Discovery (The Niakrim War Book 1)

by David J. VanBergen Jr.

  As the table erupted into universal disagreement, Violet wondered for the first time if Mitch Cooper was losing his mind. How could any sane person consider blowing up the most valuable metal in the galaxy?

  Mitch gave the table a few minutes to voice their opinion, then raised his hand to silence them. "Look, it would take us a year to collect the deposits on this list alone. If we can make this robot work, we can mine a deposit in hours instead of weeks…"

  He didn't need to say more. Everyone at the table realized the implications of using robots—that no one in the ITC or IMF knew about—to collect niakrim that was also unknown. Violet suddenly had a very good idea why Mitch Cooper had as much power and influence as he did.

  As they resumed their meal, in a decidedly jovial mood, Mozzie approached the table. Today, he was wearing a sleek black pin-striped suit with a with a white shirt and black tie. A white fedora with a black band and matching black and white polished shoes completed the outfit.

  "Another relic from the twentieth century?" Mitch chuckled.

  "A Capone original," Mozzie confirmed.

  "What news do you have for us today?"

  "It appears the transport ship you were waiting for has entered the system," Mozzie said. "It dropped out of warp a few minutes ago and should arrive within the hour."

  Conversation suddenly stopped at the table. "We're not expecting the transport for at least another day," Mitch said with obvious concern.

  "Where are they coming from?" Cyrus asked.

  "Can't say for sure, but probably Earth," Mozzie said, not understanding what the problem was. "Where else would they be coming from?"

  "Not Earth," Cyrus said. "There were no ships in that quadrant when we came from Earth and it would take a week for any other ship to get here."

  Mitch looked at Cyrus for a moment, worry etched on his face. "Kublai, Colin, get everyone back to the ship. Cyrus, get to the loading dock and get that mining robot loaded up. We leave in thirty minutes."

  In all the excitement, Mozzie had slowly backed away and had nearly made good on his escape when Mitch leaped from the table. "Mozzie!"

  Mitch was on him in a flash. He grabbed Mozzie with both hands and lifted him off the ground and shook him. "Who's ship is that?"

  "How would I know? I have no way of knowing for sure."

  "Guess!"

  "I don't know what they call themselves, but there have been some...new...races lately. They bring some of the most delightful foods. I tried to tell you about them last night..."

  "Do they have warp capability?"

  "How would I know?" Mitch shook him again. "No... Yes... Maybe..."

  Mitch dropped him. "Mozzie, that's the ship that attacked us."

  "Lots of ships attack you."

  Mitch glared at him and Mozzie shut up. "Take care of your business. Don't act like anything is amiss. And we were never here. I'll be back in a few days."

  Mitch was already heading for the exit and didn't even see Mozzie nodding his agreement. "Violet, follow me. We've gotta a few stops to make."

  Violet hurried to catch up with him. "What's going on?" she demanded as they exited Mozzie's.

  "Cyrus and his computer brain know where every ship in the fleet is," Mitch explained as they ran. "If he says it's not one of our ships, I believe him."

  "Then why aren't we heading to the ship?"

  "I have things in my room I can't leave behind."

  The pace Mitch set made further conversation impossible. When they reached his quarters, Violet stayed in the sitting room, marveling at the assortment of interstellar collectables on display, while Mitch disappeared into his sleeping quarters. She had no idea what most of them were, but she could tell they were all very valuable alien artifacts. And she could tell this was a home—probably one of many—for Mitch Cooper, not just a hotel room.

  A moment later, Mitch returned with a stack of wrinkled papers and shoved them into her hands. The top one appeared to be an ancient star chart of some sorts.

  "These papers hold the keys to all of my—our—assets," he explained as he swept past her toward the door.

  “You keep all our critical records on paper?”

  "Paper records cannot be hacked."

  "But what if you lose them?"

  "Then I guess I would have a problem," he said with a smile. "Now let's go. We've still got another stop to make."

  Violet followed him as he rushed through the streets and headed in the general direction of the space dock. As they entered what appeared to be the market district, she muttered to herself, "Where the heck is he taking me now?"

