by Bruce Adams
Lane furrowed his brow as he answered. “Whoa! Slow down bud! You’re not making any sense.” Lane gesticulated expansively with his hands. “What do you mean? Are you in trouble with the Republic? Did you do something stupid?”
Eli swallowed hard as he replied, “I think someone is trying to kill me.”
CHAPTER 4
“I have been deceived before,” Project Director Sahin screamed in frustration, pacing back and forth in a small conference room. “I have been cast out by my own family, abused, lied to, and made to suffer for the errors of others. But I shall not be made a fool of by Eli Bowman!” She was dressed formally, with the bright double gold helix of the TEC Science Division patch prominently displayed on her right arm. Her brown hair was meticulously coifed into a French twist. Sapphires and rubies were woven into her hair and glittered as she moved, pacing the room. The assembled figures in front of her numbered a dozen. There were all heavily armed and armored personnel. They said nothing in reply. They were wearing heavy durasteel combat armor. No insignia adorned the combat suits, but each had their helmets retracted so each face was clearly visible. Each one carried enough firepower to flatten a platoon of Fleet Marines.
“Bowman had been implanted with a tracking implant. It should have been child’s play to follow him wherever he went to. You people have had weeks to find him and…nothing. Why can’t you find one person on this god forsaken planet? With the technology we have deployed here you should be able to locate a microbe from orbit! What the hell happened?” Tess had calmed herself somewhat while talking and her voice was its normal soprano high.
“Ma’am, it’s not our fault…As far as we can tell, he is no longer on planet. We read no signal on the tracking implant. If he was anywhere on this world, our satellites would have pin-pointed his location. We’ve looked everywhere.” The leader of the group, Devon Rakesh, had a controlled blank look on his face. A scar was clearly visible running from his right upper forehead down to his left jaw-line. Something had clawed him in the face. He had heard these tirades before and was unmoved. His armor was slightly different, showing an insignia of two planets in eclipse, black on amber, indicating he was a senior member of the feared Vortex mercenary group.
“What do you mean? You had an easy task. Make sure that you watched the entry team and make sure they stayed within TEC controlled areas. How hard is that? There were only five people worth watching, and Bowman was only the tech specialist. He’s just a damn kid!” She screamed again, losing her composure. Some of her meticulously groomed strands of hair had fallen out of place on her head.
“The fight with that…whatever it was…killed dozens of men, including my own team. Bowman was up front near the entrance to the Valdren base surrounded by energy fields. We’ve looked over every square meter of this facility as well as the Valdren base. He’s nowhere, he just...vanished... If he had died, we would have found his remains by now.” Rakesh kept his emotions in check, his voice had no inflection. This was purely business to him, but he was damned if he was going to show that unstable bitch any type of reaction. He wouldn’t give her that satisfaction.
Tess Sahin was furious. She had heard all of these excuses, weeks before, when she had assessed the damage that the Valdren automated defense system had inflicted on her security and technical teams. Scores dead, many more seriously injured. They didn’t matter. The machine her techs maintained had been the seat of the Entity was a melted mass of burnt alien circuitry and twisted metal. She needed to vent, and yelling at these hired mercenaries was an outlet she could afford. They were not officially part of the TEC and were directly controlled by her and her unlimited purse strings to pursue this project to its fullest conclusion. When the Valdren base had first been uncovered and she had been slated to oversee the extraction of valuable technology, she had been thrilled. There had not been a significant find of ancient technology in over twenty-five years. The first find, at Ceres in Sol system had been a tremendous boost to Earth’s young Republic, guaranteeing scientific advances in starship travel and materials sciences for decades. Any new find of Valdren tech was worth hundreds of trillions of credits and would advance humanity even further. The find would make her incredibly wealthy…and powerful.
Tess pulled on a strand of her hair; a childhood habit that she resorted to in times of stress. The Vortex Mercenary Group was a large corporation. She would have to add more resources to hunt for Bowman.
“Rakesh, I want you and your men to continue looking but be ready to leave the planet at a moment’s notice. That is all…dismissed.” Her jaw-line was set in a grimace.
Devon Rakesh said nothing and his face betrayed no inner feelings. He motioned for his men to follow him as he left the conference room. When the mercenaries were gone, Tess activated her communication implant and thought about reaching out to Chol Cuxa, the leader of the Vortex group. After ten seconds, an alien face appeared in her mind’s eye. On the outside, nothing was apparent. Tess had paid a small fortune to make sure the communication implant was completely secure and untraceable. Chol Cuxa was a male of the Orvod race. Orvod were tall, immensely strong, and had innate cell regeneration. They were feared fighters throughout the known galaxy.
