However he was worried.
Restive Pro had failed. He had never heard of Pro failing before. Ever. It was his job to worry, and this was causing him a great deal of worry now. He was sure that Restive would now be more determined than ever to complete her contract, so as yet, he didn’t need to recommend a different option, or a method of breaking their contract with the assassin. The thing that worried him was the unknown.
The Y’lem had taunted The Lord High Grand Provost about this strange alien that was coming to destroy him. The Provost had not taken the taunts seriously, but the Prime Minister had. They were now even more serious considering some of his best agents had failed to stop this alien’s sure and steady progress.
The Prime Minister considered all the information. He did not know enough. He could not plan, could not advise without information, and at present there seemed only one source of information available to him. And that seemed to be studying him from inside the heavily shielded cube.
“Tell me, Y’lem,” he spoke quietly, but loud enough to be heard over the noise of the beam of fluttering energy that pierced the cube and the blob inside. “Tell me about the Pangean.’
The blob shuddered, and made a low sound that the Prime Minister couldn’t clearly make out. He stood, and inched closer, until he could hear properly. The blob was laughing at him.
Initial rage passed quickly as he approached the cube.
“I will make you a deal, Y’lem,” he said, circling the cube. “Tell me what you know of the pangean, and I will shut off the beam for a few moments. Your conversion is assured, but I can offer you a few moments of rest in what I know must be a very painful process for you to endure.”
The blob stopped moving.
“Well? What do you say? Can we behave like two civilized species?”
“Very well,” Hg’Wlz replied, his voice sounded weak. “Turn off the beam and I will tell you something that will benefit you.”
The Prime Minister stopped his pacing by the control panel and studied the Y’lem intently. Finally, deciding that it was worth the risk, he reached forward a long, tapered finger and flipped off the beam.
Inside the cube, the blob sank to the bottom and lost any shape it had thus far maintained.
Condensed, at the bottom of the cube, Hg’Wlz looked almost entirely green now.
“Your turn.” The Prime minister smiled coldly. “I have kept my side of the bargain.”
“As you wish,” replied the blob. “I will tell you three things that will be of great importance and use to you. First, not even you can change the nature of an Exoticisian. Second, you could do well to leave Prio before the Pangean arrives, for he will bring your downfall. Finally, to overestimate your own position, and underestimate your enemies is a mistake that you will rarely be permitted to make twice.”
As he said this final point, Hg’Wlz began to pull himself into a more spherical shape again, and the Prime minister noticed in horror that almost all of the green had disappeared from the Y’lem. With a snarl of rage he threw the switch back and the beam of energy arced back into the cube and its prisoner.
“Guard?’ he yelled.
The guard, who the prime Minister had sent outside the cell, came bursting in and ran up to him, a look of wild panic on his face. Before the guard could ask what was wrong, the Prime Minister brought a long curved knife up under the guard’s ribs and twisted it viciously several times. The guard was dead before he hit the floor.
Calmly the Prime Minister walked over to the control panel and pressed the communication button. “Captain of the Guard,” he spoke into the small microphone. “Dispatch a squad of your best men down to the Y’lem cell. The guard on duty succumbed to his power and has set back the conversion process by a long way. This must not happen again.”
The speaker on the control panel buzzed. “I will discipline the guard myself, Lord High Minister.” “There will be no need,” replied the Prime Minister looking down at the lifeless, oozing body at his feet. “He will not make any more mistakes.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
The armored Universal Securitat vehicle coasted quietly into the long hanger of the Port Chah spaceport. Heavily-armed agents wearing uniforms immediately sealed off the entrance and a heavy door rolled down sealing the vehicle off from the street beyond.
As Kirk got out, he was confronted with what looked like a small army preparing for imminent war. Uniformed agents were running backwards and forwards, while others were grouped in small clusters checking weapons, supplies and other items that Kirk did not want to think about too much as they suggested a great deal of death would surround these men and women.
He was surprised that the variety of aliens he now saw wasn’t that diverse. A great many of the assembled agents all looked very human, and while he knew that meant they probably looked very alien in reality, he still couldn’t shake the idea that being where he was, he should be seeing something that looked like the back-lot of a science-fiction movie.
There were several that looked to be the same, hairy species as Chief Boh Yah Di. There seemed to be plenty of Aweddi, the transparent, shrimp-like creatures who all seemed to be wearing pilot uniforms. There were others that appeared to be the result of a human/dog hybrid project, and a couple that looked very much like a similar experiment performed on a bird and a fish, leaving Kirk puzzled as to the home environment of such a being.
They walked swiftly through the large open building towards a row of what Kirk assumed were official Securitat swoopers. For someone who had never, before a week ago, even considered the possibility of the universe he was now experiencing, Kirk knew, on some deeply-ingrained level, that these spacecraft were very, very cool. He had seen sports cars back home, had felt the pulse quickening reaction at the sheer power they embodied, the sleek lines suggesting power, but his was so much more. It was like looking at a Ferrari that could fly, covered in serious armor plating, and packed with devastating weaponry. He was in love.
