"That was my first idea of approach, Commander," K'oron acknowledged. "We will have to come up with a different plan then. We'll see if any other ideas come to mind while we are looking her over. Then Major Hart and I will join you onboard the Strak'zar."
"Understood, General," Br'dar nodded. "I'll keep this channel open in case you need anything. Br'drar out." The screen returned to a full panorama view of the space in front of the ship.
"You want the controls when we get there?" Danielle asked. "I imagine you have a much more delicate touch for tight maneuvering."
"Yes," he agreed. "I'll maneuver the ship, and I want you to look for anything out of the ordinary as we fly alongside."
"Out of the ordinary?" Danielle chuckled. "Everything that has happened since I entered V'drellian space four months ago should be out of the ordinary, but I'm getting accustomed to life on your world, so abnormal is the new normal." She gave him a big grin. "Anything, in particular, you want me to look for?"
"I don't know," he responded. "We are talking about No'tok's ship, so anything could be possible. If it catches your eye for any reason, we will investigate it."
They could now see the Drah'jik floating in the distance. K'oron brought their ship close to the damaged engine section and began their search. Portions of the Drah'jik's hull were blown outward and there was a large enough hole for them to see inside what remained of the engine compartment.
"Core breach?" Danielle asked.
"Yes," K'oron said. "When the Strak'zar initially approached, the Drah'jik's weapons targeted the Strak'zar and fired. That is why Commander Br'dar returned fire and destroyed the ship's engine. The core exploded causing this damage." They continued their slow flight around the hull of the ship but found nothing.
"I suppose it is time to go aboard." K'oron flew the ship toward the upper portion of the Drah'jik where he knew the bridge to be. He found an airlock on the surface of the hull and docked against it. There was a hiss as the docking collar made a seal and pressurized. K'oron checking the reading on the collar to confirm the pressurization, then opened the shuttle hatch into the collar. He climbed down the steps in the collar and stepped down onto the area of the Drah'jik's hull that was under the collar. K'oron knelt down and removed a covering over a console panel on the ship's hull. He pressed a button and the panel flickered to life.
He shouted back up the collar to where Danielle was kneeling at the top. "Looks like the reserve power cells still have some charge in them. If we can get in there, we should be able to access the ship's computer and life support."
"You sure the life support is still working? She inquired. "If so, I might have an idea. On Commonwealth ships, we have chemical air scrubbers in case of fire to filter out the smoke. I would assume that your ships would have something similar. They are usually attached to the life support system, but have to be turned on manually due to the strain they put on the life support system."
K'oron began working at the console panel. "You are correct. There is a filtration system. I think I can access it from here as long as it is wired into the reserve power system." He continued tapping on the console, then stopped. "I believe that should activate it."
"It shouldn't take too long to cycle the air in the ship," Danielle thought aloud. "Of course, I'm not familiar with your systems."
"I can monitor the air quality from this panel," K'oron informed her. "It should be clear momentarily. According to the life support system, the air is filled with some type of neurotoxin." He continued to watch the panel for a few moments. "The system reports that the air is safe now." He replaced the cover over the console panel and snapped it into place. "Ready?"
"Should I hold my breath? Just in case?" She asked.
"That will not be necessary," K'oron answered, "but you can if it makes you feel better." K'oron gripped the manual release on the airlock and twisted it. There was a dull clank sound as the lock disengaged. He slowly lowered the hatch until it hung open from its hinge. The air in the ship below them had been scrubbed by the life support system and it had an ionized smell. K'oron climbed down the ladder inside the hatch and stepped over to the walkway floor, which was covered with a thin layer of water. "How very odd."
"Is that water?" Danielle asked climbing down the ladder and stepping off to the other side of the walkway. "Why would the ship be flooded like this?"
"I am not certain," he replied. "We should proceed with caution. I believe our first destination should be the bridge. If we can access the ship's computer, we might find out what No'tok has been up to, and what happened on this ship."
