by David Smith
‘My counterpart had been brought here to assist in the development of bio-genetic weapons for use against the Sha T’Al, and these successfully turned the tide of the war . . . ‘
Dave gasped involuntarily. Even with what he’d seen since being in this universe, he couldn’t believe the Empire would stoop so low. Bio-genetic weapons had been banned by every sentient race as the most barbaric and horrific method of waging war.
He remembered the case study taught at the Academy. It concerned the war between the two indigenous races of Pemalka IV. After years of war, and increasingly bitter fighting between the two inhabited co-orbital planets, the losing side had deployed a bio-genetic weapon. They seeded the other planet with a genetic compound that altered the structure of every piece of DNA on the planet. The proteins on which the inhabitants of the target planet depended become indigestible as a result and within three months, billions had starved to death, leaving only a few hundred survivors trapped in isolated laboratory complexes. Even they eventually succumbed, entombed deep underground.
The winners had celebrated their final conquest joyously, until it became apparent that a genetic mutation of the same weapon had somehow infected their planet too. Thirty survivors, the total from two planets that had once boasted a combined population of over ten billion inhabitants had served as a chilling warning of the dangers of such weapons.
So great was their guilt that the few remaining Pemalkans had refused to procreate, going voluntarily into extinction to serve as the ultimate warning to other races.
And yet the Terran Empire was treading this immoral and unjustifiable path.
Dave realised Mengele was still talking, trying to brief him on what she’d somehow discovered while she was being interrogated herself.
‘ …. with the biogenetic weapons rendering that area of their territory untenable, the Sha T’Al circumvented the problem by ceding the whole area to the Tana. The Terran Empire then compounded their previous errors by attempting to retain control of the disputed area in the face of Tana opposition. Inevitably this led to the Tana becoming active combatants and forcing the Empire to fight on two fronts.’
‘The Tana have been aggressive in their efforts to occupy the disputed zone and have pushed the Empire back, close to the original border. I believe my counterpart has been kept here to help develop new biological weapons to try and halt the Tana’s advance.’
‘The Empire’s position deteriorated further still when malcontents took advantage of the Empire’s problems and started an open rebellion in Sector 193. Ironically, it seems that this rebellion is being led by your counterpart in this universe, hence the Magistrate’s interest in yourself.’
‘Unfortunately for your counterpart, the Emperor made putting the rebellion down an absolute priority. He has diverted huge forces to do so at the expense of Sectors under attack by the Sha T’Al and Tana, which is why Hole was abandoned and conceded.’
‘Isobelle Grosvenor led the Imperial forces against the rebellion in Sector 193 and that success has seen her promoted to Magistrate for the province, effectively the Emperor’s deputy for nearly one-sixth of the entire Empire. It would appear she has designs on being Emperor herself and sees you and Tiger as a tool in her quest.’
‘That’s amazing Katrin!! How on earth did you discover all that whilst under interrogation yourself??’
Dave had always had a healthy respect for the ship’s Doctor, but in his eyes this achievement elevated her to superhuman status.
There was a pause and even though he couldn’t see her, Dave got a very distinct impression that the Doctor was embarrassed.
‘I’d . . . er . . . rather not . . . um . . . well . . . we don’t have time for that just now. If we ever escape I will tell you’ she whispered.
‘Ok, agreed. So how the hell do we get out of here? Any ideas?’ asked Dave urgently.
‘I believe help may be at hand. One fact I gleaned was that the Magistrate’s Security Officer has accounted for three hundred and eighty-four of our crew. That means five are still at liberty, and I know that Chief Belle and Lieutenant Sato are not amongst those incarcerated.’
Just then, the door into the cell-block opened and the guard returned, forcing Dave and the Doctor to remain silent. Dave wanted to speak to Mengele again, but couldn’t risk anything other than painfully slow Morse code again.
At least in the meantime he had something new to think about.
