The Deadliest of Intentions

by Marc Stevens

  “Tell them it is well-documented: the only Chaalt emissary allowed to enter Alpha Base is the Principal Investigator.”

  “Message relayed, Commander. DEHD core matrix charged and ready for transition on your order.”

  Sael looked up at me with a small smile on her face. It quickly vanished because there was the possibility her counterparts might have orders to start shooting.

  “Commander, they are now demanding we turn Sael Nalen over to them and have brought their shields online.”

  That got a rise out of the beast in me, but I pushed it back to its hiding place. Sael must have sensed the change in my aura and did the unexpected: she grasped my other arm.

  “Nathan, I will turn myself over to them rather than have you shed Chaalt blood!”

  Having my favorite Chaalt warrior on one arm and another that I have felt the need to strangle on a number of occasions was conflicting the hell out of me.

  “Justice, how close to their coordinates can we jump without hitting them?”

  “They have cut their drives, and I have a destination transition plotted. We can get close, Commander.”

  “Okay, Justice, jump when I give the word, then I want you to make a hard turn and go full stealth.”

  “Affirmative, Commander. Vectors locked and coordinates verified!”

  “Relay my comms please.”

  “Alpha Base comm channel open and ready to broadcast.”

  “You Throggs must be pleasuring yourselves with stim sticks. It should be more than obvious the Fury is not at this location. Clear my orbitals now, or I will pay you a visit so we can discuss the matter face to face!”

  I wondered if I would get a response. Justice alerted me that my statement must have caused more than a little excitement.

  “Commander, I am detecting a spike in the encrypted IST traffic between the Chaalt vessels. I have now identified an out-system IST data stream. I speculate you have sown confusion as to whether or not the Senior Operative is indeed at our location.”

  “Let’s stir the pot a little more. Jump now, Justice!”

  The familiar silence and whiting out of normal space-time usually brought a grin to my face upon return. The use of the magic-like tech gave me a rush of excitement that would make it difficult to hide the emotional display. This transition was an exception. Everyone on the bridge physically ducked when the view dome came back online with the three massive Chaalt warships filling its totality. My sphincter started sending some very mixed signals as to its reliability in holding back the riot that had suddenly gathered in the lower half of my body.

  A shudder rumbled throughout the Legacy as our warp bubble shouldered aside the ships that were more than twice our size. Their shields flared brightly in protest of our proximity. Justice cloaked and went full stealth as we made a crazy hard turn leaving the reeling monstrosities in our wake.

  “Justice, I said close, not ram them!”

  “Commander, all three ships have got underway and appear to be preparing to jump out of our star system.”

  Sael stared at me in disbelief. She looked like a bunch of unpleasant things were about to spew out of her mouth, and I was in no mood for it. I gritted my teeth and stuck a finger in her face.

  “Not a single word, Sael!”

  To her credit, she bit down on the comments she was on the verge of making. She instead stomped over to Coonts’s unoccupied console and sat down with her back to me.

  “Commander, the Chaalt warships have transitioned, and I have no anomalous contacts to report.”

  “Take us back to base, Justice.”

  “ETA two minutes.”

  Tria was still a little wide-eyed but gave me a nod of her head to let me know she was okay with the outcome. To tell the truth, now that my heart rate was back to normal (as well as my intestinal fortitude), I could also live with what had just transpired. The message to the Chaalt council should be loud and clear: don’t come pissing on my turf and expect me to be good with it. I decided I was going to find out how they feel about me defecating in their backyard.

  “Justice, I want Sael’s shuttle offloaded as soon as we land. I want Eagle One and our Daggers ready to go in as soon as their weapons magazines are reloaded. Prep everything for the research facility breach scenario. Mission is now a go. Sael, you need to give Justice detailed coordinates on the base’s location. We need to get as close as possible so your people will have very little time to react to our intrusion.”

  “I will give you the information on one condition.”

  “And what might that be, Sael?”

  “I am going with you!”

  “That’s not possible. We have to use the Daggers to phase through the base’s shield. A shuttle would be shot to pieces long before we could recover from the insertion and figure out how to get the shield shut down. Now that your people seem to be turning on us, I’d rather leave the shield in place until we have saved your leadership council or abandoned the mission.”

  Sael’s face reddened as anger built up inside of her. I really didn’t have time for any of her scat. With the beast rattling the bars to its cage, the mood I was quickly getting into made me feel that my chances were better than average that I could beat the information out of Sael, in a matter of minutes.

  “Commander, our fifth Dagger is combat-ready,” Justice said, dashing my hopes of getting a little recreation in before we got down to business. “It would be a simple matter to install Tria’s backup cockpit module into it. Since I will be piloting the Daggers during the insertion, no input from the Operative will be required. While she might not be as attuned to our combat operations as engineer Coonts, she is still a viable asset. If she has knowledge on the zone of operations, it will further increase our odds of a successful mission outcome.”

