by Sid Kar
“Capitan Alvina is preoccupied at the moment,” Raptor said, “She is fine physically, nor is she in any kind of a trouble with regards to army regulations. She is helping army detectives on board and starship guards to catch the infiltrator that Com. Antrar had tangled with earlier. The reason for choosing her and the nature of her task can’t be disclosed at this moment.”
The command room officers listened and a few displayed serious concern on their face. But they returned their attention back to their tasks.
“Me and VC will try to get her back to her station before the battle is joined,” Raptor said, “But we may have to do without her.”
“Commodore, the final crew working on shields has detached their equipment,” Capitan Avyk said.
“Capitan Flyptar, prepare to de-orbit from Nestor,” Raptor said.
“Yes sir,” Flyptar replied and started giving instructions to the flight crew.
“Dorrvyk, connect me to Col. Jarvyk,” Raptor said.
Dorrvyk worked his terminal and looked up at Raptor, “Col. Jarvyk on your line, sir.”
Raptor turned to his display screen and Col. Jarvyk saluted him with a grin, “leaving us behind, sir?”
“Can’t say which one of us is getting the better end of the deal Colonel,” Raptor laughed, “We are attacking Mercurians, but you have conspiracies on your hand.”
“And a potentially volatile election,” Jarvyk said.
“That is what I wanted to talk to you about,” Raptor said, “We may not return in time for the election. If Solus is actually elected the new Chancellor, he will be out of control and won’t heed Starfire’s interest. This planet Nestor has one-fourth of the total votes and it is here the election will be won or loss.”
“Unfortunately we can’t do anything about it,” Jarvyk said.
“We don’t have to, this is Remus’ home planet, and he will win if there is no chicanery,” Raptor said, “But that we can’t count on. Elections in many republics have been won even using liquor. I am suspicious because Solus has brought in soldiers only from his planet who are loyal to him first and foremost.”
“I am too.”
“That is why I want you to quietly but rapidly rearm the Nestorian Republican Guard,” Raptor said. A few officers who overheard him turned their heads and even VC Barryett stopped his work for a few moments and tuned his ears to Raptor’s conversation.
“Sir, are you sure about that?” Jarvyk asked.
“Yes, I want it done,” Raptor said firmly, “It is my way of putting Solus on notice that we can make life real difficult for him if he acts tough against us. But I am killing a second buzzard with the same arrow; the Republican Guard must despise Solus by now since he is denouncing them to the public and trying to disband them, take away their pensions and all. I doubt he will move forward with that when they have laser guns in their hands. And the Republican Guard won’t allow the Infantry Corps to steal the election for Solus.”
“Balance of opposite forces to preserve stability,” Jarvyk nodded his head, “I understand you now. I will get to it.”
“Alright, Col. Jarvyk,” Raptor said.
“Alright then, sir,” Jarvyk saluted him once again and Raptor turned off the connection.
“Capitans Flyptar and Overyk,” Raptor said, “I want you to trail Battleship Avenger, but at a distance where her scanners can’t pick us up. This is also a good time for our crew to practice the silent pursuit tactic. But I don’t want us to just rely on the longer range of our scanners to hide ourselves; we will hop from one space object to the next to mask our gravity signal inside their larger gravity fields.”
“Yes sir,” Flyptar and Overyk said.
“Alright, take away the Conquistador,” Raptor said.
Within a few minutes Starship Conquistador fired up its engines, left Nestor’s orbit and rapidly started accelerating out into space.
Capitan Alvina was looking over Detective Hartar’s shoulders as he sat in front of the computer terminal and entered the codes and identification card numbers Alvina provided him. Then Alvina would identify the points where she had been and used her codes and Hartar would check them off from starship’s database. This left the spots where the intruder had used her codes. This way they were creating a map of the intruder’s activities and move around. They were inside Hartar’s office where two more detectives were working separate computers to identify any attempts at tampering with starship’s systems and weapons. Ten starship guards awaited outside the detectives’ office which was located near the center of the spaceship.