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Susan woke the five hidden members of Tiger’s crew at 0200 ship’s time. ‘Attention. All engineers from the Star-base have left the ship as have eight of the security team. There are now only twelve members of the security team left aboard, all deployed individually or as pairs. This would be an opportune moment at which to undertake our Contingency Plan.’
‘Thank you Susan, please transfer locations of Star-base security staff to Chief Belles pad. You ready for this Chief?’ said Sato, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
‘This is what I live for, Lieutenant. Think you can keep up?’ retorted the Chief, with growl. The inactivity of the last few days had been purgatory for her, and she was itching to get started.
Jasmine smiled. ‘Tool up team, it’s show time!’
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Susan discreetly isolated all communication channels throughout the ship and Chief Belle and her team slipped silently through the network of Jefferies tubes and out into the secondary hull of the ship.
The first guard they found was snoring loudly, much to the Chiefs disappointment. He was captured, tied up and hidden away before the team moved to the next location.
One by one, the Tiger’s team disabled the Imperial Security staff, quickly and easily. It was so easy, Chief Belle elected to approach the last couple openly, just to get them to at least put up a fight. When they did, they didn’t stand a chance.
With the ship back in their hands, the team had about four hours until the next shift of Imperial Security staff arrived from the Star-base. They needed to work quickly.
Park and Sato had headed up to the Cybernetics Lab. Even though Susan had told them there were no more Imperial personal aboard they couldn’t help but peek nervously around every corner until they reached the lab on Deck 2.
They peered in and saw the sleek metallic form of IPAD neatly laid out on one of the lab benches, connected to the ships computer and power systems. Park pressed the glowing button that activated the small robot.
It sat up and Park waited patiently as it ran through its start-up routine, before saying ‘Good morning PO Park. I take it we’re entering the active phase of the operation?’
‘That is correct IPAD. Are you ready?’ replied the little Korean.
‘I am fully charged and have all the appropriate programmes loaded.’ An icon of a smile appeared on the screen of his face visor.
Sato smiled ‘Excellent, please make your way to the transporter room, Chief Belle will meet you there and transport you to the outer hull of the Star-base. We’ll be down in Engineering with Susan. Good luck, IPAD.’
‘Thank you, Lieutenant Sato. Good luck to us all.’
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The little robot appeared in space near the hull of the Star-base.
‘I am in position, Lieutenant Sato.’
‘Can you see a grill in the hull of the Star-base?’
‘Yes, Lieutenant. Transmitting visual feed now.’
Susan put the visual feed on a display on her console, and Sato and Park watched as IPAD located the grill. Magnetising himself to the Star-bases hull, he set to work.
The end of the middle finger on his right hand flipped aside and a small device popped out, igniting as it did so. The flame sharpened, and IPAD used it to cut through the grill, folding back the cut metal work as it did so, and when it had created a big enough gap, IPAD slipped inside.
Sato was watching the visual feed from IPAD and cross-referencing it with a schematic plan of the emergency vent system on
that deck. ‘Ok IPAD, assuming this Star-base is the same as the Star-bases in our universe, the vent you’re in should be approximately twenty meters long. I’m transferring the plan of the system, you will need to cut through the bulkhead panel on the left at the end of the vent and seal it behind you, or when the vent is opened the loss of pressure will trigger alarms.’
IPAD cut through the panel, entered the space beyond it and then divested another appliance concealed within the third finger of its left hand to weld the panel closed.
‘Ok IPAD, somewhere to your right should be some signal fibres. We need the largest of the bunch.’
‘I have located the fibre, Lieutenant, and am splicing in’ said IPAD.
‘Perfect. One day, you’ll have to explain to me why a service robot would need a non-intrusive data-stream connecting tool. I can’t think of any legal reason why you’d have that.’
‘My developers took the concept of unique selling points very seriously. I consider myself fortunate not to be encumbered with the armour plate and anti-tank missiles of the forty-four series IPADs or the grape-pressing appliance and fermentation equipment of the seventy-eight series models.’
