Clidepp Deja Vu

by Thomas DePrima

  "I'll try, but he appears to be out of communication range."

  Blade then called to Winston repeatedly, but received no answer.

  Suddenly, Caruthers, aboard Shuttle Two, half shouted, "We've got numerous oh-gee craft headed this way."

  "How many, what configurations, and how far?" Blade said calmly.

  "It looks like about twenty, but could be as many as thirty because they're so tightly clustered. The computer says they're APCs, heavily armed, and the mounted weapons are too powerful for our personal body armor. They're just five minutes out."

  "I'm going for Winston," Blade said. "Team Alpha, you're with me. Everyone else hold position, but be prepared to get aboard and bug out on my command."

  Five of the Special Ops Marines hurried after Blade as he ran along the trail where he had last seen Winston, but he was suddenly confronted by five different cave openings. His helmet's infrared heat sensors indicated that tracks in the dirt at all five openings had been made by the recent passage of numerous individuals. "Great," he muttered. He then began calling to Winston using his body armor's external speaker at full volume, but he still received no responses.

  "The APCs are just three minutes out," Caruthers said. "We have to get out of here, Major. Now! Those were the captain's orders if any Yolongi military showed up."

  Blade cursed and ran back to the shuttle with Team Alpha. The rest of the Special Ops Marines climbed aboard behind them.

  Weems lifted off even before the hatch was fully locked. Shuttle Two was already climbing skyward vertically. Weems lifted the small cover that protected the electrical current to the outside surface of the ship from being accidentally disengaged and pressed the button. Instantly, the electrical circuitry that had kept the special metallic paint stuck to the hull was disabled. The paint immediately flaked off the Dakinium and fell away like a miniature snowstorm, rendering Shuttle One as invisible to radar as Shuttle Two.

  As both black shuttles climbed through the moonless night sky, no one could visually or electronically mark their path. The officers in the APCs were confused to see the hard contact just ahead appear to simply disintegrate in front of them. When they landed and looked for signs of wreckage, the only unusual things they found were tiny flakes of what seemed to be white paint.

  As the two shuttles left the vicinity of the planet at the maximum velocity capable with the oh-gee engines, there was no indication that their travel had been noticed by the Clidepp fleet in orbit around Yolongus. As per orders, Weems did not attempt to contact the Justice until the shuttles were well away from the planet and could establish a laser communication link. He would only be permitted to violate that order if they came under fire or were faced with a situation they couldn't resolve.

  The identification signal going in the approximate direction of the Justice was wider than the actual communication link would be, but once received and acknowledged by the Justice, both ships would have a precise transmission direction fix, and the laser relay connection would hardly be wider than a human hair. Interception by other parties was virtually impossible. And the signals were naturally encrypted as well, making eavesdropping efforts a waste of time. The signals between the Justice and the shuttles would be sent by and received by Shuttle One, but the laser signal would be immediately relayed to Shuttle Two, who also had the ability to transmit through the established relay link.

  "Captain," Weems said after he had made contact with Sydnee, "we've lost Winston. He went to round up the refugees and hadn't yet returned when we detected two to three dozen APCs headed directly towards us. I have twenty-four Yolongi and three Terrans on board."

  "Did a confrontation occur?"

  "No, I dropped the reflective paint and we bugged out with all hands and an almost full load of refugees about a half minute before the APCs arrived at the ravine."

  "Did you get any final messages from Winston?"

  "We never received any messages from him at all. Blade gave him a communications earpiece, but he never used it as far as I know."

  "What's the status of the package?"

  "The package is still aboard my shuttle," Caruthers said from Shuttle Two.

  "Return to the ship."

  "Aye, Captain. Shuttle One and Shuttle Two returning home."

  While the shuttles headed towards the distant Justice at maximum sub-light speed, Weems settled into his chair and thought about the botched mission.

