Conquests & Consequences

by Lee Watts

  "I am Executor Herlius Bol of the Pelerite Consortium. This criminal has looted Consortium ships and stolen artifacts from our preservation centers. I don't care if the Realm denies it, he's obviously working under orders. Your confederacy accepts the Realm's lies because you're afraid of it, but we know the truth! We demand LaRouche's extradition where he will face our justice, or we will appeal to the Assembly of Worlds."

  "He is our prisoner," retorted the judge, "and the Assembly Judicial Committee has already granted us the right of trial. LaRouche will be sentenced according to the Hata scriptures."

  "Mark this well," the incensed Executor Bol shot back, "the Consortium does not recognize Hateeg jurisdiction in this case, and we won't let LaRouche escape vengeance!"

  With that, the fuming Pelerite put up his cloak's hood with a snap and stormed out of the courtroom, his associates following. Realizing he needed to consult with his superiors before continuing, the judge ordered Sosimo returned to the detention area.

  A cold, metallic slab jutting from the cell's wall served as a bed. Lying on the unwelcoming shelf, Sosimo stared at the ceiling while contemplating his next move. One way or another, he knew he would never see another sunrise on Ekron.

  Later that night three figures, wearing long Pelerite cloaks, entered the detention area. The guards recognized the lead man as the executor from the trial. After a few credits, the guards allowed Herlius Bol to speak to the prisoner.

  A banging on the solid cell door awakened Sosimo from an uncomfortable sleep. Groggily, he rolled away from the door.

  "Just five more minutes," he mumbled as he rolled over.

  "On your feet," came an angry voice.

  Grumbling, Sosimo sat up while sleepily grabbing for his burgundy, knee-length jacket, which presently served as a pillow. Rubbing his eyes and running a hand over his ever-thickening reddish stubble, he shuffled his way to the door.

  "Get over here you worthless, conniving, thief."

  "Is that any way to start a conversation?"

  "Do you know who I am?"

  Squinting at the portion of the indigo-hued, angry face staring at him through the slot, Sosimo answered, "Sure, you're that Consortium fella from the trial."

  "I'm much more than that. I'm the one you robbed, and the one who's going to kill you."

  "Whoa, one thing at a time here. I doubt any of those trinkets were actually yours. What'd I ever take from you?"

  "Luxanna."

  "Luxanna?"

  Remembering his short but passionate relationship with the gorgeous Pelerite woman, he smiled. "Oh yes, Luxanna. How is the wildcat anyway?"

  "Wildcat? I wouldn't know. When she returned, she called off our engagement saying she needed more adventure in her life. Thanks to you I lost everything I'd worked toward. Our marriage would've given me double the shares and assured me a senior executor position, but that's all gone, and you're the one who took it from me!"

  "What do you expect me to do about it from in here?"

  "Nothing. All I want you to do is know there's something far more painful waiting for you than life in prison or a quick execution by the Hateeg. I have connections and, trust me, you'll wish they would have killed you when I get a hold of you."

  "Yes, the thought of you holding me does sound unpleasant. We don't even know each other that well."

  Infuriated, Herlius slammed his fist against the heavy door shouting, "Your day's coming, LaRouche! It's coming, and when it does, I'll be there to greet you."

  "Well, at least there'll be a familiar face. Now, if you don't mind, I need to get some rest before my fair and balanced sentencing tomorrow."

  Turning from the door, Herlius roared in frustration with his floor-length cloak whipping behind him and motioned for his companions to follow him out. Within a few minutes, Herlius and two cloaked escorts returned. He offered the guards double the money if they would allow him and his friends a few minutes alone in the cell with the prisoner. Opening the door, Herlius, and the two with him, stepped inside the cell. When the door closed with an echoing clank, the outnumbered man quickly found himself overpowered.

  When the cell reopened, three hooded and cloaked figures stepped out. The guards noticed the back of the unconscious captain crumpled on the ground. Pleased, they relocked the door. The three visitors left the room, and a long, painful night passed for the man on the floor.

