That was what Illiath had been waiting to hear. Just an ‘if’. If the Fleet Intelligence Division was wrong. Against her was the bureaucratic inertia of the Fleet. In her favor was the simple fact that no one wanted to believe the lowly, ignorant Bosphuraq had surpassed their patrons in technology. People wanted another explanation, craved it. “Their plan is working,” she observed, risking a reprimand for being unpatriotic.
The Admiral issued no reprimand. The truth was neither patriotic nor unpatriotic, it simply was. “Two questions for you, Illiath.”
“Of course, Admiral.”
“First, assuming the Rindhalu are behind the ghost ship attacks, what is their goal? What is the endgame for them?”
She had a ready answer, having asked herself the same question. Rather than appearing too eager, she paused as if considering the matter. Then, “It could simply be exploiting the current disruption in our coalition. The Kristang are torn apart by yet another of their silly and pointless civil wars. The Thuranin overextended themselves and were punished by the Jeraptha. The Thuranin and Bosphuraq then stupidly began fighting each other, weakening both of them and allowing the Jeraptha to gain territory easily. Now, the Bosphuraq are not only unable to support their peers, they can’t defend their own territory. The Jeraptha are being very careful, waiting to see how far they can push before we respond against them directly. And then, there is this Alien Legion,” she glanced at the man’s eyes, judging his reaction. The Ruhar-led Legion was a sore subject to Maxolhx leadership. Officially, they were not concerned about such a minor and primitive force. The idea that the haughty Maxolhx deigned to even notice the existence of humans was laughable.
The reality was that the Alien Legion was a troublesome irritation, that might develop into a serious problem to the Maxolhx Hegemony. The timing of the Legion’s establishment, and their recent victory at Feznako, was already a problem. If the coalition were strong, the Legion would barely be noticed. But on top of all the other issues the Maxolhx were dealing with, allowing the mere idea of the Legion to exist might be dangerous. The success of the Verd-kris might encourage others to have rebellious, traitorous ideas.
“The Legion,” the Admiral made a high-pitched growl, his species’ version of a laugh. He laughed, but Illiath noted he was not showing other signs of mirth.
“The emergence of the Alien might be a coincidence, or it might be part of the enemy’s plan. Admiral, the Rindhalu might not have an endgame in mind. They could simply be keeping us on the defensive. They gain much, with little risk to themselves. They know we will not hit back, unless,” her eyes flicked to the holographic document floating above the Admiral’s desk. “Our leadership is provided with solid evidence of the enemy’s involvement. As you have seen in my report, the enemy has been very careful not to leave evidence behind. Very careful, but,” she ventured a smile, “not careful enough.”
“If you are correct in your analysis. Very well, that remains to be seen. Now, my second question. Assuming the ghost ship is under control of the Rindhalu, why did they hit our ships that were traveling to Earth? There were much softer targets available, we know the ghost ship does not take risks that can be avoided. There is also the fact that there was a significant time gap between the attack on the ships assigned to the Earth mission, and the current series of attacks.”
She had an answer for that also, and this time did not feel the need for a dramatic pause. “Because, Admiral, I believe those ships posed a threat to the Rindhalu.”
“A threat? Earth is in the territory of our coalition. It is a world of no importance, populated by primitives.” Or, he reminded himself, it had been populated by primitive humans. With the Kristang in control and cut off from powers that might restrain their more blood-thirsty urges, the humans on Earth might have gone extinct. Fearing rebellion by the billions of useless slaves, the Kristang could have casually committed mass genocide.
That’s what the Maxolhx would have done, in those circumstances.
“A threat, Admiral, because the wormhole to Earth was the first to shut down, to exhibit anomalies we have not seen in the history of our people. I believe that, for whatever reason, the Rindhalu used that wormhole to test their technology that can disrupt the operation of Elder wormholes.”
“You have evidence of this?” He demanded.