“Look at this Capitan Alvina,” Hartar said, “Look at the map of his locations. It seems he uses your codes only for the basic purposes: to access food, drinks, an extra pair of uniform here, a dose of medicine there. Yours is the get around ID for him in our parlance.”
“What is that, chief Hartar?” Alvina asked him.
“He is a professional, even an expert,” Hartar sat back and relaxed his arms behind his head, “A smart crook uses two false identities. One to use during his nefarious deeds, other for routine activities. The problem with using real ID for normal routine is that it can get linked to the other ID but two false ID’s linking to each other leads to nowhere.”
“Then how are we going to identify him?” Alvina asked.
“Let’s see, boys do you have any leads?” Hartar asked his two junior detectives. One of them turned around, “Nothing concrete. There is definitely something wrong that he was able to open Plasma Weapons Section’s door when Com. Antrar stopped him and fought him. But we knew that before. All the codes were changed after that incident and access privileges renewed. This must have thrown his schemes off whack.”
“But were there any unauthorized attempts?” Hartar asked.
“Sure,” the other detective said, “We had a couple reports from Starship Guards who were ordered to do manual checks of IDs outside superweapons sections by Capitan Styx after the tussle with Com. Antrar. The guards saw some person approaching the section, then backing off and leaving after seeing their presence. I mean it could be our intruder who realized that he wasn’t going to pass the guards’ inspection even if he had the access codes. Or it could simply be innocent crew members lost on this vast spaceship. The latter happens more often than we imagine.”
“True,” Hartar said, “Alright keep at it.”
“What are we going to do now?” Alvina asked slightly frustrated.
“We can’t identify him, but maybe we couldn’t because he isn’t in the ship’s personnel system,” Hartar said, “and maybe we don’t even have to. If we can discover his den abroad we can directly interdict him there.”
“How?” Alvina asked.
“Algorithm,” Hartar smiled. He tapped a few keys on the computer and ran a program that evaluated all the spots on the map that the intruder had accessed using Alvina’s codes, their timestamps and their chronological order. Then the computer program used mathematical techniques to spit out the most plausible staying location of a person with those behaviors and routine and it marked them as Red ‘X’ on the screen with probability of each displayed below in percentage terms.
“Should we ask Capitan Styx to send his guards to all these locations?” Alvina asked pointing to the X’s on the screen with her finger.
“There are twelve of them,” Hartar said, “It will cause a commotion with that many guards running around, might alert the intruder. We can narrow down the possible targets.” Hartar then ordered the computer to display information about each spot marked with the X in order and he read it quietly, contemplated it for a few moments and moved to the next one. After reading description of the final location, Hartar got up, pointed to one X on the map and exclaimed, “This is where we will find him.”
“How do you know?” Alvina asked perplexed.
“Detectives hunch? Experience? Call it whatever,” Hartar said, “This is excess cloth reserve section. The cloth is used to create new uniforms if large numbers of
crew have their uniforms torn and ripped in a battle. The intruder knows we haven’t had a need for that so it won’t be visited by any crew member. The spaceship is sterile and no organisms to eat cloth exist abroad and it requires no maintenance. Besides, he can also access machines to create uniforms to pose as an officer of different sections.”
“That’s great thinking,” Alvina said, “Let’s go get him.”
“I might be wrong, but I can use a walk,” Hartar said.
“Me too,” Alvina smiled.
“Boys, message Capitan Styx to meet us at cloth reserve,” Hartar informed his detectives as they walked out of the room, “and tell him my reasoning.” His detectives nodded their head and went back to their work.
Hartar and Alvina collected the ten starship guards patrolling outside and hiked the half mile distance to Cloth Reserve. When they were near their destination, Hartar asked four guards to walk in front with their laser guns drawn and he himself unholstered his laser pistol.
