by GARY DARBY
“We’re hoping that they only had this one device. If not . . .”
He let the unspoken thought speak for itself. If the Faction had more, then the Imperium faced a coming Armageddon that it could not win against such an enemy.
Jadar looked straight at Shar. “I owe you an apology. Your earlier statement seemed a bit melodramatic, but you’re right, this is worse.”
“No need to apologize,” Shar replied. “I would have felt the same.”
Jadar asked Teng, “I assume that SOG’s number one priority is trying to confirm whether or not they have more of these star busters, their location, and how we can destroy them before they use one again?”
“Of course,” Teng remarked in a dry tone. “But it’s not like we can go around asking if anyone has seen an explosive device that can blow a star apart.”
Shar interrupted to say, “Jadar, I think you can see why I said this can’t go anywhere. There are fewer than twenty-five people who’ve seen this video. This information is without doubt the most sensitive and guarded secret in the Imperium.
“The general literally had to beg the High Council committee to let you in on this, and the only reason you know about this is because of this task force.”
He nodded to Teng. “The truth is, they need us and we need them and that’s the only reason the council agreed to this meeting.”
Jadar shook his head accompanied by a forced laugh. “I appreciate the general’s faith in me, but I can see some sleepless nights over this. I think I would have preferred going along in ignorant, but somewhat peaceful bliss.”
“Welcome to our reality,” Shar replied.
Jadar ran a hand over his mouth and gave Shar a curt nod. “You have my word, this stays here.”
Shar slapped Jadar’s back. “Good enough for me.”
Jadar threw his hands up and took several paces across the room. “It’s not enough that we have to worry about hostile life-forms, virulent microorganisms, and a thousand other things Out There—now it’s some pipsqueak secret society that wants to take over the universe.”
He eyed the two while saying, “Please tell me that’s all. My head is about to burst as it is.”
“Sorry,” Shar replied, “there’s one more thing the general wanted you to see.”
He again tapped on his console. Alpha Ryujin disappeared, replaced by a holo-image of a young woman and a young man. His ebony skin tone and dark eyes were in contrast to her ash blond hair and tanned face.
Shar gestured to Teng. “Go ahead.”
Teng turned to Jadar. “About a month ago, we decoded a part of a message that provided enough information that we were able to alert the Navy to a possible Faction base in Sector Ten.
“When the Imperium’s Marines raided that Faction nest, let’s just say, that the Faction is on their payback list, so it wasn’t a surgical strike by any means. They killed all the Gadions and destroyed their equipment.
“Afterward, we sent a covert investigative team to the site. The strike force hadn’t left much intact, but our team did find one very damaged memory shard. All that we were able to reconstruct from the shard's memory core were these images.
“We ran them through Imperium databases. To our surprise, we found that they are novice scouts.” He glanced at Shar and murmured, “Among other things.”
“Wait,” Jadar said, “why would the Faction have digi-images of novices?”
Shar took up the question. “Let me show you something.”
He reached over to his console. A column of names appeared next to the images. Shar explained, “This is the latest no-notice list for the upcoming rotation. Note the highlighted names, makes for an interesting piece of reading.”
Jadar scanned the list of novices and turned to give Shar a questioning look. “Daughters or sons of Imperium Assembly members,” Shar replied. “Or children of interstellar corporation executives.”
He directed Jadar’s attention to two names in particular. “The son of Beta Thule’s planetary governor, and she’s the daughter of—”
“The assembly president,” Jadar finished for him in a soft breath. “I recognize the name now.”
He leaned toward the two images before he turned to Shar and said through tight lips, “Are you saying that the Faction is—”
“Going to try something against our novice scouts?” Shar returned. “Yes, that’s what we’re saying.”
“Like what?” Jadar demanded.
“Isn’t that obvious?” Shar responded, “Assassination, kidnapping for ransom, or blackmail. I suspect it will be most likely one of the latter two.”
In anger, Jadar asked, “Do you know when and where they’ll make their play?”
“No,” Shar replied, “but we can assume it will be during this no-notice cycle. Those images are recent.”
Jadar took a deep breath. “Well, if Faction thugs are going after a novice, the no-notice would be the time to do it. Those training teams are sometimes out of communication for quite a while. Hit’em then and nobody would know until well after the fact.”
With a sudden start, Jadar realized, “If the Faction is after these particular scouts, then that means they have the list or access to the data.”
“And the man wins the prize," Shar responded.
Jadar whipped around. “Or it could mean that the Gadions have someone inside Star Scout Command—”
“The man wins two prizes,” Shar replied in a hard manner.
“They haven’t broken into your database,” Teng stated. “We checked, there’s no breach.”
“So they’ve got someone on the inside,” Jadar breathed. “How many have access to the list?” he asked.
“I know where you’re going,” Shar replied, “and the answer is more than we can investigate in a short time.”
Shar glanced at Teng and declared, “And an investigation right now is not what we want, either.”
Jadar answered in rapid-fire words. “Well, I don’t understand what you mean by that, but you need to tell the general to yank those novices and reschedule them.
“Spread them out over several cycles so that we can protect them somehow. Change procedures to—”
“No,” Teng answered in patient tones. “You can’t do any of that.”
