by Drew Wagar
“Jim? Jim Feynman?” the voice queried.
“Who are you?”
A figure emerged from the darkness. “It is you! Excellent! I take it you got my message?”
Jim stared in astonishment at the figure of a man. A man more than familiar to him.
It was Zerz Furvel.
But he’s dead!
“Zerz?”
“In the flesh,” Zerz grinned.
“What the hell are you doing here? You were reported dead!”
“Ah, Jim! Just a ruse, to throw the Dark Wheel off the scent! I knew the President would be too dense to do much other than contact you, but now you’re here… ”
Jim brandished the pistol. “Just slow down. I’m following the Raxxla file trace. The assassin… ”
“ Jim! Jim! Do catch up! I’ve got the file! I had to get it away from both The Dark Wheel and Galcop! There’s too much at stake – and I need your help!” Zerz seemed enthused.
Jim recognised him from their previous meetings, it was definitely him without a doubt. The thin aquiline face, prominent nose and slicked back grey hair were instantly recognisable.
Jim clipped the portascan onto his belt, but kept the pistol trained on Zerz.
“I should take you in,” Jim said, coldly. “After what you did! Your actions… ”
“I regret your friend’s death,” Zerz said quickly. “In my analysis, Galcop’s security was at stake. The Q-Bomb appeared to offer an answer to the problem. As it turned out…”
“…Geraint died for nothing.”
“Neither of us knew the Q-Bomb wouldn’t work in a gravity well, and I didn’t hire the assassin, Jim,” Zerz seemed faintly amused; Jim didn’t care for the cavalier attitude.
“Just don’t expect me to forgive you for your part in his death,” Jim snapped.
Zerz nodded. “I expect nothing of the sort.”
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. Jim lowered the pistol.
“What have you discovered?” Jim began. “Is the Military Chief of Staff behind all of this?”
Zerz nodded. “Mostly certainly. He has kicked off a chain of events that leads inexorably to this point.”
Jim frowned at Zerz’ somewhat roundabout way of answering the question.
“So… What have you found?”
“The President told you about the Raxxla file?” Zerz said obliquely.
“Yes. What does that…”
“Did he tell you what was in it?”
“He didn’t know.”
“Fortunately, I do,” Zerz said, looking out towards the exit of the cavern, and then looking back towards Jim. “It is a compilation of all the available evidence attributed to Raxxla.”
“Evidence?”
“A surprising amount of evidence.”
“Such as?”
“The history of the last twenty five years.”
Jim frowned. “History? You’re not making sense.”
“Let me give you an example of the content. In the last twenty five years there have been punctuated periods of sudden technical advance. All this new technology we’ve come to enjoy: witch drive injectors, plasma cannons, astrogation compasses and the like; all invented in the last few years, mostly without precedent.”
“So? Sometimes there are quantum leaps in development; you know how things work… ”
Zerz continued unabated, “Did you know that there have been more new ship designs in the last four years than in the last one hundred combined? That’s not unprecedented, Jim, that’s a plain aberration. Twenty years ago we had the basic set of original ‘snake’ ships with a few minor special models. Ships were built the same way – regular panelling for ease of construction, now we have a literal explosion in new manufacturing technologies. Designs of ship simply not possible a generation ago – ships we couldn’t even imagine back then. Hell, we couldn’t even simulate them back then.”
“It’s odd, yes, but not inexplicable. The pace of change is always accelerating… ”
“Really? How do you account for it then?”
“We’re standing on the shoulders of giants. We’re capitalising on the work of the past.”
“Or the future.”
“What?” Jim had lost the thread of the conversation.
“Consider this. We had the faraway jump drive for over a hundred years. Then within a few short years the thruspace motors were everywhere. At the same time the Raxxla legends came back – don’t you remember all that fuss about the Ryder boy around that time?”
“Vaguely, I was only a kid.”
