by Jay Allan
Deep in the Alliance
Year 310 AC
“A vessel is emerging, Commander. Energy readings do not match the mass of a major warship. It looks smaller than an escort, even.”
Travis moved across Dauntless’s bridge, passing by the captain’s chair without stopping, or even looking at it. She just wasn’t ready…and she could command from her own station as well as from Barron’s.
She shook her head. Energy readings from a transit point were hard to analyze, and ship size estimates were educated guesses at best. Besides, if there were ten or twenty smaller ships coming through one after another, that could be just as big a threat.
“Launch Bl…Scarlet Eagle squadron, Lieutenant.” Her reflex was to send out the Blues, as Barron would normally have done. But she was worried about Jake Stockton.
“Launch control acknowledges, Commander.”
“Weapons status?”
“All stations at red alert. Primaries and secondaries report ready for action. Commander Fritz advises all reactors are at full power.”
“Very well.” She looked ahead, toward the main display. Dauntless was as ready as she could be for whatever was about to burst into the system.
“One contact, Commander. Inbound at high velocity. Detailed readings coming. Looks small, mass lower than even a light escort. A scout of some kind, maybe?”
Travis turned back toward Darrow. “Full power to scanners, Lieutenant.” She cursed herself for not deploying scanner buoys around the tranwarp point. Barron hadn’t done so either, which was unlike him. He tended to be overly cautious about such things. But she knew they were both affected by the situation, by the discomfort of being in Alliance space. Barron had no doubt decided to forego his normal procedure because he was treading softly in the presence of Alliance forces that still floated somewhere between old enemies and new allies. Travis would have liked to write off her own failure with the same logic, but the truth was, she’d been so occupied with Barron, and with meeting Vennius, she just hadn’t thought about it. How many times have you told a spacer, carelessness gets people killed? “Lieutenant Timmons is to scout forward. We need positive ID on that ship…and on anything that follows it.”
“Yes, Commander.” A brief pause. “We’re not picking up any additional readings. That ship may be alone.”
“It may, Lieutenant, but we’re not going to assume that. It could be a scout positioned ahead of an incoming fleet.”
“Commander, we’re receiving a signal. They’re trying to contact us.”
“On my channel, Lieutenant,” Travis snapped, pulling her headset on as she did.
“Dauntless…Dauntless, this is Pegasus. Andromeda Lafarge, calling for Captain Barron. Please respond.” Travis was stunned at what she was hearing. It made no sense. What would Pegasus be doing all the way out here? But those concerns were pushed aside almost immediately. Lafarge was a courageous, capable woman. Travis had come to respect her during the operation out at Chrysallis. But right now, the voice on the comm seemed on the verge of panic.
“Captain Lafarge? Andi?” Travis was very aware that every eye on the bridge was on her. “Is that really you?”
“…Atara? Yes. I need to talk to Tyler. Now.”
Travis hesitated, not sure what to say.
“It’s urgent, Atara. A matter of life and death.”
“Tyler isn’t on the bridge, Andi. He’s…” She didn’t finish.
“No…” The anguished cry came through the comm unit, loud in Travis’s ears. It was clear her tone had told Lafarge all she needed to know. “I’m too late.”
“Too late? What is this about?”
“Is he dead, Atara? Please, I have to know.”
Travis was confused. “No, he’s still alive…” That was a question whose answer was far more complex and uncertain than it seemed. Was Barron alive? Or dead but still revivable? There was no point in confusing things further now. “How do you know?” Travis felt the tension hitting her again. There was a wave of angry suspicion, but it passed almost immediately. Andi couldn’t be involved in this. She wouldn’t hurt Barron. Travis was sure of that. But how could she know?
“Did you catch the assassin? Did he fail? Is Tyler okay?” Her questions were rapid-fire, the tension—no, the outright fear—she felt clearly on display.
“Assassin? What are you talking about?” But even as she asked, a cold feeling gripped her.
