by Dan Worth
Chen swore silently to herself. Isaacs had given her the slip again. Whatever he knew, it had better be worth it, and just what the hell was he playing at?
‘Alright,’ she said. ‘I think our only remaining course of action is this: we put out a general request to detain Captain Isaacs and his ship wherever he docks next. Ensign Andrews see to it, make sure that you stress that he is merely to be detained or delayed, but that he is not to be placed under arrest. Secondly, I think we should make ourselves known to the Navy assets within this system. Doubtless they’ve picked us up on their long range sensors and are wondering what we’re doing here. Perhaps if we can work with them, we might uncover some information that could help us. I understand that this system is plagued with pirate activity. It’s conceivable that Isaacs may have had some dealings with them and maybe the Navy’s intel people can help us to track them down. The main base in this system, Centre Point Harbour, lies in the Lagrange point between the two stars. Helm, lay in a course to it and jump immediately.’
Filled with frustration, she watched as the view outside swung around and then vanished as the carrier’s jump drive engaged.
Haldane turned to her: ‘Admiral if I might have a word in your office?’
‘Certainly Commander,’ she replied. ‘Lieutenant Commander Singh, you have the bridge.’
In her office, she chose one of the small armchairs to sit in. Haldane sat opposite, remaining formal and upright despite the more casual setting. He really did have a rod up his arse, Chen thought. She remembered when she’d been the same. He was young, ambitious and keen. Haldane was a good Commander, but at times he needed to relax a little, she thought.
‘What’s on your mind John?’ she asked.
‘This mission. It seems like a waste of resources. We’re on a fruitless chase across half of the Commonwealth and we’ve yet to find this Captain Isaacs. Wouldn’t we be better working through more covert means? We’re tying up an entire carrier with this mission. Surely we could be better deployed elsewhere?’
Chen sighed. Haldane had a point. It seemed stupid to use a whole carrier for this mission: the pursuit of one man.
‘John, you’re absolutely correct. However we are acting under orders, so until we find Isaacs, I’m afraid this absurd situation will have to continue. On the other hand, what Isaacs may know is perhaps important enough to warrant use of such resources as ourselves. We’re the fastest ship class in the fleet and the craft that we carry allow us to search and sweep a system much more quickly than other vessels. Tell me: What do you know of the Shapers?’
‘More than a little. I see most of the same briefs that you do. The only thing I’m exempted from is the higher level briefings that you receive from Haines and Mentith.’
‘Then you know how scant our information on them is, don’t you?’ Haldane nodded. ‘John, we think that Isaacs may have seen them in the flesh and he may have seen them implant people with their parasites. He’s almost certainly been inside one of their vessels. What he knows may be of incalculable value to us. We can’t just let him slip through our fingers. However my next course of action, should we be unsuccessful, would be to suggest that our commanders make use of intelligence operatives to track him down. Who knows, maybe they already are? Maybe we’re the beaters to flush him out? You ever think about that?’
‘Need to know basis, huh?’
‘Exactly. John, I’m glad you came to me. If the crew express any doubts about our mission or morale seems low, you’ll let me know won’t you? I know that they’re all used to working within rather more unusual situations than the regular Navy, but all the same, I’d appreciate it if you could deal with their concerns if they arise and keep me up to date.’
‘Of course Admiral,’ Haldane replied smartly.
‘Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?’
‘No, ma’am.’
‘Very well, dismissed.’
She watched him stride stiffly out and shook her head. He was certainly different to her last XO. Even if he had turned out to be an intelligence mole, Ramirez had been easy going, confident and popular with her crew. She still missed him terribly. What she could never tell Haldane was that her zeal in tracking down anything that might give humanity an advantage over the Shapers was everything to do with Ramirez’s death at the hands of their proxy forces. The thought of his broken body lying in the bowels of that alien place still had the capacity to move her to tears, as well as the anger she felt at his senseless death - that and the fates of all the others there that day who hadn’t made it.
The Churchill jumped into the traffic control area around Centre Point Harbour and immediately began hailing the station for a path to a suitable parking area around the station. Centre Point Harbour consisted of a vast superstructure holding the administrative and command offices for the naval assets in this volume of space. From this, a great archipelago of struts and gantries spread outwards to provide berths for up fifty spacecraft. A block of a further ten dry dock facilities radiated from the base of the central structure above the bulbous module containing the station’s main reactor. These dry docks were large enough to accommodate the largest naval vessels and could be filled with breathable atmosphere for the purpose of creating an environment where ships could be worked on in safety.
Such bases were fairly common throughout the Commonwealth. They could be quickly constructed and provided a fully equipped safe haven for ships as well as limited r-and-r facilities for their crews - or at least a shuttle to the nearest civilian outpost.
For a base in such a remote region however, Centre Point Harbour was extremely busy. The harbour surrounding the station was almost full of Navy vessels. Chen counted a force of over twenty destroyers as well as the Jupiter class carrier Germanicus, a Saturn class carrier like the Churchill with the designation Nimitz, the Marathon, a Charon class Marine assault carrier, as well as a vast number of accompanying smaller warships of varying types and design from the battle-groups of each carrier. They had an armada here. Maybe there was an exercise due to start, she mused, although she hadn’t heard of any scheduled. It seemed a little excessive to deploy all of these ships for anything else other than a full scale military venture. There was enough hardware here to start a small war, and win it too.
