by Sid Kar
“War imminent?” Tollvyk wondered.
“I doubt it. Lots of officers and soldiers here, no one else is getting an alarm,” Raptor said. The machine was decoding the encrypted message and they waited eagerly for it to finish, “I am asked to meet Star Commander Carvyk Botlar at his palace immediately.”
“Me too,” Tollvyk said.
Myra let out a sigh. She worked for the Star Command and understood that such demands were a part of the army life even if she didn’t like it.
“I am sorry…” Tollvyk said as they got up.
“It’s ok,” Myra said, “you have orders. Another time.”
“I will write him another furlough,” Raptor said to her and she smiled. They turned around and rushed out of the door and went directly to the parking space to their airship.
Half an hour later they were sitting in front of Commander Carvyk Botlar in his personal office at his palace where he was holding their army records in his hands. He looked at both of them as they sat sternly, their faces not showing any hint of the confusion raging in their minds.
“You must be wondering why I had you two ordered to my office out of the blue,” Carvyk said.
“Fortunately, we were on the planet on furlough,” Raptor said.
“Furlough that you yourself signed for you and your friend Col. Tollvyk,” Carvyk said.
Raptor and Tollvyk looked at each other for a couple of seconds before looking straight ahead. Raptor knew this was within his rights as a VC and had never been an issue before.
“Now you boys don’t exactly have a perfect record,” Carvyk said, “Colonel Tollvyk…drunkenness off and on duty, quarrels, fights, swearing, tardiness on station, and general goofiness…”
“Sir, I own up to all of it but I have bettered my character and you will see those blemishes are from the past, my recently history…”
“Perhaps you have changed or perhaps your follies are not officially written up anymore because your friend VC Raptor is your commanding officer now,” Carvyk said.
“Sir, I protest the insinuation of favoritism,” Raptor said.
“Ah, Vice-Commodore Raptor, let’s take a look at your record,” Carvyk shuffled the papers in his hand, “tardiness, excessive leeway to your subordinates and subsequent reduction in discipline, over generosity with furloughs, strange pranks and antics, unorthodox maneuvers in space battle practice and excessive humor.”
“Excessive humor is a sin in Starfire Army now?” Raptor laughed, “King Starryvk would be laughing from the great beyond and so would be legendary Col. Sthykar.”
“Kings and War Heroes have privileges that you don’t,” Carvyk said.
“I tell jokes, he just laughs at them,” Tollvyk said.
“You two make a great team, don’t you?” Carvyk asked.
They did not reply to this as they weren’t sure whether he was being sarcastic or serious.
“Luckily for you two, I have an assignment for which I need someone… mediocre,” Carvyk said, “and don’t feel insulted because you are being promoted.”
“We don’t understand,” Raptor said.
“Our protectorate of Nestorian Republic apparently has some trouble with strange aliens from the unexplored regions of the galactic space,” Carvyk said, “And for all I know it could be they who are dreaming of expansion and conquest. All virtues have downsides and talent and ambition in army officers comes with foolhardiness and willingness to rush to battle before judgment. I don’t want to send our best officers who would jump at a chance of starting a war. I want someone like you two, who enjoy your humor and your leisure.”
“I protest,” Tollvyk said, “I may not be the best of the officers, but I am second to no one in my desire to fight our enemies.”
“Whatever you say,” Carvyk said, “But I want you to understand something. You are not going to fight a war, but to investigate and try to broker peace. The name of Starfire Empire will be enough to back off most aliens and if it is Nestorians and their conspiracy riddled republic that is stirring up the trouble, then put them in their place.”
“Yes sir,” both of them answered simultaneously.
“I have been harsh on you,” Carvyk got up from the chair and both officers did likewise, “But I believe in second chances and third chances. Men can get better, I hope you two do. I have extended a two-week furlough to you till your new starship is fully tested and ready. Here are your new commissions,” he handed both of them two metallic cards with displays, “details of your mission will be available to you upon boarding.”
“Thank you, sir,” they saluted him, turned around and walked out of the room.
Few minutes later they were in a rocketship being transported to their orbital Starship Victory. They hadn’t looked at their commission yet but wanted to say good-bye to their Commodore, their fellow officers and the crew and collect their bags and personal items.
“He is a straight speaking bastard but bastard none the less,” Tollvyk said.
“He is not that bad,” Raptor said, “Can you deny that our conduct was less than stellar in the past?”
“No, but I resent the insinuation that because I love finer pleasures of life that I am a poor warrior,” Tollvyk said.
“He didn’t say that,” Raptor said.
“Fine not poor, but mediocre, his exact words,” Tollvyk said, “let’s look at those commissions.”
Tollvyk put his thumb in a slot on the card and it scanned and verified his identity. Then it showed his new commission on the display.
“OFFENSIVE ROCKET OFFICER – FIRST RANK!” Tollvyk said, “Woo hoo, alright Commander Carvyk is not a bastard anymore. Assigned under you at the new starship…”
Raptor read his new commission out loud, “COMMODORE – STARSHIP CONQUISTADOR!”
