Orchestra of Shadows

by Charles Nall

  “Who is behind all of this?”

  “I wish I knew. All I know is that these creatures are out there and a good way to know someone is being controlled is if they start bleeding for no real reason.”

  “Trevor would at least be happy about the fact there is alien life out there.”

  “I don’t know if they are actually aliens, but I don’t care about their point of origin. I just want nothing to do with this shit.”

  “That means we have no idea who is on our side. There could be people with us right now that are secretly agents for the enemy.”

  “It really makes you think, doesn't it?”

  “Is there any way to remove the creature?”

  “No, it will kill the host if they are somehow removed.”

  Jacob shuddered. “I wish I hadn't learned this.”

  “I'm sorry, perhaps I should have spared you. It's the stuff of nightmares.”

  “With this knowledge, I'm not even sure if I will be able to get to sleep to begin with.”

  “Well, Captain Carpenter, what's our next move, then?”

  “I respectfully decline the contract to Aisu IV. We have to stop Akeldamas' plans. I have a theory that Captain Oshiro is being controlled by one of those creatures.”

  “Why do you think that?” Teresa asked.

  “He's working with Akeldamas and is planning on attacking a peace conference,” Jacob said. “Either Akeldamas is being controlled or he's insane.”

  “Either way, I suppose we need to try our best to prevent this tragedy.”

  “We've already experienced so many tragedies. This pain must stop.”

  February 26, 0270 AC - 23:12

  Deck Three, CFS Iriguchi

  Near Sol System, Orion Confederation Space

  Maybe the investigation team missed something in the commander's quarters.

  Arnold walked up to Tsukino's former quarters. The door was locked. He glanced around to see if anyone was around. “Well, thanks for helping. Sharon told me you had this skill.”

  Switch Austrinus smiled as she unfolded a personal computer she removed from her pack. “Of course. I'm the best.”

  “It's a Confederation warship door. Can you hack this?”

  Switch nodded as she retrieved a device with a cable from her pack. “The correct term is 'crack' and yes. I've been on board a Confederate warship before. Their door locking mechanisms aren't that hard to circumvent.”

  “That doesn't put me at ease. Makes me feel like nowhere is safe.”

  “Here's a hint: nowhere is safe,” Switch said as she attached a device to the panel and then connected it to her personal computer. “It's possible we'll be detected, especially if someone is watching the systems security console. However, it's late. The night watch shift is in full effect. Typically less skilled members of the crew are watching over the ship at night–a much better time to go creeping around. You really think we'll find something?”

  “I don't know. From what I understand though, the commander was paranoid. It's worth a shot to at least look. I can't let them kill Riko.”

  Switch tapped on her computer. “I'm getting around the firewalls and accessing the database. Give me a few seconds.” A myriad of numbers and file locations danced on the computer's screen.

  The door panel made a beeping noise and then the door itself opened.

  Switch smiled at her handiwork. “We only have a few minutes, if that.” She packed up her devices. “We have to move quickly.”

  Arnold was amazed. “Do you do this often? Did you break into any other places on this ship?”

  “This ship? Nope, not yet!”

  The room was dark. Arnold pulled out a small flashlight from his pocket and used it to the guide them. The room was still furnished. The mess from before was mostly cleaned up. The fish tank in the main room was present, still filled with what did not pour out. Sand, pebbles, coral, and tiny stone castles for the fish to make home were still sitting in the broken aquarium.

  They scoped the area, looking everywhere for some sort of clue. They couldn't find anything.

  Switch whispered, “There's nothing here, Arnold. It's like finding the golden rivet.”

  Arnold whispered back, “Golden rivet?”

  “Every warship supposedly has one golden rivet somewhere in its structure,” Switch said. “I think we're more likely to find that at this rate. Damn. We have to go.”

  “I know. I really thought we could find something.”

  Switch walked up to the broken aquarium. “Reminds me of my childhood on Euphrates. I loved going to the Oceanarium and watching the animals. So long ago. Those were the days.”

