by Bruce Adams
“Captain…Eris…this was a mistake…”
“No mistake.”
“This is a warship, and we have a mission. This is just a distraction…” He wanted to believe in what he was saying. Eris could tell that he was striving to come up with something to deny what had just happened between them…and failing. They both had wanted the sex – they deserved it.
“It was an amazing distraction then.” She laughed. “I would very much like another such distraction at another time and in another place…maybe another position.” Her laugh was musical and pleasant.
“Before we had our little…mistake…you were mentioning my past. You didn’t come here to discuss my personal history, Lieutenant Commander. Did you?” Her voice was steel wrapped in velvet.
“Eris, I came here to ask you something, yes that is true, but not about your past.”
“Just so you know, I’ve read your file as well. I find it suitably impressive and I trust you and your team will be ready when we land on Furnace. We’re going to need all of you at your best.”
“I wanted to request that my squad and I be sent along down on the planet with you.”
“Why? You want to protect me? Keep me safe from harm?” She had a bemused smile on her face.
“What?! Uh, no…that’s not what I meant…” He stammered with a blush spreading on his face.
“I just don’t want to be stuck up on the Sparta like we were on Planoss. My team and I are ready to fight. We want payback…those Vortex scum need to answer for what they did.” His eyes glinted with a spark of anger. As a point of being thorough, she had indeed read the profiles and biographies of every crewmember that had boarded the Sparta – all sixty of them. Her eidetic memory allowed her instant access to everything she had memorized. Lieutenant Commander Arnav Malik and his squad of nine marines were in her head. She knew all of them - each had served at least four tours of duty throughout the Fleet, then been offered lucrative inducements to work for Dynamic Space Development. While serving in the Fleet, Malik had been cited for bravery on several occasions and had garnered a Commendation Medal but had never been distinguished or had honors heaped upon him during his time in the military. Eris understood his motivation now. He desired glory. The sex was just icing on the cake.
“Arnav, I won’t waste your talents or those of your squad; you’ll see plenty of action during these missions. However, you must realize, these operations are primarily clandestine in nature. We don’t need to go planet-side guns blazing just to even the score with Vortex…or the Alliance. Do you understand?”
Malik had held his tongue while she spoke. He looked at her calmly with an intense look in his eyes and his stance hardened. He pulled himself up and saluted smartly. “Yes, Captain…I fully understand. I’m not stupid…I realize what the mission parameters are. I just don’t want to be left behind.”
“Very well, I think I’ve made myself clear. Dismissed, XO,” she said. He saluted again, turned around and left her cabin. Eris returned to cleaning her assault rifle with a small sigh. After another twenty minutes of making sure her equipment was cleaned and ready, she received another call on her computer. Her holo display showed it was operations specialist Talani. What is this? Everyone come talk to the Captain Day, thought Eris wryly.
“Captain…I’d like to have a word with you in private if I may.”
“Concerning?” Eris asked with an arched eyebrow.
“I’d prefer to speak face to face in your office.” The Zari woman’s disguised human face was composed. Whatever the problem, her body language gave nothing away.
“Very well, come to my cabin. You have thirty minutes until I return to the CIC.” Eris shut off the display with a quick jab of her finger.
Within a few minutes a soft knock came at her door. “Enter,” said Eris. She had changed into her casual shipboard clothing – a one piece black jumpsuit that fit her well. T’sell T’savri entered her cabin wearing the face of Trafelle Talani. When the door had shut, she moved over to the small table, putting one hand on its surface.
“Yes, what do you want?” asked Eris.
“Captain, I’ve made a discovery,” T’sell replied. “I’m not certain engineer Sev Tariv is a loyal member of your crew.” She immediately had the Monroe woman’s attention.
“What do you mean…exactly?” Eris didn’t like where this was going but the Zari woman was compelling.