Chapter 9: Beacon
Capitan Jag Manus landed his spaceship next to a canyon on the outskirts of the base that hosted Beacon’s military space traffic control station. Beacon was a rocky planet with mountains and canyons galore and it was the last populated planet of Nestorian Republic that had representation in the Senate and there was vast, frontier space beyond. Its population was no more than thirty million and concentrated around a few mining towns. As a rocky planet it had no shortage of metal and mineral resources but most had not been explored yet. The costs of transportation were high and it was not easy to defend Beacon militarily.
Jag Manus was dressed today in a green suit, white shirt and black pants. He had decided against wearing his uniform but carried his badge, ID and a laser pistol in his suit’s inner pocket. He had not announced his arrival to the space traffic control and while that was a minor violation of the rules the Vice-Chancellor could easily get him out of any trouble that might cause him. He knew that the only really effective gravitron scanner on this planet was aimed towards the frontier space. To avoid radar he had flown low after entering the atmosphere. There weren’t many radar installations here either. But the radar near the space traffic tower would be powerful so he had parked behind a canyon and he walked the remaining distance.
It took him two hours of walk to reach the Nestorian military base that was enclosed with a steel fence ten feet high with five feet of barb wire above. A black, octagonal tower rose out a few hundred meters in the air some distance from the perimeter fence. Soldiers stood inside at interval around the entire fence. Along with laser guns, they had land-to-air laser artillery on the ground next to them.
An airship was dispatched to intercept Jag when he was sighted by the soldiers. It cleared the fence and flew towards Jag and hovered down two feet from land.
“Who are you?” two soldiers got out with their laser guns drawn at him.
“Capitan Jag Manus of Republican Guard,” he said and handed them his ID card. They passed the ID card to a soldier inside the airship who scanned and verified it.
“Please come in, we will give you a ride,” the soldier said and Jag walked inside the airship and it took off back to the base.
&nb
sp; “You could have given us a heads up. Where are you walking from?” the pilot asked.
“Some problems developed with my spaceship. It’s day time and the distance wasn’t far,” Jag said.
The airship landed inside the base very near to the tower and Jag walked inside the tower. The airship had sent his credentials ahead and the soldiers did not stop him when he walked into the archives office.
“How can I help you?” the archives officer asked him from behind the reception desk.
“I want to access the computer records of all the foreign departures in the frontier space for the spaceships in the last year,” Jag said. He did not want to mention the particular ship VC Remus had traveled in to maintain secrecy. He handed over his ID and the archives officer scanned it for the authorization codes. Republican Guard was the only force in Nestorian Republic with powers of both the army and the police and thus able to access records of either.
“You are cleared Capitan Jag, follow me,” archives officer was an older man, slightly stooped in the back and shoulders and he led Jag to a metallic door and swiped his card. The door slowly opened inwards and the archives person pointed inside with his hand, “Do you need help with accessing records?”
“I used to be a detective, no help, thank you,” Jag walked inside and the man closed the door behind him and walked back to the reception.
The computer room was empty but Jag took a seat in the far corner, scanned his ID again and the computer started up. He searched for all the spaceships that had left around the time of VC Remus and was not surprised when his wasn’t displayed. Then he took out a metallic card that Remus had given him with his own authorization codes and entered them and searched again and this time he had the time and identification of the ship and metadata of Remus’s departure. He pointed his finger to the part of the screen with the option ‘Data Access: Authorized Users’ and it displayed a list of eight names:
1. Chancellor Augus Grave
2. Vice-Chancellor Remus Torus
3. General Bakus Ferran
4. Capitan Jag Manus
5. Major Tolus Gerum
6. Pilot Roofus Bolfus
7. Commander Nolfus Berrum
8. Boutrous Golus
The last two names surprised him. He memorized the list but to be sure he took out a camera from his pocket and took a picture. He did not want to download it or print it out for fear of leaving a trace. He closed the search and shut down the computer and left the archives room. The search was performed using Vice-Chancellor’s codes and thus would not be visible in the computer history to anyone else.
When he walked out of the space traffic tower the airship was waiting for him and flew him out of the base. This time he let them fly all the way over to his spaceship behind the canyon and was soon airborne and then spaceborne.
After his spaceship had left the planet’s gravity field and settled on a cruise speed, he flicked on the auto-pilot, sat back in the chair with his legs up on the dashboard and looked at the list on the camera. The culprit behind the assassination attempt had to be either one of these individuals or someone who got the information through them.
He crossed VC Remus and himself off of the list. Then he crossed Chancellor Augus and General Bakus of the list as well. Remus trusted them as much as he trusted him and that was sufficient. Major Tolus was the space tower’s commanding officer, but he was only one of the four as it ran on continuous four shift schedule and his being on shift at the time of Remus’ departure was random. Conspirators would not know it in advance and could not have recruited him. Besides, while Beacon was closet to Starfire space there were other planets for departure. He crossed Major Tolus of the list. He also crossed Pilot Roofus off the list. Roofus was the pilot of the fastest spaceship made in Nestorian Republic that was their premier spy ship. Remus had personally requested it from Roofus and once again the conspirators could not have known this.
