by Kal Spriggs
Junior Lieutenant Pornik looked up as he heard an odd sound from the access hatch. It almost sounded like a shout that trailed off into a gurgle. Peculiar… he thought to himself.
He turned on his radio, but he didn’t hear any chatter.
“Petty Officer,” Junior Lieutenant Pornik barked, “Report.”
After not hearing a response, he cursed and rapped his comm against the palm of his hand. The stupid thing probably didn’t have signal through the thick walls of the tank. He walked over to the hatch. Pornik drew a breath to berate his cleaning crew, but his breath rushed out in a gasp of surprise.
Only a meter away, a stained and dirty figure looked up from where he held one of the cleaning crew face down in the waste. Junior Lieutenant Pornik scrambled to draw his holstered pistol, but the figure tackled him to the ground and his fingers locked around Pornik’s throat. “I’m free,” the man rasped, “Free!”
Pornik’s world narrowed down as the strong fingers choked the air out of him. The last thing he noticed before his consciousness faded out was that the disheveled man killing him had only one eye.
***
Faraday Colony
United Colonies
May 1, 2410
Lieutenant Commander Forrest Perkins didn't look up as Lieutenant Elvis Medica sat down across from him. "Uh, boss, I hate to say it, but isn't there a funeral you should be attending here soon?"
Forrest stared at the plastic carton of cheap beer in front of him. "She's not there." He'd spent more than a few of his days at this particular dive bar. It wasn't much of a surprise that Elvis had tracked him down.
"Yeah, boss, I know, there's no body to recover..."
"No," Forrest snapped. "I don't think she's dead."
"Wait... what?" Elvis shook his head, "Boss, we got the recording. You heard her voice. You talked to her. It wasn't like there was a delay in the response..."
"No, there wasn't," Forrest said. "But how hard would it be for a programmer of Reese's caliber to set up a voice modulating program that could emulate her? For that matter, emulate himself? All he'd need would be a crew to pilot the shuttle and someone to run the emulator."
Elvis Medica shook his head, "Skipper, that's... well, yeah, I guess it's possible. But why? I mean, we know his goal had to have been the Enforcer Station. And he had no way to know there'd be anyone there stop him..."
"He could have known that we would be there," Forrest said softly. "I've been thinking about the escape. How convenient it was that exactly the type of ship we needed was right there. I've been thinking about how Reese egged me on, about how Marius showed me what would happen if we didn't escape... and about how the navigational computer only had two destinations in its starmap."
Elvis's eyes had gone wide, "Sir, that's a little far-fetched..."
"All those high-ranking Centauri officers we rescued?" Forrest asked. "Apparently as soon as they got back they started identifying other Centauri officers who'd also been kidnapped with them, then must have been mentally conditioned and released. Guys in important positions, key positions. All well and good, right? Some of those accusations could be false implications... but it's apparently thrown the Centauri Confederation into chaos. Their civil war just heated up big time, officers don't know who to trust and there's been a sudden rash of assassinations and murders... all because we brought those guys back."
Elvis Medica shuddered and looked away, "You're saying..."
"I'm saying they let us go," Forrest snapped. "And that's a conclusion I brought to intelligence... who stared at me like I was crazy. But I've got some connections from my time as the Baron's... that is, the Emperor's, aid. Commander Camilla Jiang doesn't think that's all that crazy an idea. In fact, she thinks all this was a side-show, an effort to throw everything into confusion. And if that's the case..." Forrest trailed off.
"Then she thinks Lieutenant Giovanni is alive?"
Forrest scowled and looked down at the cheap plastic carton of beer. "No. She doesn't know how Reese planned to get off the planet. He couldn't have hidden. Between the Shogunate’s people, our Marines, and Admiral Collae, we swept the entire place for any of his people... caught a few of them too. All of them said that he boarded a shuttle and headed for the station."
"Well..." Elvis shrugged, "That's a lot of evidence against your theory, sir."
"Yeah... except for one thing," Forrest said softly. He looked up and met his friend's eyes. "You knew I was in a relationship with her, right?"