The airlock hatch they used for entry was at the top of the same kind of vertical shaft that Danielle and Lakeisha had used to try and escape when they had been prisoners on the Drah'jik months ago. Well, when I was a prisoner. Danielle corrected herself. Her former best friend, Lakeisha Johnson, and she had been captured by No'tok, tortured, and held prisoner onboard this ship. At least, that is what she had thought at the time. She discovered later that Lakeisha had been in league with No'tok, and the Legion, and that Lakeisha's injuries were superficial and staged. That experience had almost cost Danielle her life, twice. The only positive thing to have come from that event was her meeting K'oron. She pushed the memories aside and returned her focus to the task at hand. "I remember using one of these shafts before. They run the entire height of the ship, don't they?"
"Indeed," K'oron replied. The shaft had a ladder in the center that ran the entire height of the ship through all decks. There was a walkway surrounding the ladder space that allowed a person access to each deck. "I chose this access because of it's proximity to the bridge deck, which is the level we are on now. If I remember correctly, the actual bridge section should be through this door and at the end of the corridor to the left."
K'oron pushed the door open and stepped into the corridor, with Danielle close behind him. The floor in the corridor was the same as the walkway in the shaft, completely covered by a thin layer of water. The ship was eerily quiet as they slowly progressed toward the bridge door at the far end. The only sound was the faint splashing made by their boots with each step. Upon reaching the bridge door, K'oron attempted to open it but found it locked. He checked the console panel by the door.
"Curious," he muttered. "It seems that the emergency fire suppression system was activated. When that system is engaged, all major ship sections are locked down in an effort to keep any fires from spreading throughout the ship. The lockdown does not end until the computer determines the fire to be extinguished. Only a command rank officer can override it."
"Well, that explains the water everywhere," Danielle stated. "Does it say where the fire started?"
"There wasn't a fire," K'oron responded. "That is the curious part. It seems that the fire suppression system was intentionally triggered. Even more interesting is that it was No'tok that did it, and that he triggered it ship-wide. Normally such systems only activate in the sections reporting a fire. Very strange."
"Unless..." Danielle's words trailed off as her mind begin to put the pieces of this strange puzzle together. "You said the poison that was originally in the air was a neurotoxin, correct? A lot of those types of toxins are can be disbursed by water. There are several species of animal that can produce a neurotoxic venom on Mars, and venom is biologic, and thus, water-based. It could be possible that No'tok found a way to use the fire suppression system to disburse it throughout the entire ship at the same time."
K'oron pondered what he had just heard. "Yes, that would be a possibility. The question now becomes, why would he want to kill his entire crew? That seems a rather extreme solution to a problem."
"Unless you were afraid that your entire crew had turned against you," Danielle offered. "What if the crew figured out that No'tok was no longer loyal to the Dominion?"
"That is very likely in the days following the assassination on Mars, we sent out orders to the Drah'jik to return to the homeworld, but they never responded. We assumed t
hat his crew had been part of the Legion as well, or had been coerced into serving them. It seems you are correct, and our assumption was wrong and No'tok was hiding his true intentions from his crew."
"So, how are we going to get into the bridge area if the door has been locked by the computer?" Danielle asked.
"As a general, I have full command rank over any ship. My access code should suffice."K'oron entered his code into the console panel and the bridge door began to open. What they saw inside confirmed their suspicions about the poison, the water, and No'tok. The entire bridge crew was dead, and their bodies in various stages of decay. Had the life support system not been set for filtration mode, the smell would have been unbearable. Those officers that were seated at their consoles were slumped over in their chairs, and those that had been standing were lying on the floor where they collapsed. They carefully walked around the bodies as they inspected the bridge. K'oron stopped at the communication officer's station and pushed the body of the officer out of the chair. He sat down at the console and began searching the system for records of incoming or outgoing messages. He was paging through the results of the screen when he stopped.
