The Alpha Choice

by M. D. Hall

  Trang looked abashed. ‘Considering what happened, I didn’t think I was doing justice to his memory by mentioning it…’

  ‘Mention what?’ asked Darl.

  ‘He thought it wasn’t my place to be involved. I’m sure he simply wanted to get to you with the evidence he had uncovered, and didn’t want to delay things by talking to me in a corridor, and I can see his point, sir.’

  ‘Very generous of you, Trang. Very well, in the circumstances, I don’t think it takes us any further to look into his behaviour, especially as we have more important things to deal with.’ To both of them, he said. ‘I want the two of you to return to your quarters. You’ve witnessed something quite shocking. There are procedures to deal with this kind of thing. You’ll each be seen by trained counsellors within the next twenty four hours. They’ll consider whether the trauma you’ve suffered is enough to warrant a brain wipe for the time period involved…’

  They both spoke at the same time, protesting that they were fine, but he interrupted. ‘That’s no more than I would expect from two such fine young officers, but I’m bound by protocol. I’ve no doubt I’ll get a clean bill of health for you both, but until then you’re confined to quarters. That way you won't get embarrassing questions from your colleagues and friends.’

  Seeing the looks on their faces he relented a little. ‘You can visit each other, as it’s a long time to be alone, unless you count the counsellors, and I certainly wouldn’t,’ he allowed himself a strained smile.

  They smiled innocently in return, then thanked him and left the ready room. Each looked straight ahead as they passed the guards, and took separate routes to their quarters. Back in his room, it was thirty minutes before Gorn received an incoming communication from Trang.

  He had taken steps, in the minutes after he had returned, to ensure any conversation with Trang was not monitored, a fact he neglected to tell her when the call came through. The image showed a crystal clear three-dimensional image of the woman who had just saved his life. ‘What took you so long?’ he asked.

  ‘I assume this communication is being shielded?’ she responded, in a surprisingly matter of fact tone.

  ‘Considering what we’ve just been through, isn’t that a dangerous assumption to make.’

  ‘If you hadn’t taken steps,’ she responded, ‘you wouldn’t have replied, but I have to say, I would have been sorely disappointed if you weren’t smart enough to set up a simple cloaking routine, at a moments notice.’

  I hope I’m not that transparent to anyone else, he thought. ‘Fine, you have my and only my attention, but now that Kirion is dead who are you concerned about?’ He was, of course, aware of the danger posed by Garnoth, and had noticed the recent arrival of his senior agent, Tala, giving him an additional reason to be concerned. However, it now dawned on him, from the near miss he had just experienced, that there were things going on of which he knew nothing. If there were other dangers, he needed to know what they were.

  ‘I’ll tell you who concerns me, when I come to your quarters,’ Trang answered. ‘One other thing, even though the commander has sanctioned contact, I don’t want anyone to know of our meeting.’

  ‘But you said yourself, Darl doesn't have a problem with it?’ Gorn had the uneasy feeling there was a lot he needed to learn.

  ‘I have my own reasons, and I’ll explain when I see you.’

  Gorn nodded.

  ‘Make sure the ship’s sensors are fooled into ignoring my movements, and any scans show me to be in my quarters, indisposed, I’ll leave the details to you! Expect me in fifteen minutes. Oh, by the way, I know who the rebel is!’

  Ω

  Tala found herself wandering along a ship’s corridor. Looking around, there was no one, no one at all. She had just been in the ’signing’ room and found it impossible to believe that Garnoth had not reported the arrival of the Custodian. The corridor should have been full of people hurrying to their posts, where is Beron? Approaching a communal console, she asked for confirmation of her whereabouts. The unit scanned the questioner and, satisfied with her identity, confirmed her expectations, she was on board Eclipse. Further enquiries revealed that Beron was not present on the ship.

