by Dietmar Wehr
“What if his troops search you first?”
Foster shrugged. “It’s a risk I’ll just have to take. I’d rather take Ericson with me, but if I have to, I’ll take a couple of black-uniformed troopers with me instead. I can detonate this stuff pretty damned quick, even with my hands tied or cuffed.” After a pause she asked. “Will you do it?”
Remington surprised herself by saying yes and meaning it. “Obviously you have to tell me how to find Roland before I turn you over to Ericson’s goons,” she said with an apologetic smile.
Foster smiled back. “Obviously. How you do it is up to you, but you need to get yourself to Zanzibar. I doubt if Drake will still be there, but that’s where you can start following his trail.”
Remington was now a little annoyed. Zanzibar? What would Drake be doing on a backwater colony like Zanzibar?
“What’s the SSU been doing on Zanzibar?” she asked.
Foster sighed. “That is the kind of question that a Federation Navy Commander asks of a rebel Major during interrogation. I may be a woman consumed by fury, but I’m not a traitor. That kind of information wasn’t part of the deal, Lorelei.”
“Damn, you’re right, Cate. I’m sorry. I had no right to ask you that. I just don’t understand why Roland would go there,” said Remington. To her surprise, Foster laughed.
“Think about what you’ve just said, Lorelei, and you’ll be able to answer your own question.”
Before Remington could respond, she heard voices that sounded like people were coming closer to the room. Foster stepped forward and produced a pair of handcuffs that she held out to Remington. “Here, put these on me quick and point your gun at me before someone comes in here and gets the wrong idea.”
They were ready by the time three men in black uniforms entered the room. One of them was, in fact, an officer. Remington told them who the rebel Major was and why Colonel Ericson would want to interrogate her personally. The trooper officer laughed a vicious laugh.
“Oh yes, the Colonel will definitely want to interrogate your prisoner himself. I know where the Colonel is, so my boys and I will relieve you of this burden, Commander. We’ll escort her to him right now, won’t we boys?” His men agreed heartily. Remington wondered if Cate would make it to Ericson.
As the two troopers took Foster by her arms and pulled her away, Foster spoke without looking back. “Good luck, Commander.” The officer turned away without saluting. Remington breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t seen him look at her name tag, so maybe her involvement with Foster would not come back to haunt her. She decided that staying here on the ground any longer would be pushing her luck. She would head back to the shuttle and then to her ship. As she was about to leave the now empty room, she looked back to the exit the troopers and Foster had used. “Good luck to you too, Major,” she said softly.
Foster’s initial fear that the troopers would first strip-search her for their own amusement turned out to be unfounded. The officer in charge seemed to be more interested in boosting his career than in simple rape. Maybe he thought the Colonel would give her back to him and his men after Ericson was finished with her. Then he’d get the recognition AND the fun. In any case, it didn’t take long before they ushered her into what had been a large conference room. There were a dozen black-uniformed officers huddled around an oval table. Her escorting officer whispered something to a lieutenant who must have been Ericson’s aide. The lieutenant passed on the information to one of the huddled men who then stood up and came over to her. His name tag did say Ericson and he was a Colonel.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here? Major Foster. Yes, it is you. I recognize your face from photos, Major. General Trojan asked me to keep an eye out for you.” He stepped close to her and lifted her chin with his hand so that his face was almost close enough to kiss her. She didn’t think he would do that in front of his subordinates, but then again, she wouldn’t put anything past this bastard. Her hands were still cuffed, and both troopers still held her arms. The officer who escorted her here was standing right behind her. All four of them! Can’t ask for more than that. I’m coming home, babe. With that thought, she closed her eyes and tapped her heels together two times.
As Remington stepped off the shuttle inside Trafalgar’s hangar bay, the pilot called to her. “Commander? Shooter and I heard some interesting chatter over the assault Ops frequency that I think you might appreciate knowing.”
“What is it, Lieutenant?”
“Well, apparently a rebel officer got close enough to the top ground force commander to blow the two of them plus three more troopers to hell with hidden explosives. If that force commander ordered the firing squad, then the rebels got a little payback, wouldn’t you say, Commander?”
Not saying anything, Remington just nodded and continued on her way.
She had to wait another 89 hours before an opportunity came to follow up on Foster’s information. During that time, she pondered Foster’s answer to her query on why Zanzibar, and she thought she had figured out what Foster had been hinting at. Zanzibar really was a backwater colony on the very edge of explored space. There was no good military reason for the Rebels to do anything there, and therefore it was highly likely that it would be a long time before Earth or Majestic, depending on which side came out on top, would get around to sending a ship there. And that made it the perfect place to hide something or to hide out for a while. Foster had said that she doubted Drake would still be there. That meant that Zanzibar was a temporary stop leading to something or somewhere else.
