by G J Ogden
“Scanners are clear, Captain,” said Commander Banks. “There are no other ships in the vicinity.”
“You have the bridge, Commander,” said Sterling, feeling some of the hatred bubbling in his veins subside now that the Sa’Nerra and their puppet were dead. “Remain at battle stations. Take us back to the aperture and prepare to surge.”
“Aye, sir,” replied Banks, hopping across to the captain’s console.
Sterling jumped down off the command platform, intending to head to his ready room, but Lieutenant Razor stepped into his path.
“Permission to return to engineering, Captain,” Shade said. She stood tall, a calm look on her face, hands pressed to the small of her back. “It will be easier to co-ordinate repairs from there.”
“Granted, Lieutenant, keep me apprised,” Sterling said. Then he remembered how his new engineer had stolen the extra energy they’d needed from life support. “However, unless you plan on floating there, I’d suggest that you rebalance the power distribution back to normal before you head out,” he added. “I think we’ve all hung around in this system far longer than we’d like. Some more than others.”
Chapter 12
The Oasis Colony
Sterling allowed his mind to wander as his disembodied existence was held in flux during the surge to Oasis Colony. This was the last reported location of James Colicos, the disgraced scientist who Admiral Griffin had ordered Sterling to track down. It was a rare moment of serenity that seldom lasted long. As the Invictus completed its surge and exploded back into reality, the blare of alarms told Sterling that his temporary respite from danger had already ended.
“Weapons lock detected, sir,” announced Lieutenant Shade from the weapons console. “There’s a gatekeeper guarding the aperture. It’s an old design - pre-plasma weapons - but it still packs a punch.”
“Hold position,” ordered Sterling. “Keep our weapons offline. Show them that we’re not a threat.”
Sterling watched the old gatekeeper orient itself to face the Invictus, aiming its formidable array of mass cannons directly at their diminutive warship.
“Message from the gatekeeper,” said Commander Banks. “It’s automated. That thing is under computer control.”
“Let’s hear it,” replied Sterling.
Banks tapped a sequence of commands into her console and a computerized voice filled the bridge.
“United Governments Fleet vessel, withdraw from this system at once. You have ninety seconds to comply with this command.”
“They’re not very welcoming at Oasis Colony, are they?” commented Commander Banks.
“Respond to the gatekeeper that we’re only here to refuel, then we’ll be on our way,” said Sterling.
Banks tapped out the message and transmitted it. There was a tense wait then the gatekeeper replied in the same monotone synthesized voice.
“United Governments Fleet vessel, withdraw from this system at once. You have sixty seconds to comply with this command.”
“I’m reading a surge in power from the gatekeeper,” Lieutenant Shade added. “It’s definitely getting ready to fire.”
Sterling cursed, then turned his attention to Ensign Keller, who was already watching him, poised on the edge of his seat.
“Prepare an emergency surge, Ensign,” said Sterling, tapping his finger on the side of his console. “The closest exit aperture you can find will do.”
“Aye sir,” Keller replied, spinning his seat back to his console and working fast to program the surge vector into the computer.
“Widen the range of communications frequencies,” Sterling said, turning to Banks. “Announce that we have items to trade. Items that are hard to come by in the Void.”
Banks nodded, her fingers a blur of motion as she broadcast the message on all common channels.
“United Governments Fleet vessel, withdraw from this system at once. You have thirty seconds to comply with this command.”
Sterling gritted his teeth and tightened his hold on the sides of his console. “Ensign, are we ready to surge?”
“I need ten seconds, Captain,” his helmsman replied.
“Much longer than that and there won’t be anything of us left to surge,” Sterling hit back.
Keller continued to work furiously then finally finished his computations. “Surge vector programmed, heading to the aperture threshold now.”
“This is going to be tight,” said Commander Banks, anxiously watching the weapons platform on the viewscreen. Then her console chimed another message. “Wait…” she said, eyes flicking left to right as she read the communication.
“We’re going to be atoms in ten seconds, Commander, this had better be good,” said Sterling.
