Ller did as ordered and as the count reached zero Trevis released the plate and let it fly. Three gravities of acceleration threatened to pull Trevis from his maglocked feet. The crew wasn’t so lucky, and with the acceleration absorbers failing they flew towards the forward bulkhead. It also proved to accelerate the plate towards the Command and Control Center’s dazed defenders.
Trevis didn’t mind the perverse smile that crossed his lips as the plate sliced through the defenders. It cleaved two Terrans in twain, a Pharad gave up his bone mane, revealing his pulsing brain within. And the final defender, an Encon, was left staring down at the nubs of his triple jointed arms with blood-spattered, twin-pupiled eyes. The plate pierced the bulkhead beyond crushing two more soldiers against it. The way cleared, Trevis unlatched his boots and ran for the hatch.
Before he could reach it Porc rushed past, blood smearing his quills and remaining armor. The door burst open and more defenders rushed out. The horror in their eyes could fill volumes as Porc extended his hand claws and attacked. He was feral, in a full berserker rage, tearing ferociously into the men. The rest of them could only fire at the bodies he threw clear. Blue, green, and red blood splattered across the walls as the defenders fell back, clutching at their spilled entrails. Porc was through the hatch in moments, Nash right behind him, Trevis and Telsh on their heels.
The crew inside the blue lit room put up no fight. Their hands were already in the air. After over a tridec on the run in a dying ship, they had no fight left in them. Trevis almost pitied them as every eye stared at Porc in his shirtless seething rage. He just stood there, panting heavily in the smoky air, looking for an excuse to fillet them.
Trevis scanned the room, motioned Nash towards the security console and Telsh towards the makeshift helm. He spied the most senior officer, a Lieutenant Commander, by the bars on his shoulder and approached. “Be surrendering this ship and no one else need be dying.”
Shaking so hard Trevis feared he might go out of phase, the man nodded.
Trevis turned towards the rest of the crew and motioned towards the back of the room. “Slowly, be moving towards the rear. Else Porc here be wetting his claws again.” Porc snarled in response as the crew abandoned their stations.
Trevis kept his eyes on the crew as Porc approached and produced binders to secure them. Almost as if on cue, a green mist appeared near the vent for a moment before disappearing.
UCSB Date: 1005.241
Reluctant Favor, Drobile System
It had been a good and profitable run, and the cargo they were carrying back to the Wolfsbane would prove even more so. Even so, Alieha could read the displeasure on Medlick’s face as he aligned their slipstream drive for the rendezvous with the Wolfsbane. “What’s the matter? Do you not want to be back in Drobile?”
Medlick shook his head and threw a thumb back towards the cargo bay. It was packed with a team of engineers from Rokmas Dynamics, a manufacturer of aircraft engines, and crates full of the equipment they’d need. “You know I can’t stand carrying passengers. They whine, complain, want service, air. If I wanted to fly a passenger liner, I’d have taken that job with Trans-System Spaceline.”
Alieha shook her head. It was true that they didn’t often carry passengers, and even when they did, it was typically just a small number hitching a ride somewhere on the cheap. Passengers were a low earner and required accommodations that the Favor didn’t typically feature. In this case, that included extra seats. She’d cheaped out on getting an extra lavatory after the incident last annura when one had broken loose in the cargo hold. The cleaning and repair bill was more than the transport fee for the passengers. Thanks to that, their passengers this trip had been readily cycling through the crew lav. Medlick didn’t care for how they disrupted his own usage schedule. How he regulated his bowels so effectively Alieha could never understand. “Do I have to remind you that this particular group is basically paying your salary for the annura?”
Medlick shook his head. “No ma’am. Is your boyfriend planning anything for after we land?”
Alieha smiled and snatched her macomm out of the air. “He is in fact.” She opened the device and pulled up her personal clothes inventory. It wasn’t a long list. Alieha was always on the move and didn’t put much stock into things that didn’t serve a purpose. Her fashion proved that: jump suits, basic underwear, a couple sets of casual wear. She stared at the list. Something was missing, she knew she still had the dress from the ball one of her clients had thrown two annura earlier.
Under most circumstances she would have just rented or borrowed an outfit from a fab shop. Nanofabricators would make a custom dress for her and once she’d returned it, break it down again. There was no reason, in her mind, to keep it longer. But this dress was special, a hand-stitched garment custom tailored for her by a master dressmaker. Her client had had a particular theme in mind for the ball and had commissioned the dress for her. It was a work of art, and for Arion, she would happily wear it again.
“Where’s that dress Tengu had made for me?”
Medlick scratched at his ear in thought. “I thought you sold that to Sidlee Sardenon?”
Alieha slammed her head back into her seat in frustration. “That’s right. Bugger me sideways. She totally fell in love with it. Can’t say as I blame her, though - she looked stunning in it.”
“So, did you, boss,” Medlick winked.
