The Exxar Chronicles: Book 03 - Acts of Peace and War

by Neal Jones

  "What?" Navarr reactivated her own bio-net. "That's impossible!" She keyed several commands into her holo-display, and then waited for the diagnostic information to appear. "Son-of-a-bitch!"

  The expletive startled Dana and Endari. "What?" Scarvo asked.

  Navarr held out her palm so the others could see. "I know how they masked their cardon signal!"

  ( 3 )

  "You were right, commodore. It appears that the Mykahrians were behind this abduction."

  "What makes you say that?"

  "I'll get to that in a minute." Navarr pointed to the portable cardon field generator at her feet. "What I want to show you first is how the Xaric were able to mask their signal." She tapped her commlink. "Go ahead, lieutenant."

  "Activating now," Shyler replied.

  "Lieutenant Endari is in transport room seven. She just activated a cardon field. Obviously, it's an authorized one because the internal security sensors have not activated the alarm in my office." She held up her left palm. "I know that because I'm logged in remotely to my terminal there." She gestured to Dana. "Now Lieutenant Scarvo is going to activate this generator to create a cardon field here."

  As soon as the field appeared, Navarr's holo-display began beeping. She tapped a few keys and the alarm silenced. She motioned for Dana to deactivate the field. "Now, we're going to activate it again, but this time the alarm will not sound." She nodded to Scarvo.

  Dana keyed a few commands into her palm and then activated the portable generator once more. Navarr turned to Gabriel, holding up her palm once more so he could see its display.

  "No alarm."

  "All right, I'm impressed. Show me how you did it."

  Scarvo stood and held out her other hand. In it was the alien device that Endari had discovered in the conduit earlier. Navarr explained to Gabriel how they had found it, and then continued, "This device enabled the Xaric to reroute the cardon signal from their portable generator to the signal buffer of a second cardon field that was already active."

  "What's happening to the field?" the commodore interrupted. Parts of it were becoming distorted, shimmering and warping like a funhouse mirror.

  Navarr glanced over her shoulder. "The field matrix integrity is being compromised the longer that this field and the one in transport room seven remain active. The signal buffers weren't designed to handle more than one signal at a time." She tapped her commlink. "Endari, disengage."

  After a few moments, the field from the portable generator smoothed out, and the empty cargo bay on the other side became clear once more.

  "That degradation didn't begin until approximately ten seconds after this field had been active," Navarr said. "Even after the degradation begins, there's still another five or six seconds before the field becomes too unstable for anyone to cross." She motioned for Scarvo to shut it off, and then walked to the door of the herbal shop. "We've also discovered that there were three Xaric aboard the station, not two, and that all three of them were in this corridor two nights ago, waiting for Kiran to come out of this shop. Two of them grabbed him, and one of them removed his transponder while the other knocked him unconscious. As I suspected, he was attacked from behind. It's also very likely that his bio-net was rendered inert by the same drug used to sedate him." She walked to the end of the corridor. "The third guy, meanwhile, is over here, ready to activate the cardon field as soon as the other two have Garrett. Ten minutes after twenty-hundred that night, the cardon field in transport room nine was active, and that was the one whose signal buffer was used to mask the field in here. Once it was active, all three of them hauled Garrett across, the last one through grabbed the generator, and then the field was deactivated from the other side. The reason we know it was TR-9 is because the technician on duty that night noted in his log that there was an anomaly with the field matrix integrity, and that it lasted only a few seconds. He also noted the time, and then, per regulations, submitted a work order to have somebody from alpha shift in engineering perform a diagnostic the next day." Navarr pulled up the report on her palm. "As you can see, Petty Officer Linders was the technician from engineering who signed off on the diagnostic when it was complete. He found nothing to explain the anomaly in the signal buffer, conducted a full systems test of the cardon field, and it functioned just fine. The order was closed."

  Gabriel frowned, shaking his head as he handed the pad back to Navarr. "Has anything like this ever been attempted before?"

  "Not to my knowledge, no. Lieutenant Cadman hasn't heard of anything like this either."

