by Frank Carey
"Psychology," Gloria said. "Between operations the bay is normally dark. When they check the fire alarm they'll find a blatant malfunction which they'll fix in the morning. As for us, Protector has several much larger ships stored in that bay. They won't notice one more, especially if it's properly tied down. All I'll need to do is input Melete's mass and berth into the computer. That'll make it official."
Nersa looked at Tobath for sanity and found him smiling and nodding his head. "She's brilliant, isn't she?" he said.
"Thank you, kind sir, please continue," she said.
"Can't we just pull-up alongside and use an airlock?
"Unfortunately, getting through an airlock is like trying to sneak into a bank vault. Sensors, vid, multiple-redundant security, all designed to keep people out."
"So, it will be easier to get inside with a ship this size than just using a door?" Nersa asked, amazed.
"Yes, at least we think so. Worst case is we’ll find a security team waiting for us when we come down the ramp," Tobath observed.
"Or they could just blow us out of space." Gloria said without looking at either one of them.
"Yes, there's that, but I think the chances of Protector using a secondary weapon on us are minimal. Capt. Thurgood doesn't seem to be the shoot-first-type of captain," Tobath said as he sealed his paint containers and put his brushes in a jar of cleaner to soak.
"Enough! I get it," Nersa said as she rubbed her temples, "along with a headache. Let me know what the probesats find. I'm going to the lounge to get some coffee and headache powder." She walked off muttering something about daft people.
"Will she be okay?" Gloria asked, concerned that they had upset Nersa.
"She'll be fine," Tobath said. "Nersa is the most resilient person I have ever known. She used to be a practicing engineer and a cop, so she's use to using odd solutions to solve intractable problems." He walked to a console and punched several buttons. The probesats lifted off the table and moved to the center of the bay where they stopped and hovered.
"I hope this works," Gloria said as she stood with her arms crossed and watched the two "rocks" quietly floating in the air above the deck in front of her.
"Me too," he replied as he opened the bay door. He pressed another button and the two fake asteroids shot out the opening and into space where they immediately jumped to FTL. Without a word, he closed the bay door.
"Come on," he said. "We can monitor them from the lounge," as he led the way out of the bay.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Everyone stood around the holotable in rapt anticipation as the images and sensor data from the two probesats was displayed above its surface. The FTL streamers gave way to stars on a black background. "Coming up on wreck in three...two...one," Gloria said as they watched. She noticed Arriska squeezing Tobath's arm. Gloria felt for the young ruler. She knew every person who died in the attack, so seeing the site must be torture.
"Full sensor scans beginning. PS1 moving off one hundred clicks from PS2 on a parallel course. Beginning tumbling sequence."
"Yoh, bro, what's with the movement?" Erik asked as he took a drink from a bottle of some unknown beverage.
"So, no one knows they're not rocks, silly," Glit said as she watched, enthralled by the theatrics.
"And having two asteroids traveling together could raise suspicion," Nersa added.
"Exactly," Tobath said as he slowed PS1 and adjusted its course to that it was traveling away from PS2. "Anyone who looks at them needs to see rocks, not highly advanced probesats."
Gloria was monitoring the two sats from another part of the table. "I’m detecting no debris and no bodies. Shifting scans to one thousand clicks radius. Still nothing."
"I saw the pod telemetry files. We should see at least one of the ship’s engine cores. I think the hostiles cleaned up the area." Tobath pressed a button which caused a small flare in the corner of the screen.
"Brother, what that was?" Muusta asked.
"Prayer marker for the souls of those who died. I met the captain once. He was a deeply religious person and would appreciate a guide into the Great Beyond. This hole is dry. I think it's time we move on. What do you think Princess?"
She looked up at him with a tear in her eye. All she could do was nod and hug his arm.
He looked up at Gloria and nodded. She pressed a button which caused the stars to be replaced by FTL streamers.
"We have ten minutes before the probes return to real-space," Gloria said as she walked over and rubbed Arriska's upper arm while quietly saying, "Sorry."
