by Frank Carey
"It was Caleb. He made a deal and a lot of money, which is why he went underground. Colonel Ventana must have paid him well for him to come out of hiding like that."
"That son of a bitch!"
"Yeah. Let's see if we can reconnect with your old friend." She reached in a drawer and removed a black and red sphere about the size of a ping-pong ball."
"You still have those?" Marta said as a frown passed over her lips.
"I use them as paperweights," Aerith said while pressing a spot on the sphere. It lit up as small appendages appeared around its circumference.
"Is that a hacker-ball?" Mersa said as she stared in awe at the object. "I thought those were myths."
"Yeah, dad made this one especially for me."
"Wait a minute, ma'am," Trent said. "Your father, Ambassador Irithyl, made hacker balls?"
"He invented them, in another life of course."
Mersa swallowed hard then looked at Aerith, then Marta, then back at Aerith. "You're Esmeralda?"
"Was Esmeralda a long time ago. Now, I'm just Aerith Dayton, freighter pilot, and proud mother."
Kalana used her internal comm system to ask Murph, "Who the hell is Esmeralda?"
"One of the Leagues legendary hackers. Her father, Harmon Aymar, rewrote the rules and techniques of hacking and network security. He was the person who created Bob's sphere aboard the Cube, the most powerful supercomputer in the League."
"Wait a minute, Aerith is Ambassador Irithyl's daughter."
"Yes, she is."
"So, Lucien Irithyl is Harmon Aymar?"
"Was. Harmon Aymar, and his clone, Atmar, are both listed as killed in action."
"Remind me to review the ambassador's files when we have time."
"Yes, ma'am. You will find them a fascinating read."
Kalana returned her attention to the conversation. She watched as Aerith, with Mersa's help, brought up screens-full of data. This went on for about an hour. Finally. The two women bumped fists. "Found him," Aerith said. "He's living at a villa north of here under the name of Gant Nash. His new identity has him working as a novelist."
"Never heard of him," Marta said.
"No wonder," Murph noted silently. "He's written one book, and it hasn't sold a copy since being published."
"We should visit our friend and say hello," Kalana said. "Maybe he has a copy of his book laying around."
"Yes, let’s," Marta said. "Sweetie, thanks. You've been a great help," she said to Aerith as everyone stood up. "I'll stop by later when this is all done. Oh, and I'll give you more than a knock's notice."
Aerith hugged her mother. Thanks. Please, all of you be careful. This guy is a scoundrel and a charmer, but he can hurt you."
"We'll keep that in mind. Bye," Marta said as she let the others out before following them.
"Be damn careful," Aerith whispered as the door closed behind them.
CHAPTER TEN
The Marines stopped at the villa's sentry shack and waited for the guard to let them in. After several minutes of waiting, Trent got out of the conveyance and walked up to the shack where he found the door open and a dead guard sprawled across the shack's floor. Trent got Kalana's attention, then held up one finger followed by running it across his throat, the sign of one body being found. She motioned him to rejoin them. Once inside, they backed out and headed down the road to a spot where the car could not be observed due to thick forest.
The four exited the vehicle and went to the trunk where they retrieved weapons and gear, all that is except for Kalana. She went stryker before staring at the tree line.
"Report, Captain." Marta ordered.
"Three more bodies on the ground and two inside. Two life forms in the living room--one human and one... We have a problem."
"What kind of problem?" Marta asked.
"Unless I slept through genetics class, one of those theoretical super soldier GELFs is beating the shit out of Caleb."
"Dammit. We don't have time to call in reinforcements. Captain, it looks like you're going to have to go toe-to-toe with a nightmare. You have permission to go hot, safeties off and shoot to kill."
"Roger that."
"Remember, we need to get Caleb to safety. He's no good to us dead."
"Yes, ma'am!" the three Space Marines said in unison before they headed out in the direction of the house with Mersa at point and Trent bringing up the rear. They made it to the house after passing by the bodies they detected from the gate. Marta signaled the sergeants to enter the building, then go left and right while she and Kalana headed up the middle corridor. Once inside Kalana scanned the area. She made a Karate chop gesture toward the back bedrooms while communicating with her team via her internal comm system. This insured they were silent.
