Renegades (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Two)

by Dan Worth

  As the Nahabe on the dais noticed them, the images began to change. Chen saw herself and her crew members reflected back at her in a dozen ghostly images. It made her a little uneasy. The creature was scrutinising them.

  The Enforcer was the first to speak:

  ‘Administrator, may I present the Commonwealth Liaison Officer aboard this station and an Admiral of the Commonwealth Navy, accompanied by her Chief of Security.’

  That was for their benefit, thought Chen. The two aliens could have communicated in their own language or secretly via their sarcophagus comm. systems. It was a courtesy, which was encouraging.

  The Administrator stirred, the black obelisk rising a little higher on its anti-grav fields.

  ‘Greetings Admiral,’ it said in a solemn, bass heavy voice emitted by its suit’s translation program. ‘I welcome our allies, as always, but I do wonder what you are doing in our space, unannounced, with one of your most advanced warships. One that has been uniquely modified, I might add.’

  Their sensors were good, thought Chen. That must be a reference to the Arkari weapon they were carrying. The Nahabe must have spotted its energy signature. She could only wonder at their technological prowess for such a feat to be possible at such a distance.

  ‘I apologise for the transgression, Administrator,’ said Chen. ‘But we are on a mission of some urgency.’

  ‘I shall relay your apology to my government,’ the Administrator replied. ‘They were most uneasy that the Commonwealth would deploy its warships in such a manner without our consultation.’

  ‘It was not a decision that was taken by my government. I alone, as the commanding officer aboard the Winston S. Churchill decided to come here. I informed my superiors of my intentions but so far I have received no orders to countermand my actions. I am able to act with more independence than other commanders.’

  ‘And why should that be?’

  ‘My ship is not part of the regular Navy. We are assigned to special duties, irregular assignments.’

  ‘Covert operations?’ said the Administrator, cutting her off.

  ‘Yes. The nature of our mission is a little sensitive.’

  ‘And what would that mission be, Admiral?’

  ‘Although I cannot divulge every detail for reasons of national security I can tell you that we are seeking a freelance trader by the name of Caleb Isaacs. His ship came through here recently and we wish to speak with him urgently about several matters, one of which involves the murder of a human male aboard this station.’

  ‘This would be the body found floating outside the station, I presume. Pirates and smugglers kill each other all the time. Why should one more matter to us, or you for that matter?’

  ‘This may have wider implications.’

  ‘You suspect this individual, this Caleb Isaacs?’

  ‘Perhaps. However, our investigation has been hindered by station administration, your administration to be precise.’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I was wondering if it might be possible to gain your co-operation. I understand my security personnel may have been a little abrupt with your people. Mr Blackman?’

  Blackman stepped forward. ‘My sincere apologies, Administrator,’ he began. ‘Neither my men nor myself were fully aware of Nahabe customs. In our haste we may have transgressed some social protocols and thus appeared rude. It was not our intention to cause offence. However, in order to conduct our investigation we need to access the security records during the period that Isaacs was aboard the station. In particular I’d like to see those from asteroid Merenik as well as the destination of Isaacs’ ship, the Profit Margin.’

  ‘That will not be possible I’m afraid.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘We… do not wish to expose our systems to the possibility of outside interference.’

  ‘I’m not asking to hack into your systems. You can just give me the data, can’t you?’

  Brandt cut in:

  ‘Perhaps, Administrator, if the nature of the security team’s transgression was explained to us they could make amends somehow.’

  ‘Their ignorance of our ways does not concern me,’ replied the Administrator. ‘This may have, as you put it, wider implications, but you may not access our records.’

  ‘Administrator, I understand the Admiral’s need is quiet urgent.’

  Chen was starting to lose patience.

  ‘Ms Brandt if you would wait outside for a moment?’ The woman looked puzzled for a moment, but obeyed. Chen waited until the doors had closed behind her before continuing. ‘Administrator, perhaps if I tell you a little more about my mission. We are currently engaged in a covert war against an enemy that threatens every species in this part of the galaxy, including your own. We need to talk to Isaacs. He has vital information that could help us and we need to know why someone sent a trained killer after him. The information contained in your station’s security logs may help us in our mission.’