Remington kept asking herself what Drake could be involved in that would require that kind of secrecy. It couldn’t be a secret fleet. That made no sense. If the Rebels had a secret fleet, then why not use it to defend Sparta? But if not a fleet of warships, then what? Could it be a fleet of freighters…carrying important equipment…or important people? They couldn’t be political leaders. She had recognized Chancellor Belloc before the gunfire pushed him off the top of the tower. So if not leaders, then who? The only answer that made any sense was that a small group of hard core fanatics, who refused to accept defeat, were trying to find or set up a hidden outpost or colony in order to what…fight again another day, or just live beyond the Federation? Maybe they were refugees looking for a peaceful place to call home. Maybe. A peaceful place to call home sounded pretty good to her right now, especially if Drake was with her.
By the time Trafalgar’s new orders arrived, she knew what she was going to do. Romanov had decided to speed up the process by taking two troop transports escorted by one cruiser with his stealth squadron to Hekla. Remington waited until they were ten minutes from jumping to Hekla in formation with Romanov’s ships. She then called the Astrogator and the XO out into the corridor outside the Bridge.
“We’re not going to Hekla,” she announced in a calm voice. “I have very good reason to believe that the Rebels are conducting a secret operation that’s based on Zanzibar, but I don’t have any evidence to support it, and Vice-Admiral Romanov has refused to change his plans. I’m prepared to go out on a limb and take Trafalgar to Zanzibar on my own initiative. If it turns out to be a wild goose chase, then I’ll take the blame. So I’m not asking for your consent, but I am explaining why I’m disobeying Romanov’s order. AO, I want you to adjust our planned jump for a short, micro-jump, after which we’ll line up for a jump to Zanzibar. We’ll continue with the same vector so as not to tip our hand to the Admiral. They won’t know that anything’s amiss until we fail to show up at Hekla. I order both of you to keep this information to yourselves for now. I’ll inform the crew after we’re on our way to Zanzibar. Let’s get back to our jump stations.”
As they broke up the meeting, she went over to the Communications Station and leaned over to speak with the Com Tech privately.
“As of right now, no transmissions of any kind leaves this ship until after we jump, understood? Not even if it’s from the XO.” The Com Tech’s eyes widened. This sounded very dramatic and a li
ttle bit ominous. Was there some kind of private power play going on?
“Understood, Skipper, no transmissions of any kind.”
“Good man,” she said as she patted him on the shoulder and headed back to her Command Station.
Chapter Twenty-one:
Day 277/2549
Arriving at Zanzibar turned out to be anticlimactic. There was nothing in orbit to suggest that anything secretive was going on. On her orders, the ship kept radio silence while it passed over the main colony location and scanned the surface with opticals. There were no ships on the ground either. She had this sinking feeling that whatever had been going on here was now gone, and that implied that Drake was gone too, but she had to be sure.
Fifteen minutes later, the ship was touching down on the small, bare bones spaceport that undeveloped colonies typically had. The Colony administrators didn’t seem to be surprised to learn that Sparta had fallen and that the SSU was now defenseless. That by itself spoke volumes. Even as part of the SSU, it was unlikely that this colony would be visited frequently, so how would they know about Sparta?
When she stepped down the ship’s ramp, there was a small group of civilians waiting for her. They turned out to be a delegation from the Colony’s governing body, and they looked scared. Remington resisted the impulse to use that fear to intimidate them. After introductions were made and a few pleasantries exchanged, Remington explained to them that her ship was here to accept Zanzibar’s request to return to the fold, as it were. She worded her explanation in such a way that the delegation would appreciate that doing exactly that would be in their best interests. They got the hint. When she accepted their request, on a provisional basis pending approval from Earth, they all relaxed with the realization that there wouldn’t be any punitive actions imposed on the Colony. After a little more chitchat, Remington decided to try her bluff.
“We know about the secret operation that the Rebels conducted here. I’m sure they didn’t give your people any choice in the matter, and it’s clear that they’ve pulled up stakes and left. Apparently they did accomplish their goal.” The sudden silence was striking. None of the dozen delegates said anything, and their demeanors suddenly changed from smiles to frowns and expressions of fear.
Finally, a woman stepped forward. “Yes, they did force us to co-operate. You’re right about that. We had to build living quarters for almost 10,000 people and all kinds of laboratories for their equipment.”
Before Remington could say anything, one of the other delegates said in a loud voice, “Tell her about Drake threatening the CAO.”
The woman nodded. “Yes! That’s right! Back when the research project was still in the setting-up stages, this Commander Drake threatened to come back here and personally kill the Chief Administrative Officer if he felt the war had been lost because of a perceived lack of co-operation on our part.”
My God, Foster was right! He was here. That sounds like something Roland might say to motivate someone. She tried to keep her expression from showing the excitement she was feeling. “And did he?” she asked.
“Ah, nooo, he didn’t, but he wasn’t happy about what was happening in the war. I guess he was too concerned about evacuating the Brain Trust as quickly as possible to bother shooting Malcolm.”
