Matt looked at the tachlink message from Thuringia Governor Metzenbaum. It had come to him over the small tachRemote that his buddy George had delivered to the system, just after the Intel Base battle. While the rest of the fleet had headed for Morrigan and a well deserved rest and recreation, George had taken a side trip to Pi-3 Orion to stop briefly at the system’s heliopause. His ship Inevitable had ejected the tachRemote toward the planet, where it arrived a week later. Programmed codes had moved the device into a geosync orbit over Elios Port, a position occupied by other orbital comsats. Its presence there would not be noticed by the Anarchate base on Thuringia’s moon, or by people arriving at the Commerce Station that orbited much closer to Thuringia. The device had contacted Metzenbaum recently with the info on raid survivors they had recovered during the slaver base attack. Now, the governor was contacting him.
“Mom, come over here. You need to see this.”
His mother Kristen looked over from where she stood at the Food Alcove in Mata Hari’s Communal Hall. She, Eliana and Matt had decided to share a meal together before taking evening rest. She took her food from the Alcove heater and brought it over to the flexfloor table that hosted them. Eliana left the Reader Alcove where she had been researching the history of Thuringia and came to the table, summoned by Matt’s mental call.
Kristen sat down, laid her plate of Chinese rice and grilled chicken strips on the table and looked over at the AllCall datapad Matt held in his hands. “Something interesting there?
Eliana, still wearing her green cheongsam dress, sat and leaned forward. “Matthew, what is your nice surprise?”
“This. Take a look at this holo,” he said, punching in the code that made a flat image appear as a three dee holo in the center of the table.
“Is that Charlotte?” cried Kristen. “Yes! It is! Where is she?”
Matt smiled at his Mom and at Eliana’s happy look. “On Thuringia, at the farmstead of Governor Metzenbaum. Somehow she escaped from her Meligun owner on planet Module, got a false ID disk, made it to the Commerce Station and convinced a Hootnai ship captain to transport her to Thuringia on the promise of a big reward. Which Metzenbaum paid.” Matt licked dry lips, sat back in his chair, and closed his eyes. The outlandish image of his sister filled his mind and heart. While the wild hairstyle and facial zebra stripes were distracting, her hazel eyes and determined expression were an exact match for his last memory of her. He blinked and reached across the hold his mother’s hand. “Mom, she’s alive! And safe with Governor Metzenbaum. He will take steps to hide her away. And Charlotte’s wild look is intended to make hard an automated search for a female human of a certain height. Her owner Nak ho-mesk is a money transfer expert used to working at the boundaries of Anarchate banking systems. He will surely complain to the agency for tracking of lost property. Charlotte will eventually be tracked to Thuringia. But there is no obvious connection to me. To us. To our anti-cloneslavery crusade.”
Eliana’s happy look turned scheming serious. “So does the fleet change our destination from Megil to Thuringia?”
Matt nodded slowly, feeling the way a son does when he has pleased his mother. It was the proud look in his Mom’s eyes that meant the most to him. “Yes. Mata Hari?”
His AI ally blossomed into her full-size holo, dressed in the frilly white dress of her WWI Mata Hari Spy persona. Her dark eyes ignored the holo, which she’d already perceived during the ship’s reception of the tachlink signal, and focused on him. “Hello Matthew. Kristen and Eliana. You need help?”
Matt felt Mata Hari in his mind. Her essence was gigantic, in keeping with the complexity of a two kilometer long starship. But there was also the people-person essence of her that had grown wonderfully over the last year. She now felt like a lifelong friend whom Matt had known in both good times and hard. But her talk a month ago about she and Gatekeeper wanting a baby AI had left him wondering many things about her.
“Yes, Mata Hari. I do need help. My sister Charlotte is on Thuringia, not on Megil,” he said, knowing her emotional side would welcome feeling his happiness. “Though she arrived by private commercial transport, she passed through the ID monitor at Elios Port arrival hall. How long will it take the Anarchate to track her to Thuringia? And how long before we ourselves arrive at the system?”
Mata Hari crossed her olive-skinned arms just below her bodice and looked intent. “Our time to Thuringia is seven more hours. Since we inbound toward Earth from Antares A, which is 550 light years from Earth, changing our Translation exit point from Alkalurops C star to Thuringia’s Pi-3 Orion star is simple. Just a matter of going another ninety light years further.”