Arriska gave Tobath a quizzical look. "You believe?"
"I take comfort in thinking there is something beyond what I can measure or explain. The captain was a true believer in both the Great Beyond and the Queen. He swore to give his life to protect you and he did. I will do what I can to help him on his journey."
"But you carried a marker with you?"
"No, I carved it by hand according to the ancient rituals. I started working on it when we picked you up and you were able to tell us what happened."
"He would be honored."
Kaylon joined them while the others talked amongst themselves. "You okay, Princess?"
"Yes, I'm better now that I have closure. Kaylon, you're not Erdexi are you?"
"No, I'm a Tralaskan Tyen."
"We have heard of these Tyen, but none of my people have ever seen one. Is it true you are great warriors?"
"The others are. I just try to be a good musician."
"I don't understand. The people who hijacked the Arriska were Tralaskan, yet none of them looked like you?"
"Yeah. No Tyen would ever do what they did. According to legend, the Tyen gene only exists in females. It's activated when the Tralaskan race faces great danger. The more of us you have running around, the more dangerous the situation is."
"How many of you are there?"
"I think the official number is around a dozen, but that doesn't include me."
Arriska gave a quizzical look.
"That's because she doesn't want to be found," Alby said. "Even though she has the strength of ten men, senses so acute she can hear a fly walking across the deck, and a brain that thinks so fast she can outstrip a normal NAVComp, my sister is a pacifist who faints at the sight of blood."
Kaylon gave Alby a deprecating smile while punching him in the arm.
"But she's a great musician, I'll give you that," he added.
"People, the probes are about to arrive," Gloria said.
They returned to the table just as the streamers disappeared only to be replaced by an image of Protector docked to a huge asteroid festooned with shuttle bays. "Scans indicate at least four hundred ships distributed throughout the asteroids volume. Most are in stasis storage," Gloria said, astounded by the sheer number of ships.
"Damn, the age of the artificial structures inside is pegged at pre-expulsion--almost two thousand centuries," Tobath said as he ran the numbers through Silvestri for a second time.
"Who are these people?" Glit asked.
"That's odd," Tobath said as he reran more scans and cross-checked the results with the Martok database. "Arriska, could you double-check this for me?"
She reached over and ran more tests. "Confirmed. The asteroid is heavily contaminated with adium."
"What the hell is adium?" Gloria asked having never heard the term.
"Adium is a highly unstable isotope of adamantine. Early Martok ships were powered by adium drives. It fell into disfavor when much safer antimatter drives were developed."
"Is there enough adium on site to power the ships?" Nersa asked.
Tobath and Arriska checked several figures before answering. "No, we're picking up residual amounts. The station is being powered by an antimatter source located in a ship parked at the rear of the station. The ships are useless except for putting together a museum."
"Where would you get adium from?" Kaylon asked.
"Uh oh. I've seen that look before," Alby said
as he watched his sister. "She's put on her thinking cap."
Tobath answered, "It's a byproduct of adamantine mining found in the tailings. Those tailings can be processed to render out the adium. The material has an incredible power density." He grabbed a muffin from a nearby plate and threw it to her. "That amount of fuel-grade adium would power a large city for ten years."
Kaylon looked at the muffin and said, "Wow," before breaking it up and handing pieces to the people around her. "Wouldn't Northcal Six have tailings piles?" She popped a piece of muffin in her mouth while looking at Tobath with raised eyebrows.
Gloria typed rapidly on the keyboard. "Billions of metric tons of tailings spread over the back side of the planet dating back one hundred fifty years. The operation has been likened to turning the planet inside out."
Miriam walked up to the table and stared at the image of the asteroid floating in midair. "We're missing something. I'm sure the mining co-op would gladly sell the tailings to whoever is running the asteroid, so why bring in Protector? Sure, it's a big ship, but not any bigger than some stored in the asteroid. Why attack P'Kena, and then clean up the wreckage? None of this is adding up. I can think of a dozen completely innocent scenarios to explain most of this."