  *

  In the Marine mess hall, Sydnee listened as everyone involved was debriefed and they told what they knew of the rescue effort. Colonel Dennier had also been invited to the meeting. The package had been returned to the special brig, while the refugees were still in the shuttle pending Sydnee's decision regarding their status. All refugee weapons had been confiscated and would remain in the ship's armory locker, located in the Marine habitat container, while the visitors were aboard the Justice.

  Sydnee never asked a question until everyone had reported their information. "Major," Sydnee finally said, "you said Winston never communicated with you at all once he left you at the shuttle. He never even reported his progress with a simple statement like, 'I'm entering the cave'?"

  "Not a single utterance, Captain. I did hear some nasal sounds like breathing for a very short time, but even that stopped after about a minute. It was as if he turned off the earpiece, but that's supposed to be impossible without the proper tool."

  "May I interject something here, Captain?" Dennier asked.

  "Go ahead, Colonel."

  "Perhaps the composition of the cave walls was responsible for blocking the signal. Did anyone perform a basic analysis of the rock?"

  "There was no time," Blade said. "As per Winston's wishes, we waited at the shuttle until we learned that military APCs were headed our way. We only had five minutes' warning. As I've reported, when we ran to where we expected to find the cave entrance, we found five entrances, all recently used. We didn't even have time to search the caves, much less perform a metallurgical analysis of the cave walls. We had to either get back to the shuttle and get off the planet or engage the Yolongi military in a fight. Our standing orders were to avoid all contact with military or police forces."

  "You took the proper action, Major," Sydnee said. "The question now is— where do we go from here? We can abandon Winston, drop off the package, and then resume our efforts to seed all of Clidepp space with satellites or forget everything else in favor of finding Winston or at least trying to learn of his current situation. Once we drop off the package, the Yolongi military will probably go on high alert, so we have to hang onto him if we're not leaving Yolongi space."

  "Why is the number of Yolongi refugees so disproportionate to the number of Terran slaves?" Dennier asked. "I expected many more slaves."

  "I expected the same thing," Sydnee said. "Perhaps Winston sent the Yolongi ahead because their lives would be more at risk if any were caught. The escaped slaves will probably be returned to their owners and possibly receive a beating, or worse, for running away, while the Yolongi might very well be executed for treasonous actions or activities. We may learn more when we interview them, but I wanted to have this meeting first."

  *

  Sydnee conducted the interviews of the twenty-seven new people in the mess hall. Blade and Dennier sat in while two Marines stood outside in the corridor, sending the rescued people in one at a time when the previously interviewed person reemerged. None of the twenty-seven appeared to speak Amer, or at least failed to respond to any questions posed in Amer. And Sydnee received little information other than names and previous addresses. They all said Winston was still in the cavern when they left. It was he who decided who would go on the first shuttle and sent them out to find their way to it. None had any idea what had happened after they left. When Sydnee asked them to speculate, all just shook their heads and professed ignorance again.

  As the interview of each refugee was concluded, they were escorted to the habitat level that had been cleared in the c
ontainer where the spy satellites were stored. Sydnee received reports from the Marines that many of the children were delighted to see the refugees, although they were anxious about the fate of their parent or parents.

  *

  "We're no further ahead now than we were before the interviews," Sydney said to Blade and Dennier after the last of the refugees had been questioned and escorted out of the mess hall.

  "Allow me to sum it up," Blade said. "We have no idea where Winston is, who has him, or even if he's still alive. The people who might have helped are here with us and obviously can't return to the planet because they'll be killed on sight. It's unlikely anyone else is going to help. We have no access to information sources and certainly no access to the inner circle of power players. As far as we know, Winston was the only SCI agent on the planet, so this situation is a hundred times worse than the time we found ourselves stranded on the planet without a workable temporal envelope generator."

  "What was that last part about being stranded without a temporal envelope generator?" Dennier asked. She hadn't been briefed on the specifics of the last mission to Yolongus.

  "Sorry," Blade said, "I momentarily forgot that you weren't with us on the last mission."

  "But I'm here now. And knowing what happened previously might enable me to better contribute."