Matt nodded, trying to keep in his mind’s-eye the Orion Arm space holo that showed relative locations of Module’s 51 Pegasi star, Antares A, Alkalurops C, Pi-3 Orion and Earth’s Sol. “And the Anarchate time to track her to Thuringia?”
Mata Hari spread wide her arms. “They could know that now, assuming this Meligun owner person has declared her as missing property and paid a small bribe to expedite some Anarchate official on Module. All that is needed is a tachlink search of Arrival Hall ID records for all Human colony worlds within a few hundred light years of 51 Pegasi.”
His Mom looked confused by the star reference. Eliana remained in her ‘solve the problem’ self of intense focus. Matt worked at staying emotionless. “Can you make a guess? We’ve been in transit for seven hours. We know that Charlotte went missing several days ago. And our rescue of my Mom at Antares A system is bound to distract the chief of the new Anarchate Intel Base.”
Mata Hari reached up to touch the white pearl broach at her neck, her expression thoughtful. “Many guesses are possible. First, the lost property function of the Anarchate is separate from the Sector 14 Intel Base command. Second, the three dee holo image of Charlotte provided by this Meligun owner to the search department looks very different from the way your sister appears now as she arrived at Elios Port. It will require live eyes, or podeyes, to scan arrival databases for the five Human colony worlds within this small part of Orion Arm. Searches by living people take longer than automated searches.” She paused, then shrugged. “I would guess that the Anarchate knows of Charlotte’s arrival on Thuringia either now, or surely by the time of our fleet’s arrival at the heliopause of Pi-3 Orion. Which arrival will surely alert the Anarchate base on Thuringia’s moon of Pearl.”
Matt nodded. He had two problems to solve. How to arrive in Pi-3 Orion system without detection. And how to rescue his sister from somewhere on Thuringia, some place the governor would have sent her to hide. For certain, Metzenbaum’s talk with her on the planetary comlink would be in the civil archive record and be something known to any investigator. Matt looked at all three women. “Ladies, maybe we could repeat our Antares A hideout and exit Translation on the side of Thuringia’s star that is opposite from the planet’s current location?”
Eliana shook her head. “Sorry, Matt. Won’t work. The G2V main sequence star of Pi-3 Orion is far too small to mask our gravity wave pulses if we arrive just beyond the one AU No Translation zone. Second, when Yorkel’s fleet arrived at this system, before his battle with us near the Crab Nebula, he surely distributed tachRemotes, sensorRemotes, stealthed sleds and thousands of Seek/Identify sensors throughout the system.” She gave him an apologetic look. “Odds are our arrival on the far side of the system would be detected quickly.”
“Damn. You’re right.” He thought hard. “Well, I don’t want the fleet appearing ten or twenty light years away. While I can enter the system on my ship’s Dark Energy stardrive, I want the rest of Hexagon Prime fleet nearby. In case this new Sector Captain shows up capture Charlotte.”
Kristen frowned. “Matt, is it likely this new fleet captain will seek a new battle with you? From what Mata Hari and Eliana shared with me while you recovered, the Anarchate lost eight battleglobes in the Antares B battle, plus another four battleglobes from your attack on planet Working. And the battle left at least three battleglobes
damaged. Maybe his fleet is back at base, repairing and refitting?”
Matt gave his Mom a whistle of appreciation. “Mom, now I see where Charlotte got the smarts and the stubbornness to escape her master once she heard I was shaking up the Anarchate. And your own escape from your Mican owner was inventive too. And sneaky. I like sneaky.”
“Thank you, Matthew.” She smiled, sat back and smoothed the creases in the pale blue cheongsam dress loaned her by Eliana. “I had planned to steal a vacsuit and make it to a hideaway among the ravines near the skyrises. Figured the Aliens in charge would give up once they lost my tracker nodule and found no evidence of my physical remains.”
“Might have worked, Mom. And yes, this new fleet captain may well be at base rather than tracking after Charlotte. Which leaves us to worry only about the new Intel Base boss and his spies. Like this Medun person.” He looked at Eliana. “Mistress, do you or Suzanne precog anything about the new leaders we are now dealing with? Like the Dolmat Sector Captain of the fleet, or the person in charge of the Intel Base?”