“This had best be an emergency, human. I am extremely busy.” Tess heard soft feminine whispers and giggles in the background.
“If by emergency, you mean millions of credits being deposited into your accounts, then yes, this is an emergency.” Tess knew Chol Cuxa was greedy. She counted on that fact to get her the outcome she desired.
The Orvod was humanoid, but the right side of his face was clearly artificial. The brows of Chol Cuxa were thick fur-like mats lying above his eyes. If Orvod could be compared to any animals of old Earth, they most favored gorillas – heavily muscled, covered in fur. Chol Cuxa’s left eyebrow arched in amusement.
“I have enough credits for now…but I can always use more. Tell me what you need.”
“A simple enough thing…I need to find a human. A human named Eli Bowman.” Tess paused for a second. Using a mental implant required concentration.
Chol Cuxa had a look of disgust on his bestial face. “Why is this human worth so much? What is the real reason?”
Tess Sahin had practiced and condoned many unsavory things in her life for her ambitions of power. She relished having control. However, she had learned never to give anyone total information. Holding back one or two items had proved useful throughout her long life.
“Let’s just say that this human is extremely valuable. He may be the key to unraveling Valdren technology.”
Chol Cuxa’s face lit up with a smile. His mouth seemed to have too many teeth, all very sharp and pointed. “Ah, the real reason; humans are greedy for power and the Valdren were the most powerful of the ancient races. I appreciate your interest. So, how can we help you find this human?” The Orvod had become serious.
“I need teams on as many worlds and stations as you can manage. Wherever he is, he will show himself again.” Tess allowed herself a small smile. The Orvod did not notice, as all human mannerisms were strange to him.
“This will cost.” Chol Cuxa chuckled, a low bass rumbling that came somewhere deep inside the Orvod’s chest cavity. “But you knew that before you contacted me.”
“Get as many of your mercenaries out there looking as possible. Use Kanpur as the center of your search, radiating outward to all possible destinations. I will transfer a down payment of one million credits now and a bonus of five million credits when he is found, shackled and locked up, and transported to me alive. Cuxa, I do not want him seriously hurt. I need to have him…interrogated. Let me repeat that…I do not want him harmed, just restrained.”
If Tess Sahin could read Orvod emotions, she would detect bemusement on the face of the Vortex leader.
“There are hundreds of possible systems he could be hiding in…but I will instruct my men to take precautions – they will use stun guns and grenades only. If this Eli Bowman is found, we will
gag, bind and cage him…like an animal. Trust this one.”
Tess Sahin instructed her communication implant to terminate the conversation. Moments later, she had given commands to transfer the credits from her hidden account on Vannt to Chol Cuxa’s Vortex mercenary group. Satisfied that she had done everything she could do to locate Bowman, she turned down a hallway leading to the executive suite.
CHAPTER 5
It is mandated that you fly in full gear when piloting spacecraft in hazard zones. The protocol is dictated to be prepared for anything that might happen... Kizzara didn't believe that you have to wear all of your gear, only the parts that would keep you alive in case of catastrophic hull failure. She didn’t have her Sathori gauss pistols strapped to a weapon harness. She wasn’t even wearing a weapon harness. She was however encased in her armored spacesuit and helmet at all times. Kizzara had been tasked with experimental pilot duties by Dynamic Space Development one year ago to the day, and this day was special as it was the last of a series of tests. Her specialty was test piloting first stage development combat spacecraft. She had been putting her baby, code-named Valkyrie, through its paces for a month now, and the ride had been pure adrenaline all the way through. She had never piloted a faster ship in her life, and Valkyrie was more than an agile prototype fighter, it had cutting-edge stealth technology installed that rendered it invisible to enemy detection from deep radar and ladar. As an Evene, Kizzara’s reflexes were far faster than any humans, and she was perfectly suited to the task of piloting an unproven design. The ship code-named Valkyrie was a duo seat fighter craft equipped with an experimental stealth generator. Sleek and smooth, Dynamic Space Development had been putting the technology and the ship through a series of trials to prove its reliability and that it would actually work. This last test had been severe – fly close to an Alliance military space port and see if the craft could be detected. Kizzara had actually physically tensed her muscles when she passed close enough for the deep radar installations of the Alliance to pick up her small fighter craft – but her nerves had calmed when nothing happened. No alarms. No dire communications from pissed off Alliance personnel warning her she would be blown out of space. No Dragon anti-ship missiles launched her way. Nothing had happened. She had remarked to the computer that the last test had been passed flawlessly. She was under direct orders from the CEO of Dynamic Space Development, the most powerful corporation in Republic space, to make sure the Valkyrie passed through all of its tests. This last trial run had been decisive and positive. The ship performed exactly as she’d been promised.
