by Sid Kar
“I cannot believe they would have only a dozen spaceships,” Remus said, “the farthest one of our spy ships got in their space was 87 light years from our frontier and that is where it had sighted the first of their populated planets. But it had to turn tail and run from afar without gathering any information because there were five enemy battleships orbiting that planet. What kind of a power would send a dozen ten-mile, twelve-mile long gigantic battleships so far from its front? Only one that has quite a few to spare.”
“You are right my friend,” Augus said. Horus began to speak but Augus raised his hand to motion him to stay quiet and continued, “We cannot let our ego dictate our decisions. I don’t necessarily trust Starfirians but it is not for nothing their protection contract is considered gold across the galaxy; they have never abrogated it in the past. We must ask for their help.”
“I am ready,” Hickus said, “Put me on the next space cruiser to planet Bravo.”
“That is not a good idea,” Remus said, “Solus and his supporters will be watching foreign minister Hickus and his disappearance for long will clue them in. They could make the Senate dysfunctional.”
“A state leader is required to activate the contract,” Augus said.
“I will go,” Remus said, “You can’t go obviously, neither should Hickus and General Bakus is needed here for future defense preparations. I won’t be missed and Solus won’t start denouncing me. He harbors the dream of becoming the future chancellor and this planet Nestor makes up 1/4th of the total votes. Attacking Nestor’s senator is not a good way to become popular here.”
“As you wish,” Augus said. He adjourned the meeting soon thereafter. Gen. Bakus caught up with Remus as he was just walking outside the room.
“What’s his problem?” Bakus asked.
“He is passionate as the chancellor said,” Remus replied, “But I would say he is way more than a bit unreasonable.”
“Not senator Solus,” Bakus said, “he doesn’t like the officer corps, likens us to old lords and soldiers to poor, suffering peasants. I know it’s not personal with him, I meant war minister Horus.” Bakus turned around to make sure Horus wasn’t nearby but he had walked down the opposite corridor.
“His position is redundant so he has to make noise to appear relevant and the best way to do that is to play foil to the top general of Nestorian Republic,” Remus said, “Nestor’s senator is always the vice-chancellor by default and Nestor contributes the most to the military finances and so demands that its vice-chancellor be the political leader of the military. Poor old Horus represents some far lying backwater planet.”
“He could make a hay of our preparations,” Bakus said as they walked down the stairs where they were the only two.
“Ignore him. I will override any foolish decision of his when I return,” Remus said.
“Should I send a signal to the Regional Star Commander at Bravo of your imminent arrival?” Bakus asked.
“No, I want the trip to be a secret till I reach some fix with Starfirians,” Remus replied, “I will be traveling alone.”
“Vice-Chancellor, that is dangerous,” Bakus stopped and turned to face him, “There is over a hundred and fifty light years of pirate infested space between our planet Beacon and the patrol route of the Sixth Frontier Fleet.”
“That is why I am taking our fastest spaceship, the one that reached 87 light years into these mysterious alien’s territory,” Remus smiled as they walked down the stairs.
Chapter 4: Protection
Remus Torus took a sigh of relief when he received a welcome signal from one of the Starships of the Sixth Frontier Fleet. This meant that now his ship was tagged on one of the long-range gravitron scanners of Starfirian Army and while he still had a distance to cover, they would watch over him for the next few days as he made his entrance in their space.
He had been nervous since he had left their own space after flying past the planet Beacon which was the last habited planet of Nestorian Republic and the last outpost that had one of their own battleships to shoo off any pirates. Next leg of a journey over a hundred light years contained many dangers and Remus had realized that while he had boldly volunteered for lone travel, his stomach had totally dissented against that bravado. He had flown his spaceship at 1,000 light speed and while it could go twice that speed, he had conserved energy if he needed to escape some space predator. More than 98% of space on the ship was taken by the fusion reactor that provided power while 1% of the remaining space was the ship control room and his personal quarters each.
It took him approximately a month and a half to reach the outer boundary of the Starfirian space and he had been provided the validation codes which he sent over and were confirmed and accepted. The rest of the journey to planet Bravo was safe and easy. Starfirians even provided him with four of their spacefighters as escorts, more as a show of respect for his rank than due to any need of protection.
Planet Bravo was the headquarters of Starfire Empire’s Sixth Frontier Fleet and the regional capital of the 30 planet star province known as Zarrvyk’s Province. Remus suspected it was named after some ancient war hero as Starfirians were fond of naming their places. Planet Bravo was at a distance of almost exactly 180 light years from planet Beacon.
The four spacefighters escorting him had sent out a signal ahead of his arrival and the space traffic control prioritized his spaceship to the top slot on its list of arrivals and departures. His escorts departed and he put his ship in the path towards the spaceport whose coordinates the space traffic tower had beamed him. It took him less than fifteen minutes to land his ship and he waited inside for his hosts. As an alien dignitary he would have to be shepherded around the moment he got out of his spaceship door and put a foot down on the land.
