“Yes, Corb?”
“I want to know who these Ch’en are and why there are so few of them on the Zac-Cimi.”
“I thought you might ask. They are members of Tarmenik’s family and his researchers.”
“Researchers?”
“Cass, they are analogous to grad students who were helping Doctor Tarmenik in his search for the origins of the Overlords.”
“Landry, have you pulled the logs from the Zac-Cimi?”
“Yes, Corb.”
“Scan them. Look for anything tying Tarmenik to Jymind.”
“Hoooooly shit.”
“Hold that thought, Janish. You are all starting to see it too. Something else is going on here. I have an idea, but right now, we need to get these people off this ship and to Sol.
“Jirmina, she stays tied, no exceptions. If she wakes, she does not speak. If she speaks, you knock her out again. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Corb.”
“Nick, how long to K’an?”
“Five hours, twenty-two minutes.”
“New plan. Lucinda, Janish, and I will take the Ch’en and Vivian to the Jaguar and slipstream to K’an. Lucinda?”
Immediately, Lucinda understood Corb’s intent. “Ragnar, the Zac-Cimi is yours. Nick, NT, Jirmina, you stay aboard and get to Sol. Flank speed! Are you good with that?”
Ragnar sat up and replied, “Roger that, head to Sol, flank speed.”
Nick made a positive suggestion. “Bring over Cass. With five, we will be able to alternate manning the bridge more effectively.”
“Good idea, Nick. Janish, take Jirxena back to the Jaguar and return with Cass.”
“Captain, may I make a request?”
Lucinda stopped to focus on Jirxena’s formal request, nodding for Jirxena to continue.
“I will stay with the Zac-Cimi, and Jirmina with the Jenny. My command experience aboard the freighters will be more valuable here.”
“That is an excellent suggestion. Ragnar?”
“Roger that, Jirxena, second in command.”
Lucinda was certain the use of the familiar title Jenny had meaning.
“Okay, people, let’s get the Ch’en moved.”
It required twenty minutes to move the Ch’en and Vivian and correctly seat the crews on the two ships. Most of the time was spent by the Triad ferrying human-compatible rations from the Jaguar to the Zac-Cimi. From the Jaguar, Lucinda called to Ragnar.
“Captain Jensen, you have your orders. Any questions?”
“No, Lucinda. Thank you for the honorary title.”
“Roger that, Captain. Keep an eye on those rations, you know Nick loves his midnight snacks.”
“Roger that. Landry, can you change the registry of the Zac-Cimi?”
“Yes, Captain Jensen. I can send the registration change parameters to the celestial registry. What would you like to name your new ship?”
“Landry, the Zac-Cimi will be registered under the control of the TCCC with the name of Gungnir.”
“Sending the request now.”
“Thank you, Landry. Nick, do you have the hyper-tunnel map?”
“Affirmative.”
“Good. Anything else, Lucinda?”
“Ragnar, get that ship to Sol as fast as possible.”
“Will do. Gungnir out.”
“What is this Gungnir?”
“Jirmina, Gungnir was the spear the Norse god Odin wielded. There is a myth that it never missed its target.”
“That is a good name.”
The Triad used the slipstream to return the Jaguar to K’an.
“Tarunik, the conspirators are in the Jaguar’s main bay. We grant your guards permission to retrieve the conspirators.”
“Enlightened One, our guards are on their way now. The conspirators will face the tribunal for their crimes against the harmony. What is it you would ask of us regarding Misses Treacher?”
“We ask nothing from you or Misses Treacher. We know what is needed to understand the conspiracy. Please stand by.”
Muting the communications link with Tarunik, Corb switched the monitors to a view of the main bay.
“Landry, the cargo hold is locked down, correct?”
“Yes, Corb. Jirmina, Lucinda, and Janish are positioned to defend any attempts to board the Jaguar.”
Corb watched in silence as the guards teleported into the cargo bay and away with the conspirators.
“Leave the lockdown in place until we depart. Tell Lucinda, Janish, and Jirmina to get back to the bridge.”
