Sensors showed there was no-one else nearby.
"Clear," he said into coms. "A team destroyed our new digs, but I took them out."
"Not again," said Pink, from somewhere behind him.
"Bring Pink back to the ship. By the time you’re here, I'll know how we respond to this."
"Respond? I responded already."
"I did too, but I'm thinking a little grander."
"Roger that."
Walsh found a pink beach ball behind the ruins of the reception desk, picked it up, and set off for the ship.
Jane came down from the Bridge, and collected all the tablets off the bodies. She started with the Owl's, and hacked her way in. She followed the message activity to a bank account. She hacked the bank computer, and followed the money back to the Owl embassy. The next tablet provided an almost identical trail, as did all the rest.
Having found the paymaster, Jane went looking for who these beings actually were. One of them had been less security conscious than the others, and the messages led back to a mercenary recruitment agency. The money there led back to a lot of places, but mainly to the Owl embassy. The location of the mercenary group's base was easy to find on one of the lower levels.
The Owl's tablet showed her the way into the Owl embassy computer, and she located every single Owl on the station using it. Quite a few turned out to be dead already. Most of the rest cross referenced to the mercenary agency. There were a handful of genuine diplomatic staff, but on the whole, the Owls employed other species for the mundane work. Further checking revealed the genuine diplomatic staff were nothing of the kind, being more in the nature of covert ops types.
Walsh stomped in, still carrying Pink.
"Pink, your safe now."
The pink beach ball turned back into a pink fuzz-ball. A combat droid took Pink from Walsh, who stepped back out of his combat suit.
"Pink," said Jane, "the droid will take you to a suite. Stay there and relax until we get back."
"Where are you going?"
"Out."
Pink eyed the destruction at the back of the cargo deck as the droid took him past it to the access shaft, and wondered what Jane really had in mind.
"Darlene?" yelled Jane.
"Yes?"
"Walsh and I are going for a walk."
"Have fun."
Jane's hand guns became visible, and she looked at Walsh and down to where his were not. He took the hint, and his became visible as well.
"Long Gun on laser."
Walsh looked at her for a moment, but complied. Then he grinned.
"We come in peace. Shoot to kill."
"Why is that familiar?"
Walsh sent her the link to the archive.
"Oh, that. Let's go."
"Where are we going?"
"For a walk."
"What are we looking for?"
"Station design flaws."
Walsh blinked rapidly a few times but fell into step with her. The airlock closed behind them this time, and they strode through the station like they owned it. Beings took one look at them, and gave them plenty of room to pass by, breathing deeply after they had. Jane stopped outside the ruins of their second embassy suite.
"Cleanup on isle four," she muttered.
Station security should have already been there, but weren’t. She spoofed an anonymous message to them, saying the empty embassy had been destroyed, and there seemed to have been casualties outside.
They continued on, Jane consulting a station map as she went, until they stood outside the Owl embassy. She motioned Walsh to one side, and calmly kicked the door in.
The embassy was much larger than either of theirs had been, and was on the outside of the station. There was a black fuzz-ball behind the reception desk.
"Out," said Jane.
"I must wait for my bearers."
"Better wait outside then."
Walsh grabbed the nearest fuzz, jerked the poor being out of its seat, and threw it out the door. It landed with no sound at all, and stayed exactly where it ended up.
"Ouch," it said.
Jane slammed the door shut, and was relieved to see she hadn't broken anything important.
"What's all the noise…"
The Owl at an inner doorway stopped when it saw who was there.
"…about," finished Jane. "We need to talk. You and your actual ambassador."
She drew her Long Gun, and waved it at the Owl, indicating it should retreat back into the room. It complied, and the two of them followed.
A second Owl was indeed inside. The first had been at the recent council meeting, but the other was the true ambassador, who Jane had been told was in custody. It obviously wasn’t.
"We don’t talk to terrorists," said the ambassador.
"Pot calling the kettle black," said Walsh.
Neither pot nor kettle translated properly, and the two Owls looked confused.
"Terrorists calling their only decent opposition terrorists," explained Jane.
"We are family business Owls."
"You were family business Owls."
"Were? You can't kill us. Ambassadors and their staff are sacrosanct."
"Hasn't stopped you trying to kill a lot of them, has it?" said Walsh.
"I've no idea what you are talking about."
"Of course you don’t," said Jane. "Fine, die ignorant."
"You intend to murder us in cold blood?"
"Of course not. The station design flaw in this suite will do it for me."
"What are you talking about? There are no flaws in this station design."
"No?"
She pointed her Long Gun at the window.
The Owl started to laugh.
The gun fired six deliberate shots. The glass held.
Both Owls were laughing now.
Jane shifted her suit to spacesuit mode, and looked to Walsh. He did the same, even though he didn’t need to.
The laughing stopped.
The gun fired again. A hole appeared in the middle of the glass, followed by a whistle as air passed through it, the sound of cracking, and suddenly the window disintegrated and disappeared out into space.