Park and Sato exchanged glances and shrugged. It was churlish to complain as this operation had been made infinitely easier by IPADs ability to use this appliance to give them access to the Star-bases computer systems.
‘I have completed an access route to the Star-bases IT system. Please proceed when you are ready.’
Sato took a deep breath. ‘Ok Park, this is your show now.’
The worried look on the little Korean’s face might have induced panic in some, but Jasmine Sato had worked with him long enough to recognize that it was just the way his face was made. Park looked anxious when sprinkling sugar in his coffee.
The little Korean pressed a few buttons on his pad and said ‘Ok, Susan, how are the data standards and encryptions? Any nasty surprises?’
‘No PO Park, all standards are identical to our own. Higher levels of encryption have been used for some systems, but these are still standards of encryption that are familiar to us. I can detect no issues that will affect the outcome of our operation.’
‘Ok. Susan, please locate executable file Park666, and transmit it via IPAD’s link.’
There was a slight pause while the computer located the file and transmitted it. ‘Done’ said Susan simply.
On the screen a confusing jumble of images appeared and disappeared. Schematics of the Star-base’s computer system flashed and changed before their eyes, the lines of connection changing and twisting like snakes. Some lines turned red and then faded away, others went blue and aggressively sought to change their path. Beeps and alarms sounded as lines collided and broke, until finally, every line on the screen flashed green and a message appeared. ‘Connection stabilised and accepted.’
‘We’re in.’ said Park with a sigh of relief, and he and Sato both brought up input screens on the PILOCCs console and began furiously typing in commands.
The programme Park had inserted had frozen the Star-base’s computer and allowed Susan to run the bases primary functions via the remote link installed by IPAD. Park had written it over a year previously as part of a scam developed by Chief Money and his pet fraudster PO Okocha. The idea had been to take control of Sector 244’s chain of sub-space relay stations and replace legitimate requisitions for goods and materials with fake ones to obtain goods the Chief could sell on.
The plan had never come to fruition as a different opportunity had bypassed it, but the basic programme Park had written was still a functional piece of software, with obvious clandestine uses.
They needed to work quickly and concisely. Sato and Park pulled up plans of the station, located the deck where the Brig was situated and locked off all comms and entry points to that deck. The nearest Transporter Room was five decks above the Brig, and Sato quickly worked out the shortest route and isolated and locked all doors into that route.
In the mean-time Park shut down all security systems, locked out the alarm system and disabled the Star-bases weapons and defences. Once the shields were down they were ready to transport people on and off the station.
‘Now comes the hard part’ Sato sighed. From the Stations security telemetry she could see that with the exception of Commander Mengele who was nearly fifty decks above in the Sick-bay, Tiger’s entire crew were being held in the Brig. They were horrendously over-crowded, being held in just sixty cells.
Normally the cells were for a maximum of four people, which would have made it crowded enough. However, she could see that all of the senior officers were being held individually or pairs to a cell, which left nearly three hundred and sixty other crew-members, a very excitable guide-dog and an extremely grumpy penguin crammed into just forty cells.
The cells were arranged in blocks of three or six, and each block was guarded by an armed security guard. Outside the blocks, the corridor that connected the blocks was patrolled by another pair of armed guards. Twelve guards in the cell blocks and two outside. Fourteen in total.
The hardest part of the plan was freeing the crew from their cells. They couldn’t transport the crew directly from the cells as there were permanently powered transport inhibitors built into the cell walls specifically to prevent that happening.
The force-fields that kept the crew in the cells could be dropped remotely, but to do so would definitely alert the armed guards, who would almost certainly open fire to try and contain the crew.
They’d have to eliminate the guards block by block, but even then, Chief Belle couldn’t risk transporting directly into the Brig: if the Station's Security staff spotted her team, they’d be exposed until the transport process had completed.