“It’s the system’s Marshal,” Banks went on, still working frantically. “He’s transmitted a gate pass. Standby…”
“Hold position, Ensign Keller,” Sterling announced, aiming his finger at Keller like it was a starter’s pistol.
The helmsman replied promptly, though with less assuredness than usual. Sterling couldn’t blame him on this occasion. If Banks was wrong or transmitted the code incorrectly, they were done for.
“United Governments Fleet vessel,” the synthesized voice of the computer began again. Sterling waited, feeling like every muscle in his body had tensed up. “Entry pass approved. Welcome to Oasis Colony.”
Sterling let out the breath he’d been holding for the last five seconds and almost collapsed forward onto his console. Banks looked similarly relieved while Keller looked on the verge of fainting. Only Lieutenant Shade had remained unphased by the experience, a fact that hadn’t gone unnoticed by Commander Banks.
“How the hell do you stay so cool, Lieutenant?” said Commander Banks, cocking her head in the direction of their weapons officer. “My ass cheeks were so tight just then I could have squeezed a lump of coal into a diamond.”
Shade’s eyebrows raised up on her forehead and she opened her mouth, but no words came out. Sometimes, there was just no way to respond to Mercedes Banks.
“Thanks for that nugget of information, Commander,” said Sterling, casting his first officer a sideways glance. “But now that we’re no longer under threat of annihilation, perhaps you could patch us through to the Marshal?”
“Aye, sir,” replied Banks, displaying an impressive lack of self-consciousness about her earlier statement.
The viewscreen then switched from an image of the gatekeeper, which had gone back to aiming its cannons at the aperture, to the face of a man.
“Mornin’, Captain. I’m the Marshal 'round here,” the man said, tipping his hat to Sterling as he spoke. “The name’s Masterson, but you can just call me Marshal.”
The Marshal expelled each word in a measured, methodical drawl that sounded slow and colorless to Sterling’s ears. He imagined that if he were forced to listen to the lawman for too long, he’d find the voice strangely soporific. The Marshal was also young, perhaps in his late twenties, Sterling considered, and was dressed in the old-West inspired attire that Void Marshals liked to adopt. In the case of Marshal Masterson, this comprised a black bowler hat and black suit jacket with a leather waistcoat underneath. However, unlike other Marshals that Sterling had come across, including the one they’d dealt with at Hope Rises, Masterson was also sporting a bushy mustache. This was doubly unusual because facial hair in general had been considered outdated and unsanitary in the Fleet side of the Void for over a hundred years. However, Sterling had to remind himself that many conventions in the Void differed to the norms of Fleet and United Governments society.
“Thank you for allowing us to enter Oasis Colony, Marshal,” replied Sterling. He didn’t have a hat to tip, so instead he offered a respectful nod in return. “My name is Captain Lucas Sterling of the Fleet Marauder Invictus.”
“Invictus, eh?” the Marshal said, clearly intrigued by the vessel’s name. “And are you? Unconquered, I mean?”
Sterling smiled. He was impressed that the Ma
rshal knew the meaning of the ship’s name, though it also gave something away about the man. It told him that the Marshal was educated and therefore potentially more dangerous than many of the other Marshals in the Void.
“So far, yes,” Sterling answered. The Marshal waited, perhaps hoping that Sterling would reveal more about the warship’s history. However, Sterling had no interest in giving the man more information than he had to.
“Well, Captain, we don’t see many Fleet ships at Oasis Colony these days,” the Marshal went on, maintaining his slow, deliberate style of talking.
“I’d imagine that your gatekeeper is a large part of the reason for that,” said Sterling, offering the Marshal a warm smile.
The Marshal laughed and tipped his head into a nod. “That thing has served us well over the years,” the man said, speaking as if the gatekeeper were an old farm workhorse. “It keeps the Sa’Nerra out too, for the most part, which is why we make it so unfriendly to visitors in general.”