Jane and Walsh stood there as everything loose in the suite, vanished out the hole in the hull, including the two Owls.
"As I said," said Jane. "Station design flaw."
She turned and walked back to the suite's main door, where they found an emergency bulkhead in place. Jane plugged herself into its system, raised it, grimaced at the alarm noise, and as the air and loose stuff for the surrounding area raced past them, including a fuzz-ball which Walsh grabbed, they stepped through, Jane calmly plugged herself in again, and reset the emergency door. Walsh put the fuzz-ball down, they shifted back to normal uniforms, and the two of them walked off looking like two people out for a stroll. Only armed.
When they returned to Concorde several hours later, there was not a single Owl left on the station. Nor were there any mercenaries of any species. Media speculation was laughable, but the one thing they were correct about was none of the dead beings so far found floating outside the station had a non-explainable mark on them. They had all died of explosive decompression, apparently from a series of station design flaws all happening one after the other. There was some speculation about the possibility of the recent explosions having something to do with it.
Walsh put away his tablet.
"Did you hack the media as well?"
Jane gave him a couple of rapid eyebrow lifts, and started to return to the Bridge.
"I found it!"
Sixty Nine
There was an empty seat in the council chamber the next day. There were some confused looks, but no-one said a thing.
"Admiral Jane," said Ganshura, "You requested time today for an announcement. You have good news for us?"
"I do. We have a cure for the Owl poison."
The chamber erupted as she knew it would. She waited.
"Do you intend to sell it to us?" as
ked a voice from the back.
"The cure comes in the form of a chemical formula. We will release it to this council for free, on one condition."
"Which is?" asked the fuzz-ball.
"A unanimous vote committing all governments represented here to producing enough of the cure to be given away free to every single being within their space who wants it. This includes any being in transit through your systems, any being on a world still developing within your space which is unable to make the cure themselves, and in fact, anyone who wants it. In short, we will give it to you, on the commitment that you will all make huge quantities of it, and you will all give it to whoever needs it, wherever they are."
There was silence.
"What of those who do not suffer from this poison?" asked the Mushroom.
"They will also make large quantities. Some of you may think you have none of the addiction and poison problems in your space, but my personal belief is the entire sector has been targeted, and some of you are unaware some of your medical conditions come from the drug, and not a medical source."
She looked around the chamber.
"If it was me, I'd make up a dose of cure for each and every being in your space, and make it mandatory for them to take it. You might be surprised how many health problems suddenly vanish. But I cannot ask you to do that, only ask for your commitment to making enough for those who want it."
"What of the addiction?" asked the Mushroom, who already knew the answer, since two of its beings had been cured the day before.
"The drug works in two stages. The addictive substance craves more. When it doesn’t get it, it breaks down into the poison, making the being feel bad as it starts to die. With more drug taken, the poison changes back into the addiction, making the being feel significant better, but craving more. If the drug isn’t taken, the person dies. The cure targets the poison, sucking it out of blood and tissue, releasing it into the body's waste system, where it leaves the body as a solid black lump. The process can be uncomfortable for a while, but appears to be safe. Once your own drug people see the formula, they will be able to confirm the base part of the cure is in fact a stimulant for most beings, and harmless for the rest. A lot of you actually take in some of the cure now, but not combined with the right other elements to be of use. Its constituent parts are quite common, as we verified from station food sources yesterday, and some searching of your various trading markets. Surprisingly though, the main ingredients appear to have never been combined. As it turns out, the majority of my own people have been quite safe from the poison simply because of the recreational drinks they consume in large quantities."
"The cure has been tested?" asked the fuzz-ball.
"Two Mushrooms volunteered yesterday. They are now clean, albeit there is some residual craving left in their systems. A little willpower should keep them clean, until the drug distribution issue has been solved. I do recommend each species do tests, but as I said, the base part of this cure is a mild stimulant for most species."
"What of the distribution issue?" asked Ganshura.
"We need to allow some time for the cure to be made and distributed, so interrupting the supply of the drug doesn’t cause mass deaths. Once we can be sure our actions won't condemn large numbers of beings to death, as they would now, we should blockade Owl space at the top end of the Gauntlet. I can supply detectors which will identify ships carrying the drug, and they can be interdicted or destroyed as necessary. Once the drug stops entering the rest of the sector, the drug trade will slowly die."
"Thank you Admiral. All will now vote."
Two numbers appeared. One of them remained zero until the other stopped changing.
"You have our unanimous commitment Admiral."
Jane flashed the chemical formula up where the numbers had just been, and also sent a prepared message to the tablets of all the ambassadors.
The whole chamber rose, and applauded her. As it died down, she was dismissed, and the council began on other issues.
Jane went back to Concorde, and began sending messages homeward.