“Then, a couple of decades later, up pops the witchdrive injector, both technologies appear unannounced, suddenly developed within short periods of time, and adopted mainstream in a very short space of time, without significant teething trouble. No prototypes, no obvious research and development, nothing. In addition, some very cleverly hidden people make a lot of money.”
“Hidden people?”
“Name the person who invented the thruspace drive. Or the witchspace injector. Hmmm?” Zerz raised an eyebrow quizzically.
Jim stuttered. “It was… Giles somebody? No… well… I’d have to look it up. Some corporation or other.”
“ Don’t bother, nobody knows, or they’re corporations with faceless share holders and no accountability to the stockmarkets. Trust me, every time a major new technology advance comes along, Raxxla comes back to the fore and the Dark Wheel comes out of hiding. I’ve gone back decades, it’s always the same. I’ve checked all the feeds, there is a major correlation which can’t be explained statistically… ”
“What are you telling me?”
“Whenever advanced new technology appears, it’s always secret and it’s somehow linked to Raxxla.”
“No way. Most of the technology is military stuff, declassified once they upgrade to the latest and greatest, like the lasers: pulse; beam; military. There is a progression…”
“But there’s the rub. I’m Galcop’s chief technician. Shouldn’t I know where some of this technology comes from? Each time it happened the discovery was just swept up into the fuel scoop and conveniently forgotten. Only an entry was made…”
“In the Raxxla file.”
“Exactly. To start with I assumed Raxxla was simply a code word for unexplained items and the stories were just that, stories to entertain the ignorant and stupid. Now I know otherwise. I discovered the secret.”
The comm-tab on Zerz belt suddenly beeped softly. He looked up out of the cavern again, back towards the area where Jim had landed his ship.
“We should get inside,” Zerz commented.
“I fear I may have been followed,” Jim admitted.
“Oh I’m sure you have, in fact, I’m counting on it.”
Jim frowned. “But… ”
“The Dark Wheel is duty bound to stop you, Jim,” Zerz tapped the side of his nose. “We’re talking Raxxla, after all. Watch your step, the floor is uneven.”
They walked deeper into the cavern, Zerz leading the way with a ‘glo’. It was completely dark inside, but a sixth sense gave Jim the feeling that the enclosed space was vast. It was cool too, and Jim noticed that their footsteps stopped echoing after a time. As they walked forward the floor became smooth and sandy, the area having been cleared and adapted for use. Just in range of the glo Jim could make out canisters, equipment and some kind of heavy lifting machinery, normally used for servicing ships.
“So this technology you’ve been talking about… What have you discovered?” Jim asked. “What do you need help with?”
“The Chief discovered some correlation in the file. Something that linked all of those disparate pieces of evidence together; something that both indicated the nature of Raxxla, and aspects of its location. He’d started working on it, I’m close to figuring it out myself, but I need your help. You’re the best mind in Galcop.”
“Why hide here? This is the hind end of the universe.”
“Mostly for secrecy. Galcop has
a number of these types of operation dotted around the charts. This one is no longer used, but I knew of its location. I’ll show you in a moment, come on.”
Zerz was walking quickly into the cavern, Jim had to pick up his pace to keep up.
“And the Dark Wheel? They’re not going to allow the Chief or us to pursue this! If they have followed me…”
“I think we can reason with them,” Zerz seemed overly confident.
“Maybe at the point of a blaster!” Jim retorted. “They tried to murder you, Zerz!”
“So it would seem.”
“And the assassin?”
“Oh, I don’t think we need to worry about the Assassin,” Zerz said with a smile, coming to a halt and pressing a button on his comm-tab.
“Why the hell not?”
A series of bright lights flashed on in the darkness, slowly illuminating the immense cavern. It was much larger than Jim expected; he and Zerz were now standing right in the middle. Looking up, Jim ducked instinctively. Towering over them was a ship, its central hull immediately above them, gracefully curving back and out, differentiating into two enormous engine nacelles. One was pristine, the other seemed to bear the marks of weapons fire.