"She's right," Nersa said. "We've got a war started by the actions of a group of Tralaskans led by a Halcyon, a bunch of Halcyon who may or may not be running the asteroid station and who may or may not have been involved in the destruction of the Princess's ship. Finally, we have Protector whose crew and Captain may or may not have mutinied and who are now parked next to the aforementioned asteroid." She sat in a chair, brought her knees to her chin, and rested her cheek on them while she thought. "Miriam, you said you can think of a number of innocuous scenarios that could explain most of this, right?"
"Yes, mum." Miriam replied as she finished her muffin piece.
"Well I can think of several that end very badly for a large number of people. We need more data. Muusta, what have we got in the way of personal weapons?" Nersa asked as she formed a plan.
"Stunners to repel boarders." He took a pistol from a drawer and held it up for all to see. "Stun most Leaguers they will, but useless they are against Venlanten, Tyen, and Martok," he said as he shot Tobath point blank. It had as much effect as a flashlight.
"I wonder how they would fare against Halcyon." Nersa asked. "What about Erdexi? They seem to be kissing cousins to the Halcyon."
"Unknown. Manufacturer doesn't list them yet either as yea or nay."
"Wait a minute," Tobath said as he ran out of the room. He returned moments later with something wrapped in velveteen cloth. "I did a favor for an Earth spacer and he gave me these in return. They’re similar to the ones you trained with, Princess."
She carefully removed the cloth and found two curved swords, one shorter than the other.
"Oh, Tobath, they're beautiful. I read about these. The long one is a katana and the short one is a wakizashi. They were worn by ancient Earth warriors known as the samurai." She took one from its case and felt its balance while examining its construction. "This is not a reproduction. The edge looks sharp enough to split a hair. Thank you," she said while replacing it in its case. She leaned over and kissed him on his cheek.
"We have weapons and a target. When we touch down I want Glit, Mariam, Tolk, and Alby to stay with the ship."
"Awe, mom," Alby said as he started to pout.
"Alby, remember the last time you mixed it up with a non-human? You bit her and threw up for a week. Anyway, you're the best close-quarters fighter we have and Glit needs protected."
"Okay, if you say so."
"The rest of you gear up and get ready to roll. Tobath, brief our guests."
"Yes, mum."
As the others walked out of the lounge, Arriska and Gloria gave Tobath quizzical looks.
"Brief us?" Gloria asked as she shut the projector down.
"Yeeeeah. My siblings aren't your typical musicians, not even the members of RDF."
"How so?" Arriska asked.
"Like I said before, Nersa used to be an engineer and a cop."
"I seem to remember someone telling me that," Gloria said dryly.
"She was getting a degree in engineering--a Masters if I'm not mistaken," Tobath explained. "She worked full-time as a parole officer for wayward youth to pay her way. Everyone in the family and the three people in RDF are her ex-parolees."
"They're criminals?" Gloria asked as she hung her head.
"No, they're wayward youth that were given a new life by Nersa. They just happen to have a rather varied skill set."
"Varied? How varied?" Arriska asked while crossing her arms.
"Let's see, computer hacking, lock picking, petty theft, breaking and entering, pickpocketing, explosives, weapons, grifting, and vehicle theft."
The two women looked at him as if he were growing a tree from his forehead.
"Those sweet looking kids? Really?" Gloria asked with a look of amazement on her face. "Wait a minute. Kaylon is Tyen, isn't she?"
"Yeah. She’s also one hell of an explosives expert and burglar. She turned while aboard the ship, and she can hear the tumblers slide past one another. I saw her pick an unpickable lock with one claw, but damn can she play the guitar."
"What about Muusta?" Arriska asked.
"Weapons and hacking. Truly an artist with plastic explosives."
"I think I need to sit down," Gloria said as she sat down on the couch with Arriska quickly following her. "Does Relay know all of this?" She asked referring to the family member who was a Space Marine and who had arranged for Tobath to join the family.
