Predator (Old Ironsides Book 3)

by Dean Crawford

  Nathan saw at once another hard light barrier around a corpse strewn in the center of the roof. He could see the clothes of a young woman but they seemed odd, not hugging the victim’s frame but almost hanging off it like limp sails from a ghost ship’s rigging. As he followed Foxx to the scene, Emmanuel spoke to them.

  ‘This is how we found her, or at least what’s left of her.’

  Nathan slowed as he saw the woman’s face and for a brief moment his brain could not process what he was actually looking at. A moment later and the grim visage resolved itself into a skull that seemed to have been crushed inward from all sides, the black orbs of the eye sockets empty and the skin pulled taut across warped and shattered bone.

  ‘Jeez,’ Foxx uttered as she crouched down alongside the corpse.

  Nathan could see that the woman’s long, damp brown hair snaking across the rooftop and the nearby high heeled boots that had slid off her desiccated feet. Her limbs and torso were a shell, the bones of her ribs and chest poking up from beneath her shirt, her ankles narrow as twigs.

  ‘What the hell happened to her?’ Vasquez asked Emmanuel.

  ‘That’s the first thing we asked,’ the detective replied. ‘We’ve got nothing, and the paramedics and doctors we’ve called and sent data to have no idea what could have caused this. All we know is that her name’s Erin Sanders and that she lived in a block just over the street. This was her route home from the Mag Rail station down the block.’

  ‘Did they establish a time of death?’ Foxx asked, still staring at the mummified remains.

  ‘Best guess from what tissue remains would be between nine and eleven yesterday evening, which ties in with an emergency distress call made at the same time.’

  ‘She called in?’ Foxx asked, standing up.

  ‘Just before half ten last night,’ Emmanuel confirmed. ‘The local precinct sent a cruiser out but there was nothing to be found and the uniforms didn’t notice the blood stains here initially because it was raining so hard. They put out an alert for the missing woman, who they couldn’t find at her apartment, but beyond that there wasn’t much they could do. It was only when the administrator of the building conducted a routine safety check and came up here that the body was found.’

  ‘Which means that the vic’ must have been taken elsewhere and then returned here afterward,’ Nathan said, ‘otherwise the uniforms would have seen the body on the rooftop when they landed.’

  ‘That’s what we figured,’ Emmanuel confirmed, ‘but it beats the hell out of me why somebody would do that. This woman looks like she’s literally had the life sucked out of her and that’s what the coroner’s first impression was.’

  Allen winced. ‘Sucked out of her?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Emmanuel said, noting their expressions. ‘There’s not a drop of body tissue remaining inside her body. It’s like she’s been mummified, bone dry, ‘scuse the pun which ain’t intended. I’ve never seen anything like this and neither has anybody else in the precinct. We got no witnesses, no evidence, nothin’ to work on. We figured maybe black market organ traders, but we don’t get so much of that on south two and thought you might give us a heads’ up here.’

  Nathan crouched down alongside the woman’s body and thought for a moment.

  ‘What about her ID chip?’

  Every person alive within human space was fitted shortly after birth with a personalized Implanted Designator, or ID for short. A liquid cell quantum storage chip the size of a fingernail, everything about a person was recorded and stored for future use. The law stated that no ID chip was ever to be tampered with, but a vibrant market existed for those able to afford tinkering with their ID and thus evading law enforcement.

  ‘Gone, and non functional, or so we assume as we haven’t been able to locate it,’ Emmanuel replied. ‘Whoever did this to her took the ID chip with them.’

  ‘Which means they either knew that the chip existed,’ Nathan said to Foxx, ‘and wanted to get rid of it.’

  ‘Or they didn’t know about the chip and it’s now been destroyed,’ Foxx went on and then gestured to the woman’s neck, the skin of which was heavily bruised and discolored. ‘That bruising, right there. Is that consistent with strangulation?’

  ‘Quite the opposite,’ Emmanuel said, ‘according to the coroner it looks like the result of swelling and haemorrhage. Like something was shoved down her throat.’