"I found where the Drah'jik received orders to return to V'drell Prime after the assassination," K'oron informed Danielle. "The orders did not specifically name No'tok as the traitor but did state that it was believed that a traitor was on board the ship. I imagine that alone was enough to cause No'tok to panic. It says the message was confirmed received by the first officer, but I don't see him on the bridge. His normal station would be the commander's chair unless the commander was on the bridge. So, I wonder where he is?"
While K'oron had been examining the communication logs, Danielle had been working at the tactical officer's station. "Listen to this. The ship's computer was remotely accessed by a shuttle to activate the fire suppression system. No'tok must have already been off the ship before he turned the poison loose. According to the ship's sensor readings, No'tok took the shuttle into the Rylan Protectorate."
"If he accessed the ship from a shuttle," K'oron spoke as he began searching the computer's logs, "the two computer systems would have been linked and the shuttle data would have been copied back to the Drah'jik's main computer. Ah, here it is! I found the shuttle's copy of the remote instructions. It seems he opened an audio outgoing communication before he got out of link range with the main computer."
"Do we know what was said?" Danielle had left the tactical officer's station and was now leaning over K'oron's shoulder.
K'oron turned his head to look at her and smiled. "No, but we know what frequency he used. That is most useful indeed." K'oron reached into a pocket on his uniform and pulled out a small handheld comms device. "K'oron to Br'dar."
A voice came from the small device. "Br'dar here. What news do you have K'oron?"
"I need you to perform a remote backup of the Drah'jik's main memory banks. make sure to get all sensor, communication, and navigation logs. We will need to send them to the homeworld for further analysis," K'oron ordered.
"Acknowledged," the voice replied. "We will begin immediately. Any other orders?"
"Do not send anyone to the Drah'jik for any reason," K'oron warned. "There is nothing here but death. K'oron out." He typed one last command into the console and stood up from the station he had been seated at. The bridge began to slowly pulse with red light. "Come, Danielle. There is nothing more we can learn from being here, and this place is now the domain of Th'warzin. We should leave."
They returned to their ship the same way they came. After closing the airlocks and retracting the docking collar, K'oron piloted the ship toward the Strak'zar. As they gained distance from the Drah'jik, Danielle noticed the hull lights on the Drah'jik were also pulsing the same red light she saw on the bridge. Three slow pulses, then a gap. The sequence kept repeating itself. She wasn't familiar with all the signal codes of the Dominion, but she felt certain she knew what this code meant.
"The red lights? Quarantine signal?" She asked.
"Yes," he nodded. "No one needs to disturb those who died there. The Drah'jik is no longer a ship, but a tomb. May Th'warzin grant them eternal rest, and may he bring swift vengeance to the one responsible."
Danielle was once again overcome with hatred for No'tok. You murdered your entire crew. You murdered my squadron. You murdered the crew of the Expedition. You played a part in the murder of the Rylan Prime Minister. You tortured me over and over. You will pay for your actions, No'tok. The Creator and Th'warzin may have mercy on you, but rest assured... I won't."
CHAPTER 4
Second Lt. Simon Baxby felt that a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders after telling Ridgeway the truth. He left the confinement building where Ridgeway was held and was now walking the four blocks to where the Office of Fleet Justice was located. His eyes darted from one person to another, and he frequently stopped and look behind him. I'm just being paranoid. He thought he noticed a young man seated at an outdoor cafe table watching him, but the man turned and looked back down at the handheld screen he was reading. Calm down, Simon. You're going to have a heart attack. Just breathe and act normal.
He was at the steps of the Fleet Justice building when his comms device in his ear began chirping. he touched the device to open the channel. "This is Baxby."
"You were warned to keep quiet." The voice speaking in his ear was mechanical sounding, obviously digitized speech from a computer. "Does your life mean so little to you?"
"I'm not afraid of you anymore," Baxby replied. It was a lie. He was terrified, but he wasn't going to let his fear stop him a second time from doing what was right.