  ‘Yes, you go to fight the Shapers. We are aware of this,’ said the Administrator calmly. This threw Chen off balance immediately

  ‘What? How do you know about them?’ she spluttered.

  ‘We have fought them before, long ago. Their existence is no great secret among our people. We are always on our guard, as you can see.’

  ‘You survived.’

  ‘Some of us, yes.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘That,’ said the Administrator. ‘Is why we will not let you access our records. You try to fight an enemy you do not understand. The Commonwealth, the Arkari … you are a threat to yourselves and others in your ignorance. Isaacs understands though, and there are others who realise the truth. We help them, but not you. Someday you will need people like him. We will not offer him up to you. Now, please. Go.’

  Chen did not move.

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ she replied. ‘I’ve seen them, with my own eyes. I said I’ve seen them, spoken to them!’

  ‘No, you saw or spoke to a part of them, a shard of their consciousness. If you had encountered them as full beings you would not in all probability be standing before me and believe me, if you see them, only a part of them, they see will see much more of you if you are unprepared. Now I say again; go. My Enforcer will show you the way.’

  And with that, the conversation was over. The Administrator’s sarcophagus retreated from the dais and left the chamber via an exit in the far wall. The Enforcer approached and hovered close. Chen cursed inwardly and allowed it to shepherd them from the chamber.

  The journey back in the shuttle was a sullen affair. Chen fumed inwardly. Brandt seemed to consider the failure of the negotiations to have been somehow her fault.

  ‘Admiral I must apologise, it seems that I was of little use to you back there in the chamber, perhaps…’

  ‘No,’ said Chen wearily. ‘I don’t think it was your fault at all. The Nahabe have some sort of vested interest in our Mr Isaacs. I suspect that the Administrator only allowed me to meet with him so that he could make it clear that their co-operation was not to be forthcoming in the hope that we’d leave.’

  ‘And what do you intend to you, if I may ask?’

  ‘I intend to find out where the hell he’s gone, Ms Brandt, that’s what I intend to do. Options, Mr Blackman?’

  ‘We could try hacking into the Nahabe security records. The Commonwealth network in our parts of the station is actually linked to some public Nahabe systems. It’s possible we could find a way in, but I wouldn’t bet on it given their level of technology. They’re bound to have some sort of low level A.I systems running the firewalls. It could be messy if we were found out. Other than that, we could trawl through dock records across the Commonwealth and hope the Profit Margin turns up.’

  ‘Do we have anything on Isaacs’ movements at all?’

  ‘Nothing at all. I think the Nahabe hacked our systems and wiped all record of him or his ship. Even the original dock record we recovered earlier has been erased.’

&nb
sp; ‘Damn. We didn’t detect any warp wakes that matched his class of ship?’

  ‘No, there’s too much traffic around here. Any wake that small would be lost in the background.’

  ‘Shit. We need something. Alright, what about the body?’

  ‘There was a room key for one of the hotels here. I sent some people to search it, but it had already been gone over. There wasn’t a trace of Spinetti ever having been there.’

  ‘Isaacs is a freelance pilot right?’ said Brandt. ‘Someone like Isaacs would maybe go somewhere on the station where he felt at home. These people don’t really have a home other than their ships so they tend to congregate in certain bars and other places around the station. They like to be with others of their kind. You might want to start somewhere like that.’

  ‘Good idea,’ said Chen. ‘Mr Blackman, get a list of the proprietors of all the bars on this station and run it against a list of registered independent pilots, legal or otherwise. I realise that might take a while.’

  ‘You don’t need to do that,’ said Brandt. ‘My suggestion would be to try The Watering Hole in Merenik asteroid. It’s popular with pilots. There’s a couple of other places around the station but I reckon that’s your best bet. Guy who owns it goes by the name of Toyama.’

  ‘And you know this – how, exactly?’ said Blackman.

  ‘How I spend my free time is my own business, don’t you think?’ she replied, her face entirely deadpan.