  Arnold smiled and walked up the tank. “These fish lived in royalty. Look at the little aquarium castles.”

  “Those fish didn't know how well they had it. How many fish own a castle?”

  Arnold chuckled. “Not many, I'd guess. Well, we need to get out of here.”

  “Hey, wait a second,” Switch said as she examined one of the castles. “There's a camera in there. See? In the window of the castle?”

  “A camera?”

  “Yeah.” She removed the castle from the tank. “Complete with a data disc. You were right, he was paranoid.”

  “A place no one looked, I hope there's useful information on there.”

  “Let's get out of here.”

  February 26, 0270 AC - 19:22

  Deck Four, Cerberus-class BDS Abaddon

  Near Abyss, Blood Dynasty Space

  Regent Drake Mabus made his way down one of the dark metal corridors of the Cerberus-class cruiser Abaddon. Dim red lights were placed sporadically down the hall. Mabus occasionally passed by panels showing a green wire-frame of the ship.

  Regent Drake Mabus approached a hatch and tapped on the small console next to it. The hatch creaked open. Mabus entered the room.

  The room was filled with machinery. Blueprints covered most of the walls. Spare parts littered the floor.

  “Lieutenant Tobias Thorne, I trust you have good news from Babylon?”

  “Yes, sir,” the pale man said as he laid out some blueprints on a table. “The science is solid. If we build a ship to these specifications it will be feasible.”

  “You have showed me plans before but there have always been complications. A weapon of this power would do much to help usher in the new era of peace.”

  Thorne nodded. “I know. But this will work. From a first glance it looks just like a larger version of the Cerberus-class cruiser, but the inner workings are completely different. There is a smaller fighter bay and a much larger engine room. The engine room has a completely different drive system setup. The most important thing is that the math works out.”

  “You can build it?”

  “Well, you must realize it will be very expensive. Very. I'm not sure we can start build–”

  “I want four of them.”

  “Four planet killers? We can barely afford–”

  Mabus paced in the room.“Four of them. It's obvious, one for the Orion Confederation, one for the Star Republic, one for the United Outer Worlds, and one for the Commonwealth of Perseus. One for each of the factions we do not yet easily control.”

  “I think we can could control them if we tried. The Commonwealth is already open for peace talks.”

  “Then they'll have a planet killer orbiting Euphrates to make sure they stay with us.”

  “You would threaten the capital of the Commonwealth to keep the peace?”

  “If it works, what's the issue?” Mabus said as he continued pacing around the table.

  “Well, if they crossed the Alliance, would you destroy the planet?” Tobias Thorne asked.

  “No use having a planet killer if you aren't going to kill some planets.”

  “Well, uh, we'll start production on the Apocalypse-class planet killer as soon as we can.”

  Mabus turned his back to Thorne. “Of course, it can kill planets? Right?”

  “Affirmative, sir.�
� Thorne picked up some blueprints. “We have multiple hyper-drives working in tandem to produce the spacial warping from afar. A Cerberus-class cruiser has large spikes protruding from the bow of the ship. These conductors focus energy beams into a devastating beam weapon. Beam weapons are mostly useless for battle, but the forward beam on a vampire cruiser can deal tremendous damage due to the power sequence and focus.”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “We have altered the beam weaponry to hyper-beam specifications. Once stationed at a LaGrange point of a planet, the planet killer's hyper-drive network will be able to open a jump point in the planet's core. This is catastrophic to begin with, and in theory should cause mass earthquakes. After the jump point is formed, the HELL cannon, that is, the Hyper-Energy LaGrange-Locked beam weapon will fire onto the planet. With enough power, it will pierce the crust and dig into the planet until it reaches the jump point. When it does, the unstable core of the planet will be shifted into hyperspace. Finally, a wave-pulse down the beam itself will cause the jump point to become unstable and collapse. The jump point collapse will trigger the catastrophic destruction of the planet.”

  Mabus turned back toward Thorne. “This will work?”

