Morgan thought it best to lay out some of what she knew. Rage probably had a good idea already and no doubt, so did the other two. They shared a neuro net after all, so that was more than likely.
She put the last of her pasta in her mouth, swallowed, put down her fork and took a few sips of her drink. “Earth Corp are pissed. They lost a Station. That’s a multi-billion credit investment, gone. More importantly, from their point of view, they stopped getting paid. Ok, they fucked up on the security, that’s evident, and they didn’t keep tabs on it, that’s another fuck up, but, when push comes to shove, they see it as their Station and they want answer’s.
“What’s more interesting, when things went to shit, they still got their share of profits, so someone knew to keep the payments going and that aided in them thinking all was good. Until it stopped. The payment after the pirate raid didn’t happen. Then you guys declared it in your space and under your protection, as you took it from pirates, its salvage under Galactic Law and therefore yours. And to top it off, as they paid to bring you guys into existence, they lost it to their own creation. That grates, pisses them off big time. So, someone has to pay.” Morgan picked up her drink and took several pulls.
“Do you think it was deliberate or corruption?” Kim asked. Smart cookie that one, thought Morgan.
“It was both.” She told her.
“You know that for a fact?” Pain asked her.
“Yep.” She told him.
“Then you have suspects.” He told her.
Morgan smiled. “I do but still have work to do.”
Rage nodded. “Keep me posted. Some of the Council are uneasy.”
Morgan gave him a grim nod. “They know? You’d better have a travel block on any one leaving. Several someone’s have sticky fingers. Apart from the payment to Earth Corp, ironically, had they worked together, rather than separately to cheat the company, none of this might have happened. Trouble was, several were at it from different angles and it started to collapse the system.”
The main course arrived. Steak. Morgan smiled. You couldn’t go wrong with that. She tucked in with everyone else. Conversation flowed between the women. They updated her on the improvements in the Station since the raid, encouraged her to take part in the Tai Chi and meditation.
Morgan made her apologies before dessert, thanking the Admiral for the invitation. She wasn’t much of a dessert person and headed back to her rooms. She had work to do and a time table to keep.
Pain had watched Morgan leave. “You know she didn’t actually say who she worked for.” Kim stated distractedly.
“She said Earth Corp were pissed.” Mac replied. Kim nodded.
“But she didn’t say she was in the military, or under their orders.”
“I don’t think she works for the military.” Pain told them turning back to the table.
Rage leaned forward. “What then?”
“This was a contract, she showed you a copy and I found it earlier, buried deep in the net. There’s a lot of money on this. Aparently there’s a clause in the original manufacture, Earth Corp are keen to explore. If there’s a chance this Station was deliberately made vulnerable by its operators, not negligence on Earth Corps side, then Earth Corp under Galactic Law could demand it’s return to their keeping.”
“Fuck no.” Kim called out.
“I agree with Kim.” Mac told them.
Rage looked at him. “You’d better have information that clearly identifies Earth Corp negligence in leaving it unattended and unsupervised, open to mismanagement or we might be about to lose this, and I am not allowing that to happen.” Rage told them all quietly.
“There’s something else,” Pain told them. “A Commander Evans was associated with several black ops action some five years ago. The last one went badly. She went missing for a while. Turned up, gave evidence and her report. Then handed in her notice. There was some chatter around unexplained deaths, a showdown and how they’d thought her dead. They were somewhat surprised she wasn’t from what I can tell, and her actual report got buried.”
Rage looked thoughtful. “That might explain her enhancements.”
Pain nodded. “Do we have her team on tracking yet?” Dark asked.
Pain smiled. “They’re early. Seems they bought an engine upgrade curtesy of Mrs Rage.” He looked at Kim.
She shrugged. “I only keep the best for us.”
Rage shook his head. “How long?”
“5 Days may be less.”
“Then we’d better be ready. I want them contained.” Rage told them.
Dark reached out to touch Mac. Pain noticed she looked a bit pale. “Done.” He told him. “I’ll see to it.”
***
Morgan went straight to Mac the next morning and waited for her to come into her to arrive following the Tai Chi and showering. Her secretary had told her to go right in. Morgan looked around. There was nothing to indicate this was Mac’s office. Morgan found that strange. No personal photo’s, nothing that showed similar family although there were a number of pictures on shelves. All of another couple. Morgan wondered if this was family to Mac as she rushed in. “I’m so sorry for keeping you waiting. I was on my way when Joe, my colleague wanted to check something with me.” Mac took her seat and got straight to it. “Morgan, can I ask you something before we start?” Morgan nodded.
“Do we have to worry about you bringing more war to our doors? These people have been through enough.” Morgan could see Mac was genuinely worried for those around her.
“My only job here, is to find those responsible and take them back to answer for their crimes and make a judgement on the record, over ownership.”
Mac frowned. “Ok. Thank you. How can I help you?”
Morgan leaned forward and passed her the data pad. “I’d like your opinion.” Mac took the data pad and looked at the details, coffee came in, Mac thanked them, then opened the clinic’s data pad and compared notes. Morgan sat and waited, then poured the coffee.
