Voyage of the Valkyrie

by Robert Horseman

  She turned to Rae. “Does this woman have an audio chip?”

  “No, but I detect a fine incision scar at the usual site behind her right ear.”

  “Could she be one of ours? She’s not from the Valkyrie or we’d have recognized her, but maybe she’s captured UDA personnel. She didn’t have a weapon, and all the others did. Rae, do her biometrics match anyone in our database?”

  “I’m sorry, but those files are restricted access.”

  Damn, thought Mac. Reliable inside information was essential if they were to have any chance of rescuing the crew.

  Cale attached the final dosing cuff and turned to Mac. “They’re all ready, just say the word.”

  She stared at the woman. “Rae, I want to talk to her. Put the men in stasis sleep, but just restrain her for now. Leave the cuff attached just in case, and clear the hazine.”

  It took ten minutes to clear the air, and when it was done they peeled off their hot infiltration suits. They stared at each other in their sweat stained underwear, and Mac was the first to giggle. “You reek, Cale. Honestly, you’re way past ripe. You smell like rotting turnips.”

  “I think that’s you, Mac. Definitely you.”

  There was a muffled groan from the woman on the bed, then a muttered, “God, it’s both of you.”

  ***

  The woman’s eyes were wide as she surveyed her comatose compatriots. “Why am I restrained, and who are you?” The woman’s voice was hoarse, a common after-effect of hazine exposure.

  “I am Ensign Mackenzie Pickett, currently the ranking officer on the Valkyrie, and this is Ensign Cale Davis. Who are you?”

  “I am Lieutenant Grace Shelby of the UDA cruiser Saber. I was the weapon’s officer until our ship was taken fifteen months ago.” Her eyes flashed in anger as she pulled against her restraints. “Look, I outrank you both. Release me immediately. I am assuming command of this vessel.”

  Mac suppressed a flare of anger, and said in a controlled voice, “You are doing no such thing, Ma’am. As far as we can tell, you are an enemy combatant from the Redshift vessel we destroyed.”

  “You destroyed the ship?” She sank back on the bed, closed her eyes, and let out a long sigh. “How?”

  “We used one of the orbiting platforms as a kinetic kill weapon.”

  Her eyes popped open. “You did what?” She pulled against her restraints. “Damn it, get me out of these restraints or I’ll have you up on charges.”

  Mac crossed her arms over her chest. “Ma’am, all we have is your word about who you are. You have no implant, and biometric data is restricted and inaccessible to us. Without such proof, my releasing you would be construed as dereliction of duty in any board of inquiry, and you can bet there will be one if we live through this. I have assumed temporary command under article two-dash-six, and will not stand down until I am relieved by verifiable higher command authority. I have awakened you for the purpose of gaining intelligence. If you are who you say you are and withhold vital information, your inaction may be considered as aiding the enemy under the uniform code of military justice.”

  The woman stared at Mac, then slumped back onto her pillow. “You’re just an ensign, and you took out the Redshift vessel?”

  “Yes ma’am, and both platforms.”

  “Both?” Her eyes went wide. “You’ve got nerve kid, I’ll give you that.”

  Cale spoke for the first time since the woman had awakened. “Damn right she does.”

  The woman raised an eyebrow at Cale, then returned her gaze to Mac. “All right, I’ll play along. I don’t like it, but I understand your dilemma. First though, who, or what, is that?” She tipped her head toward Rae’s drone.

  “That,” said Mac, “is Ensign Rae.”

  The woman stared at Mac as if willing her to continue, but Mac said nothing else. “Fine, what do you want to know?”

  “Everything, starting with your capture and ending with your hacking attempt on the Valkyrie’s computer core. First though, we need to clean up. Rae, please stay here and watch over our guest. If she gives you any trouble, put her out with the cuff.”

  Shelby grimaced. “Is that really necessary?”

  “Let’s hope not.”

  Chapter 17, Interrogation

  “Rae, are you recording all this?”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “Then let’s begin.”