“There’s an assassin on Dauntless. Sector Nine got him assigned with your last group of replacements.”
The coldness in Travis gut turned frigid. “Lieutenant,” she yelled, turning toward Darrow. “Get Captain Rogan. I want his Marines on full alert. They are to garrison all vital stations…and I want twenty, fully armed, in sickbay. Now! No, ten minutes ago!” The last words were spoken so forcefully, they seemed to hit Darrow almost with kinetic force.
“Yes, Commander.”
Travis turned back to her comm unit. “Andi, how do you know about all this?”
“One of my contacts. It took a little…persuasion…to get him to spill it all, but he did. He has contacts in the naval office on Dannith. He helped Sector Nine assign their man to Dauntless. As soon as I found out, I tried to catch you before you left, but I was too late. So, I went to Grimaldi Base and found Admiral Striker…and he told me he sent you out to the Rim. I tracked you here.” A pause. “You guys are a little careless with your ion discharges.”
Travis was impressed…no, amazed. She’d liked Lafarge since the two had met, and she had thought well of the rogue captain’s abilities, but this story was almost too much to believe. Her thoughts moved back to Barron, and to the idea that there was an operative loose on Dauntless. She felt the coldness in her turn to fiery rage as she thought about it. Sector Nine could never have gotten one of their own agents onto Dauntless. Whoever it was…it had to be a Confederation spacer turned traitor. It had to be. Working with the enemy…to kill Captain Barron. When she found him…
“Andi, what else did you find out?”
“The assassin has a poison…it’s apparently completely undetectable in any med scans.”
Understanding hit Travis like a thunderbolt. That explains it…
She slapped her hand on the comm unit again. “Doc, please respond.”
A few seconds passed. “Commander, there is still no change. And what is with the Marines down here.? I’ve got them all over the place, in the…”
“Doc, it’s poison. Tyler was poisoned.”
“I scanned him for every known toxin. More, I searched for any chemical changes in his body. There was nothing.”
“It’s something undetectable, at least by normal means. And those Marines are going to stay right where they are. We have a Sector Nine assassin onboard, and until he’s in custody, every vital area of this ship is on lockdown.”
“What do we know about this supposed toxin?”
“Nothing but what I told you, Doc.”
“I need something to go on. Any information will help.”
“I’m sorry, Doc, I don’t have any info on the poison, just that it exists.”
“Atara?” It was Lafarge, Travis’s line to her still open.
“Hold on, Andi…”
“But I have some of the poison.”
“What?” Travis had been about to tell Lafarge she would contact her again shortly, but now her undivided attention was back on Pegasus’s captain. “You have the poison?”
“Sector Nine gave my contact the poison to deliver to the assassin. My contact is a greedy and untrustworthy man, and he apparently kept some and only delivered a portion of what he’d been given. Evidently, he thought he could produce more to sell. When I bea…convinced him to cooperate, he told me about it. I have it with me.”
“Andi, you have to get that here. It could save Tyler’s life, but we need it now.”
“We’re on the way, Atara. Just clear us to dock, and I’ll have it to you in less than half an hour.” Travis’s eyes caught t
he display, and the arrow and small numbers next to Pegasus’s icon that showed the vessel’s thrust firing at what had to be full power.
“Andi…one more thing.”
“Yes?” Lafarge’s voice was pinched, forced. It was clear Pegasus was indeed at full thrust, and the resulting g forces were evident in her tone.
“Do you have a name? The assassin. We had over two hundred replacements reporting for duty at Dannith.”
“Yes, of course.” A pause. “I’m sorry, I should have told you that right away.” Travis listened as Lafarge gasped for a breath. “Ventnor,” she said. “Joseph Ventnor.”
Travis hesitated. For a few seconds the name didn’t mean anything, but then a spark of familiarity emerged. Ventnor…a steward.
