by Frank Carey
"I still don't see why I'm coming along."
Jason handed her a print of a video frame capture of the missing ship as it was being loaded. It showed an Erdexi sphere, surrounded by a protective frame, being trundled up the loading ramp. It had obviously been modified by someone. "Are those electrical leads entering its shell?"
"Yep. Note the controls have been encased with some type of protective cover."
"Who the hell are these people?"
"You've been tagged to find that out. Welcome to your new job."
Nebulon looked at him and smiled. She liked challenges.
"I have a contact at Orinoco station who thinks he saw something in the Expanse that we'll find useful. He heard about our search for the source of the Erdexi artifacts, and he is sure he found something related to them," Jason added.
"Really? Who's this friend?" Nat asked. She knew Jason pretty much kept to himself and had only a handful of friends.
"His name is Carlos Dael Rey. He's a…"
"Conman, swindler, octopus, braggart, oh, did I mention octopus?" Natalie said, disgusted.
"Nat, don't be that way. Carlos has changed. He told me he went straight." Jason said
"As straight as a rattlesnake on a hot highway. He can't be trusted," she said as she tried to suppress a shudder.
"He sounds lovely, can't wait to meet him," Nebulon said, unsure whether she meant it or not.
"He's really a great guy. It's just that he and Natalie didn't hit it off when they met."
"Hit it off! I came very close to using a blaster on him. You'd better warn him never to touch me again or I swear to every deity that I will flambé him."
"I promise. He'll behave."
Oh joy. My first day as boss and I have to deal with personnel issues, Nebulon thought as she tried to hide in the galley. May this trip be short and uneventful.
CHAPTER TWENTY
After a quiet docking, Nebulon, Nat, and Jason proceeded to the dock master's office to find out more about the missing ship.
"Hello, my name is Dr. Nebulon Blyst, and these are my colleagues, Capt. Jason Thurgood and First Officer Natalie Markle. We're here to investigate the disappearance of the LTV Ionis as a favor to Space Command. Any help you can give us would be greatly appreciated."
"My name is Jackson. Here's their passenger list and cargo manifest," the dock master said as he handed over data pads to Nebulon and Jason. "As you can see, everything is in order."
While Nebulon looked over the passenger list, Jason looked over the cargo manifest. "Not quite," Jason said as he showed him the vid feed of the Erdexi sphere being loaded. "This isn't on the list. Why not?"
"Let me check. Here it is under 'Repair Parts." It's an addition to the ship's propulsion system. Here's the paperwork," he said as he handed Jason a thick folder. "We haven't had the chance to scan them into the system yet."
Jason read through them. "Hmmm. Can I borrow a terminal?" he asked.
"Sure, right over here," the dock master said as he pulled out a chair in front of a keyboard.
"What did you find," Nebulon asked as she leaned in close to his shoulder.
He looked up at her. "New scent? I'm getting a hint of Vanilla."
"You like?"
"It's intoxicating," he replied, which got a smile out of her and an eye roll from Nat. "Anyway, the sphere is listed as an FTL enhancer manufactured by the Morgantown Engine Works," he said as he ran some searches. "Now, I've been working in space for over twenty years and I've never heard of an FTL enhancer, and according to the League Standard Catalog of Parts, there isn't one." He continued to search. "I knew it. The Morgantown Engine Works makes motors for mining bots. Someone has hacked the records system to accept this data even though it's completely fabricated."
"Let me give it a try," Nat said as she switched places with him. She started typing. "Yep, whoever did this was a real pro, which means they're hard to find and won't talk if we do find them. Everything looks legit enough that it wouldn't get flagged. We really need to talk to the Master Record Keeper Division about this."
Jason continued to look at the paperwork. He walked over to the dock master's holoviewer and punched in the coordinates of the destination planet. The table displayed an empty expanse of space. He zoomed in and found nothing, not even a rock. "Our friends are going on a dig in the middle of nothing."
"What do you mean?" the dock master said as he walked over and flipped switches. "This is impossible. They listed a star and a planet."