“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?” Kirk turned and saw in the Chief’s eyes the same feelings he was having towards the swooper.
“Another universal constant,” Said Lu shaking her head in resignation. “The male of the species and their passion for powerful vehicles.”
The Chief stared lovingly at the swooper a few moments longer, then turned to Kirk and Lu.
“The Universal Securitat Stringer, N’Tur’Pryz is waiting for you. They...”
“Hang on,” Kirk interrupted. “Are you telling me that we’re going to travel on the U.S.S N’Tur’Pryz?”
Chief Boh Yah Di glanced at Lu for some clue as to why this was important to Kirk, but she shrugged.
“Er... yes,” replied the Chief. “Is that a problem?”
Kirk smiled to himself. “Just when I thought this couldn’t get any stranger. I don’t suppose the N’Tur’Pryz is captained by James T Kirk, is it?”
The Chief again looked at Lu for guidance, and again she shrugged.
“No, but is that is someone you would like I can check the files, see if I can get him here quickly. I have to say though, that captain Peekord is a fine officer. Geornlooq and I go way back. I know you will not find him wanting.
“Geornlooq Peekord?”
“You’ve heard of him?” Chief Boh Yah Di asked eagerly.
“I think so, but you know, such a common name, could be another guy. I guess I’ll have to wait and see.”
“Well, anyway, the N’Tur”Pryz is waiting for you in high orbit. As soon as Agent Pillah was dispatched to retrieve you, the N’Tur’Pryz began charging for the trip. She’s been holding the charge now for a couple of hours, waiting for you. Your orders are as follows. Rendezvous with the N’Tur’Pryz, then as soon as the N’Tur’Pryz breaks back into real space breaks back into real space, you are to take your swooper into the Super
Black Hole and meet with the Y’lem. From that point you are to take your orders directly from them. Whatever they request, you comply. I will leave it to your discretion as to whether you make contact with us again during this mission. You should weigh the risks and requirements, then act accordingly. Any questions?”
Kirk could think of plenty, but he felt that they wouldn’t do him much good right now. So he followed Lu’s lead and shook his head, no.
“Very well. Board your swooper and good luck. I look forward to debriefing you both when you have successfully completed your mission.”
The Chief saluted them, and Lu returned the gesture. Kirk realized that they were both waiting for him to salute, so he did.
“Come on,” Lu said to Kirk.
With one more look around the hanger, Kirk climbed through the doorway of the Securitat swooper and they set off again.
As the swoopers engines roared to life, Chief Boh Yad Di entered a small control room to monitor their departure. He considered his meeting with his newest recruit and found his initial concerns somewhat diminished now. He’d been very worried about partnering his best agent with what was little more than a retail outlet security guard, but several things reassured him that there might well be more to this strange little alien than he first considered.
That Kirk had very real concerns for his own abilities was a source of great comfort to the Chief. He had seen too many people, overconfident in their skills, die in particularly stupid and avoidable ways. Worse yet, these people usually took someone with them on their inner journey into the hereafter. Lu, for all her abilities, never allowed herself to get cocky, which is what made her such an effective agent. It hadn’t always been that way, but she survived her one potentially life-ending act of overconfidence, and the results of that day drove her to make sure that it never happened again.
The second thing that reassured the Chief was not only had Kirk survived the journey of many light years from his home, but had done so, at least as far as the Chief could tell, while retaining his sanity. The first ex-patriots off their home planet often had trouble adjusting to the strange and sometimes frightening new experiences they were immersed in. It generally took a couple of generations to adjust to the new universe they found themselves in.
The last thing was the loyalty Kirk had shown to Lu. Given everything that had happened, it would have been perfectly understandable for Kirk to wish to get as far away from Lu as possible, and was one of the reasons he offered Kirk his pick of other agents to partner with for the next leg of his mission. When you added that Lu is a very dangerous person and that Kirk obviously knew this, demanding that she accompany him on the next stage of his mission was something that impressed the head of the Securitat a great deal. Chief Boh Yah Di was a brave man. He had fought in many wars and confronted a wide variety of deadly opponents, all dedicated to his own death, and even he had to admit that the last place he wanted to be was between Agent Pillah and restive Pro. Granted, there were few people he felt could watch his back as effectively were he ever to go head-to head with the assassin, but given that Lu had been taught a very painful lesson by Pro, and she was intent on making up for her mistakes, Kirk was taking a risk having Lu along.
As the swooper vanished from view and was picked up on long range scans, the Chief mused about the way Lu handled his suggestion that she take some leave. The history behind Lu’s animosity towards Restive was a defining factor in the kind of agent she had become. But he’d also seen that kind of drive push good agents over the edge.
Lu Pillah had been an eager recruit to the Securitat. He had recruited her himself. She was driven by her past and the need to show she was more than she appeared. More than her species suggested she could be. When word came through that Restive Pro had been seen on Sevres Prime, it was Lu and her senior partner who had set off to track down the assassin and bring her to justice.