It was a while. They both drank a couple of cups, Morgan re-filling Mac’s. She barely looked up in acknowledgement from what she was looking at. Eventually, Mac looked up and thought for a bit, then looked at Morgan.
“It doesn’t match health records. It could be deliberate. I’d have to check the samples kept on file for anything specific.”
Morgan put her coffee down and handed Mac another data pad. “I think there are several more.” She told her. Mac had reached for her coffee and stopped. She looked shocked at hearing that. “You think we have a serial killed on here?” Morgan shook her head shrugged.
“I don’t know without further evidence that might be stored in your samples on file.” Mac took the new data pad from her, checking over the information. Her frown getting deeper.
“I’ll need a few days on this.” She told her. Morgan stood. Gave her a nod and left. There was no point in saying it was confidential. This information would be privileged.
***
Morgan worked four days straight getting her information in order. It made interesting reading. It was clear several people had aided in the Station being unprepared for an attack. Those same people had syphoned off profits and taken a cut from goods and services in various sectors. People had gone without. Orders delayed or not supplied. System’s had been run poorly. Morgan was surprised there hadn’t been an outbreak of something. The filtration systems hadn’t been maintained as they should but looking at the air quality records, someone had worked miracles with very little.
The accountant seemed on the up and up but could only work on what he was told or could see. She could see his records didn’t match the information she had. A result of too much trust badly placed. Records were altered before going to him and he made the payments to Earth Corp, based on those records. The records also showed a lot more supplies than the Station used. So someone was selling that off. Although the Station had expanded, and profits were actually up, it looked like costs were higher, demands were lower and not
enough people wanted to come to the Station filling empty posts. Advertising new posts were delayed. Limited calls out. It created its own problems.
And amongst all that, was infighting. Fieit was at war with the Magistrate and seemed to have his own empire going. Other’s refused to work with one or the other. It was a mess, just waiting to explode.
Her personal data pad pinged. Morgan picked it up. Mac had the information results she needed. Mac agreed to see her tomorrow. Then her pad pinged again. Her boys were arriving late tomorrow. Morgan smiled. She was ready for them.
***
Pain checked the data again. He’d been over it all. It didn’t look good. He could imagine that Morgan had all this too. Shit. Rage was going to lose it, if they lost this Station. So would the Empire. He needed to try a different tac. Pain pulled up all the information on the commissioning of the Station, the project criteria and mission statement, along with the creator’s doctrine on support management. A huge list of items flooded his data pad. Fuck. He was going to be up all night. Something had better be in there…
***
Morgan knocked on Mac’s door. “Come in.” As she pushed the door open she wasn’t surprised to see Pain waiting for her. “Take a seat.” Mac told her.
“Pain.” She acknowledged.
“Morgan.” She raised her eyebrows and took the chair, no Commander?
Mac started talking as she took her seat. “I checked all the original autopsy’s. They weren’t looking for anything specific. So it was a general confirmation of physical health failure or death. I pulled the actual materials on file from cold storage and re-tested them looking for what shouldn’t be there. Four were poisoned.” Mac told her handing back her data pad. “All the same compound. The last two had no substance I could find, but the original post mortem stated they had the appearance of being in a fight. There were several defensive wounds and clearly a fatal one. I’d say murder for definite on the first four, possible for the last two.”
“Do you know who?” Pain asked her.
“I think I do. It’s not a serial killer. This was done for leverage. For position. Several someone’s actually. I need a couple of days and then I’d like to bring my findings to Rage.” Pain gave her a nod.
Morgan stood. “I suggest a block on anyone leaving until this is resolved.”
Pain agreed and watched Morgan leave. “How did we miss this?” Pain asked Mac turning back to her.
Mac shook her shoulders. “Easily, no one was looking for it. That will change on the medical side of things from now on. I’ll make it a protocol. You might want security on alert for it too.” Pain left her office. Logic told him, there would be more before they could fix it.
***
“Request for docking received. Sign name Purgatory.” Cruz turned to him.
“Put it up on screen.” Cruz turned back and the ship came up on screen
“That’s a big fucker.” Cruz mumbled. Pain knew a battle cruiser when he saw it.
He’s right, thought Pain. “Put them on Level 2 Beta 3.” Cruz looked confused. “We’re not using that section since the raid. There’s a lot of work to be done.”
Pain nodded. “And it will make it easier to contain. Tell them to stand by for inspection.”
Pain waited on the confirmation. “They are refusing inspection Sir. Stating it is not required, they are here at the request of Commander Evans.” Cruz frowned while talking and continued working at the console.
“Problem?”
“They are accessing our stream.” Cruz was working to cut them out.
“Fuck. Shut it down.” How was that possible?
“I’m trying.”
“Fuck,” Pain pinged Rage’s neuro net and updated him. “I’m shutting all access.”
“That’s gonna cause a problem with the other’s docked.” Cruz told him.
“Tell um power outage.” Cruz turned back and started working sending it out on all frequencies.