“Done.”
Unmuting, Tarunik’s image returned to the main monitor.
“Tarunik, forgive me for being short. I must return to Sol. Tarmenik’s plot is not yet complete. I will defend my home.”
“We will continue to help Misses Treacher. Enlightened One, go with speed and bravery.”
The communications link closed while Lucinda and Janish buckled into their chairs on the riser. Jirmina buckled into the weapons console, her three fingers on both hands flying across the console.
“Landry, any reason we can’t get out of here?”
“No, Lucinda.”
“Jirmina?”
“I have weapons and navigational control, Captain.”
“I’ll take that as affirmative to go.”
The Triad easily pushed the Jaguar into the slipstream.
“Landry, how long for the Gungnir to reach Sol?”
“Lucinda, thirteen hours to the hyper-tunnel entrance, three-point-seven days in the hyper-tunnel to reach Sol.”
“Okay, Landry, we are going to push into the star-portal conduit. How long for us to reach Sol?”
“The revised calculations indicate seventeen hours of transit time in the conduit to reach Sol. With rest periods, approximately twenty-seven total hours to reach Sol using the conduit.”
“Landry, we are not going to rest. We will drop out at ten hours for a bio break, then complete the transit.”
Time in SP Conduit: 10:14:39.
Time to Sol: 07:19:00.
The Triad ran off the bridge to their respective quarters and the needed relief. Stopping by the galley on the way back to the bridge, the Triad was munching on power bars, downing energy drinks, and not chatting before heading to the bridge.
“Jirmina, how are you holding up?”
“Holding up? Janish, I am not injured.”
“No, it means, are you tired? Hungry? Worried? It is a generic phrase to ask how you are feeling.”
“Oh, yes, I see. I am ready to defend the Enlightened One’s home.”
Janish filled the void left by Nick’s absence, imitating his thick accent. “Yep, creeping me out. Those Plentari, they make good enemies.” She made Lucinda and Corb smile.
“We will finish these snacks, take another bio break, then one more hop to Sol. You up for it?”
Janish and Lucinda did not hesitate and replied instantaneously.
“Ready.”
Time in SP Conduit: 09:17:49.
Time to Sol: 00:00:00.
“Ragnar … sorry, Jirmina, where are we?”
“Captain, we are in the Sol system, five light-minutes below the elliptical plane. We are too far to be sure, but there are no bogies to report.”
“Landry send Colonel Khatter and Colonel Jyrode our transponder code. Request acknowledgment. We will slip over when they know we are coming.”
“Sent.”
The Triad exited the bridge to their quarters and relief. Showering and stopping for food, dipping into the medical bay for stimulants, they returned to the bridge in under an hour.
“Report.”
“No change, Captain. We received acknowledgment from Colonels Khatter and Jyrode.”
“Thank you, Jirmina. Landry, what day is it?
“Lucinda, I presume you mean how far are we ahead of Admiral Jymind?”
“Yes.”
“Based on the forecasts, Admiral Jymind will appear between forty-nine and sixty-four hours fro
m now.”
“Two days to just under three days. Send the updates to Khatter and Jymind.”
The Triad no longer needed to close their eyes to focus and slip the Jaguar. In under six minutes the Jaguar was in-system, heading to a holding station beyond the docking platform.
The Jaguar’s appearance sprung fighters into action, who surrounded the Jaguar.
“Why are they surrounding us?”
“Janish, look, they are facing outward. The Ajawlil are protecting me.”
Landry, chimed. “Colonel Khatter is requesting to speak with you.”
“Put him on, Landry.”
“Sorry, not you. He is asking for Lucinda.”
“Put him on.”
“Davinder, it is good to see you.”
“You too, Captain. I will be direct. How serious is the threat?”
Realizing this was a formal meeting, Lucinda sat up, happy she had showered and put on a clean jumpsuit.
“Colonel Khatter, the threat is real. Admiral Jymind will arrive between forty-nine and sixty-four hours from now.”
“Understood. Captain Raitt, please go to your ready-room and establish a secure communication.”