  Thorne stammered, “Uh, well. In theory, if we, well–if we have much better fusion reactors. I'm sorry, sir, there's no way around it, it’s impossible to build the ship as of right now. Everything will work in theory but we need to find a suitable power source.”

  Mabus growled, “So was this all a waste of time and resources?”

  “No, sir! We based the design of the planet killer on the Double-Crescent craft that destroyed Earth. If we could get our hands on that ship's reactor system, we could easily build the Apocalypse.”

  “You do know we are not allowed to use the benefactors' ships. The ships assist occasionally but we have no access to them. They believe that power in our hands would be unwise and that its ultimately unnecessary for our goals.”

  “And they are probably right. But what if I told you I could get a Double-Crescent for reverse engineering without the benefactors knowing?”

  “I would say you were insane,” Drake Mabus said. “We do not have access to the Sheol ships.”

  “We have the data regarding all the Double-Crescents left in our galaxy. We have found what appears to be a Double-Crescent under a glacier on the planet of Aisu IV that is not in the data. We have contracted some mercenaries to check it out. If it is, if you will, an unregistered Double-Crescent, the benefactors will not know we are reverse-engineering it. Trust me, if we can get enough power, the Apocalypse-class planet killer can be a reality.”

  “Hm. Could it be a Sheol relic from the First War that the benefactors thought was lost? Investigate Aisu IV. If it is a Sheol craft, retrieve it and reverse-engineer it. Of course, we cannot allow the benefactors to realize we are doing this.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “But if it is not a Sheol and only a colossal waste of time, there will be consequences,” Mabus said.

  Thorne gulped. “Yes, sir.”

  February 26, 0270 AC - 23:47

  Madcat-2, CFS Iriguchi

  Near Sol System, Orion Confederation Space

  Switch connected the data disc into Madcat-2's computer system. Arnold paced in suspense. Switch tapped some commands into the computer. “Looks like one vid file is on the disc. Let me try to play it.”

  A video began playing. It was extremely low quality, but one could make out Commander Tsukino staring at the camera from just outside the fish tank. The sound was muffled, but the commander's voice was heard. “I fear I might die this day, but I hope, Riko, you know me well enough to find this. I assume I will not live much longer. It's okay, I have lived a long, full life. My dying wish is to end this nonsense.”

  A noise came from somewhere in the quarters.

  Tsukino continued, “That's Slade at the door. If I had any real sense I wouldn't let this occur, obviously, but I must get to the bottom of this situation. I will try to get more information about the conspiracy. Let me let him in.”

  Arnold grimaced. “This is going to make me sick, I don't want to watch him get murdered.”

  “But it's like a frigate wreck; you can't look away.”

  Slade entered the room and shook Tsukino's hand. They made some small talk, which Switch and Arnold were barely able to understand.

  “Commander Tsukino,” Slade said. The audio was unintelligible occasionally. “I believe you are – mistake. You – join us. This is the new way. If you do not – consequences.”

  Slade slowly walked around Tsukino in circles.

  Tsukino scoffed, “So this is what you are doing? It's horrible. I'm getting the guards – away with this.”

  Slade laughed. “I have a mission. I have to get rid of all complications. Osaka refused – were destroyed. We – that. Bow to your new masters – win.”

  “I will not! Get out of my quarters!”

  “You made me do this. I have other ways, but – We could have worked things out. There are – assist me. You had your chance.”

  The view was partly blocked by Tsukino's torso, but it was obvious that Slade had just pulled a weapon on the commander.

  “You don't get your way so you do this? You let yourself drop to that despicable level? You are worthless and a stain on this ship. You will not get away with this, and your employers will not–”

  Slade aimed his gun and fired, but the commander jumped at his assailant at the same time. They collapsed onto the floor as the bullet shattered the aquarium. Water poured out of the tank. It was hard to tell what was happening exactly from the perspective of the camera, but it was assumed that two men punched and kicked each other in a visceral rage. Slade arose victorious and kicked the commander as the water began collecting under them. Slade grabbed a jagged piece of shattered glass.