  She noticed the current ship’s time displayed. ‘Using ship’s time, when did I leave Telluria?’ The information flashed up before her. That isn’t possible, where have I been? ‘Why is the ship not on alert?’ The reply, that only she could hear, was reassuring, ‘The ship is not on alert, as there is no imminent danger.’ The answer to her next question was less reassuring. ‘You arrived on this ship six minutes ago.’ She desperately searched her memories for an answer, and found none.

  The console asked: ‘Would you like to speak to Commander Darl, or Agency head, Garnoth?’ Tala chose Garnoth and was, a moment later, looking at the image of her mentor. This was not the Avatar, she did not believe the machine capable of portraying a look of such barely controlled fury. Her superior curtly ordered her to his quarters, immediately.

  Arriving at the nearest teleport station, she found it was not working. An inquiry of the intelligence behind the apparatus confirmed that, for safety purposes, all teleports would be offline until further notice. Unhappy with the response, she requested details as befitted her rank within the Agency, and was politely refused. Several minutes later, using directions obtained from a console generated holo image, she was standing outside the doors to Garnoth’s quarters, and remained there for what seemed an age, but was hardly more than thirty-seconds, before the door slid open and she stepped inside.

  The Agency head was sitting in a large armchair, dwarfing his frame. Without asking permission, she sat opposite him on a smaller occasional chair. Garnoth leaned forward and asked, tersely. ‘What went wrong Tala, you were supposed to control Beron…and where have you been?’

  All fear of her mentor fell away. Perhaps, she told herself, if he’s still looking for the answer to his first question, he isn’t the force he was twenty-four hours ago. ‘I warned you about Beron. The Supreme Council will not accept as an excuse, that you placed an inexperienced agent in charge of someone so unsuited to the task, familial pressure notwithstanding. I take it you have no idea where he is?’ The spymaster’s silence spoke volumes. ‘Even his father will seek to distance himself from this mess, by saying that if you had any misgivings about his son you should have aired them before the mission began.’

  Garnoth repeated his second question. ‘Where have you been?’

  Tala shook her head, ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘Really?’ It was the first time she had seen him incredulous. ‘Why would the Custodians keep you for twenty-four hours?’ Again, she could only shake her head. ‘What is the last thing you remember before arriving on the ship?’

  ‘Being in the signing room when the Custodian appeared, no time elapsed between then, and finding myself on Eclipse, minutes ago.’

  ‘Interesting,’ was his only reply, before turning his attention to the Avatar. ‘Can you shed any light on this?’

  ’No, only to confirm Tala’s arrival.’

  She kept her eyes on her mentor and summoning every iota of self-control, smiled.

  Garnoth returned the gesture. ‘Then, for now it remains a mystery, but one to keep in mind. Who knows, it may come to mean something later. Let us concentrate on something we can influence, the reaction of the Supreme Council to what has happened…’

  ‘You forget, Garnoth, I have no idea what’s happened in the last day.’

  ‘Of course, my dear,’ he had resumed his mantle of supreme self-confidence. ‘Where shall I start?’ He then recounted the appearance of the blue light and everything that led to Eclipse being displaced, but withheld some information and awaited her reaction.

  ‘I’ll tell you what I think, when you tell me what else has happened.’

  ‘I see the last day has not dampened your perception,’ then without smiling, her mentor described the incident involving Genir. ‘Now perhaps you can provide me wit
h any information of interest from Telluria?’

  She relayed everything that had transpired, from the appearance of the Tellurians, Tyler and Green, to her appearance on the flagship, being careful to exclude any reference to Garnoth's aberrant behaviour in the signing room - this was not the time to press him on that issue. ‘It’s likely the Custodians were involved before the death of the Tellurian woman, how else can we explain the Tellurian’s possession of the object.’

  ‘Ah, yes, I recall asking you to take possession of it. What do we know of its provenance and qualities?’

  Tala decided that the sensation she experienced, just before it disappeared, was something best kept to herself. ‘As soon as I was made aware of it, I caused a search to be made and as you saw for yourself, it vanished almost as soon as I took hold of it.’

  Garnoth looked deeply into the eyes of his favourite student. ‘And what did you experience, my dear?’

