The Darkness: The Conglomerate Trilogy (Volume 2)

by William S Frisbee Jr

  "Looking good," Gray said. "Don't screw it up Marines. . . Shuttle is in position. Deploy."

  Luke triggered his senses, speeding up his perceptions and slowing down the world around him.

  The first pair of warbots leapt out into space and flew to the corvette. Once they landed they used a magnetic clamp to attach their cables to the broken hull. Everyone else had two clips, one for the cable to the corvette and one for their designated buddy. Luke led the way, with Leonessa attached to him and Brita attached to her. Sliding down the cable, one of the warbots who had gone first grabbed Luke and pulled him aside so Leonessa could land. That first warbot then made sure Luke had attached his magnetic boots to the hull before he moved to Leonessa. It was like a well-rehearsed drill without surprises. They all had hand-held grav chutes for an emergency but if they were thrown off, they might not get back to the shuttle or corvette at the current speeds. A fighter would be tasked to bring them back so Luke wasn't worried about that but there were a lot of nasty things the crew could do if they realized they were being boarded.

  Luke concentrated on looking at the vessel since looking at anything else would make it feel like he was attached to the side of a building and falling into the emptiness of space. In null gravity, it always felt like you were falling and the spinning stars around them added to the sense of vertigo.

  With Leonessa behind him, his weapon ready, Luke made his way to the airlock Gray had marked on Luke's heads up display with a flashing arrow. The small AI in his suit kept him attached, predicting his movements and activating the magnet on whatever came in contact with the ship. It wasn't slow going, but it was cautious going as Luke and his team assembled around the airlock. One of the warbots attached a digital crack unit over the hatch console. The cracker unit closed the seal and flooded the mechanism with nanites that would attempt to gain physical access. Depending on the technology the crack unit might manipulate the airlock to opening and allowing entry. It was linked to the AI's on the Proud Infidel and an AI box on the shuttle. If the crack box failed another warbot stood by with some plasma cutters.

  Back to back Luke's team watched the rest of the ship. Defenders could appear at any moment from sally ports. Falla Shum held out his staff, scanning the surrounding area. He didn't look ready to fire, he looked like a tall thin, armored wizard holding a spell ready.

  "Team two is making entry," Gray reported on the command channel which Luke and the rest of his team listened to as they scanned their areas. "No resistance. We have forces inside and moving toward engineering. Target one is crippled and shuttle two is on final approach."

  "Airlock is under control," the warbot reported. "Opening now. Broma patterns and tech, Tonkan linguistics, unknown dialect."

  Luke smiled. That hadn't been too bad. The tech wasn't too alien or advanced.

  Weapons turned to aim into the claustrophobic airlock. The pit wasn't large, but then on a ship of this class, that wasn't a surprise. It was designed for one person at a time but two would be able to fit in an emergency. Musashi drew his sword and stepped in before Luke, since the droid knew Luke would be first, or right behind him.

  "The other side has air," the warbot reported as the hatch slid shut sealing Luke and Musashi in complete darkness. Not even emergency lights were active. Other sensors came on-line though, revealing the airlock as if it were lit from all directions.

  Luke's subgun was little more than an over-sized pistol, designed for fighting in close quarters. The extensible plasma blade that would stick out about forty centimeters if a melee weapon was needed. Not the kind of weapon to activate in close quarters like this, but with just a little more room it would come in handy. Musashi had his sword ready in his main hand and a pistol in his other. With the sword he could cut through most metals and plastics. It was almost a meter long and made for close quarters combat against armored targets.

  The inner hatch slid open and Musashi was through it before it was fully open. They were in a hallway, going the length of the ship towards the front and back. In front of them were several closed hatches. To the left, toward engineering, a ceiling panel was off and sparks were coming from something up there, providing an erratic and threatening show of light and dark in the corridor. Pieces of metal and plastic floated in the hallway, Luke's suit AI scanning for anything that might be dangerous. The second Luke was out, the airlock hatch slid shut so the next pair could enter. Musashi and Luke paused, aiming down opposite ends of the hallway. When the airlock hatch slid open again Falla Shum and Brita stepped out to get behind Luke and Musashi.

