The duke hesitated to reply, then sat. “I will attempt the arrangements, Mr. Hardy. I cannot promise access.”
Mace shook his head. “Do you know where the admiral is being kept?”
The duke replied, “He has been confined to quarters on the Gantero until his hearing before our panel of judges.”
Mace asked, “The Gantero one of the Muhatha ships?”
The duke nodded. “The flagship of the third fleet.”
Mace turned to Johnny. “Jane or Jenny? Who you want to go with us?”
Johnny replied, “I think Jane has her mind elsewhere at the moment. Jenny would be the preferred pick. Just don’t tell Jane I said so.”
Jane walked onto the bridge. “Just don’t tell Jane what?”
Johnny sighed. “Mace asked who we should take if we go over to the Muhatha.”
Jane asked, “And you said, not me?”
Johnny slowly nodded. “I just thought your mind might be elsewhere right now, that Jenny might be a better choice, that’s all.”
Jane walked over to her husband, placing her hand on his shoulder. “Normally I would have boxed your ears for that kind of remark, but here and now you’re right. I’m all consumed at the moment, which is why I came up here. He’s sleeping and I got tired of staring at him. Was starting to creep myself out.”
Johnny turned and pulled his wife in for a hug. “I know how you feel. When we first got married I used to stare at you half the night while you were sleeping.”
Jane pulled back. “Really?”
Johnny laughed. “No. I’m just having fun with you. But Jenny would be a better choice right now.”
Mace, Johnny and Jenny escorted the duke to his shuttle. “The weapons will be confiscated when we arrive. You should leave them here.”
Johnny replied, “No they won’t.”
Mace countered. “I’ll be looking to you to smooth things over, Duke. Use your royal status if you must. Just realize that if there is resistance, we will push back and push back hard. The information we are looking for is of the highest importance to us. Dlukov knows what we want to know. And we can’t wait for diplomatic relations to politely ask him for that information.”
The duke sat in his large plush chair as a servant brought him a beverage. “My pull among the military has never been tested like this, Mr. Hardy. I cannot say what the result of this will be. Can I offer you a Sharmian wine while we travel?”
Mace shook his head. “I’ll pass. And whatever pull you have with the military will have to do.”
Johnny raised his hand. “I’ll have one, if it’s all the same.”
Jenny followed. “Me too. I could use a little something to take the edge off now and again.”
The duke clapped and two additional wines were brought forward. The twenty-minute ride was over almost before it had begun. Johnny chugged his second glass as the shuttle slowed and entered the docking bay of the Gantero.
Chapter 23
*
The ramp lowered and the massive Humans followed the duke down to the deck. Dellus crewmen stopped and stared as Johnny ducked to walk under the wing of the shuttle. A wink and a pointed finger sent several scurrying.
Johnny laughed. “Always jumpy, aren’t they?”
Jenny replied, “Just keep an eye out for the ones who aren’t.”
The duke said, “You will not be attacked while walking with me. Given the current circumstance of this ship, we may not even be confronted.”
As the foursome turned into a hallway, a Dellus captain held up his hand. “Duke Wellit? What is the meaning of this? We were not informed of visitors. This is highly irregular!”
The duke replied with a stern look. “Out of my way, Captain! This is official crown business!”
The Dellus captain stepped back and saluted. The foursome continued, stopping in the hallway leading to the admiral’s quarters.
A guard stepped in their way. “I am sorry, sir, no one is allowed beyond this point.”
The duke stepped up close to the young guard’s face. “You would defy the desires of a royal?”
The guard’s voice cracked. “I am sorry, sir. I have my orders.”
The duke turned with a worried look.
Johnny stepped forward, taking the small sword from the guard’s hand and pushing him to the floor. “Go tell your commander that we want to talk to him. And tell him we’re with the duke.”
The guard scrambled to his feet, nodded, and ran down the hall in the other direction.
Johnny grinned.
Jenny shook her head. “Not very diplomatic, but effective.”
The group continued to the admiral’s door where another guard was persuaded it was in his best interest to leave.
The door was opened, the duke turned. “Give me one moment if you would.”
The duke walked in. “Admiral Dlukov. I have some guests that would like to talk to you.”
The admiral replied, “I’ve already said everything I’m going to say.”
The duke turned and gestured to Mace.
The proclaimed leader of the Human race entered the room. “Admiral, I have a few questions for you, questions you will answer. If for some reason you choose to remain silent, I can promise you your life will become very unpleasant.”
The admiral huffed. “I am already dead. And who are you?”
Mace replied, “You don’t recognize me, Admiral? You were awfully smug the last time we talked. You remember, when you killed two of my people with a nuke just before destroying a ship full of United Front crewmen.”
The admiral’s smug look turned to one of nervousness. “Mr. Hardy? How are you here? Duke Wellit? What is the meaning of this?”
The duke replied, “The meaning of this is you will answer all of Mr. Hardy’s questions or he will see to it that, well, things become unpleasant.”
The admiral turned up his nose in defiance. Johnny stepped forward with the confiscated sword. Grabbing the admiral’s small hand and stretching it out onto the arm of his chair.
“What are you doing?”