  She tried to appear as disinterested as possible. ‘Frustration!’

  He kept his eyes on hers. ‘So, other than the ability to disappear, we have no idea what it does, if indeed it does anything except glow and vanish?’

  ‘Correct.’

  ‘All promise and no substance,’ he broke eye contact and sat back to be engulfed in the over large chair.

  ‘We’ll never know,’ satisfied her mentor had noticed nothing untoward, she continued. ‘What is Darl’s take on Custodian involvement, and I don’t mean their obvious intervention?’

  The Avatar, mute since Tala’s arrival, chose to speak. ‘The commander has already inferred Custodian involvement during the battle, but does not have the information to allow him to hypothesise further. His conclusion is consistent with Beron’s breach of the Accords,’ then addressing the Agency head, it added. ‘You know what this means? If the Custodians have interfered, they...’ Garnoth completed the sentence ‘…might have caused Beron to behave as he did. Provided, it was no accident.’

  Garnoth shook his head. ‘Until we have had the opportunity to question Beron, directly, there is no point in conjecture. He then stood up and began to pace the room. ‘But why?’ he asked, more of himself, than those present. ‘They live by the Accords. If they wanted to destroy us we now know they could do it, with very little effort. It makes perfect sense that they were there to monitor us, we expected as much, but why would they interfere?’ He turned away from both of them as an idea began to form in his mind. Tala neither said, nor did anything for fear of breaking his train of thought. Once satisfied his theory fitted the circumstances, he turned back to face them. ‘What I think happened is this, we have been infiltrated by the rebellion.’ He could see the look of doubt in Tala's face, but continued. ‘Reason tells us it cannot be the Custodians. They have stood by while we have destroyed one civilisation after another. They have never stopped us save once, and then merely insisted we abide by their arcane rules. They would not engineer a breach.’

  ‘But if it was the rebellion, why would they risk the destruction of our entire race?’ Asked Tala.

  ‘Perhaps they did not think it would come to that. After all, if President Conway had accepted the device you tried to secure, the agreement would not have been made and we would have been powerless.’

  ‘You’re surely not suggesting the rebellion had anything to do with the device?’

  ‘Of course not, that is where I think the Custodians did involve themselves. It was the only thing they could do, act through an intermediary, but it is interesting that they chose a Tellurian, which again suggests they were not involved with the rebels. They are not like us Tala, they believe in their wretched rules and would not break them. I am sure our nemesis was not assisting the rebellion.’

  ‘The communications failure? If your theory is correct, then the Custodians would not be involved in that,’ Tala suggested.

  ‘That is a fair point, but we have already established that such interference is beyond us,’ replied Garnoth.

  ‘There is another explanation we haven’t considered, which has nothing to do with the Custodians.’

  While he did not sit forward in his chair, the spymaster sat up straight at his student’s teaser. ‘Well?’

  ‘Darl has come at the problem from the wrong angle,’ Garnoth noted that she avoided linking him to any mistakes. ‘If it isn’t possible for us to interfere with the implant or the communications, the most obvious answer is not that the Custodians did something that is alien to their nature, as we know it, but that our test results were corrupted.’

  Garnoth turned his attention to the Avatar, ‘Is that possible?’

  The machine paused for a moment. ‘I have scanned the ship’s systems, and whilst I cannot exclude the possibility, I can find no evidence of it.’

  Its human counterpart pressed the point. ‘How could such a thing be hidden from you?’

  ‘There is only one explanation,’ the machine replied, ‘the systems would have to be completely reconfigured before we came on board.’

  The old glint had returned to Garnoth's eyes. ‘So the pilot may not be as innocent as we thought.’

  ‘Except,’ interjected his twin, ‘he did not know he would be in that position. My scans show, when he boarded, it was most unlikely he would be promoted to Squadron Leader. It is more likely that his actions were, as you earlier promulgated, nothing more than a young man seeking to emulate his father. Further, for all we know, he may still have communicated his request to Eclipse, and what was withheld was the reply he received. His sympathies may lie elsewhere, but there is no possibility that he was capable, even with help, of engineering what has transpired.’

