by Trevor Wyatt
“You can’t possible mean—”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” Ashley grinned, and then hurried down an alley between two decaying buildings. She pointed to a small shuttle around the block, and Tira watched as three Udenar in full combat gear stepped inside of it. The drilling sounds were loud, but Tira could still hear the Udenar revving the engine of their shuttle up.
“Let’s do it,” Ashley said as the shuttle rose off the ground a meter or so, and then broke into a run down the alley.
She’s fucking insane, Tira thought, but followed after her commander all the same. As they came closer to the shuttle, they both dived down and grabbed one of the exhaustion pipes that ran underneath its solid frame. They did it just in time, as the shuttle sped up and started making its way toward the fenced area.
Holding tight, Tira tried to lock her feet on the shuttle’s surface, praying as hard as she could for the Udenar not to fly the shuttle too high—if they did it, both her and Ashley would be discovered in a heartbeat. And if that happened…well, Tira really wasn’t looking forward to what would follow if that happened.
The gods were on her side, though; she heard as the gates opened to allow the passage of the shuttle, and the next second they were inside the fenced area. Before the Udenar parked their shuttle, the duo let go of the exhaustion pipes and jumped onto the floor, rolling on the pavement and instinctively looking for cover.
“Urark zak!” Someone said, and the voice sounded just like the blend of a pig’s grunt and a human coughing out his lungs. The owner of the voice was an Udenar wearing a uniform and clutching a laser rifle on his hand. His beady eyes were wide, and they widened even more as Ashley pressed the muzzle of her side gun under the Udenar’s chin.
“Shhh,” she merely said as Tira quickly scanned the place.
“There!” Tira pointed to a small building at the back of the fenced area. She had noticed all the small cooling devices mounted on the rooftop of the building, and that probably meant that the facility servers were housed there.
If they accessed the servers, they could steal all the information that was being relayed back and forth from this mining site…and with that, they’d be able to finally figure out what the hell was happening.
Making sure they kept out sight of anyone else, Ashley and Tira slowly led their Udenar prisoner toward the server building. Luckily for them, the only place that seemed well-manned was the outer perimeter. The inner one was almost deserted, aside from one or two distracted guards.
“Open it,” Tira ordered the Udenar as they stood before the door that led inside the server building. “You’re a fucking dumb idiot, aren’t you?” She sighed, and then grabbed inside her pocket and brought up a small translator device that had been preloaded with the barely useful Udenar language. “Open it,” she repeated, and the translator repeated the order back to the Udenar. He grunted something which the translator seemed not to comprehend, and Tira was about to repeat herself when Ashley hit the Udenar hard, the butt of her gun connecting with the back of his head.
“Screw that,” she whispered, and then knelt beside the unconscious Udenar, rummaging through his uniform. She finally found a safety card, and pressed it against the door’s panel. Miraculously, the panel turned green and they heard the door unlocking itself.
“Come,” Ashley told Tira as she dragged the Udenar’s unconscious body after her. “Let’s rob them blind.”
Without a word, Tira followed Ashley and shut the door behind her.
Jeryl
After Tira and Ashley had gotten to the Udenar’s command center, there had been nothing but silence.
Jeryl couldn’t help but play in his mind all the different scenarios where things could have gone wrong. What if they’ve been captured? What if they’ve gotten in a fire fight and someone got shot? What if, what if?
“Sir, we’re receiving a transmission from Commander Gavin,” Mary announced, and Jeryl jumped out from his chair and crossed the CNC, wanting to look at Mary’s screen himself.
“Put her through,” he said, but Mary shook her head.
“She isn’t trying to communicate, sir,” she explained. “She’s sending us a data packet.”
“A data packet? That was fast,” Jeryl whispered, watching as Mary started the data’s download, a bar on one of her screens indicating its progress. Judging by what Jeryl was seeing, Tira and Ashley had somehow managed to get their hands on a lot of information.