  Blade looked at Sydnee with raised eyebrows that furrowed his brow.

  "I guess it can't hurt," Sydnee said. "We've already exceeded the expected mission parameters by a parsec or two. Go ahead and brief her. But, Colonel, what you hear doesn't leave this room."

  "Understood, Captain."

  "While you brief the Colonel, Major, I'm going to see if there's any hot coffee available."

  *

  "I couldn't find any hot coffee, so I brewed a pot," Sydnee said when she returned to the table ten minutes later. She was carrying a tray with a pot of dark liquid, several cups, plus jars containing milk, sugar, and what appeared to be honey.

  Dennier looked up at Sydnee with a strange look on her face as she said, "When we first met, I mentioned that I'd been told you've earned the respect of everyone who has ever come under your command. From the sketchy accounts that were related to me in my initial briefing, what I've witnessed since coming aboard, and now with what the Major has told me about his personal experiences, I begin to understand why that is."

  "I just do my job," Sydnee said as she prepared her coffee. "Now, what are we going to do about Winston?"

  Blade looked at Dennier and said, "I told you."

  Dennier grinned and said, "Yes, you did."

  "No suggestions?" Sydnee asked.

  "Drop off the package, leave this area, and begin the satellite-seeding mission," Blade said. "Winston is lost to us."

  "I agree," Dennier said, "for all the reasons mentioned earlier, Captain."

  "We can't give up so easily," Sydnee said. "There must be something we can do. We just need a starting point."

  "I told you," Blade said to Dennier.

  "Again with the 'I told you's'?" Sydnee said to Blade. "Just what did you tell the Colonel while I was making the coffee?"

  "Among the mission events I related, I told her that the words 'give up' and 'surrender' have never made it into your personal dictionary."

  "I wouldn't go that far."

  Blade looked at Dennier and said, "I told you."

  "Okay, okay," Sydnee said with a grin. "Enough with the 'I told you's.' Yes, I've been called tenacious at times because I don't give up easily. And I'm not going to give up easily on this new problem. Space Command and the Space Marines never leave a man or woman behind unless we're absolutely sure there's no way to recover them. There has to be a way to get Winston back. Or at least find out what happened to him."

  "I'd be willing to bet a month's pay that at least one of those Yolongis you interviewed knows a lot more than he's admitting," Blade said.

  "Yes," Dennier said. "They're probably scared and believe that if they offer to help, we'll ask them to return to the planet and participate in the effort."

  "Okay," Sydnee said. "How do we find out which one, or ones, we should lean on?"

  Taking the viewpad on the table that contained the names of all refugees and their statements, Blade scrolled down through the list, highlighting a few names as he recalled the interview in his mind. When he was done, he handed the viewpad to Dennier, who examined the list and highlighted a few more before handing the viewpad to Sydnee.

  Sydnee nodded as she examined the list and highlighted one more herself. "That makes eight of the Yolongis who we feel might be concealing information. Let's begin a new round of interviews with just these people, but this time we'll put a bit of pressure on them to reveal information they might have kept secret."

  * * *

  Chapter Nine

  ~ January 21st, 2287 ~

  "I swear, Captain," Sydnee heard via her CT, "I don't have any idea what happened in the cave after we left."

  The small translator on Sydnee's belt, set to Yolongi, was sending the Amer signal directly to her CT rather than broadcasting it to the room. Blade and Dennier were likewise wearing personal translators linked to their CTs, while the Yolongi was wearing an earpiece connected to a translation device sitting on the table. The individual being interviewed, Broqupio by name, was the third Yolongi to be questioned of the selected eight. So far, the three Justice officers hadn't learned anything they didn't already know.

  "Tell us again what happened in the cave after the first of my shuttles landed in the ravine."

  "As I said before, Captain, a sensor near the entrance to the cave alerted us to the fact that someone was approaching, so the men with weapons took up defensive positions while the unarmed people moved as far back into the recesses of the cavern as possible. There are a lot of large boulders and outcroppings there that offer protection from weapons fire. We were expecting Cornwallis, so no one at the entrance would fire unless they were absolutely sure it wasn't him."

