Unsanctioned Reprisal

by Eddie R. Hicks

  Odelea was up bright and early as usual, performing a number of systems checks at the communication station. Aryile evolving on a planet that had nineteen-hour-long days meant shorter sleep cycles for them.

  “Odelea,” Foster called out to her. “Are you able to open a channel to Sergeant Boyd? I can’t reach him with my wrist terminal.”

  Odelea nodded, waving away two holo screens while bringing up the primary communication one. “Johannes Kepler to Boyd, please come in.”

  As Foster feared, there was no reply. Odelea repeated, trying all channels, nothing. Without access to UNE military HNI, there was no way to check his vitals. Boyd was either dead or ignoring them. Traveling to the site Chang dropped him off at was risky at best. The transport Chang took was small and agile enough to avoid detection while flying close to the surface, the Kepler? Not so much.

  And what if he ain’t even there when we arrive? We can’t hang out and search, the Hashmedai will know something is up.

  “Have you tried speaking with Maxwell and LeBoeuf?” Odelea offered. “Perhaps their HNIs can locate him.”

  “Can’t find or reach ‘em either, Chevallier’s looking for ‘em,” Foster said. “But since you’re here, you wanna see if you can reach either of the two?”

  “Of course, Captain, one moment.”

  Odelea went to work. There was no response at first, when Odelea pinged them a fifth time, exhausted grunts played on the speakers. It sounded like a man’s voice.

  “Maxwell? Is that you?” Foster asked.

  Maxwell’s projection flashed on. He was a naked drunken mess sitting on a bed with two Hashmedai women whose clothing was hanging off the edge of the bed. “My . . . fuckin’ head.”

  Odelea put her hands to her face, turning away from the projection, flushing. Foster bit her lip.

  “Hey, Maxwell, could you just tilt the camera up a bit?” she said.

  “Huh? Why?” He looked down at his nude and powerfully built body enhanced with cybernetics. “Oh, fuck, sorry.” The projection focused on his face. Foster gave Odelea the heads-up she could face the station again.

  “Maxwell, can you locate Boyd?”

  “Uh, yeah HNI is a bit of a mess right now,” he said. “Excessive drinking will do that.”

  “Can you locate LeBoeuf then?”

  “LeBoeuf drank me under the table last night then walked off with two dudes. I doubt she’ll be of any help right now. Give us like a few minutes, ‘n’ stuff, should be good then.”

  The projection showed Maxwell crashing back onto the bed. A number of blue hands began to caress his body up and down from both sides, before the link was terminated.

  Foster kicked the station, Odelea didn’t see it coming. “Just once I want to go on a mission and not have crew go missing or get separated!” Foster yelled. “Is that too much to ask?!”

  The bridge intercom beeped. Foster took it, hoping it was Boyd slithering back from wherever the hell he went. It wasn’t.

  “Hey, Cap’n, Saressea here,” her voice said. “Got the new vortex key set up, so we’re good to go down here. Just say the word and I should be able to have this bad boy fired up for you to do your tattoo melding thing.”

  “Understood, thank you, Saressea.”

  The Johannes Kepler’s bridge crew arrived two hours later to resume their duties. Chang had an extra-large steaming mug of coffee in his hands. Boyd ordering him out of bed must have really messed up his sleep.

  Foster sat at her captain’s chair after reviewing Saressea’s report about the new vortex key via holo screens. “EVE, pester Maxwell and LeBoeuf repeatedly until they get their asses up.”

  “Understood, Captain,” EVE said.

  “Boyd has until they get back,” Foster said. “After that, we’s gotta go.”

  “Just like that?” Chang asked.

  “Phylarlie held up her end of the bargain, we kinda didn’t, thanks to Boyd,” Foster said. “If we go after him now it’s just gonna raise a bunch of red flags, and maybe get us shot down. As far as she’s concerned, he’s passed out drunk somewhere in the manor, let’s let her continue to think that. We have a galaxy to save.”