Rebecca found the entrance to the cavern and cautiously proceeded inside. It was pitch black and she dared not use a glo. It would do her little good, and give away her position immediately. She carefully slid along the cavern wall, taking care to be a quiet as possible. Her portascan showed no obvious signs of intrusion detection systems of any kind, with a bit of luck she’d go unnoticed.
She edged further in, and began to hear distant snatches of conversation. She was too far away to catch the words, but it was a familiar accent, definitely from Chart One.
Preceded by a momentary flicker a bright light blazed out of the cavern. Alarmed, she immediately threw herself to the ground. She tripped and fell in the dark, sliding down a slope and rolling into a gully, knocking the wind out of herself. She kept very still for a few long minutes, listening. The voices seemed to have faded out at about the same time as the lights had switched on.
Clipping the portascan to her belt, she slowly crawled forward. She cursed when she realised she had ripped her flight overalls in a number of places.
In front of her was a small rise, part of an irregular part of the cavern wall formation; it would conveniently hide her from view from anyone further in. The cavern was enormous, big enough to house a ship.
She crawled up to the rise, loosened the strap on her rifle, setting it aside to give herself a bit more freedom of movement. Then she poked her head above the rise to get a better view.
She gasped as she recognised the lines of an Imperial Courier. One engine still bore the marks of weapons fire. Her weapons fire.
He's here! The assassin's here!
Rebecca could just make out two figures standing beneath it. She frowned, squinting, trying to make them out.
It can’t be… Oh God, it is! What the hell is he doing here?
She froze, almost falling back down the rise in bewilderment.
Jim staggered back in shock. The Imperial Courier seemed enormous, looming over him like a predatory bird about to dismember its captured prey.
“But… ” he managed weakly.
“Yes,” Zerz smiled wanly, “I thought you’d be surprised.”
“Then… ”
Belatedly Jim went for the pistol at his belt and held it directly at Zerz. Zerz didn’t even flinch.
“Not a wise choice, Jim. Not everything is as you may first suspect. I will endeavour to explain all,” Zerz seemed completely unconcerned about the gun.
“You’re the assassin! You murdered Geraint! You tried to kill me, Rebecca and the others!”
“If you need to be so mundane, yes. But… ”
“You… I should… ” Jim gestured with the gun.
“Jim, you’re powerless. It’s no accident that we’re out of witchspace range. I have the only way out of here. Kill me and you’re marooned. Accept you are outmatched. Ditch the emotion and analyse your situation rationally,” Zerz was smiling, completely at ease.
Jim was brought up short by Zerz’ matter of fact manner and took a deep breath to calm himself. Was this really the faceless assassin? The Agent hired by the Chief of Staff, the Elite combateer he and Rebecca had faced before?
He ran the events of the Q-Bomb affair back through his mind. Zerz had reverse engineered his schematics and created the Q-Bomb. After that he’d not been seen for ages. Jim had always wondered how his ship, the SuperCobra carrying the Q-Bombs, had been tracked. If Zerz knew how to build a Q-Bomb, it would have been child’s play. Perhaps he’d even built a homing device into the design. Zerz had access to Geraint too, and would have known where to start looking for Jim. Only Rebecca’s intervention had saved the day.
“The President hired you for all of this?” Jim spluttered.
Galcop’s set me up again!
“No, no. The President was a pawn in the game, Jim,” Zerz said with a smile. “It was surprisingly easy to manipulate him. He had just the wit to get you involved and send you to me unescorted. A team of marines would have been most inconvenient to dispose of.”
Jim’s head was spinning, trying to unravel all the implications. “Then you’re still working for the Chief?”
“The Chief was never involved, other than providing me with the Raxxla file itself. He lacked the ambition and the power to seek out Raxxla. Since I became aware of the implications I made it my task to seek out the truth behind it.”
“So it’s you who are pursuing Raxxla, just you?”
