A Star Rising (The Star Scout Saga Book 1)

by GARY DARBY

  Chapter Twelve

  Star Date 2433.056

  Everglades Sanctuary

  Double Star knelt between two oversized rotting logs, the musty scent of decaying wood and moss thick in his nostrils. His eyes were centered on an island of green brush and stunted red cypress trees that rose above a carpet of waving, dark yellow grass. He felt confident that’s where his quarry hid.

  The waves of heat and humidity made him feel like a steaming, heavy, wet blanket encased his whole body. He swatted at the irritating black midges that flew about his head and ground his teeth together in frustration.

  He suspected that, on purpose, the Evaluator Scouts had taken away his torso vest, including his BugOff, at the scenario’s onset. A little practical joke that they were no doubt laughing about back in their air-conditioned control center.

  He hated these evaluations, but all headquarters staff members had to certify their overall fitness by passing these annual tests. Even his lofty status didn’t warrant an exemption.

  Besides, when General Rosberg stated, “If I have to go, you have to go,” he went.

  Double Star eased forward and extended his hand to take another Life Sensor reading.

  The strike was so fast that the scout had no chance to avoid the bite. He yanked his hand back to look at the two pinpoint red welts. A stinging sensation radiated outward from the back of his hand.

  He dropped his LS and gripped his wrist in a tourniquet-like grasp. He stood, leaned over the log to identify the snake for anti-venon purposes only to come face to face with his smiling daughter.

  With a bemused expression, she smiled, “Gotcha, Pop.”

  Holding up a thin stick, she pointed at the two sharpened thorny ends. “The stinging sensation is cayenne pepper. Wash it off and it’ll stop.”

  Stunned, the scout stood immobile before he whipped his head around to scan the surrounding area to see if anyone had witnessed the embarrassing scene, and of most importance, to see if anyone had heard or seen his daughter.

  Rising from behind the log, she smiled in understanding. “Nobody’s watching or within hearing distance. I snuck in through the back door.

  “Besides, the evaluators are chowing down, and knowing them, they’ll take a siesta before checking the training lanes. And the one they left on duty thinks watching us staff pukes is the most boring job on Earth.”

  She smiled like she knew something that he didn’t. “Trust me, I know.”

  “All right Alena, so what are you doing here?” he demanded. “And what’s so urgent that we couldn’t talk over the comm?”

  “Looking for you, of course.” In a rush, she asserted, “He’s on Earth! I saw him in the mount.”

  “What?! Who’s here—what are you talking about?”

  “Jadar Marrel, that's who!” she snapped.

  The Star Scout stiffened, and his jaw jutted out. “Couldn’t be. Marrel’s outfit is in Sector Nine. He can’t—”

  “Then we’ve warped to Sector Nine,” she retorted. “He’s in the mount, I tell you. He and Tuul the Fool are spending a lot of time together down in IOC.”

  He hesitated before muttering, “Impossible, I’m the only one other than the commanding general who approves inbound postings to the staff.”

  Alena’s scornful stare and silence dragged on until he slapped at his communicator. “Ops officer,” he bawled.

  “This is operations, sir.”

  “Patch me through to the personnel officer at headquarters.”

  Seconds later another voice responded, “Captain Samson speaking.”

  He identified himself and commanded, “Samson, give me the current duty status of Lieutenant Colonel Jadar Marrel.”

  “Yes sir, stand by.”

  Father and daughter glared at each for the few seconds it took before the answer came. “Sir, Lieutenant Colonel Marrel is assigned to the J2 section here at the complex.”

  “By whose authorization?” he asked in a terse tone.

  “The orders came from the CG’s office, sir.”

  “Roger.” With a start, Double Star realized he needed to come up with some excuse for the somewhat irregular communication.

  “Good, just making sure that General Rosberg’s orders are carried out. What duty rotation is Marrel assigned to?”

  “None, sir. Colonel Tuul exempted him from watch status.”

