Zora chuckled. “Didn’t Clio complete work on her part weeks ago? You’re still working on yours.”
“The control unit was the easy part,” Taza said with a dismissive wave. His SIG pinged several times as he scanned the device. “Finding the materials we needed for the shell wasn’t easy. It’s not as if dead Sentinel maintenance bots are lying all over the place, waiting to be salvaged.”
“So you claim,” Zora chided.
“Few people have seen a maintenance bot let alone touched one. The brightest minds in the galaxy know little, if anything, about them. The bots mainly restrict themselves to the maintenance tubes, which doesn’t help. On the rare occasion they wander into the open, they do so during curfew. Even then, they stick to restricted service walkways.” He looked over his shoulder and caught Zora smiling. “But then you already knew that, didn’t you?”
“I do like to tease. But contrary to what you might think, I don’t know everything, Taza Arkona.” She laughed. “Only what my mission demands of me. For example, I haven’t a clue how one would obtain such illegal materials.”
Taza tapped his nose. “A man can get anything on the Sentinel so long as he knows the right questions to ask the right people.”
“Could a woman also get anything she wants?” She winked at him.
He returned to his work, refusing to take the bait a second time. “Haven’t you somewhere to be or something to be doing on this top-secret mission of yours?”
“I’ll be out of your hair soon enough, Mr. Touchy. I’m just waiting for a call.” The chair scratched the ground as Zora rose to her feet. “Need I remind you, you’re in my workshop.”
“You needn’t, but that hasn’t stopped you before.”
Taza listened as her footsteps crossed the room and stopped behind him. She leaned against his back, her breath moist on his neck.
“We’ve got time for some fun,” she whispered into his right ear.
Taza tried to ignore her as he worked on finishing the device. She pinched his ass, and he almost dropped his rotary tool.
“Are you crazy?” He spun to face her. “Have you any idea—”
She silenced him with an index finger to his mouth. Her familiar scent was distracting, and he tasted her salty skin on his lips. She took her hand away gave him the look.
“Captain Grimshaw will be here—” He tried not to moan too loudly as she grabbed him between the legs. “Do you mind? Gerald will hear.” The shopkeeper stood behind his counter on the other side of the wall in the weapons store Zora used as a front for her hidden workshop.
“Gerald’s half deaf,” she whispered. “Besides, we can just tell him it was your tool making all the noise.”
He couldn’t help but crack a smile. Taza took in Zora’s face, her smooth skin, how the light reflected off her eyes and gleamed on her pale lips. The tension in his shoulders eased a little. He closed the narrow space between them and shut his eyes as their mouths touched. Their arms and tongues intertwined and Taza’s heart raced.
“I can come back at a better time,” a voice called from the hidden doorway.
Taza pulled away. “Shit.”
Zora giggled like a school girl and brushed a strand of black hair out of her eyes. “Not at all, Captain. Taza enjoys having an audience.”
As hard as he tried, Taza couldn’t stop his blood from suddenly diverting course and rushing to his face.
Captain Grimshaw didn’t seem impressed and stood stark still, watching them like some looming statue that had suddenly been dropped into the workshop.
Taza stammered, and Zora giggled again.
“I jest, of course, Captain. I’ll leave you two alone,” she said, shooting Taza a playful smile as she pushed past the Captain. “I’ve got plenty of work to do.”
Before Taza could say anything, the secret door snapped behind her, joining seamlessly with the wall. He stared at the space and ran his hand through his beard. Damn dame keeps doing that.
“You had something you wanted to show me?” the Captain asked, looking somewhat frazzled.
“Err…yes. Just give me a minute to wrap this up first,” Taza turned back to the workbench and finished fixing a panel into place. “I take it the meeting with the Council went well?” He made no effort to hide the sarcasm. The Captain didn’t speak much, but Taza was fully aware of how the man felt about the Galactic Council. Hatred for their devious ways was one of the few things they had in common.