Remington nodded sympathetically, but inside she was shouting a mental eureka. It now all made sense. Zanzibar had become the SSU’s R&D center for the war effort. Keeping those scientists and technicians, and no doubt their families too, out of FED hands would be just the kind of desperate act that Belloc would assign to someone as dedicated as Roland Drake.
“Well, that’s very interesting, and I thank you for the information. It’s clear to me that the people of Zanzibar were never really enthusiastic about joining the Rebellion. I’d like to be able to say in my report to the Federation Council that the colony leadership was completely co-operative. Naturally, we would need to know where Drake and his Brain Trust went.”
The woman frowned and looked around at the others, most of whom nodded. “We don’t know for certain, but some of us heard from a few of the crew that they were evacuating everyone to the colony on Freiland, Commander.”
Freiland? Remington tried to remember any tidbit of information on Freiland that she could but nothing came up. She doubted the ship’s data library would have much on Freiland beyond the obvious astrogational and environmental basics. There was no reason to carry more information than that on hundreds of planets.
“Why move everything there?” she asked.
The woman shrugged. “We never did learn the answer to that, but speculation here is that Freiland supposedly has extensive networks of underground caverns that the Brain Trust could hide in until the coast was clear.”
As speculation went, that almost made sense, except for one thing. It appeared that Drake hadn’t made any effort to keep their next destination a secret, which undermined the reasons for leaving in the first place. If the FEDs sent ships to Freiland and searched all known cavern networks, the Brain Trust would be found. Could it be that the delegates were lying to her. She looked at their faces and concluded that they weren’t. They believed what they were telling her, but that didn’t make it true. Drake could easily have spread false information about a bogus destination. A few more questions elicited nothing new. When Remington was satisfied that further talk were pointless, she told the delegates that they were free to head home. She stared at the horizon, deep in thought as to what she should do next, when she sensed that one of the delegates, a young woman, was standing beside her.
“Will you be taking your ship to Freiland now?” she asked.
After a slight hesitation, Remington said, “I’m not sure. Why do you ask?”
The young woman looked embarrassed. “There was a young scientist that I got to know well. He and I…you know. He wanted me to go with him, but I was afraid to leave Zanzibar. It’s the only world I’ve ever known. Now I wish I had said yes.”
Remington sighed, another life ruined by this fucking war. “I know how you feel. I became involved with a man before the war, and we ended up on opposite sides. We met briefly during the war, and he said he’d be waiting for me when it was over. He’s one of the officers of that expedition, and Freiland is the only clue I have to work with now.”
When the young woman said nothing, Remington smiled at her and turned to walk back up the ramp. She stopped when she felt a hand on her left arm holding her back. She looked back at the young woman, who stepped closer and said in a low voice. “Don’t go to Freiland. That’s a false trail. My guy told me they were headed to Vril, just in case I changed my mind, which I have, AND had the opportunity to get there, which I haven’t yet.”
Remington’s mind was awhirl now. She was sure that this woman believed what she was saying, but that also could be a false clue. And yet, the fact that this clue was not widely known lent credence to its legitimacy.
“If what you say is true, then you’re potentially putting your guy in danger if he’s still on Vril when my ship gets there. Why would you tell me this information?” asked Remington.
The young woman lowered her gaze. When she spoke, Remington could barely hear her. “I know I’m being selfish and that I should put the good of the Cause ahead of my own desires, but I don’t care about politics. My hope is that you’ll get there before they leave again, and put a stop to this whole project. Then, when the dust settles, he can come back to me here.”
“What do you mean ‘before they leave again’? They’re not staying on Vril?” asked Remington with some skepticism in her voice.
“Vril is just meant to be a temporary stop where they can gather supplies for the trip to their final destination, and before you ask, I don’t know where that destination is and neither did my guy. I don’t think this Drake person had figured that out yet.”
For some reason that Remington couldn’t understand, she suddenly felt a powerful sense of urgency. A voice inside her was telling her to get to Vril a
s fast as possible. On a sudden impulse, she put her arms around the young woman and gave her a quick hug, then turned and ran up the ramp. As Trafalgar ascended through Zanzibar’s atmosphere, Remington brought the XO and AO up to speed on the Rebel R&D project and her decision to take the ship to Vril.
This time the XO looked very uncomfortable. “Listen, Skipper, Trevor and I went along with your decision to come here, and you were right. Something was going on, so your decision to come here has been vindicated, but taking the ship to Vril on this hearsay evidence will in my opinion be interpreted as exceeding your authority. We need to take the ship back to rejoin the Fleet.” He stopped when he saw Remington shake her head.
“No. This ship is going to Vril.” She could see from their expressions that they didn’t like that reply at all. The last thing she needed was for the XO to organize a mutiny and relieve her of command before the ship jumped. He had displayed just enough initiative in the past that a mutiny was a real possibility.