The hallway inside the section was narrow and the ‘walls’ on either side were actually stacks full of reams of cloth piled high all the way to the ceiling of this floor where single yellow lights enclosed in oblong glass were affixed twenty feet from each other in a straight line. Hartar, Alvina and company rounded the corner at the end of the first hallway and stopped stiff when they saw a figure approach from the other end.
That person hesitated momentarily but then continued his walk towards them and picked up pace.
Hartar aimed his laser pistol at him and yelled out, “Stop right there. Who are you?”
The man was dressed in the regular uniform of the steward section which would not put him out of place here; however he was also wearing some type of mechanized armor on top of his uniform.
The four Starship Guards had also aimed their laser long guns at him but this did not faze him. The next instant two laser pistols popped in his hands with such swift that Alvina thought he had materialized them out of thin air. But instead of taking an aim at them, he pointed both of them towards the ceiling and without looking up, he fired one laser shot each and took out the two lights that were closest to their position.
In the resultant murky dimness Alvina saw a shadow bolt at them like a cannonball and there was noise of backs smashing against the stacks and the breaking creaks from bones and concomitant yells of pain. Next Alvina heard a sound of a fist pounding a gut, a fizzle of paroxysmal burp and a scream from Hartar who went to the floor.
“I don’t strike a lady,” a strange voice whispered to her.
“I have no such compunction,” Alvina retorted and whipped her pistol at the silhouette of a head – remembering the lack of armor thereon – and whacked it against the stacks wall and her fingers writhed with pain and she lost sensation in them right thereafter. A few more punches and kicks followed, and creaks from jaw fractures and cracks from head bangs preceded yelps of agony and cries of anguish and then it was all over. Alvina barely saw a shadow turn the corner into the hallway they had come from.
Alvina lifted the top cover of her belt buckle and pressed a small button inside. It was an emergency alarm built into the belts of all the command room officers. It did not take long for starship guards to rush towards them and the first wave of guards reached them in a little less than four minutes.
Capitan Styx arrived with twenty starship guards in about eight minutes and a couple of them had powerful flashlights they beamed on the spot.
Alvina was the only one standing but with fingers of her one hand clutched in the other. Rest of the starship guards were either writhing on the floor or doubled over leaning against the stacks. A few minutes later, Raptor and Tollvyk arrived with a contingent of Strike Soldiers behind them. Raptor had decided to personally inspect the scene when he heard that Alvina had pressed the alarm and Tollvyk just could not help himself but be aroused by the news of a brawl onboard the spaceship.
“What the hell happened here?” Raptor asked.
“Definitely not a brawl,” Tollvyk commented, “more like a drubbing.”
“Thanks Colonel,” Alvina said, “We lost but for the lack of your presence.”
“Oh I would have busted that boy real hard, whooped him blue and glue,” Tollvyk made a fist in the air.
“I have never been punched that hard,” Hartar slowly got up still holding his stomach, “And I have boxed in my youthful days.”
The medical staff abroad starship streamed in and attended to the guards still reeling from the blows.
“He banged our heads together,” a guard told the doctor probing his injuries.
Tollvyk started to laugh but grabbed his mouth, turned around and stopped at a short cough.
“Why did you let him?” Capitan Styx asked while walking amongst his guards, “You all practice both armed and body combat daily. Is there a slacking off that I am not aware of?”
“Capitan, he was wearing mechanical armor,” another guard said.
“I have never seen anyone move that fast,” a third guard added.
“I have,” Hartar said finally managing to stand up straight, “he was a Stardjacker.”
Raptor, Tollvyk, Alvina and Styx were stunned to hear this. The guards were confused. One of them asked, “What is this Stardjacker?”
“A secret, specialist unit of our army,” Hartar said.
“That is enough,” Raptor said and walked over to Alvina. He held her fingers in his hands and Alvina looked at him tenderly, “Capitan, do you need medical treatment or are you ready to take over your responsibilities?”