Sterling could certainly see how the trigger-happy gatekeeper was an effective deterrent. Even so, if the Sa’Nerra did want to storm Oasis Colony, they’d still be able to overpower it with moderate losses.
“Do the Sa’Nerra not bother you at all here?” asked Sterling, curious as to why this particular corner of the Void had escaped the attention of the aliens.
“Sometimes,” the Marshal replied, shrugging. “I know that if they really wanted to, our old gatekeeper couldn’t stop them from barging in. But I reckon there are far easier pickings in the Void. Besides, folks in the colonies don’t take too kindly to intruders. It’s a shoot first, don’t bother asking questions kinda place, if you catch my drift?”
Sterling nodded. The Marshal’s answer made sense and satisfactorily explained why the Sa’Nerra had so far left them alone. Though Sterling also knew that eventually, once the belligerent aliens had harvested all the low-hanging fruit in the Void, Oasis Colony would be targeted too. For now, though, it certainly appeared that the colony lived up to its name. There were few other places in the Void that could be considered “safe” from the ever-present Sa’Nerran threat.
“We’re here in search of information,” Sterling said, turning the conversation to the business at hand. “We’re willing to trade generously for it, then we’ll be on our way. We have no interest in interfering with your way of life.”
The Marshal seem to chew the inside of his mouth for a moment then sighed. Sterling wasn’t sure whether it was a sigh of relief or disappointment.
“Well, that’s good to hear, Captain,” the Marshal said, though nothing about his droning voice suggested the news had pleased him. “Still, if you don’t mind, I’d like to escort you during your visit to Oasis Colony,” the man continued, eliciting an eyebrow raise from Commander Banks. “Folks here get a little jittery around strangers, especially those that turn up in Fleet uniforms and warships, packed with all manner of deadly weapons.”
Sterling nodded respectfully again, though out of the corner of his eye he could see that Banks had become more unsettled.
“Of course, Marshal, that sounds perfectly reasonable to me,” said Sterling, amiably.
“Grand, Captain,” replied the Marshal, returning a smile of his own, though his was harder to distinguish due to the mass of hair attached to the man’s top lip. “If you’ll be so kind as to follow me to the spaceport at Sanctum City on the third planet. I’ll meet you in the lobby of Hotel Grand just outside the main port.”
“Understood, Marshal, we’ll follow your lead,” said Sterling.
The Marshal tipped his hat a final time then the viewscreen cut off. Sterling could already feel Commander Banks' eyes drilling into the side of his head.
“I wouldn’t trust that guy as far as I could throw him,” said Banks, not mincing her words.
“I imagine that you could probably throw him quite far,” Sterling hit back, though he understood his first officer’s point well enough.
“As far as you could throw him then,” Banks said, appearing unamused by Sterling’s brush-off.
“Don’t worry, Commander, I don’t trust him either,” replied Sterling, which seemed to set Banks slightly more at ease. “But we have to play his game to find out what we need to know.”
Ensign Keller then spun his chair around to face the command platform. “I’ve received co-ordinates for Sanctum Spaceport on the third planet in the system, Captain,” the helmsman said. “The Marshal’s ship is already under way. Should I pursue?”
“Yes, Ensign, follow him in,” replied Sterling.
“The last time we dealt with a Marshal, things didn’t end well,” said Banks, stepping to Sterling’s side. She then rested back on the captain’s console with her arms folded.
“That’s something of an understatement,” replied Sterling. He glanced over to Lieutenant Shade, remembering how she’d ended up competing in a series of cage fights on Hope Rises.
“Perhaps this time, things will go better,” added Banks, with a little shrug.
Sterling smiled. He knew the look in his first officer’s eyes and could tell plainly that she didn’t believe a word of what she’d just said.
“I very much doubt it,” replied Sterling.
Banks flashed her eyes at Sterling then pushed herself off the console. “I’ll speak to Shade and make preparations then,” she said, sliding around the rear of the command platform. “Let’s hope she’s in the mood for another fight.”
“When is she ever not?” replied Sterling.