Captain Grimshaw sighed. “Same as always.”
“Can’t say I envy you. It’s why I joined the SIA back in the day. As a rookie, you do as you’re told, let the big wigs sweat the small stuff. But, no one warns you about the politics that creep in the further up the ladder you climb. By the time you realize you’ve been sucked in, you’re already neck deep, and there’s no way out. That is unless you fake your own death.” Taza turned and smiled at the Captain, but it did nothing to soften the man’s iron expression. Taza lifted the device off the workbench and presented it to him.
The Captain held up a palm. “Things like that tend to break when I touch them. Best you hold onto it. Does it work?”
“Unfortunately, the only way to test the STD is to try it.” Taza pulled a small lever on the device, and it pinged to life, sustaining a low hum.
The Captain cocked an eyebrow. “STD?”
“Serial Transfer Device. STD for short. Don’t look at me like that,” Taza said. “Clio came up with the name. ‘Let’s fuck these Chimera bitches and give them an STD’ was how she put it. This is her baby, remember. I’m just a lowly third-party contractor.” He flashed the Captain another friendly smile and thought he saw the beginnings of a smirk at the corner of the man’s mouth, even if it only lasted for a second.
“Ensign Evans does have a way with words,” the Captain admitted.
“That’s one way of putting it.” Taza ran a quick scan of the device. “Primary systems are working for sure but getting it in place is another matter. I’ll need Clio to help me with that. Have you seen her?”
“I thought she’d be here with you. Check in with the base. They’ll know.” Grimshaw rubbed his chin. “Clio’s been distracted lately. The team needs to be focused, especially with Minister Foster and that SenSec lapdog of his, Sergeant Chin, breathing down our necks. I’ll need to have a word with her.”
Taza rubbed his chin. “Probably best I get Zora to speak with her. Clio and Swigger had something going on, but I think it has since come to an end.”
Grimshaw’s eyes widened as it registered. “Ah, yes, I see. Probably for the best. We can’t have feelings getting in the way. As you say, Zora would be best placed to speak about that.”
Taza nodded. “Clio will be fine, Captain. Sometimes, her head’s all over the place, but she can take care of herself.”
“I appreciate the assurances about Ensign Evans, Taza.” Grimshaw cleared his throat. “But we need to make sure our team does what it’s been commissioned to do. The Council is threatening to shut us down if we don’t provide progress on the Chimera Project.”
“We’ll nail those slippery Chimera bastards down soon.” Taza gestured to the buzzing device. “Now that this thing’s up and running, all we have to do is attach it to one of the communication relays in the maintenance tunnels.”
Captain Grimshaw stifled a yawn. “I appreciate the update, Taza, but you didn’t have to drag me all the way out here for it. A simple message would have sufficed.”
“Ah, but this isn’t what I called you for,” Taza flicked a switch, and the STD powered down. “I’ll be installing this soon, but I’ve got something else.”
Grimshaw raised an eyebrow again. “Then what is it?”
“Zora got her hands on a file for me,” Taza wiped his hands on his jacket while trying to contain his excitement. “It has revealed something that you have to see with your own eyes.”
“You’re supposed to be focusing on the mission.”
“That’s the thing. Something te
lls me this all ties together.”
“What do you mean?”
The Captain was beginning to grow irritable. Taza couldn’t blame him after being put through the ringer by the Council. He knew how that felt.
“See for yourself.” Taza swept a pile of spare parts on the workbench out of the way and revealed a small wall safe. “Zora thought it best to keep it in here in case other parties got wind of it.” He punched in the password, and the safe door hissed open. He pulled out a bundle of cloth as long as his forearm and unwrapped the artifact.
“It’s the same artifact you showed me before,” Captain Grimshaw said, unimpressed.
“Yes. But watch this.” Taza set the obsidian black prism on the edge of the workbench. He leaned in close to the item and whispered the ancient incantation he’d learned. Then, he stood back with his arms folded and waited.