“Mr. Gray has ordered me to perform several tasks. One of these duties is to ascertain that each member of the ship’s crew is loyal.” T’sell paused and peered intently into Monroe’s face. The human Captain gave nothing of her thoughts away in her body language. She would make an excellent agent.
“Go on…”
“I’ve found something in his mind that hints at him being a possible double agent.” She measured her gaze coolly against that of Eris Monroe. “Or rather, I believe he has a set of false memories. The signs are subtle but there is a barrier that prevents me from knowing his deeper memories. The barrier is similar to a neural firewall, and they are normally undetectable. I went through his medical file on him that Doctor Xinhao just performed and there was nothing unusual in any of the reports.” The gauss assault rifle Eris had been working on was still disassembled and lay on her table.
T’sell idly spun a gun actuator part in a circle on the table with one forefinger. “I think he’s a trigger agent.”
“How can you be sure? Are you certain?” Eris asked. Her voice cut through the quiet cabin like a knife.
“As certain as I can be without performing more invasive telepathic probing.” She picked up the actuator and gave her Captain a curious look. “What do you want me to do?”
“I don’t like you poking around in my crews’ minds…” Eris said with a stern look, “However…” Eris took the actuator from T’sell’s hand and placed it back on the table next to the other parts from her disassembled rifle.
“However…you see that I speak truth.” T’sell said with cold certainty.
“On this next mission, I will bring Sev Tariv down to the planet with me,” said Eris with finality. Eris wasn’t sure how a sleeper agent could be planted within Dynamic Space Development, but she didn’t want to take any chances. The Zari were a telepathic race…better at reading thoughts than any aliens known throughout the galaxy.
“Excellent. Keep your friends close but your enemies closer,” quipped T’sell with a grim smile. T’sell walked to the cabin door. “I will keep close to him at all times. If he attempts sabotage I will learn of it.”
CHAPTER 19
Due to the hard work and dedication of the crew, and the amazing piloting skills of Kizzara, Sparta arrived at the Ekaph system after thirty hours and forty-one minutes, a full three hours and nineteen minutes ahead of schedule. That was easily twice as fast as any other comparably sized ship in the Republic Fleet could have made the voyage. The ship’s stealth field was operational and successfully shielding them from detection. Captain Monroe had ordered Kizzara to take the ship and scout the system before attempting to land on their target planet.
Within an hour of entering the system, Eris had convened all of her officers together with Eli Bowman in the comm center aft of the CIC. She had brought up all known system and planetary information supplied by Dominic Gray - especially files concerning the world designated NSP362. Displays of vital information pertaining to what was known of the world floated in the comm center as holographic data sets. The trinary star system contained a Class ‘A’ primary star, a Class ‘M’ white dwarf star, and a Class ‘B’ rogue star that transited once every twenty-seven standard years. During the transit, radiation storms on NSP362 were so intense that nothing could survive for long if exposed on the surface. Even a radiation shielded suit, and the person it protected, would be destroyed in such an environment in as little as five minutes if exposed to such destructive energy.
Known as Furnace to the miners that worked the incredibly rich veins, the planet was a treasu
re trove of precious metals. Platinum, rhodium, gold, iridium, palladium and rhenium had been found in great abundance and were continuously being mined and extracted by large robotic mining MEKS. Even though ninety percent of all mining operations were conducted by autonomous MEKS, sentients were required to repair the robots. When events transpired that went seriously wrong, as they often did due to the massive scale of the operations, technicians were needed to step in and fix the mess. Average surface temperature of the planet was a blistering seventy-one degrees Celsius. The ship computer further clarified that the company Furnace Mining and Metals owned half the planet, with half a dozen smaller companies holding claims to the other fifty percent.
Eris gestured at the display as the computer informed everyone seated that the atmosphere was a toxic blend composed of nitrogen and sulfur dioxide. “We will need to wear pressurized combat suits when we land. We minimize exposure while on the surface,” explained Eris, “and head inside an outpost tunnel as quick as possible.”