The reports he read later, and the evidence left by the almost destroyed hotel Pro was holed up in, made it clear that the fight had been savage. Fortunately, no civilians had been badly hurt, and with wounds inflicted on both sides, Lu and her partner finally managed to overwhelm Restive Pro. For the first and only time, the most feared assassin, and from Chief Boh Yah Di’s perspective, one of the most deadly people in the universe, had been arrested.
Both Lu and her partner were wounded, as well as Pro, but they finally managed to secure their prisoner. Lu’s partner, who had had his F.R.B. damaged in the fight, went to signal for reinforcements, leaving Lu to watch the prisoner. When Lu’s partner returned, he found that restive Pro was loose of her restraints and savagely beating Lu. He charged and restive killed him on the spot.
The Chief was never quite sure why Restive left Agent Pillah alive. He initially thought it was that by that point, she knew more Securitat Agents were on their way, and she simply fled. Later he changed his opinion of this. Given the efficiency with which Restive Pro could kill, he concluded she could easily have ended the career and life of Lu at that time. But she chose not to. She took revenge on the one person who had managed to capture her by letting her live. Live with the knowledge that she had failed to hold the assassin, and the knowledge she had been unable to prevent Pro from killing her partner.
Chief Boh Yah Di worried that such an encounter would destroy Lu, that all the potential he had seen in her would be burned up by the incident. His fears had been unfounded. If anything, Lu had become the Agent she promised to be with even greater speed. She put the entire event out of her mind and focused entirely on learning from her costly mistake.
This was the first time Lu had crossed paths with Restive Pro since that day. The last thing he wanted was for Lu to feel she owed her former partner some debt, that she had to avenge him. It was also very possible, that she was frightened. Brave men quaked with fear at the mention of Restive Pro, let alone ones who experienced the assassin at first hand. If Lu felt she owed something to her fallen colleague, it would be foolhardy and suicidal to do it from a position of fear.
The Chief had given her a way out. A way for her to avoid confronting a terrible enemy, a tragic past, and herself, yet still save face. All that aside, he wasn’t surprised she reacted the way she did. Lu would stop Restive Pro, the Chief was sure. Or she would die trying. He hoped Kirk Deighton was up to the task of watching her back as ably as she could watch his. The one advantage Kirk had was that he had no real idea what he was up against in Restive Pro. Unfortunately that was his one major weakness as well.
Chapter Twenty-Six
North Rubik sat in the dimly lit bar nursing his glass. The place reminded him of one of the settings from various movies he had watched back in Titan. Even though he wasn’t supposed to have any contact with aliens not ready to know about the wider universe, he was keen on watching any and all of the transmissions that leaked away from Pangea. He thought it best to describe the Pangean as new and ‘funny-looking’ since the last thing he needed was to get in trouble for that as well. Special Agent Skwair, if she did suspect him of breaking the rule, had not shown any indication she intended to pursue it.
His favorite broadcasts were the ones the
Pangean’s called science-fiction. He knew they weren’t rally supposed to be funny, but they were a lot more entertaining than what he guessed were supposed to be the comedy shows. Looking around the place now, he half expected to see a collection of bug-eyed aliens playing music on impossibly complex instruments.
He sat alone by the window, watching as a Universal Securitat swooper boomed out of a hanger hurtling upwards, defying the planet’s gravity with ease. Rubik idly wondered if that ship had anything to do with the investigation he’d briefly found himself mired in the middle of. These thoughts were quickly replaced by the main source of his current concerns. He had no money to get back to Titan, or anywhere else that wasn’t planet bound.
His journey here had been paid f
or by Chief Skake, who confidently reassured him that they would be able to make a claim for all out-of-pocket expenses they incurred while in the pursuit of wanted felons. That all changed when the Chief was gunned down by an assassin that, even in the back end of the universe, sent waves of fear through anyone who even thought they might cross the path of Restive Pro. Now he had no money, or at least not enough to get far, had lost any chance of catching the felons he’d been tracking, and so had lost any chance of claiming any reimbursement. In short, he was stuck.
He took a sip of his water, then set his glass down and raised his hands to his eyes.
“What do you want, old man?” he asked as he rubbed his eyes.
The old man in the faded orange robes grinned a toothy smile and quickly slid into the booth close to Rubik.
North lowered his hands and turned to look suspiciously at the new arrival at his table. The old man reached out and grabbed the security guards arm and squeezed hard.
“Feeling all put back together are we now?” he asked
Rubik pulled his arm away sharply and stared hard at the old man, who grinned impassively back at him.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Shhh...” The old man smiled, putting a long sinewy finger up to his lips. “We must present a united front, or we’ll be taken advantage of.”
“Look, I don’t know who you think I am. Or who you think you are for that matter, but...”
“Shhh,” the old man interrupted and nodded his head sideways, as two men approached them.
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