Commander Nolfus was the head of Nestorian Republican Guard and his own boss. It was strange that he had the permission to access this data. But he would have to tread carefully with regards to Nolfus. He might have been assigned to VC Remus but Nolfus was his permanent boss and after Remus’s term in Senate was over he could end up patrolling some slummy area if he offended Nolfus.
Jag had been a detective with Nestor Police and had been happy with his life. He received a middle-class salary and since Nestor was the richest planet in the republic, that meant a comfortable life. But for his family he had applied to the Republican Guard. His salary had not increased a lot but perks and privileges had that allowed him to save a much larger part of his salary and upgrade his family’s lifestyle. He did not want to risk it and hoped that the last person on the list was the lead to the conspiracy.
But who the hell is Boutrous Golus?
Jag was woken up from his slumber by a continuous beep on his dashboard. He turned off the sound and saw that a message had arrived from VC Remus. He had sent an encrypted message to him asking him to search for Boutrous Golus using his authorization codes because a vice-chancellor could literally access every database of the republic. But when he read the message he had to rub his eyes to make sure that he was fully awake.
Remus: No person named ‘Boutrous Golus’ found.
How could this be? Someone who had access to a government database but wasn’t in it? This was a dead end Jag thought. Then something clicked in his mind and he realized there was one possibility he could try. He changed the destination coordinates on his spaceship and reprogrammed them to the nearest orbital station that the ship had in its database.
A few hours later his spaceship had docked at a scientific research station orbiting an uninhabited ice planet. The scientists were taking measurements of the ice samples to analyze the composition of the planet and they returned to the orbital station for their residence.
They were accommodating and let him access a computer that was connected to the Nestorian InfoNet – a network of communications and private databases. He went on a paid Q&A communications channel and loaded 1,000 credits of Nests. He probably wouldn’t get officially reimbursed for it but VC Remus had promised to pay any expenses arising from the investigation out of his own pocket.
He sent the question out there on the communications channel with 1,000 Nest of reward for whoever answered. This drew the attention of professional questioners, experts who spent their entire work day answering paid questions and a few of them had made a big fortune from it. Someone answered him in five minutes.
Creditor: Who is Boutrous Golus?
Mr. Botanikus: Was.
Creditor: Who was he? When did he die?
Jag felt a tinge of excitement as well as a little bit of guilt. Poor Mr. Golus was dead but that meant the conspirators were covering their tracks. But the answer threw cold water on his hopes.
Mr. Botanikus: He was the founder and chief engineer of my company. He had been dead for five years when I joined the company 40 years ago.
Creditor: What company was that? What did you guys make?
Mr. Botanikus: Golus Gravitron Company. We were the first company to make and install long range gravitron scanners for our frontier bases.
Jag jumped up with joy and this startled the other scientists in the computer lab. He whispered ‘sorry’, approved the thousand credits for whoever Mr. Botanikus was, and left. In no time he was back in his spaceship and back on track for the original destination.
In a second he had realized how the culprit had accessed the information for Remus’s spaceship in Beacon’s database. If Mr. Golus was the original engineer of gravitron scanner he obviously needed full access to the database to make sure that the scanners were working properly and catching all the spaceships. For all he knew, it was his company itself which had made the database. Perhaps he had a master account that had just remained in the database.
Now the question was who knew about it? Perhaps someone in the company? But he would inquire into that later. He had a
second line of inquiry to take care of.
Chapter 10: Starship
Commodore Raptor Warwyk could not believe his new starship. It was new and shiny and long. It was twenty-five miles long on its longest axis and was the biggest spaceship that Sixth Frontier Fleet had ever received by a far shot. His own previous ship Victory was fifteen miles long and that was the standard size for frontier starships give or take a couple miles.
It was also very beautiful. It was painted in a shiny metallic silver coat that would be its permanent color. But the color could be changed to black, red, yellow or any combination thereof to camouflage the starship from visual scanners. This was accomplished by painting over the permanent coat with another layer of usually transparent millions of glass nanoparticles through which different colored light could be passed. But the silver paint was interrupted at some places with stripes and markings with rose red and black which were the official colors of the Starfire Empire.
Two big towers rose up near the top rear of the ship and held a large screen in between them that displayed Starfire Empire’s flag: Red Square with a Black Composite Bow in the center. These towers could be elevated down inside the hull at times of battle and were more for display at a parade.
The command room was enclosed by a fully transparent, thick semi-spherical diamond layer that made it the hardest section of the ship. Option was available to turn off the transparency from the command room as there was a one way transparent glass layer before the diamond layer. There was also an optional metallic shield that covered the rest of the Starship that could be activated to cover off the outside.
Raptor looked up and saw the beautiful galactic space with uncountable stars twinkling across the entire arc of the room. It made him feel nostalgic and romantic. This was why he had joined the Army in the first place to travel across the space amidst the stars and it reminded him of his early days as a spacefighter pilot.
