by Marc Stevens
“The rightful government of our people has been restored, and we are actively correcting the mistakes that have come to light. That is all I am at liberty to say. Is there another subject you would care to discuss that does not encroach on restricted security matters?”
“Yes, Sael, there is. I want all of the intel you have on Eiger. I want the location of his home world and the coordinates of his base of operations.”
“That is a question I have been wondering when you would get around to asking. I will be honest with you. Back when we were pursuing Eiger, I was ordered to withhold the information from you so you could concentrate on goals that mirrored our own. I found it distasteful then and still do. I am no longer restricted by the constraints that I was previously subjected to. The success of my collaborations with you have freed me of the meaningless scat rained upon me by certain command personnel. I am finally able to make certain decisions I feel necessary to improve our alliance. This will be one of them. I will send you the data packet but caution you on the repercussions of a less than sterile operation.
“The Murlak have thirty-seven home worlds and a well-established military,” she continued. “They have been to war on numerous occasions, and while their victories have been costly, they persevered in more than they have abandoned. An assassination on one of their home worlds by another race would be considered an act of war. Eiger is no doubt being shielded by the highest levels of his government. If you go into that scat hole, you need to make sure that there are no evidence or witnesses left behind that can point to you and your followers. You are currently an unknown, but your accomplishments are making waves throughout the galaxy. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you will remain anonymous forever.”
“Thank you, Sael. I will take everything you have told me under advisement. I give you my assurance we will call if we have information on the Fury.”
“Good hunting, Nathan.”
The IST channel closed, and Justice alerted me that he had received the intel transmission. A grim smile crossed my lips. I more or less knew where Tria would be and went to the makeshift training area that Justice set up for us in the back of the hangar. As was expected, she was there, working out with Klutch. They were both wearing their recon armor and using short batons as simulated weapons. The scent wafting around the back of the hangar implied Klutch was not on the winning end of their combat exercise. So much for the him helping out with the weapons retrofit. I suspected that none of the Grawl would want the Tibor within smelling distance, and all politely turned him away.
It was still too early for Tria to be on a combat mission, so I decided to withhold the Eiger intel for a later date. Another idea came to me, and it put a genuine smile on my face because it didn’t involve combat. Once the weapons were upgraded and ready to be tested, I would take everyone to Haras to celebrate our successful mission at the research facility. We were in need of another supply drop, and the excursion would help me check that off my to-do list.
“Justice, call Broza and alert him to our needs. Give him your best estimate on our time frame. Let me know if we need to adjust our schedule to coordinate our departure times.”
“Affirmative, Commander.”
I made a quick left turn into the ready room and put on my recon armor. I picked up two batons, twirled them a couple of times, and headed out the door. A free-for-all was in the making, and it would be everyone for themselves.
More than an hour later, the three of us sat on the deck, sweating and leaning against the hull. It would be a toss-up as to who bested who. I thought at one-point Tria and I would gang up on Klutch, only to have her stab me in the butt on more than one occasion. When I tried to turn the tables on her and team up with Klutch, the ungrateful Tibor did the same.
“Commander, Broza has responded to my call and will be available for our resupply,” Justice interrupted. “He will have our freighter at outpost 9765 in five days and will wait at that location until we have contacted him.”
I stepped away from Tria and Klutch, who decided to go a few more rounds.
“That will be perfect. Are there any updates on the Prule?”
“No, Commander. The live entity count is now nineteen. They have yet to respond to the Overseer’s inquiries on the location of any biologicals that were subjugated recently or in the past. They may very well perish without answering.”
“So be it. What else have you got for me?”
“The Grawl scientists and engineers have started the retrofit process to the base’s main weapon system. My observations predict they will have it ready for testing more than two hours earlier than their previous estimate. Engineer Coonts has finished the work on the power transfer cable. The Legacy is now capable of transferring the power load from the Oolaran power generator to the base’s main distribution panels.”
Tria looked like she could use a break. I raised my voice so she could easily hear me. “That’s good news, Justice. Let me know when they are ready to test it. If you need me, I will be napping in my cabin.”
That earned me a mischievous smile from Tria, and a large toothy one from Klutch.
18
A little over fourteen hours later, I awoke to Justice alerting me to the pretest countdown the Grawl had initiated. I was a little groggy and hungrier than a bear that just came out of hibernation. Tria rolled over and didn’t act like she was interested in the weapons test.
In the shower, I turned up the temperature in hopes of soothing some of the aches I had somehow suffered in the past several hours. I thought I had most of the kinks worked out of my muscles when an overpowering wave of Sha’Leen left me in a heap on the shower floor. I rolled over and groaned, only to find Tria standing over me.