  "It's probably because this type of scenario is the only time anyone would ever need to do something like this," Scarvo suggested. "No one would dare try this under normal circumstances. You're taking your life in your hands if you try crossing the threshold when the FMI is even five percent unstable. That's after about ten seconds. After that, according to our experiment earlier, we estimated a one-point-five percent increase in the field degradation for every second that both fields remained active."

  "For now," Gabriel replied, "let's assume that they succeeded in getting Kiran across the threshold. There's two things that still don't make sense."

  "What ship did they escape to," Navarr anticipated.

  "Yeah, for one."

  The security chief keyed another command into her palm. "There were fourteen ships docked at the time that Kiran was kidnapped. Two of them were military – one Murdohn, and one Kalsimar. Three commercial liners, four freighters, two medical couriers, and two merchant frigates. We've spent most of yesterday and this morning narrowing the list, and, so far, the only two ships we haven't heard from are two of the freighters." She pulled up the readout and handed the pad back to Gabriel. "My bet is on the Iiveri. They have trade routes in the sector that borders Xaric space. I've already put in an urgent communiqué with their central base in the Tannrd sector. Those freighters are tetchen class, which means their maximum speed is only stardrive level six, maybe seven at most. They'd still only be halfway to Xaric space by now."

  Gabriel nodded and handed the pad back. "The other thing that doesn't make sense is that router." He held out his hand and Scarvo placed the device in his palm. "You said you found this thing inside that conduit?"

  "Yes. The only reason I can think of that it was left behind was simply because there wasn't enough time to grab it."

  "Exactly. But why was it put in there in the first place?" He glanced at Scarvo. "You just used a portable generator to activate the field."

  "That's because it was linked into the station's central computer network," Dana replied. "Thanks to Endari, Chris and I were able to trace that router's network path. We're guessing that the Xaric chose this spot to abduct Garrett after only one day of reconnaissance. They saw that he used this shop in the evening after he came off shift, and since they needed to hack into our central computer in order to mask their cardon signal, they spent that first night in this spot, getting everything ready."

  "That meant putting this thing inside that panel," Navarr continued. "Endari thinks it took them at least four to five hours to successfully hack into the central network one subsystem pathway at a time – without triggering any security failsafes. That meant that they couldn't just leave the router out where someone might come along and find it. Once they had successfully hacked into the cardon systems, they needed to remain inside until the time came to activate their field. So they put the router inside that conduit, hiding it behind some power cabling, and then they accessed it the following night when they kidnapped Garrett."

  "Which means they then didn't have a choice about leaving it behind," Gabriel nodded. "So how exactly did they work their way so far into the central network without activating any alarms?"

  "According to Endari, it is possible, but it takes extreme skill, patience, and a lot of time. The cardon fields are not a critical system. They're not in the same category as the reactor core controls, the power distribution network, or life support. Unfortunately, no computer network is a
hundred percent secure. It still has to be accessible to authorized users, so that means there's always going to be one or two back doors that hackers can slip into. And yes, I know, I've already discussed with Lieutenant Cadman how to increase our security measures around the cardon systems. This is the first and last time that anyone's going to pull a stunt like this on my watch."

  "Good. So that takes care of the question of 'how', but you also said you knew it was the Mykahrians who were behind this?"

  Navarr nodded and pointed once more to the router in Gabriel's hand. "The symbol you see flashing on the front of that is a Mykahrian glyph. I was able to run the router's operating system through a translation matrix, and the library database confirmed that the language is Mykahrian. I wasn't able to find out for certain, though, if the engineering components were Mykahrian. But I'd say it's a pretty reasonable assumption. That design doesn't match anything else in the Federation tech database."

  Gabriel frowned, turning the device over and over in his hand, running his fingers along its smooth edge. "I agree that's a reasonable assumption as well." He handed it to Navarr. "Excellent work, both of you." They nodded their thanks. "Can you have a written report on my desk after lunch?"

  "Absolutely."

  "Good. I'll inform ISD then. Anything else?"