“Done!” Mary finally announced as the download bar reached its end. “Should I open it?”
“No, encrypt everything and restrict all access—for my eyes only.”
“Aye, Captain,” she nodded, then started tapping away at her holographic keyboard. “Commander Gavin is on the line now,” Mary continued, responding to a message on her screen and patching Ashley in.
“Finally,” Jeryl whispered. “Commander, what’s your status?”
“We’ve gotten inside the Udenar’s command center,” Ashley responded, her voice coming in clear despite all the static in the background. “We’ve located their servers, and we’ve downloaded and transmitted back all the information they have stored in here. Have you received it?”
“We did, Commander. You’ve done your job, now get back to us.”
“Roger that, Captain,” Ashley responded. “It’ll take us a few hours, but we’ll be there. Over and out.” With no ceremony, Ashley shut down the communication line, taking all the background static with her.
So far, so good—the two women were doing brilliantly, and now all that Jeryl had to do was sit on his ass for six to seven hours. He trusted Ashley’s capabilities, but he knew he’d be anxious for the next hours all the same; after all, it doesn’t matter how capable you are, when you have an entire invading army shooting at you. And if Ashley and Tira were discovered, that’d be the result.
It’ll be okay, he tried to convince himself, then turned on his heels and started walking back across the CNC. “Mary, you have the bridge. I’ll be in the ready-room,” he stated as he made his way toward the door at the end of the bridge. It slid open as it detected Jeryl (it’d only open for him), and The Seeker’s Captain strolled inside.
Jeryl sat in front of his private workstation which was a toned down version of everything he had at his disposal on CNC, and turned the console on. He started accessing the encrypted files Ashley had transmitted.
“Captain Jeryl Montgomery. Clearance code, JMTS81292,” he said, and the AI immediately started decrypting all the files for him as it detected his biometric signals and recognized his access code.
“Let’s see what we have,” Jeryl started, his eyes scanning everything he saw on the holographic projection of all the files. There seemed to be a lot of maps. Some were of the whole planet, others were of specific regions. Jeryl opened one of them, clicking his tongue as he saw the red dots sprinkled across Galea’s surface; presumably, these would be the spots where the Udenar wanted their drilling and mining to be done. But what exactly where they mining?
Jeryl put the maps aside and started opening what looked to him like reports. They were written in Udenar script, and Jeryl had to order the AI to provide a translation. The AI then projected the English translation atop the original Udenar script.
Most of what was in the reports was useless: a lot of updates about Galea’s population control, troops’ deployment, and patrols made on the star system. Jeryl went through more than two dozens of these reports. He didn’t want to stay idle while he waited for Ashley and Tira, so at least this made him feel as if he was getting something done.
Then, a specific sentence popped out of the screen.
No signs of X436.
That sentence seemed to appear in a few reports concerning specific locations, so Jeryl immediately made a search for X436, telling the AI to comb through all the data Ashley had sent.
Then, things got even more interesting as the computer showed reports that included both No signs of X436 and Traces of X436
found.
X436—that had to be it! But one question remained all the same: what the hell was it?
“Computer, connect me to the New Washington Admiralty. I want to speak with Admiral Flynn. Make it a secure line.”
“Contacting Admiral Flynn,” the AI replied dispassionately, and Jeryl drummed his fingers against his workstation as he waited. With some luck, Flynn could still be at his office.
“Glad to hear from you, Captain. Do we have any good news for me?”
“That depends,” Jeryl replied, leaning back on his chair as he stared at Flynn’s holographic projection. Despite being old enough to be Jeryl’s father, the rough Armada veteran still had an air of youth about him. “We successfully infiltrated the planet, and managed to steal all the information stored on some local servers. Now we’re just waiting on our operatives to come back from Galea, and we’ll leave the star system.”
“Got it. Hand me whatever information you have, Jeryl.”