When we finally made it to the cafeteria, the population of the base was already present. Most just smiled and nodded, but Coonts sat at the lead table looking annoyed. I was going to issue an apology but the look Tria gave Coonts erased the sour expression from his face. Rank has its privileges. We took our seats next to Klutch, Xul, Jaran, and Graf. Coonts stood and went to the front wall.
“Justice, we are ready to proceed with the test.”
Justice put a large view screen on the wall that showed the planet our moon orbited around. The thin, almost nonexistent atmosphere appeared as a light haze around the desolate planet. Coonts must have had plenty of time to think about his presentation. He waved an arm at the screen.
“Justice, please highlight the targets.”
Twelve target boxes appeared on the screen above the planet at varying distances. Two looked like they were fairly close, and the rest were almost over the horizon of the planet. The rotation of the moon was taking us away from them at a decent clip.
“Commander, we have taken twelve of our comms buoys and fitted them with special telemetry arrays. The highly reflective shielding we installed over the transponders should give us a microsecond or two of data on our test shots before the targets are destroyed. We are ready to fire a calibration and focus shots at the first two targets. I will proceed on your order.”
“Carry on, Coonts, you have our full attention.”
“Justi—”
The screen blinked and the target box disappeared before Coonts could finish. He flinched and turned around with a scowl on his face. It earned him more than a few snickers from the crowd of scientists and engineers. He stalked to our table and sat down fuming. Justice decided he would take it from there. I rubbed my temples. Here we go again!
“Calibration shot successful. Focusing optimization shot in three, two, one.”
The second box was gone with a blink of the screen.
“Beam focus successfully optimized. Ready to proceed with maximum beam output and regeneration testing.”
The screen blinked in fourteen second intervals. All ten of the remaining buoys were disintegrated.
“Testing has revealed there is a slight lag in the power transfer cable. The beam recovery cycle was two percent under the simulati
on predictions. The Legacy will not be subjected to the same lag due to the direct feed of the generator. The range of the weapon was four percent greater than predicted and should reflect a slight increase with the direct feed. The only shortcoming, I foresee, is that it will be necessary to allow the anomaly weapon an additional twelve seconds of generation time after firing the beam weapons.”
“So, is it your recommendation to install the upgrades on the Legacy as well?”
“Yes, Commander.”
This got a cheer from the Grawl. Their engineering skills had produced another superior upgrade to our arsenal. Felix got up from the table and approached us.
“Commander, the manufacturing sequences are already queued into the replicator. I could have the parts necessary for the upgrades produced in under four hours.”
“Okay, Felix, get started and let the Grawl know when they are ready. Before you leave, I have an announcement I would like to make, and it concerns you as well as everyone else.”
The young Zaen nodded, and I got up from my seat, raising my hands to get everyone’s attention. The room quickly quieted.
“The first thing I would like to do is thank you for your hard work and dedication. You have once again proven that we can effectively challenge even the most technologically advanced adversaries. What not too long ago seemed like an impossible goal is now a reality. We are making a difference!”
This got me a rousing cheer from everyone. I held up my hands once more.
“When the weapons upgrade to the Legacy is complete, we are all going to outpost 9765 for a celebration feast. The owner of Haras has had enough time to acquire the ID chips necessary to give you all new identities. Those who wish to undergo the procedure can do so at my expense. We will stay a few days so you can actually have a chance to spend some of your wealth on items you may have been desiring. The sooner we get the Legacy updated, the sooner we will leave.”
The roar of applause that got me was almost deafening. Everyone moved in mass to exit the cafeteria, leaving Tria and I sitting alone.
“We are going back to 9765 so you can visit with the Earth female?”
“I haven’t got the faintest idea why a warrior of your stature would be jealous of any female,” I said, raising my eyebrow. “It should be obvious to all that you have already captured the heart of the finest backward-thinking alien this galaxy has to offer.”
She laughed out loud long enough to let me know that much of it was sarcasm. She put her arms around me and gave me a kiss, then slapped me on the ass.
“If we hurry, we can get the number two beam weapon pulled out of the weapons hatch and the focusing aperture disassembled.”
“Lead the way, oh goddess of war. Your wish is my command.”
She made an unflattering noise with her lips and shoved me toward the lift tubes. When we got up on the gravity lift to work on the number two weapon, it became obvious we would be in the way. A dozen scientists and engineers were already stripping away the cowlings from the weapon. There was no place for Tria and me that would not interfere or slow their progress. We gave up and went to the replicator building to see if we could at least ferry the parts for the retrofit. As was typical of the Grawl, once they started a project, they seldom ever rested until it was complete. From start to finish, it took twenty-nine hours to complete the upgrades for both weapons. Justice ran several systems checks and came up with only two minor fault readings that were quickly rectified. The Legacy was ready for weapons testing. I let everyone know we would do the testing sometime while traveling to 9765. No one could argue that logic, and every last scientist, engineer, and replicator operator took a bunk in the crew quarters.