“Do that again and I’ll pluck that eye out and feed it to you,” she laughed. Medlick had zero interest in her in that way, of that she was certain. But she had to keep up appearances, especially with passengers aboard. “Okay, I know where it is then. I’ll just ask to borrow it back.” Alieha unstrapped and pushed herself out of her seat. “I’m going to check on our passengers, then do my hair. Let me know when we’ve dropped out of slipstream and ready to land.”
“Yes ma’am,” Medlick replied with a mock salute.
Alieha just shook it off as she floated out of the hatch. Whatever his quirks, Medlick was an amazing pilot and she was lucky to have him.
Captain Sardenon’s Office, UCSBS-Wolfsbane
At his rank, Captain Sardenon had few others aboard that he could confide in as equals without someone harboring a fear of reprisal. That was why he was glad he got along with the Marine Commandant despite some of his more distasteful habits. “So, Savis, what’s the latest from your marines aboard the Powell?”
Commandant Dane pulled up the brown-stained cup he’d been swirling with his left hand and spat a thick glob of brown fluid into. “Well,” he began in a thick drawl that even after all these annura Captain Sardenon couldn’t place. “Them Explosions of yours been showing my troops a good example. They done cleared the ship of prisoners and’re now prepping it for refit. It’s a sorry shape though ‘ccording ta the Major on site.”
Captain Sardenon flicked his nose and took a draft of his sweet tea. “And it wasn’t the Explosions’ fault this time?”
Savis snorted and spat into
his left cup again before taking a swig from his right cup. “Them Tomeris do like to make a mess, ‘ccording to the reports. Not that my grunts done reported any done by them yet, ‘cept a few busted hatches and such.”
“We can’t necessarily blame them for that, for once.”
Both men laughed as the door chimed. Captain Sardenon waved Savis down then tapped a key on his desk. “Enter!”
The door slid away to reveal Alieha and two other men. The one, dressed in a slightly frumpy suit, he recognized from the dossier she’d sent him. By the orange coveralls of the other, one of the technicians who’d accompanied him. Alieha was a contradiction made manifest, dressed in her typical flight coveralls, but from the neck up, she could have been on her way to a ball. It elicited a pleased hum from Savis. Both men had to admire how she could make even a flight suit glamorous.
Alieha stepped up and extended a hand to the Captain, nodded to the Commandant. He stood and accepted the hand, felt the data chit she’d concealed. “Captain Sardenon, as requested, the foremost PDE Engineer no one’s ever heard of,” Alieha began. “Dorik Sprewg-Rokmas of Rokmas Dynamics.”
“What’d you do, marry the president’s daughter?” Savis asked and spit into his left cup.
The technician suppressed a smile as the young engineer’s face flushed. “Ahem, well, actually his granddaughter. But I earned my place on my own.”
Captain Sardenon waved the Commandant down and slipped the data chit up his sleeve as Alieha stepped aside. He then extended his hand to the young man. “Do excuse the Commandant. Political niceties tend to be left out of Marine command instruction.”
Savis spat into his cup again and sat it down on the table between he and Alieha. “No offense intended young man, but Confed made sure I could get my marines to kill Geffers, not make ‘em feel good ‘bout themselves.”
“It’s fine, sir. Captain, my crew and I are at your disposal. We’ve brought our most advanced prototype and several developmental engines we’ve been working on. I understand that you’ve captured a functional Galactic Federation unit?”
The Captain nodded and looked up at the technician. “He has clearance?”
“Yes sir. My whole crew does. In our business, corporate espionage is no joke.”
The Captain eyed Alieha, she nodded. “Good and to answer your question, yes, the engine is mostly intact.”
Dorik had the look of a kid who’d been promised a new toy. “Did they? Did they tie it into their slipstream drive?”
The Captain shot a look to Alieha and the Commandant. They both just shrugged. “Yes, they had their slipstream drive tuned to low power to lower their effective mass in order to make the drive effective. That’s our going hypothesis at least.”
Dorik couldn’t contain his excitement and laughed before elbowing his technician. “I knew that data breach last annura had to be them.” He turned to the Captain. “We proposed a similar idea two annura ago. But, if what you’re saying is true, they’re taking the brute force approach. It’ll never work for anything more than straight running. See, we have another idea that ties into a slipstream drive to accelerate the ducted reaction mass…”
Dorik gasped as his technician elbowed him. “Dorik not everyone here has been read in.” He eyed Alieha.
He nodded and turned back to the Captain. “I can explain the specifics later, sir. With your permission, we’ll get set up in your engine shop.”
The Captain nodded and tapped a page key. “Security will see you there and give you badges that will allow you into your approved areas. For your own safety, please don’t go into any unauthorized spaces.”
The hatch opened to reveal two security guards. “Thank you, Captain,” Dorik replied. “I think you’ll be quite impressed with what we’ve been working on.”
“I look forward to it. I’ve arranged for a briefing in the command conference room for next cycle.”
With that, Dorik and the technician took their leave and followed the guards out. Dorik looked and smelt uncomfortable around the armed escort. With the pair gone, the Captain turned his attention to Alieha. He pulled the data chit from his sleeve and held it up. “What do you have for us?”