  Luke started down the corridor. The closed hatches remained closed and did not open as he approached. Luke's heads up display, patched into the sensors from the shuttle and the fighters, showed two life forms ahead behind the closed hatch at the end of the hallway. If he looked behind him, he would see a ghostly representation of Team Two entering through the rip in the side and moving backward toward engineering. From the looks of it, they were just on the other side of the hatch going the other direction. The molecular decay imagers being used to scan for life forms. The MDI's could pick up life forms, but warbots could be lost in the clutter of machinery and drifting gear. Between the network sensors on the shuttle, the fighters and everyone's gear, there shouldn't be any major surprises but Luke was too experienced to be unprepared for them.

  The icon for the life forms pulsed ahead of him showing a recent scan. They were still there and Luke moved up to the hatch, Falla Shum behind him. They had been aboard for less than thirty seconds.

  The hatch did not open as Luke approached but there was a manual mechanism. Luke took his stance, aiming forward and motioned for Falla Shum to open the hatch as Musashi came up behind them.

  "Three, two, one, opening," Shum said and then pulled the hatch open as Luke moved in, and to the right, his weapon sweeping looking for targets.

  A Tonkan was crouched over another figure strapped to a chair. When the door slid open, it looked up in surprise and reached for his sidearm. His reflexes boosted, Luke stepped forward and kicked it in the face, throwing it backwards. A quick glance showed the Tonkan in the chair was unconscious and Luke used the stock of his subgun to hammer the first Tonkan's shoulder, causing it to drop its pistol. With his free hand Luke grabbed the Tonkan by the throat and struck him across the face with the butt of the pistol grip and then Luke slammed his knee into the Tonkan's chest. In one smooth motion Luke slammed the dazed Tonkan into the wall, released his weapon and then grabbed the Tonkan's arm, pulling it behind him. His subgun retracted on its sling to click against his body where Luke could get to it again if he needed it. Falla Shum moved up and grabbed the other arm, holding the Tonkan still while Luke got out his cuffs. In seconds, the Tonkan was cuffed, bleeding and held aloft by Shum as Luke checked on the other one.

  Leonessa and the droid, Captain Chapman, stood by the hatch, weapons ready for anything that might remotely be dangerous.

  The other Tonkan was unconscious from the blast but Luke cuffed him anyways. A shattered helmet floated through the bridge along with other debris and whistling indicated there was a hull breach.

  "Two prisoners secured," Luke said on the command channel. His knees were shaking from the adrenaline rush.

  "One prisoner secured in engineering," droid Major Edson reported.

  A pair of specialized warbots entered and scanned the bridge. One sat down to identify, then remove the bridge's systems, while the other one tried to access the ship's data core. Both of them were under the control and direction of droid Captain Walt, Luke's intelligence officer back aboard the Proud Infidel. A Boc, a medical robot, moved in behind the two warbots and analyzed the unconscious Tonkan.

  "The Captain wants to speak to you," Gray transmitted.

  "Put him through," Luke said. While 'away' Gray had full control of the teams and acted as a filter. That way an anxious ship Captain would not interfere with Marines fighting for their life. Now however, there wasn't any action.

 
; "Commander Kishi," Bruce said. "Our 'friends' at the other gate are accelerating towards us. Just thought you might want to know. We have a few days though, but they are taking the bait."

  "Acknowledged," Luke said with a feral grin. "Once the teams have swept this ship for booby traps or transmitters, let's back it into the shuttle bay and bug out. Let them see everything."

  "Copy that," Bruce said.

  Minutes later Gray opened a link.

  "Just thought you would want to know Commander," Gray said. "Shuttle Two has secured the other corvette, no casualties, but also no prisoners. Looks like everyone was killed in the attack. They are trying to rip the data core and black boxes now and the S2 teams are sweeping for other intelligence as we speak."

  "Copy that," Luke said. "Thanks for the Intel. I think we are almost done here anyways."