Elvis shrugged uncomfortably, "Yeah."
"Tell me. If you were faced with imminent death, would you let on that you knew someone?"
"Well… I suppose," Elvis said
"Ally's voice was emotional, but there wasn't a single reference to me. She didn't express surprise at my survival, she didn't call me 'Forrest,' none of that. Also," Forrest went on, "that bastard Reese, he didn't miss the opportunity to gloat to me back when we were prisoners or to threaten me over the relationship... but he didn't bring it up, even though he must have known that taunting me with that would have cut twice as deep under those circumstances."
Elvis sat back. Without thinking he reached over and snagged the beer and took a deep gulp. He nearly spat it out and grimaced at the taste, "Oh, that's wretched." He set it to the side and then met Forrest's eyes. "That's thin, Skipper. That's mighty thin... I mean, we know that Forrest wanted the station. Some of the survivors say he put himself into the Temple of Communion. You don't do something like that, without a pretty good reason. And the only artifact powerful enough to warrant that kind of thing would be the Enforcer Station, right?"
"Maybe," Forrest shrugged, "I really don't know. That's why I'm here, though. I can't make sense of it. Maybe Marius wanted his daughter... but it seems like there'd be an easier way to do it, you know?"
Elvis's face went pale and he reached out and grabbed the beer carton and took a long drink. When he set it down, his hands shook a bit. "I just had a really bad thought."
Forrest frowned, "Worse than the idea that Alannis Giovanni and Lizmadie Doko are both prisoners to a madman who mentally conditions people as a hobby?"
"Worse," Elvis said grimly. "What if the whole point was to get the pressure off his back? Whatever they wanted to work on, everyone thinks Reese is dead and Marius's plan is foiled. They'll have free rein to do whatever they want… no interference."
Forrest took back the carton and drained it. That was a pretty horrifying idea. Yet he didn't know what might be so valuable --or dangerous-- that they'd go through that much effort to buy themselves that kind of time. Sooner or later someone would learn the truth.
Unless learning the truth later would be too late, Forrest thought.
"We need to do something about this," Forrest said grimly.
"No one's going to believe it," Elvis replied. He blinked and stared at the carton of cheap beer suspiciously, almost as if he wondered if it had been spiked with something. "For that matter, I don't believe it." Forrest’s friend glanced at his datapad, “Boss, I’ve got to go, are you sure you won’t be coming?”
Forrest didn't answer and after a moment, Elvis walked away, leaving Forrest in thought. The more he considered the situation, the less he liked it. He took another swig from the plastic carton and he tried to tell himself that the roiling feeling in his stomach was his body’s reaction to the wretched beer.
***
It was a cold, rainy day on Faraday. Perfect weather for the state funeral for not just one, but two princesses.
Lucius nodded at Prince Octavian as the Nova Roma nobleman stood next to Admiral Anthony Doko. They'd lost a lot of good people at Kapteyn's Star. This was yet another funeral that he'd had to attend.
He clutched Patricia Stark and Kaylee to his sides and reached an arm out for young Anthony William, but his nephew drew away, his face angry and sullen.
Emperor Lucius Giovanni sighed. He hoped the boy would come around, yet he'd been where the young man had. He'd lost his father whe
n he was only three years old. Or at least I thought I had, he mused. There was no evidence that this "new" Marius Giovanni wasn't another clone, but there wasn't any evidence that he was a clone either.
Yet his actions had indirectly led to Alannis's death. That in itself meant that he would be Lucius's enemy, even if he hadn't directly caused the deaths of hundreds of Lucius's people. The information about brainwashing and mental conditioning that Forrest had delivered had made it clear that this Marius Giovanni had many crimes to pay for.
He walked his children back to the car, safely ensconced by a team of protective Marines. They'd seemed even more intrusive of late, probably since they seemed to collectively feel as if they'd let him down.