Nothing happened.
“What’s going on, Taza? I don’t have time for this.”
Taza pointed at the artifact. “Just give it a second.”
They stared a little longer, and Captain Grimshaw was about to object again when the artifact pinged, drawing his attention. The top of the prism melted as though it were liquid and spread out to form an opened claw. A flaming red flower materialized above the device and danced in the air. An orange rune appeared on the black stone, and a line of smaller symbols appeared beneath. A hum emanated from the relic, and the workshop vibrated in unison with the flower’s erratic movements.
“What the hell’s going on?” the Captain said, looking down at his boots as the ground shook ever so slightly.
“Zora said it’s how the artifact speaks.”
“Speaks?”
“It communicates via vibrations. Don’t worry, though, you need to be within a few feet to feel it. Can’t you feel it speak to you?”
Captain Grimshaw closed his eyes for a second. “The vibrations come in patterns. Incredible,” he said, mesmerized. He took a step closer, reaching out for the stone.
Taza put a hand on the Captain’s shoulder. “Don’t touch. Trust me.”
Grimshaw retreated, never taking his eyes of the artifact. “What exactly is it trying to communicate?”
“We don’t know, but Zora suspects it has something to do with how one of the ancient races used to communicate. Maybe they spoke through touch. Perhaps it’s a language meant for computers rather than biological creatures. The AI on the North Star might know more.”
“The Tal’ri are still bent on never letting me back on that ship.”
“I guess that’s understandable. They know it’ll eventually allow the other races to challenge their authority.” Taza didn’t know what else to say.
“What about the inscriptions?”
“We haven’t been able to translate those yet, but Zora says the big symbol has something to do with the Fist of Orinmore.”
Captain Grimshaw’s eyes glazed over as he thought on that. “Isn’t Orinmore a Shanti deity…the all-mother?”
“The file Zora found in the Sentinel archives mentioned the Shanti and a gateway into the Shroud. Unfortunately, much of the file was corrupted over the ages. We were lucky to salvage what we did.”
“What makes you so certain the North Star’s AI can help?”
“It took us a while to put two and two together, but remember that Xerocorp Labs scientist you had us track down?”
Grimshaw nodded.
“We looked through the copy of the schematics we got from him.” Taza keyed a command on his SIG, and a holoform of the blueprints floated across the wall. “Originally, we were looking for signs of interference by Chimera. Fortunately, we didn’t find anything on that front. However, we did find this.” Taza flicked through the holoform files and stopped at the engine room drawings. He zoomed in on the primary reactor control panel. “Do you see it?”
Grimshaw leaned in for a better look, eyes squinting. Suddenly he stepped back and looked down at the artifact. “That recess is the same shape as the artifact. You think they’re connected?”
“It seems that way.”
“It has to be a coincidence.”
“That’s what I thought at first. But I ran several comparison scans.” Taza operated his SIG again and two individual shapes, drawn in blue light, appeared side-by-side before them.
“The artifact and the receptacle?”
Taza nodded. “The receptacle is a perfect match. But that’s not all. Watch this.” He zoomed in closer on the prism-shaped recess, revealing the faint outline of a rune etched into the metal panel.”
“The Fist of Orinmore,” The Captain whispered like it was a curse. “How is that even possible?”
“Over seven years ago, an Omnion gave me a data package and instructed that I send it to the Confederation Fleet before destroying the original.”
Realization registered on the Captain’s face. “You were the archagent who sent the North Star build plans?”
“You knew about that?”
“An Aegis friend told me the story on our way to Colony 115, but I didn’t realize that was you. They said he died when his ship core overloaded. I should have made the connection. You faked your own death when someone tried to assassinate you in a staged accident. It all makes sense now.” Captain Grimshaw paused, letting it sink in. “And an Omnion gave them to you?”
Taza noted the disbelief on Grimshaw’s face. “I know Omnion are nothing more than a myth to most people. But I assure you, he was an Omnion. He also gifted me the artifact. I guess it makes sense that they’re connected in some way.”