Johnny shrugged. “I’m cutting off a finger.”
The duke took a step back in horror. The admiral’s eyes grew large before shrinking back to size.
Johnny chuckled, “What? You don’t believe me? Remember, you irradiated two of our people. I’d just as soon cut you all the way in half right now.”
Johnny pressed down with the sword. The Dellus admiral yelped. The duke fainted. Jenny broke his fall, laying him gently on the floor.
Mace pulled up a chair, taking a seat in front of the shaking Dellus prisoner. “Now, I’m going to ask you a few questions. You’re going to give me honest and full answers. You understand what I’m saying?”
The admiral nodded.
Mace settled in. “OK. Who else are you working with? What other species beside the Mawga?”
The admiral played dumb. “What? Why would I need anyone else?”
Mace looked at Johnny. “I think the admiral has too many fingers.”
Johnny nodded. “Got it.”
The admiral held up his other hand. “Wait! I’ll answer your question. You just have to understand. This is difficult.”
Johnny chuckled. “Difficult? I’m the one that has to do all the cutting. You’re just sitting there.”
The admiral’s shoulders slumped. “They have my family.”
Mace said, “What?”
The admiral broke down. “The Sarkesians have my family. And now they are as good as dead.”
The duke pulled himself up into a nearby chair, aided by Jenny Taub.
The admiral stared at the floor. “The Sarkesians are bent on an overthrow of the Galactic Union. They have taken my family hostage.”
Johnny scowled. “You buying this? According to Geerok, they hardly even know who their siblings are.”
The admiral replied, “Your Admiral Geerok is Mawga. The Mawga customs are quite different from the Dellus. While we use birthing centers,
just like much of the Union, we have a superior family bond. Our families are our lives.”
The duke nodded. “He’s telling the truth.”
Johnny lowered the tip of the sword to the floor, pushing himself up. “Great. Now I feel like a heel.”
Jenny shook her head. “He still did what he did and laughed about it. There was no Sarkesian threatening him when he roasted Ramirez and Holmes.”
The admiral’s look changed from one of sullenness to one of nervousness.
Mace turned. “Duke, do you have any way to verify the status of the admiral’s family?”
The duke nodded. “They are here on Nineka, Mr. Hardy. Give me a few minutes. I’ll see what I can do.”
The duke whispered into his comm for several seconds.
Johnny leaned in toward the admiral. “Using your family as a defense? That’s going pretty low. I won’t feel any guilt about the next finger.”
As Johnny picked up the sword, the admiral replied, “OK. Wait. That isn’t the whole truth. My family was threatened when I was originally approached. And it’s not the Sarkesians. It’s the Zinka. They want through the rift to the UF territories. They want to control this end of the rift and to run those territories in a private partnership with us.”
Mace asked, “And what of the Human embryos?”
The admiral sighed. “They were purchased from the Mawga in exchange for one hundred fifty tons of raw gatrellium ore.”
Johnny looked over. “The Mawga mine. It wasn’t a mine at all. They were just refining raw ore before shipping it to Rhombia.”
Mace leaned in. “How many embryos did they purchase?”
Dlukov shrugged. “Several million I think. They wanted to go through the rift to conquer the United Front. There they would raise an army of enhanced Humans from the embryos, after which they would bring them back through to take over the Galactic Union. It was a long-term plan.”
The Duke asked, “Why did you take the Muhatha ships?”
The admiral replied, “I thought them to be the only ships powerful enough to defeat the UF warstation. When Mr. Hardy showed with the Rogers, I attempted to force him into doing the fighting instead. Why risk a ship if I could get someone else to do the brunt of the fighting?”
Mace tapped his fingers on his chair arm. “Where are the other Human embryos?”
The admiral shook his head. “I do not know. I only brokered the deal with the Zinka for the gatrellium. The Mawga would not even reveal to me what it was that had been traded until you stepped in and confiscated a large portion of the ore. You nearly exposed our entire operation. The Mawga Emperor and his intelligence officers are still scratching their heads as to what actually happened with you and all the food. They think it was ordered by Dellus command.”
Mace said, “So there’s some rogue faction of Mawga out there? And they’re selling Human embryos?”
The admiral nodded. “I don’t think it’s a faction or anything political as such. I believe them to be a criminal enterprise, and a very secret and powerful one at that. The Mawga spies I employ have not found any mention of them anywhere.”
Johnny sighed. “Great. So were dealing with some alien mafia. I’d rather it be the government.”
The admiral said, “I have no doubt they have spies on this ship. Your presence here has doomed me for certain. Not that I would have escaped the wrath of our Emperor or that of the Galactic Union, but you have once again placed my family at risk.”
Johnny scratched his head as he looked down at Dlukov’s severed finger. “I almost feel sorry about the finger, but then I don’t. You murdered two of our people. Nobody forced you to do that.”
The duke asked, “These Zinka, how do we find them?”
The admiral shrugged. “I don’t know. They contact me. They know I’ve been captured. I suspect they will either disappear or there will be an attempt on my life at any time.”
Mace sat back. “This keeps getting bigger and bigger.”
Johnny patted him on the shoulder. “At least we have some idea of what’s happening now. We can make adjustments and continue our fight.”