  Nathan and Foxx exchanged a glance. ‘We’re gonna need help with this,’ he said.

  Foxx pulled out a communicator and contacted CSS. ‘Can you send Doctor Schmidt here, if he’s available?’

  ‘Oh no,’ Nathan sighed, ‘not him, surely?’

  ‘He’s the best qualified physician we have,’ Foxx said as she shut off the communicator. ‘Trouble is he’s still posted aboard Titan and we don’t know when he’ll get here.’

  ‘Good,’ Nathan said. ‘That’ll give us the chance to finish up and leave before he arr…’

  ‘Too late!’

  The voice burst into life from within Nathan’s head and he leaped in fright, jumping to one side as though he had been ambushed as he saw Doctor Schmidt’s ephemeral holographic form shimmering into life where he had been standing.

  ‘Will you cut that out!’ Nathan snapped.

  Doctor Schmidt stood with his hands clasped calmly before him, a serene smile on his features that never seemed to slip. Middle aged in appearance, Schmidt was in fact well over two hundred years old and one of the most experienced holosap physicians in the fleet.

  ‘I apologise, Detective Ironsides,’ Schmidt intoned, ‘but Detective Foxx’s call came in on a high priority channel and I didn’t have time to choose a clear spot to project myself. I was forced to target the nearest ID chip instead.’

  ‘So you projected yourself straight into my head, again.’

  Schmidt offered him an ingratiating smile. ‘It was the one that had the greatest available empty space.’

  Nathan refused to be baited and said nothing as Foxx gestured to the corpse. ‘What do you make of this?’

  Emmanuel activated his optical implant. ‘Sending you all the data we have on the victim now.’

  Doctor Schmidt blinked as he accessed the data, and then he looked down at the corpse.

  ‘My, interesting.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Nathan said, ‘I’m sure she said that as she was being turned inside out. Any jewels of wisdom you wanna share with us?’

  Schmidt’s smile faded gradually as he looked down at the victim’s body. ‘So young,’ he murmured. ‘My assessment based on the haemorrhaging around the thorax, the upper chest cavity and the absence of any detectable bodily fluids is that this poor woman was subjected to some kind of biological procedure.’

  Foxx frowned. ‘Biological?’

  ‘Yes,’ Schmidt replied. ‘The only thing that could possibly do something like this would be mechanical, a machine of some kind. The rupturing and internal injuries, as well as the warped skull cavity and fractured chest plate, suggest that force was applied but without sharp edges.’

  Nathan looked again at the corpse.

  ‘What the hell would do something like that?’

  ‘An utter psychopath,’ Vasquez replied.

  ‘I agree,’ Schmidt said. ‘A killing such as this absolutely has to be planned and prepared, so it’s not likely to be a one off event. Whoever you’re looking for is capable of absolutely anything and will likely strike again, soon.’

  ***

  V

  CSS Headquarters

  New York City

  Hurry.

  The word echoed through Director General Arianne Coburn’s mind as she walked upon a travellator through the enormous complex of CSS Headquarters. Behind her strode a phalanx of CSS Security guards and with them several senators. Nobody knew why the call had gone out for the director general to attend an emergency security meeting, but the fact that the call coincided almost perfectly with the expected arrival of CSS Fortitude at Ayleea plagued Arianna’s m
ind as she willed the travellator to move faster.

  The Central Security Services complex was located in north Manhattan, surrounded by landing pads and hundreds of giant holographic icons denoting the flags of all earth’s historic nations united under the banner of the CSS. They were not there just to advertise the unity of CSS: rather, they reminded all of the fragmented and untrusting nature of history’s warring nations and the reason for the existence of the CSS and its archaic forbearer, the United Nations. Defensionem ut impetum : Defense as attack, or so the old motto of the CSS went. Despite its name the organization was more like a senate with no offensive role, only the ability to govern earth and its colonies and to request action by the CSS Fleet and Armed Forces if such action was required. Until Titan had been required to enter earth orbit to save New Washington from destruction at the hands of the Ayleeans a year previously, no human warship had entered earth orbit in earnest for over a hundred years.