  Shigs looked up from his newspaper as the uniformed group entered his bar, and groaned. They were military security, judging by their uniforms. This was all he needed. Maybe they were looking for one of his customers? He did his best to ignore them.

  No such look, they were heading this way. Fuck, he didn’t need this shit. He’d gone straight now for a couple of years, well technically. He wondered what they wanted.

  ‘Mr Shigeru Toyama?’ said the leader of the group, a hawkish looking man with Commander stripes on his uniform.

  ‘Yeah,’ Shigs replied. ‘And what can I do for you Commander…’

  ‘Blackman, Naval Security.’

  ‘Yeah I recognise the uniforms.’

  ‘We’re hoping you can help us Mr Toyama. We’re attempting to trace an individual by the name of Caleb Isaacs. He’s a freelancer captain of a ship by the name of the Profit Margin. We thought he may have come by here in the past couple of weeks.’

  Shigs remained impassive. ‘Nah, sorry man. Never heard of him. You know there’s a couple of other places you could try, uh you know the Sun and Earth down on Ardutti asteroid is pretty popular with pilots. You could try the Jump Drive too, it’s a club at the northern end of this rock.’

  ‘If you’ve never heard of Isaacs, why is there a photo of you and him and a young lady up on the wall behind the bar there?’

  Shigs turned and to his dismay realised that the picture was still there under the rack of spirit bottles where he had pinned it the other day. He and Isaacs were leering drunkenly at the camera whilst Isaacs had a more than friendly arm around his former barmaid, Anita.

  ‘Oh, that guy,’ he said finally.

  ‘Yeah, that guy.’

  ‘So what is it, is he in some kind of trouble? Isaacs runs a legit operation. Hey, I heard he even ran some errand for you guys recently, wouldn’t say what it was though. Is that was this is about?’

  ‘Kind of. Where is he?’

  ‘No idea. I don’t enquire into other people’s business too much. Most of my customers prefer it that way. Sorry, but I can’t help you.’

  Blackman changed his tone, he was losing patience. Toyama was a poor liar. He became more threatening in his demeanour and leaned close, produced a slim datapad from his jacket pocket and showed it to Shigs.

  ‘Mr. Toyama, I work for Admiral Chen. I gather you may have heard of her?’

  ‘Yeah…’ Shigs replied uneasily. ‘A lot of our people got burned by her just before the war. I heard she became some big war hero.’

  ‘Yes well. We have a list of possible charges against you as long as my arm.’

  ‘Hey man, fuck that. I’m legit these days. You know you should thank your Admiral, she taught me the error of my ways. I’m an honest businessman now.’

  ‘Don’t fuck me around Toyama. Let’s see what we have here. Accessory to piracy, two counts. Half a dozen counts of handling stolen goods. Faking registrations on several ships. Theft of a herd of giraffes bound for one of the reserves in the Alioth system… what the fucking hell did you need with giraffes?’

  ‘Hey, it was a special order. I never knew they were stolen,’ Shigs protested.

  ‘In any case, we have enough here to put you away for quite a long time.’ Blackman replied. ‘However, I’m willing to pretend that this little meeting between us never happened if you are willing to tell us where your friend is.’

  Shigs seemed to crumple visibly. Not ratting on his customers was a principle of his. It could really hurt his business if word got around he couldn’t be trusted. But what choice did he have? This Blackman character was waving at least a twenty year sentence in his face.

  ‘Alright,’ he said eventually, the effort seeming to cause him physical pain. ‘Isaacs went to the Hadar system to look for his wife Anna. She got mixed up in some bad shit and she owes him a load of money.’

  ‘Bad shit?’

  ‘Yeah, piracy maybe. Think he went somewhere called Barstow in the system. A station or something.’

  ‘There,’ said Blackman. ‘That wasn’t so hard was it?’

  Shigs glared at him.

  ‘Good day Mr Toyama. You’ve been of great assistance to us. Come on,’ he turned to his squad. ‘Let’s get back to the ship.’

  Shigs watched them leave, filled with self loathing for betraying his friend.

