by J W Murison
A sparkle returned to the Emperor’s eyes. ‘A simple deception. Yes, it should work.’
‘Deception! I sincerely hope that if they are innocent then you will let then return home.’
‘They are all guilty of dereliction of duty.’
‘Each of them were fooled in one way or another into believing that it was just a normal evening. Until you discover exactly how they were fooled, you cannot blame them.’
‘I can do what I want.’
‘Do you really want to start a pissing contest with me right now?’
The Emperor rolled an eye downwards. ‘It is probably the only physical contest I could win against you Captain.’
Charlie was caught flatfooted by the remark and suddenly burst out laughing. ‘I think you would win that one outright sir.’
The Emperor also burst out laughing. ‘I would only deprive them of a week’s wages, something like that.’
‘That sounds fair to me. Just don’t tell them that until after we have interviewed all of them.’
‘I won’t. I will savour that decision until we know for sure how it happened.’
It didn’t take long to set up. The Emperor was alone with Charlie, but they both had communications to those outside the small booth in one of the city ship’s police stations. The interviewer looked simple to even Charlie. A quick dip into his mind told Charlie he was anything but simple. He understood exactly what was expected of him.
The first one came in, petrified for his life. Charlie waited until he had visibly relaxed a bit.
‘Innocent.’
He was allowed to leave and was ushered out. Within fifteen minutes they were coming in nice and relaxed, almost smiling. They were seventy into the process when one showed signs of nerves. Charlie didn’t have to tell the interviewer, he spotted it as easily. They went through the routine, and Charlie read the man’s mind.
‘He is innocent, but he is hiding something.’ Charlie communicated to the interviewer.
‘A moment please, I need to pee. An old man’s bladder you understand.’
The old man joined the two in the back booth. He looked down at Charlie. ‘You are right, he is hiding something, but why do you think he is innocent?’
‘Look at his expression and the way he is fidgeting. He isn’t in mortal fear for his own safety. He has just seen seventy of his fellows come out alive and in good cheer, but he has something on his mind. He saw one of his superiors do something, and doesn’t quite know what to do.’
‘Why a superior?’
‘A superior, or a friend. Something is holding him back from speaking.’
The old man studied the operator carefully. ‘I can see the nuances in his behaviour now you have pointed them out. You’re right, he doesn’t seem in fear of his life, but he is still nervous. He must know the interview is almost over.’
‘He wants to speak. The thing is, he will be betraying someone.’
‘His only loyalty is to me.’ Growled the Emperor.
They both gave him a glance. ‘How do you suggest I proceed?’
Charlie suddenly smiled. ‘I think the Emperor should go in and remind him of his obligations to talk about anyone he suspects.’
Before anyone could say anything more the Emperor took off out of the door. The operator was visibly shocked and jumped to his feet. The Emperor was easily a full head taller; he looked down his nose in the most regal manner at his disposal.
‘My people tell me you are innocent of all crimes, but you know something. Your only loyalty is to me. Speak of what is on your mind, or feel my wrath.’
The operator sank slowly to his knees. ‘Forgive me my Emperor.’ The Emperor walked back out and was replaced moments later by the old guy.
‘Please get up. Sit down. Now, tell me what is on your mind.’
He gulped very loudly. ‘Last night I was asked to leave my post by my commanding officer.’
‘I see, what is your post?’
‘I have a supervisory position in the department that monitors the other side of the sun.’
‘Where everything happened last night. I see. Are you allowed to leave your post?’
‘Only during official breaks, or when commanded to do so by a superior officer.’
‘I see, so what were you ordered to do?’
‘Go fetch him a Ganblah from the canteen sir.’
‘Is that unusual?’
‘He normally has his runner do it, but he never turned up last night for some reason.’
‘So, you didn’t think anything of the command, am I right?’
‘There are a dozen other operators lower in rank than I am. I thought it was strange. I checked the footage of the time I was away, but there was nothing unusual at all. In fact, there was no traffic whatsoever.’
‘Is that unusual?’
‘No, not at all.’
‘Nothing else?’
‘No sir.’
Charlie confirmed it.
‘You have done your duty, and done it well. You may go home.’
Charlie looked up at the Emperor. ‘Why is your face contorted in murderous rage?’
‘Can you read me so damn easily?’
‘Aye.’
The Emperor sighed. ‘I should have had you executed a long time ago.’
Charlie barked a laugh. ‘Again huh!’
The Emperor frowned, he knew this Human well enough to know that he wasn’t referring to their first real meeting. ‘Why shouldn’t I kill that operator?’
‘He did his job, and he did it well. He was suspicious of his officer and he checked all the traffic coming and going while he had been away. How many have we talked to already that the same thing happened to, but the operators thought it perfectly normal and have said nothing?’
‘Then why didn’t he report it last night?’
‘Who to? His commanding officer? Can we please take a bite of the reality cherry here? What the officer did was well within regulations, or so it seems. I bet even you don’t know them.’
‘Of course I don’t know an operator’s regulations.’
