Resurrection

by Jan Domagala

  Tillic looked up at the broad shouldered man blocking his path like some prehistoric behemoth and smiled. “Very well Popov, I’m going to see Senator Mikal Tovaric. I have reason to believe he passed on sensitive material to the Confederation about an ongoing mission. As you know Arkady, that is a treasonable offence but I want to give the Senator the benefit of the doubt and ask him myself before this goes any further,” he said calmly, he had his anger once more under control. He had hoped to burst in on Tovaric unannounced, but that seemed not to be the case as his guard would have to log in his travel plans with Central Command so that the route could be verified and made safe. There was still time though to catch him unawares if they acted fast enough.

  “Arkady, we have to move fast on this because if the Senator is guilty of this act then announcing our travel plans will only warn him of our suspicions and give him the chance, and time, to make a run for it. I’m not asking you to disobey or ignore protocol, just do what you have to do, but do it fast,” Tillic pleaded hoping that the use of his given name would soften his guard into allowing him to facilitate his travel plans quicker than usual.

  Popov went quiet for a second and Tillic could have sworn he saw his guard’s eyes roll back into his skull showing only the whites and then they returned to normal just as fast. Popov said, “I have a vehicle waiting at the front of the building. There will be a tac-team at the Senator’s address waiting for us to arrive in case he tries to make a run for it sir.”

  Tillic just smiled and walked towards the exit. He would have Tovaric before the day was out.

  II

  Senator Tovaric was just about to leave the Senate Building and go to the restaurant where he was to meet some friends for an evening meal when he saw the shadow of several armed men moving around outside his office. He had seen the movement through the window of his door and had been startled.

  He had an array of monitors close to his desk that displayed the view of the corridor outside as well as other strategic spots throughout the building. He was nothing if not cautious. He returned to view them. What he saw scared him.

  A tactical team or tac-team was surrounding his office in preparation to storming it. It looked like they were ready to move but had stopped; perhaps they were waiting for the arrival of someone. Could that someone be Tillic? The General would take what he had done personally, but would he want to make the arrest himself? Seeing as how there was a tac-team outside his door he already knew that answer.

  Tovaric was not a military man; he had chosen to work for the government rather than fight for it, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t fit and active. Even at his age he kept in good shape with regular workouts, but if he went up against a trained soldier in a fight he would no doubt lose.

  He had to get out of there, and fast, before they had time to secure the outside perimeter of the building too. If Tillic was behind this action then he knew what would happen to him. He had heard the rumours about Tillic’s predecessor, General Solon and the stories of people being whisked away never to be seen again. Was this General any different, would Tillic use the same methods? If the rumours were to be believed then these poor people were taken by tac-teams to a secure location and tortured until they admitted their actions against the government and confessed their crimes, or simply were never seen again. Was that to be his fate? He was sure of one thing; he was not going to wait around to find out.

  He went over to the window and carefully looked out. There was no sign of any tac-teams out there or any vehicles cordoning off the streets so it was just this one team inside the building.

  He had an idea. Opening the window he silently climbed through onto the balcony attached to which was a fire escape. It was metal so he had to be careful that the tac-team didn’t hear him as he descended. As fast as he could he climbed down the fire escape onto the ground below hoping all the while that no one was watching and cried out to ask what was going on. This would definitely alert those inside to his escape and for him it would be all over.

  He reached the ground and walked as casually as he could to the nearest car park. His security access would enable him to take any of the available vehicles parked nearby and he quickly found one. Once he was inside he started the fuel cell and drove away from the building taking it as steadily as possible so as not to alert any of the traffic cams to any violation of codes.

  He accessed an encoded comm. channel and called the only person he knew he could trust to help him get out of this mess.

  When the call was connected he said, “Jared Saladar, I wish to commission you for a job.”

  III

  The Liberty

  Jared Saladar was in his quarters on board the starship that had been his home for the past five years.

  He was once part of the Elysium Alliance Black Knights under the direct command of the late General Solon, until a falling out with his commanding officer over ethical demands put upon him and his crew forced him to resign his commission. He now worked along with his crew as a freelance mercenary.

  He was a tall, strong individual with swarthy good looks and an easy manner that helped him earn a reputation as a charmer with the ladies.

  Not being aligned to either major power helped his business no end as he could, and had, worked for both sides in the past four years. His last commission had been to help rescue Prince Aswan from the planet Tartaran. For that endeavour he had earned himself a nice fat fee of twenty million. His cut of that was half a mil, his second in command scored four hundred thou, and the remainder was divided equally between the rest of the crew.

  After receiving the call from Tovaric he had contacted his first officer and best friend, the mammoth Mikal Danovic. His friend had come into his quarters ducking his head to get through the door as he stood at six feet eight, a good half a head taller than his captain. He had slightly more muscle mass that Saladar but apart from that they were so alike they were often mistaken as brothers.

  “So what do you think?” Jared asked as he sat back in his chair.