“Yes. Another ghost ship was detected in the vicinity of other wormholes that behaved oddly. The previous ghost ship broke an Elder wormhole,” she reminded him.
He settled back in his chair. “If you are right, then it is good that we sent a reinforced battlegroup to Earth.” He did not mention that the ghost ship had recently attacked two star carriers that were laden with heavier ships than those going to Earth. “However, I am not yet convinced of your theory,” he declared.
Illiath kept her cool composure. “It is radical, certainly. I can provide more-”
But the Admiral’s eyes suddenly glazed as he stared straight through her. He was receiving a message. As she watched, his heartrate spiked.
Moments later, he wiped away the hologram. “There has been another attack by the ghost ship, at Vua Vendigo,” he announced. “This time, we have lost a heavy cruiser.”
Illiath knew that was both good and bad. Bad, because the hopes that the mysterious ship could not sustain further attacks were proven wrong. Good, because while that ship was still operational, it was possible someone would find evidence that proved her theory correct. “They attacked a heavy cruiser? The enemy is growing bold. This could-”
He waved her to silence. “The time for theories is over, Commander Illiath,” he said with disappointment. If Illiath’s theory had been proven, that would make his life easier, for he would be fighting an enemy he knew, rather than a ghost. He would also reap the glory of having brought her report to the senior leadership. Now, all her efforts were for nothing. “Another cruiser searched the wreckage of a Bosphuraq battleship,” he emphasized the ship’s undeniable ownership. “Our people found paired quantum state interchangers.”
Illiath felt a wave of chill. “The Bosphuraq salvaged them from the wreck from one of our ships?”
“No,” he shook his head and stood, indicating the meeting was over. “One of the interchangers found was blank. It was not manufactured by us.”
“That is impossible,” she gasped.
“More impossible, one of the others exhibits evidence of having been reassigned, more than once.”
“Interchangers are a single-use item!” She protested, refusing to believe. That was the whole point of the technology, that once assigned to a pairing, it could not be altered.
“We thought they were. Apparently, we were wrong. Illiath, we lost a heavy cruiser to an ambush by the ghost ship. The Bosphuraq are reading our message traffic.” Fleet Intelligence had warned that the ghost ship somehow had access to information about the flight plans of Maxolhx starships. Senior leadership publicly dismissed such concerns as unfounded speculation, while privately agonizing over how many ships had been ambushed. “With the discovery of interchangers aboard a Bosphuraq battleship, it is now clear that their ghost ship is not alone in having such capability. Our ancient enemy would never risk giving interchanger technology to a lesser species. Somehow, our clients have advanced significantly beyond us in technical ability, without the assistance of the Rindhalu. I am sorry, but it appears you were wrong,” he gestured for her to follow him out the door. “It also appears that our entire system for secure communications has been rendered useless.”
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
“Heeeey, Joe,” Skippy interrupted my train of thought, while I was writing the after-action report for our battle at Planet Voodoo. What I was thinking about, I can’t remember, because he interrupted it.
He interrupted me all the time, and I had learned to partly ignore him, but when he stretched out words like ‘heeeeeey’ and had that ‘well, heh heh’ tone in his voice, he instantly had my full attention. “What’s up?” I asked, steeling m
yself for the worst possible news. We had once again pinged a Maxolhx relay station for data. Technically, Skippy had ransacked the station’s low-level AI. He took over the thing and stripped away all the data we needed. When he was done, he erased all evidence we had been there, planted false memories, and we went on our merry way. The Maxolhx would never know anything unusual had happened, because the station AI had no memory of anything other than a normal boring day.
My imagination was working overtime, dreaming up awful scenarios like somehow the Maxolhx knew our ship was crewed by humans and-
No. That wasn’t possible.
Was it?
No matter. Speculating what could have happened was a waste of time, and just made my blood pressure spike.
“Um, I have a question. It’s kind of a friendship question.”
“Friend-” WTF? Had Skippy become friends with the station AI, and- Speculating was a waste of time. “Uh, sure, Skippy. Go ahead.”