  As if in answer to her question, Mitch veered into Ma'Chow Interstellar Market. He went straight to the counter where a...woman?...with four arms was struggling to control some sort of squirming eel. Suddenly, a large cleaver appeared in one of her hands and slammed down, severing the eel’s head and effectively ending the struggle.

  "Now, what are you squawking about, Mitch?" the woman asked in a nasally voice as she wiped her forehead with one of her now-freed hands.

  "I need the provisions we spoke about yesterday."

  "I haven't had a chance to prepare them yet, Mitch," she said. "You said you would pick them up tomorrow."

  "Change of plans, I need them now."

  "But they will not keep if I don't prepare them properly," she complained.

  "Maggie, I can prepare them. Just throw them on ice," Mitch said, starting to sound desperate. "I really need to leave...now."

  "You are impossible Mitch Cooper," she said with a smile. "I will be right back."

  "Maggie can get her hands on anything in the galaxy," Mitch told Violet as they watched Maggie disappear into the back.

  "So what is so important you just have to have it now?" Violet asked.

  "Kepler fillet steak," Mitch said. "They come from a cow-like creature with six legs on the outermost edge of the galaxy. The steaks must age for twenty-seven years then must be eaten within three days once they reach full maturity. I am not missing out on the chance to sample the rarest steak in the galaxy. I may never get another chance."

  Maggie returned from the backroom and set two coolers on the counter. She opened the first one, showing them eight neatly packaged steaks on a bed of ice. "You must wait twenty-four more hours before you eat them. After that, they are only good for two days since I did not prepare them for you. Understand?"

  "I understand."

  "Good," Maggie said with a satisfied nod then opened the other cooler. "And as a special surprise for my favorite space commander, three bottles of Tau Ceti Blue. A perfect pairing with Kepler fillet."

  "You are a saint," Mitch said as he leaned over the counter and kissed Maggie on the cheek. "I really do have to go, now. I will see you next time."

  Violet could only roll her eyes. The entire crew was in a panic, racing back to the ship before an unknown enemy arrived, and Mitch Cooper had to pick up steaks and wine. That settled it, the man was definitely insane.

  BY THE TIME they made it back to the Krim Sprinter, the ship was ready to depart. They raced to the bridge, papers and coolers still in hand.

  "Status report, Cyrus," Mitch demanded as he set the coolers down next to the captain's chair.

  "Warp fluid is circulating. Belzaire is awaiting your command."

  "Kublai, where's that alien ship?"

  "Approaching fast, Captain. Should be here any minute."

  "Can you tell anything about the ship?" Mitch asked.

  "Nothing," Kublai sounded perplexed. "It's unlike any ship I have ever scanned."

  "Something tells me we shouldn't be here when it arrives," Mitch said. "Cyrus, as soon as we're clear of the space dock, jump to warp and get us out of here."

  Violet felt no need to point out the dangers of raising the warp field before clearing the planet's atmosphere—or the regulations against it. She could still see the photon torpedoes racing toward the ship the last time they had encountered this unknown ship and she was i
n no hurry to experience that again. She didn't feel safe until the time-warp field had formed and the Krim Sprinter was traveling away from Proxima at three hundred times the speed of light.

  CHAPTER 5

  THE KRIM SPRINTER was back in the Bellatrix System again, shielded from any long range scanners that might be looking for them. The senior officers were gathered in the Captain's Dining Hall again. Violet hadn't been specifically invited, but she followed when Mitch, Kublai, and Cyrus left the bridge after establishing orbit around the ringed moon of Bellatrix Prime. Belzaire and Colin were waiting when they arrived.

  There was a decided tension in the room, but that didn't seem to affect the captain as he took a moment to admire the view before he turned and addressed his senior officers.

  "What we need now is information," Mitch said as he took a seat at the table. "Cyrus, are you sure that wasn't one of our ships?"