  ‘The fuck are you looking at?’ he snarled at a Vreeth hovering near the bar. ‘I had no fucking choice! Fuck!’ He spat, and stormed off into the back rooms of the bar.

  Chapter 16

  The current Lord Steelscale gazed down through the armoured glass at the secure lab that held the body of his father behind multiple layers of defences and banks of monitoring equipment. From here, the devices surrounding his father’s skull obscured the incisions that had been made down into the brain case to expose the hideous parasite that nestled there. Perhaps that was a mercy.

  Steelscale shuddered, his scales turning a shade paler as he did so. It wasn’t often that the K’Soth showed fear, particularly when in the presence of others. Steelscale didn’t care. That thing below terrified him more than he could put into words. How long had it lurked inside his father’s mind? Had it always been there? Was the K’Soth that he had known as his father been, in truth, an abomination created by an ancient, malevolent race? If he had been taken and implanted somehow more recently, how had they not noticed anything was amiss until it was too late?

  The Arkari had done their best to make him and his remaining family feel at home here on this fortress rock. Steelscale was quite taken aback by the generosity that they had shown to former enemies. But part of him yearned to be back among the worlds of the Empire. He hated to skulk and cower in this place. He wanted to fight and not only that, he wanted to show his own people what had caused their downfall and maybe end the civil war. Though perhaps now it was too late for that. Blood feuds were hard to settle and so many had been created out of the Empire’s collapse that the fallout might take decades or even centuries to dissipate. K’Soth would kill K’Soth until honour had been satisfied, and meanwhile their Empire would crumble around them. He felt the presence of a figure standing behind him and turned. The comparatively small, uniformed figure of War Marshal Mentith stood, arms folded, a pensive expression upon his aged features.

  ‘Visiting our guest of honour I see,’ said Mentith, the translator device that Steelscale wore turning the Arkari’s words into the K’Soth language on the fly.

  ‘Yes. I miss my father. This is all that is left of him, and I think that he may hav
e truly died many years ago.’

  ‘I am sorry Lord Steelscale. I hope it is some comfort that we may be able to learn much from the creature that killed him, thanks to your efforts.’

  ‘Some, yes. I wonder how many times this tragedy has been repeated throughout my people. We are so easily led, you know? For all our martial pride and warrior spirit we lost the ability to think for ourselves many years ago. That much is beaten out of us at an early age.’

  ‘I understand, from the reports, that your Emperor was in fact an imbecile, but that no-one had dared query why he never appeared in public.’

  Steelscale found himself tense up at the War Marshal’s words. Old habits died hard.

  ‘Yes,’ he said slowly. ‘That is indeed true. Centuries of inbreeding amongst the royal house had taken its toll. The truth was hidden from us of course. Lord Ironscale revealed the truth to everyone. That was the beginning of the end for us. Some labelled Ironscale a traitor, others hailed him as a saviour. What is clear now is that he was manipulated by the Shapers.’

  ‘Ironscale himself was not infected?’

  ‘No. After his assassination we autopsied the body and found nothing. But others were found to contain... those things.’ Steelscale indicated towards the body of his father. ‘It seems that the Shapers had agents on both sides, playing each faction off against one another. Smaller houses like my own were bullied into choosing sides. Now we are being wiped out by the more powerful clans as they seek to reduce one another’s power-bases.’

  ‘We think that the Shapers’ original aim may have been to make Ironscale Emperor,’ said Mentith. ‘He would have been a formidable leader in the war against the Commonwealth.’

  Steelscale laughed harshly, a strange, grating sound. ‘Well, I think we all know that they engineered that one too, don’t we? I wonder how long it will be before they come for the humans also?’

  The creature lay supine in the remains of its host’s brain, the cranial cavity open to the vacuum of the isolation chamber. Alas, the K’Soth lord’s body had finally died when the Arkari surgeons had opened its skull, but the person that had been the former Lord Steelscale had been devoured many years before. The creature had infested him, fed upon him, and finally become him. Now it resided here, in the prison that the Arkari had constructed to hold it, in a vacuum chamber behind armour and crystal, interlocked energy and suppression fields and guarded by high powered weaponry and the best defences of the Arkari military.