by Ryan Krauter
The guard wasn't budging. "Drop the weapons or we fire," he repeated. "I don't know who's involved with what. They're outside and long gone; you're in here. You could be with them disguised in Confed uniforms, so, we're going to verify who you are before anything else happens."
Loren raged. He didn't want to have a shootout with a bunch of civilian guards, not the mention the fact that the had the guards had the drop on them from an elevated position and he and Web were out in the open.
"Shiefah!" Loren cursed, then safed and placed his SSK on the ground, looking at Web and indicating he should do the same.
The identity and credential verification took all of fifteen minutes, but by then there was no hope of picking up the trail of Velk and his rescuers. Loren and the rest were released with their original full access to most of the facility, and they decided that the least they could do was investigate the scene of the crime.
They passed the initial checkpoint with its kill zone hallway, and Loren thought about the Lieutenant whose life had been saved by the nanites she mistrusted. Had it not been for them, she would have been killed instantly instead of complaining while sitting on a gurney on the way to a medical facility.
"Well," Loren said without much enthusiasm, "here it is." He gestured to the scene around him in the large detention facility's reception area. He looked at the shot-out windows of the interview room he'd been talking to Krenis in, then let his gaze sweep across the rest of the lobby. Bullet holes, blaster scorch marks, and debris were the order of the day. The room had been shot up enough that the powers that be had ordered the facility closed temporarily while they repaired and 'examined their security', something Loren found appropriate as well as unnecessary. It had been perfectly appropriate for its original mostly-civilian task, but keeping a team of skilled Drisk operatives out was just too much for most places Loren could think of.
"So what are we looking for?" asked Cory as she nudged a toppled chair with her boot.
"Well," Loren replied, "the crime scene techs are just about done, so I figure we should start ripping the place up the same as everyone else. We look for anything obviously Priman because of Velk, Drisk because of the team that broke him out, and any other new tech like those EMP grenades they used on us."
"Some of our tech nerds will not be sleeping tonight," Merritt observed. "They'll be tearing those things apart trying to figure out why our regular EMP shielding was worthless."
Loren watched as the techs finished up their work. They had brought in some large cameras that they'd used to shoot the entire room in microscopic detail; they'd build a life sized 3D holo which investigators could interact with, even going so far as to move objects. The scanners/cameras could see right through almost anything, and once the scene was captured in the cameras, investigators could tear apart the actual crime scene without worry of destroying evidence.
Loren saw the person he assumed was the lead investigator; a severe looking human female in her middle years who was ordering everyone around with the ease of years of experience. She was comfortable being in charge.
Loren approached deferentially and waited for her to notice, then offered her his hand, which she shook.
"Evening, ma'am," Loren began.
"Evening, Commander," she replied. She looked at Loren and then the rest of them with a critical eye, then something clicked into place. "You're the soldiers who were involved in the shootout down here," she stated.
"Guilty," Loren said with a grimace. "I wish we'd been able to stop it entirely, but at least we have some of the perpetrators down here to show for it."
"I'm Captain Romica," she continued. "Anything you can add here that you didn't put in your statement of record?"
Loren grinned. She was asking the age-old question: did he want to tell her anything that was best left off the books for various reasons? Maybe it made someone or something important look bad, maybe it was a ridiculous hunch, maybe he didn't trust everyone hearing it. For whatever reason, did he have something to say in private? It was the mark of a seasoned investigator, one that was accustomed to working in a politically charged atmosphere like the capitol of the Confederation.
"All I can think to say is that they were well trained, definitely military or mercs," Loren finally said. "They worked well; they must have drilled together for a long time. My concern is that they were so familiar with the facility; they knew to bring the EMP grenades, they knew where to go find Velk."
Loren caught the curious expression on Captain Romica's face. "They never stopped to access a terminal," he added. "They never slowed down; they knew exactly where they were going, and if I was the suspicious sort I'd say that it was odd that staffing was so low here. I can't imagine a handful of crew and two Marines is what the usual personnel levels are."
Captain Romica gave a 'harumph' as she seemed to roll those observations around in her head. "I can't really find anything to take issue with, Commander," she admitted. "All good points." She seemed lost in thought for a second, then snapped to attention. "Alright; if you four want to snoop around, be my guest. I just ask that if you find anything interesting, tell me before you go."
Loren nodded and thanked her again, then started working on a game plan as she walked off. He saw a coroner examining one of the Drisk soldiers that had met his end at the interview room where Loren had been pinned to the floor by gunfire, and he decided to see what the man had to say about the Drisk in question.
As Loren approached the Drisk coroner, the rest of his group peeled off in search of their own clues.
"Evening," Loren said by way of greeting.
The coroner looked up and nodded, then returned his gaze to the body. "How do you do, Commander?" the man replied. He was stocky, almost overweight, something uncommon among Drisk, and his light gray smock's pockets were filled to the brim with equipment, probes, data pads, a few scraps of paper, and what looked like a few ration bars. "Here to see our man of mystery?"
Loren nodded before realizing the coroner's back was to him and couldn't see him anyway. "Correct. I figured now that the imaging was done, you might find something when you started breaking down the scene."