“Remember a while ago, you said that sometimes, a true friend has to stop you from doing stupid things?”
“Uh, yeah?”
“You said a true friend will get Darryl to do the stupid thing, so you both can laugh about it later.”
“Sure.”
“That reminds me, Joe. The next time we fill out a crew roster, we need to include a Darryl. We do a lot of stupid stuff out here.”
“The ‘Darryl’ doesn’t need to be named Darryl, Skippy. It’s more of a concept.”
“Ah, got it.”
“Is that what you wanted to talk about?” If that was all he had to say, I was eager to get back to- Crap. Whatever I had been thinking about before was totally gone from my mind.
“No. That was just an example. I have kind of a moral dilemma.”
“I thought you had a question about friendship?”
“Both, actually.”
“Why don’t you tell me what this is about?”
“Well, that’s the problem. I’m not sure I should tell you. Let’s say, hypothetically, you learned some important info, something your buddy would like to know about. But, you know that if you tell him, he will probably get all emotional about it, and go do something dangerous and stupid.”
Oh shit. Whatever awful thing I had imagined he was about to say, could not be as bad as what he was trying to say. For Skippy to be experiencing a moral dilemma, the situation had to be catastrophic. “You want to know whether you have an obligation, as a friend, to tell the guy?”
“Yes. If I know he will do something stupid, should I not tell him this important info?”
“That’s a complicated question,” I answered truthfully. “It kind of depends. Let’s drop the hypothetical. Does this information affect only me, or the whole crew?”
“The whole crew, because the stupid thing I know you will want to do, will put their lives in danger. It also affects nearly two hundred other people. By ‘people’, I mean humans.”
At that point, I had absolutely zero idea what he could be talking about. He feared I would risk the lives of the crew, for something I did not need to do, but would do anyway.
And, it involved several hundred other humans?
WTF?
If only several hundred humans were affected, the issue could not involve Earth, or Paradise.
Again, I had no clue. So, I asked him. “Ok, Skippy. This is now officially a military matter. As the commander, I need to know, so tell me.”
“How about if we pretend this whole conversation never happened?”
“That is not going to happen. Tell me, right now. That’s an order.”
“Hmmf. An order? To me?” He snorted. “Ok, buddyboy, if you want to pull rank on me, then I need to consider whether it is my duty to prevent the commander from jeopardizing the mission so he can run off on some idiotic feel-good side project.”
“Shit. It’s that serious?”
“Hey, knucklehead, I wouldn’t be so worried about telling you, if I wasn’t so worried about what you will do with this information. I know you, dude.”
The worst thing about being a hypocrite is, knowing you are a hypocrite. When I was in high school, toward the end of my senior year, I saw my buddy Steve’s girlfriend kissing another guy. Did I tell him what I saw? No. That wasn’t because I thought he would be violent, I just didn’t see the point of all the drama that would result. We were graduating in two weeks, Steve was going down to North Carolina to work in his uncle’s air conditioning business, and his girlfriend was going to college in Michigan. The odds were they would not see each other again, plus they had only been dating for three months. It wasn’t like they had found True Love.
So, I withheld the truth from Steve. Why? Basically, because I didn’t trust him not to let his bruised ego make him do something stupid and totally unnecessary.
Yes, there I was, Mister Big Hypocrite, insisting that Skippy tell me what he knew.
“Skippy, I appreciate your concern. You are right, sometimes you have to protect a friend from himself. The problem is, I am not just a friend. I am the commander of this ship. It is my responsibility to decide whether we continue with the current mission, or change our plans. I need to know.”
“Ugh,” he sighed. “Ok, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“I promise to tell everyone that you did warn me.”
“Deal. Ok. Remember how I told you that the White Wind clan not only brought UNEF soldiers to Camp Alpha, they also kidnapped humans and brought them there?”
I stiffened at recalling that horrific memory. “Yes. They were used for experiments, to create bioweapons.”