Nat, still sitting at the terminal, typed in some commands. "Yep, Stellar Cartography Databases have been hacked as well. I'm going to be filling out alert notices for the next week."
"Nebs, what about the passengers?" Jason asked.
"They're all upstanding members of the xenoarchaeology community along with their students. These are people from top schools across the League. Ciara is running their names through OffSec, but I don't think she’ll find anything."
"What next?" Jason asked Nebulon.
"Show us the Ionis's berth if you would," she said.
"Sure, this way," Jackson said as he led them out the door."
The dock master took them to an empty berth that looked like any other empty berth. Nebulon pulled-out her scan pad and scanned the area. "Slightly elevated neutrino levels," she said as she knelt next to a small pile of dirt. "There are odd isotope ratios, which do not match any planet or satellite on record." Nebulon stood up and deactivated the pad and stowed it in her bag. "Mr. Jackson, we're finished here," she said, handing him her OffSec card. Call if you see another of those spheres or if the Ionis or her passengers return."
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am," Jackson said as he hurried off to attend to other duties.
"I think you intimidated him," Nat said as she patted Nebulon's back. "Nice job, boss."
"I didn't really intimidate him, did I?"
Jason just nodded and said, "Big time, Doc. Big time."
Nebulon looked at the two of them and smiled. "Excellent. Let's go find this friend of yours," she said as she led the way off the dock.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Nebulon and her two companions walked down the poorly lit station corridor on their way to the meeting with Carlos. "Is this for real? This place looks like the stereotypical aftermath of an alien infestation," she said as she avoided the walls.
"Orinoco Station doesn't get a lot of visitors since the invention of the Soder FTL drive. It's here to primarily keep an eye on the Expanse," Jason explained.
"Captain, am I crazy or do you like it here?" Natalie asked.
"It harks back to the heady days of space exploration," he said as he ran his hand down the filthy wall. "I find the nostalgia appealing."
"We should have gotten booster shots," Nebulon said as she shied away from a member of an unidentifiable species leaning against a wall.
"Here it is," Jason said as he stopped in front of a pair of swinging doors straight out of a Twentieth Century Earth Western. Above the door was "Roxanne's" carved into the metal wall.
"That looks like someone wrote it with a claw," Natalie said as she stared at the sign.
"Actually, it was a blaster set at narrow beam. Let's go in. I can't wait to see Carlos," Jason said as he pushed through the doors while Natalie and Nebulon cringed and followed him inside.
The interior of the establishment was as bad as the hallway outside. There were a few patrons scattered about the room, drinking and talking in whispers while a lively group was playing some form of pool at the back of the room. There was a human woman slumped over the bar. Jason walked up to the Alturan barkeep and asked where he could find Carlos Dael Rey. The barkeep pointed a tentacle at the woman. Confused, Jason bent over and asked her, "Excuse me, ma'am. Do you know where I can find Carlos Dael Rey?"
"Right here, Jason sweetie," she said as she planted a passionate kiss right on his lips, much to the surprise of Natalie and the disgust of Nebulon. "Damn, I've wanted to do that since I was a bo
y."
"Carlos? Carlos! You're a girl! But you were a guy," Jason stammered as he quickly stepped away from the obviously mad woman. "Honest, he was a guy!" he said to Nebulon while trashing pronouns left and right. "Carlos, what happened?"
"I had a falling out with the Goranthi and they sent a death squad after me, so I high-tailed it to Cora to find a sympathetic surgeon to do some change work. He suggested I try a gender swap. Hell. I've always been bi-gender curious so I gave it a try. What do you think?" she said as she ran her hands up and down her body to show off her new curves. And I'm a for-real girl. Complete DNA and plumbing. That's why I need the money. I'm tapped out."
"I think I'm deeply disturbed," Jason said, staring.
"Okay, boys and girls. The bullshit light is now officially out," Nebulon growled. "Carlos…"
"It's Carla now," she said.
