by Marc Stevens
The dust had barely settled when the shields on the shuttle flared yellow white from Scrun heavy weapons fire. I heard a sinister laugh over our comms, then Klutch yelled out, “Eat scat you slaver Throggs!” The shuttles main weapons fired four times, putting a permanent end to the Scrun gun emplacements. It was overkill, but that was something the Tibor were famous for.
Klutch came running from the cockpit. “Commander, they are surrendering — we should not give them a chance to change their minds!”
We quickly followed the Troop Master off the shuttle and charged into the cavern. I was not prepared for the sight that met me. The rear of the chamber was stacked to the ceiling with slave crates, all were occupied with aliens of every description. There had to be more than a thousand. I could feel my rage building and yanked my shotgun from its clip. Tria, Coonts and Klutch had a group of Scrun cornered in front of a huge crater where one of the gun emplacements used to be. My HUD gave me a count of thirty-seven. Somewhere among them had to be the leadership of this operation.
“WHO IS IN CHARGE HERE?”
None of the prisoners made a move or said a word. That was not the recommended response in my deteriorating state of mind. Pulling my weapon up I clicked it over to penetrator slugs. My actions had all of the Scrun extend their hands forward with the fingers splayed upward. The beast in me decided it was a little too late for that, I cut down more than a dozen before the slugs ran dry. My crew raised their weapons and the pleading slavers all pointed to a building with a large window facing the slave crates.
They were yelling out, “Omarro Lashmos hides in the control room!”
I stalked toward the big vault style door of the control room with murder on my mind. Klutch called to me. “Commander, what do you want to do with these pieces of sewage?”
Before I could say what was going through my mind, Tria decided she would make the decision for me. She pointed to several very unsanitary looking crates that must have recently held slaves. For the Scrun, it was going to be a very tight fit.
“GET INTO THE CRATES OR YOU WILL DIE WHERE YOU STAND!”
A few balked; Coonts and Klutch rectified the situation permanently. The rest hastily squeezed themselves into the crates without further ado. I threw my arm up and turned the control room door into molten slag with a single shot from my beam weapon.
I felt a tug on my arm and saw Tria holding on to it. “Nathan, I am here for you!”
I stood for a moment staring at her and then as if nothing had happened, I blinked and shook my head. “I hope that never changes.”
Her visor momentarily cleared and she smiled at me. “Let’s find Lashmos’s descendant before Sael makes her way here.”
She unclipped her shotgun and waved it in the direction of the control room. “We must hurry. I no longer hear the sounds of battle coming from the entrance cavern.”
We ducked through the mess I had made out of the door and into the control room. It was obvious that someone had deliberately destroyed several pieces of equipment. We also noticed a large bag of credit vouchers setting on a control panel. What we were not seeing was Omarro Lashmos. Was this some sort of trick to lure us inside? If that were the case, and it was intended to trap us, they should have sprung it on us as soon as we entered. There had to be some sort of hidden chamber. The equipment on the walls surrounding us looked like it was all performing some function. We gave everything a cursory tug to make sure there was not a door behind it. This was getting us nowhere and I was starting to get pissed. I thought about getting one of the Scrun to point out where Omarro was hiding, and if that did not work out, I had twenty more to choose from.
I turned for the door to fetch my first volunteer but almost tripped over Tria who was on her hands and knees pulling at the rubber-like grate covering the floor. I backed up a couple of steps and she pulled a large section up. Underneath was an almost invisible outline of a hatch. The Throgg was hiding under our feet. There was no handle to open it with, and every weapon I had, would make a mess out of the whole room. I thought about the other Scrun, but it would not make much sense for them to know how to access the hidden chamber. Omarro was most probably the only one with the access key. The piece of shit was not going to get out of this that easy. I would turn the chamber into his grave before I would just walk away.
34
There was a very good chance we were being monitored by Omarro and he had to have seen how easily we breached the entrance. It would not take a genius to figure out we could do the same to the hatch on his hideaway. I took Tria by the hand and lead her back to the entrance. As we exited I turned and pointed my beam weapon at the hidden chamber. It was going to be the grave option.
Tria pulled my arm down. “Let me see if he will surrender rather than die.”
I stepped back to let her give it a try but had my doubts as to whether it would work. The rumors of how the demon operated, were wide spread among the Scrun and Murlak.
“We are taking the slaves. Come out now and turn over all your credits, and we will spare your life. I will count to three and then my Commander will kill you where you hide!”
“ONE”
“TWO”
The hatch popped open and two gangly arms thrust two large cases out onto the floor, and then another. “I AM COMING OUT, AND I AM UNARMED!”
I commed Klutch. “Troop Master, put a slave crate in the cargo hold of Eagle One.”
“Roger that, Commander.”
I stood back and watched as Tria marched Omarro out of the control room. She was carrying the three large cases and hurrying the Scrun along with the toe of her boot.
“Coonts, help me search Omarro’s hideout. I don’t want to leave anything behind.”
“On my way, Commander.”
I climbed down into the chamber and looked around. I took a serious dislike to the enclosure that displayed the Scrun’s slaving awards. I knocked it over and stomped it to pieces.
