The Army Of Light (Kestrel Saga)
Page 12
She didn’t say anything; she just shook her head slowly.
Toyo turned to look out over the garden. “Of course you do not. If you did, you wouldn’t be in my family’s house right now. In fact, I think you’d be as far away from this sector as possible. Both of you.”
Shawn shook his head as his frustrations mounted. “Toyo, I don’t enjoy riddles.”
Toyo nodded. “All of the evidence I’ve gathered leads me to believe that Admiral Graves was on an intelligence gathering mission, possibly for a covert research project.”
Melissa watched in silence as Shawn leaned closer to Toyo. “What kind of project?”
“He was sent to Second Earth to find information on something the Unified government… misplaced.”
“Second Earth?” Melissa asked startled. “But I got this letter from—”
Shawn hastily interrupted her before she could continue. “Second Earth is a tomb. It’s been dead since the end of the war. It’s restricted, quarantined. It’s off limits to everyone, including the Unified government.”
Toyotomi regarded Shawn. “Come now, Captain. Do you really think that a government is held in check by the rules it creates for itself?”
Neither Shawn nor Melissa answered as they waited for Toyotomi to continue. “What if I told you a tale? An account so fantastic that you could hardly believe it?”
Shawn stood up and approached Toyo, folding his arms across his chest as he did so. “Try me.”
“I thought you might, Captain,” Toyo said without smiling. “What if I said to you that the Second Earth disaster was not the direct result of an orbital Kafaran bombardment, but was—in fact—the result of a mishandled experiment by our own government?”
“But,” Melissa countered. “Sector Command found Kafaran ships in orbit. It was proven that they were the ones that destroyed the planet.”
“And the official reports were supposed to lead everyone to accept that,” Toyo replied with a nod. “And, I have every reason to believe that the Kafaran’s were the catalyst. However, they were not the reason.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Shawn injected.
Toyo let out a disgusted snort. “Of course it does, if you understand what the Unified government was doing on Second Earth in the first place.”
“Biochemical research, I think,” Shawn said. “They were developing some sort of—”
Toyotomi held up a staying hand. He walked from the terrace into the library and retrieved a nondescript red book. Opening it, he withdrew a small scrap of paper and handed it to Shawn. “Does this look like biochemical research to you?”
“What is it?” Melissa asked.
Shawn looked at it curiously. “It’s an equation of some kind, but I can’t make most of it out.”
“May I see it please?” She asked.
In truth, it was almost entirely gibberish to him. He gave Melissa a curious look, pondering if she would be any better at deciphering it than he’d been. He found that it interested him that she might. Shawn shrugged casually and offered it to her. “Be my guest.”
She stepped to the captain, nimbly retrieving the paper and turning to the nearest torch, trying to get the maximum amount of light.
The two men regarded Melissa as she moved closer to a torch hanging from one of the gazebo’s beams. Toyo lowered his voice and leaned closer to Shawn. “She has her father’s fire,” he said, finding the irony in the statement.
“Yeah,” Shawn said as he finished his drink, his eyes never leaving her form. In her silken white dress, the firelight danced across every visible curve of her body. “And then some.”
“Just be careful not to get burned, Kestrel-san.”
Melissa stepped over and stopped just short of the two men. “Whatever this is, it’s incomplete. I mean, it could be a weapon, or it could be the formula for a new form of exterior latex paint.”
Toyo bowed his head slowly in acknowledgement. “I believe it is a weapon of some kind, but I do not know for sure.”
“A weapon,” Shawn asked, impressed with her knowledge of advanced mathematics. “What makes you think that?”
“This is an ionic equation,” Melissa said. “And I’m pretty sure it’s in my father’s handwriting. If I understand this fully, whatever it is, it looks to be biospheric in nature.”
Shawn’s eyes squinted in confusion. “But I thought biospheric weapons were outlawed?”
“Which is why I find it hard to believe that this scrap of paper represents anything harmful,” Melissa replied defensively.