‘Ensign Andrews, put me through to Centre Point Harbour and get me the ranking officer aboard,’ said Chen as she continued to ponder the scene before her. Andrews carried out her order, then the image of the station commander appeared before Chen via her HUD monocle display.
‘Good day Churchill, this is Commander Hasan of Centre Point Harbour. What I can I do for you? You’re arrival is rather unexpected. We weren’t informed of any Special Forces deployments in this system.’
‘Commander, we’re on a mission to track down a particular vessel in this system. She’s an independent trading vessel, a cargo cutter, Stallion class, designation Profit Margin. Our deployment here was not scheduled. Our mission is classified, but we were wondering if you could render us some assistance. We believe that the captain of this vessel may associate with pirates or operate in areas of borderline legality at the very least. We were wondering what intelligence you had in this area.’
‘Admiral, believe me when I say that if we knew where the pirates in this system were coming from, we’d have eliminated them by now. Even with the deployment of so many vessels and the concerted efforts of the both the military and local law enforcement we are still unable to track them down. They still continue to plague shipping in Hadar. We believe, however, that they may have a base somewhere in the outer system, but locating it has been a problem.’
‘Is that what all these ships are for? Seems a little excessive for a pirate problem.’
‘No, ah…’ Hasan hesitated. ‘I’m afraid these ships are part of a classified operation.’
‘I see.’
‘I’m informed on a need to know basis ma’am All we know is that we’re guarding all ships coming and going f
rom Rhyolite, one of the moons of Beatty and defending the volume around the gas giant and its moon system from the Hidden Hand.’
‘The Hidden Hand?’
‘It’s what the pirates call themselves. I guess they thought it sounded enigmatic.’
Something rang alarm bells in Chen’s mind. With her level of security clearance within Spec Ops she was generally informed of any major operations the Navy was undertaking. Haines liked to keep her in the loop as far as possible. Her position required that she be given a more strategic view of Commonwealth operations. So why had she not heard of this?
‘Commander, who is in command of operations in this system?’
‘That would be Admiral Cox, ma’am. He’s not on the station at the moment. He’s personally overseeing operations on Rhyolite.’
‘Need to know basis hmm?’
‘Sorry Admiral. I shouldn’t be saying this, but we’ve heard some strange stories about what’s going on down there. Some of us are getting worried. You didn’t hear it from me though.’
‘Thank you Commander. If you would be so good as to patch me through to Admiral Cox. I think I’d like to speak with him. I will of course repeat nothing that you have told me on this occasion, but you would do well to exercise a little discretion in future. Your career may depend upon it. If you could also transfer a copy of any intelligence you have on the pirate situation in this system.’
‘Yes ma’am, thank you,’ replied Hasan nervously. ‘Centre Point out. Patching you though. I’ll ensure the necessary files are transferred to your ship’s computer.’
Chen knew of Cox. She had even met him once, briefly, at a naval tactics symposium back on Mars. He’d struck her as bull headed and abrasive, but ambitious nonetheless. She had to admit, he was a decent tactician. Some of the suggestions he had made at the symposium had surprised even Haines. She also knew that his ambition had been thwarted, that his inability to play the political game and his long standing rivalry with the Fleet Admiral had hindered his promotion prospects and resulted in him commanding domestic operations whilst Haines carved up the K’Soth Empire.
Under Cox’s command, piracy had certainly been dealt a severe blow within the Commonwealth. No doubt this was the reason he had been deployed here to take on these Hidden Hand types. Yet Cox remained a Vice Admiral, only a rank above herself, despite him being around two decades older and without glory or medals to his name, save for those denoting long service. Just what was he doing out here in the Hadar system, running his own secret operations?
‘Admiral, transmission coming through from Rhyolite. It’s Admiral Cox,’ reported Andrews.
‘Thank you Ensign, put him through to my office.’ Chen got up. ‘Mr Haldane, you have the bridge.’
She walked to her adjoining office at the rear of the bridge, shut the door and sat at her desk, activating the integrated console as she did so. Admiral Cox’s face filled the screen, the grey of his moustache contrasting sharply with his dark skin. The picture was a little grainy. Probably a result of radiation from Beatty or the moon’s atmosphere itself, Chen mused.
‘Good afternoon Admiral Chen,’ he said. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure? I’m a little busy at the moment as you can see. Goddamn civilians are causing me a headache.’
She noticed that Cox was wearing an environment suit. The helmet was removed, but the raised edge of the neck seal formed a broad collar about his throat.
‘I’m here on behalf of Special Operations Command, sir. We’re attempting to track down a trading vessel by the name of Profit Margin, the captain’s one Caleb Isaacs. We were wondering if you could offer us any assistance.’