Alieha was as nonchalant as ever and brushed a stray hair from her shoulder before she responded. “Information - I inquired with a few of my usual sources, and they’d already heard you were on the hunt for the Satan and the Phantom.”
“What do they have for us?”
“Short form, the two of them are together, the Phantom has vacated the system.”
That news made the hairs of the Captain’s mane bristle beneath his tunic. “But how? We’ve already proven that the flight recorder was altered. And even if it wasn’t there’s no way they could have slipped past to any jump point in this system undetected?”
“I don’t know the specifics,” she replied and pulled a second data chit out. “For that you’ll need Kembit’s cypher.”
“How much that gonna cost us?” Savis asked.
“Not much, full refit and quarters while that’s being done.”
The Captain pondered that. Kembit was one of the top information brokers out there. The intelligence he’d purchased before had been more than worth the cost, and was always better than what the intel services would provide. Alieha’s price was a steal if it would provide him the tools he needed to defeat his enemy. “Sold. I’ll take it out of Intel’s budget.”
“Good thinking,” Savis added. “What about you little lady, you off to a shindig?”
Alieha smiled down at Savis. “I have plans. That are none of your concern,” she replied and tossed the Captain the data chit. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to see your daughter about a dress.” She headed to the door, but stopped short, and turned back. “One last thing. And this one is free, from Wight.”
The name alone gave the Captain a chill. Wight was a notorious information broker, the kind few wanted to deal with, but everyone did, on both sides. Wight could produce results and there was a saying. ‘The only secrets, are those that Wight keeps.’ He looked at the two data chits. “You met with one of Wight’s agents? That was an unnecessary risk.”
She shook her head. “No, Wight reached out to me, directly.” A shiver ran through her. “Which I found odd enough, then to offer free intel. It left me spooked.”
“Wight offers ‘nuthin for free miss,” Savis commented and reached for his cup. “Sooner or later, there’ll be a price.”
“Normally I’d agree, but Wight is apparently none too happy about the Geffers having a hyperspace predictive system.”
The Captain leaned forward. “Wight knows how they’re doing it?”
Alieha shook her head as Savis spat into the white cup in his left hand. “No, and that has Wight upset. All the message told me is that the Geffers had started their uncanny jumps after taking Garov 27652. And now that system is buttoned-up tight. Confed might want to take a look.”
“Thank you Alieha. I’ll pass that along.”
As Alieha made her way to the door Savis picked up a brown-stained cup from his right side and took a drink. He gagged on the contents, a smile on Alieha’s face before the door slid shut. “Damn it! That woman!” Savis choked. “I told her not to do that again!”
“And she told you not to use that vile stuff around her again.”
PQ-621
“So how is Genti?” Alieha asked from Sidlee’s room as she began to put on the dress.
In the common room, shared with another civilian crewmember and embarked guests, which included Alieha and Medlick at the moment, Sidlee cut fresh vegetables from the garden for her dinner. “As much of a pain as ever. Apparently, he met up with a bunch of other Lycan Self-Haters at his college. He was arrested a couple decles ago for torching a police cruiser during an anti-war protest.”
Alieha shook her head. “Nothing says ‘let’s sue for peace’ like acts of violence.” She squeezed the dress past her hips. I don’t remember it being that tight. Did I put on
weight? “Your father must be so proud,” she said more sarcastically.
“I haven’t told him, yet. Genti called me and I had Uncle Sarin bail him out. Dad has enough on his back.”
Alieha understood. Daro rarely communicated with his brother in law, and the antics of his son would distract him too much. After slipping her arms into the sleeves of the dress she pressed the cuff. The back of the dress began to close but hung up. She tapped the stud again, nothing. She squeezed the stud and the back sealed shut so fast it knocked the air out of her lungs. She gasped for breath and could barely pull in half a gulp of air. She caught a glimpse of her reflection out of the corner of her eye. “Oh my god! I’m exploding out of this thing!”
A knife clattered in the kitchen before Sidlee burst into the tiny room. “Oh no. I forgot; I had the dress altered.”
Still sipping air, Alieha looked at her slighter-built friend. Though Alieha was by no means overweight, she didn’t have the CMU bouncing body that Sidlee did. Sidlee was as lithe as a dancer, her small breasts allowing her to disguise herself as a male from time to time. Alieha’s curves and more generous bosom would never permit that. “No kidding. What are we going to do? If I draw a full breath I’ll explode out of this thing.”
“I’ve got this,” Sidlee replied and pulled open a small pocket under Alieha’s right arm. She couldn’t tell what the girl was doing, but her breathing eased a little before she did the same on the other side. “The wonders of metamaterial.”
Alieha pulled in her first good lungful of air and relaxed, but she didn’t even need to take a glance down to reveal that the front of the dress had been left unaffected. “Okay, it still looks like my girls are trying to escape. What do we do about that?”
Sidlee stepped back, then ran her thumbs beneath each breast. The cups holding them in place eased, but not more than half a size. Sidlee tried to smile but it came out flat. “I’m so sorry Alieha, that’s the best I can do.”
Hell's Razer Page 27
