Pursuit (Silver Cane Book 1)

by James David Victor

  “I don’t know why he let us know.” Silver cut away a section of composite and secured it to her suit. “I think he’ll do whatever he feels is best for him, whenever it suits him best.”

  Behind the panel the mechtissue of Razor pulsed and flashed away. The device, a smooth black sphere that had a yield sufficient to vaporize Razor, was squashed into a small cavity and barely visible.

  “My visor is picking up some residuals on the device and the surrounding mechtissue. Can you identify this Arty?”

  The substance was analyzed in moments. “The area has been treated with an anesthetic. That’s why Razor didn’t detect it herself,” Arty said.

  Silver scanned around the device looking for any tripwire devices that would trigger the explosive if she tried to remove it. She spotted it. “Whoever planted this device wanted to be sure it was detonated and they planted a tripwire.” Silver replaced the panel. “Whoever it was wanted to make sure we didn’t survive. I can’t get around the tripwires without a proper disposal team.”

  “How do you want to proceed?”

  Silver sat back on her haunches with her hand on her hips. This was bad. Coris was getting away and she wasn’t going to be able to catch him. “We’re going to have to take out the entire section. Have Razor reroute all functions from this area and make preparations for an amputation.”

  “We will lose a significant portion of our drive capability,” Arty said as he began instructing Razor.

  “I know.” Silver stroked the hull of Razor. “Sorry girl. I know this will hurt.”

  Silver looked up at the spinning stars. The section around the device began to shred and tear away from the main body of the craft. The outer hull fragmented at the molecular level, the mechtissue inside ripping apart, conduction gel leaking out from the wound. The mechtissue immediately began secreting composite over the wound.

  “I have an identification of the device,” Arty told Silver as she stroked the hull of her craft in a soothing manner.

  “What is it?” Silver got to her feet and started back to the airlock.

  “It’s military.”

  “Makes sense,” Silver said. A civilian device would be easier to get hold of but military grade equipment would ensure total annihilation. “Is it the same device that Coris used to destroy the SV server?”

  Silver knew she shouldn’t jump to the conclusion that the military was trying to destroy her. They could do it so much easier than this. A simple weapons accident followed by an inquiry, that would be enough to satisfy Gov central. But it was not an easy thing to get hold of military equipment. They guarded their resources jealously. But someone had acquired it and planted it. It couldn’t be a coincidence that it had happened while she was so close to taking Coris into custody.

  “I need to talk with PHQ,” Silver said as she stepped into the airlock. “Once we are clear of the device get us underway.”

  As Silver closed the outer hatch she saw the star field spin slowly. Through the small porthole she saw them settle as Razor regained its attitude control. The craft’s drive activated and powered away leaving the severed part of itself tumbling through space.

  “We can’t leave that there,” Silver said as she watched the spinning segment on the holostage.

  “Should I direct it on a course away from the ecliptic? It would be in deep interstellar and safe forever.”

  “No, Arty,” Silver said. “Can we detonate it? It might be good if our would-be assassins thought they succeeded.”

  “I’ll have Razor remotely power up that section again. It might be enough to set it off.”

  “Do it.” Silver watched the hologram of Razor’s severed wing.

  “Razor is simulating high acceleration and speed. The device was rigged to detonate at some point during flight.”

  The moment Arty stopped talking the hologram disappeared. A collision alarm sounded on the flight deck. Silver fixed her suit into her flight chair.

  “Report,” she said.

  “Detonation successful. Plasma shell expanding out from the detonation site. The blast was much larger than we anticipated. We are going to experience a severe impact. Impact with Razor imminent. Brace, brace.”

  The plasma wave hit Razor on its aft side. The craft pitched forward, tipping up on its nose. The sudden change in attitude threw Silver forward, she felt her suit hold her into her chair but the sudden move was jarring and created a wave of dizziness. Silver released a strong dose of antiemetic into her system to counter the sudden attack of nausea caused by Razor’s wild tumbling and spinning.

  “Razor has control,” Arty reported. “How are you, detective?”

  Silver closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Fine.” She had survived the bomb attack and she had escaped Frost, but she had lost track of Coris and was far from fine.

  “That device was military. They will have answers for me. Locate the carrier Defender and set an intercept course.”

  Silver climbed out of her chair. “Wake me if you need me.” Silver walked to her cabin. She activated the suit’s rapid body wash program. It was complete by the time she reached her bunk. She peeled the suit away from her aching body and fell onto her underused bed.

  CHAPTER 6

  The military carrier Defender was holding a stellar orbit equidistant between the orbits of Pepper and Frost. The carrier was the systems primary military installation. Smaller garrison towns existed on all major worlds but the systems military power was concentrated on the massive carrier.

  All command and administrative functions were controlled from the Defender. All military fighter craft were based on the Defender. Several were on routine system patrol at any one time but the bulk of the force was standing by at various states of readiness aboard the huge carrier.

  A small number of destroyer class ships were deployed throughout the system but one always held formation with the Defender. It was the destroyer Resolve and two fighter craft that moved to intercept Razor. Silver opened the channel when the incoming message was received.