  The next morning, orders came to escort the prisoner to the courtroom. Opening the cell, the guards stared in shock and fear as they beheld the bruised, swollen, and fuming face of Herlius Bol. The executor, dressed in the wrinkled clothes of a man who was then light years away, scowled in frustration more than pain.

  News of LaRouche's escape quickly spread. The entire Hateeg fleet was put on alert for his ship, the Fortune, with instructions to shoot on sight. Coincidentally, the order to shoot on site was the same one issued about the guards who let him escape.

  In a nebula near the Realm border, the Fortune lay motionless and hidden. Its captain, now in clean clothes, stood looking out one of the tall narrow windows of his office. One arm was across his chest, while his other hand stroked his close-shaven beard. He pensively stared at the wispy, magenta cloud surrounding his ship when a beep at the door interrupted his thoughts. "Come," he responded though didn't turn from the window.

  With a soft hiss, the door opened, and Commander Shen entered. Sosimo smiled as he noticed his devoted first officer's image reflected in the glass.

  "Lei, good," Sosimo said using Shen's last name because Lei's homeworld listed the family name first. "In all the rush we haven't had a chance to talk."

  Turning, Sosimo picked up the palm-sized figure of a planet from the desk then hurled it at the wall near Lei's head.

  "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

  Taken aback, Lei answered, "I was thinking 'thanks' might be in order, or maybe, 'Hey, I appreciate you risking everything to spring me.' I didn't think you'd try to bean me!"

  "Did you consider I went with the party line of being a renegade because it's what I agreed to when I took this command? I never thought they'd turn me over to the Hateeg, but at least it got you and the crew off the hook. But, all that didn't matter because I don't have someone to go home to. It was a neat arrangement. Then you had to go and ruin it!"

  "Ruin it? They were going to execute you!"

  "That would've been my business now, wouldn't it? I had a plan. Now look at the mess you've gotten yourself into, and how many of the crew did you drag along?"

  "About half."

  Sosimo shook his head. "And you, just because your marriage failed you think you should throw away the rest of your life? You fought hard to get custody of one of your girls, and she deserves a future with her father in it."

  "I'm not throwing anything away, and I picked up Mei before I came for you. This will be a better life for her anyway."

  "Better life? We're going to be on the run from now on, hunting something nobody's been able to find for a thousand years, and we won't exactly be dealing with the kind of people who'll be a good influence on a kid."

  "I'll keep her safe and make sure she learns how to take care of herself," Lei assured him. "At least this way I get to be with her. That's what she wants the most anyway."

  Sosimo huffed in resigned frustration and plopped into his desk's chair. "Well, there's no turning back now," he groused. Glancing at his left hand, he removed the ring from his index finger and placed it flat on the desk. Running his middle finger in a clockwise direction around the ring's upper edge, it activated. Projecting from the band appeared a floating, yet incomplete, map of the galaxy. Staring ponderingly at the azure, wireframe image for several moments, Sosimo, at last, spoke to his trusted first officer and best friend.

  "I'll promise you, Lei, we're going to finish this. I know we're close... I can feel it, and when we find it, your daughter will never want for anything ever again. It's rightfully mine anyway. The Realm has betrayed us; we're on our own now. Lei, we'll find
The Vault and then live like kings; on my life, we will."

  "What course, Captain?" Lei asked with a smile.

  Sosimo circled his middle finger in a counterclockwise motion on the ring's top edge causing the projection to vanish. Replacing the device on his left hand's index finger, he said, "I've a clue where a few of the other layers are, but there's the matter of the key…"

  His voice trailed off, and a roughish smile crossed his face. Excitedly, he began entering commands into his desk's computer.

  "Let me know when the engines are recharged. I'll have a heading for you by then."

  "Aye, Sir."

  Lei turned to leave, but Sosimo called to him. "Lei, by the way, thanks."

  "You're welcome," he said with a nod.

  When the engines were recharged, Sosimo was back at his command chair on the bridge. He keyed the ship's intercom.