  Sael and I were both speechless. We stared at each other for an awkward amount of time. Try as I might to downplay the idea, I still had the urge to pop her in the kisser for the crap we were unwittingly being dragged into. I couldn’t help but think she was directly responsible for the majority of it. If I would have heeded the Troop Master’s advice and fried the Hivemind, we would be off doing other things that were a lot healthier than tangling with the Prule. Apparently, the information lag finally caught up with her because she was now frowning.

  “What exactly did you mean by recover from the insertion?”

  “Justice has determined that the Dagger’s phase drives have to be operating at maximum. He also has to time the phase perfectly when we hit the shield, or our atoms will be scattered throughout your home worlds.”

  She was still frowning and then her eyes opened wide. “How are we going to keep from overshooting the target area?”

  With a big smile on my face, I just shrugged. “No problem. Justice said he can do a reverse phase stop.”

  “Is it possible to do such a thing?”

  “Yes, he has proven it is possible.”

  “How many times?”

  “Once. Well, technically, twice; the second time we were actually in the Daggers and only traveling at seventy-five percent of drive capacity.”

  “What was the result of the maneuver?” Sael whispered. I had to lean forward to catch what she said.

  “It was kind of like having Klutch fall on you from about forty feet, only worse. It is how Coonts ended up getting Oolaran weaponized. Justice accelerated his Dagger to sixty percent of maximum and refused to go higher. Coonts sustained several injuries during the stop. He insisted he undergo the Oolaran procedure when he finally awoke two days later. I relented to his demands only to have his Grawl anatomy reject the enhancements. He is slowly making progress but has been in an induced coma for more than a week.”

  Sael went back to Coonts’s station and sat down. She no longer had anything to say. Justice set us down in the base’s hangar and unloaded Sael’s shuttle. Sael went aboard, and I wondered what was going through her mind. I knew she would not back out, but we also did not see her while Justice l
oaded our Daggers and then Eagle One. All the members of my clan gathered outside of the Legacy. They were making a fair attempt at hiding their anxiety. The closer it got to go time, the more their looks of optimism changed to that of concern. Tria stood at my side, and we were ready to board. One by one, the gathering each touched our hands. Young Felix was the last and gave us a solemn nod.

  “Commander, Tria, I will be standing by ready to repair your battle damage when you return. Until then, the scientists and I will be researching the large missile they recovered from your salvage. It appears to be a complete weapon that was disassembled for study. Justice’s subsystem has confirmed its Oolaran origins. With the help of the scientists and engineers, I will have a manufacturing specification and design schematic in the very near future. We will need to gather additional materials, but I foresee no problems adding it to your offensive arsenal.”

  I smiled at the Zaen, thinking he was just trying to occupy my mind with something other than our mission. He touched our hands and stepped back with the gathered Grawl. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the hatch to Sael’s shuttle open. She stepped out wearing her heavy battle armor. The combat suit was adorned with a considerable amount of deadly looking hardware. She had a large long barreled rifle, two pistols, and an array of thrown devices, not to mention her swords.

  “Nice rifle, is that some kind of sniper weapon?”

  “It is a light anti-transport weapon, and no, you cannot have one!”

  She had her helmet in the down position, giving me a stern look. The tension in the air was palpable. Not wanting to start the mission on such a heavy note, I smiled and blew her a kiss. She shook her head and cringed.

  “Primate!”

  “Old witch!”

  Tria shoved me up the ramp. Smiling, I stopped at the hatch and took one last look at the members of my clan. Each held up an arm. I did the same, then took Tria by the hand and entered the Legacy. I was trying my best to leave any doubts I had about the mission outside the hatch. My mind was swirling with the low growls of the predator that would soon attempt to possess me. I’m sure it somehow resented the fact that it was no longer in complete control during combat. It was a battle of wills that I was starting to win.

  “Justice! We are ready to roll!”

  “Affirmative, Commander. The Senior Operative has transferred our destination coordinates from her shuttle’s nav computer. She is waiting in the cargo bay to speak with you before she boards Sierra Five.”

  “Roger that. Tria and I will be there after we armor up.”

  We headed to the ready room, and as I walked through the hatch, I heard it close behind me. We normally left it open. One glance over my shoulder explained why. Tria shed her uniform and gave me a look that I was quickly recognizing as a precursor to a shot of her Sha’Leen. My legs almost gave out, and she caught me in her arms. If I managed to get myself killed on the mission, I would have a damn good reason to die with a smile on my face.

  We made it to the cargo bay almost an hour later. Xul was standing at the hatch patiently waiting as if he had nothing better to do.