‘Huh,’ he snorted. ‘I heard you were one of Haines’s attack dogs these days Michelle. Part of his secret army too now?’
‘Yes.’
‘Still, I got to hand it to you. I hear you handed those K’Soth bastards their asses on a plate during the war, so I can’t blame Haines for taking a liking to you. Anyone who dished it out to those fucking lizards is alright by me.’
‘Thank you sir,’ she said, feeling a touch of pride.
‘As for that ship you’re looking for, well… we get hundreds of vessels like that through here. I take it you checked the dock records?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, she left Barstow yesterday, but we think that she’s still in system somewhere. We tried tracing the vessel, but we lost the scent I’m afraid.’
‘Then the pilot’s probably involved with the pirates in this system. Believe me, the number of times we tried to track their vessels. The assholes must have the gravity wells of the bodies in this system worked out to the cubic centimetre. I swear to god, we nearly lost more than a couple of ships trying to follow them.’
‘I concur. We also tried to trace him and ran into difficulties.’
‘So what do you want this guy for then? Spec Ops don’t usually deal with piracy problems. What did he do that got you so worked up?’
‘I can’t be specific I’m afraid, sir. It’s not what he’s done, it’s what he’s seen. We just want to talk to him and maybe detain him for his own protection. Commander Hasan informed us that you believe that the main pirate group in this system have a base somewhere in the outer system.’
‘Hadar has very large Kuiper belt, due to the size of the system. There’s also a correspondingly large Oort cloud and a hell of a lot of asteroids in eccentric orbits. We already swept the belt around Hadar A with no success and the trojan clusters of the gas giants with similar results. Our guess is that either the Hidden Hand are based further out, or that they have a larger ship or ships that they use as a base, although we’ve not seen any evidence to support the latter so far. Sorry I can’t be of more help.’
‘That’s quite alright sir. We’ll continue our search. I’ll let you know if we find anything. If I might ask, is the piracy problem so severe that you’ve deployed all these ships to counter it?’
‘No. The three carrier groups under my command are part of our operations here on Rhyolite, although we have on occasion used them to counter pirate attacks.’
‘Sir, if I might enquire about your operations on Rhyolite.’
‘You may not, Admiral Chen. This mission is classified.’
‘Admiral, my position within Special Operations Command grants me Alpha Kappa level clearance and permission to question any officer or enlisted man or woman within the Navy.’
Cox seemed to bridle at that.
‘And as your superior officer, Rear Admiral Chen, I’m telling you that although this operation is beneath your level of clearance, I believe it is not in the interests of the Navy to divulge its details. I will tell you only this: that we have found advanced alien technology on the surface of Rhyolite that may yield great benefits to humanity. The ships you see are to ensure the security of the operation.’
Three carrier battle groups? Chen thought. Just what had Cox found that needed that level of protection?
‘Sir if I might enquire as to what you’ve found?’
‘Absolutely out of the question. I’m sorry Admiral Chen, but if you want access to more detail than that I suggest that you go through the Joint Chiefs. Admiral Morgan was very specific about maintaining security on this operation.’
‘Does Haines know?’
‘Haines?’ Cox snorted. ‘What business is it of his? This operation is under my command, not his.’
Haines doesn’t know, Chen thought with alarm. What the hell is Cox up to here? Why is the discovery of advanced alien technology being withheld from Special Operations Command? Surely we should be in the loop from the start?
‘I’m sorry, sir. It wasn’t my intention to step on your toes.’
‘I bet. You Spec Ops types need to learn a little respect once in a while. I may not be a Fleet Admiral, but I’m still your superior officer. This operation is off limits. I appreciate your help with the pirate problem, but keep your nose out where it isn’t wanted.’
Why is Cox being so defensive? She wond
ered. It surely can’t be just professional rivalry with Haines. She could understand the irritation of a more junior officer being able to make demands of her seniors, but there was something about Cox’s manner. Was he so desperate to improve his career? What had he found? Her suspicion and curiosity were piqued.
‘You’re absolutely right, sir,’ she replied. ‘My apologies.’
‘Accepted,’ Cox grunted. ‘If there’s nothing else I’d like to get back to work.’
‘There’s nothing else, sir. Chen out.’
Cox grunted an affirmation. She terminated the transmission and returned to the bridge.
Haldane stood as she approached.
‘Admiral. Your orders?’
‘Admiral Cox has confirmed what Commander Hasan told us, but unfortunately nothing more. Our best bet of finding Isaacs is to sweep the outer system and try to find a base of some kind. There is apparently a highly organised pirate group in this system. Have Centre Point transferred the necessary files?’
‘Files have been received, and yes, it does seem that way. I understand that then inner system has been repeatedly swept by naval patrols.’
‘Quite so, which leaves us the outer system and one hell of a task. However, I have decided on a change of tactics. Perhaps we can make Isaacs come to us. In addition, Admiral Cox has presented me with something of a mystery that I’d like some answers to. Helm, set course for Barstow Station around Beatty’s moon, Rhyolite.’
‘What’s your plan, Admiral?’ said Haldane as the ship began to turn away from Centre Point Station.
