her prep. In 40 minutes she had completed the meals, plated them, and prepared them for carry out. The meals were more than the two guards could manage by themselves, so Russell was dragooned into helping them. Russell wouldn’t really be needed until later, when the dinner meal was served, so Pete let him go with the guards to ensure the meals’ safe arrival at their destination.
Russell rode with the guards to a house on the north ridgeline above the city, whe
re the senior members of the brotherhood had their homes. They pulled through the gate of a massive house built in the style of an English manor house, and around back, where several liveried servants met them, dressed in an old English style matching the large house.
Russell supervised the transfer of the meals. While the guards weren’t looking, he asked the servants who lived here.
The nearest servant said, “Pipe down. They might hear you. Nobody lives here. This is a holding facility for prisoners being ransomed.”
Russell dropped his voice and asked, “ How many people are here right now?”
The servant replied, “Just three at the moment. They came in last night. They must be important. This is the first time we’ve ever sent out for meals.”
The senior guard looked back to the unloading and shouted at Russell, “You there, hurry it up or you’ll be walking back to the restaurant.”
Russell finished passing the meals out to the servants, sat down in the rear of the vehicle, and was driven back to the Ruin View. On the way back he pondered on what he had just learned.
* * * * *
Roger Delphant worked on other matters while he waited for his 1200 appointment. They were not late, just not early. He didn’t like them and wanted to get them in and out of his office as soon as possible.
His secretary knocked on his door, stepped in, and announced Captain Ben Alden was here to see him. Roger saw him beyond her and waved him in. His secretary closed the door as she left.
Roger got up, shook Ben’s hand and offered him a drink. Ben turned it down, so they got down to business. There was not much beating around the bush with these people.
“Captain, you’ve come alone?”