  "All hands, this is the captain. We're about to cross into Realm space. While there we're going to make a stop at Doneac III to pick up some... things. Anyone wanting to get off the ship is free to do it then. Say you were hijacked or something. Captain out. Helm, set course for the Doneac system."

  "Sir," Lei began, "what about the border detection net?"

  With a gleam in his eye, Sosimo held up a finger while saying, "Fear not, I have… a plan." As he typed commands into the command terminal, he explained, "As soon as we cross the border the net picks us up, and with a quick check of the transponder code they'll know it's us, so…" He brought up a screen with the Fortune's identifying transponder signal and began entering in a long series of numbers while continuing his explanation. "I know the Dauntless' normal patrol route takes it near here, and with the fleet looking for us, it won't raise any eyebrows if one of our ships takes a quick look across the border. I was second officer on the and know her ID codes. We'll send out her signal as we cross."

  Sosimo, quite pleased with himself, finished inputting in the last digits and initiated the false signal just before his ship passed through the sensor beams of the Realm border net. Lei smiled at the cleverness of the plan, but a concern occurred to him.

  "Sir, what if somebody checks and notices the Dauntless never left so can't be returning?"

  The pleased expression on Sosimo's face froze and morphed into a grimace.

  "I hadn't thought of that," he mumbled, but after a moment he discounted the notion. "Ah, don't worry about it. Whoever's manning the sensor net won't bother to check."

  Lei nodded in agreement. As Sosimo predicted, no human would go through the hassle of backtracking the border crossing logs. Unfortunately, the entire hub was recently automated. Within seconds, the inconsistency was detected, and an automatic signal relayed to Fleet Command, which contacted the Dauntless. The ship's commander, Commodore Balin, came to the same conclusion as Fleet Command: someone was trying to sneak into Realm space, and it wasn't difficult to deduce who it was. Since he and LaRouche had served together, Balin was granted permission to apprehend the wayward captain himself.

  Many times the size, and packing far more firepower than its prey, the immense battlecarrier Dauntless easily outmatched its quarry. The Fortune, a long, narrow, corvette with a trio of engines bunched at its end, was perfectly designed for its primary mission, quick raids. In open combat, however, it was no match for a battlecarrier class vessel. While the Fortune sported superior maneuverability at sublight speeds, the powerful lightdrive engines of the battlecarrier would quickly overtake it.

  "Why are we heading toward Doneac III?" Lei asked. "I thought you were from Celtis Po."

  Sosimo smiled wryly.

  "I didn't say we were picking up my things. I said we were picking up some things."

  A blip on Lei's sensor display interrupted them. "Captain, I'm detecting another ship. It's one of ours."

  Sosimo suspected it was dispatched from Outpost Forty-Seven, the fleet's command center in that sub-quadrant. Lei's fingers tapped across his control panel as he reported the ship was closing.

  "It's the Dauntless," Lei reported.

  "The Dauntless? Figures," grumbled Sosimo. Usually playing the hunter, not the hunted, he knew a straight contest between the ships was pointless. He didn't like the idea of firing on A Realm ship so decided he would have to come up with something else. What that was he didn't know, but he figured he would think of something. He always did.

  Searching for inspiration, he punched up a map of the local area. Lei, with years of experience in dealing with Sosimo's wild schemes, became justifiably concerned when noticing his captain's sudden, devilish smile. LaRouche hurriedly entered commands into the terminal at his command station.

  Before there was a chance to ask what the captain had in mind, Lei reported, "Sir, they're hailing us."

  "Perfect timing," Sosimo said while finishing his last keystroke with flare. "Put them through."

  Confused, but with no time for questions, Lei opened a frequency with the Dauntless.

  "Captain LaRouche," began Commodore Balin, a solidly built man in his late forties with lines of gray streaking his hair and beard.

  "Well, if it isn't J. Balin," LaRouche replied in a seemingly pleasant surprise. "And a commodore now I see. How long has it been, ten years? You're looking well I must say; if you don't count the graying of course, and you have put on a few pounds. Now that I take a closer look there are a few wrinkles. Maybe you don't look so good after all, but hey, I'm not one to judge. So, what can I do for you old friend?"