  “Strange, Captain,” EVE said. “I find it odd that Phylarlie was able to deliver our requested items at this time.”

  “How so?”

  “While you slept, Sergeant Boyd had briefly awakened me from sleep mode, during which I was briefly re-synced with the Johannes Kepler and received sensor data in regard to the transport that was expected to deliver the substance to us.”

  “Yeah, it was en route to us from another planet in the system.”

  “It landed at the coordinates the transport Flight Lieutenant Chang delivered Sergeant Boyd to,” EVE said. “It remained there for a number of hours; Boyd did seem concerned about that.”

  Foster’s lips twisted. “Has anything left that region, EVE?”

  “The last ship seen entering and exiting that region, was the transport Flight Lieutenant Chang piloted,” EVE said. “The Hashmedai ship that landed has not left.”

  “That we know of,” Chang added. “Remember I flew close to the surface to avoid detection, maybe they did the same?”

  “It is possible, Flight Lieutenant,” EVE said. “However, it is unlikely the Hashmedai would do such a thing on a world they control.”

  “Unless someone had something to hide from the rest of their people,” Williams said giving his two cents. “It would explain the detour.”

  “Maybe Boyd running off ain’t that bad of a thing,” Foster said. “All of us havin’ to stay the night and not leave, even for a short while, did seem odd. Maybe he figured something out.”

  “In that case, better to leave him to do his thing,” Chang said. “He’s EDF, and one of the first to enter that program. They’re trained for operations and long-term survival on alien worlds.”

  “Captain,” EVE called out to her. “I have reached both Maxwell and LeBoeuf and Chevallier. I have done as you requested and instructed them to bring their ‘asses back.’ However, the manor guards are delaying them with questions.”

  “These delays are a little suspect don’t you think, Becca?” Williams said to Foster.

  “Yep, they are,” she said. “To hell with it, Chang, prepare for takeoff.”

  “Aye, Captain.”

  “EVE, instruct Chevallier and her team to stay put a while longer,” Foster said. “And let the Hashmedai know that we’s gonna go on a bit of a test run, and to not be alarmed if they detect the vortex to the maelstrom opening.”

  43 Peiun

  Rezeki’s Rage

  Morutrin Prime Orbit, Morutrin system

  October 16, 2118, 07:48 SST (Sol Standard Time)

  The doctors aboard the Rezeki’s Rage cleared Peiun to return to duty. He wished they hadn’t worked so fast to mend his injuries. He was enjoying the rest he got while lying on the medical bed. Chloe, Sarah, Pierce, and Penelope had all been brought aboard, now the EISS threat on the surface had been eliminated. With the exception of Durendal of course, he was brought onboard as a prisoner of war.

  Peiun went to check on the recovery of Sarah, who was being treated by the one doctor aboard that was versed in human anatomy. Apart from her inability to walk, she was expected to make a recovery. The sooner she returned to the humans, the sooner they could repair her spine and make her walk again.

  But first thing was recovering Alesyna from the Terran loyal EISS agents operating elsewhere in the system. That meant leaving the safety of Morutrin inner worlds, on a voyage to the edge of the system, without a shipboard psionic, unless Chloe was up to the task of working as one. It was doubtful though, as she seemed uncomfortable speaking about her powers. There was much more to her abilities than she wanted them to know. Why else would her sister, and a member of her team, be left out? Chloe was to Sarah, as what Alesyna was to Peiun, a psionic that’s important to them, who refuses to tell the truth about their objectives.

  On the bridge, the crew tu
rned and clenched their fist to deliver Peiun the most impressive Imperial salute he’d ever seen. He’d returned the salute if his arms weren’t in such pain. After ordering the crew to break orbit and travel to the location Durendal told them where to make the exchange, he stepped next to a computer workstation where Penelope, Pierce, and Chloe stood. Pierce, like his previous visit to the ship, failed to dress warmly.