  "No, sir."

  "Carry on then."

  ( 4 )

  Major Saveck glanced up from the ops console as Gabriel stepped out of the PTL and crossed the command deck. "Just got a communiqué from the Ves'Uston."

  Gabriel paused, searching his memory. "The ship with Ambassador Morryn?"

  "Yes. It seems that two Quorum councilors are coming along for the ride, but they didn't decide to join Morryn's delegation until the ship had already left the home system."

  "Let me guess: they're running behind schedule?"

  Saveck nodded. "About ten hours. They'll be here first thing in the morning."

  "Good. I'll be in my office."

  "That's not all. We also received a transmission from a Tiralan flagship."

  "What? The Tiralans?"

  The other officers at their stations around the command deck had paused in their activities and were watching Gabriel and Saveck.

  "Yes." Saveck frowned, glancing down at his compad. "There's a...representor on its way. It will be here tonight at nineteen hundred."

  Gabriel held out his hand and the major gave him the compad. The commodore read the message, nodding. "Representor is one of their many titles. It's roughly equivalent to that of an ambassador, but seems to carry a little more status behind it." He glanced up at Saveck's confused expression and shrugged. "That's the way it was explained to me once."

  "Are the Tiralans mediating these peace talks?" Decev asked, incredulous.

  Gabriel glanced over the message once more and then shook his head. "It doesn't say." He handed the pad back. "I guess we'll find out tomorrow. At least that explains why the vice president and all the other VIPs are suddenly on their way here. Anything else?"

  "No."

  "I'll be in my office."

  The officers returned to their respective tasks, murmuring with one another excitedly. Sikandra glanced around, puzzled, and then walked over to Decev's station.

  "I don't understand. I know that the Tiralans have never allowed outsiders into their home star system, and that they negotiated the cease fire between the Chrisarii and the Federation, but why does everyone seem so excited by this visit now?"

  "They don't usually leave their home system, and even when they do, they never give such short notice. In fact, it took Ambassador Zar two years of dialogue with the Elzrai before the Tiralans would even agree to negotiate the cease fire."

  "The Elzrai?"

  "The humanoid race that represents the Tiralans in their relations with other alien species."

  "Oh. So..."

  "What do the Tiralans look like?"

  "Yeah."

  Decev smiled. "Nobody knows. They wear special biosuits that completely mask their appearance. It's rumored that the atmosphere of their homeworld contains toxins that would kill an ordinary humanoid lifeform."

  "What do you mean 'rumored'? No one has even been in orbit of their homeworld?"

  Decev shook her head. "Nope. No one but the Elzrai are allowed within the borders of the Tiralan systems."

  "Really?" Sikandra turned to Saveck who had been eavesdropping. "I can't wait to meet this...representor."

  Saveck nodded. "I'm intrigued as well."

  Grynel glanced back at Decev. "I'm going to Grax's for lunch. You want to join me?"

  "Sure."

  Sikandra stepped down to the ops console and lowered her voice. "I've reserved Hiver-four for us tonight. You still available?"

  Saveck glanced past the lieutenant's shoulder where Decev was waiting, and then looked at Sikandra. "Yes. Seventeen hundred?"

  "I'll be there."

  After they had stepped into the PTL and the door closed, Decev asked, "What was that all about?"

  "He and I meet twice a week for Kali'Fhan training."

  "And?"

  "And what?"

  "Oh, come on, Grynel, I saw the look on his face. He was uncomfortable that I was in earshot. Is there something going on between you two?"

  "Well..." Sikandra hesitated.

  Decev turned to her, surprised. "There is, isn't there? I knew it! Way to go!"

  "Oh, don't congratulate me yet. Nothing's really happened between us, and he says that he doesn't want a relationship."

  "You don't have to be in a relationship with somebody to have sex with them."

  The lieutenant laughed. "I know. I'm hoping that he knows that too."

  "Huh." Decev leaned against the wall, crossing her arms. "I never pictured you with him. In fact, he doesn't seem like somebody who would ever be in a romantic relationship with anybody."