Then she remembered. Spacer Cole had been killed in the battle. Barron’s longtime steward was dead, suddenly, and then…
“Andi, you’re cleared to dock. Get here as soon as you can.” She closed the line, her fingers moving over the controls, activating a direct channel to Captain Rogan. “Bryan, I need you to find a member of the crew. Spacer Ventnor, from steward services. He is a new transfer…and he is a Sector Nine assassin suspected of attempting to kill Captain Barron.”
“Yes, Commander.” She could hear the grim determination in his voice, and the seething anger he was barely holding in. She knew the Marines loved the captain, and she was sure they considered the attempt on his life as their own failure. That wasn’t fair, of course, but it was certainly useful in terms of motivation.
“Bryan, he may be dangerous.”
“That is of no concern, Commander.”
It was of concern to her. She wasn’t looking to add dead Marines to the cost of this unfortunate incident.
“Still, be careful…and take him alive. We need him for questioning. For all we know there are more enemy agents onboard.”
“Yes, Commander. We will bring him to you alive.”
Travis could almost hear the unspoken, “barely” before “alive.”
“Go, Captain. Get it done.”
She closed the line and leaned back in her chair. She was a suspicious person by nature, one who tended to think the worst of any situation. But she’d always felt safe on Dauntless, among the crew. Until now.
One more thing the enemy had stolen. One more reason to despise them.
* * *
“Sergeant, take your squad down the left corridor. I want you to search sector 11B, and I mean every millimeter. Do you understand?” Bryan Rogan was always firm and deadly serious in a combat situation, but his words now almost clanged, like a hammer on an anvil. There was an assassin loose on their ship, one who had almost killed the captain. Or had killed the captain…it was far from certain that Barron would survive. Rogan was going to find the miserable piece of shit, if his people had to take Dauntless apart bit by bit.
“Yes, sir,” snapped the sergeant, turning almost immediately and waving to the line of fully-armored Marines behind him. “Let’s move it.”
Rogan lurched forward, gesturing for rest of the Marines in the corridor to follow. He’d sent teams to Ventnor’s quarters and to his duty station. They’d found nothing, even after widening the search to surrounding areas. Rogan had gone first to sickbay, to inspect the Marines on duty there. He blamed himself for what had happened to the captain, and he was determined to make sure no other threat would get anywhere near Barron. There were Marines next to the medpod, and more in the rooms leading to it. He had patrols outside sickbay and sweeping the corridors all around. If that miserable traitor, Ventnor—or anyone else—tried to get to Barron, he’d have to fight through thirty Marines, every one of them anxious to avenge what had happened to their captain.
His people had been searching for hours now, every Marine on the ship, all 202 of them, engaged in the hunt. And not one of them would stop until they found the fugitive.
He stopped just short of the next door, and waved to the two Marines at the front of the line. They jogged up around him and positioned themselves in front of the hatch, turning and nodding their readiness to Rogan. The Marine captain reached out and slid the access card into the slot.
Nothing.
He pulled it out and tried again, but still the door remained shut. He looked at the card. Commander Travis had authorized full access. That meant it should open every door on Dauntless. He stared intently at the lock and tried to open it again, without success.
“Commander Travis,” he said into his com, tightening his grip on his rifle as he did. “We’re at hatch 79032, and my access card is not working. Request you open from your location.”
“Hold on, Captain.” There was a short pause. “Captain…the hatch is not responding. It appears to have been tampered with onsite.”
“Understood,” Rogan snapped, gesturing to the rest of his Marines to be ready. “Request permission to blow the door, Commander.”
“Permission granted, Captain. Do what you have to do.” A short pause. “And remember, if you find him, I need him alive.” Rogan could hear the regret in Travis’s voice, and he understood how much she wanted to order his people to gun down the piece of shit the instant they found him. His desire for the same was no less intense, but he knew why she needed him alive.
He would follow his orders, as he always did…no matter how much his hands were shaking with rage, with the almost irresistible urge to kill the man he hoped was hiding in the compartment in front of him.