  Double Star’s brows furrowed at that and when he didn’t respond Samson asked, “Is there anything else, sir?”

  “Eh?” Double Star replied. “Oh, no. Thank you, captain. Everything appears to be in order. Carry on.”

  He took a few steps before turning to his stone-faced daughter. In a begrudging manner, he admitted, “You’re right. He’s been assigned Earth side.”

  Alena crossed her arms and stood with cocked head. “Guess that proves I can read a name tag, doesn’t it?”

  “Stow it, Alena. I agreed that you’re right; you can turn off the attitude now.”

  He gazed upward at the hazy blue sky. “But why?” he wondered aloud.

  “No one notified me of his transfer and I’m certain I didn’t see any orders or paperwork on his reassignment.”

  Rubbing at the back of his neck, he stated, “This doesn’t make sense.”

  “What doesn't make sense?” she asked.

  “Marrel’s made a career out of remote assignments, like he’s in exile. When his name comes up for rotation back to Earth, he somehow finds someone who’s going star side and engineers a swap. In all, he’s spent maybe three or four months’ total on Earth.

  “His orders didn’t get published on the manning roster either, which means only a few people in all of Star Scout Command know of Marrel’s assignment.”

  “And until I told you, you weren’t one of the few,” she replied. “So, two questions; who transferred him here and why.”

  “Only one, actually,” he remarked. “This came straight from Rosberg.”

  “And the general didn’t tell you.”

  “No,” he huffed.

  “So that means you don’t know why, either,” she replied in a condescending manner.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but she held up a hand to stop him. “I might be able to help you on that one, or at least point you in the right direction.”

  He took a breath and nodded. “Go on.”

  “Early this morning Marrel was working at the StellarVue. He logged into a floor console but didn’t have a privacy cone up, and I managed to see a file name and mission assignment code.

  “After he left, I tried to bring up the file name, but couldn't. It called for a security clearance level higher than I hold.”

  “That can’t be right,” Star replied. “Your clearance should be more than sufficient for routine work.”

  She shrugged in answer. “I guess not because I tried it twice. Access denied both times. Which makes me believe that whatever he was working on is hot.”

  Star furrowed his brow. “Did the compu state the access level needed for that file?”

  “Yes,” she replied. “Gamma Orion.”

  His eyes widened at her response. “I take it from your expression,” she began, “that only a select few can access that compartmentalized information. And this lowly first lieutenant ain’t one of them.”

  With a frank stare, he asked, “Did that mission code have anything regarding—”

  “Veni?” she finished for him.

  Both of their visages became bleak and hard as Alena stated, “No. He wasn’t even looking in the right region for that. What he had up on the screen was the first planning op that I worked for you when I got here.

  “Hydra Six, Sector Ten. Joint ops with SciCorps.”

  His head jerked up and in a sharp voice he asked, “Did you say Hydra Six?”

  “That’s right.”

  “You’re sure? You got the mission code right?”

  “Without a doubt. I know that alpha-numeric sequence by heart.”

  Double Star to
ok several steps away from his daughter while one hand squeezed his lips tightly together. Marrel with a security access equal to his own and who just happened to be reviewing the Hydra Six mission made for a dangerous combination.

  He whipped around. “Give me that mission code and filename. Stay here and out of sight.”

  He jabbed a finger at her. “You’d better hope that there’s no security backtracker on that file to show who tried an unauthorized attempt to open it. If there is and they find out it’s you, I’m not sure even I could help you get out of that.”

  Twenty minutes of quick-march brought him to the exercise “head-shed” where the Evaluator Scouts monitored the training lanes. He stomped into the room and strode toward an empty office. “I’ll be using that room,” he snapped to the one Star Scout on duty.

  “Yes, sir, but—” the startled scout began but stopped in midsentence from the glare the senior scout shot him. Double Star hit the entry pad, the door slid shut behind him, he slammed into a chair and punched at the console.