Corb nodded to Lucinda, who headed to her ready-room.
Establishing the secure communication, she was not surprised to see Corb standing next to Colonel Khatter on the monitor.
“Landry, give me a three-sixty view of the Q’eqchi conference room.”
The ready-room’s monitors split into three views of the Q’eqchi conference room. As expected, Lucinda spied four armed guards lying on the terrazzo. What she did not expect was Miss Olivia Pazzo to be sitting next to Madam Councilwoman Patterson.
“Davinder, are you okay?”
“Yes, Lucinda. Stand by.”
Davinder walked to the unconscious security guards and took their weapons. Unloading all but one, he placed the loaded weapon on the table before turning to Corb and pushing an intercom button.
“Jan, get in here!”
Twenty-two seconds later, the door flew open with Jan and four security team members striding into the conference room.
“Security take the guards and lock them up. Also, take their cell phones, including Misses Patterson’s and Miss Olivia’s.”
“You got it, boss.”
When the door closed behind the last unconscious guard being dragged out, Davinder again turned to Corb, who spoke sternly.
“It appears as if Misses Patterson’s political ambition has outweighed her common sense. Olivia Pazzo, this isn’t about the ministry, is it?”
Glaring, Olivia Pazzo refused to answer.
“Olivia, she is not coming home, but you will see Little Lizzy soon. Misses Patterson, if you want to save Earth, you need to tell me everything you know.”
Chapter Thirty
ᚴᚼᛅᛒᛏᛁᚱ•ᛏᚼᛁᚱᛏᚢ
“Power in defense of freedom is greater than power on behalf of tyranny and oppression.”
Malcolm X
“You can’t hold me! This is kidnapping. You are a child. I will have you removed!”
Corb was not playing games. He teleported Olivia Pazzo and TCCC Chairperson Janice Patterson to the Jaguar. Strapped to chairs on the bridge, Miss Olivia was defiant. Janice was fearful. Yanking at her restraints, and verbally lashing out.
“Jirmina, if the councilwoman insults me again, zap her.”
If the Plentari reacted to Corb’s order, Janice missed it.
“Child! Are you threatening me with torture? You have …”
Janice Patterson was writhing from the pain in her left side inflicted by the Plentari’s tuned-down laser saber.
“No, Janice, I am trying to save Earth. If making you uncomfortable is required to obtain the information, I will consider that a bonus. There is a madman on his way here. Three days. Tops.
“It looks like Miss Olivia here conspired to get her little girl returned. What I want to know is how you got involved. What were you promised?”
Breathing hard, using her bound feet to sit up straight, Janice Patterson realized she was in a losing position. Looking to Olivia Pazzo with contempt, she spilled the story.
“I was going to get a battlecruiser, like this one, for the TCCC. We were going to be your … equal.”
“You mean you were going to try and take the Jaguar from me?”
“With Jyrode … you can’t go flying around the galaxy picking fights! The TCCC is responsible for defending Earth. You … you have added torture to kidnapping. You are a child masquerading as an adult.”
Jirmina’s translator was not accurate. Surmising Janice’s retort was an insult, the Plentari zapped the councilperson again.
Her side screaming in pain, her body convulsing, Janice Patterson vomited on herself. Several long moments passed, and she ignored the stench, weakly using her bound feet to push herself upright.
“Corb, you will be punished for this.”
“No!”
Corb’s yell stopped Jirmina before she could zap the councilperson again.
“No, Janice, I will not be punished by you, the TCCC, or anyone. I will save Earth. If I fail, it will not matter. I have seen up close what the madman is capable of doing to a planet. On the other side of this, you will have a reckoning. What I want to know is, Olivia, how did you know who to contact?”
Glaring, Miss Oliva refused to speak.
Jirmina stepped over with her tamped-down plasma laser saber but stopped and looked to Corb first.
“No, Jirmina. She is an older human. Her body will not take the pain well.”
“Old? She looks the same as the other.”
“Yes, she is vain and has had much done to retain the look of her youth.”