“Corporal Joven…get up here with one of those charges. We’re going to blow this door.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
CFS Dauntless
Cilian System
Deep in the Alliance
Year 310 AC
“This is an extraordinary substance, Commander.” Weldon’s face was pressed down against the large scope. “I’ve never seen anything remotely like it. It can’t be natural, but I’m not even sure how this was synthesized.”
Weldon and Travis were in the main sickbay lab, alone. She could hear sounds in the distance, the doctors and technicians going about their business, most of them working on some form of analysis on the strange toxin that had brought the captain to the brink of death. Weldon had every member of his staff on duty, a red alert of sorts affecting Dauntless’s health team. It was all hands on deck to solve the mystery…before Tyler Barron died.
“Does that mean you can create an antidote…or are you trying to tell me having this sample isn’t going to help?” Travis stood behind Weldon, her body stiff with stress. She’d met Andi at the docking port and the two had rushed the small vial to the lab. Weldon had been working on it for the past several hours, and Travis had forced herself to stay away as long as she could. But her endurance had reached its end, and she’d come for…something, an update at least.
“I don’t know.” Weldon looked up from the instrument and turned toward Travis. “It’s incredibly complex. It binds to the victim’s DNA in some way, and causes chromosomal changes. And in the process, it leaves no trace of itself. It creates a genetic heart defect where there was none before…but that’s an incredible oversimplification.”
“I don’t question the complexity, but all that matters is saving the captain.”
“Don’t you think I know that, Commander?” Weldon’s voice was raw, not quite anger, but exasperation.
The two of them glared at each other for a few seconds. Then Travis said, “I’m sorry, Doc. It’s not your fault. It’s just…this is our last chance to save the captain.”
“I know that, Atara…believe me. If I can reverse the genetic modifications, I can repair the physical damage to his heart. It’s tricky surgery, but I’ll see it done. But it won’t accomplish a thing unless I can reverse what was done to his chromosomes.”
Travis sighed softy, shaking her head. “Is there anything you need, Doc? Anything at all?”
“Thanks, Atara…but there’s nothing. Just some quiet while I try to figure this out.”
Travis nodded. “Call
me, Doc…if there is anything I can do.”
“Of course,” Weldon replied. Then he turned back and put his face against the scope. Travis stood there for a moment, and then she slipped out the door, leaving Dauntless’s chief medical officer—and one of Tyler Barron’s oldest friends—to his work.
* * *
Bryan Rogan stood against the wall, watching as Travis and Lafarge questioned the prisoner. The Marine had delivered the fugitive alive, as ordered, and Travis suspected it had taken all the discipline and control Rogan possessed not to kill the bastard.
“Are you going to deny again that you poisoned Captain Barron?” Travis stared coldly at the terrified captive. “Or that you murdered Spacer Cole?”
Ventnor sat still, avoiding her gaze, utterly silent.
“Because you can forget about that right now. I had the AI review all security footage. Lars Cole was not killed in the battle—at least, not by enemy action. You murdered him in cold blood, and you did it so you could gain access to the captain.”
Ventnor didn’t respond, he didn’t even look up.
Travis stood where she was, glancing back at Lafarge before she hauled off and punched the prisoner in the face. It was a violation of regulations to rough up a captive, but she’d had the cameras deactivated, and she figured someone would have to flay Bryan Rogan alive to get him to rat her out. And Andi Lafarge was barely containing her own rage. She suspected if she left Pegasus’s captain alone with the man who had poisoned—who may have killed—Tyler Barron, he’d have to endure a lot worse than a punch in the jaw.
Ventnor looked up now, a stream of blood dripping from his mouth. “I didn’t…” He started what sounded like a denial, but his voice drifted off into a series of miserable sobs.
“It’s hard for me to explain how badly I want to kill you right now. And I can assure you, no one in this room will tell anyone what happens in here.” She stared at Ventnor with undisguised hatred. “Isn’t that right, Captain Rogan?”
“Yes, Commander. I’m certain I wouldn’t see anything.”