Dark need your team in Level 2 Beta 3 now. Ship docking, refusing inspection.
Pain ran onto Level 2 with a number of Cyborgs with him. Battle Stations. He called out over his net. Ahead was Dark and Rage with several platoons spaced out around the docking vessel. Pain reached them as the last docking clamp locked.
They waited. And nothing happened. Pain wondered what they were waiting for.
“Excuse me. Excuse me. Move. Could you move.” Pain turned towards the voice coming at him. Morgan was making her way through the men. The sight of over 100 Cyborgs filling the area didn’t seem to bother her. She showed no concern pushing through. Pain frowned. Why was that?
As she approached she gave a nod to Rage. He expected her to stop but she didn’t and kept going towards the docked vessel. She stopped in front of it. Arms easy, locked behind her back. Pain judged there to be some five meters between her and the ship. Pain with Dark and Rage were another five meters back from that, their men having taken up defensive positions.
The ships ramp started to roll down and locked in place. Then the door slid open. Pain couldn’t have been more shocked to see three Cyborgs walk out and stop in front of Morgan. His senses went on alert, protect the female. He must have been projecting, as several of his men stepped forward and two of those in front of Morgan looked at him. Did they access that? They turned back to Morgan. For a couple of seconds Morgan seemed to look at each one in front of her. Then broke her stance and threw herself at them. They caught her between them and all four were …… laughing? Putting her down they got serious for a moment.
Pain took the moment to think, he had no idea what to think. She had Cyborgs in her team? Rage and Dark looked at her then him. Then several more started leaving the ship and took up defensive positions around the front of the ship. Other’s started making a defensive line. Morgan broke off slapping and shooting the breeze with those three and stepped back. Turned smartly and walked up to the line of Cyborgs and did a line inspection. He noticed she spoke quietly to each one. Noticed something about them and asked after them. There were over 80 Cyborgs. What the hell? Thought Pain.
Eventually having spoken with each Cyborg in turn, she moved to the front of the three men and turned to face Rage.
“Officer on deck.” She called out. The entire troop stood to attention. Morgan stepped forward. “Admiral Rage, let me introduce you to what was, C Combat Unit 47 Kill and Destroy. Now my team, tag name Purgatory.”
Rage roared. “You own fucking Cyborgs?”
In that split second, both armies drew weapons. Morgan stepped forward with her three men following her. They were clearly her guard. “I don’t own anything Admiral, well maybe the ship, sort of. These are free men, who choose to work with me and get paid dam well for it.”
Rage and Dark looked at each other. They both turned to Pain. Did you know this?
No I didn’t fucking know this. Pain could feel the anger sifting through Rage.
Get me the fucking files on that unit.
Their attention was brought back by Morgan. “Admiral we have wounded on board. Do you think Mac could help with that?”
He nodded to Dark. Call Mac’s team. “Wounded how?” Rage demanded. Morgan bristled
“I told you they were on deployment.”
“Have them brought out.” Rage waved for them to come forward.
“This unit was 180 strong with 20 officers, human.” Pain re-called.
Morgan just looked at him as if to say what’s your point? One of her guards spoke up.
“It was, black op’s thought to use us for fodder. One officer didn’t like that.” He looked at Morgan saw she was unhappy and shut up.
The medical team came running in. The male Colm, an enhanced human surgeon, rushed up to Dark. “What we got?” He asked pulling on gloves.
Several Cyborgs on stretchers, or walking wounded were being brought out the ship. Pain noticed that Morgan again walked over and spoke with each one. There was lots of banter. Some jokes and some serious words now a
nd then, about keeping heads and asses down and not being invincible. Some of them looked young but Pain knew that meant nothing. Their ageing could have been stopped by programming. Then a really big Cyborg came out, and hobbled down the ramp. There was a scar across his face and damage to his shoulder.
Pain saw Morgan look sharply at her three guards, who all looked a bit sheepish. She looked back over at the big guy. She looked furious. “That had better be a fucking mirage.” She called out striding off in his direction.
As she reached the Cyborg Morgan leant forward towards him. Which was difficult because of his size but she managed it. The Cyborg looked ….. intimated. Pain stared in wonder. “I fucking told you to keep your head down didn’t I? I expressly, told you to keep your butt on that fucking ship. Why? Because you weren’t healed from the last one that’s why. Is your auditory system failing or are you incapable to hearing?” She hissed. “You’re beginning to piss me off.”
“Morgan, I’m not sitting out a job because of a little sting.” The Cyborg told her. Pain thought Morgan looked good to explode. The big guy must have too. He made a grab for her and picked her up in a bear hug. “I missed you too, but you can’t always be around to save this cute ass girly.”
Pain saw Morgan relax a bit. “Put me down you big oaf and get some medical attention before I shoot you, and I want to know what the fuck went wrong.” Morgan’s anger had deflated significantly in that moment. The big Cyborg laughed and carefully put her down. Morgan patted him and walked back to her three guys.
Galactic Cyborg Heat Series Book Bundle 1-4 Page 30