A rectangular shaped airship approached his spaceship and hovered a foot above the ground. Five Starfirians exited through a side door, one of them was wearing a rose red colored suit over black pants, rest were dressed in a paramilitary uniform of red button down shirt over blue pants and a hat on top. The four of them carried laser guns in their hands while the suited man was empty handed. He walked over to the door of Remus’s spaceship followed by the four guards and Remus opened the door.
“Welcome to Bravo, Vice Chancellor Remus Torus,” the suited man said, “If you had informed us of your arrival in advance we could have sent a cruiser to make your ride comfortable.”
“That is generous of you but the matter was urgent and a bit discreet,” Remus replied.
They could talk to each other and understand each other’s voice and language because a micro ‘voice translator’ had been planted in their larynx since childhood that contained the memory of all the known languages and dialects of the galaxy and translated it in real time. A similar ‘translator box’ had been implanted near their ears. Such implants were one of the marks of true spacefaring civilizations and separated them from primitive planet bound ones.
“I guessed that much myself,” the suited man chuckled, “that is why I am here. I am Chief Detective Rockvyk Torryen of SPASI, in charge of the detective matters on this planet and the entire Zarrvyk’s province.”
And spy activities, Remus though. SPASI was the Spy and Detective department of the Starfire Empire, albeit the civilian branch and he was not surprised to be met by them.
“Detective Rockvyk, I am here to see Regional Star Commander,” Remus said.
“Exactly where we are going,” Rockvyk said and took out a metal bar from his pocket and handed it to Remus, “please keep this with you at all time. Not that we intend to ever allow you to wander off by yourself, but this will locate you and even protect you in ways I cannot disclose. Now please, come with us, I will have your bags hauled up later.”
“Thanks,” Remus said taking the metal bar and walking out of his ship. He walked alongside Rockvyk and they got in the airship along with the guards. The airship lifted up in the air till it reached a height of 25 feet and then suddenly accelerated towards
the city.
Magyar “The Silencer” Harwyk landed his personal spaceship on the moon of the planet Bravo. This planet had only one moon and it was a stark and desolate place of chalk-like dust and granite-like rocks, unlike the watery and leafy planet that Starfirians had found and settled. There were barely any settlements here and what there were consisted of research stations and military bases with energy ray cannons to protect Bravo from invasion.
Magyar hated to be rushed but his client had dangled so much money in front of him that he could not resist. Greed was likely to get him jailed or killed one day, but if he succeeded today, he would disappear in deep space for a long hiatus. He would have to because every SPASI detective for a hundred light years would be out looking for him.
He felt tired and he felt space lagged and his plan was haphazardly put together, still he had a reputation to maintain too. The Silencer was one of the most notorious assassins in Starfire Empire and one with a hundred percent record. Magyar checked his laser pistol once again and then looked through the binoculars over the deserted landscape. He saw dust, rocks and a single building with a large telescope protruding out in the sky. He put aside his binoculars and threw up his bag across his shoulder and started walking very slowly to avoid bouncing off in the low gravity of the moon.
He came to a stop in front of the door of the observatory and hid his pistol inside the pocket of his space jacket. He pressed the bell a couple of times and a man in his early 30’s opened the door.
“Yes,” the man said.
“Was headed to Bravo but my spaceship is sputtering and belching smoke,” he said pointing to his spaceship, “Wonder if you have some repair parts.”
“Not sure, I am an astronomer and don’t know anything about spaceship engines” the man replied, “But we have parts to repair telescope. See if some might be of dual use.”
“Appreciate,” Magyar replied and walked in and closed the door behind. There was a woman in her late 20s calibrating the telescope who looked up at them.
“Sorry for the intrusion, madam,” Magyar smiled, “just looking for some repair parts.”
“Oh…” she said and went back to her work.
“Husband and wife team?” Magyar asked.
“No,” the man grinned, “colleagues, she is an astronomer too.”
Magyar smiled. Something about the man’s grin indicated that they were more than just colleagues and a man and a woman all alone locked up in a small building on a desolate moon and Magyar did not have to figure further.
“What do you folks do here?” Magyar asked, “Why not put the telescope out near the frontier?” This he was genuinely curious about.
“We are cataloging asteroids,” the woman replied, “It’s been less than a century since the Army opened up this planet for civilian and commercial settlement. Hundreds of thousands of asteroids still need to be entered in the Imperial Space Database.”
“Good work,” Magyar said. The empire’s bureaucrats were fanatic about cataloging every damn object in space. He was glad he himself couldn’t be found in any database in the entire galaxy but that had taken some work. Time to go to work.
Magyar yanked out his laser pistol and shot the man and woman dead with one laser bolt each. He felt a slight remorse about killing unlucky bystanders; he was a professional hitman after all, not a psychotic murderer. And if he had time to plan it out, he would have chosen to use trick or deception to get his hands on an observatory. But time was short and the money was large. His crimes were too many that two more did not make a huge difference to him.
He dragged the bodies to the corner, took out some metallic components from his bag and went to work assembling them into a large laser gun.
It took him about half an hour to put his gun together and then he mounted it on a bipod and placed the bipod on the top of the large telescope tube. He looked through the sight of his scope and wiped off any dust or particles on its lens with his gloved finger. Next, he pushed a switch on a small panel attached to the telescope to make the roof of the observatory slide off over the side walls. The sky was black and filled with stars that twinkled brightly.