“I would have thought you crazy had you told me this a year ago. But after what I saw on Colony 115, I believe you. Have you managed to establish contact with this Omnion friend of yours?”
“I tried to track him down,” Taza sighed. “Let’s say, even if he’s still alive, he’s the kind of person who wouldn’t want to be found. Zora had contact with him in the past, but even she hasn’t been able to reach him lately. She thinks the artifact is a key for the North Star. What it does, though, is a mystery. Her guess is it allows passage into the Shroud.”
“When we escaped on the North Star, one of the engineers said something about a missing part. We need to speak to that scientist again, see what else he knows.”
“We already tried that,” Taza said. “He vanished. They all have. Even the scientist who gave us the North Star schematics has since disappeared. All records mentioning the engineers that arrived on the Sentinel with you have been deleted. Almost like they never existed.”
“Someone must have gotten to them.”
“It looks that way,” Taza said. “I get the feeling Chimera’s influence runs deeper than we think.”
“All the more reason to crack this code. I’ll request more resources. No doubt my motion will be blocked again,” the Captain spat. “I’ll be damned if we don’t work this out and get that ship back. Whoever gave the Confederation those plans gave them for a reason.” Captain Grimshaw pointed at the artifact. “This thing confirms how important the North Star is. It proves that it’s bigger than all of us.”
Taza was happy to hear that. “We’ll work it out soon enough.” He tapped the STD. “Then you can get me off this godforsaken place.”
“Find out what’s going on, and I’ll hold up my side of the bargain.” The Captain scratched his cheek the way he always did while thinking. “Have either of you told anyone else about this?”
“Of course not.”
“Good. Keep it that way. At the minute, we have no way of telling who’s on our side.”
“There’s something I should tell you.”
Captain Grimshaw looked at him with concern. “Go on.”
“Just before we met, the White Dragons boss in Bometown got his hands on the artifact. I don’t know if he knew what it was, but I believe he had it tested. Before Zora and I got it back, he mentioned something about another party being interested. For all we know, it could have been Chimera. The boss was killed, and w
ith the gang wars raging in the Underways…”
“Either way, there isn’t much we can do about that. For now, don’t tell anyone else and keep it secured. I get the feeling we’ll be needing it at some point.”
Taza leaned forward and whispered the string of sounds Zora had taught him again. The spinning flower stopped suddenly and folded in on itself, melting back into the black stone. The fist shaped emblem and inscriptions flashed out of existence.
Taza lifted it gingerly and placed it back inside the wall-safe.
Grimshaw’s SIG buzzed. “I have an important appointment this afternoon. Good luck installing the device. Keep me posted.”
“Of course, Captain.”
Grimshaw bade him farewell before slipping out of the workshop.
Taza fumbled with the STD and connected it to the shop’s primary scanning system. He wanted to run a more thorough sweep before installing it in Sentinel hardware. Then, he had to get it into place without being discovered by SenSec…or worse still, without getting fried by a maintenance bot. And for that, he’d need Clio, wherever she was.
5
Nakamura’s Crystal
Clio’s fingers dug into the chair’s armrest as Minister Straiya’s office door opened and closed behind her.
“It’s kind of you to wait for me, Ensign Evans,” the Minister said in her usual sultry tones. “You’ll have to forgive my tardiness, but your Captain has once again proven himself a pain.”
The Shanti minister emerged from the corner of Clio's vision as she moved to her own chair, tail swaying as she walked. She got herself comfortable and looked at Clio with a fanged smile. “It’s nice to see you again. And to hear that you passed the test with flying colors,” Straiya said, as though trying to contain her excitement. “I knew Talori was wrong. She’s a good judge of character, but she can be a little cynical at times.”
The Galactic Sentinel: Ultimate Edition: 4 Books with 2000+ Pages of Highly Entertaining Sci-Fi Space Adventure Page 40