by Sid Kar
Silencer had an instinct where the shooter could be and he turned the telescope towards an orbital space resort that he knew was in the orbit in between the moon and the planet at that time. He himself had contemplated utilizing it as the staging ground.
He looked through the telescope at the orbital resort and saw a shooter leaning over a laser gun attached to a smaller, personal-sized telescope on its glass domed roof. The shooter had tied himself to the tower of the resort with a tight safety harness that kept him in place.
Magyar the Silencer now aimed his telescope at this shooter and steadied the coordinates upon the glass dome and then let loose with his laser gun for five seconds. The laser went through the shooter’s torso and shattered the glass. Magyar started packing up his gun and his equipment back in the bag. He closed the roof of the telescope and was out of the observatory in less than two minutes. He took advantage of the low gravity of the moon to jump to his spaceship and started the engine the second he entered inside.
He increased his speed at a steady rate at first as his spaceship flew away from the gravity field of the moon and the planet. He felt insulted that his client had deemed to send a backup and felt contempt that the client had sent a fool who had no understanding of the protection measures and no knowledge of how to penetrate them.
He increased his acceleration to the maximum safe level. He would worry about the botched job later, right now he needed to make it to deep space as fast as possible. If the orders went out to the Sixth Frontier Fleet to close down the space frontiers of Zarrvyk Province than it would become exorbitantly more difficult to escape out to the unexplored space. He had a few pirate friends out there and now was the time to go out and hide with them in some asteroid belt.
Chapter 5: Meeting
The door of the palace was sealed shut right after Remus and company had made it inside. The soldiers took position behind the door with their laser guns drawn.
“My hearty apologies,” Chief Detective Rockvyk said to the bewildered Remus, “We should have better vetted our security protocol.”
“Do you have insurgents? Is this building a target?” Remus asked.
Rockvyk was flummoxed.
“Vice-Chancellor that was an attempt on your life,” he said.
“On mine? Why?” Remus could think of no reason why any Starfirian would want him dead. He had never come here before nor advocated any political position that would make him enemies in this country. “And from where? I saw anti-airship lasers on the walls.”
“Allow me to speculate,” a man walked towards them from inside the palace. He was dressed in the usual red and black uniform but with epaulets, medallions and decorations that indicated he was an officer. “I am Capitan Jontvyk Tubyt. I am in-charge of this palace’s security. Regional Star Commander is waiting in his office, please follow me,” he said to Remus then turned to Rockvyk, “your guards can entertain themselves in the guest hall.”
The four SPASI guards turned left while Capitan Jontvyk led Remus and Rockvyk to the right side of the hallway. Remus saw that the hallway floor and walls were made of black marble while the ceiling was colored red. The walls of the hallway were twenty-five feet apart while the height to the ceiling was a hundred feet. The palace here was completely deserted except for the soldiers standing guard near the windows and the side doors. The walls were also empty of decorations or statues except for one row of life-sized paintings of the former commanders of this palace.
“There is an orbital resort making its round above us at this time,” Capitan Jontvyk said, “We suspect the assassin fired from there. The palace radar report no airships and laser fire originated from the air.”
“Just a single killer?” Rockvyk asked.
“The intensity of the laser shots suggests a single laser gun,” Jontvyk said, “We will find out soon enough. Our rocket troops have taken to the sky.”
“Rocket troops?” Remus asked.
“One of our elite troops,” Jontvyk replied, “They mount a personal rocket on their backs which allows them air mobility. They should reach the orbit in five minutes.”
They entered an elevator which took them to the fourth floor. The corridor here was narrow, just ten feet wide and twenty feet in height, with red carpet on the floor and the ceiling and the walls painted in matching red. There were doors at some interval with signs that Remus could not read. They reached the center of the corridor and faced two soldiers guarding either end of a much wider door.
“I will leave you here,” Jontvyk said, “but will return to escort you back.”
“Jontvyk, can you gather a couple dozen troops and an armored airship for our guest's return?” Rockvyk said, “I don’t think the assassin will try again even if he manages to flee but let’s not take chances.”
“Exactly what I was going to do,” Jontvyk said and walked back.
The two soldiers had been told to expect them and they pushed a button to slide the door and the guests walked in.
Regional Star Commander was sitting on his desk and he smiled when they walked in and the door closed behind them. He was an elderly man with a wrinkled face and disheveled hair on either side of his head. He was dressed in the same uniform as others but on his shirt were ten strings of gold that stretched from one side of the chest over the buttons to the other. He was wearing a distinctive hat that had both a front visor, like usual Starfire soldier’s hat and two side visors that were unique to his hat.
He walked over to the sofa and pointed Remus to a large, comfortable cushion seat.
“Welcome, Vice-Chancellor Remus. I am Carvyk Botlar, the Commander of Sixth Frontier Fleet and all of Starfire Army’s forces in the Zarrvyk Province,” he said, “I was going to inquire about your trip, but some countryman of yours has already marred it.”
“My countryman?” Remus asked. The three of sat down on the sofa and a land mobile robot passed around a glass of drink to each.