“I don’t think the Unified government was concerned with laws when they began to develop this, Captain.” Toyo said grimly as he shook his head.
“Which was when?” Melissa asked.
Toyo eyes shifted to the paper in Melissa’s hand. His gaze was one of both menace and respect. “I believe we are looking at something that began life before the war ended.”
“Either way,” Melissa added. “This formula is incomplete.”
“This paper came from a folder that was recovered from the remains of the research base on Second Earth.” Toyo let those words sink in. With the current quarantine on the planet, there were very few laws about removing artifacts from Second Earth. That was because just being there in the first place—for whatever reason—was punishable by death. No exceptions. Melissa looked at the artifact with increased awe, and Toyotomi took it as a sign to continue. “Based on what my sources have told me, the Admiral was assigned the task of going back there to retrieve the rest of this formula.” He then shifted his eyes to Melissa. “That doesn’t sound like something the UCS would do for a gallon of latex paint, my dear.”
Pushing aside the burning question of how someone was able to get to the surface of the planet without being detected, Shawn kept the conversation on its current track. “If this were a government sponsored project, wouldn’t the UCS or Sector Command have it buried in their computers somewhere? I mean, why go to the trouble of trying to get it from the source?”
“A total blackout was ordered on the base prior to Sector Command losing total communications with the entire planet,” Toyotomi said. “No information was sent from the research base, and none was ever received. It was an entirely secret project.”
A communications blackout wasn’t unheard of in military circles. Shawn recalled a number of times when his own carrier strike group had fallen under that same order for the sake of secrecy. “Why would the Unified government want to build something like that? I mean, during the war I might have understood using a device like that, but the war is long over. Why resurrect a dead project?”
Toyo folded his hands together and leaned back. “Intelligence believes that, at some point, The Kafaran’s found out about this new weapon. They also surmise that the Kafaran’s had no defense against it. Unfortunately, from what I can tell, neither do we. Total annihilation of an entire planet’s eco system in minutes.”
Melissa stood up and approached Toyo. “Then you are saying that the Unified government is continuing to build one of these devices? To do what? Safeguard our future against another Kafaran invasion?”
“Don’t ask me, Miss Graves,” he said stoically. “Ask the OSI.”
“The OSI?” Shawn repeated. “But I thought—”
Toyo looked to his old friend and cut him off mid-sentence. “The Kafaran’s are arming again.”
It was Shawn’s turn to be defensive. “That’s utter nonsense. Besides, if what you say is true, and I doubt it is, we could use one of these… these eco-bombs to kill them all.”
Toyo licked his lips and leaned forward, leveling his eyes directly at Shawn. “Approximately two months ago, Admiral Graves departed Space Station Delta-II and headed for Second Earth. He arrived there safely, then departed two weeks later for the Corvan system. That is where you’re letter came from, yes?” Toyo asked, swiveling his eyes to Melissa.
“Yes.” She agreed.
Toyo nodded. “One week later Admiral Gr
aves—and his entire squadron of two destroyers, the Neptune and the Andromeda, the heavy cruiser Icarus, and the fleet carrier Valley Forge—vanished from space. Six thousand men and women…gone.” Toyo made a fluttering gesture with his fingertips. “No trace has since been found.”
The words hit Shawn like a ton of platinum. The whole strike group? What could do that? “My God.”
Toyo pursed his lips. “Sector Command has called off any further official searches for the missing squadron until the full impact of this…catastrophe has been ascertained. However, my intelligence sources inform me that the Kafaran’s are behind the disappearance.”
“Unbelievable,” Melissa muttered.
Toyo looked to Shawn. “Our former enemies have renewed several of their previous alignments with old allies and they are arming again, Captain. This new coalition is calling itself The Army of Light. And, if they have the secret of this new weapon—”
“Nothing will be able to stop them,” Shawn finished with astonishment.