  The data on the computer displayed the intel gathered by Penelope and Pierce, combined with what Peiun, Chloe, and Sarah had discovered. He sighed when a three-dimensional hologram of the space bridge allegedly in the Morutrin system appeared.

  “This isn’t Imperial territory,” Pierce asked. “Why is there a space bridge in this system?”

  “Many years ago, before humans traveled to the stars, we attempted to claim this system,” Peiun explained. “At the time, the old Linl republic had control. The war that resulted caused most members of their species to join Radiance. Long story short, we failed in controlling the system, as did Radiance, not all Linl that lived here wanted to be part of the Union.”

  “A space bridge would be necessary to send Imperial ships out of the system during those times,” Chloe said.

  “We left it secretly operational since there were many trade opportunities here in the years following the fighting,” Peiun said. “But with the advent of the wormhole network it was rendered redundant for this system and decommissioned.”

  “See, that’s the part I don’t get,” Chloe said. “The space bridge is the Empires’ most prized achievement for interstellar travel. I thought you guys programmed them to auto-destruct to prevent anyone from learning how they work?”

  “We do, and this one was no exception, it was thought to be destroyed beyond recognition.”

  “Beyond recognition?”

  “You humans didn’t want us constructing MRF, and we didn’t want you or Radiance learning how space bridges work. But it would seem this particular space bridge was never destroyed just hidden and moved to a new location, probably by the mercenaries that knew its location.”

  “In comes Moriston ordering us to attack the Fortune Runner and use it to sneak into the mercenary’s base,” Chloe said. “He was using us to find the location of the space bridge, and then made it look like pirates had attacked the mercenaries to start a war between the two groups.” Chloe said.

  “Smart,” Pierce commented. “A conflict like that would deter most people from investigating the mercenary base and discovering it was a Terran attack funded by EISS.”

  “And now the Terrans know where the space bridge is and are bringing it back online,” Penelope said.

  Peiun went to cross his arms. Pain prevented that happening. “But, for what purpose?”

  The view screen illuminated the backs of the five peering over the holo screen. The Morutrin wormhole was in the distance, and underwent a strange shift, almost as if it was powered down then restarted. When the shift had completed, a number of UNE warships exited the wormhole into the Morutrin system and wasted very little time flashing out of sight with multiple FTL jumps.

  “I guess that has something to do with it . . .” Pierce said, having watched the act take place.

  “Chloe, was this part of their plan too?” Peiun asked.

  “No, I haven’t the slightest clue what those are doing here . . .” she grimaced. “Durendal might know.”

  “If Durendal is anything like the Terran Sarah and I encountered, I would need to remove his HNI by force.”

  “That would probably kill him and make this trade a no-go.”

  “Indeed.”

  “So, what do we do then?” Pierce asked. “Because it looks like those ships are heading in the same direction this secret space bridge is.”

  While sensor scans were out of date, Pierce’s assumptions might have been correct. The UNE fleet that entered the system pointed their ships in the same direction the Rezeki’s Rage was in. There was a good chance the two would meet up at the same target. There was a good chance they were flying into an ambush.

  “Get the memory recorder?” Pierce suggested. “It worked well with Foster the last time we used it.”

  “The Terran, Cody, said they were trained to resist those as well,” Peiun said.

  “He’s not wrong about that, the latest military grade HNI we use has built-in functions that can randomly scramble Imperial memory recorders,” Chloe said.”

  “So, I say again,” Pierce reiterated. “What do we do?”

  “I got an idea,” Penelope offered. “But if it’s going to work, we need to act now.”

  The voyage from Morutrin Prime to the edge of the Morutrin system took almost the entire day at sub light speeds. It only added to Peiun’s worries as the Rezeki’s Rage decelerated to make its approach to the space bridge, now surrounded by an entire UNE battle group, most likely loyal to the Terran Legion.

  None of the ships fired upon the Rezeki’s Rage, meaning whatever ambush they had in store was going to take place onboard the space bridge. Their plan was likely well thought out and ready to spring to action since the fleet arrived before they did. And the EISS agents? They were probably in the space bridge before Peiun met Sarah.