“What do you mean we can’t? We’ve got to—”
“Jadar, de-orbit and calm down,” Shar interjected. “I know how you feel. Your first inclination is to safety-wrap these kids. But Teng’s right.”
“If you change your methods now,” Teng explained, “to protect these particular novices, or begin an investigation that centers on that list could well alert the Faction that we’re on to them.
“You see, we disguised that Nav and marine raid to make it look like it was a pure accident that the Navy found their base. We don’t want them to have even the remotest suspicion that we’ve broken into their code.”
He took a breath and continued. “We’re dealing with the most sophisticated cipher ever devised. The mind behind it is a super genius.
“We’ve devoted thousands of computer hours to decrypting and what we have to this point is equivalent to about the first chapter of one of your field manuals.”
“Jadar,” Shar explained, “If SOG can continue to break their codes we might get a handle on a slew of Faction operations. Maybe find out where and when they’re going to hit us next Out There.”
He shrugged. “Perhaps even get some actionable intel on when and where they’ll go after these novices.”
Tight-lipped, Shar growled, “And most important, do they really have a weapon that can gut a star wide open? If so, how do we stop them?
“But if they get even a whiff that we’re reading their mail, they’ll change the encryption sequence faster than hyper light speed. And we’ll start from ground zero again.”
Teng spoke up to say, “We might even be able to find your mole. Turn him or her to our advantage.”
Shar took a deep breath and let it out in
a rush. “This is tough, Jadar, believe me, I know. The general and I have agonized over this since we first found out.”
Jadar considered Shar’s dead-serious expression. Without a doubt, he meant business. Right now he’d rather be facing a raging Shadow Panther on Cetean Six than this.
“Even if it’s the assembly president’s daughter?” he asked, pointing to the young woman’s holo-image.
The two men locked eyes, before Shar stated, “Even if it’s the president’s daughter. You see Jadar, he knows. He’s one of the twenty-five who’s watched the video, so he’s well aware of the stakes.
“It sounds cold, but he’s willing to risk his daughter and the others in the hope that we can find out about that nova weapon.”
Shar ran a hand over his forehead and turned weary and concerned eyes to Jadar. “Jadar, like some cancerous tumor Out There, the Faction is growing. They’re reaching into places and doing things that we've never seen before, exercising power that we didn't know they had.
“If they have a way to destroy a star, the next time it could be Sol. Alpha Ryujin didn’t have an inhabited world in orbit; our sun does. If our sun went nova, ten billion of us would cease to exist within minutes.”
He paused to draw in a deep breath before saying in a firm tone, “If we lose this one slight advantage, we may never recover, and the empty, cold darkness between the stars may be more welcome than what we're facing.”
For a while, no one spoke, each deep in his own thoughts. Jadar straightened and gave Shar a frank look. “Quite a speech, Colonel Tuul. Yes, sir, quite a speech.”
Shrugging in resignation, he said, “You’ve convinced me. What’s next?”
“We send Teng on his way, and we find you a place to bunk,” Shar answered.
Taking his cue, Teng bowed to the two scouts. “Safe trails to you both.” After quick handshakes, Shar escorted Teng out of the complex, leaving Jadar alone to wait for Shar’s return.
Jadar stood with head down, hands on hips. The discussion about the young scouts had struck him hard because of his own soul-wrenching loss that still weighed heavily on mind and spirit even after all these years.
Gazing at the no-notice list that still hung midair, he reached over to the console and touched the key to stop the program.
Instead, the list scrolled to the second page. Curious, Jadar peered at the names. He caught sight of “Scoutmaster Tarracas” and the corners of his mouth turned up in a warm smile. He surveyed the names under Tarracas until his eyes stopped at one particular name.
His heart pounded in his chest. He opened and closed his eyes several times. His knees almost buckled under him.
Jadar’s mind whirled, and the room seemed to spin around in a tight circle. Time seemed to come to a standstill, so much so that he didn’t even hear Shar come back into the room.
A hand closed around his shoulder, and Shar asked in a concerned voice, “You look like you’ve just come face to face with a Sirkian Gas Ghost. Are you okay?”
Jadar looked once more at the list and one entry in particular, Dason Thorne. “You know,” he began, “a few minutes ago, I felt like someone had knocked the stuffing right out of me, but now?
“I’ve never felt better.”
Chapter Ten
Star Date 2433.056
Sonora Vista High, Arizona, Terra
Early morning found Dason awake and staring at the ceiling’s textured and swirled surface that resembled faraway spiral galaxies. All night long, his mind had spun like the ceiling’s patterns, caught in the grim thought that he couldn’t shake: What if he were wrong, what if his father was indeed a cross-over?
The night hadn’t brought the bliss of peaceful slumber. He’d tried every sleep technique he knew, and adjusted the bed’s Sleep Genie a dozen times before giving up.
His conversation with Tarracas and Grolson tumbled in and out of his mind. He had gotten a little closer to the truth about his father, but it was like he had started running a marathon, and he had just made it out of his starting stance.