Coonts came down the ladder and smiled at my tantrum. “I do not believe he will be receiving any more of those.”
Hanging on the wall next to a control panel were some very ornately decorated weapons. The fool had a chance to go out in a blaze of glory but declined to give it a try. Judging by the numerous screens, the piece of sewage had a front row seat to the battle from the time the Operative touched down.
Coonts peeked around me and gave the surveillance equipment the once over. “Excuse me, Commander.”
I stepped back and let him examine the displays. He ran his fingers over some kind of board while squinting at the displays. He frowned and then his hands started moving faster. Multiple displays started changing from one scene to the next so rapidly I was becoming confused as to what he was doing.
“Quit screwing with that thing and let’s finish searching this place.”
“Commander, these are the recordings of everything the Scrun did when the alarms sounded. If you will look closely, you will see Omarro’s underlings pulling the data cubes from the communication equipment. They give them to Omarro and he retreats to this bunker with them. Since I do not see any devices designed to erase or destroy the data cubes — they are still here somewhere, or Omarro has them. We are going to want to take a look at those. They might contain information exposing other facilities like this one or persons of interest we may wish to talk to.”
Damn! I would have never thought to look at the recordings. Coonts was right, this could lead us to others involved with the Scrun. In order for the slave business to be profitable, it has to have a distribution network of reliable vendors willing to sell the illicit merchandise. If we eliminate the outlets and destroy the distribution centers, it will be a warning to those involved to find another line of business.
“Tria, ask Omarro what he did with the data cubes from the comms equipment. If he doesn’t answer, start cutting things off until he does.”
Coonts and I waited to hear back from Tria. Coonts sat patiently; me not so much. When I had my fill of w
aiting, I decided to go ask Omarro myself. I did not have to — he made an appearance faceplate first onto the floor at my feet. I looked up out of the chamber entrance and saw Tria standing with her arms crossed and Klutch with a big toothy smile. I guess they decided they did not need to escort him down the ladder. The Scrun finally quit groaning and crawled to where I stomped his trophy case to pieces. He turned to me with a look of contempt on his grotesque face. Apparently, he must have cherished his slaving awards. I extended my climbing hooks and the expression promptly changed and he quickly dug through the mess until he found what he was looking for. There were three faint indentations on the floor where the display case used to sit. He touched them with his fingers and a tube extended from the floor.
Coonts, reached down and grabbed it and examined the contents. Omarro started blubbering about something and his cyclops eyeball was big as a basketball. I waved my razor-sharp climbing hooks in his direction, and he promptly shut up. I turned back to Coonts and he was holding an encryption key in his hand. Before I had a chance to comment, Justice called to us.
“Commander, the Sig shuttles have returned and Sushi is requesting a status report.”
The withering stare I was giving Omarro made him shrink back into the corner of the room. I tried to let my anger simmer with a call to Sael. “Senior Operative, we have secured the slaves and the Sig are ready for rescue operations.”
“We have completed our mission and are ready to withdraw. Unless you have further need of my combat troops, we will start extraction procedures. Give us thirty minutes to collect the remains of my strike team, and you can bring the Sig in. I expect a full debrief when you are finished here.”
The transmission ended, but not my growing anger at Omarro’s continued deceit. Coonts must have thought I was going to kill Omarro. He stepped between us and handed him the encryption key.
“Your lack of complete cooperation has nullified our agreement to spare your life. I recommend you quickly rectify your transgression before my Commander dismembers you and wears your entrails like the trinkets you are so fond of displaying.”
The murderous mayhem the Oolaran beast was offering up took a back seat to Coonts grisly statement. No one in their right mind should find humor in what he said, but I had to bite down on the evil snicker that almost escaped my lips. The slaver grabbed the key and dove headlong into the mess I had made. He started tearing at the floor grating. Using the encryption key, he opened another smaller chamber under the floor and then crawled to the side, pressing himself into a corner once more. Coonts and I leaned over the opening and I stared wide eyed.
I let out a piercing whistle. “Tria, Klutch, we are going to need your assistance.”
Coonts, pointed at Omarro. “Pull everything out of there!”
The Scrun crawled back to the hide and started pulling case after case out of it, setting them on the floor at our feet. Fifteen, to be exact. Evidently, they believed I would attempt to destroy, or abandon the facility. They probably had a specialized team tasked with recovering their buried treasure in the event of a major catastrophe.
I stood over Omarro. “This is your last chance, what else have you hidden from us?”
“I swear to you, I have held back nothing! We know that you took my clan sibling Judrow and his staff from our military facility. If you have not killed him, he can verify what I tell you is true!”
That statement gave me pause. It answered one of the questions I had planned on discussing with Sael at some point in the future.
Coonts, commed me privately. “Commander, this piece of sewage might be able to tell us why the Chaalt took his sibling and do not wish to tell us about it.”
It was exactly what I was thinking as well. If we carefully chose our questions, we might learn everything the Chaalt decided we didn’t need to know.
“Put him in his new residence aboard Eagle One.”
Coonts smiled. “Gladly Commander!”