  “Commander, Justice and I have been going over many of the possible scenarios. We are as ready as we can be, considering how little data we have. The Senior Operative could only supply marginal details about the base’s layout. I suspect she has intentionally done so to ensure she has a place on the strike team. I could be wrong, but it may also be a way for her to assert her authority once you enter the facility.”

  “Tria and I have already discussed that issue. We can handle Sael as long as you and Justice can keep the Chaalt military off our backs.”

  “We have a contingency plan that has better-than-average odds of keeping the military council from attempting to destroy the complex while you are inside. I know you will do everything in your power to rescue the rightful rulers of the Chaalt people. If it comes down to your life or theirs, please remember you have chosen to stand for the good of all. Those held by the Prule have shown us they are allies of opportunity and would not burden themselves with such a task.”

  I had to give it to Xul: he didn’t beat around the bush when it came to formalities. He left no doubt about whose corner he was in. He touched both of our hands.

  “Our maker stands with us, Commander. I look forward to seeing you when you have completed your mission.”

  Tria and I entered the cargo bay and heard a heated discussion between Sael and Justice. Why they would choose to verbally spar before we started the mission was beyond me. Justice had all four Daggers in the cargo hold to lessen our launch detection. The first Dagger on this side of the cargo bay was Kilo Four. Klutch was sitting in the cockpit, and I was going to have a word with him before we launched. As I stepped up to the open canopy, the first thing I noticed was the portal device strapped onto the front of his armor. Justice must have decided it would not hinder the Tibor’s movement. I was more than a little skeptical as to his selection for the machine’s operator, but it was too late to change the evil robot’s strategy this close to launch. I could hear a familiar low croaking groan: the big lug was snoring. Rather than take the risk of startling him awake and suffering the consequences, we moved on to find out what Sael was bitching about. When she saw us coming, she turned her ire on Tria and me. She stalked toward us ranting something about Justice. She suddenly stopped her blustering and stood with a look of disbelief on her face. I guess the satisfaction we were radiating made our auras a billboard declaring our activities.

  “Are the two of you insane?” she shouted. “Could you not find something better to do with the short amount of time we might have left in our lives?”

  To my surprise, Tria let out a barking laugh and shouldered past Sael, but not before commenting, “You should try it sometime. It just might make you less of a Throgg!”

  I slapped my hand to my forehead. “Thanks, Tria!”

  She laughed again, throwing up two of her arms, and climbed into her Dagger. I turned back to the Senior Operative. Her face was a mask of rage, and her language some of the more colorful I had ever heard from her. I had been in a pretty good mood, but it was quickly souring. I was just going to turn my back on her and jump into my Dagger but thought better of it. I didn’t want to hear any scat from her if we actually lived through the insertion.

  “Sael, if you calm yourself and speak civilly, I will be more than happy to hear you out. If you continue to yell and curse, I will have Justice call your people, and we will jettison you out the air lock.”

  I was surprised that did the trick, because she shut up. Her eyes, on the other hand, gave away the fact she was trying to figure out a way to barbeque me.

  “We are ready to launch. What is bothering you so much that you feel the need to rain scat on what was the start of a wonderful day?”

  “That defective agent of the Oolaran has somehow hacked into my nav computer and stolen highly restricted data!” she hissed through clenched teeth.

  I almost laughed and let slip she had no idea how much Justice had already stolen but canned the idea.

  “Why would you think that, Sael?”

  “Have you gone over that machine’s plan to dissuade the traitors from killing us if we manage to breach the shield dome?”

  She had me there. I must have missed that briefing because I was trying my best not to lose another wrestling match with Tria that didn’t involve wearing uniforms. Reliving the experience made it hard to concentrate on the crap Sael was spewing at me. We needed to move on.

  “Justice, would you please enlighten me as to why the Senior Operative is having a meltdown?”

  “Our numerous contacts with Chaalt military spacecraft have divulged a wealth of information on their detection and scanning capabilities. I have made several calibrations to enhance our cloaking equipment based on those observations. The warships sent to collect the Senior Operative were forced to retreat because they were unable to track the Legacy and feared we might engage them. We were swept multiple
times at full military power in close proximity to the emitters. I am now convinced the Legacy is immune to detection from all current Chaalt scanning devices.”

  I was pretty sure that was for Sael’s benefit and not mine. I asked what I thought was a simple question and was not expecting a dissertation on the Legacy’s stealth capabilities. It did manage to render Sael speechless but not close her mouth, because it was now gaping.

  “That is not what I asked.”

  “Commander, I have changed the mission parameters to ensure the Chaalt council will think twice before attacking the research facility while we attempt rescue operations. Recently acquired data has convinced the Overseer and me that there is a more viable way to draw the Chaalt warships away from the area of operations.”