The duke’s comm warbled. “Yes. I see. Thank you.”
The duke turned to face the admiral. “It seems the admiral’s family consists of a single estranged brother. He has been lying to us.”
Johnny’s expression turned to one of anger. “You know you have another six fingers I can cut off, right?”
The admiral looked down. “That would be seven.”
Johnny shook his head as the sword was again brought to bear. The admiral again screamed.
Mace took Johnny by the shoulder. “Don’t get yourself too into that. It’s not a path you want to go down.”
Johnny replied, “I’ll cut him up bit by bit if that’s what it takes to get honest answers out of him. He killed our people, and he’s already admitted to selling Human embryos.”
Mace nodded. “Understood. You just don’t want that task to be something that comes easy to you, that’s all.”
Mace turned back to the shaking admiral. “And, admiral, I can tell you this is going to get a lot more painful as we go. You answer our questions truthfully or we’ll turn up the level of pain. And believe me, losing a finger or two is only an inconvenience compared to what comes next.”
The admiral replied with a nervous laugh. “As I said originally, Mr. Hardy, I’m already dead. If not by you then by the Dellus or the Galactic Union. And I can assure you the death by each of them would be equally as painful.”
Mace sat back. “Duke, you think we could get a towel and a bucket of water?”
The duke asked, “May I ask what for?”
Johnny chuckled. “Waterboarding? You think that will work?”
Mace replied, “It has in the past.”
Jenny frowned. “Our C.O. put us through that as part of our survival training. All I can say is he will tell us all we want to know. Psychologically, nothing else I’ve ever experienced could take you apart like that. We only had one guy in our unit who could tolerate it for any length of time, and he was a nutjob anyway.”
Jenny looked at the admiral. “You sir, are going to beg to tell us everything you know.”
Mace asked, “Duke, your people have any kind of truth drugs? Something like what’s in that tainted food our people were being fed?”
The duke shook his head. “We do, but they are only mildly effective. The additive in the food is highly effective. However, we don’t would need two weeks for it to take full effect.”
Johnny said, “If we take him out of here we do. Out there, we have as long as we need if it gets us the answers we’re looking for.”
The duke glanced at the doorway where more guards were gathering. “I don’t think we can take him out of here, Mr. Hardy.”
Johnny stood. “Oh, we can take him out if we want to.”
Mace held up a hand. “Let’s not make that decision right now. Admiral, we need answers. You have answers. You’ve done some bad things. You’ll have to pay for those.
“However, I could promise you a quick end to all this if you cooperate. Otherwise, be prepared for a world of hurt coming your way. And a very extended life with that pain continuing. Now, how cooperative would you be if I could provide you with a small ship and enough food for say, three months, and a jump to whatever star system you desired?”
The admiral replied, “I’m listening.”
The duke protested. “You can’t do that, Mr. Hardy. He is a prisoner of the Dellus Empire.”
Mace looked at the duke. “We don’t answer to the Dellus Empire, Duke.”
Mace turned back to the admiral. “Who has the embryos and how do we find them?”
The admiral thought over his options. “A Mawga general named Hamok. You find him, you find your embryos, or at least a trail that leads you to them.”
The admiral moved nervously in his chair. “I’ll tell you more. Whatever you want. But you have to take me out of here first.”
The duke stood. “I cannot allow this.”
Mace said, “What’s most important to the Emperor, Duke? Getting the knowledge the admiral has? Or punishing him?”
The duke began to pace the room. “You are asking me to make a difficult choice, Mr. Hardy. The Emperor will want both.”
Mace shrugged. “Both are not available, Duke. Pick one or the other.”
The duke sighed. “The first. The information. The information is of highest importance.”
Mace nodded. “Good. A command decision. Now, what are the chances we can get some of the drug the Mawga use in that food?”
The duke replied, “I can get an ample supply if needed.”
Mace stood. “Let’s take this circus back to the Rogers.”
The admiral looked down at his severed appendages. “What of my fingers? Can they be reattached?”
Johnny knocked the fingers to the floor, stomping on them with his boot and grinding them into the floor with his heel. “No. They’re too damaged.”
The admiral scowled.
The duke stepped into the doorway. “Clear a path. We are taking the prisoner aboard my shuttle.”
A Dellus captain stepped in the way. “We have orders that the prisoner remain here.”
The duke moved close, putting his nose almost against that of the captain. “You defy the desires of a royal? You question my authority?”
The captain slowly backed away as he bowed.
Mace lifted the admiral by his upper arm. “Let’s go before they change their minds.”
After a quick walk to the docking bay the team boarded the duke’s shuttle and were away.
A comm came in for the duke. “This is Commodore Barisk. You have my prisoner. You will return immediately.”
The duke replied, “I must apologize for my methods, Admiral. No disrespect was intended. Dlukov has information that is vital to the security of the Empire, and I intend to get it. In the meantime, admiral, I would like a moderate supply of codazine. We’ll be using it as part of our interrogation.”
The admiral scowled. “The prisoner must be returned. We have laws governing this. The Galactic Union will want to know what we’re doing.”
HADRON Revelation Page 22