“My fingers are returning under my control,” Alvina said, “I might take a spray for pain control.”
“Do that,” Raptor said, “I should have you back in command officer’s quarters which has stringent controls to prevent even a Stardjacker from penetrating.” He turned to the medical staff, “I am authorizing a leave of a couple days for guards who are injured. And how are you Hartar?”
“I don’t want a leave, I want to catch this sod,” he said.
“Still want to fight him, Toll?” Raptor asked with a sly grin.
“Maybe without his armor,” Tollvyk replied.
“We have procedures in place to deal with a rogue Stardjacker,” the capitan of Strike Soldiers who had accompanied Raptor said to him.
“Yes I am aware of that, the army prepares for all contingencies,” Raptor said, “But we are on a warpath and the battle looms large, I can’t have this spaceship turned inside out to search for him.”
“What do you want us to do?” Capitan Styx asked.
“Starship Guards will continue their routine as before,” Raptor said then turned to the capitan of strike soldiers, “It is unfortunate Col. Jarvyk is not with us, but convey my orders to your next most senior colonel to present himself to my command room promptly.”
“Yes sir.”
Alvina and Hartar returned with Raptor and Tollvyk in their hovercraft while Capitan Styx and his guards along with the strike soldiers began a thorough search of the Cloth Reserve section to uncover any clues about the intruder.
Chapter 16: Vengeance
“General, we are picking up a large spaceship on our rear,” Capitan Tagg said breaking beads of sweat on his forehead, “It came out of nowhere.”
“What?” General Bakus jumped up from his chair, “It must have trailed us quietly and we missed it for so long.”
Tagg looked at Major Joules with concern on his face. Joules had been made second-in-command of Battleship Avenger and Tagg hoped he could save him from the brunt of Bakus’ anger. Joules walked over to the scanner and looked at the side screen that was spitting out numerical data.
“They must have better gravitron scanner than us, much better,” Joules said, “no outlier numbers to indicate that it was ever on our scanners.”
“That’s not good,” Bakus said, “If Mercurians have a spaceship behind us then they must have been watching us and one of theirs must have doubled back to get on our rear. If we a
ttack their planet we will be caught in the crossfire.”
Bakus slammed his fist on the table. He had been pleased with both the smooth handling of the new spaceship as well as his crew’s performance. They had stealthily cruised to the very edge of the solar system having the Mercurian planet. They were now parked just behind the outermost planet running final checks on their weapons systems. Once they left the gravity field of this planet they would be detectable on Mercurian scanners.
“General, I am receiving an encrypted message from Starship Conquistador,” comm officer Jovus exclaimed with delight, “Commodore Raptor wants you to rendezvous with him abroad his spaceship along with our tactical officers.”
Many let out a sigh of relief upon realizing that it was the Starfirian spaceship on their scanner and there were smiles in the room. Joules was slightly irritated, “He wants you to present yourself as if he is in charge of this battle,” he scoffed.
“We need them far more,” Bakus said, “I will go and I want you to come with me and get Capitan Agnosis up here.”
“Is that a good idea?” Joules asked.
“Him and the spacefighters are one of the lynchpin of our attack,” Bakus said, “I can talk strategy but I can’t talk spacefighter tactics.”
“I will go get him and meet you in the bay,” Joules said, “I will coach him to swallow his pride and show deference to Starfirian officers no matter how caustic their remarks.”
“You do that,” Bakus said then turned to Tolus, “Capitan Tolus, prepare the fastest shuttle abroad this battleship for immediate takeoff.”
“Yes sir,” Tolus replied and called up the shuttle bay staff and started giving out the orders.
General Bakus, Major Joules and Capitan Agnosis were greeted in the landing bay abroad Conquistador by Capitan Styx and a dozen of his starship guards. Styx and Agnosis exchanged an awkward glance – the last time Agnosis had landed Styx had put him under chains – but Styx turned away from him and spoke to Bakus.
“General,” Styx said, “Please follow me.”