  They had reconvened in the officer’s mess on B-deck since it was comfortable and both Mac and Cale were hungry. They all sat around an oval table eating ready-meals, with Rae’s drone standing behind Grace’s seat. The woman looked uneasy, as was Mac’s intention when she had placed Rae there.

  “As I said before, I am Lieutenant Grace Shelby of the UDA cruiser Saber, or at least I was until about fifteen months ago. We were on routine solo patrol about a quarter light-year from here when we ran into a Redshift gravitic mine field. You must know what I’m talking about. It’s the same type that disabled this ship. They frequently use them in combination with false emergency beacon broadcasts to capture vessels. The tactic is simple but extremely effective. It plays on the human desire to provide assistance to those in peril. Captured cargo vessels that aren’t significantly damaged are generally sold off, but they keep the military vessels for their own fleet if they survive intact. From what little I’ve seen, they have at least a dozen UDA vessels now, possibly a lot more. They used me, but never trusted me with anything important.”

  “What do they do with the captured crews?”

  “Most are sold off as slaves to mining concerns. They use a subterranean base on the planet below for indoctrination. It’s also where they kept me. They inject nanites into the bloodstream which manufacture a perpetual supply of a powerful drug using the body’s own nutrients as power and chemical supplies. It causes a persistent subservient state. I’m sure your entire crew has been injected by now.”

  “Is it reversible?”

  “I do not know for sure, but I believe so. “

  Mac frowned at the woman. “If that is the case, then why are you here? Why weren’t you indoctrinated? You don’t seem particularly docile to me.”

  “I think I was, at least for a few weeks in the beginning. I have a memory gap that long, starting just after our capture. That’s why I think it can be reversed. Redshift evaluates all captured personnel and sets head prices based on their capabilities. Some of the most capable are kept for their own uses. The problem is that the drug dulls initiative and creativity, something necessary for technical work.”

  “So they needed your technical skills for something that they lacked?”

  She nodded. “They were apparently short on talent in military grade computer systems and diagnostics. I have a lot of training and experience in that area, and apparently they decided to keep me. I was kept locked up most of the time, and under armed guard whenever they needed my services.”

  Cale asked, “Have you seen any other UDA personnel from the Saber since its capture?”

  “Yes, all of them. They were shipped off-planet after I got my wits back, and I saw them all leave. They walked like pack-mules up a boarding ramp without making a single sound. The memory still gives me nightmares.”

  “How long do they keep the captured personnel here for their indoctrination program?” asked Mac.

  “The average is about five to ten days. It depends on how many people are captured, how much background information can be obtained about each person, and how long it takes for their personnel transport to arrive.”

  Mac swore, her stomach tightening. “We don’t have much time then. We have to get them out of there before the transport ship or enemy reinforcements arrive. It will be weeks before UDA forces get here, and it’ll be far too late by then.”

  Grace snorted. “Good luck with that. The place is a fortress.”

  “That doesn’t matter because a frontal assault is out of the question,” said Mac. “This ship cannot maneuver in atmosphere, and doesn’t have the crew to suppo
rt an engagement. Besides, we can’t risk killing our own crew in such an attack.”

  Grace pursed her lips and sat back. “You don’t have a lot of options. You could retreat and observe from a distance, then trail the transport ship when it leaves.”

  “Perhaps, but if we wait that long there is a strong chance the transport will arrive with support. Then we might end up fighting several ships to achieve a rescue or escape. Like I said, this ship doesn’t have the firepower I’ve seen so far on the Redshift vessels. I’m not much on suicide missions.”

  “Then retreat is your best option.”

  Mac scowled. “Bullshit. There are always options. Everything we’ve done so far has had long odds against us, but we’re still here, aren’t we?”

  “So what’s your plan then? Walk in and demand their release?”

  Cale guffawed. “Yeah, that’ll work. “

  Mac was silent for a long moment, an ancient history lesson playing in her head. Finally she nodded, “Might work, but it’ll require some incentive for them. Something of greater value to trade, perhaps? Before we get into that though, we need to hear about this fortress of theirs.”