“So, Captain, you can now see my need for weapons to defend this house.” Toyo waved his arms around the gazebo. “We are too far from routinely patrolled Sector Command space. If this house is to come under attack, then I wish to be ready to face the enemy.”
Shawn’s mouth was dry. “How accurate are your reports, Toyo. Don’t sugar coat it. I want all of the facts.”
“Considering the arms shipment you just brought me is only the first half of my order, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that I’d trust my life to them.”
And, it was only Shawn Kestrel’s undeniable trust in Toyotomi Katashi that was stopping the captain from calling his old comrade’s speculations unwarranted, paranoid, and potentially dangerous.
“Then we need to head for the Corvan system without delay, Captain,” Melissa piped in and leapt quickly from her seat, then looked to Toyotomi. “And you need to get off this planet as soon as you can, Toyo.”
He smiled at her concern, but shook his head slowly. “I’m sorry, but I cannot leave my family’s home. If I am to make a last stand somewhere in the galaxy, then I will defend this place to my last breath.” He smiled as his eyes fell back on Shawn. “I know you understand, Captain.”
Shawn nodded solemnly as he continued to ponder Toyo’s revelations. “Yeah, I understand.”
“Then come,” Toyo said, stretching out his arm toward the doors leading back into the house. “We must prepare you for your journey tomorrow. I have a number of favors to call in, and you both must get some rest.”
Chapter 7
By the time Toyotomi finished making his calls to his information network, Shawn and Melissa had long since retired to their rooms for the evening. The captain tried hard to get some rest, but failed to get Toyo’s words from bouncing around the recesses of his mind. Each revelation Toyo had made about the Unified government, or about the coalition that was calling itself the Army of Light, took Shawn’s imagination down a different path, some absolutely terrifying in their implications.
At last he was able to drift off, waking just before the sun rose over this part of Persephone and bathed Toyotomi’s house in its warming rays. Shawn quickly dressed in his comfortable shirt and trousers, donned his well-worn leather jacket, then headed downstairs in search of a pot of hot coffee. To his surprise and delight, Toyo was already dressed and sipping at a cup near the bar.
As Shawn entered the room, Toyo appeared to snap out of a daydream he’d been nursing.
“Good morning, Commander—I mean, Captain.” Toyo smiled at his faux pas as he set his cup of hot tea on the bar, then motioned to the vacant stool at his side. “Sorry. Old habits die hard.”
Hands in his jacket pockets, Shawn walked slowly to stand beside his old friend. “Don’t worry about it, Toyo. I almost did something similar last night.” He ran his hand through his slightly unkempt hair, flattening down a handful of dark brown strands that had stiffened upright during the night. “Do you ever wonder what it’d been like if we never got out of the service?”
Toyo smiled broadly as Shawn slipped onto the vacant stool. “Who says I ever got out?”
Shawn blinked in surprise, wondering if his hearing was still fast asleep in his bed. “Don’t tell me you’re still in the service?”
Toyo reached for his tea, swirling and searching the fluid for an answer that would suit the captain. “Koketsu ni irazunba koji wo ezu, my friend.”
Shawn scratched slightly at the back of his neck. “I’m afraid my Japanese is a little rusty… and I haven’t had my first cup of morning coffee.”
Toyo softly chuckled. “It means ‘If you do not enter the tigers cave, then how can you catch his cub?’“
Shawn rubbed his face with his hands, too exhausted to contemplate any more of Toyo’s disclosures. “I’m not going anywhere near a tigers cave until I get some hot coffee.” Shawn looked around with half open eyes, as if he were seeing the room for the first time. It seemed a much larger space now than last night, when its beautiful bamboo floors were crowed with half inebriated partygoers. For the first time he noticed the paintings that adorned the high walls, and the four ancient suits of samurai armor that stood watch over each of the corners.
“Don’t tell me you’ve collected all of this stuff and forgot to buy a French press?”