  "Cornwallis? You're referring to the Terran to whom you were providing information?"

  "Yes."

  "Why have you been supplying information about your government? Was it just to get a seat on a ship headed into Galactic Alliance space?"

  "No. We love this planet and would dearly love to stay if we could live a decent life here. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to leave your home and everyone you've known and loved all your life, knowing that you can never return? We despise the Triumvirate, and our tiny group from the capital was hoping that the information we could provide might result in the downfall of an evil and thoroughly repressive government. Originally, we held out hope that the Rebellion might be our savior, but lately we've learned that the Rebel leaders have revealed themselves to be just as vicious as the Triumvirate, and we certainly don't want to see one evil government replaced by another after all the heartache and suffering that's been endured during this civil war. We've actually been hoping they'd kill each other off because it's the only way we'll ever have an opportunity to replace them with a government that has the interests of its people— all its people— as its main priority. There's almost no chance of a civil uprising to replace the government because private ownership of guns was outlawed decades ago. The government at that time said they simply wanted to reduce crime and murder among the populace. The people, believing the military would protect them from any concerted threat, willingly surrendered their weapons. But we later learned, once the government had all the guns, that their control of the population was complete. The military leaders backed the politicians, who were then able to end all pretense that they cared about anything except enriching themselves and attaining more power."

  "But the Rebels have managed to acquire weapons."

  "In very limited quantities. We've heard rumors that their weapons were purchased through large, off-planet arms dealers and smuggled in through legitimate freight operations. And there aren't nearly enough Rebels and weapons on Yolongus to overt
hrow the Triumvirate and the fanatical militarized legions that support them. Besides, the weapons most of the rebels have acquired don't come close to the deadly arsenal the government controls. They have armored vehicles with cannons, automatic weapons, grenades and other explosives, and much, much more. There are only enough weapons in the hands of the Rebels to keep this civil war raging on the other planets until one side or the other surrenders. No matter which side wins, the people lose."

  "But your people in the cave had weapons, and your group had weapons when you reached this ship."

  "Small arms only. A few were stolen from police property rooms after being confiscated from local criminals, and some were actually purchased from the large criminal organizations that supply weapons to their own confederates. But they're certainly nothing like the advanced energy weapons the military has. It's rumored that the criminal organizations are actually far better armed than the local police, but they won't sell those weapons to us because they want to maintain their own power over the citizenry. That's why the local police rarely venture into some parts of the large cities. In any event, there're certainly not enough weapons available for the populace to stage an uprising and overthrow a thoroughly corrupt and despotic government. And if an ordinary citizen is actually caught carrying a weapon, that person is executed on the spot— unless the individual belongs to one of the criminal organizations who pay the police hierarchy to look the other way."

  "So what happened after Cornwallis entered the cavern?"

  "He announced that two shuttles were waiting to take us off-planet and bring us to a freighter ship that would take us to Galactic Alliance space. He said that only one shuttle at a time could land in the ravine because it was so narrow. Then he began separating us, with Yolongi in one group and Terrans in the other. He announced that only twenty-eight could go out on the first shuttle and everyone remaining would go on the second shuttle. He then told the twenty-eight to gather their things for the trip, including their bedding because we would be living in a shipping container until we reached the GA. Three young Terran slaves immediately picked up all their personal belongings and bolted from the cave. Rather than trying to catch them and force them to come back, Cornwallis trimmed the size of the planned group by three, but then an argument broke out because he was separating a husband and wife. After a lot of screaming and shouting, he pulled the wife out of the first group and told us, the remaining twenty-four, to gather our belongings and go. He then addressed the second group, telling them to remain calm because a second shuttle was already waiting to land and everyone not on the first shuttle would simply board the second ship. I was in the first group, so I don't know what happened once I left the cave. I'm afraid that's all I know."