  "LaRouche, enough of the games," Balin said with a scowl. "Do you realize you've almost started a war? I've convinced Command to let me handle this. So, come to a halt, and turn yourself in. I don't want to have to shoot you."

  "And I don't want to be shot. So how about we do away with all this nasty shooting business, and you let me be on my way. Do that, and I'll forget about that embarrassing affair on Ultare when they ran you off world for lewd behavior with the planetary governor's daughter."

  "That was you, not me!"

  "Details, details. Let's not get into it in front of all these people. What if, for old time's sake, you let me quietly slip away. Look the other way this once, and I promise you'll never hear from me again."

  "I wish I could, Sosimo, but they already know I'm onto you. Besides, I did some checking… you've been doing some, shall we say, side projects?"

  With a guilty half-smile, LaRouche ignored the probe. Balin frowned before continuing. "And you've violated Assembly law."

  "About that," Sosimo noted while holding up a finger. "Could you inform me when our nation began enforcing laws our government never passed… just curious."

  Also disgruntled about that loss of national sovereignty, Balin had no answer.

  "So," LaRouche continued, "I can't go back, and you won't let me go forward, so there's only one thing to do… go around." With that, he closed the transmission. "Helm, hard to starboard. Make your heading zero-five-five mark seven. Best speed."

  "Aye, Sir. Coming about," answered the helmsman.

  Serving under the wildcard captain for years, the first officer had experienced more tight scrapes than he cared to remember, but somehow, they always got out. How Sosimo was going to get them out of this one, Lei didn't know. While it made his pulse race, in a way, he looked forward to the show.

  "Lei, reset our transponder to its original signal."

  "Aye, Captain."

  The ship's helmsman, who had only served on the Fortune a year, was puzzled. "Sir, I don't mean to second guess you, but why are we heading toward Outpost Forty-Seven? Every ship capable of tracking us is going to be there, and their targeting scanners will pick us up easy."

  "Precisely what I'm counting on," Sosimo answered.

  Not bothering to explain, he changed the subject and addressed the communications officer.

  "Lieutenant, access the file 'Now you see me' and load it into our transmitter. On my signal, piggyback it on a secondary carrier wave to the outpost."

  Not knowing the reason, but fi
guring he probably couldn't get an answer he would understand anyway, the lieutenant merely nodded and called up the file. Accessing the information, he noticed it resembled a virus. He wasn't sure of its intention but saw it included a self-replicating subroutine. He knew such a program would automatically spread to any other computer it linked to, even over communication lines.

  "Captain," Lei announced, "we're receiving a hail from the outpost."

  With an eager, boyish grin crossing his stubbled face, Sosimo ordered the lieutenant to standby to transmit.

  "Put them on," he instructed.

  Appearing on Sosimo's screen was a fiftyish, stern looking woman in the uniform of a rear admiral and voice matching her rigid deportment.

  "Captain LaRouche," she began harshly, "you better be on course to turn yourself in and return the government property you stole, namely that ship."

  "No, my dear Admiral," Sosimo smirked, "I'm afraid not. Truth is, I'm on my way to make a general mess of things."

  "I won't stand for this," she fumed. "Your ship is showing up bright and clear on our scanners. You will either stand down voluntarily, or I'll have that ship boarded, and you extradited before you know what's happening."

  Sosimo signaled the man at the communications station, letting him know it was time to send the file.

  "My dear Admiral, you're so testy. Do you know what your problem is? I think you're not getting enough fiber in your diet. It causes irritability you know, but some pills can fix that right up; they help you be regular too. By the look on your face it seems you might have a little blockage going on there, but more to the point, I don't think I'll allow you to board my ship."

  "This is your last chance, LaRouche! Surrender!"

  "You surrender."

  "What?"

  "You heard me. Give up now, and you'll save us both a lot of trouble."

  Incensed, the admiral slammed her hand down on her controls, cutting the transmission. Sosimo smiled as if he had already won.

  "Mr. Shen, how close are we to the outpost?"