  “I think we have to be careful with this one, it could be very tricky,” replied his friend shaking his head and pursing his lips.

  “Aren’t they all?” Jared said with a smile trying to make light of what they did.

  “Yes, but to go up against the General of the Black Knights is just asking for trouble, you know that as well as anyone from personal experience,” Mikal said. He straightened his back with his hands on his hips as he looked at his friend. He could see by the thoughtful expression on Jared’s face that he was already working out the angles in the mission. They were going to accept this one, Jared hadn’t called him in for his opinion but more likely to inform him they would be leaving for Paradisia very soon.

  “You’re right of course. Tell helm to plot a course for Paradisia,” Jared said, seemingly ignoring everything his friend had just told him.

  Mikal rolled his eyes as he knew it was pointless to argue with his friend once he had made up his mind. Instead he turned on his heel and left the room deciding to focus his attention on the mission they were about to embark upon. That would be a better use for his energies, he decided, as arguing would accomplish nothing.

  Once Mikal had left his quarters he started to formulate a plan, which was unusual for him because he was a definite ‘fly by the seat of your pants’ type of guy. His crew often commented on it, especially Mikal who constantly wondered how they managed to pull off some of the stuff they did. To be fair, Jared didn’t know himself half the time.

  He had been described as a brilliant, natural tactician back in the Alliance Academy when he was a cadet. Since leaving the Black Knights he had proven, time and again their initial assessment of him to be true. His natural ability had got them out of many scrapes since then and as he assessed the new situation he had taken on, he began to wonder if perhaps this time he might have bitten off more than he could chew.

  IV

  Paradisia

  Tovaric drove the nondescript
vehicle out of the city. He was uncomfortable in the small vehicle as he was more used to being driven around in his usual limousine. Instead of the plush leatherine seats of the Mercedes Z Class 510, this car had some sort of cloth that stank of stale body odour.

  The MAI Nova was a pool car; every embassy had a number of them that the staff could use when needed. It was built by MaxCorp Automotive Industries and based on the ancient Ford designs except that now all cars were fitted with fusion fuel cells.

  Putting aside his comfort issues he turned his mind back to his present predicament. What had Tillic done to circumnavigate his way around the judicial system he wondered? Had Tillic informed the security of his breach in protocol? He thought not, after all he was the security so his promotion to the head of the Black Knights gave him some leeway over areas such as this. It was a realisation that hit him hard. He had been playing with a tiger by his tail and now the animal had turned and was about to bite him for it. His standing in the Senate would account for nothing, he had committed a treasonable offence there was no other way to describe it. His only recourse now was to seek refuge in the Confederation.

  There was just one problem with that, how did he get there?

  With luck, Jared Saladar would be his answer to that particular dilemma.

  He had to contact General Sinclair to inform him of the latest developments. He could ask for sanctuary as well but the important thing was to let him know that Tillic was on to them knowing about his new deadline. Now that the General knew that Col Sec had become involved in his plans there was no telling what steps he would take to ensure his success, and with himself out of Tillic’s way to counter any arguments he made to the Senate, his path would be clear.

  If Tillic was not stopped he could lead the Alliance into a situation that would be catastrophic for both sides.

  He could not concern himself with any of that at the moment; his present focus had to be on escaping. Hopefully the other events would take care of themselves.

  22

  I

  Col Sec HQ, Nellis Base

  General Sinclair was sitting at his desk, a worried frown creasing his brow. His normal stoic expression had slipped on one of the rare occasions when news had caught him off guard.

  He had the reputation of being made from concrete with a face that rarely showed emotion. Someone had once said that he could have made a fortune playing poker as his ‘poker face’ was never out of place. If that person could see him now they would be in shock.

  What had brought on this drastic change in his facial expression had been the call he had just received from Senator Tovaric which had followed the sit-rep from the Pulsar’s AI.

  On Sinclair’s return from Tartaran he had checked everything he could find on the new General and he had to agree with Tovaric’s estimation of him acting erratically. He had agreed with the Senator that Tillic was probably capable of anything now that his back was against the wall, which left it up to Col Sec to act and prevent the catastrophe Tovaric had predicted from happening.

  The situation had indeed reached crisis level and he had to act to prevent it from getting any worse. Luckily he had foreseen that events might take a turn for the worse and had stationed the Atlantis and Odyssey in close proximity to Tartaran. They were just one jump away from the danger zone and were on standby waiting for the word to go.

  The last thing he wanted was to pre-empt a conflict between the Confederation and the Alliance, Lord knows there had been enough of them in the past and he didn’t want to go down in history as the man who brought war to the galaxy. Nevertheless he had to act in the hope of preventing this catastrophe from taking place.

  He accessed an encoded comm. channel and called the two captains of the small fleet.