“Right. In case the White Wind had difficulty controlling Earth, they planned to reduce the human population to a more manageable level.” He paused. “I know that is a very cold and clinical way to describe a truly monstrous subject. All I am doing is stating the facts.”
“I know. I know all that. How does it affect us now? You destroyed the stocks of bioweapon at Earth, the White Wind clan doesn’t exist anymore, and lizards can’t get to Earth anyway. Unless-” An awful thought struck me. “Did the crew of the Dagger have a backup plan to-”
“Whoa! No, Joe, this has nothing to do with Earth. This will go faster if I just tell you what I know, you know?”
“Shutting up now.”
“Ok. The White Wind brought UNEF to Camp Alpha as a staging base, because they didn’t have another place to hold a large, potentially unruly and hostile military force. They hadn’t yet concluded negotiations to use UNEF to garrison Paradise, and-”
“That’s all ancient history, Skippy. Why do I care?”
“I’m getting to that part, numbskull. You know the White Wind brought kidnapped humans, of a wide variety of ethnicities and ages, to Camp Alpha for bioweapons research. That base was on the other side of the planet, that’s why UNEF never saw it. The reason the research was conducted there was, the White Wind planned to use the bioweapon if UNEF got out of control.”
“Why? We were all gung-ho idiots back then. We thought the lizards were our glorious allies.” We did think that, and, you know what? I kind of miss those blissfully ignorant days, when life was so much simpler, and I didn’t have so much responsibility.
“Yes, but if somehow you learned the truth, that you went offworld to fight on the wrong side of the war, things could have gone sideways in a hurry. The White Wind were operating on a shoestring budget, they couldn’t afford any complications. Anyways, the reason you care is, you care about the humans who were kidnapped off Earth.”
I gave him the side-eye. “I do care. But you told me all those people were killed in the research, or afterward.”
“They were. All the humans used for experiments on Camp Alpha are dead. However, the White Wind did not bring all the kidnapped humans to Camp Alpha. About five hundred of them were brought to a planet called Rahkarsh Diweln, to be used as a control group. And as reserves.”
“Shit. You mean-”
“Yes, Joe. In the databanks of the
relay station I just ransacked, I learned there are one hundred and eighty two humans still alive on Rahkarsh Diweln.”
“Damn it!”
“If you don’t like hearing that, you really won’t like knowing that one hundred and thirty four of those humans are under the age of ten.”
“What?”
“Hey, I didn’t kidnap those children.”
“Sorry. I don’t want to sound callous, but, how are they still alive? The White Wind clan is gone, right?”
“Correct. Their assets were absorbed by the Fire Dragon clan, who took everything they considered useful. That mostly means military assets to support the civil war we started. The Fire Dragons have pretty much left everything else alone for now, except for trading or selling assets that other clans want. No one wants Rahkarsh Diweln, so that planet is on the sidelines until the civil war is over.”
“Yeah, great. That’s not my question. The White Wind, or whoever is running Rahk-” The name Rah-care-esh Dee-wall-n was too long, I needed to think of a nickname for the place. Humans were being held as prisoners there, so- “Let’s call this planet ‘Rikers’, Ok?”
He cocked his head, puzzled. “Riker’s? For the Star Trek character?”
“No. For the prison in New York.”
“Ah. I get it. The humans being held there are prisoners of war.”
“The lizards running the place now, they are continuing to feed the humans there?”
“You make it sound like you don’t like that?” He was surprised.
“I do like it, I’m just surprised, that’s all. Oof. Listen, I’m trying to understand the situation. I can’t imagine the lizards are feeding an isolated group of humans out of the kindness of their hateful lizard hearts.”
“Oh. I get the question now. They are mostly not feeding them, Joe. The biosphere of Rikers is somewhat compatible with human life. The humans are mostly feeding themselves. They are growing Earth crops, or they learned the hard way which plants and animals on Rikers can safely be eaten.”
Valkyrie (Expeditionary Force Book 9) Page 38