“Yes. Naturally I’ve also made sure that others with similar knowledge were unable to trace the same path, or reveal my intentions.”
“The Dark Wheel didn’t commit those murders?” Jim’s eyes were wide.
“Not at all. The Dark Wheel members are the much maligned innocent party,” Zerz laughed. “I’ve made sure they’re in quite some turmoil!”
“Then it was you who attacked them, not Galcop! You even faked your own demise!”
“ Indeed. For once, even Galcop is innocent. As for the Dark Wheel, obviously I needed their information. It was a simple cover up. Both organisations blaming each other, whilst I continued with my task unimpeded.”
“But you’ve got everything you need!” Jim almost shouted back. “You have the file and you must have taken information from the Dark Wheel ships you attacked.”
“All true,” Zerz smiled back at him. “However it transpired that I needed a few more items than I originally anticipated.”
“You need me,” Jim shot back. “You really think I’ll help you?”
“I don’t think you’ll find you have a great deal of choice.” Zerz said with a smile.
“Don’t count on it,” Jim replied coldly, clenching the pistol tightly.
Zerz’ comm-tab beeped again. “Ah, right on schedule. The Dark Wheel.” He lifted his eyes to the rear of the cavern, and raised his voice. “You can come out now.”
For a moment nothing happened, but then a figure strode slowly into the light. It was small, petite, compact. It was holding an unpleasant looking rifle pointed straight at both of them.
“Put your weapons down and raise your hands!” The owner of the rifle interrupted belligerently. “Now!”
The voice was familiar. Jim couldn’t believe it. He felt a surge of delight, quickly followed by confusion, fear, concern and dread.
Oh my God! Not her! Not here! … She’s working for the Dark Wheel? How did she get here? And how did Zerz know she was coming?
“Rebecca?” he gasped in astonishment.
“Weapons down and raise your hands before I blow both of you away!” She remained focussed them, continuing to walk forward and keeping them both within an easy shot.
Zerz didn’t move, but Jim looked at Rebecca in surprise. “Rebecca, it’s me… ”
Rebecca tweaked the settings on the rifle. “Do it!”
; She’s prepared to shoot me?
Jim dropped his gun and raised his hands. Zerz also did as he was bid, rolling his eyes and looking almost bored, as if he’d seen these events before and was simply watching them replay.
Rebecca sidestepped and kicked Jim’s gun aside into the shadows.
“I heard your entire conversation,” she snarled, now totally focussed on Zerz. “You’re the assassin.”
“If I might be permitted to explain… ” Zerz began to say, as if only mildly impatient. “It’s not quite that simple…”
“Shut the hell up! There’s no goddam reason I shouldn’t blow your ass away right now!” Rebecca fairly screamed at him.
Zerz smiled back at her lazily. “If you insist.”
Jim wasn’t sure what was going on; Zerz was far too confident, far too sure of himself.
What is he hiding…?
Zerz was outnumbered and had a gun trained on him, Jim was sure he could figure out a way to jury rig a galactic witch-jump in order to get them out of here…
There must be something else…
“Rebecca no!” Jim cried, moving towards her. “We need to… ”
She pointed the gun at Jim, back at Zerz and then back at Jim again, a crazed look in her eyes. “DON’T MOVE!”
What’s happened to her? She’s pointing the gun at me again! She’s unbalanced! Overwrought! She’s been pursuing a vendetta against him all this time… Maybe she’s gone crazy…
“This bastard killed my family; he’s the one I’ve been chasing! Don’t get in my way, Jim!”
“Rebecca,” Jim stepped towards her, trying to calm his voice. Things were happening too fast. “Rebecca, just listen to me. Put the gun down… ”
“Don’t come any closer!” she whispered, stepping back, and then whipping the gun back towards Zerz, glaring with unconcealed hatred, her face a mask of fury and rage.
“I’ve finally caught up with you,” she whispered, her eyes narrowing.
“Rebecca, wait! Don’t…!”
She pulled the trigger.