  “Gentlemen, events have transpired so that your intervention is required. I want you to get to Tartaran, assess the situation, and take the appropriate steps to prevent a war from starting between the Alliance and us. I will redirect the Legend to your location as soon as they have completed their present mission. They have Colonel De Boer on board with ‘C’ Platoon just in case you need a few extra hands. Above all gentlemen, bring our people back safely.”

  He sat back in his chair and made a steeple of his fingers to rest his chin upon. He stared out across the room, his mind deep in thought at what he may have just done.

  Had he prevented a catastrophe that would plunge the two great super powers in the galaxy into a conflict that could consume both sides, or had he helped to start it?

  II

  Tartaran

  Major Solon had received his orders from the captain of the Cronus. They were to return to the shuttle and get back to the ship as fast as they possibly could.

  Solon didn’t like what he had heard. He didn’t like having to bug out of the mission either but the alternative was just plain suicide.

  Holding a hand up he halted his men.

  “Okay, wrap this up and return to the shuttle. Double-time it men, we have to return to the Cronus and fast,” he told them. His only answer to questioning glances was a shrug of his shoulders. “Don’t worry, we’ll come back here but we have to get up top again before they deploy their resources,” he added with a brief smile, hoping to placate his troops. They had braved the journey down here only to have the rug pulled from under their feet and they were understandably angry.

  Being good soldiers though they complied with their orders and made for the exit once more.

  Solon brought up the rear and with a grim determination hoped they made it back in time before those up top had the chance to put their hare-brained plan into operation.

  III

  Kurt and Zara entered through the door and what they saw stopped them in their tracks.

  “Whoa!” Kurt said as his cobalt blue eyes widened at what he saw. The area before them was large and open, a true courtyard with walls lined all around stretching up a few hundred feet into the clear air. The ground was flat and had been laid out like a landing pad but the time that had elapsed since the city had been occupied meant that weeds had forced their way through cracks in the covering. As the two of them looked around they saw windows in the walls, which were all cracked and broken. The smell of decay was rife throughout this area, even though there was no roof on the top.

  “What do you think this place was used for?” Zara asked crinkling her nose up at the smell.

  “If I didn’t know better I would say a landing pad of some sort,” he replied. Screwing his eyes up he focused his enhanced vision on the floor all around the courtyard.

  Zara said, “Why have a landing pad in the middle of your city when you already have one on the outskirts? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “I know,” agreed Kurt as he looked around the area still focusing on the floor. “When we were here last none of us had a great deal of time to check this place out, but in the short time we had we saw no sign of any lab. We haven’t seen any yet have we?” he said looking at Zara questioningly.

  “What are you getting at Kurt?” Zara’s eyes narrowed as she returned his gaze. She got the hint and focused her attention to the floor area too.

  “Are you saying, what I think you’re saying?” she asked as she wandered around the courtyard checking the area out more thoroughly.

  “Well, if the inhabitants did any experimentation on the indigenous life on this planet it stands to reason they would do it in a safe environment, and we’ve seen how volatile those creatures are. Nowhere up here seems safe or controlled enough to do any of that,” Kurt posited.

  “Nice theory, but how do we prove it?” Zara placed her hands on her shapely hips as she looked at him with a question in her brown eyes. “Especially with those Special Forces on our tail,” she added.

  Kurt looked up from the ground, his expression altering to one of complete concentration. It was like he was listening to something. He had a far off stare in his eyes but when focus returned it was followed by a worried expression.

 
; “Something’s not right,” he said.

  Zara was alerted by the change in his manner, all her senses went into hyper-drive then as she asked, “What’s wrong?” She reached for her assault rifle and looked around for any signs of danger. She had become used to Kurt’s strange awareness that she somehow had failed to master yet. She had experienced glimpses of it herself but it was not something she had learned yet to control.

  “They’ve pulled out.”

  “Who, the Special Forces, pulled out to where?”

  “They’ve returned to their ship,” Kurt said and his expression told Zara exactly what that meant. The implications of troops being pulled out of a zone only meant one thing; they would be in danger if they remained.

  “Quick, see if you can find a control panel, anything that would access the underground section of this city,” Kurt said urgently and he ran to the edge of the courtyard. Zara went in the opposite direction and they worked their way around the area checking it out until they either found something or met after circling the courtyard.

  Zara knew they were running out of time. Whatever the Alliance forces in orbit had planned would take place the moment their own troops were safely out of the danger zone, which put the two of them smack in the middle of the cross hairs. She knew they were running out of time so she tried something different. As she looked around the walls for an access panel she also accessed her NI to see if she could log on to a computer in the city to try and hasten the process.

  Kurt was intent on his own pursuits but when he heard a cry from across the courtyard he knew something was wrong. As he turned he saw Zara rolling around on the ground holding her head and screaming, agony distorting her lovely face.

  He raced across the courtyard to her but as he got half way he felt the ground move beneath his feet. Suddenly he was dropping down as the centre of the courtyard began to move downwards, leaving Zara on the edge out of his reach.