  “Police cruiser. This is the destroyer Resolve. Power down. Identify yourself and hold position.”

  Silver had dealt with Military before and the unfriendly tone was expected. Although the military was a tool of the government, just as Silver was, the military always believed themselves to be removed from the day-to-day functioning of the state. They were in many ways a world unto themselves. They had their own limited judicial system and were autonomous in terms of material and resource procurement. They had their own food production facilities in secret locations around the system. They had their own power production facilities orbiting Titan and extracted vast quantities of the giant’s gaseous atmosphere to power various aspects of the huge, system-wide military operation.

  The military was in many ways a world apart from the rest of the system but the military did not police itself. Silver had a wide-ranging warrant to conduct her investigation into the destruction of the SV server. Her investigation had brought her here.

  Silver sent the coded signal that would identify her and her level of authority. The military had the right to scrutinize her credentials. They could hold her here until they could verify her warrant with police HQ, and even double-check that with Gov central. In effect, they could hold her under arrest until every bureaucrat from the chief of police right up to the system president cleared her to approach the Defender. If they wanted to check at every stage, Silver could be here for weeks.

  In actuality she should not be kept waiting more than a few minutes for her details to be checked by a duty officer and cleared by the Defender’s AI. Silver sat back in her chair and waited.

  “Police Cruiser Razor,” the response from the destroyer commander came quickly. “You are cleared to land on the starboard strip, zone one. Instruct your AI to keep formation with the fighters. They will take you in. Over.”

  “Thank you, Resolve,” Silver replied. “You heard them, Arty. Follow their lead.” With that Silver climbe
d out of her chair and went to her cabin. She needed to pull her suit on if she was going to leave Razor.

  RAZOR LANDED SOFTLY on the strip before the fighters powered away to resume their patrol flights. Silver opened Razor’s hatch and walked down to the landing strip.

  The strip ran along one side of the Defender’s five-kilometer length. A huge gravity distortion field separated the strip from the vacuum of space. The Defender housed the single largest grav distortion generator in the system. Silver’s suit based generator was powerful enough for her to defy planetary gravity, to survive in the vacuum of space for hours. She could resist the coldest temperatures at the poles of Frost or the searing heat of the equator on Pepper. She could land safely from a high altitude freefall, she could deflect a bullet, she could even punch through walls, but it was nothing to the power of the Defender.

  It was the same tech that enabled Silver’s suit to function, the same tech that powered the flight of all the systems craft. It was the tech that allowed mankind to manipulate and dominate the very fabric of space-time but the Defender took the tech to an unimaginable extreme. The grav distortion generator at the deepest center of the Defender contained a singularity that would devastate the system’s sun should it escape its housing.

  Silver was quickly met by a military officer who was flanked by two guards. The two guards were armed with pulse blazers similar to Silver’s. The officer was armed with nothing but charisma and charm. He stood with his hands behind his back and smiled at Silver. He stepped forward and offered his hand.

  “Commander Dooley,” he introduced himself. “And you must be Detective Cane. Pleased to meet you, Detective.”

  Silver took the Commanders hand and shook it warmly. “Thank you for welcoming me aboard, Commander. I am here as part of an investigation..,” Silver paused as she tried to catch Dooley’s eye. The Commander was looking up at Razor’s freshly secreted composite that barely covered the interior mechtissue.

  “You have seen action?” Dooley spoke with a hint of admiration and jealousy.

  Silver looked up at the wound. “I had to amputate a section of my ship. She’s still coping with it.”

  Dooley turned to one of the guards, “Go and find the zone one strip master. Instruct him to have his team bring this police cruiser back to operational standards.”

  The guard saluted, turned on his heel and ran off. Dooley looked up at the mechtissue that glistened in the harsh lights of the landing strip.

  “Partial ship amputation, you say.” Dooley shook his head as he studied the wound. “Maybe I’d see more action if I retrained as a police officer.”

  “Maybe,” Silver said. “I need information on the device that caused it.” Silver handed a holograph of the explosive device that she had found on Razor. “I need to know everything about this unit and how it came to be on my ship.”

  Dooley studied the holograph. “Do you have any data from the detonation?”

  Silver instructed her neural processor to retrieve all data from Razor and Arty regarding the detonation. “I’ll have it for you shortly,” she said.

  “In the mean time,” Dooley held out a hand and invited Silver to walk with him, “we have an excellent chef on duty at the officers’ mess in this section. I’d be happy to invite you for refreshment before we find out all we can about this device.” Dooley smiled warmly.

  Nodding her acceptance, Silver set off in the direction Dooley had indicated. The Commander fell in step beside her with the remaining guard walking behind.

  “The officers come from all over the Defender when Chef St. Clair is on duty. Real food, not the processed offerings you get on the destroyers. It’s all really excellent, not even a slightly disappointing croissant. How is the food on your Cruiser?”