  "There are no registered ships in the region," Cyrus answered. "Even if there are ships on missions I am unaware of, which is unlikely, there is no reason for them to approach without declaring intent to dock."

  "I agree," Kublai added. "We made the right decision to leave quickly."

  "But we lost a valuable opportunity to learn more about our mysterious enemy."

  "Not necessarily," Kublai said with a grin. "I left a man on Proxima. He will gather information for us while we are gone."

  "Good thinking."

  "Just doing my job, sir."

  Mitch nodded, knowing any further compliment would only belittle his chief security officer, at least in his eyes. He looked around the table at each of them, assessing each one solemnly before suddenly breaking into a grin.

  "Now that that's settled, who's in the mood to try the rarest steak in the known universe?" Mitch asked enthusiastically. "And it's not from Earth, so you can eat it too, Kublai."

  DAK SAT at a table in the corner of Mozzie's main room, socializing with a lovely Geminorum women. He was tracing one of the blue stripes that ran down her deep green skin, apparently oblivious to the delegation that had just burst through the main entrance. Dak had learned a long time ago that the best way to follow someone was to stay ahead of them, and this time was no different. The delegation paid no attention to them as they marched straight to the backroom.

  He made small talk with the pretty woman for a few minutes after the door to the backroom was closed and guards were placed outside to prevent intrusion. Dak would have loved to eavesdrop, but there was far more to learn so he took his leave, after setting up a rendezvous later that evening, and headed into Mozzie's Galactic Casino to play holographic slots and wait for the mysterious delegation to emerge.

  Dak was just beginning to win when the doors to Mozzie's opened and the delegation he had been tasked with observing emerged, still dressed in hooded cloaks. He decided to take a couple more spins so it wouldn't appear obvious he was following them. He wondered if he would have enough dedication to pass up a jackpot if he happened to hit. Two losing spins later, he cashed out his modest winnings, grabbed a drink from one of the server bots as it floated past, and followed the hooded delegation toward the docks.

  He lost track of his target several times, but was confident in their destination so he made his way to a cantina with an outdoor balcony overlooking the docks. Dak was well into his second drink when he spotted the hooded delegation heading toward an unusual ship that looked more like a large 'X' than anything else. A moment after the hooded figures boarded, it slowly raised into the air until it reached a height of five hundred meters above the space dock.

  Dak was beginning to lose interest as the ship hovered when he saw something that nearly made him think he was losing his mind. In fact, if he hadn't heard another patron exclaim, he would have assumed the drinks had gone to his head.

  The alien ship had suddenly vanished.

  CAPTAIN NAETHAN WAYDE looked out the viewport that stretched the width of the bridge on the IMF Enforcer. The Proxima Outpost was still only a speck of light on the planet below. The reports from the station were sketchy. There had apparently been an explosion, but there was very little information about the severity of the explosion, only that the transport ship carrying IMF and ITC personnel had been damaged.

  The rumor of a spaceship capable of cloaking nagged at him so the captain approached slowly. "Leave the warp drives enabled," he ordered. "Just in case something unusual is going on down there."

  Captain Wayde couldn't help but smile. He had been part of dozens of battles and it was always the same. Time-warp-enabled ships were virtually impossible to defeat. Being able to instantly move to another position on the battlefield allowed for even a poor strategist to emerge victorious from military conflicts.

  "Bring us around to the IMF and ITC space dock," he instructed the pilot. "I want to get a look at that damaged ship before we drop the warp field."

  As they approached the wreckage of the transport ship, years of battle-honed instinct kicked in. Something was definitely wrong. "Shields up, evasive maneuver Delta Four!"

  The starship instantly shot four kilometers across the city and four more straight up.

  As they studied the wreckage from the safety of their new position, they could see several holes had been crudely cut in the hull. Captain Wayde had no idea who had attacked and boarded an IMF marked ship in one of the busiest space ports in the galaxy, but he wasn't taking any chances on being the second ship to fall.

  Suddenly, an X-shaped ship appeared above the wreckage. Assuming he had ample time at his disposal, the captain ordered a full scan on the ship with a cross-reference to all known ships in the galaxy. Before the search could even begin, the situation quickly escalated.