“Let’s see what you were looking at,” Magyar sat down on the seat behind the telescope and looked through the eyepiece. He saw a large asteroid in his view that seemed hazy. He slowly turned the focuser knob back and forth till the image became crystal sharp. He turned on the laser sight of the telescope but it went out of the view.
“Hmmm…” he muttered.
For a moment he thought that he should have let the woman finish calibrating the telescope fully but he had no idea how long that would have taken her. He took up the task of calibrating the telescope upon himself and was satisfied when the laser sight was in his view and a green dot was visible on the asteroid. He did not need to get it exactly in center sight and that would have taken too long.
He looked up from the eyepiece and then looked through his laser gun’s scope. The asteroid was too far away to be seen even through the scope but that is why he had this telescope. He took out an ‘alignment robot’ from his bag and attached it to the telescope tube. The robot spread two ‘wings’ in each direction to measure the diameter of the telescope and then automatically adjusted itself to the spot that was the exact center of the telescope tube. It was precise to less than a nanometer. He had customized the robot by drilling out a spot in its center that was a few nanometers larger than the diameter of his laser gun. He took off the gun from the bipod and shoved the barrel in the hole in the center of the robot and pressed a button to lock it in place. Now his laser gun barrel was exactly in the center of the telescope.
At least that was the theory, now he had to test it out.
He looked through the eyepiece and reached out to the laser gun above with his finger and pulled the trigger. A laser shot out and took off a chunk from the asteroid leaving behind some dust. It was in the opposite corner from the green dot of the telescope’s laser sight.
He would have needed far more precise instruments and a lot more time to get it exactly on the dot. But this would do.
He set his laser gun to continuous fire but switched to ‘low energy’ to prevent his battery from draining. He pulled the trigger again while watching through the eyepiece. He flicked on a switch on telescope’s panel to display the coordinates on the lens. He memorized the coordinates where his own laser was striking and released his finger from the trigger. He quickly jotted down the coordinates in his small notebook that he had placed on the table nearby.
Then he flipped through his notebook and came across a page where he had written down the numerical code for planet Bravo and entered it in the telescope panel and watched the large telescope – five meters long and one meter diameter – slowly turn itself and stop. He looked through the eyepiece and saw planet Bravo, then he entered the geographical coordinates for Regional Star Commander’s headquarters and after the telescope turned a bit and locked in place he saw a garden in his view.
Silencer smiled and sat back. Now he just had to wait for his target to arrive.
Remus got out of the airship along with SPASI detective Rockvyk and looked ahead at the red gate flanked by red walls on either side that curved around at some distance. There were soldiers dressed in the Starfire Army uniform of Red & Black standing outside the gate holding laser guns and a few more soldiers stood on the wall along with what he recognized as anti-aircraft laser batteries. They walked towards the gate accompanied by the four guards.
“Chief Detective Rockvyk,” he said and showed his badge to a soldier who nodded and waved him in.
The red gate was opened by a machine inside the walls and they strolled in when Remus asked, “They don’t scan or verify your badge?”
“They know me,” Rockvyk laughed, “I come and go so often that this is practically my second office.”
Remus looked ahead and saw a huge red palace with intricate carvings on its walls that was the headquarters and the residence of Starfire
Empire’s regional commander. On either side of the door just behind the walls were trees and soldiers stood in a line in front of the trees. Soldiers also stood outside the walls of the palace that were surrounded by lush green gardens interrupted by rows of red, violet and orange roses. There was a path made of white stone that led to the front door of the palace from the red gate but the grounds on either side were empty.
The six of them started walking the hundred meter distance to the palace door.
Silencer was watching Remus, Rockvyk and SPASI’s guards’ leisurely stroll through the eyepiece of the telescope and steadied his finger on his laser gun’s trigger. He had centered the coordinates that he had marked on the telescope’s lens right in the middle of the path to the palace. He had turned up the switch on his gun to ‘maximum energy’ position. On this setting his laser gun would be discharged in ten seconds but Silencer knew that the victim needed only one second of exposure before he dropped dead.
He waited with bated breath as Remus walked ever closer to his target spot.
Two more seconds and he would pull the trigger.
Suddenly a spark flashed in his eye and he pulled himself back.
WHAT?
He looked through the eyepiece again and saw green laser raining down on the palace gardens but bouncing off of some invisible field a hundred feet in the air and the contact of the laser with the invisible shield gave off sparks.
“WHO THE FUCK is this amateur?!!” Silencer yelled.
On the ground, Rockvyk and SPASI guards surrounded Remus and rushed him to the palace door. The soldiers came out running towards them to offer protection and escorted the company inside the palace.
Some sod bastard of an amateur had fucked up his job, Silencer was fuming. Someone stupid enough not to know about the invisible shield surrounding important buildings made of the electromagnetic field carrying millions of nanoparticles of mirror-like material that reflected away concentrated light such as laser. He had been given tech. specs of the field by the client and had brought along a customized laser gun whose light beam would carry sufficient energy through the field. But someone else had not done their homework, he mumbled.