Banks snorted a laugh then moved over to Lieutenant Shade to discuss what would come next. Sterling turned his eyes back to the viewscreen and fixed them on the old mark one Fleet Destroyer that Marshal Masterson had salvaged and made his own. It was a timeworn ship, with a captain that held true to old-fashioned ideals, one of which was a deep distrust of and animosity toward Fleet. Sterling’s mind was already racing, coming up with plans and contingencies should Banks’ warnings prove true. No matter what happened, he fully intended to leave Oasis Colony with the information he needed. However, he also accepted that achieving this goal would likely have a cost in blood.
Chapter 13
The mystery of Fardepp-Neyn
Captain Sterling stepped off the Invictus’ cargo ramp and onto the asphalt surface of Sanctum Spaceport. If he didn’t know better, he could have imaged himself on one of the colony worlds in Fleet space, rather than inside the Void. The spaceport was a bustling hive of activity with ships arriving and leaving with regularity. Many of the vessels were, like the Marshal’s own phase one Fleet Destroyer, salvaged from space battles that occurred long ago. There were heavily modified Sa’Nerran vessels, old Fleet designs and even some hybrids. Several miles away Sterling could see a busy skyway, connecting the city of Sanctum to the various other towns and settlements across the earth-like third planet of the system.
“This place is organized,” commented Commander Banks, stepping off the ramp beside Sterling and folding her arms. “For people to stick to the skyways there must be some form of governance here.”
“And also policing,” Sterling added, with a more ominous tone. “People don’t stick to the rules by choice. They do so for fear of reprisal.”
Sterling then spotted Marshal Masterson’s ship on a landing pad a few hundred meters away, though the Marshal himself was nowhere in sight. Then his eyes fell on a grand-looking detached building off the main spaceport. It was built using modern construction materials, but had been made to look like it was timber framed. There was a tall, signboard-like frontage above it that read, “Hotel Grand.”
“Looks like that’s our destination,” said Sterling, nodding in the direction of the building, which he had to admit lived up to its name.
Lieutenant Razor jogged down the ramp. She stopped at the bottom, closed her eyes and breathed in deeply.
“It’s nice to get a lungful of real air for a change, don’t you think?” said Razor, standing with her hands on her hips. She somehow loo
ked even taller than Sterling remembered her being.
Banks sniffed the air then shrugged. “Air is air,” she said, dismissively.
Razor opened her eyes, turned to Sterling and tapped the computer wrapped around her left wrist. It unraveled itself from around the engineer’s arm and formed a solid rectangular screen.
“These are the items I think we can spare, in exchange for the information you need, sir,” said Razor, showing the list to Sterling.
Sterling skim-read the contents, seeing nothing on it that caused him any concern. “Very well, get it all ready to roll out,” he replied, casting his eyes back to the Hotel Grand. “Hopefully, this will all go smoothly and we’ll be away from here within the hour.”
“If wishes were horses,” said Banks as Razor jogged back up the ramp into the cargo hold of the Invictus.
“If wishes were horses?” replied Sterling, frowning at his first officer.
“We’d all have one,” said Banks, appearing surprised that Sterling didn’t know what she was talking about. However, Sterling merely maintained his bemused frown. “Come on, Lucas! If wishes were horses then we’d all have one.”
Sterling shrugged. “What the hell would I want with a horse?”
Banks rolled her eyes and sighed. “It just means that we rarely get what we wish for, that’s all,” she said, appearing annoyed for needing to explain herself. “Like a smooth trade with a Void Marshal who clearly likes us only barely more than a bout of gonorrhea.”
“Point taken,” replied Sterling, noticing Lieutenant Shade out of the corner of his eyes. She had been scouting the area and placing her commandoes on guard in positions around the ship.
“Everyone here is armed to the teeth, sir,” said Shade, acknowledging Banks with a respectful nod. “There are legitimate traders, but a lot of these ships bear the scars of recent battles, as well as old ones,” she went on, surveying the spaceport. “Half of them are likely pirates, bounty hunters or privateers of some kind.”