  The ship was on them before the captain could even order the weapons to be energized. Dozens of harpoons shot from the enemy ship, which was now directly above them, slicing right through the shields. The thick cables attached to the harpoons pulled tight and reeled the Enforcer in like a whale in the ancient Earth oceans.

  "All personnel to battle stations. Prepare to be boarded."

  Captain Naethan Wayde had been in scores of battles and skirmishes during his distinguished career, but he had never been in ship to ship combat. Warp-enabled ships weren't supposed to be boarded. They were supposed to be able to outmaneuver any attack.

  Faster than he would have thought possible, the first alert sounded. "Hull breach in the cargo hold!"

  Four more alarms quickly followed.

  "Arm yourselves and follow me," the captain ordered. "We're not going down without a fight."

  The corridors of the IMF ship were chaos. Everywhere the captain looked, crew members were down. He took comfort in the fact that most appeared to still be alive, but was puzzled by the lack of phaser burns.

  They navigated the hallways of the IMF Enforcer, always arriving moments after the conflict. Their first encounter with the unknown enemy came as they neared engineering. A small group of junior officers were attempting to keep the cloaked aliens from entering the warp room. Captain Wayde led the charge, but they arrived too late to prevent the aliens from slicing their way in. A moment later, the spaceship shook as the warp system dropped offline. They're after our warp engineer.

  "Set up a defensive perimeter," he ordered as everyone re-oriented to normal space-time. "Those bastards are not leaving with our warp engineer."

  A moment later, the door to the warp room opened and the captain got his first look at the enemy, at least as much as he could see beneath their cloaks. Four humanoid figures in black cloaks stood in the doorway. Behind them, a fifth figure carried the unconscious form of the Enforcer's warp engineer. They carried nothing but primitive weapons—swords, axes, and spears.

  "Open fire!"

  A dozen blasters opened fire on the four aliens, burning holes in the cloaks but having no other apparent effect. The four aliens stalked toward the armed IMF officers as if they were children shooting water guns. As the first cloaked invader reached them, he reach
ed forward and with each hand, grabbed a man and hoisted them off their feet. He slammed them together and threw them down the hallway like discarded dolls. The last thing the captain saw was a gloved fist speeding toward his face, then everything went black.

  CHAPTER 6

  THE KRIM SPRINTER hovered above the space dock, warp drives enabled in case quick maneuvers were required. Two IMF ships lay in ruins at the Proxima Space Station, the repair crews already at work. It was clear that both ships had been attacked and that the attack was highly concentrated because there was no damage to other ships or the station itself, other than where the ships had crashed down.

  "Do you see anything?"

  "No, Captain," Cyrus replied. "Nothing like what I sensed when we were attacked."

  Satisfied that it was safe to dock, Mitch ordered the warp field dropped. "Take us into port as close as possible to the wreckage of the Enforcer."

  Once docked, the crew of the Krim Sprinter divided up to investigate both ships. Kublai led Mitch, Cyrus, and Violet to the wreckage of the IMF Enforcer, where they found Dak and Captain Wayde on the bridge.

  "Report, Ensign," Kublai ordered, taking charge of the bridge before anyone else could speak.

  Dak immediately snapped to attention and addressed the group, focusing on Kublai as he delivered his report. "Two attacks by an unknown enemy ship. Most likely the same ship, but we cannot confirm that, sir."

  "Explain."

  "Well, sir, the enemy ship didn't show up on any sensors and there was no visual sighting prior to the attack."

  "I cannot speak for the first attack, but I believe I have an explanation for the attack on my ship," Captain Wayde interjected. "The ship appears to have cloaking ability. And yes, I know that’s supposed to be impossible."

  "What about your ship's sensors?" Mitch asked.

  "That's what I was discussing with Ensign Ramirez when you arrived," Captain Wayde responded. "We have scoured our computers and there is nothing in the sensor database before it suddenly appeared."