They came to a closed bedroom door. From the other side came the sound of someone demanding information. Marta nodded, then held up three fingers, then two, then one, then made a fist. Kalana kicked the door open and jumped inside with Marta coming through behind her. Meanwhile, Mersa and Trent came through the walls from the adjoining bedrooms. All four raised their weapons, targeting a creature not seen before by any of them. The creature had characteristics of several League species including Basili wings and an elf tail. Most striking were the glowing, lightning-bolt stripes running along its exposed skin. It was holding up the limp form of a human male. On his chest, above his heart, squirmed some kind of organic nightmare. "Put him down, now. I won't ask again," Kalana said as her weapon changed to a mini-rail gun.
The creature stared at her, then tried pull a weapon on the stryker. The operative word being "Tried." Kalana fired her weapon at the creature, hitting it point blank in the chest. The impact caused it to drop Caleb while sending it flying out the window.
"Mersa, Trent, after it," Marta ordered. "Doctor, see to our patient."
The two Space Marines leapt out the window after their target while Kalana ran to Caleb's side, still in stryker form. She took one look at the thing on his chest and held up a hand. "Don't come any closer, General. It’s a gunthan." She looked around and saw a silver serving tray on the bed. "Throw me that tray, then set your weapon to 'deep fry.' You'll have only one chance."
Marta grabbed the tray and threw it to Kalana, then set her weapon to its highest setting. "Ready."
Kalana looked down at the barely conscious Caleb. "This is going to hurt... A lot!" She looked at the tray and activated her shoulder laser, heating the tray to almost melting. Without warning, she slammed it on top of the gunthan, searing it. Caleb screamed, as the gunthan screamed and leapt free of him as it attacked Kalana. In one fluid motion, she backhanded the thing into a nearby wall. Before it hit, Marta fired at it, vaporizing it and the wall beyond. Meanwhile, Kalana pressed her armored palm into the wound it left behind while ordering her bots to go into first aid mode. By now, Caleb had passed out.
"How is he?" Marta asked as Trent and Mersa reentered the room through the destroyed window.
Kalana ran her palm scanner over the limp form. "He'll live. A few more minutes and that thing would have made its way into his brain. I hate gunthans."
Marta looked over at the two sergeants. "Report!"
"Damn thing was gone. We searched the area, but found nothing, not even a blood trail," Mersa reported.
"Hopefully, the tracker I embedded in the projectile is still functioning," Kalana said as she reverted to elf-form while leaving her hand armored so that it could add more bots to Caleb's bloodstream if necessary.
"I was wondering why you went to a physical weapon. Good thinking, Captain," Marta said. "Trent, call security and report this. Tell them we need an ambulance and the coroner."
"Aye, aye, general," Trent said before grabbing the room's comm unit.
Mersa knelt next to Caleb and took his hand. "He'll be all right, won't he?"
Kalana nodded. "He'll be fine."
"Ma'am, did you ever deal with one of those things before?"
"Once. That time I had to use a Unicorn
Fart to get it off and a butter knife to pin it to the wall. Semper Gumby; you use what you have."
She looked up and saw her three companions staring at her. She just smiled before turning her attention back to her patient.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Kalana sat in the officer's club and waited for word on their next move. While she waited, she obsessed about Peter being alive. She couldn't believe that a trained surgeon would miss something like a super clone no matter how super it was. "Dammit, I should have seen it. I should have known..."
"Nope, they even missed it in the autopsy," a familiar voice said. "The finest ME on the planet completely missed it."
She looked up and saw Captain Williamson looking down at her, only he was a major now. She jumped to attention. "Major Williamson, sir!" she said while saluting.
"At ease, Captain. We're on neutral ground, remember?"
Embarrassed, she dropped the salute. He leaned over and hugged her. "Lady, you have had a helluva rough few days. Can I buy you a drink?"