The man squatted down and placed his knees on the floor, then rested his hands on them. "Nothing interesting yet," he started. "Just ran another biometric scan; he's a healthy young Drisk. Well, other than the blaster bolts that scorched his insides, you understand."
Loren didn't know the man well enough to tell if he was attempting a joke or was really just a dry personality. He guessed it wasn't really important in any case.
The coroner placed a wristband on each of his arms, which then snugged tight to his skin. A second later Loren heard the thrum of the sterile fields start up. The fields originated at the wristbands, and their molecules-thin barriers enveloped the hands of the coroner, protecting him from contamination and protecting the crime scene from his own interactions. He started going over the body, inspecting and then placing on numbered trays items removed from on or around the deceased Drisk. An associate quickly removed the trays once filled and returned with empty ones to start the process over again.
The coroner had removed the dead man's jacket and was placing his hands on the ground when Loren noticed something.
"This guy and his buddy over there are both wearing the same ring," Loren noted. The rings were dark, a sort of brushed nickel color, with a few lines embossed along their circumference. "Any idea what those are?"
The coroner took the ring off and studied it carefully, looking at it closely and then holding it up to the lights overhead. He mumbled a bit and coughed twice, but in the end looked puzzled. "They don't signify any Drisk traditions or meaning that I can identify," he finally admitted. "Here," he said as he tossed the ring to Loren, who caught it in surprise.
"The scanners didn't pick up anything," the coroner assured Loren, "and besides, this guy's buddy over there is wearing one as well, so you can play with this for a minute."
Loren nodded ab
sently as he rolled it around his fingers. It was heavier than he'd expected, and even after being off the victim's hand for a minute still felt warm to the touch. There was something familiar about it, though. He'd seen one before, but couldn't place where. He'd seen it recently. The answer eluded him, all the more aggravating because it felt like he could almost see it, or maybe parts of it, drifting in and out of his consciousness.
"Of all the Gods..." Loren heard the coroner mutter. He saw the man waving the bioscanner around over the Drisk's body again, only now he was agitated and nervous. He was even starting to sweat.
"What is it?" asked Loren, and he caught a glimpse of the scanner's readout. The biosigns weren't Drisk. They weren't human, either.
"What is he?" Loren asked again slowly.
The coroner swallowed twice, unable or unwilling to speak. He simply turned the display so Loren could see. Under the tab where it classified the DNA and other identifiable markers, the label showed 'Priman'.
"Cory, Merritt, Web," Loren called loudly, eliciting some annoyed glares but nothing more among the investigators. His comrades came back quickly, alerted to something by the tone of his voice. Once they all gathered around, Loren showed them the bioscanner, still held in the white-knuckled clutches of the coroner.
"This is definitely not good news," Web said softly.
"No kidding," Merritt confirmed. "What do we do?"
"We keep it on the down-low for now," Loren decided quickly. He flagged down Captain Romica, who happened to be wandering past.
She approached cautiously, something about Loren's agitated demeanor making her a bit wary. "Something going on, Commander?" she asked slowly.
This time, instead of grabbing the coroner's hand, Loren just gestured for him to show the Captain. Her eyes went wide as she took in the full meaning of the results.
"We had a Priman assault team in here?" she whispered angrily.
"It looks like it," Loren agreed.
"Why didn't they set off the alarms?" she countered. "We have enough Priman biosign data that they would have been detected five times over before they got into this space."
"The rings," the coroner quickly concluded. "I scanned the deceased for initial screens like always. Then I passed this ring to the Commander here and was making a sweep of the deceased again so the program could check that box off and I could move on to the next one. But instead of the same results, that time he showed up as Priman. It could only be the ring." His voice trailed off in astonishment. Maybe it was fear.
"Only one way to find out," Cory said determinedly. She stepped over to the other Drisk and unceremoniously dragged him the few paces to where the group stood. "Scan this hump, would you?" she said to the coroner, who complied.
"Drisk," he confirmed numbly.
Cory grabbed the ring on his left hand middle finger and pulled it off, tossing it to Loren. "How about now?"
The coroner scanned the man and once again registered shock. "It can't be," he said in awe. "It says he's Priman as well." He looked at Loren, then Captain Romica. "Do you know what this means? They can conceal their identities just by putting on a ring. That's astounding! I mean, there must be some prosthetics involved, which would be easy enough to install or remove, but faking a bio scanner is incredible. There's no way they could fool a determined DNA scan, but they didn't have to." He sat there, resting on his haunches, knees on the floor, hands on his hips. "They could be anywhere among us."
A cold shiver raced down Loren's spine. "We don't need that kind of panic right now," he said firmly, then turned to Captain Romica. "Captain, we need to keep this under wraps, at least until we can track down the Priman rescue team and Velk in the city."
"You think they're still here?" she asked doubtfully.
"Yes," he said confidently. "Before we came down here, I reported in to my captain. He said all in and outbound traffic to the surface has been blockaded. They didn't get off-planet, and most likely didn't even leave the city. We have the upper hand right now, because we know what to look for."
Silence hung in the air as everyone tried to piece together the puzzle. "We need to hunt down anyone wearing a ring like that," concluded Web.