  A privacy cone extended around him and seconds later the image of a swarthy man whose sallow skin spoke of his dislike of being in the sun appeared in midair.

  In rapid-fire syllables, the Star Scout explained his need. “I want access to that file without my personal code being attached, and I want any unauthorized access attempts erased.”

  At the man’s cocked head, he snapped, “The usual fee.”

  A few minutes later the man reported back. “There’s a tracer program running but I built a conduit for you. You can get in and out without anyone knowing. And I erased the two unauthorized attempts from earlier today.”

  “Did anyone try and track the tracer alerts?”

  “No. The alert mode was on but for some reason, no one had looked at it. Now, unless someone digs deep, it looks normal.”

  “Good. You’ll see your money tomorrow. Out.”

  Double Star opened Marrel’s file and scrolled through the various documents. After several minutes of intense review, his puzzlement only deepened.

  The file contained routine Star Scout and SciCorps mission reports, after-action findings and investigations, even novice scout training scenarios associated with the latest no-notice cycle.

  He couldn’t see anything that linked it together. What could be so important about this file that Tuul had slapped on such a high-security classification?

  He brought up the last document and had just about given up hope that he would find anything of consequence when his eyes locked on a short entry midway down.

  Novice Scout Dason Thorne, son of Star Scout Captain Deklon Marrel.

  Double Star couldn’t take his eyes away. His mind went numb, his eyes seeing the words and nothing else. Time seemed to stand still before he shook his head to rid himself of his mental vacuum. His hand quivered over the console as he logged off and stepped from the office.

  The senior Evaluator Scout stood waiting for him. She’d apparently been called to the ops shack by the duty scout when Double Star appeared. She took one look and asked, “Sir, are you ill, is that why you left your training lane?”

  “What?” he mumbled. “No, no, I’m fine.”

  She came close and spoke low. “Sir, you realize that you shouldn’t have broken off the evaluation without authorization. Your action is quite irregular; I’ll have to enter a note into your appraisal and fitness report.”

  He stared at her for several seconds before laughing and walking away. “Fitness report?” he called over his shoulder. “Yes, major, I am indeed feeling quite fit.”

  Retracing his steps to where he’d left his daughter, he called out softly, “Where are you?”

  “Bushes at eleven o’clock,” she replied.

  He entered the brushy thicket to meet his daughter. Alena met his intense look and stated, “You know something.”

  He gave her a quick, curt nod. “I know two things. First, that file had a tracer program. Lucky for you no one noticed the alert. You’re in the clear, but next time, wait and talk to me first. Got it?”

  “Got it, and thanks,” she responded. “Now what’s the other thing?”

  He came close and in clipped, harsh words declared, “Deklon Marrel’s son is a novice scout.”

  Alena’s mouth dropped, and her sharp intake made a soft sucking sound. “No . . .”

  She reached out to grasp Double Star’s arm. “First, Jadar Marrel arrives at the mount all but incognito and now this.”

  A dark scowl creased her mouth. “This can’t be sheer coincidence; it’s too, too—”

  “Opportunistic?” Her father finished for her. “I agree.”

  He paced in a tight little circle until his daughter demanded, “What are we going to do?”

  He rubbed a grimy hand over his forehead before he met her look. “For now, we do nothing and wait.”

  “What?!” Alena blurted. “But we know right where he is.”

  “Yes,” he answered in a testy voice. “We know where he is, and he’s not going anywhere that we can’t track.”

  “But now’s our chance, what we’ve waited for. They’ve come out of hiding and all we need is to—”

  “Alena, stop!” he ordered. “This is too pat, too simple. People who’ve been hiding for all these years just don’t all of a sudden walk out into the open. So until I know more, we stand down until I say how and when we move.”

  Alena stared at him, her face growing taut as the seconds passed. Like stones, her words pelted him.

  “All my life you’ve driven into me what happened to my mother. Who left her to a cruel death, and how, when the time came, we would take our just due.