  The travellator carried Arianna to the entrance of the main senate hall, and she alighted with the grace and poise that those around her had become accustomed to seeing. Arianna had learned long ago that leaders needed to appear confident at all times, regardless of what turmoil they might be keeping inside. The fact that she felt dread with every step was something she could afford to share with nobody.

  The senate’s huge amphitheater was filled to capacity with senators, congressmen and other lawmakers all in heated debate, a thousand voices colliding as Arianna strode toward a central podium that looked up at the politicians surrounding her. Located atop the CSS Headquarter’s highest levels, a domed ceiling revealed earth’s wintery skies and a city flecked with recent snowfall. Arianna’s flowing senate robes of white rimmed with gold captured the attention of the senators as the amphitheater’s huge double doors thundered shut behind her. The crowd reacted to the sound, taking their seats as the rush and whisper of conversation died down and Coburn took the podium.

  ‘Senators, Congressmen, representatives of the people, this session has been called due to unexpected events beyond the fringes of our solar system,’ she said, her words echoing around the huge building as though hers was the voice of a deity. ‘I request that Rear Admiral Vincent O’Hara provide the explanation for this gathering.’

  Arianna saw a larger than life hologram shimmer into view to take apparently solid form. The projection of the Rear Admiral, a senior officer in his early hundred twenties with wavy white hair and cold blue eyes, dominated the chamber as he spoke.

  ‘Senators, as many of you will know, CSS Fortitude arrived in the Ayleen system some twelve hours ago. She was carrying Senator Isabel Gray and other delegates tasked with signing the agreement that would formally bring the Ayleeans into our alliance. I regret to inform you all that after arriving in the Ayleean system, all contact has been lost with Fortitude and her crew.’

  A ripple of uncomfortable whispers fluttered like a live current around the amphitheater as the admiral went on.

  ‘We have since confirmed that the ship arrived safely in Ayleean orbit, at which point her Identification Friend or Foe signal was detected as functioning normally. After approximately two minutes the signal was lost. There was no communication from the crew, and we believe from analysis of what signals we did receive that she was being jammed.’

  Arianna noted that this final statement was met with silence. Politicians were not men of war, although in history they had frequently been enthusiastic war makers. She imagined that their minds would be empty of reaction because they simply had no real idea of how to react. The admiral’s next words anticipated their lack of response.

  ‘We believe that the Ayleeans have reneged on the deal and have either taken Fortitude as a prize of war, or destroyed her and are holding her crew and compliment hostage.’

  A further silence followed, deeper than the last.

  ‘Do we have any evidence to support this assumption?’ Arianna Coburn asked the admiral.

  ‘None,’ he replied. ‘But in light of Ayleean history, it would seem prudent to assume the worst. It has always been their stated goal to destroy humanity, to lay waste to the home world that we once shared. It is no secret that neither I nor any of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have believed this accord with them to be anything other than a dangerous precedent and one that leaves us vulnerable to attack.’

  Now ripples of acknowledgement drifted through the senate, understanding beginning to form.

  ‘The fate of Fortitude may not be the work of the Ayleeans per se,’ Arianna pointed out. ‘There are elements among them who also oppose the alliance, who may have sought through subterfuge to attack or take as a prize the vessel and her crew.’

  ‘Risks that the Ayleean Council knew well they needed to take measures against,’ O’Hara countered. ‘If they truly wished this accord to become formal, they would have provided adequate protection for Fortitude the moment she arrived in orbit.’

  A ripple of approval fluttered through the crowd, the first hint of dissent against Coburn’s long awaited alliance with the Ayleean Council.

  ‘We moved too quickly!’ called a senator representing human colonies on Proxima Centauri, a system once brutally attacked by an Ayleean force and the site of a massacre at their hands. ‘Now we are vulnerable again!’