  ‘Make a note for the future, we need to keep an eye on him,’ Garnoth replied, then turning to Tala. ‘Let us assume you are right, and the only involvement is that of the rebels, what are your thoughts on Beron? After all, it was his action that put us where we are now.’

  She did not hesitate. ‘I think he genuinely believes the Tellurian female’s death was an accident, and I can’t comment on whether his behaviour was manipulated,’ again, the memory of Garnoth's cruel behaviour towards the Tellurians resurfaced. ‘Then there is the matter of Hugo Black.’

  Garnoth nodded. ‘He told Beron he had help,’ his eyes were twinkling with anticipation. ‘It seems, we have two distinct events: the Custodians give an item to the Tellurians, in the hope of frustrating the agreement and; rebellion involvement on board this ship, going far beyond anything we have previously suspected. What level of organisation would be needed to achieve what we have discussed?’ he asked the Avatar.

  ‘The most likely configuration would be one controlling intelligence, with a team of at least six, some of whom have extensive knowledge of the ship’s systems. It is likely that programs and routines were written months ago, before the present crew were assembled. We cannot exclude the possibility that this was being engineered as soon as the mission was decided, possibly even when the ship was constructed.’

  ‘Have you any idea how many years ago that was?’ asked a genuinely surprised Garnoth.

  ‘I shall proceed on the basis your question was rhetorical, as you are fully aware that I know to the second how long ago that was. As you know, Garnoth, I cannot be surprised, but I am unable to comprehend why such a possibility comes as a surprise to you. You are also aware that I have long held the view, one or more of the Council are rebellion sympathisers. This plan of yours has been developing over a number of years. Why, for an otherwise astute man, do you choose to ignore the possibility that rebels may have committed as much time and energy to unravelling your scheme, as you have in ensuring its success?’

  Garnoth rapidly recovered from the Avatar’s reproach. ‘As ever, you are as charming as that drinks dispenser, but I can see no flaw in you logic. Tala?’

  She was content to cast suspicion on the Custodians, after all it was something that would be almost impossible to disprove, whereas involvement of the rebellion created a much more complex set of problems. Stand
ing up, she paced the room, unaware of following the same pattern frequently adopted by her mentor. Totally engrossed in her own thoughts, she similarly failed to notice the look of indulgent amusement on the spymaster’s face. Satisfied she had examined all possibilities, discarding the improbable and plain ludicrous, she was left with only two rational conclusions.

  ‘Either we do nothing, for moulding policy has never been our goal, or we deal with the only factor that is within our power, the rebels. As soon as the bare facts of what happened reach the ears of the Council, the various factions will begin their machinations. By the time we arrive home, their decision will be all but made. We send a brief message that the rebellion sabotaged the mission, but give no details. The message must insist that the information is closely guarded for fear of widespread panic. In this way, they’ll be too concerned with the rumour, to think about what actually happened. This will hopefully give us the time we need to weed out the saboteurs.’

  Her mentor interrupted, ‘You have gone from being dubious of rebellion involvement, to concluding there is more than one of them involved.’

  ‘Not dubious, just considering all possibilities, as you taught me,’ she looked at the Avatar. ‘You’re right, what had to be done to unravel our plans was beyond the capability of any single person.’

  Garnoth’s ample brow knitted. ‘And we have no idea who they are. Where do you suggest we start looking?’

  Tala answered, without hesitation. ‘The traitors were either here on the ship, or part of the advance party on Earth…Telluria, I can’t imagine the Custodian sending only two of us back?’

  Garnoth ignored the slip, then turned to the Avatar, which needed no prompting. ‘I have ascertained that of the six hundred and thirty operatives present on Telluria at the time of the Custodian’s appearance, four hundred and twenty are on board Eclipse. The only possible conclusion we can draw is that the others were scattered throughout the fleet. It is possible, but most improbable that they were released into space; such an action would contradict everything we now know about the Custodians.’