"You were until your wife died," the voice taunted. "Maybe you just need a new motivation. Look to your right, across the street. See the cafe? See the waiter standing by the door with two pitchers of water on his tray? One pitcher has a tasteless poison in it, the other is pure water. When he makes his next round of service for his tables, which one is he going to pour from? If you take one more step toward the Fleet Justice building, well, I think we know which one he is going to use."
Baxby looked at the row of tables in the cafe area. There were at least twenty people enjoying themselves. Men, women, and a few children. He felt like he needed to vomit. If he didn't tell Fleet Justice the truth, Ridgeway would most certainly die. If he continued on his way to Fleet Justice, many of the people in the cafe would die. He didn't doubt for a moment that the voice on the other end of the channel was telling the truth. They had made certain that over two thousand people died when the Rylan Starburst was destroyed. He didn't think they would hesitate to add twenty or so more bodies to the list. The waiter was leaving the doorway and about to freshen up the drinks of the patrons. I'm sorry Captain. I can't trade the lives of these people for yours. "Okay, I'm not going. Just don't kill these people."
"A wise choice," the voice replied. "Now turn around and go home. Pretend like none of this ever happened. Ridgeway will be gone tomorrow, and you will never hear from us again." There was a click sound as the channel was terminated. He looked around to see if he could figure out who had made the call to him, but there were so many people walking on the sidewalk and many of them were talking into comms devices. He did the only thing he could do. He flagged down a passing transport shuttle and went home.
Baxby paid for his ride and got out of the transport in front of his apartment building. He entered the building and took the lift to the third floor. His apartment was 302, the second door to the right of the lift. He passed a worker wearing a maintenance hat on a step ladder changing an overhead light.
"Watch your step, sir." The man in the maintenance hat warned. Baxby stayed close to the wall as he passed the man on the ladder. He approached his door and waved his hand in front of the lock panel on the door frame. He heard the sound of the lock bolt slide back and he pushed the door open. His apartment was the same as all the other units on the third floor. They were one bedroom units primarily used by older couple
s and young singles or couples. There was a young couple at the far end of the hallway with a baby, but Baxby knew it wouldn't be long before they moved elsewhere for more space. Anna wanted a baby, but I was too caught up in my work with the Fleet. She would have been a great mom.
He walked through the living area to the dining area. He removed his comms device from his ear and laid it on the counter. He went to the refrigerator and removed a bottle of water. He took a big gulp and set the bottle on the counter. As Baxby sat the bottle down he noticed a prescription bottle sitting by the fruit bowl. Where did you come from? He picked it up and read the label. It was valium, 10mg pills, filled by his pharmacy, and prescribed by his doctor. Take one pill three times daily for anxiety. I may be anxious but I don't have a prescription for valium. He set the bottle back on the counter and reached for his comms device. I need to call the doctor and find out why he called this in for me. Better yet, call the pharmacy and find out who picked it up. Then the most frightening fact surfaced in his mind. I should start by calling the police because someone broke into my apartment!
"Just go ahead and put down the comms device," a man's voice said behind him.
Baxby turned around to see the maintenance man standing in the living area of the apartment, a gun in his hand pointed directly at Baxby. "What do you want? How did you get in my apartment?"
"Getting in is easy for the maintenance guy," the man laughed. "As far as what I want, well, that is a bit more complicated."
"You're holding the gun, so I guess you can take whatever you want," Baxby replied. He assumed the man was here to steal from him.
"I don't want to take anything," the man responded, "but you are. You're going to take a handful of those pills, and wash them down with one of the beers in your fridge. If not, I'll just have to shoot you, and I really don't want to do that."
Baxby considered his options. He could take the pills and hope for the best, or he could try to subdue the man with the gun and probably get shot. He wasn't a brave man, so he thought it better to risk the pills than the gun. He opened the fridge and got a beer out and popped the top off the bottle. He counted twelve pills out from the pill bottle into his hand and put them in his mouth. A few swallows of the cold beer and the task was done. He sat the beer bottle down on the counter.
Hart Of Vengeance: A Danielle Hart Novel (Book 2) Page 4