They’d have to transport further away and work their way in carefully. With only three of them, they couldn’t possibly overwhelm all of the guards without some of them being alerted and putting up a fight. If that was the case, the still-captive and unarmed crew might be at risk.
She wished there was some way to get weapons in to the prisoners, but again, to do that they’d have to drop the cell force fields, which would definitely alert their guards.
Perhaps she could risk releasing some of the more capable crew as Chief Belle began her attack? She checked the names and found the biggest concentration of the Security team were in cells forty-three to forty-eight. PO Sorenson and four other security crew were in those cells, and also PO Winston and a couple of the Heavy Gang. They’d certainly be ready to fight. But it was still a risk. The Heavy Gang were as hard as nails, but sadly they weren’t anywhere near that sharp, and she knew she couldn’t depend on them to spot the opportunity if she dropped the force-field.
She’d have to regarded them as her ‘Last Chance Saloon’ plan at best.
She out-lined her thinking to Chief Belle and transported her, Handley and Larkin across.
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Belle, Handley and Larkin materialized in a small side-corridor. Getting their bearings, they took stock and crept down the corridor to the entrance of the Cell Blocks.
When they reached the door, Belle called Sato on her communicator, holding it close to her mouth and whispering ‘We’re at the door. Can you tell us where the guards are?’
Sato swapped her display to a security camera feed. ‘One is immediately inside the door to your right. I can’t see the other one . . . hang on, yeah, he’s at the opposite end of the corridor facing the door.’
Belle motioned for Larkin to lay down on the floor, prepared to fire, while she stood at the right hand side of the door, poised and ready to strike. Quietly she said, ‘OK Sato, on my mark. Three . . . Two . . . One . . . NOW!!’
Sato operated the circuit and the door slid smoothly open. Before he could move, the guard at the opposite end of the corridor was stunned by Larkin’s phaser. The guard inside the door span to look out just as Chief Belle swung her fist, presenting a target she couldn’t miss. He was out cold before he hit th
e floor. The three of them moved inside and stood near the door to the first block of cells.
Again, Sato targeted the security guard and as soon as the door opened the Chief, Larkin and Handley all fired, making sure one of them got a hit on the unfortunate security man. He fell with a clatter and Belle looked nervously over her shoulder, worried that the guards in the other cells might have heard him fall.
Sato dropped the force-fields on the individual cells and Belle went in to tell the crew to stay quiet and hold position until they’d eliminated all of the guards.
They repeated the process for the cell block on the opposite side of the corridor and then worked their way down the corridor. Everything went smoothly until they got to the seventh cell block. There was no guard. Sato was at a loss to explain why until the door to the ninth cell block opened and the missing guard walked out to find Belle, Handley and Larkin huddled outside the door to his cell block.
Belle reacted like lightning, getting a shot off before he could draw his phaser. Sadly, it wasn’t fast enough to stop his squeal of alarm, and the doors on the other cells all popped open seconds later.
The security guards tried to raise the alarm and Larkin and Handley managed to stun another two of them before they realised their comm systems had been disabled. The last three guards ducked into the doors of the cell blocks and returned fire, forcing Tiger’s crew to take cover.
Aware that the commotion might be noticed on adjacent decks, Sato played her last card and started dropping the force-fields on the remaining cells.
All hell broke loose as she dropped the force-fields of cells forty-three and then forty-four. One of the guards heard the noise of the force-field dropping and headed into the block with an agoniser in one hand and a phaser in the other.
He wasted no time in trying to disable the crew, swinging his agoniser at the nearest crewman and using his phaser to stun another.
Unfortunately for him, the nearest crewman was Jane Doe. Struck by the agoniser she collapsed in pain, but in a second, she had recovered and stood back up.
Surprised that she’d managed to stay conscious, the guard swung his agoniser at her again. What happened then happened so fast the rest of Tiger’s crew barely had time to register it.