“News just came that the dead assassin was a Nestorian visitor, an illegal alien,” Carvyk said then raised his hand, “Not that we mind our friends visiting us but we appreciate advance notice and request proper registration.”
Remus felt a slight rebuke of his act of showing up unannounced on their door but he was stunned at this new revelation. He wasn’t the only one.
“Dead?” Rockvyk asked, “I just talked to Jontvyk and he had just launched the rocket troopers.”
“They haven’t reached the resort,” Carvyk said, “It was the manager of the resort who called me directly. His glass dome was also shattered.”
“That complicates the matter,” Rockvyk turned to Remus, “Vice-Chancellor we don’t wish to interfere in your politics but we are going to investigate this attempted assassination thoroughly since it happened on our planet and involved an attack on our building. But it could open a can of worms for you and if you wish us to be discrete and keep matters under wrap you should tell us which of your political enemies might not want you to visit us.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Remus said, “My trip was supposed to be a secret.”
“It may not be his enemies,” Carvyk said, “It could be someone who doesn’t want him to meet us and request our protection. Which brings us to the purpose of this visit. You want to invoke the protection clause of our contract. Is that correct?”
“Yes,” Remus said turning his glass in his hand.
“Good, now let’s set aside this unfortunate incident till my detectives and SPASI gather more clues,” Carvyk said then leaned forward, “Who is it exactly that is attacking you?”
“We don’t know, these are mysterious aliens,” Remus said, “their civilization must lie farther along than our planet Blackskull in that direction. About a couple of years ago our mining and exploration spaceships that ventured out in the frontier space and beyond started getting attacked and abducted. We thought they were pirates or disgruntled political factions from our own civilization. Slowly we came to realize that it was actually an ali
en race that we had never encountered before and we know nothing about.”
“Are you familiar with our Starfire Galactic Navigation framework?” Carvyk asked.
“I am,” Remus said.
“Then in what coordinates in those charts would you say these mysterious aliens hail from?”
“Somewhere between -30/-60/-30 degrees and -30/60/-30 degrees from the galactic center,” Remus said.
“The only large section of the galaxy that our long range galactic exploration spaceships haven’t traveled to,” Carvyk looked at Rockvyk.
“Yeah,” Rockvyk replied, “bad luck. The only uncharted space in the galaxy happens to have an aggressive, hostile spacefaring civilization.”
“What about their spaceships?” Carvyk asked.
“Huge, like yours, ten-twelve-fifteen miles long, although only one sighting for the later sized ship,” Remus said, “they appear to be significantly more technologically advanced than us. Their speed and acceleration capability and shield technology are also much farther along than ours.”
“Have you tried to contact them and negotiate?” Carvyk asked.
“They have made no contact and rebuked all of our attempts as well,” Remus said, “It just could be that our and their technologies are too incompatible but that is unlikely since technology relies on the same universal laws of science.”
“True, but it could take very different development paths,” Carvyk said. “Vice-Chancellor Remus, I believe you, but I also need hard data.”
“I have brought along,” Remus took out a small, metallic green box and handed it to Carvyk, “Data that was captured live during our battle with them. It is shorn of our military secrets but has sufficient details to prove our case for protection.”
“I will have to get this analyzed and if it meets the terms of our contract…” Carvyk said.
“Commander Botlar,” Remus said, “The Starfire Empire charges us a hefty protection fee annually. We have never missed a payment and are now entitled to the benefits we were promised.”
“I completely agree,” Carvyk said, “But you have to realize the political decision to make you a protectorate was met with considerable internal opposition in the Empire. Your and our space borders are almost a 150 light years apart. Usually, we don’t spread our wings so far out in the frontiers. But in your case you were on the verge of conflict with another of our protectorates and the only way to bring those stubborn fools to the negotiation table was to give you our protection as well.”
“And we pay dearly for it. Your fee to most of your other protectorates is a requirement to import 25% of their machines and industrial equipment from Starfire Empire, but we have to import 50% of our industrial goods from you,” Remus said.
“Don’t worry Vice-Chancellor, we will not allow anyone to overrun Nestorian Republic,” Carvyk said, “Vetting the terms of our treaty is just a formality. I promise you our help. Will you stay with us till I put together an armed force for your reinforcement?”
“I am afraid my position doesn’t allow me such an extended vacation,” Remus replied.
“I do request that you wait for the next space cruiser,” Rockvyk said, “There are pirates out there and there are people who want you dead. But space frontier vacation cruises have an escort of 20 of our spacefighters and they swing by your planet Beacon.”
“When is the next cruise?” Remus asked.
“In a week or two,” Rockvyk said.
“I rather not wait that long,” Remus said, “I will take the chance. I don’t even have to conserve fuel heading home and can outrun pirates or anyone else.”
“As you wish, if there isn’t anything else…” Carvyk said.
“Actually there is,” Remus said, “Our Starfire Cannon was destroyed in the battle. Please put an expedited order for another one and have it shipped promptly. We will pay on delivery.”
“Starfire Cannon?” Rockvyk mused out loud, “We have hundreds of types of cannons.”