The trip through the jump-point from the outlying Alliance system to the Castor system had been uneventful, even boring. The computer verified that Kizzara had indeed reached the Castor system with a metallic tone of confirmation. The largest star in the solar system was an ‘A’ type star with its smaller companion classified as an ‘F’ type star. The smaller star - named Pollux - rotated around the much larger Castor roughly every thirty days. The stars were beautiful and terrible to look at in the black emptiness of space. The radiation and gravity of the twin suns would fry any ship that came too close. Kizzara wasn’t planning to travel anywhere near either of the two stars. All of her instrument panels were green as she turned the fast ship towards the planet Harmony, the second in this system of seven planets. After making several jumps to distant star systems all starships needed to discharge their drive cores to prevent excessive heat buildup. She would dock at a Dynamic Space Development owned facility on the far-flung outpost.
“Valkyrie Twelve-X to Harmony DSD Starship facility fifteen, I am on approach vector alpha two-five and request permission to land at a docking bay of your convenience.” Her thick Evene accent was clear over the transmission. The facility was waiting for her ship to arrive; they were part of the Dynamic Space Development Corporation and had special orders to take very good care of the craft and her pilot.
“Harmony Base here…Valkyrie Twelve-X, you are cleared for docking at bay twelve. Transponder will guide you in - happy to have you here. Harmony Base out.” The voice ended and Kizzara glanced at her instrument panel. The base transponder signal was strong and she adjusted her crafts attitude and pitch to bring it in on the corrected flight path. As she turned the ship to a re-entry vector, the computer alarm sounded a soft klaxon alert. Startled, Kizzara stared at the readouts twice to make sense of them. A starship had just appeared one hundred kilometers distant from her current position. In space, such a distance is very close. Also, as far as she knew, there were no such jump points in close proximity to the planet she was descending to. In fact, according to the currently known laws of physics, no such jump point could possibly exist so close to a planetary mass.
Reacting instinctively, Kizzara quickly engaged the ships experimental stealth generator and initiated the startup sequence for the Hayles-Zinder kinetic shields. Can that be an Alliance ship? It can’t be…it’s the wrong configuration. If it was the Alliance they must have detected her stealth spacecraft and followed her to the Castor System. Kizzara swore vociferously, invoking the ancestral deities of her race more out of custom than superstition. Her parent’s devotion to the Old Gods had rubbed off on her and familiar habits were a balm in times of severe stress. Merel grant me victory and safe passage. Ajura guide my steps swift and sure… She murmured the prayers over and over as she scanned her instruments for any sign that the massive ship was launching weapons towards her. Her instruments were negative. The large ship of unknown origin was descending, much on the same flight path as herself. She quickly altered her trajectory to veer away, not wanting to chance that the behemoth wasn’t still after her.
The ground crew boss and his unit were lounging around the tools and machinery that supported the starships when they came in for fittings and repairs. The facility was unusually slow for this time. Usually it was bustling with all kinds of ships coming and going. The intense bright white light of the binary Castor system beat down on the men even in the early twilight of morning. The planet Harmony had just enough breathable air for the men not to wear environment suits, though it was unsuited for colonization due to the tremendously violent storms that cascaded throughout the temperate zone of the planet every month or so. Harmony made for an ideal refueling and drive discharge station as it was situated in the middle of six nearby jump points all of which led to systems with important agricultural or industrial worlds. The men were dressed in the uniform of Dynamic Space Development starship mechanics.
At first the maintenance workers didn’t notice the huge alien ship that had appeared roughly a kilometer above their way station. When the sonic boom arrived, they all looked up to see a swarm of smaller landing craft approaching their station. The foremen of the mechanics frowned as he addressed his subordinate.
“Hey Jase, aren’t we expecting a DSD craft any moment now?”