Yet he didn't blame them. Reese had been brilliant but lazy as an officer. As an enemy, he'd honee his brilliance and driven himself with passionate anger. None of them could have foreseen his trap. Rory and Feliks had spent hours replicating the EMP device Reese had used, only to finally state that it had been carefully tailored for the exact circumstances: a close range trigger against a limited area and specific designs of powered armor.
Lucius watched as the car carrying his daughter, adopted daughter, and nephew drove away, headed for Imperial House. Then he climbed into his own ground transport, this one headed for the military headquarters.
It wasn't a long drive, but it was long enough for him to compose himself. Once there, Captain James Minton escorted him to a private, secure briefing room. They'd spent the past three months analyzing data and Lucius wanted to know what they'd come up with.
Commander Camilla Jiang seemed nervous, though Lucius didn't know if that was because of what she had to tell him or because she remembered the last time someone had threatened his family members. Maybe not a bad reason to be nervous, Lucius thought distantly.
"We've examined the remains of the vessels that Leone brought to the system," Commander Jiang said. "One of the cruisers and two of the destroyers were intact enough for us to do some basic battlefield forensics." She cleared his throat, "The crew identities matched up to missing personnel from several Colonial Republic and Shogunate vessels. The ships themselves..." She trailed off and brought up data on the three surviving ships.
"As you can see, the vessels were all extremely old. Two of them were sold for scrap and many of the systems onboard lacked even basic upgrades since they were decommissioned. The weapons, sensors, everything was painfully obsolete." Commander Jiang took a deep breath, "Our best estimate is that this was a deliberately staged event, with throwaway ships and crews."
"You think this attack was merely a pretense?" Lucius demanded. "We lost over five hundred personnel, to include my sister, and you think this attack was meant to fail?"
"I think it was meant to draw out Marius Giovanni's enemies, to focus their attention and, yes, sir, to hurt us as much as possible as well," Camilla Jiang met his gaze and didn't back down. "I don't think he planned on your sister being in the line of fire, my Lord, but I do think that he used Reese to draw our attention there at Kapteyn's Star... while he launched simultaneous raids on several other systems."
She brought up a star map and highlighted seven other star systems. "These systems are where numerous installations and stations were hit. All of them within minutes of Reese's attack. We're still investigating three other raid sites that may also be his work."
Lucius let out a low whistle. Simultaneous attacks across ten systems while evacuating his main base of operations... that implied both a massive amount of planning and preparation as well as huge attention to detail and a lot of dedicated and capable personnel.
"They took ships, weapons, supplies... and they captured several thousand military personnel," Commander Jiang shook her head, "Sir, he may have just doubled, possibly even tripled his fleet and given himself enough logistical support to sustain those forces."
Lucius sat back as he considered that. "And we have absolutely no idea where he'll strike?"
"No, sir, we do not," Commander Jiang replied.
Lucius fought down his anger. As the leader of a star nation, the last thing he could afford was to let his emotions get the better of him. Yet he felt a raw ache as he remembered Alannis's son's reaction to the news. Young Anthony William was now an orphan... and Lucius had seen the boy shut himself away from everyone in reaction. That was bad enough, yet the emotional reactions he did display were worse. Alannis's son had outbursts of raw rage, with anger out of scale for a child his age.
Lucius, though he could barely admit it, felt that same rage.
Someone had killed Alannis. It was the same mystery attackers who had waylaid the Constellation at the Ghornath's Sacred Stars. It was the same attackers who had hidden in secret, striking and sowing chaos, and letting others take the blame for their actions...
Lucius didn't know who they were. He didn't know their goals. Whatever they were, whoever they were, they were his enemies. He would find them. He would destroy them.
***
Lieutenant Elvis Medica sighed and took a seat, rubbing a hand across his face. Elvis had caught the first shuttle off Faraday headed for Sanctuary Station right after the funeral. His new office, buried in the station's engineering labs, felt like a refuge against the series of blows that had come over the past weeks and months.
Elvis hated funerals. It seemed like he'd attended far too many of them over the past decade. His older brother, both of his parents... and attending the funerals for not just one but two princesses in a day had been rough, especially after funerals for many of the Bowie's crew.