  The food on Razor was acceptable and completely nutritious. It was not something Silver concerned herself with. If she was hungry or tired she took food or sleep, if she was able. If not she quieted her body’s call for food or rest by releasing or suppressing one hormone or another. The thought of real food was appealing. She had only just woken up from a rare deep sleep. This would be the first real breakfast she’d eaten in weeks, maybe months. To be honest she wasn’t sure when she’d last eaten real food, prepared from raw ingredients. The military did things differently. She hoped it was all as good as Commander Dooley promised.

  THE MESS WAS as busy as Commander Dooley said it would be. Silver had never eaten with so many people. The lights were harsh, the noise intense. She took it all in her stride, and the meal that Dooley ordered for her was spectacular. The military had scoured the system for plant and animal analogues of the Earth based flora and fauna. They’d brought it all here to the Defender and the chefs produced the greatest Earth meals. Silver finished the last bite of a burger and picked up a mug of steaming coffee.

  “It’s not the real thing, you understand,” Dooley said. “But it’s better than a VR burger. It’s almost as if you were back on Earth.”

  “I’ve never seen Earth.” Silver took a mouthful of the bitter black coffee. She was content to eat her police issue rations. They worked to fuel the body and fight off hunger. She had eaten in a VR restaurant where food similar to her police issue rations was served but the neural processor and the VR environment created the illusion of the best of Earth based cuisine. It was an enjoyable fantasy but Silver dealt in facts. It was her way to always follow evidence to uncover truth, usually an unhappy one. VR restaurants were fine for the rest of society, but Silver couldn’t ever quite accept the lie.

  “I need to know where this explosive device came from and when it was taken. I need to know who handled it. Than, maybe I can work out how they came to plant it on my ship.”

  “You’re all about the work,” Dooley said, his arms folded on the table. “Maybe you should retrain as a military officer.” He smiled at Silver.

  Silver took another sip of the coffee. It was good and strong. “No thanks,” she said, “not enough work.”

  “If you are ready,” Dooley said, “we should start at the quartermaster. They have a record of every item of equipment from a destroyer’s main cannon to a commander’s belt buckle. If they can’t tell us what it was then it didn’t exist.”

  “WHAT DO you mean it’s missing?” the quartermaster asked in disbelief, standing at his information terminal. “That’s not possible.”

  Silver looked into the quartermaster’s eyes as he spoke. She could read a person as easily as she could read Razor’s control panel. There wasn’t a person in the entire system that Silver could not discover their lie.

  The quartermaster went back through the records, tapping the large display screen on the desk in front of him. “The detonation data shows it’s a MYAC, a Mid Yield Asteroid Correction device. There are currently thirty such devices and they are all recorded as being in storage. Fifteen are here on the Defender. The others are held at garrisons around the system.”

  “Where exactly are they?” Silver asked.

  The quartermaster looked at Dooley who nodded. The quartermaster tapped the display and showed the locations of the other devices. Five on Pepper, five on Frost and five on a military garrison on a moon of Titan.

  “All the devices are accounted for,” the quartermaster said, his eyes darting between Dooley and Silver.

  “Could someone have constructed one?” Silver asked.

  “Impossible,” Dooley said. “The munitions plant on Titan’s moon would have a record of every device. It’s all automated and run by drones. No humans. No AI. It’s incorruptible.”

  “I want to physically check on all the devices,” Silver said. “Take me to them now.”

  “If they are on the inventory here,” the quartermaster pointed at his list, “they will be in the stores.”

  “We will go now,” Dooley said. “Take us to them.”

  “And have quartermasters at the other locations do a physical check on the devices too. Don’t tell them why, just have them do it.” Silver invit
ed the quartermaster to join her and Dooley and the three set off.

  The Defender looked big from the outside. Inside Silver realized how massive it really was. Silver was led to a transport hub where passenger cars were available for transport to locations along the five-kilometer length and up and down its scores of decks.

  The munitions store was in itself vast, big enough to contain Razor with room to spare. Here was the system’s biggest stockpile of weaponry, from pulse blazers to the SGD, Singularity Generation Device, a weapon so dangerous and powerful the military was limited to a small number, a number that was kept top secret by Gov central.

  The quartermaster walked along a corridor and then led the way up a small metal stairway. The three walked along a clanking gantry until the quartermaster stopped. He looked up and down a stack of lockers before finding the one he was looking for. He pressed his thumb against the handle and the drawer lit green before sliding out.

  There in the drawer lay two MYAC devices and recesses for three others. Silver looked at the quartermaster who looked nervously at Dooley. He shut the drawer and reopened it. His mouth fell open as he saw the vacant locations for the MYACs.

  “They should be here.” The quartermaster spluttered.

  “Three missing devices.” Dooley said. “What will the detective think of us?”

  “Take me to my ship, Commander,” Silver said returning the way she had come. “I need all SV on this location.”

  “Do you need the last couple of weeks or months?” Dooley asked catching up with Silver.

  “I want it all. Every minute since it was constructed. And I want to know who has the authority to open that drawer.”

  “They should be here,” the quartermaster said running to catch up.