Eliana shook her head. “The sense we both got of the Dolmat captain was that he is energetic, sharp, persistent and inventive in his approach to space combat. We could sense that he has one more tactical surprise waiting to be used, beyond the nova blast and black hole shooters.” She paused, her expression going distant momentarily. “We do sense this Medun being active on Thuringia in the near future. Medun’s sense of his boss, based on the mental readings we got while in Antares A system, was that the new Intel chief is of an amphibian species with a shell. Maybe a Loglan or Nik-nik thot species.”
Matt hoped it was neither. Both species were known for outstanding research on any problem assigned them, with a species focus on completing every assignment given a member. The two amphibian species had a reputation for never giving up. Kind of like how he felt often. He smiled at his audience.
“Okay. This is how it will be. This fleet will exit Translation on the heliopause side of Muddysomething, fifth planet in my home system. Kind of a super-Jupiter planet. There is an asteroid belt lying between Muddysomething and Thuringia. Arrival on the planet’s far side will mask our gravity wave pulses if we arrive close to its upper atmosphere. Then I will take my ship, go to Dark Energy stardrive, and arrive on the daylight side of Thuringia. The neutrino emissions of my home star will mask the neutrino emissions of Mata Hari’s fusion plants. Then my ship will go to Alcubierre stealth shielding while I take shuttle Ariadne down to search for my sister.”
Kristen smiled broadly. “Oh, Matthew! I so look forward to seeing Charlotte again. It’s been fifteen years!”
Eliana and Mata Hari both smiled at her, then focused on Matt as their minds joined with his in planning the computations and spatial coordinates involved in the fleet’s covert arrival.
“Matthew,” muttered Eliana, “you do like playing covert spy, don’t you?”
Matt did not answer a question to which Eliana and Mata Hari already knew the answer.
Sytoon faced the holoimage of Medun, chief assistant to Sector 14 Leader Mindstorm. Based on his knowledge of the Spelidon species, the being’s Whiskers of Distinction showed the emotional sign of Angry Frustration. Which meant there might be some data of value to him and to his Intel operation. With high emotion species, it usually took only a comment or two for a species member to spill out every planetary or conglomerate secret they knew, or thought they knew. He settled into his salty water bowl, inhaled through his gills, and proceeded to interact.
“Chief Assistant Medun, I respond to your request for a live tachlink discussion. What is your purpose in this communication?”
Medun’s long black tail thumped the metal floor on which he stood. “High Commander, my superior gave me the job of going to the world Working of Antares A system. We had tracked the progenitor of this renegade Human Matthew Dragoneaux to her presence there as a labor slave for a Mican banking executive. It seemed a simple matter to arrive and purchase the female,” the dryland biped said as its body image showed signs of anxiety. “Unfortunately, the female escaped from the Mican’s control, fled to a neighboring skyrise, and then was rescued by an Offense sled that appears to have belonged to this Dragoneaux biped. Shortly after the rescue, the Sector 14 fleet commanded by Sector Captain Running Leader fought a battle with the Human’s fleet in Antares B. His fleet lost ships, but did manage to drive off the Human fleet.”
Sytoon had wondered just what Sector Leader Mindstorm might be doing in his efforts to trap this Human infestation. Now, Mindstorm’s principal agent was calling him for help. A pleasant development since none of his three operatives assigned to do an Intelligence survey of the Human colonies had reported anything of interest. “An interesting story. You have a request for me?”
“Yes!” snapped the Spelidon as its long tail flipped up to rest on its left shoulder. “I send you the recent life image of the renegade’s sibling, a person with the name sigil Charlotte.” The Spelidon raised his datapad and aimed it at the tachlink sensor at his end of the link. “Our intelligence sources say the genome harvester ship that captured her sold the sibling to a Meligun assets transfer specialist who lives on planet Megil, where the Flesh Markets used to stand in Halath city. However, this young Human female has also escaped from her owner during a visit to planet Module, star 51 Pegasi. We suspect a conspiracy by this Dragoneaux human to recover his two living relatives in order to avoid their use by Anarchate forces to force his surrender. Or death.”