“Justice, load the Eagles into the hangar and prepare to get underway.”
“Roger that, Commander. Estimated time of departure is sixty-nine minutes.”
I had Justice move the Prule containment vessel to the underground storage area below Alpha Base. The Overseer would continue his attempts to gain information from the remaining entities. Their numbers were down to fifteen. I held out little hope at this point of gaining anything useful from them. As we prepared to depart, I got an update alerting me that four of the fifteen Prule entities had become incomprehensible and would cease to exist within the hour. I felt no pity whatsoever and honestly hoped there was a hell so they could burn for eternity along with the rest of the scat I had sent there.
Justice’s subsystems locked down the base, and we launched fifteen minutes later. We made a courtesy call to the Chaalt picket ships that the Legacy was departing. We let them know we would alert them upon our return. We DEHD core jumped to well outside of the 9765 system and used the Sig comms array to contact Tam Lin. She was happy to take my call and informed me she had useful intel to share with me. She also wanted to know if I had brought any guests. I let her know that I had brought them all. The subject quickly changed, and she said a Sig escort would meet us to take the Legacy into a secure docking area. Pasta would handle all the accommodations and see to it no one knew we were at the outpost.
Justice’s subsystem aboard our freighter pinged my implants, letting me know Broza and Hylet were already at the outpost and visiting with other Zaens that did business there. I let Pasta know that he should extend a private invitation for them to join us once we were settled in. I gave him a detailed list of the supplies we needed. He relayed the reacquisition order on to the supply depot so they could start loading the freighter. Tam Lin was going to bank a considerable load of my credits on this little joyride. I hoped that some of the intel she had for me might somehow turn into an income stream to offset my expenses. I didn’t have a shortage of credits; I just liked the thought of checks and balances.
Tam Lin had a private dining hall set aside for our use. She had food menus based on our races sent out to us in advance so everyone would have a good selection of food items to choose from. She was bending over backward to make sure we had everything we needed. I was now wondering what she wanted from me in return. If it was details on my latest adventures, she was probably going to be very disappointed. I had nothing to say about the Chaalt fiasco that I cared to share with anyone. It was too soon to tell, but I hoped there was no rumors floating around about what had taken place. We were notified that Tam Lin was on her way. Tria and I headed to the large cargo transfer doors that separated the dock from the depot. Tam Lin stepped out of a pressure hatch to our right and froze in place, staring at Tria. This was probably going to be awkward to say the least.
“Damn girl, I knew you had it bad for Nathan, but I don’t know if I would have shed a couple of arms over him!” she exclaimed.
Yep, awkward! Tria’s face darkened slightly as she processed what Tam Lin was insinuating. Rather than let this get any weirder, I stepped in front of the Earth girl and gave her a warning look.
“I will not go into details, but Tria lost her arms in combat,” I said. “That is all we wish to say about it for the time being.”
“Holy shit! Are you kidding me? She gets a couple of arms shot off, and you tell me you can’t talk about it?”
Tria grabbed my shoulder and pushed me aside. She leaned down into Tam Lin’s face. “My arms were not shot off. They were cut off! And, no, I do not wish to talk about it!”
When Pasta saw what he could only determine to be a confrontation, he hauled ass over to us, trying to figure out what the problem was. Tam Lin held up a hand, and he stopped short.
“Tria, I am sorry. I was not trying to make light of your battle injuries. It was a poor choice of words. I will not bring the matter up again.”
Tam Lin’s apology quickly changed Tria’s expression. Looking around, I saw the looks of dread on everyone’s faces change to relief. Tam Lin reached out and grabbed Tria and me by a hand.
“Come, let’s go to my office and discuss business. Pasta will take good care of your people. He already has a schedule set up for the new ID chips and will see to it your merchandise is delivered to your freighter.
”
She led us through several heavily guarded check points to the large ornate double doors that opened into her office. She sat us down in two oversized chairs facing her desk. Going over to a vault-like door, she whispered something under her breath and put her hand on the door. It opened into a huge storeroom. I could see over her shoulder as she rummaged around on one of the many shelves. She finally selected a shiny silver bottle and exited the chamber. The door closed behind her as she sat at her desk.
“I have been saving this for reasons I cannot begin to fathom. This is a fermented beverage from a race called the Erkla. They are not an advanced society. They would be somewhere around nineteen twenties Earth as far as development and tech levels go. What they are known for is their ability to make some of the best liquor this Earth girl has ever tasted. The name of this particular recipe was so hard to pronounce I decided to just call it the good stuff. You don’t have to worry about it being toxic. I have had it tested to the point I am down to this last bottle. I know that Chaalt rarely drink, but if you and Nathan would oblige me, I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how good this is. It is slightly over forty percent alcohol but so smooth you will find it hard to believe.”