“Yeah, they’re scheduled to come in for a drive core discharge in ten minutes. We have them slated for bay twelve. Over there.” He pointed to a rather large docking facility that could easily swallow a ship two hundred meters across.
“That’s what I thought. Then what is that thing up there? I’ve never seen a ship configuration so…weird.” The large ship was gargantuan in size and had strange bulbous protrusions sticking out from the hull every fifty meters or so. The hull was a strange metallic green unlike the normal durasteel plates that made up the hulls of most starships. The size was hard to gauge, but when smaller fighter size craft began to disembark it became obvious the thing was at least two kilometers long.
“Jesus! Look at the size of that monster! I don’t like it. Get someone at control to tell those jokers to get out of our airspace.” The foreman was angry and a bit panicked. He hadn’t had anything go wrong on his watch in over two months. His anger turned to fear when two of the smaller ships thundered overhead in a fly-by with violet energy beams lancing out to vaporize the gangway he was standing on. Other crew members scrambled for safety, but he foreman knew it wa
s too late. As he fell to his death, the foreman screamed.
A few hours later, the Dynamic Space Development outpost known as Harmony Starship Facility Fifteen was a smoking ruin. Only a single frantic distress call had been sent from the control room of the facility. Minutes after the first attack had begun, the signal had been picked up by Kizzara Amara Vis Sala. She had watched in horror as the unknown assailant had laid waste to an entire starship facility and hundreds of sentient beings. She had her ship’s computer record everything that had transpired as she drifted, cloaked in the stealth field that kept her from being discovered. Kizzara had taken a big risk and performed a flyover, recording everything she could. It seemed that the aliens, whoever they were, had left. She detected no activity of any kind. She decided against landing, deeming it too risky. She pulled the nose of her sleek star fighter up and headed up and out of the gravity well of the planet. She kept the stealth system activated the entire time it took her to make the jump out of the system.
CHAPTER 6
She glanced at the data files that depicted the personnel records of her team. The ship’s computer had all ten bios displayed as discrete points of data in a three hundred and sixty degree pattern around her head, hovering at eye level. Angelis, Arneson, Delantus, Grant, Jorstad, Okoro, Stone, Sutton, Visalis and Zang - all of them had distinguished themselves in combat. All of them had been under fire and in combat zones dozens of times. All of them had been hand-picked by herself and Admiral Hargrove.
She had been in the Majestic’s operation room for only a few minutes and was early. The room was spare as the rest of the ship, functional but bare-bones and devoid of any decoration or color on the walls or furniture – just bare plasteel walls with a five meter long table situated in the center of the room with a dozen chairs arrayed all around it. A barely perceptible hum filled the room with a low level noise generated by the fusion powerplant, more a feeling then a sound. All star-faring ships had such noises - she paid it no mind. As she waited for the rest of her team to show up, Eris touched one of the displays…zooming in and displaying more material for her to digest. The computer queried if she wanted even more intelligence displayed on the subject. If she had had neural implants, this would be even easier, as she would have a mental picture of the information and merely thinking about topics would make them appear in her mind’s eye. Her team was set, orders had been to embark on the TEC cruiser Majestic and head out to the Verge where her destination was the Shaedra system and the planet Domovik. The ship had just made its first jump since leaving Kanpur and the Mintaka system. Eris thought over the mission orders. Director Sahin had been precise; she had been emphatic that once orbit around Domovik had taken place, the Majestic would set down on a small continent near the northern polar cap of the large M4 rated planet. The poisonous atmosphere would require her team to wear armored spacesuits with rebreathing equipment. However, there was nothing to be done about the one point five gravity that the planet exerted – her team would tire more quickly in any strenuous activity. Scans from remote probes, taken recently by TEC engineers, showed a promising location of the Valdren base – if any such still existed on the world. According to the mission data, the planet Domovik was infested with renegade clans using it as a base of operations for piracy against Alliance commercial shipping in nearby systems. The most powerful pirate clan on Domovik was known as the Death Blossom Gladiators. Pirates shouldn’t be a problem if we come in fast and hard and leave them alone. Eris thought that the mission parameters could easily expand if third parties became involved. That shouldn’t happen, but Eris was a survivor – she planned for the unknown. Her planning…and instincts… had kept her alive in the past against such risky and dangerous missions. Throughout her military career, Eris had taken bold action against enemies when others would have taken a more subtle approach.