Fred was actually bored, sitting in council listening to people drone on. His PC alerted him to a priority email from Jane. He opened it, viewed it on a personal hollo screen, and promptly fell off his chair laughing hysterically.
Silence fell in the chamber, and Madam Chair demanded he control himself. When he failed to stop laughing, she demanded to know what was so funny. He waved weakly at the wall.
"We found a cure for the poison," said Jane. "Coffee. The problem is, coffee is not indigenous to this galaxy, and it would take our entire stock to cure every being affected by the poison, and tie up our production for a decade to clear the new planets before we could use them."
"Obviously, there was some doubt about our willingness to forego our morning beverage for the next decade in order to cure aliens most people don’t know anything about yet."
There was a series of sniggers all around the room, and Fred lost it again. Several people joined him. His laughter was proving highly infectious.
"Darlene Walsh continued working on the problem, and yesterday found the actual combination of elements making up coffee, which acted as the cure. Our coffee is off the hook, as the chemical formula can be made artificially. The formula itself is attached."
"By Sector Ten Council resolution, we are committed to producing a huge amount of the cure, and having it available should anyone request it. All species are. Should a ship arrive on the other side of the G036 jump point and request the cure from us, we are obliged to supply it for free. However, as we will need enormous quantities ourselves, this shouldn’t be a problem for us. In order to eradicate the plant from planets we've claimed, we'll need to spray entire continents with the cure, after we eliminate all the cows. We may have a problem with surviving hyper-stimulated indigenous animals however, since caffeine forms the main ingredient."
Most of the room was laughing now.
"I will inform General Patton of the cure and how to use it, and he will be in touch with you regarding production and delivery to where he needs it. Obviously production and delivery will take some time across the whole sector, after which we need to solve the distribution problem to eradicate the drug for good. The blockades will remain in place until such time as it's safe for travel to begin. There is also a matter of a possible shooting war with the Owls, whose ambassador was recently the victim of a station design flaw, resulting in him suffering from an unexpected explosive decompression problem."
Fred lost it again, and this time he wasn’t the first one.
"For now, we need production of the cure to commence immediately, or our coffee stocks will need to be seized instead. I leave it to the council to organize. Enjoy your next coffee. Jane out."
Sarah kicked Fred under the table, and he hauled himself back into his chair. She looked over to the corporate representatives, and Fred became serious all of a sudden. It was easy for Jane to make a commitment to supply something free, but she wasn't the one who'd be making the stuff. The Corporate food and drug manufacturers were the obvious ones, and this council had booted them out of Gaia not all that long before. They hadn't yet reached their new home.
The reality swept around the room.
General Patton wasn’t laughing. The logistics of what he was going to be asked to do was a nightmare. They'd have to design and make cure spraying equipment for both ships and men. But to get the cure here, they'd need huge tankers, of which the military had only enough to keep water flowing to ships which couldn’t dock anywhere or land anymore. Someone was going to have to build enough of them to cover a world all at the same time.
He called in General Price, and dumped the whole logistics thing on his shoulders. He wasn’t laughing either.
An hour later, Admiral Klemperer did start laughing. The need to design and build tankers and spaying equipment landed on his desk, and he found the whole coffee thing hilarious. He called in his best people, and they got to work, after re
filling the coffee pot.
Seventy
They called Jane back before the council the next day. She hadn't seen Walsh at all since leaving the last session, and Darlene had only said he was very busy with council business.
"Admiral Jane," said Ganshura. "You've been here only a short time, and yet you've managed to turn the entire sector upside down. What are we to do with you?"
Jane opened her mouth, but didn’t know what to say. She closed it again.
"It will be several of your months before the cure has been distributed to all who need it. But we have confirmation that all governments have agreed to abide by the vote taken here yesterday. You have achieved something no other being has been able to. The sector owes you their thanks."
"Darlene Walsh did the actual work, she deserves the thanks more than I do."
"She will be rewarded in due course. You are the one who has made things happen. You are the one who will be in the vanguard of dealing with the distribution problem."
Jane nodded.
"We must now ask you for a commitment. If we asked it of you, would you take your fleet to the top end of the Gauntlet, and blockade Owl space to prevent the drug from entering the sector? Would you bring stations from your home, to make passage along the Gauntlet easier for those with legitimate cargos?"
"I can set up the blockade of course, but the placement of stations would require permissions be granted by all those who currently dispute ownership of the nine systems. This would be easier if a single species owned the length of the Gauntlet, as then it would be as simple as requesting aid by one political entity of another. But I can't see you solving that conflict any time soon."
"On the contrary, it has been solved. It took the longest sitting of this council ever undertaken for a single issue, but the issue was solved. It does however require your help."
"How can I help?"
"We require your commitment as specified already."
"Given the area of space's new owner asks for assistance and provides the permissions for placement of stations, and the movement of warships in their territory, I can certainly commit to the task of enforcing the blockade."
Admiral Jane (A.I. Destiny Book 1) Page 29