  “Well, that's proof enough of what went down,” Switch said.

  The video file continued. Switch fast-forwarded the file to show the next few moments. Riko Maeda entered the room with a guard and ran to the side of the fallen man.

  “I don't trust anyone on this hypership, I don't want to give this data disc to anybody. Can we link it throughout the hypership? Allow everyone to see what happened to their beloved commander?” Arnold asked.

  “Of course! Did you forget already? I'm the best.”

  Switch tapped some commands on her console. Soon, everyone on board Iriguchi would know the truth.

  February 27, 0270 AC - 15:23

  Hangar, CFS Iriguchi

  Near Sol System, Orion Confederation Space

  Riko Maeda hugged Arnold Lawrence. “Thanks so much, I knew you could do it. There was no way they could keep me in the cell after the revelation of Tsukino's murder.”

  Jacob Carpenter, Arnold Lawrence, Teresa Day, and Riko Maeda were standing outside Rapture in the hangar of Iriguchi. The rest of Jacob's crew was inside Rapture.

  Madcat-2 was sitting near Rapture. Both corvettes filled up a large portion of the hangar.

  “What happened with Slade?” Teresa asked.

  “They had no choice, he took my place in the brig. Captain Oshiro might not like that turn of events, but there was nothing he could do without looking very suspicious.”

  Jacob smiled. “I'm glad you are out. Listen, you know things aren't great here. You know Captain Oshiro and Admiral Akeldamas are working together. We have to get that news out to try to prevent the attack.”

  “Unfortunately I don’t have that data disc and neither does Koizumi,” Riko said. “No one would believe me.”

  “Maybe it's best if you leave with us,” Arnold said. “It's not safe here.”

  “I can't leave. This is my home, for better or worse. I'll try my best to stop the attack from here.”

  Teresa sighed. “This thing is much bigger than us. I fear everything is already set in motion. We have to get out of here as soon as we can.”

  “I agree with Teresa, please come with us,” Arnold sai
d. “I want to catch up with you, I haven't seen you since high school.”

  “Alright, Arnold, fine. Let me get my stuff. I–”

  Riko Maeda paused as Switch Austrinus ran up to the group panting.

  Teresa greeted her. “What’s up?”

  Switch panted. “Arnold–Arnold! I hacked into the internal communications grid.”

  “What?! Why?”

  “It's just what I do.” Switch laughed. “Captain Oshiro is mobilizing security to this location. They're gonna arrest all of us.”

  “Arrest us? For what?” Teresa asked.

  “Does it matter? He knows we're being a thorn in his side. We have to get out of here,” Switch said.

  “Are they planning on arresting me, too?” Riko asked.

  “No. They just mentioned the two corvettes. Please, Teresa, we have to get out of here.”

  “Fine. Get the engine going. I'll be there,” Teresa said. “The Aisu IV contract will probably be terminated. Jacob, do your best to warn the Galactic Union of the approaching attack. We'll meet again.”

  “Will do. Alright, Arnold, we have to get in Rapture and get out of here,” Jacob said.

  Switch nodded. “Good luck. I've hacked the shield generator frequencies. I'll send your ship the shield frequencies of the hypership so you can safely get out of here. I've already plotted a course to Galactic Union space that I will upload to your navigation computers. Plot a conduit following that course as soon as you leave the hypership. Get going, the security will be here soon.” Switch ran down the hangar toward Madcat-2.

  Jacob ran towards Rapture. “Let's get going!”

  Riko stared into Arnold's eyes. “I can't go with you. They aren't after me.”

  “Yet, Riko,” Arnold said.

  “I'll get out as soon as I can. I know, I probably can't prevent the tragedy from the inside. I know how to pilot our Kitsunes, though. I'll be able to get out. I'll find you again. I'm going to get my stuff and get out of here as soon as I can. But you have to leave, now.”