“What is the strength of the Alliance or Vortex forces gathered in this system?” inquired Sev Tariv with what Eris thought was a grimace. The K’Tosk alien gestured at the information with both hands. “All of this,” he gestured at the data, “…is useless unless we know exactly where to go and what the Alliance is doing here. There are thousands of mining tunnels on this planet. We can’t possibly explore all of them.”
Eris nodded in agreement. “Right…that’s why we have expert’s along on this mission such as Mr. Bowman. We get him near one of the Vortex communication nodes, and he can extract all of the data we need to find out what they’re doing.”
Sev Tariv was not satisfied. “Yes, but how do we get him to such a place? Our passive sensors have picked up an Alliance Battle Cruiser in a parking orbit above this planet Furnace. Our stealth field protects us from being discovered, but when we land…” He used his hand and pulled on the colorful data concerning NSP362, expanding it as he did so. “There are dozens of mining outposts located all over this planet. Which one do we choose?”
“Vortex is here looking for a specific type of Valdren artifact – something they’ve code-named ‘Initiator’. Our data indicates they are looking at several different areas. We have two energy scanners, created by Eli Bowman, which should home in on the unique signature that Valdren technology emits. If we get within five kilometers of any Valdren tech, we’ll notice its unique energy signature. That should pin-point the exact location once we get close enough.” Eris explained. “This is where I want to start our mission. Since we have two scanners, we’ll use two strike teams. I’ve code-named the team I’ll lead as Alpha and Lieutenant Commander Malik will lead strike team Omega. That way we can cover the greatest amount of area in the fastest amount of time. Once down-planet, strike team Alpha will begin searching at this location.” Using both hands she grabbed and then motioned against the three dimensional image of Furnace to zoom in on the equatorial region, showing large prefabricated mining complexes and ship landing bays.
“Alpha will land a few kilometers from the largest mining outpost on the planet - Platinum City. It’s large, with hundreds of sealed underground habitation domes and thousands of tunnels and passages that should allow us to move freely and escape detection by Vortex forces. Once Alpha has been dropped off and is secure, Arneson will pilot the Starlifter and drop off strike team Omega here.” She then manipulated the images to display another part of the same continent and a smaller outpost. The distance between the two teams would be roughly six hundred and seventy kilometers. “Strike team Omega will land adjacent to Long Junction…a mining outpost that’s seen a lot of Alliance activity.”
Eris looked over all of those assembled. “The Alliance has had personnel digging through these mines for months and they haven’t come up with anything. They’re convinced the Valdren tech is there and won’t quit until they find it. We need to stop them from finding the gadget…this Initiator that they’re looking for. That means we have to get to it first. However, if they’ve already found it, we need to take it away from them…or destroy it.”
“Captain, there’s another issue you need to know about. I’ve managed to piggyback onto the miners’ ground communications and they’re freaking out about some kind of sickness sweeping through the outposts,” exclaimed Eli loudly. He reached out and highlighted several outposts in red, including those that Eris had been discussing. “Long Junction’s been quarantined by Alliance soldiers, but Platinum City is still free of…whatever…is going on down there. I asked Doctor Xinhao to look into it before we even left.” Lia was seated between Eli and Kizzara. There was no sign of her pet Trill.
The diminutive doctor spoke in a quiet voice, “There aren’t many specifics to what they’ve been talking about – just wild conjecture and conspiracy theories, but it appears to be an epidemic sweeping through the outposts.”
“Conspiracies?” Eris said with an amused expression. “What kind of wild talk?” She shifted in her chair, leaned forward and interlocked her fingers together.
“The miners claim that their problems started with the Alliance. Apparently, the Vortex and Alliance forces have thoroughly disrupted mining operations while looking for this Initiator,” said Eli. “Maybe we can use that against them?” he offered.
“Perhaps…what it does mean is that the Alliance and their allies are not welcome on this planet.” Eris started pulling up data from the computer on types of diseases associated with mining. “Doctor, can you determine what type of sickness these people have been infected with? Is it something we need to be concerned about?”