  Grace said, “It would help if I had a map of the planet to look at. I can show you where their base is. It’s well camouflaged.”

  “Allow me,” said Rae. A solid-looking hologram of the planet appeared above the table. “I dedicated the secondary sensor array to scan the planet while I played with the enemy techs.”

  Grace turned in her seat to stare at Rae’s drone. “There’s something here you’re not telling me. The access knife wasn’t working right. Every time we broke through a defensive shell, we ended up back where we started, but facing a different shell. It was like someone was playing with us. You’re an AI aren’t you?”

  “No ma’am.”

  Mac frowned at Rae’s drone, then realized the truth in the statement. Rae thought of herself as a real living person because her neural pathways were based on a real person. The artificial component was the location of her consciousness, but that was beginning to seem irrelevant. No normal artificial intelligence could have withstood an access knife for long. Mac said, “Grace, please show us the base.”

  “The base, right.” She gestured with her hand and spun the holographic globe, stopping it near the north polar region. “The planet surface is mostly ice and has a tenuous oxygen atmosphere, which might be a leftover from being in a solar orbit around a sun before being ejected into deep space. Charged particles from that ancient sun hit water molecules on the surface, breaking the molecules into oxygen and hydrogen atoms. In some respects, it’s reminiscent of Jupiter’s moon Europa. You can’t breathe it though. Well, that’s not quite right. You could breathe it, but you’d be dead pretty fast. The pressure is very low, and what little you managed to breathe in at minus 160 degrees Celsius would freeze you from the inside. The base itself is a decommissioned space station of the old Arbitrage commercial class. Outside, it’s a sphere about two-hundred meters in diameter. They used energy weapons to melt the surface ice, dropped the station into the hole, and let the water refreeze around it. Only the main access hatch protrudes above the surface, and it’s well hidden by a natural-looking ice formation.”

  Rae asked, “Is the Arbitrage station intact? What modifications were done to it?”

  “Very little, as far as I could tell. They didn’t give me a full history lesson for the place. The access hatch is right under here.” Grace pointed to a frozen outcrop, and the view zoomed in on the spot.

  “Rae, do we have arrangement schematics of the standard Arbitrage station?”

  “Yes.” The planet surface disappeared and was replaced with a cutaway view of an old space station.

  Grace continued, “The station is spherical, with twenty levels. The power core is mounted in the center. The uppermost level is a hanger bay for shuttle craft. Below that are repair and maintenance facilities, then an administration level, ten original commerce levels, and finally the lower accommodation levels. The old commerce levels have been repurposed for indoctrinations. They look like enormous medical bays, with beds for over a hundred people on each level.”

  “What about defenses?”

  Grace said, “Defensive systems have been repositioned onto the planet’s surface, hidden just like the main access. They don’t have much firepower, so they rely on camouflage and the defense platforms.”

  “Is there any way in or out, other than the main hatch?” asked Cale.

  “None that I ever saw. I know they carved ice tunnels around the station for maintenance access, but never saw any evidence to suggest surface access through them. Besides, I think they are set up for small maintenance drones.”

  “How many Redshift personnel man it?”

  “It’s a pretty lean operation. Maybe a dozen on security, a handful of techs, a small maintenance crew, the boss and his lieutenants. I’d say about thirty total.”

  Mac rubbed her eyes and yawned, the fatigue of the last few days catching up with her. “What do we know about the base’s boss?”

  “A former aristocrat from the Harmony system by the name Bacchus Moorstone. His family lost everything in their cultural revolution a few years back. He’s not a founding father of Redshift, but pretty high up. He has some military training, I think, since he makes everyone call him Colonel. I met him just once when they brought me back, and he’s as cold as the planet.”

  “So what does he need most? What can we trade our people for?” asked Mac.

  Grace shrugged. “As best as I can tell, he wants ships and people to sell. It must be quite lucrative.”