  ‘The Ayleeans cannot be trusted, ever!’ cried another. ‘We warned the senate that this would happen, that any agreement with them would only be honored for as long as it served a purpose to them, not us!’

  Admiral O’Hara stopped speaking as he appeared to turn to a display screen not visible in his projection from Polaris Station, the military’s orbital platform around Saturn. Another senator stood. ‘The Ayleeans could be attempting another infiltration of our space at this very moment!’

  More ripples and murmurs of agreement from the crowd.

  ‘Have we attempted to contact their Council?!’

  ‘What defenses do we have in place on the Outer Rim colonies?’

  ‘They breached our space last time and almost destroyed New Washington! How could we have let this happen?!’

  Arianna Coburn closed her eyes as the wave of protests and fear rose before her like a dark wave. Slowly, she raised her hands, no longer listening to the words of the crowd and instead waiting for the raucous to die down. Slowly, one by one, the senators fell respectfully silent until Arianna lowered her hands once more and spoke.

  ‘The admiral cannot answer your questions more than one at a time,’ she said.

  Admiral O’Hara inclined his head toward her and went on as he glanced at the mysterious screen in his command center.

  ‘The Ayleean Council is not responding to our signals,’ he said. ‘Furthermore, we have just learned that our long range sensors are detecting no signals at all from the Ayleean system.’

  Now, the senate hall fell silent and Arianna’s heart felt as though it had missed a beat.

  ‘No signals at all from the system?’ she echoed.

  O’Hara nodded. ‘The Ayleeans have fallen entirely silent. All spectrographic traces of technology and industry have disappeared from sensor readings at Polaris Station.’

  Now there was a deep silence throughout the senate hall. For all of their faults and their warlike nature, the Ayleeans were a technologically advanced species in their own right and they had a tendency to make a lot of noise both literally and figuratively. All industrialized colonies had a vivid spectral and radio signature that could easily be detected, the signals spilling from the colonies radiating outward in all directions at the speed of light. Earth’s own fledgling society had been emitting radio waves out into the Milky Way galaxy for the past five hundred years or more. Although those signals would be weak at their greatest extent they created a beacon for any advanced civilization located or travelling within a sphere five hundred light years in diameter that loudly proclaimed: we’re here!

  For an entire world to suddenly fall silent was unheard of…

  ‘What would you have us do?�
�� Arianna asked the admiral.

  O’Hara responded without hesitation.

  ‘We should send an armed, fast frigate force out to the location and find out what the hell is going on. If the Ayleeans have reneged on the accord then we need to know about it as soon as possible, because whatever they’re planning it won’t be good.’

  ‘And if they’re not planning something?’ Arianna added, letting the question hang in the air for a long moment.

  ‘Then we have much bigger problems on our hands,’ the admiral replied. ‘I will dispatch the frigates Endeavour and Defiance to the Ayleean system under the strictest orders that they be prepared for the worst. O’Hara out.’

  The admiral’s holographic projection shimmered out of existence and left the senate hall silent for a few moments more before a lone senator stood up and spoke, her voice clear for all to hear.

  ‘Is it possible that they have returned?’

  Arianna Coburn knew precisely what the senator was referring to, and the memory of what had happened so close to earth, of how close humanity had come to extinction, shuddered through her.

  ‘Yes,’ she replied, seeing no sense in dodging the issue or uttering empty promises. ‘It is possible.’

  Although the public had not been made aware of it, after a closed doors senate session had voted to maintain secrecy, some months before CSS Titan had intercepted a vessel of unknown origin after detecting a distress signal from an Ayleean warship far beyond the outer colonies. The result of that intercept had been “First Contact”, an encounter with an alien species that had shaken to the core all those who had encountered it. Witnesses, which included military personnel and police detectives from New Washington, had been sworn to silence.

  Nobody spoke for several long moments, until Arianna shook herself from her torpor and addressed the senate.