Tobath nodded. "It gets better. When we're not playing gigs, we're doing jobs for OffSec. We're off the books right now, but that can change."
"OffSec has a Martok working for them?"
He nodded again. "Relay ran it past our handler before offering me a place in the family. She was ecstatic to say the least. Don't tell Dir. Devlin next time you see her. We're above her pay grade."
"Are you insane? She's a member of the Council of Twelve. There's nothing higher than her pay grade."
He pointed to his chest. "We are. So, that's it. Now you know our little secret."
"One last question," Gloria asked. "I know you're new and all, but how well trained are the rest of your family? Are they really good enough to go on an operation of this magnitude?"
Just then Glit came in to grab a bottle of water. "Glit, how well trained are you guys?" Tobath asked.
With the cutest smile on her face, Glit reached down, picked up a butter knife off the table and flung it at an exceptionally ugly wooden statue on the mantelpiece above the room's fake fireplace without looking. The knife embedded itself in the middle of the statue's forehead. "Really, really well trained," she said as she walked out with her water.
Tobath just looked at the two with a shrug and a smile. "What can I say?"
CHAPTER TWENTY
The Melete was fifty thousand clicks out from the Protector's last known location when Glit activated the stealth field and dropped out of FTL space. To any nearby observer, nothing happened. No flicker, no flash of light, not even a stray neutrino. Nothing, just the usual meteoroid or stray cosmic ray.
"We're back to real-space and decelerating," Glit said as she took a gulp of energy drink. "Beginning scans of asteroid. Budda-bump-bup," she sang to herself as the ship did her bidding.
"Ms. Glit, I must compliment you on a smooth transition from FTL," Silvestri said as he ran scans of the area for her.
"Why thank you, Silvestri. Anything interesting on scan?"
"Yes, mistress. The Protector is docked on the starboard side of the asteroid. There are two patrol ships orbiting one hundred thousand clicks out, but there's no sign they have been made aware of our existence. ETA three minutes, mark"
"Thank you, Silvestri," she said as she reached over and activated the intercom. "Yoh, people, you got three minutes, so hustle." She flipped the intercom off and to
ok another sip from her drink before flexing her fingers. "Silvestri, get ready cause the Glitster is about to rock."
"Yes, mistress, I am standing by," he replied.
In the lounge Tobath, Gloria, and Nersa stood at the holotable and started the hack while the others waited at the forward shuttle bay.
Gloria started typing commands into the console so fast that neither Nersa nor Tobath could follow. "I'm in. I’ll have a talk with Billy about security," she said before launching into a strange and haunting tune somewhere between whistling and humming. "Got it. Glit, time?"
"Ten seconds, mark!"
The ship flew over the top of the much larger warship and hovered, unseen and undetected. "Go!" Glit said as she switched her controls to precision mode.
"Who-who, Protector's got a fire in the bay!" Gloria quipped. Tobath switched a viewer to the Melete's belly camera and watched the massive bay door opening as atmo started to leak from the weakened containment field sealing the bay door. "Glit, show time!" she called out.
The Melete slowly descended into the bay even before the doors had completely opened.
"Silvestri, lateral distance?" Tobath asked, worried. The doors looked awfully close.
"Six inches, sir," the NAVComp replied.
"Shit," Nersa said as she started to second-guess her decision.
"Show-off," Gloria muttered, impressed at the young Torsan's flying skills.
"Deck coming up! Three feet. Two feet. One foot. Hovering!"
"Kaylon, go!" Nersa yelled into the intercom. When Glit heard this, she deactivated the stealth system so Kaylon could see the ship to guide it.
Kaylon made sure her hat was straight and light sticks activated before running out through the forward containment field into the partially decompressed bay. Being Tyen, she could easily handle the lowered air pressure. She ran to the front of the Melete and guided Glit into a designated berth. Once the ship was settled, she activated the deck locking system which insured the Melete was both moored and connected to umbilical connections. Seeing all was well, she ran back inside the ship as the door started closing behind her.
"We're in," she said into the intercom.