"Carla, this will be yours if you have information we find useful," Nebulon said as she let Carla look in the duffel bag full of money she grabbed on the way over from the dock.
"This way to my office," Carla said as she led them to a secluded table at the back corner of the room.
"Talk," Nebulon said when they were seated.
"You know, you're kinda cute," Carla said to Nebulon, "Maybe we could…"
"We couldn't. I'm Tralaskan, and I'm very ill tempered."
"Okay, got it. Don't want to get thrown through a porthole. Where was I? Oh, yeah, I finished recovering from my surgery and needed to get back here, so I hitched a ride with a real nice spacer who let me try my new body out. Anyway, we were about half-way down the corridor when sensors said a ship just dropped into FTL in front of us. We thought this was odd, so we dropped out of FTL and looked around. It seems my friend had installed a jacked-up sensor suite. About a light-year off the corridor, inside an asteroid field, was a massive reading of metal and atmo. Being the adventurous types, we hoofed it over to take a look. Guess what we found?"
Nebulon reached over and crushed an empty metal tankard with one hand.
"I'll tell you. A large tetrahedron."
"How big?" Natalie asked.
"We ran a low-level scan. It was about two miles on an edge."
"Interesting. Any power readings? Atmo? Life signs?" the first officer asked.
"I see you haven't lost the touch. Yes, to everything but life signs. We were going to have a look, but before we could board, a pair of Tralaskan freighters showed up. We didn't want any trouble, so we took off."
"Any scan or photographic data? Where is your friend now?" Jason asked.
"My friend had all the data, but the death squad never stopped looking for me. They got to him a few days ago. Somehow they tracked us back here from Cora."
"I think they tracked you to this bar as well," Nebulon said as she watched three large Goranthi walk in and look around the room.
"Jason, buddy, you got to get me out of here."
"We will," he said, pulling his weapon out from his belt. "Nat, slip out and warm up the Ascendant."
"I can't leave you here. Nebulon, help me here. Nebulon?" she said to an empty chair.
Nebulon walked up to the three Goranthi and stood in their way. "Boys…" she said.
"I'm a girl," noted the tallest of the three.
"Sorry. Lady and gentlemen, there is nothing for you here. Take off," she said, knowing that Goranthi do not take kindly to kindness.
"Back off, Tralaskan, we're here on a job."
"So am I, and you're making mine difficult. Final warning, get out."
"Impressive, little one. I give you points for style," the tallest one said as she unsheathed her sword. She never finished the motion.
In less than a minute, Nebulon had punched, kicked, and choke-holded the three assassins into unconsciousness. She collected their weapons, unloaded them, and tossed them down a trash chute.
The sound of applause interrupted her cleanup efforts. "Bravo, Nebs. Bravo. I see you haven't lost your touch."
Nebulon turned around to find a tall man holding a blaster on her. "Place your weapon on the ground and kick it over," he said. She pulled the pistol from her belt and did as instructed.
"You three do the same," he said to Jason and his companions. They complied, all that is except Carla.
"Sorry, friend, but I'm unarmed,"
"That's fine," he said. "Come stand with me."
"Stark, leave her alone. I can't believe you're working with the Goranthi," Nebulon said.
"I'm not," he said as he shot the three assassins. "I'm here for Carla."
"Why?"
"Because my employer wants to talk to her about something she saw in the Expanse."
"What happened to you? You were a body guard, obviously not a very good one since you let Thorenn die, but still a body guard. Now you're a low-life hit-man?" she asked.
"I've always been a hit-man, even when I met Thorenn. Hell, I was the one who took the contract on him. You have my word he didn't suffer…"
"So, you killed Thorenn? What did he do to get a price on his head?"
"I can't say. Client-assassin confidentiality and all that. Now, let me have Carla and we'll be on our way…" He was interrupted by a blaster bolt knocking him into a wall. He slid to a crumpled heap next to a table.
Nebulon looked up and saw Jason holding a pistol and Natalie standing over a patron, holding his arm at a very uncomfortable angle.