  "That was boring," Brita said. "I didn't get to shoot anything."

  Luke smiled and Leonessa just nodded.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Prisoners

  Luke stared at the prisoners, a display on his internal screen for each one. One was still unconscious but would recover. He was the captain based on the suit markings. The other one had been a lower ranking bridge officer, and the third had been the chief engineer. There had only been four Tonkan on the corvette and the forth had been the body wedged in the hull.

  The Tonkans as a race were large and brawny, with apelike arms, shorter legs, greenish leather skin and flat noseless faces. They were carnivores with sharp teeth and forward set, bright orange eyes pierced by black pupils. They had no hair, but they had ridges up along the sides of their heads. Wearing battle armor, they looked almost like upright apes and their voices were harsh, with high-pitched squeaks and wheezes. Their ears were hidden on the side of their head but were supposed to be more acute than a human's.

  Right now, the two Tonkan that were awake sat on their bunks staring at the floor.

  "No suicide devices," Brita said, looking at the same displays as everyone took their seat in the conference room.

  "Tonkan space ship crews rarely have suicide devices," Falla Shum said. "Boarding actions are almost unheard of among the Tonkan, or within the Conglomerate, especially against hostile vessels. A hostile vessel will be destroyed or it may self-destruct. It happens so rarely they do not consider it a danger like ground troops."

  "Do Topa ever interrogate prisoners?" Luke asked.

  "The Tal never take prisoners," Falla Shum answered staring at Luke. "It is beneath us and we do not kill unarmed, defenseless opponents, so prisoners present a quandary."

  Luke stared back. That sounded harsh, but then according to the history he had read when the Tal were called upon the reason was clear.

  "Well," Bruce said. "The Tonkan are clan oriented and there is enough inbreeding to identify clans by genetics but we don't have any record of the Tonkan clan we are dealing with. Admitted the Proud Infidel's databases are not complete, but we have nothing on these clowns."

  Luke nodded and looked at the droid Captain Chapman. "How about the data core's or black boxes?"

  "That is heavy duty encryption," Chapman said. "All available processing power is being focused on cracking it, but it might take a while. Intelligence teams have recovered writing and language samples. It appears they speak a known Tonkan dialect. The samples we retrieved were very informative. One was a recording of a Tonkan martial arts dance, designed more for amusement than instruction. It reports it comes from a planet 'Chubachi' and the city of 'Chubadach' which is not listed in any of the Conglomerate databases so I believe it exists in dark space."

  Luke glanced at Falla Shum who remained emotionless and unreadable.

  "We could not crack any other recordings," Chapman said. "We only got this one because it was on a hand-held reader and had not been turned off, or screen locked. I expect more results within the day. I still have intelligence teams going through the corvette."

  "Anything on the corvette?" Luke asked and Chapman nodded.

  "It is a basic Broma design for the Tonkan," Chapman said. "However, we are not seeing any identifying Broma marks showing which trade guild made it. I suspect it was not made in Conglomerate space but the basic designs come from the Conglomerate. It should be noted this design does not appear to have changed in a few hundred years and it is still being produced in Conglomerate space."

  "We have Tonkans and Broma living in dark space, exploiting Conglomerate technology but not adhering to Conglomerate licensing or trade restrictions?" Luke asked.

  "That appears to be a true statement," Chapman said. "There are no license markings on anything in the corvette."

  "Shum," Luke said looking at the Pral. "Thoughts on that?"

  Shum pursed his lips. "This is not unexpected or disturbing. Conglomerate law does not prohibit the founding of colonies in dark space. Those colonies are prohibited from trading or otherwise taking part in the Conglomerate, especially with licensed technologies. If it is discovered they have violated license restrictions, they will be hunted down and killed. Otherwise they are ignored and unprotected by the Conglomerate. If the Tonkan and Broma are working together than that is between them. If the Tonkan have stolen Broma licenses and are manufacturing Broma ships, then that violates the licensing and they will be hunted to extinction, but only if the Broma report a grievance."

  Luke nodded and turned to Chapman. "Have you started interrogating the prisoners yet?"