“He means the SpaceCutter Ray Cannon,” Carvyk said.
“We call it Starfire Cannon because we bought it from you,” Remus said.
“I will place an order for that,” Carvyk said, “I will see if I can’t get it to the front of the queue.”
“Thank you,” Remus said.
Remus and Rockvyk got up and took Carvyk’s leave. They walked out of the door where Capitan Jontvyk was waiting for them. He escorted them to the first floor and till the front door of the palace where the four SPASI guards were awaiting them.
“My rocket troopers reached the resort and found the dead body of would be assassin. He was one of yours,” Jontvyk said.
“Your star commander informed us,” Remus said.
“I am going to personally lead this investigation,” Detective Rockvyk said, “But vice-chancellor, please order an inquiry in your country and keep us informed.”
“Trust me,” Remus said, “No one is keener to find out who wanted me killed than myself.”
Rockvyk and SPASI guards escorted him into a larger armored airship that was packed with a couple dozen soldiers carrying laser guns. All of them accompanied him to the spaceport but their journey was incident free. Rockvyk talked to the spaceport administrator and had Remus’s ship scheduled for immediate departure and in less than fifteen minutes he was accelerating away from planet Bravo.
As Remus’ spaceship took flight he hoped that Regional Star Commander would hew close to his promise and not find some clause in the treaty to deny them reinforcements. He had been just a child when the protection treaty with Starfire Empire had been signed and there had been rumors lasting to this day that Starfirians themselves had goaded one of their protectorates to pick fights with Nestorian Republic. It wouldn’t do for them to be seen across the galaxy as intimidating a country into becoming a protectorate, much better to maneuver behind the scenes and step in as the guarantor of order and stability.
But whatever the truth to these rumors, Remus had more important matters to worry about. First and foremost he had to find out just who had sent an assassin to kill him. As his ship picked up speed Remus let the auto-pilot take over the flight controls and he sat back and closed his eyes.
Chapter 6: Return
Planet Nestor’s spaceport administration was surprised when they received the code for their Vice-Chancellor’ spaceship on their computers and they had to scramble to clear him for an immediate landing. Usually, even rank-and-file senators representing outlying planets sent out the notice of their arrival in advance and expected swift clearance and deferential treatment. But Remus was calm and indifferent and he had told the space traffic controllers to take their time scheduling him in an open slot. He was their own senator and like most residents of the planet, most of the controllers were also fond of him.
Remus watched the lights – red, green, blue, purple against the black background – of assorted spaceships making their landing or taking off. Nestor’s spaceport was always busy. He was glad the traffic controllers could squeeze him in for a fast landing. There were days when the space traffic was backed up all the way to the next planet.
It was night where he landed and he had sent a signal out ahead for an armed escort. When he exited his spaceship he was greeted by a tall man dressed in the usual green and gold army uniform but the gold on his clothes was more pronounced. Accompanying him were ten other soldiers who stood behind him in two files holding their laser guns across their chest.
“Capitan Jag Manus,” Remus said to the tall man, “You got here fast. I had just sent you the signal.”
“We were nearby,” Jag Manus replied, “After your departure we really didn’t have any work and I entertained the soldiers in the bars around the spaceport.”
“Let’s hurry, I have a lot to tell you,” Remus said. Capitan Jag and his soldiers were his personal bodyguards.
Capitan Jag and Remus walked over to an airship guarded by the soldiers. A soldier stepped forward and opened the door to the passen
ger compartment.
“Capitan Jag, please drive and I will sit by you,” Remus said. Jag suspected that Vice-Chancellor had something private and something urgent to tell him. Whenever he wanted to hold a confidential conversation with Jag, he always had them sit up front.
Jag ordered all the soldiers to get inside in the back, he himself took the driver’s seat and Remus sat next to him. The front cabin was sealed off from the back with a glass and they could mute any noise and prevent it from reaching the back cabin. The airship itself was approximately 20 feet long and wide enough for just two individuals to sit on either side.
“Where to Vice-Chancellor?” Jag asked as he started up the engine.
“Battleship Command,” Remus replied, “I need to urgently meet with general Bakus.”
Jag pulled on the throttle stick and the airship gained altitude moving up vertically.
“Fly at hundred feet,”
“As you say,” Jag replied, hovered for a second and pushed forward on the drive stick and their airship headed towards the air travel corridor. As the government vehicle they were allowed to fly at two hundred feet where the air traffic was negligible. But today Remus did not want to stand out and felt safe with the mass of private air traffic flying around them.
“Mute our cabin,” Remus said.
“Already done,” Jag replied.
“Jag, there was an assassination attempt on me at Planet Bravo,” Remus said.
“What!” Jag almost jumped in his seat and he turned to look at Remus, “Vice Chancellor, that is very serious. You should not have gone alone.”
“I wanted to preserve secrecy but it appears someone else knew about my trip too,” Remus said.
“As the Capitan of your personal guards and the one man being most responsible for your security, I should have insisted on accompanying you,” Jag said, “But what happened?”