He quickly hustled the Scrun from the Chamber as Tria and Klutch came back for more of the cases. Between the three of us, we gathered the rest and got them loaded on the shuttle. I left five cases sitting at the base of the boarding ramp. It was time to bring in the Sig.
“Justice, open a secure channel to the Sig and let them know we are ready to evacuate the slaves.”
“Affirmative, Commander. Signal sent.”
I let my crew know we would be leaving as soon as I spoke with Sushi. It was only a matter of minutes before the Sig combat shuttles started arriving. One sat down beside our shuttle and Sushi disembarked. He strode up to me with a smile on his face.
“It is good that you are well, Nathan Myers. You have executed an admirable operation. To see so few take such a large installation is an eye-opening experience. My report back to Tam Lin will confirm that you are indeed quite formidable. Many of my people believe the information we have gathered on your exploits to be blown out of proportion. I am going to take great pleasure in informing them that all of the speculation about the demon’s abilities are true.”
I rolled my eyes knowing Sushi would turn this into some kind of wild ass tale. I wondered if he would even mention my crew or the Chaalt troops. I doubt that I could dissuade him from doing otherwise.
I pointed to the cases. “Could you please see that one of these makes its way to Tam Lin? The rest is for you and your people.”
Sushi’s smiled broadened even more. “You should know that we recovered a large quantity of credits on board the Scrun ships we captured. My intelligence report states that the captains of the ships had recently sold their illicit cargo and had come here to gather more.”
I loved it: we were hurting the Scrun where it universally hurts everyone — the wallet! As I walked to Eagle One, I called back to Sushi. “The Throgg in charge of this operation went to a lot of trouble to hide the majority of his credits. Evidently, he believed they would be able to retrieve them. If it were me, I would prepare a surprise for whomever comes to collect them.
He waved me off. “We sincerely hope they try!”
I pointed to the remaining Scrun that were crammed into the slave crates. “We tore the place up pretty good, so I left you some help to clean up the mess.”
Sushi saluted me and I boarded the shuttle. I hoped this was another small step that would make the allies of the Scrun sit up and take notice. Slavers were an endangered species, and if I had my way, they would be facing extinction. I called to Klutch. “Take us to the Legacy, Troop Master.”
As I walked by the slave crate Omarro was crammed into, I rapped on it with my armored fist. “I hope you’re comfortable!”
I held a muffled, pleading response. I ignored it and sat down in the jump seat between Tria and Coonts. Tria hooked her arm in mine and her helmet retracted showing me a radiant smile. I did the same, then leaned over and kissed her.
“Your efforts to control the Oolaran imprinting are progressing well. Soon it will be nothing more than a tool to use in combat and not a hazard to us all.”
I took Tria’s comment for the compliment she meant it to be and not a stab at my propensity for running amok when the demon was in control.
Coonts retracted his helmet. “The Scrun is complaining the enclosure is too small for him and was never designed for his species.”
I reached out with my foot and kicked the side of the crate. “You’re a dumbass! I don’t know which is more stupid — building something like that to begin with or being arrogant enough to think one of your kind would never end up in one.”
Klutch commed us. “Justice is taking us aboard the Legacy.”
I felt a light thump as our landing gear extended and another when we touched down. Klutch dropped the ramp and shut down the power. As we debarked, he called out to me. “Commander, do you want me to put this piece of sewage in the brig?”
“No, leave him in there. Turn off the lights and close the hatch. I want him to know what it feels like to be a slave. I have some questions he needs to answ
er, and a chance to get out of there might get me the truth.”
“He claims the confined space is inhibiting his suit’s ability to properly dispose of his bodily waste.”
“Ask him what he did when the slaves complained about the enclosure.”
I heard Klutch’s croaking laugh and then the hatch closing on the shuttle.
“Justice, how long will it take to decipher the data cubes we confiscated from the Scrun?”
“I am already familiar with Scrun encryption algorithms, and I estimate no more than thirty minutes to decode the information stored on the devices.”
“Thank you, Justice, please call a crew meeting in the galley in one hour and jump us back to the rally point.”
“Acknowledged, Commander.”
I went to the ready room and stowed my armor in the modified repair crate Justice fabricated with the help of Felix. Coonts had just completed the process.
“I would like you to think about the questions we need Omarro to answer and give me your ideas at the crew meeting.”
“Of course, Commander. Once we have the data decrypted from the storage devices, I will have the background necessary for the interrogation.”
Klutch walked in and shed his armor. “You should let me interrogate the Throgg. It would take me very little time to get the answers you seek.”
I suspected Omarro would say just about anything we wanted to hear, whether it was the truth or not if I gave Klutch his way.
“I am always open to your wisdom Troop Master, but in this case, we will start out civilized before we get medieval on his ass.”
The Tibor looked puzzled at my response but shrugged and gave me his usual toothy smile. “OK Commander, I will see you in the galley.”
I expected to see Tria, but her gear was stowed and she was not present. I had a feeling I knew where she was. I cussed my faulty thinking for calling a meeting in an hour, instead of two or three. I felt the sensation of a standard transition and decided Justice was not in a hurry to meet with the Operative, and I knew why that was as well.