  “And now you’re telling me that we’re just going to wait?!”

  “Alena, you don’t understand.”

  “Understand?” she replied, her voice trembling. “No, I understand that because of them all I have are some digi-photos, a few dim memories—and a death certificate.”

  She stopped; the hard, driven passion etched deep in her appearance. “I’ve had to live with the thought of her being left to die a horrible death by a Marrel coward. And now, you just want me to understand?”

  Double Star could feel the hurt in the flood of words, but when he moved toward her, she shook her head, threw her hands up as if to ward him off, and spun away.

  She took two steps before whirling around, her short, black hair swishing from side to side. Scornful, she gestured at his back trail. “By the way, just like you’re missing this opportunity with the Marrels, your exercise target is a hundred meters in the opposite direction.

  “You missed it twice!”

  She punched through the surrounding greenery and disappeared.

  Double Star watched the brush sway in the wake of his daughter. After the leafy limbs had closed behind her, he hung his head, thinking of her and his dead wife. Alena had so many of her wonderful qualities—intelligence, beauty, courage, decisiveness.

  He wouldn’t admit it to his daughter, but the anger and the almost uncontrollable need for revenge she got from him.

  Like an overpowering habit-forming stimulant, it coursed through his veins, always there so that he would never forget what the Marrels had taken from his life.

  Making a quick decision, he opened his communicator, “Ops officer; I’m headed in. Have my scouter standing by and tell the pilot to file a flight plan back to headquarters.”

  “Excuse me, sir?” the surprised scout replied. “You’re quitting the exercise before mission complete?”

  “That’s right, mister. Tell the pilot to be ready for jump-off in fifteen minutes.”

  “But sir, this is highly irregular—”

  His response sharp. “If anyone uses the word ‘irregular’ to me one more time today, they’re going to be doing permanent ‘regular’ duty on the backside of Pluto, is that clear?

  “I have more important things to do than checking on three-week-old raccoon kits in this swamp. Tell the senior evaluator to put me on t
he next rotation. Is that clear or do you want me to come in and spell it out in person?”

  “No sir,” the chastened officer replied. “I’ll make sure she gets the message.”

  Star ran a hand over his sweating brow and thought long and hard about his discovery. What an incredible stroke of fortune to discover Marrel’s son on Terra. And with Jadar Marrel here, it opened up some real possibilities of locating Deklon Marrel.

  His thoughts returned to Alena. She, of course, didn’t know of his double life or its sinister dark side. Nor did she realize that if he didn’t do this the right way, the consequences could be disastrous for both him and his daughter.

  He looked at the red welts on his hand. Alena’s prank had more realism than she knew. What he intended to do would push him even deeper into a human viper pit.

  But he couldn’t turn back, not now. He was snake-bit anyway, and the poison of hatred that coursed through his body had almost destroyed what little conscience he had left.

  He walked out of the thicket, and lengthening his stride, pushed through the foliage, his hatred building with each step.

  His mind was a dark swirl of hatred, revenge, and above all the killer’s thirsting to slake his thirst in blood.

  Once back, he would make the comms call that he’d waited so long to make, the one that would start the Marrels on their road to a final, fatal destiny.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Star Date 2433.056

  Geneva, Switzerland

  “There is no doubt?” Adiak Peller demanded. “No mistake. You’re sure it’s him?”

  “I checked and rechecked the records,” Double Star replied. “Almost pure luck that I found it. If his Scoutmaster hadn't annotated his record with the information, I would never have made the link."

  Peller had been standing, now he collapsed into his chair. The mental barb of Marrel’s treachery penetrated deeper into his psyche with each passing year. Others who had crossed him had met suitable punishments, except Marrel.

  And he would never forget that!

  Years ago, when he had found out Marrel’s wife and child had disappeared, he had almost gone crazy thinking that they had lost their one tangible lead to Deklon Marrel.