"You know it," Loren replied. He turned to Captain Romica. "But we need to keep this quiet. Seriously quiet. We don't know how many more Primans or their agents are in the system, so if we start a large scale search they're going to find out. You know what's going on, and I doubt I can convince you to not take part, but you need to be as discrete as possible."
"I know what I'm doing, Commander," Captain Romica said sternly. "I've been running investigations since before you soiled your first flight suit, kiddo," she replied. "Yes, you're a pilot," she said in answer to their quizzical looks. "You all are. Gods know you all stand out. Not that it's a bad thing; it's just a thing. Of course, your flight jacket there," she jutted out her chin at Merritt, "doesn't help conceal your purpose, either." She smiled. "I would love to nail these Primans, but if my groundside people and your fleet types are going to both be following up, we need to stay in touch. Agreed?" She gave them a stern look, which Loren accepted. "Oh, and you should keep one of the rings. Maybe you can pick something else out of it."
"Trade comm addresses?" Loren asked, and she nodded. That done, Loren gave her the second ring and she parted ways while stalking off with new purpose, the coroner trailing in her wake as she started trying to impress upon him the importance of keeping quiet.
Loren, Web, Merritt, and Cory just stood there in silence for a minute.
"I suppose there was no way to convince her to just let us handle this?" Merritt asked glumly.
"Nope," Cory said for Loren. "We should probably be happy she didn't try to pull a jurisdiction rap and tell us this was her case since it happened on the ground."
"Cory has a point there," Loren conceded.
Loren suddenly realized where he'd seen the ring before. He looked at each of them in turn, then spoke. "I know who else around here is wearing one," he said cautiously.
"Cough it up!" said Web.
"It was Tana Starr, one of Dennix's closest advisors ."
Nobody said anything. Finally, Merritt found his voice. "Wouldn't surprise me if Dennix was sporting one as well."
"We need to keep that thought to ourselves," Loren warned. "Besides, he was wearing several rings; I wouldn't be sure about it. But Ms. Starr; she had one, and she's in the inner circle."
"So what do we do?" asked Merritt hopefully.
"We watch her," said Cory. "If she's a Priman, or aligned with them, she's a perfect fit for the inside person on this job. I mean, you heard them talking about how there weren't enough guards on duty. Those Primans who attacked knew where to go and what to do. Somebody on the inside set this up. And she's the perfect candidate."
"Our only problem is that Avenger is under orders to break orbit and head to the yards as soon as possible," Loren said, putting a damper on things.
"Then we have to find a reason to keep her here, so we can stay here and run this ourselves," Cory said in a tone that brooked no argument. "We also need to get some backup that we can trust so we can keep this mission as under-wraps as possible. We need expertise and resources if we're going to track these Primans down. Hell, just running surveillance on Ms. Starr will be a full time job."
"I'll bring Halley in," Web suggested. The rest of them looked at him with knowing smiles.
"Now, Web," Loren began, "I know you've probably been waiting weeks to find a reason to ask her to drop in, but there is the small matter of where she is. I mean, we need this to start tonight, maybe tomorrow at latest. If Starr is in league with these people, we need to start watching her right now."
"No problem," Web said easily. "I'm pretty sure she's in the Delos system."
"And how would you know that?" asked Merritt doubtfully.
"Well," Web began with a smile, "you must admit Halley has a certain, style, let's call it. If there are bodies on the ground and explosions in th
e air, Halley isn't far off. I've come to recognize some of her calling cards and techniques."
Cory and Merritt just looked at each other, then shook their heads. "You are so in love with that woman..." Merritt said.
"I never claimed otherwise," Web answered proudly. "In any case, yesterday there was a major bust out on Delos Seven." Delos Seven was one of several habitable moons orbiting one of the gas giant planets in the outer system, and there in fact had been a sizable police action along with some well-placed explosions. "There was a cell of Priman sympathizers," Web continued.
"What, we have Priman sympathizers now?" Cory interrupted. "Give me a break!"
"They claim that the Primans are on the right track- that maybe we should let somebody else try running things since humanoids can't seem to really perfect the system," Web continued. "This one group out on D7 has been getting militant; they blew up a Confed Navy recruiting station a week ago. Anyway," Web plunged on, waving a hand in the air dismissively, "the pattern of explosions, the convenient arrival of police on scene, and the roughed-up and hog-tied leaders all point to Halley."
"You're serious," Loren said, eyes boring into Web.
"Damn straight."
Loren nodded quietly, chewing on his own thoughts for a second. "Alright," he continued, "make the call. Don't give her too much in the way of details on the call, of course, but if you can get her here by tomorrow we'll bring her in. We can trust her and we damn well know she can handle herself if it comes down to it."
Loren straightened up and tugged on his tunic, pulling it back into place. "All that's left is for me to convince Captain Elco to find a way to keep Avenger in orbit so we have a place to operate from. No big deal; we just need to ask the captain to break our ship."
They returned to Avenger as quickly as possible. Loren started making his way directly to Captain Elco's quarters while Web left to call Halley and Cory and Merritt elected to drop in on their squadrons.