Lost in thought, he was jolted back to his surroundings by a sharp rap on his door, like a small explosion. Sitting upright, he called out, “Enter.”
Nase poked his head inside. “Mission postings are up.”
Dason swung his lean frame out of bed and hurried to the commons area where a group of novices scanned the assignment board. He tried to read the screen but couldn’t see over the heads of several taller classmates.
He had decided to hang back until the crowd thinned out when he heard a loud, ringing voice. “No, no, and no! Not again!”
Like a shark’s dorsal fin cutting through water, Sami carved his way through the crowd, his arms making broad swimming motions to push people aside before he ran into Dason.
Glaring, the short, brown youth exhaled in a loud breath, and stomped away, leaving Dason mystified at Sami’s behavior. He spotted a break in the gathering and wormed his way to the front.
His eyes followed the assignment postings until he found the source of Sami’s consternation.
Immediate Outbound: Novice Team Three, IS Grolson, SLC mission, Alistar Training Grounds. Uniform: One Charlie; no energy weapons. Team: S. Alvaro, T. Utlander, S. Hsu, N. Wek. TL: D. Thorne. Pad two, boost out 0700 hours.
A pleasant voice low spoke in his ear. “I sure hope the third time’s a charm.”
There was no mistaking that melodious tone. Dason turned to meet lovely apple-green eyes and managed to stammer, “It had better be. I think that if there weren’t so many witnesses around Sami would’ve killed me on the spot.”
Shanon dimpled and gave him a little smile. “Oh, I doubt he’d kill you right off. Star Scout Command doesn’t take well to novices doing in their team leader.”
“Team leader?”
She furrowed her thin eyebrows. “Hmm, I suggest you read the board again. I’m going to get some breakfast. I’ll see you in the ready room at 0630 hours, TL.”
Dason turned and let out a breath. Somehow, he had missed the initials “TL” next to his name, designating him the team leader.
The lanky young man screwed his mouth to one side. He had his work cut out for him, not only with Sami, but with the other strong-headed novices, not to mention that they were bumping up against the time when their no-notice exam would start.
A novice near Dason spoke up loudly. “Not another fox-and-hound mission! And look who gets to get chased again. Why can’t we do the chasing for once?”
From the back came the Scoutmaster’s deep and penetrating bass voice. “A Star Scout performs many missions where he or she is the hunter—the seeker. You cannot hunt well unless you—have been hunted well.”
Dason glanced over at the first-semester youngster who had uttered the complaint and noticed a bright red stain creeping up her neck. No doubt that would be the last time she made a loud-mouthed comment before checking who was within earshot.
He edged out of the crowd only to have Tarracas pull him aside. Speaking firmly, but in a way that only Dason could hear, the Scoutmaster murmured, “Novice Scout Thorne, remember, your father is not on this mission.
“You and your teammates are. Your responsibility is to them, and the successful completion of your mission.”
Peering into Dason’s eyes, perhaps because of what he saw there, he then said, “Nothing frightens a team more than a team leader who cannot make a decision.”
Tarracas then gave him a small smile. “There are enough things Out There for your team to be afraid of, don’t you be one of them.”
“Yes, Scoutmaster,” Dason swallowed.
Laying a hand on Dason’s shoulder, and holding him with his eyes the Scoutmaster murmured, “Return with honor, Stripling Warrior.”
“Yes sir,” Dason replied in the same low tone.
The Scoutmaster’s message was clear enough. Turn his mind away from past dire events and concentrate on the present, which would require his every mental and physical effort to return his team home
without harm to any of them.
Hours later, the five novices along with IS Grolson exited their transport and once again stood under Alistar’s star. “Listen up,” Grolson ordered in a no-nonsense voice.
“Mission brief: Your quarry target is an extraterrestrial near-ground-dwelling hybrid mammal with evolutionary characteristics similar to the Terran animal order chiropteran.
“The Galactica does not have a precise Life Sensor bio point recorded for this species so you’ll have to do a workup starting on free search.
“Characteristics: This animal is bi-pedal with short fur, diurnal, and solitary, no other information available, other than your quarry ranges throughout the surrounding bio-environments.
“Tactical information: No other teams will be in your ops area; the emergency call-out frequency is setting twelve per standard procedures. I’ve already tested and verified that it’s working.
“Mission: Search, Locate, Catalog.
“Mission Complete Criteria: A ten-minute live recording of the target in at least two different environmental settings. Initial azimuth is 070 degrees off the zero-point beacon.
“Your target will be within two kilometers on either side of your bearing. However, your actions can cause the quarry to move away from your locus point.
“Complete time: Open-ended.”
In a wearisome tone, he added, “This is your umpteenth time here, so remember that there are carnivorous land and water animals. Be alert.”
He glanced sideways at Dason with a wry look. “I hope I don’t have to remind anyone that there are venomous critters that creep, crawl, slither and fly, so watch where you put your hands, feet, or boots for that matter.”
Sami let out a loud snicker before TJ elbowed him, causing him to stop. Grolson paused and then asked, “Questions?”
The instructor scout gave the novices time to reply, but they stood silent. He gave them a curt nod while saying, “None? Then I assume you’re ready to go.”