‘Makes sense though.’
‘What does?’
Charlie got on his communicator. ‘Can you come in for a moment?’
The old man appeared and smiled congenially. ‘Yes, what can I do for you?’
‘You have that operator’s details?’
‘Yes, he is a section chief, although not an officer. Wonderful record, commended for excellence a number of times. His impediment to officer rank is his low born status. That’s about it.’
‘If his commanding officer did something wrong while at his station, then that must be the level where you can affect the whole system. I know nothing about this stuff. To move this process along we need to talk to all the section chiefs. Start with the non-officer, ones like him.’
‘You suspect my officers?’ The Emperor snorted.
‘You know I’m not really a Captain, right!’
‘You are an officer now, whether you like it or not.’
‘That would be not then.’
The Emperor shook his head. ‘You were a commoner far too long.’
‘We are becoming side-tracked.’ The old guy interrupted.
Charlie and the Emperor scowled at each other.
‘The Captain has a point, your highness. The officers have more knowledge of the system and higher clearances. They are also a closed club. If there were one or two involved in any way, the chances are they would not have colluded with the ordinary ranks.’
‘Good point Master Binns. You see Charlie, there is a proper way to say things.’
‘I will try and bear that in mind, so as not to cause so much offence wherever I go.’
‘Now you are thinking like an officer.’
A major reshuffle of the waiting operators was undergone and results started to come faster. Although each of them were innocent, each of them had been asked by an officer to undertake some strange mission during their shif
t. The Emperor was livid. So far six of his officers had been indicted in some kind of conspiracy. The chief interrogator suggested allowing the men back to their work and concentrating on the officers; the Emperor agreed. It was then things began to go wrong. None of the suspected officers could be found. An immediate alert went out; all officers were recalled. There were a dozen missing.
The Modloch security services went into overdrive, Charlie was dragged from place to place, meeting to meeting. Three hours later it looked like they were getting nowhere.
Charlie and the chief interrogator were standing at the side of a large hall. The Emperor was berating an officer at the other side. They were so far away they couldn’t hear what he was saying.
‘Who is that?’ Charlie asked.
The interrogator glanced up from the pad. ‘The Chief of the division. Why?’
‘Because he is hiding something.’
That got the interrogator’s attention. ‘What?’
‘I’m not quite sure what the Emperor is saying, but whatever it is, the answers he is getting are contrived and lies.’
In fact, Charlie was right inside his head, and knew he had found the culprit. The problem was how to convey it; he was already sending the details to Steven.
‘Are you sure Human?’
‘Positive, that’s our man.’
‘We will need to work quickly. Give me some questions.’
The Modloch began to move and Charlie stayed by his side.
‘What do you two want?’ Snapped the Emperor. ‘I thought I told you to stay back.’
The interrogator bowed to the Emperor but directed a question directly at the General.
‘General Molava, do you know anything about this incident?’
‘No, what, who the hell are you?’
‘He is lying.’ Charlie glanced at the Emperor who looked fit to burst.
‘Who is this Human? How dare he call me a liar!’
‘Please answer my questions General. Do you know what has happened to your officers?’
‘I will not answer you.’ He spluttered.
‘He knows something.’ Charlie interrupted.
‘Answer the questions.’ The Emperor growled. A strange stillness had come over him.
‘Do you know what has happened to your officers?’ The interrogator asked again.
‘No I do not.’
‘He is lying.’ Charlie kept his voice neutral.
‘Do you know how this managed to come about?’
‘No.’
‘He is lying.’
‘General, are you responsible for all of this?’
‘No I am not.’
‘He is lying. That’s your man.’
The Emperor cranked his head round and down. ‘Are you sure Captain?’
‘Positive; in fact, for the last and final time, I will stake my life on it. If I am proved wrong, you can execute me.’ The Emperor seemed to be having a very hard time taking it in. ‘Trust me.’
The Emperor cranked his head back round. ‘Which ship took them away?’
‘I have no idea, this is preposterous!’ The General roared in defiance.
An image flashed into Charlie’s mind and he sent it to Steven.
The Emperor called in his guard. ‘Gord, take the General into custody.’
The General’s eyes fixed onto Charlie, ‘How dare you Human, you will pay for your lies!’ He went for his pistol, but Charlie was quicker. He locked his hand down on the General’s holster. He howled with indignation and a huge fist crashed towards Charlie, who caught the fist and squeezed. The General quickly forgot about his pistol. He howled in pain, sinking to his knees. Gord and his men arrived and quickly disarmed him. They dragged the General away.
The Emperor was looking down at Charlie with a pained expression on his face.
‘Does he mean something to you?’ Charlie asked.
‘He is my cousin, my childhood companion and one of my best friends. We went through everything together.’
‘I am truly sorry to hear that. They say it is lonely at the top.’
‘It seems to get lonelier with each passing year. I hope you are wrong.’
Charlie shook his head. ‘I wish I was. Sorry.’
‘Right or wrong, I will not hold you to account. You may go.’