  "Net yet," Chapman said. "We are measuring their blood sugar and glucose levels. When they drop the Tonkan get irritable and may begin to feel desperate. Right now, we are letting them wait and then we will begin basic interrogation when they are more vulnerable."

  "Will you torture them?" Falla Shum asked.

  Luke shook his head, "I don't do torture. Not physical torture at any rate. We will mentally unbalance them, get them disoriented, I think we can manufacture some Tonkan truth serum and then see what we can do."

  "And when you are done with them?" Falla Shum asked.

  "Probably a prison for the rest of their natural lives," Luke said. "Or send them home. I don't know yet."

  Falla Shum nodded. "I have been studying your human history and methods. You are a very violent and devious race. I question Topa Suresh's wisdom in letting you live."

  Luke smiled and shrugged his shoulders as Shum stared at him.

  "The cruisers?" Luke asked looking at Bruce.

  "Still pushing hard to get to the wormhole," he said. "Looks like they fell for it."

  "What do you expect them to do?" Falla Shum asked.

  "I expect them to jump to Pachinchana and try to catch us," Luke said. "Either way they appear to have left the wormhole to Papi unguarded."

  "Our estimated time of arrival at the Papi wormhole?" Luke asked.

  "Three days," Bruce said. "The strangers will get to the Pachinchana wormhole in one."

  Luke nodded.

  "So far so good. We will resume are silent running, schedule, and training," Luke looked around him. "If anything changes notify me immediately."

  Everyone nodded.

  * * * * *

  "There is a Broma enclave that is building them ships," Captain Chapman reported at the meeting a day later.

  "The Broma will not file a grievance," Falla Shum said. "This dark space empire has not violated Conglomerate laws yet."

  "The Tonkan call their empire the Directorate," Chapman said. "The prisoners do not appear to be the most knowledgeable and seem to be prepared for the role of wormhole sentries. They come from a clan that specializes in watching Conglomerate space and they seem to have familiarity with Conglomerate regulations."

  "They are just pirates at the edge of Conglomerate space?" Luke asked, scrolling through the interrogation transcripts.

  "Not exactly," Chapman said. "Not anymore at any rate."

  "Not anymore?" Luke asked.

  "It appears they were conquered one, or two hundred years ago by a race from unexplored space. An
advanced race of warriors conquered the Directorate. According to our prisoners, this race does not appear to have any interest in fighting the Conglomerate and seems satisfied with remaining an unknown neighbor."

  "What do they know of these strangers?" Luke asked.

  "Nearest translation I have is they are called the 'Singers of Battle,'" Chapman said. "They are said to be an ancient race from further out on the galactic rim. There are religious connotations I'm not familiar with."

  "Do they have a description?" Falla Shum asked. Luke could hear an alarmed tone in the Pral's voice, which was not characteristic.

  "No," Chapman said. "The conquerors are a well-guarded secret in the Directorate. The Singers of Battle defeated the Directorate's fleet and subjugated the worlds with robotic armies. The prisoners suspect the Singers of Battle may be robots themselves because they have seen nothing else. They said the Directorate fleet has been rebuilt to serve the invaders though."

  "Do they ring a bell?" Luke asked.

  "No," Falla Shum said, but his answer was too quick for Luke. "The enemies I know sing to the mind and soul, they do not use musical instruments."

  "The enemy you remember?" Leonessa asked and Falla Shum nodded.

  "The Pral are an ancient race and we have fought our own wars of dominance. One such war that was fought long before my time, was the war against the Battle Singers. It was believed they were eradicated."

  "Couldn't the Topa follow the threads in the tapestry or something and be sure?" Leonessa asked.

  Shum shook his head. "The Battle Singers had a different effect on the tapestry and they were not a part of it. I do not remember the details, nor do my personal data banks hold much information on them, but the war was long and hard. It was believed if they won the tapestry of life would come to an end."

  "That sounds serious," Luke said with a frown thinking about what Falla Shum had told him and Leonessa. Would robots have souls? Topa Suresh had told Nelson he had a soul.