He'd liked Princess Alannis Giovanni. She'd worked hard, she'd been sharp, and she'd had some of that same electric spark as her brother. Serving with her aboard the Constellation, Elvis had appreciated her as an officer, she'd done her job and never asked for a break.
Princess Lizmadie had been different. Elvis hadn't served with her, but he still had a great deal of respect for the Imperial family. He remembered when he was a child, hearing about her hair-raising rescue. She'd become something of an icon for most Nova Romans, the child-princess who'd survived in Chxor space and had then helped to organize an escape off Nova Roma right under the Chxor's noses... and now she, too, was gone.
As Elvis rested his chin on his hand, he stared at his computer display, his mind distant. Lieutenant Commander Forrest Perkins' words carried a great deal of weight in his mind. Yet what could he do? Even if Forrest was right, Elvis couldn't see how they could prove it. Elvis's new assignment was here at Sanctuary Station, where apparently his paper had attracted official attention and got him stuck on the new shielding project. Where I'll be working with that bastard Harbach, he thought.
"Elvis!" A cheerful voice spoke from the hatch, "Welcome back! We have lots of work to do and now that we got you assigned to our engineering lab, we'll finally have you doing something important! Now that the Enforcer Station is no longer a threat, we can get down to important things!"
Elvis looked up to see Rory rush into the office, followed a moment later by Feliks, who gave him a friendly smile. "We had been disappointed to hear you died, it is a good thing you are still alive," Feliks said. "I even called my sister, she seemed surprised that I'm still alive but she said that she is still single and is amenable to marry you."
"Wait... what?" Elvis stared at them both. "You two got me assigned here?"
"Yes," Feliks nodded, "We told Admiral Balventia that you would be essential for this project." He shrugged, "While it was a lie, it should keep you here, safely out of combat for a decade at least."
"Maybe two," Rory nodded as he ran a hand through his thinning hair. "James Harbach was pretty eager to have you on the team, too. I can't wait to see what our team can come up with. As a side project, I'm going to need you to help me run diagnostics of the Widowmaker's stealth systems. That ship is heavily modified, not just what Tanis did, but some modifications that have to be the product of your former captors... it's absolutely fascinating!"
El
vis felt too stunned to even respond.
"There will be much work," Feliks nodded. He blinked owlishly, "Why are you dressed that way? That fancy uniform will get too dirty. You should be in coveralls or a ship's suit."
"Yeah," Rory cocked his head, "Isn't that your dress uniform? Is there some kind of dog and pony show today?"
Elvis felt rage wash over him. "You stupid idiots," he ground out, "I'm dressed this way because I just came back from a military funeral!" He rose to his feet. "Today the United Colonies buried two outstanding officers and over the past weeks, hundreds of Fleet and Marine personnel who died fighting to control that Enforcer Station."
Both engineers stared at him in shock and confusion. "You think I want to spend my days here? I signed up to do my duty, to protect people... and you think I'd be happy to be assigned here?" Elvis sneered. "I'd rather have died than be stuck here, listening to the two of you... or worse, spending my time with Jimmy Wiggles."
Even as he said the last, he saw James Harbach pause in the hatch, his wrinkled face contorting in rage at Elvis's words. But before the old man could speak, Elvis ground out, "Get out. All of you, just get out."
They left and Elvis settled to his chair. He felt bereft. While he loved science and engineering, the thought of years spent here, far from the front, weighted him down. He thought about Forrest's conspiracy theory. Was this the end for all of them? Senior Captain Beeson faced an official inquiry, Forrest refused to accept the official decision, and Elvis would be stuck here in the bowels of an engineering lab for the foreseeable future. Princess Giovanni was either dead or captive along with Princess Lizmadie.
They want me to run diagnostics on the Widowmaker's systems, Elvis realized. The fast, stealthy ship had been under lockdown since they'd returned to the Faraday system. If Elvis had access to run a diagnostic, then he probably had full access to the entire ship. He activated his computer and brought up his access privileges on the display. There it was: Full Administrator Access.