Charlie bowed and a few seconds later dissolved in front of their eyes.
‘Where on Modloch did he go?’ The interrogator asked in surprise.
‘His ship has the capability to beam then anywhere, in or out. Matter transportation.’
‘Amazing.’ He sighed. ‘He could be wrong sir.
‘He is never wrong. Unfortunately. Let’s get his over and done with. I want the machine on him. Do not harm him any more than you have to.’
The interrogator bowed low. ‘I shall have all the answers for you in an hour’s time my Emperor.’
Chapter 34
‘Shouldn’t Charlie be at this meeting?’ Colonel Howe asked.
‘He has a severe migraine. We will need him later, let him rest.’ Steven answered. ‘Have you had any luck Hailey?’
‘Yes sir. Luckily for us the freighter, Malingus, passed close by a few days ago. We still have a record of their engine signature. It is a freighter from the Shewll Mining group, manned by many different species and renowned for taking on the kind of jobs that no one else will even look at. The company was first set up to carry ore and refined materials, but branched out about a hundred years ago into general freight. The freighter itself is a newer version and can travel a lot faster than the company’s normal ones, close to the speed of a modern destroyer in fact. We can travel faster, but it will still take us about two days to catch up. By then we will be in intergalactic space.’
‘Thank you Hailey.’ Steven looked across the table. ‘Dr Barnes, what is our legal position here?’
‘As far as I know we have none. We have no right to stop, seize or board that vessel. If we do so we will be breaking the law. All we can do is call in the federation forces.’
‘What if a Modloch battle group catches up to them?’
‘Same laws apply to them, but unless there is a Modloch battle group on station ready to cut them off, they won’t catch them before they are in enemy territory. Will the Emperor risk a conflict to get his bee keepers back?’
Steven shook his head. ‘I don’t know. Right now, I am thinking he would. We need to catch up with them and assess the situation.’
A few hours later Steven was back on the bridge. Sid Tulane spun his seat around.
‘Captain, there is a communique from Modloch high command to all vessels in their space. They have put out a stop and search of a freighter called the Malingus. It is a Royal Proclamation, with a huge reward. They are also looking for the engine signature for the Malingus.’
Steven thought it over. ‘Send the engine signature through the proper channels Sid.’
‘Yes sir.’
‘What’s going on Stevie?’ Buzz asked.
‘They must have broken the Emperor’s cousin. He has given up the name of the freighter, but it’s fairly obvious that he has deleted the engine signature of the freighter from their databases.’
‘Wouldn’t their military have it?’
‘Only if they passed close enough to a military vessel. It is easy enough to avoid them if you know where they are.’
‘Which they would do.’
Stevie scratched his head. ‘I imagine they would have stayed in civilian traffic lanes and hid among civilian traffic. Where did we encounter it Sid?’
‘We simply passed within a few thousand meters of each other in different lanes. I can give you the coordinates.’
‘No, I have no doubt that there will be many vessels that have recorded their engine signature in passing.’
Sid sent the signature. ‘Just received a communique from high command: thank you, they already have it.’
‘With that kind of reward they must have been inundated.’ Steven was n
odding his head. ‘Anything else Sid?’
‘Yes sir, they are sending out a joint Human-Modloch taskforce to track it down, on our present bearing. It should be ready to go almost immediately.’
‘Hailey, can you put up on screen our present course and a projection of where the vessel may be now. I also want a projection of where they are going to be in two days’ time when we catch up with them, and a possible destination.’
‘Give me a couple of minutes sir.’
‘Certainly.’
It did only take her a few minutes. The forward screen lit up with heavenly bodies and a number of lines.
‘There are no major planets or solar systems on the course they are on sir.’
‘So where are they heading?’
‘It looks like Catatarac space, to an area we are very familiar with.’
‘The asteroid belt?’
‘Very close to it. Remember the Catatarac space station, the one that was taken over by their military?’
‘The one they towed their damaged ship to?’
‘That’s it sir. It’s the only thing on a direct path with them.’
‘I remember it. It must mean they are going to cross-deck their prisoners.’
‘You sure?’ Buzz asked.
‘Sure am bud. I think that will be our only chance of grabbing them. We can beam them straight out and make a run for it.’
‘Will we make it?’
‘Should do, we can go faster than anything they have; or the Albany for that matter. Let’s make a plan.’
‘Sounds good to me.’
‘It looks like we will catch up with them just shy of the border of Catatarac space.’
‘If a Modloch and Human fleet cross that border, will it mean war?’
‘Pretty much. I would imagine there is something pretty nasty waiting for them in there.’
Steven wasn’t wrong either. They caught up with the freighter just short of the border, but a full light year before that the freighter was surrounded by a Catatarac fleet. It wasn’t their only problem though. It had taken Charlie a full hour to get all the information that Steven required. The levels of concentration were so intense Charlie came down with another blinding migraine and Steven sent him to sick bay. It was up to Steven now to prepare a plan. He gathered the men he required. Komoru was linked into the briefing from Ico.