“As we speak,” Jeryl nodded, and tapped a few keys on the holographic keyboard. “From what I’ve seen in there, they seem to be looking for something called X436. Does it ring any bell?”
“Unfortunately, it does,” Flynn sighed, pursing his lips tightly. “X436 is the codename the Tyreesians have used for the mineral they use on their teleporter technology. Armada Intelligence has been going crazy with that ever since the Tyreesians successfully managed to pull that tech off.”
“And why the Udenar? What’s their role in this?”
“Galea is too close to Union borders. I figure the Tyreesians would want someone as their scapegoat if things went south. Besides, no one will expect the Udenar to be on the lookout for some scarce mineral. They’re using smoke and mirrors to hide the fact that Galea has a lot of that mineral they’re looking for.”
“And what mineral is it?”
“I’m not sure, Jeryl. Human Confederation refer to it as Bachnian crystal, but I don’t think they’ve discovered its use on teleportation matters.”
“I’ve never heard of that.”
“Of course you haven’t, Jeryl,” the Admiral sighed again. “These are Intelligence matters, and you know how they always keep their cards close to their chest.”
“So…you’re escalating this to Intelligence?”
“I have to Jeryl. But I already know what they’ll want to do concerning Galea.” Flynn sighed again, almost as if pained him to continue. He rubbed his temples with his thumbs, then looked straight at Jeryl.
“Tell me.”
“They’ll want you to glass the whole colony, Jeryl.”
“What?! There’s no way I’m going to do that—there are thousands of civilians down there!” Jeryl said, balling both his hands into fists.
“And yet, that’s what Intelligence will want. And they’ll make it happen, Jeryl, mark my words. This isn’t the first time we’ve came across a colony out of Union space that had Bachnian crystals. As far as Intelligence is concerned, if we can’t mine it ourselves…no one should be able to do it. This is an arms-race, Jeryl, and Intelligence won’t allow anyone to figure out teleporter tech before the Union does. Even if that means destroying entire colonies.”
“This is madness…”
“I know, but my hands are tied. And soon, yours will be too. This is the frontline, Jeryl, and as far as Intelligence is concerned, this is a fire you need to put out. After that, your orders will come. Most I can do is buy you a day or two.”
“A day or two, huh? And then I’m to rain down destruction on Galea.”
“War isn’t easy, Captain.”
“We’re not at war.”
Flynn laughed grimly.
“We’re always at war.”
Jeryl
It was hard for him not to run.
Jeryl walked across the flight deck, making his way toward Hunter 9 as Ashley and Tira climbed down from the cockpit. The two women had gotten rid of their worker clothes, and had changed back to their flight suits. They seemed exhausted—Ashley more than Tira, which was surprising—but they seemed fine overall. Even though Jeryl knew that he shouldn’t be worried anymore, he still felt all the anxiety from waiting pulsing in his bloodstream.
Right now, all he wanted to do was take Ashley in his arms and forget about the whole galaxy for five minutes.
I should’ve never sent her down there, he thought to himself. As captain, he’d always have to make the tough calls…but why did those tough calls always seem to involve the life of his wife?
“Good job,” he greeted the two women as they saluted him. “You got it done without having to fire a single shot, I’m impressed. At ease,” he continued, smiling at them. “You’ve done a tremendous job. Now that you’re back, I’ve already informed Ferriero and…” Jeryl paused for a moment, conscious that he had almost used Docherty’s name, and only then continued. “We’ll be out of this star system soon. In the meantime, I want you to eat and get some rest.”
“Thank you, sir,” Tira replied with a grin on her face.
She’s a tough one. She likes winning more than anything else, Jeryl thought.
“Dismissed,” he finally said, nodding at them. Tira nodded back with that victorious grin still on her lips, and then strolled out of the flight deck, holding her helmet between her hip and her elbow.
“So, did we get anything useful?” Ashley asked Jeryl promptly, closing the distance between them and looking around to ensure they were alone. A few flight engineers and mechanics were still milling around, but no one seemed to be paying attention to the captain and his first officer.