“That is disgusting!”
“To the Plentari who do not show the effects of time, yes, it is disgusting. To many humans, the desire to remain young is strong. Janice, what about it? Anything to add?”
“No, you know what happened. Khatter would not agree. That ass Jyrode, he thinks you are a living god. Screw it … I had to try.”
Lucinda was sitting silent, cold, observing, scowling at the woman she once considered a mentor.
“Janice, how could you?”
“Lucinda, what did I always tell you?”
Softly and sadly, Lucinda responded, “Trust no one, ever. But that is not true, is it, Janice? The crew of the Jaguar, the Coterie, would never betray one another. Your lessons, Janice, were flawed.”
Her eyes filled with moisture, Lucinda stood, glaring and her former mentor, before she left the bridge.
“One more time. Miss Olivia, if you want to see Vivian again, you need to start speaking.”
Realizing Corb’s tone had changed, that he was making an offer, Miss Olivia relented.
“I was contacted by someone named Tarmenik. I never met him. It was all done by email. He said if I helped him, he would return Vivian. But something was … off. I didn’t trust him. I contacted Janice. It was her idea to make a counteroffer.
“Janice suggested we demand a battlecruiser for helping him. It was a good idea and I could tell he expected us to negotiate. Eventually, we had an agreement. We would help him, Vivian would come home, and he would help us.”
“Help him do what?”
“Destroy the Xjaal and the Ajawlil, of course.”
In an instant, in what NT called the spark of enlightenment, Corb understood what was happening and why Admiral Jymind had gone over the edge.
“Where are they now?”
Davinder’s response was mildly surprising. “Corb, Janice is en route to Zurich. She will be tried for treason.”
“Treason? Which country is going to try her?”
“Not a country, the International Court in the Hague. They adopted laws regarding planetary treason a few years ago. What about Miss Olivia?”
“She is here on the Jaguar. We have her locked up. Are we secure?”
Davinder pressed a few icons. “We are secure.�
��
“Vivian was on the Gungnir. Tarmenik had worked it out for her to be a stowaway. It was his plan to capture Zerain when the Xjaal and Ajawlil went extinct. It is likely he started with good intentions about the Overlords and galactic destiny. Something changed along the way. He became greedy when he saw the power the Xjaal controlled and that they were about to … expire.
“He wanted to be in control. He wanted to replace the Xjaal. Admiral Jymind was going to help him with the conquest. Why, I do not know. Tarmenik must have promised Jymind something. Maybe Tarmenik promised Jymind a cure. When we saved the Xjaal and the Ajawlil from extinction and we stopped Jymind, Tarmenik lost his ally.
“Jymind knows he can’t go home. He has no place to go. He is coming here … to Earth.
“Davinder, he destroyed a planet and a whole species. He killed millions, maybe a billion people, when he destroyed the production facilities at Caracol.
“It ends now. No further.
“Landry put up a clock here on the Jaguar, on the docking platform, and at Q’eqchi. Make it a countdown to the earliest moment the Defender of Lak’tsil could appear in the Sol system.”
Time to Defender of Lak’tsil: 29:28:27.
“Corb, can you do it? Can you stop Jymind?”
“I have to.”
“Corb, it is a risky plan. There are a lot of moving parts. Any one of a hundred things missed by a microsecond and it all comes apart. A miss by a nanosecond and this becomes a suicide mission.”
“Jan, I am all ears. Do you have anything better?”
Davinder, Jan, Corb, Lucinda, Jirmina, and Colonel Jyrode were meeting on the docking platform. Corb had described his plan to defend Earth. The group was unconvinced the plan was viable.
“No, I do not have a better idea. We need more than what we have now. Anyone?”
Everyone looked to everyone else, but no new ideas were offered.
“Davinder, what does the TCCC have to say about all this?”
“Lucinda, they have given me carte blanche to protect Earth.”
“It is about time.”
Davinder ignored the compliment and pressed the planning forward.
“Jirmina, you have been quiet. What do you think?”
BairnGefa- The Akashic Expedition Page 23