"Doc, I think we should go," Jason said as he pointed the gun at the crowd. "I suggest none of you follow us."
"Shouldn't we report this to station security?" she said as she gathered their discarded weapons.
"We will the moment we're aboard Ascendant and undocked from the station. None of this crowd seems happy about what I just did."
Nebulon looked around the room and immediately agreed with Jason. "Carla, you're with us. The rest of you just hang here for a while," she said as they backed out of the room.
###
Once aboard the Ascendant and heading back to the Cube, the four of them sat down at the big table to hash things out.
"Doc, you know this Stark guy?" Nat asked.
"I had a relationship in graduate school…"
"Tell me that it was with someone other than him," Nat said.
"Yes, with the guy he worked for, a guy by the name of Thorenn. Thorenn was into some real shady stuff, stuff that OffSec was interested in."
"Was this when you told Agent Walker to go to one of the seven hells?" Jason asked.
"You told Walker to go to hell? And you lived?" Nat asked.
“I was working in the library when she came in and said she was looking for him. When I told her I hadn't seen him, she gave me her card and asked that I call her when I saw him next. She then left.”
"So, then what happened?" Jason asked.
Thorenn runs in with some story about having to leave the planet. He wanted me to drop everything and join him on some mad quest."
"What did you tell him?" Carla asked as she grabbed a beer.
"Beer? Really? It's not even 0900 hours local," Nat said.
"Yeah, but it's past 1600 hours in New York," Carla replied as she drank deeply from the bottle.
"No, I didn't join him. I had already decided to break up with him earlier in the week. Yes, the sex was good, but I wanted more from the relationship than that leach could supply."
Everyone around the table stopped and looked at her. "Little TMI there, Doc," Carla said, smiling.
"What's TMI?" Nebulon asked.
"Too much information," Nat whispered. Nebulon looked at Jason and saw that he was blushing.
"You're Tralaskan, for gods' sake. Don't tell me I made you uncomfortable," she said.
"A little. I was raised by my human uncle and aunt. I'm fine, please continue," he said with a big gulp.
"Unbelievable. As I was saying, I was going to breakup with him. When I told him no, he got angry and left. Agent Walker walked in a short time later. She was monitoring my conversation with Thorenn throug
h the tracker card she gave me."
"She gave you a tracker?" Nat asked. "What did you do then?"
"I tore it in half and told her that if she needed any more information, she would have to contact me in her choice of one of the seven hells."
"Damn, those cards are virtually indestructible. Walker must have been impressed," Jason said.
"Why?" Nebulon asked.
"Because she 'accidentally' shot the last person who swore at her. She's very straight-laced."
"Carla, is there anything you can add to your story about the ships or the tetrahedron?" Nebulon asked in a feeble attempt to change the subject.
"No. The ships were unmarked and not broadcasting IFF signals of any kind."
"Damn, too bad the Goranthi got to your friend. We could have used the photos and the data from your scans," Natalie said as Carla pulled a small data crystal from a pocket and handed it to Jason.
"What's this?" Jason asked as he passed the crystal off to Nat.
"The coordinates of the structure and the sensor data we took during our visit. I didn't know who to trust, so I made a copy before I took off to meet you."
Nat plugged the crystal into the reader slot in the table. Immediately, a holomap formed above the table showing their present coordinates, the structure's coordinates, and several possible routes between the two.
"Damn, now that's what I call a computer," Carla said as she manipulated the view.
"Nebs, I'm going to send a report to Ciara. I need your recommendations."
"We go there and see what was worth all this death," she said.
"Damn skippy," Carla said, patting Nebulon on the back. Nebulon looked at her and smiled.
Jason called the Cube on a secure link and brought Ciara up to speed. She was not happy.
"I got word that the Goranthi are now involved. They've expanded the contract on Carla to include Stark, which means they'll shoot anyone around them including OffSec agents. Watch your back on this one. Nebulon's plan, though succinct, has been approved. Be careful and keep me posted. Cube out."