“Yeah, you did,” Jeryl nodded, and then motioned Ashley to follow him. He started walking across the flight deck, making his way toward one of the elevators. “Apparently, the Udenar are mining some crystal used in teleporter tech. Bachnian crystals, specifically.”
“So…they’re actually working with the Tyreesians? That’s odd.”
“I wouldn’t say with…they’re probably working for the Tyreesians. If anyone found out what was going on at Galea, they’d want to deny any involvement. Moreover, nobody would associate the Udenar with teleporter tech. The Tyreesians really don’t want anyone to figure out how they do it. The way I see it, the Tyressians are probably just paying the Udenar to get this done without having to get their own hands dirty.”
“So, what now?”
“Now…” Jeryl paused, taking a deep breath as he tried to figure out the best way to tell Ashley about what they’d have to do. “I’ve already contacted Flynn, and he told me this falls under the Armada Intelligence umbrella. They’ve been knee-deep in trying to figure out teleporter tech, and…well, according to Flynn, they’ve been glassing whatever planet has these Bachnian crystals.”
“What? That doesn’t make any sense!”
“If the planet isn’t within Union’s territory, and if someone is already on track to figure out the crystal’s location and use, some covert operation will be mounted and the planet will be destroyed. Their logic is, if the Union can’t mine, study, and process it…then nobody else should. Intelligence wants to avoid anyone getting a leg up on the Union. We’ll develop that tech sooner or later, I guess…but Intelligence wants us to get there before the others do.”
“And, really, is glassing a whole colony the best thing they could come up with?”
“I know, Ash, but…soon enough, we’ll have to do it. If not us, the Armada will send someone else to do it. Flynn told me he could buy us a couple of days before presenting his findings to Intelligence, but I have no idea what we can do with that time.”
“We can’t do this, Jeryl…I was down there,” she said, waving her arm around as if she was pointing at a planet in the distance. “There are thousands of civilians, all of them half-starved as they work their way into an early grave. Is this what we do? Help them get inside that grave faster?”
Jeryl responded with a sullen silence. It wasn’t what he wanted to do, but what were his options? He stopped in front of the ele
vator, and waited as the doors slid into their partitions to allow them in.
“There’s gotta be something we can do,” Ashley insisted, and Jeryl pressed his back against the elevator’s wall and closed his eyes. He ran one hand through his hair, thinking back to the Earth-Sonali war and to the way he fought tooth and nail to make the Galactic Council a reality. He figured it out then, didn’t he? So why couldn’t he think of a solution for this right now?
Because I’m tired of making everything worse, a thought echoed inside his head, popping out of nowhere to torment him. Because that’s what always happens when you try to outsmart the rest of the galaxy, isn’t it?
“But what exactly can we do, Ashley? Going against Flynn’s orders is one thing, but to go against Armada Intelligence…they’d never allow that. If we refuse to glass Galea, they’ll bring in someone else to do it, and then they’ll make sure we just vanish. All of us.”
“Jeryl, look at me,” Ashley said softly, standing in front of him and then pressing her body against his. Slowly, he opened his eyes and stared at his wife’s face. She had a gentle smile on her lips, one that reminded him of better times. “We are The Seeker, and we always figure things out. So, trust me when I say it…we’ll figure it out. One way or another.”
Jeryl just let out a sigh and nodded. What could he say to that?
“We’ll figure it out.”
Ashley
“You’re right, he’s my everything,” Lydia said, cradling young James in her arms. He cooed happily, waving his little hands in the air as Lydia smiled down at him. She leaned in slowly, then gave him a peck on the forehead.
“Always loved that name…James,” Ashley said, smiling as she took in the scene. She was sitting next to Lydia’s bed with her legs folded, watching the moment between the mother and her child. She didn’t know exactly why she did it, but she had started visiting Lydia every day. There was something about her that just called out to Ashley.