“I have not forgotten your penchant for that awful tasting concoction, Captain.” Toyo waved an admonishing finger at Shawn, then stepped behind the bar and produced the instrument for Shawn’s morning ritual. After the coffee had been prepared and Shawn had nursed half the cup, Toyo returned to sit at Shawn’s side. “And where is Miss Graves?”
“What makes you think I know what happened to her?” Shawn immediately remembered the image of Melissa as she’d appeared in the hangar the morning before, her hair disheveled and with a sour expression like she’d just given a lemon a long and passionate kiss. “Anyway, from what I can tell, she’s not much of a morning person. And, with as much as she had to drink last night, it’s no wonder she’s still in bed.”
Toyo smiled meekly and nodded. “I see.”
“In fact, I’d hardly expect her to—”
“Hardly expect her to what, Mister Kestrel?” a voice called out from the far side of the room.
Shawn and Toyo turned in unison towards the entrance to the room. There was Melissa, looking as fresh as the day was new. She was back in her white polka dot dress, her shoes in her hands as she padded into the room and plopped into a stool on the other side of Shawn. Pulling her hair back and tying it off, she smiled cheerfully and bid Toyo a good morning.
Toyotomi chuckled softly as he hefted his tea to his lips. “Ah, Shawn. I see your knowledge of women hasn’t changed much.”
Melissa reached for Shawn’s half empty cup of coffee, cradling the warm mug in her hands and gingerly drinking it in.
He looked at her with amused astonishment. “Help yourself, please.”
“Ahhh,” she breathed with satisfied delight. “I needed that.”
Shaking his head, Shawn turned his attention back to Katashi. “Toyo, you said last night that Sector Command wouldn’t have any official search team out looking for the Admiral. Does that mean there might be an unofficial one out there somewhere?”
“As with all things, Captain, it’s entirely possible. I’ve been unable to gather much information on that front. Sector Command Internal Security is clamping down hard around my small network.”
Melissa raised an eyebrow to his statement, knowing full well that it probably wasn’t just the generally plodding SCIS that was clamping down on his operations. “So, if that’s true, then how can you be sure the Kafaran’s are behind my father’s abduction?”
“That is a piece of information I am quite sure of, my dear Miss Graves. In my experience, there are simply too many markers, too many incidents that, when placed together, form a puzzle that’s far from the shape of coincidence.”
“Markers,” Shawn asked with due curiosity. “Such as?”
“What kind of timeframe are we talking about here?” Shawn asked, becoming more awake with each passing moment.
“All indications show that the number of sales in the old Outer Sphere have increased ten-fold over the last six months, with Beta Sector accounting for most of those figures.”
Shawn let out a slow whistle.
“Also, keep in mind that those are not just black market sales,” Toyo added. “The military branches of most of those systems have also shown increased activity.”
“How so?” Melissa prodded before bringing her cup to her lips.
“There has been a dramatic increase in fleet sorties from Danarius, Rugor, Beta Five, and Zenchan, to name but a few.”
Shawn remembered tangling with more than a few enemies from some of those systems, especially a particularly nasty flotilla from Beta Five that very nearly clocked his ticket. “That’s not the best news I’ve heard all week,” he said in monotone.
Toyo grunted in acknowledgement. “I can well imagine, Captain.”
Shawn smirked. “Of course you can. Remember that Rugorian warship we encountered near the Epsilon Tirana nebula?”
Toyo chuckled quietly. “I remember a young Lieutenant taking on an entire destroyer all by himself.”
Shawn’s stance turned immediately to one of defense. “Hey, that was no toy-boat destroyer. It was a full-fledged cruiser that was armed to the teeth with everything the Rugorian’s could throw at us.”
Katashi clapped his hands loudly in delight. “And now you will recount the tale of how you alone were victorious in that battle, yes?”
“Well, I admit… I did need a little help with that one.”
Toyo eyed him questionably. “The last time this tale was recounted, you had managed to destroy the entire vessel all by yourself.”
Shawn frowned as he tried to remember the previous circumstances under which he’d shared the story. “No. No, I don’t recall it happening that way at all.”