"Yes, sir, that would be nice."
He saw she was drinking scotch, so he waved down a waiter. "Two more of what the Captain is having."
"Yes, sir," the waiter replied. He walked away to fill the order.
"Sir, I didn't hear you were promoted."
"It was the only way to stay in the Boneheads and still be in command. It seems I was saddled with a fast riser."
"It just happened, sir."
"Right." Their drinks arrived. "So, I bet you’d like to know what the hell happens next."
"Yes, sir, I would."
"First, we've rearranged things a little. Shenta has been bucked up to Captain and will command the Boneheads while you are in command of Stryker Team. The two groups will be under my command and work together with members of both units working with the other while you and Shenta coordinate who goes where."
"Isn't that an odd arrangement?"
"Yes, but we're stuck until we can find more strykers. Right now, there's you, Nana, and Marcus, both of whom I think you've met. DCI Adon will consult, with your approval, of course."
"Sir, about DCI Adon..."
"I've been briefed on his condition as has General McMurphy and his wife, EarthSec Commissioner Kitra-Adon. The docs and engineers at the Cube have the situation under control. If his condition goes pear-shaped, he has an injection which will put him on ice until he can be taken to the Cube."
"Will he survive?"
"Let us hope so. Have you ever seen a Katalan in a berserker rage?"
She smiled. "Then I'm all in. What about the thing that attacked Caleb Proctor?"
"We analyzed your sensor scans. The boffins are calling it a chimera after those creatures Typhon created when he tried to destroy Old Olympia, only this chimera is far more advanced. Good thinking about the tracker. We've traced him, it, to a space station that's in a direct line between Tralaska and Q'Tec. Our little GELF is running home."
"Lovely. Um, what about Sergeants Mersa and Trent?"
"Though neither is a stryker, they've been bucked up a grade and assigned to Stryker Team. I hate breaking up a good band."
"Thank you, sir. Are we going to Q'Tec?"
"Indeed. They're finalizing plans as we speak. They should be calling for our presence shortly. Until then, we enjoy our drinks and have a nice chat."
She smiled. "How's Donna doing?"
"My wife has taken up jogging. I've been in the Marines for fifteen years, and I can't keep up with her. Hell, the dogs can't keep up with her. Doctor, I can't thank you enough for the miracle you performed when you saved her life."
"You did when you saved my life."
"I did that to protect the corps from having to admit they were making a mistake. Generals hate having to admit that."
"I see. Well, as a member of the Space Marine Corps, I thank you for your selfless devotion to duty and the corps."
"So, you aren't going to ask?"
She frowned. "I guess I should." She thought for a moment. "Is the corps involved?"
"No. We were all fooled. Whatever Peter has done, he's done on his own without consultation with the chain of command. He faces court martial when he returns. Now, do I need to ask the unaskable?"
"Sir, I will do everything in my power to bring him back to face the court and all charges and specifications brought against him. If he is found guilty, I will volunteer to pull the trigger," she replied as her eyes filled with anger.
"And I thought a berserker Katalan was scary." His comm beeped. He put the unit to his ear. "Go for Williamson... Right. We'll be there in a moment. Williamson out." He put the comm away. "They want us upstairs. Are you ready for this?"
"Yes, sir," she replied. She downed her drink, stood up, and followed him out of the bar.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Smuggler's cove is a space station carved into a Ceres-class asteroid orbiting a nondescript star in the empty space between Earth and Ventos Prime. Here, thousands of smugglers made their home while thousands more made use of its facilities to service their ships, make deals, and store merchandise.
Kalana, wearing typical space merchant attire, followed Ambassador Irithyl through the rock-lined corridors of the station. As they walked, people walked up to Lucien and shook hands, clasped his shoulder, or patted him on the back as if a long-lost son had returned from a long journey.
"Ambassador, when was the last time you visited here?" she asked.
"It’s been almost three decades. Oh, and while we're here, call me Harmon. It'll cut down on the confusion."