Lia looked uncertain as she answered, “I’d have to be on the ground to make a definitive diagnosis…and inspect someone that was actually sick. Of course, I’d need an advanced medi-kit with me, but it’s certainly possible.”
Eli spoke again with boyish enthusiasm. “Why don’t we bombard the mines from orbit, or drop a couple of nukes down on them? Same thing they did to you at Domovik…” Eli used his talent to manipulate the data to show an overhead view of the large outpost Platinum City. “We wouldn’t even have to go down into those mines…” Eris detected a hint of trepidation coming from Bowman. “That way, we wouldn’t be exposed to anything either,” he continued. Kyle leaned over and whispered to Kizzara, “For someone who is supposedly brilliant, he sure says stupid things.” Kizz looked back at Kyle with wide eyes and whispered back, “You don’t mean that!”
“We don’t carry nuclear weapons on this ship, and even if we did we don’t know exactly where the Initiator is located. It would be pointless to attack without accurate information. As for the sickness, we’ll wear our combat armor and stay sealed up tight. Our armor technicians have adjusted the exterior of each combat suit to look exactly as what the miners are wearing. That should fool most of the people we meet down there.” Eris brought the overhead map of the world back into view and brought her armored fist down on the conference table with a loud thump.
“We have a major advantage that the Alliance doesn’t know about - our ability to track Valdren technology. We will find the Initiator before they do and small strike teams can move quickly and silently - we won’t draw much attention while we cover a lot of ground. We’ll stay out of the main primary vehicle tunnels and take smaller maintenance passages.” Eris then pulled up a schematic of the main outpost, showing secondary tunnels and paths that avoided the main thoroughfares. “Here...” She highlighted a section of tunnels complete with an airlock emerging from basaltic rock. “This grid point here - Alpha team gains entrance at this sub-maintenance tunnel.” She looked at each officer to make sure there was no miscommunication before continuing. “We will search using the Valdren scanning equipment throughout those tunnels. Who knows…we might find it on the first pass. If not, we’ll keep looking.”
“Why don’t we send down flying automated drones to search and map out the mines?” asked Sev Tariv. “It would be far faster than using hand scanning…”
“T
hat won’t work,” replied Eris forcefully. “The tunnels have too many obstructions – airlocks, debris, and even guards such as MEKS.” She used her hand to pull up a section below Platinum City, the primary outpost that she and her team intended to scout. There were hundreds of differing color coded lines and tubes that indicated tunnels and mining areas. Red predominated throughout the holographic display.
“If we find nothing, do we search another outpost?” Kizzara interjected. The Evene woman had been disappointed when told she would stay on the Sparta. Eris answered, “Yes, we’ll continue our search at each mining location until we find what we’ve come for. Most importantly, Eli will be able to interface instantly with any computer systems we come across. With a little luck we’ll know exactly what the Alliance is doing and where they’re looking.”
Hasephrey Saephan coughed and raised his hand, panning his head to view the assembled officers, finally making eye contact with Captain Monroe. Eris nodded for him to speak. “What if Alliance soldiers spot us? There are a lot more of them then there are of us, yes?”
Eris flashed a knowing smile. “I intend for us to blend in with the miners working planet-side. This isn’t Planoss and they shouldn’t have biometric scanners everywhere. I’m counting on our enemies being unaware that we are even in system – we will have the element of surprise. At any rate, we’re not here to engage in battle. If we become entangled in any fire-fights, I’m confident our abilities and tactics will see us through.”
“I’ll lead the primary strike team, taking Bowman, Talani, Arneson, Tariv and Doctor Xinhao with me. Commander Malik will take command of the secondary strike team, leading his squad of marines. While we’re off ship, Chief Engineer Saephan will have command of the ship.” She quickly glanced over the assembled officers. “Kizz, keep Sparta on the far side of the planet well away from that battle cruiser. If you come under attack, I want you to leave the system.”