  “That’s . . . a lot of ships,” Pierce commented as the fleet surrounding the space bridge came into view on the screen.

  “Take us in slowly,” Peiun said in his language to Nadevina. “Let’s not goad them into a fight; they can obliterate us with little to no effort with those numbers.”

  Nadevina followed the orders of her captain. She sent the Rezeki’s Rage into the cluster of UNE warships at a slow rate with its weapons powered down, showing that they weren’t interested in a fight.

  “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say they’re planning on using it,” Pierce said.

  “Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Chloe spat.

  “They don’t have a command ship though,” Pierce said. “You can’t send that many through at once.”

  Doctor Pierce was correct. Imperial command ships were a major part of the Imperial fleet. They were large enough to have an entire fleet dock within it before using the space bridge. This way it was just the one ship that needed to be teleported, rather than individual ones. A single space bridge jump forced the psionic crew into exhaustion. Back-to-back jumps weren’t possible unless they were smaller ships. Back-to-back jumps with capital ships, a fleet’s worth at that, could take months.

  If the Terrans were planning to teleport the fleet before them, Peiun had no idea how they intended to do it within a reasonable amount of time. Every pirate, raider, salvager ship, as with all patrol ships from the UNE, Empire, and Radiance should have been alerted to the unexpected presence of the Terran fleet, flying under the UNE flag in a region of space that was thought to be empty.

  Case in point, Peiun’s HNI beamed a tactical grid over his eyes. It showed a number of scout ships from the Empire and Radiance had altered course to investigate. With no psionic onboard capable of telepathy, they had no means of reaching any ship via standard communication equipment in a reasonable amount of time. Time being something they didn’t have enough of, the prisoner-exchange deal had an expiry date.

  “How much time do we have left?”

  “Twenty minutes, Captain,” Uemsu reported.

  “I’m going to assume that’s their planned departure time.”

  “If that’s their plan,” Uemsu said. “Maybe they don’t intend to send the fleet through, but something else.”

  What that something else could be was something Peiun didn’t have time to ponder. They had less than twenty minutes to make the exchange and were still on the bridge while Durendal was locked in the brig. Uemsu was once again left in command as Peiun made his way to a transport, with Chloe, Pierce, and Penelope accompanying him with Durendal and his chained body in tow.

  Once the transport had left the Rezeki’s Rage and soared past a number of Earth-built ships, ten minutes had passed. The nearest Radiance and Imperial ship
s were still one and three hours out, respectively.

  “Don’t be surprised if we’re moving into a trap or double cross,” Peiun said, as the space bridge’s size grew large enough on the windshields to blackout the view of space.

  “I’ll support you the best I can,” Penelope said. “But remember, I can’t mass hack everyone, now I’ve been removed from the EISS network. If there’s five wankers giving you a hard time, you’ll have to hold your ground until I can get to them.”

  The side windows of the transport had a number of Terran loyal UNE ships idling in their formation around the space bridge. The transport flew close enough to cast its shadow across the silver and shiny metallic hull and see some of the ship’s crew meander about via their windows.

  The close flyby and the talk of Penelope’s hacking abilities gave him an idea.

  “Penelope, does your technical expertise cover QEC?” he asked her.

  “If it transmits or processes computer signals, and the security isn’t a pain in the arse, I can do anything to it.”

  “We have two operating QECs aboard my ship,” Peiun said. “However, they are both linked with each other. I’d like to have that changed.”

  “And you want one of them to link to the UNE QEC network?”

  “Is that possible?”

  “No, it isn’t,” she said grimly. “Every QEC that relays signals to the network is uniquely connected to the QEC of a ship. You would first need to cut the link between a relay QEC and a ship. Then reroute the link between the relay QEC back to one of the two on the Rezeki’s Rage.”

  “I think we can do just that, Penelope,” Chloe said. “None of these ships are connected to the network.”

  “How do you know?”