She remembered, now, that back in the day, the ambassador went by Harmon Aymar, the smuggler elf. On their way here, she had Murph pull up the stories of Harmon's exploits. If it wasn't for the author being General Royce Aymar, she could have categorized all of them as outright lies due to their fantastic nature. In her humble opinion, no corporeal being, and few non-corporeals, could have pulled off what he had pulled-off and yet lived to tell about it. Yet, here they were, walking down a smuggler's haven on their way to arrange for some clandestine transportation.
"Harmon Aymar!" someone yelled from further ahead. "While I live and breathe!"
Standing in the corridor, its arms opened wide, was a... Kalana had no idea what it was. The closest she could come was a bipedal earthworm made from glass.
"Jarvis, old friend!" Lucien said as he hurried over and gave the creature a hug. "It has been far too long."
When she got closer, Kalana could see the being had three translucent eyes equally spaced around the circumference of its "head." She watched as arms and legs appeared and disappeared at random times from various points on its body. Try as she might, she could not stop staring.
"And who is this? I thought you gave up on assistants," it asked.
"Jarvis, this is Kalana, a cousin of mine who is interested in seeing the sights of the Cove. She took a semester off from medical school to tag along on some of my adventures."
"Gods help her. Kalana, you say. Well, Kalana, I take it you never met a silicon-based life form before. What do you think?"
"How do you maintain epidermal elasticity while protecting the silicon base structure?" she asked, completely enthralled by the creature.
"Segmentation. My skin is made up of cellular plates connected by a material like silicon rubber. My, Harm, I see where all the brains in the family went."
"Funny, you old worm. How's the family doing?"
"Same old, same old. There's word that the home world may finally join the League, but they've been saying that since before my time. Here, come inside and we can talk." He led them through a nearby doorway and closed the door behind him.
The room was large and filled with glass objects which defied description. "Jarvis is an artist. People pay big dollars for his work," Lucien explained.
"Amazing," Kalana explained. "Your technique is flawless."
"It helps when you can make glass flow at room temperature," it explained. "So, Harm, need a sculptur
e?"
"Not right now. What I do need is time on your transgalactic portal."
"How many ships and where do you want to go?"
"Two ships to these coordinates," the ambassador replied while handing the artist a slip of paper. "I need to get there this afternoon at the latest."
"You're kidding, right? It'll take me a week to move the receiver sphere..."
"It's already there, which is why I chose those coordinates. I asked around and Chortle said he was there just yesterday."
"Chortle has a big mouth. OK, I can do it, but it'll cost you."
Harm took out an antique paper notepad and wrote down a number. He tore the sheet off and handed it to Jarvis. "Will that do?"
It took the paper. "Are you trying to make me go broke?"
Harm reached into pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper which he handed to Jarvis. "This is a prototype for a new type of long-range teleportation device being developed by the Orta. They've tasked me with finding a suitable testing facility."
Jarvis read it, his three eyes growing larger as he read it a second time. "Are these energy specifications accurate?"
"Yep. Range is comparable to the Erdexi unit, but at half the energy cost. Oh, and you don't need a receiver."
"And I get a 50% discount on the purchase price of the first production unit?"
"Yes. With risk comes reward. Interested?"
"I'd be a moron not to be. OK, I'll start the charging sequence." He borrowed Lucien's pad and wrote something on it before handing it back. "These coordinates in four hours. Try not to be late."
Lucien looked at the numbers. "I'll be there. I'll have the funds transferred into your usual accounts, and the Orta will be in contact with you by the end of the week."
They shook hands. "We've got to go. Thanks, Jarvis. You’re a buddy."
"Try not to be a stranger," Jarvis replied as he let them out into the corridor.
Once out of earshot, Kalana said, "Was that a typical smuggler interaction?"
"Yep. Handshakes, pieces of paper, bold-faced lies--pretty much like a day for an ambassador. In my humble opinion, politicians and smugglers are cut from the same cloth. The only difference is they use different tailors."