Sytoon knew elements of what this Medun was sharing. Sector 14 Intel had numerous AI and expert software systems that monitored the galactic tachnet, and ship-to-ship communications. All that they lacked were direct sources inside the fleet of this Running Leader. Well, that would happen eventually. “We have heard of this other sibling who is seeking refuge somewhere. If you wish our help in recovering this female biped, where do you expect her to be?”
Medun’s black chest fur stood out stiffly and his two black eyes took on a sheen. His whiskers moved to the sign of Target Capture. “We suspect she has sought refuge on her homeworld of Thuringia, star Pi-3 Orion. Within the Orion Arm. I am headed there now in my fast Courier ship. Can you provide support assistance?”
Sytoon felt pleased that his excellent control of the chromatophore color bands on his soft shell kept the Spelidon from detecting his high interest. Also, his mouth palps moved in ways unknown to other species. Therefore his eagerness would not be known to this excessively dry biped.
“Perhaps this base can help you. Our former employee, Commander Chai, visited this planet Thuringia on an Intelligence Survey.” Sytoon pincer tapped a datapad lying next to his bowl. “His report, along with images of many Human bipeds and their name sigils, are now sent to you. You may use the office Chai appropriated at the Arrival Hall in Elios Port. Its office devices are primitive, but the report I sent you includes Chai’s password code. If more data on his survey exists on the office devices, you can access it using this code. Finally, there is an Anarchate naval base on the moon Pearl, which orbits this Thuringia. There will be armed Corvettes at that base, and perhaps a few battleglobes nearby.” Sytoon pincer tapped his datapad several times. “Also sent your way is an Intel directive to the base commander that requests urgent assistance to your mission. Satisfied?”
Medun’s whiskers flared into the emotion of Hunt Supported. “Most excellent, High Commander Sytoon. I pledge my allegiance to your office! As you surely know, the allegiance of a Spelidon is a choice of some meaning.”
Sytoon knew that. It was also another hook upon which he could manipulate this dryland creature. “Thank you for the pledge of allegiance, good Medun. My office here in Sagittarius Arm is far distant from these Orion Arm locales, but our resources are spread across this sector. We welcome news of this female sibling’s capture.”
Medun clapped both hands together in the Spelidon sign of Promise Made. “Your office will know the results of my efforts at the same time as my master Mindsto
rm hears my report. I depart on our joint effort.”
The holo of the black-furred Spelidon blinked out. Sytoon inhaled the salty water of his rest bowl and gave consideration to the efforts of his three employees at visiting every Human colony planet in three arms. While a tedious effort, it was the kind of systematic effort which the Anarchate had long excelled at. This renegade Human might possess a fleet of T’Chak warships, but he was not invulnerable, as the fleet report of the battle at Antares B system demonstrated.
High Captain Running Leader had sent him a personal copy of the Observer Globe record of the battles in both star systems. While the sector’s primary fleet was undergoing repair and refitting at its base in Orion Nebula, still, there were plenty of resources available to the Intel Base for all of Sector 14. Nearly 3,000 former employees of his dead predecessor Brrzeet had been tracked down, ordered to report to the new Intel Base in Sagittarius Arm, and nearly all of the refugee staff had reported for work. They occupied dozens of habitat domes on a nearly airless world that circled the star CC 3478. Lifting up on his six pincer feet, Sytoon left his basin and moved to consult with his scientists on their efforts to replicate the nearly magical weapons of the T’Chak fleet.
CHAPTER NINE
Charlotte looked at the holoimage of her brother Matthew that had called her over the public comlink. The contact code for the AllCall datapad given her by Governor Metzenbaum was supposedly known only to the governor and his wife Olivia. The two of them had given her the AllCall device when they dropped her off at the rocky cliff entrance to a lithium mine on the peninsula where her family had once lived. No farmstead was within a hundred kilometers of her. The mine had been shut down for decades. And her camping gear had no tracking or autosignal devices buried within them. Same for the AllCall datapad. It worked on a comsat link, not through a cellular network which could locate up its carrier signal. So the holo of Matt she now saw should be him.
Anarchate Vigilante (Vigilante Series 4) Page 16