  “And you say he sells most of the captured personnel as drugged miners?”

  “As far as I know.”

  “Anything else you can tell us that might get our people back?”

  “Only this. If you’re going to do something, do it fast.”

  Mac nodded. “Yes, that much is obvious. “ She turned to Rae’s drone and said, “Now please.”

  A yellow light on Shelby’s medical cuff began blinking, and she said, “You can’t be serious. You’re going to need my help.” Her eyes rolled up into her head, and Rae caught her and lowered her head gently onto the table.

  Cale frowned and looked at Mac. “Why’d you do that? She’s a UDA lieutenant. We could use her help.”

  “If I trusted her, I’d agree. But the fact remains that we don’t know that she is who she says she is. And even if she is, I am unconvinced about her loyalties. Think about what she told us. The intelligence she gave us on the base is good information, if true, but she basically said it is impregnable and we should just leave. Does that sound like a UDA officer to you? Besides, she has a yellow aura and I just don’t trust her.”

  Cale twitched his head. “She has a what?”

  “Don’t worry, yours is turquoise, so you have nothing to worry about.”

  His eyebrows went up. “I have an aura? Are you okay Mac?”

  “I’m fine. Forget I mentioned it.” She turned to Rae’s drone. “Can we manufacture mining drones?”

  Chapter 18, Inducements

  While Rae returned Grace’s comatose body to the medical bay and started fabricating mining drones, Mac and Cale retired to their rooms to rest. Mac’s mind was turning to mush from fatigue, and she didn’t want to make an irrevocable decision in that state. Better to sleep on it, even if it was just the four hours required for fabrication.

  Her tiny cubbyhole of a room seemed even smaller than she remembered, even though it was just yesterday when she had last slept there. Somehow that felt like ages ago. She stripped off her clothes, reset the bunk’s artificial gravity to a quarter gee, turned off the lights, and lay down. She closed her eyes, half expecting her churning mind to keep her awake. Moments later she was startled by the door chime. Swearing under her breath, she sat up and looked at the glowing clock. Somehow four hours had elapsed. She groaned and stood, stretched, and yawned. “Enter.”

  The door
slid aside, and Mac squinted into the brightness of the corridor. Cale stood leaning against the jamb, a wide grin on his face. He raised his eyebrows and nodded at her. “Well now, a mighty fine vision you are, boss. Are you inviting me in?”

  Mac was suddenly alert, looked down at her nakedness, and slammed her open hand on the door button. It snicked shut, and she turned and leaned her back against it. A tear threatened to overflow. It was just the right capstone for the last day and a half, she thought. Complete humiliation. But command and duty had to take center stage right now.

  The door chimed again, and this time she heard Cale say, “Mac, Rae’s finished fabricating the mining drones. She had to recycle five of our maintenance drones and the new drone she was building for herself for raw materials. The special programming you requested is also complete. Can you tell me what you have in mind now?” He paused then added, “I’m sorry about what I just said. It slipped out, you know? You seem to have that effect on me. I’ll try to keep a lid on it if that’s what you want.”

  Command and duty, command and duty, command and duty. She said it over and over in her head, trying to convince herself. He hadn’t actually said anything mean, had he? And damn if she didn’t like the way he had looked at her. Command and duty. The door chimed a third time, and Mac swore to herself. “Enter.”

  She leaned against her bed as the door slid open, forced a lopsided smile, and said, “Yes and no.”

  Cale’s eyes were dilated, and seemed to be having a difficult time looking at her face. His aura was now a brilliant purple, and that meant trouble. Big trouble. He said, “Yes and no what?”

  She stared at him, trying to decide if she were going to do this. Apparently she was, since her mouth started talking without her apparent consent. “Remember when I said I’d make it extremely obvious? Listen carefully. Yes, I’m inviting you in, and no I don’t want to talk right now. I’m just a god-damn ensign fresh out of the academy, and I just need…” She paused, unsure how to finish, and extended a hand.