  Grynel nodded. "I know. He's very...distant. Keeps to himself a lot, doesn't share much with anyone."

  "Yeah, that sounds about right," Mariah agreed.

  Sikandra smiled and leaned closer. "The thing is, that's what I find so attractive. I think that if I keep up these Kali'Fhan sessions with him, the two of us might get somewhere eventually."

  "So you want a relationship?"

  "I don't know. I haven't made up my mind yet."

  The lift came to a stop, and Decev smiled to herself, shaking her head, as she followed the lieutenant onto the promenade.

  Chapter 11

  ____________________

  ( 1 )

  "I think I've got it."

  Grax had been lost in thought, staring through the forward viewport at the azure and emerald soup that comprised most of Orethiaze's atmosphere. Here and there were slashes of cream and gold, mostly at the northern and southern poles. It had been twenty-two years since Grax had seen this view, and he felt a twinge of homesickness in his gut. He had thought about taking the opportunity to visit his older sister, but then he thought better of it. Until he knew for sure what had happened to Sesrin, it was better to let well enough alone. Now, Solomon's voice cut through his reverie, and Thalor turned.

  "You found a name?"

  "No, but I have something just as good. Whoever arranged for the warrant to be erased made their call from off planet. It took me awhile to trace the source, but I finally localized it to the Haffsa star system." He glanced up, grinning. "That's in the Nevala sector."

  Grax nodded. "I figured as much."

  "So did I. But I've never heard of that system." He pulled up a star chart and then entered the coordinates. "Huh. It's on the far side of the sector, closer to the Chrisarii than the Jha'Drok."

  Grax bowed, peering over Sol's shoulder at the screen. "I don't recognize that name either."

  "Hey look. It's only a couple dozen light years from Mr'gss-Gl'nn." He looked up at Thalor. "You never passed through Haffsa when you and Tilura were pulling off your heist?"

  "I don't think so. We might have gone near it, but
the name is unfamiliar."

  "So what now? Should we tell Tilura?"

  "No, not yet. Our first stop will be to get Eliot, and then we'll take care of your issue with the Xornh." Grax returned to the pilot's seat and began keying commands into the navigation console.

  "Speaking of which, have you decided exactly how we're going to do that?"

  "No, but I have a good idea where to start. I've been doing a little research since we left Yisek, and I discovered that the Xornh are in the midst of a good old fashioned blood feud with Ghyl's mob. And since Tilura thinks Draussen is the one involved in Sesrin's disappearance, I think we can use the feud to our advantage." He swiveled to face Sol. "How much longer before you can get out of the network."

  "It'll only be a few minutes."

  "So tell me again what it was that got you on Gaetin's bad side? I can't believe he'd put one million deyl on your head just for fucking one of his mistresses."

  "Oh, it wasn't just any of his mistresses. I fell in love with Ka'Hir."

  "Who was she? His wife?"

  "No, she was a vesh. That's the word they use for the mistress who's in charge of all the others. She was his favorite."

  "Naturally."

  "Hey, don't judge me." Solomon chucked his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the cabin behind the flight deck where Tilura was sleeping. "You're the one who was stupid enough to trust Miss Break-and-Run. How long were you stuck in that Sr'gg'nss camp again?"

  "This isn't about her, this is about my sister, remember? I have no intention of keeping her around any longer than I have to."

  "All right, all right. As I was saying, I fell in love – yes, in love – with Ka'Hir. Believe me, I didn't mean for it to happen. About eight years ago, Gaetin hired me to smuggle some chloromite for him, and Ka'Hir came along for the ride. She was supposed to bring back a couple slave girls that Gaetin had bought from one of the mob lords. It was a four day round trip, and, well, Ka'Hir and I got to know each other pretty well. I discovered that she was a smart and self-educated woman, and you know me, I can't resist a good intellectual debate. She spoke six languages, had a good head for business, and also knew her way around a navigation console. She turned out to be a better pilot than me, in fact. So, by the time we got back from my run, we had become friends."