Harris pointed out the door. “You still have the shuttle.”
“And you have Farker. We can’t go anywhere without him.”
Harris thought for a moment. “Alex, is that true? Are they limited without Farker?”
“My programming can allow passage out of this system, but not back in. Should you desire to leave, the only way back is with Archibald. That will change for anyone who achieves level four of acceptance.”
Tawn said, “How many levels of acceptance are there?”
“I am not at liberty to release that information.”
Harris walked to the Bangor, boarded, and was soon slowing as he came into the Eden System, this time with the ship’s stealth mode enabled. After a half hour ride, closing on Eden, it became apparent that nothing had changed. The Earther ships sat in high orbit. The domes remained intact.
Several jumps and scans identified one of the Banshees. A short run had Harris parked beside the ship with a low power comm enabled.
The pilot said, “I had a moment of panic when you first appeared on my nav display. You were only three minutes from this location.”
Harris nodded. “Good to know. How has everything been going? You and the others OK on food?”
“We’re good for a few more days. The Earthers attempted an assault about twelve hours ago. They couldn’t get close enough to do any damage with those rail cannons running. That dome has turned out to be tougher than we thought. Might be something to consider if we want to build ground-based forts anywhere in our colonies. I would suggest the colonel try to build us one at the Retreat, once he’s freed up from down there.”
“Any other ships coming or going?”
“Four new destroyers came through. Three damaged ships went home.”
“Anything smaller?”
“There’s been no other movement that I’m aware of. Lieutenant Himes will be here in about two hours. We’ve been taking twelve hour shifts, parking back on that ice planet during off times.”
Harris said, “I’m going in closer to have a look at the Rumford Mine. Just keep doing what you’re doing. I’ll make a trip out in a couple days to bring you more food supplies.”
The comm closed and the Bangor accelerated toward the planet. Twenty minutes later, she slowed, coming to a stop in high orbit.
Harris shook his head as he glanced down at Farker. “Even looks hot from up here. Too bad you don’t speak.”
The dog replied, “I can if that’s the preferred form of communication.”
Harris stared. “How long have you been able to do that?”
“Nineteen hundred seventy-four years.”
Harris chuckled to himself. “Great. Now I feel like an idiot for not having asked before.”
“My speaking or not would have no effect on your intelligence level.”
“So now you’re a smartass dog, huh?”
“A recent update from the main facility programming provided an understanding of what you term sarcasm. If you would like, I can suppress those response patterns.”
Harris shook his head. “No. I like the thought of having a pet who can put people down. In fact, I can’t wait to hear you throw a few comments at Tawn.”
“Would that qualify as entertainment?”
Harris laughed. “Yes. Yes it would.”
“I’m sorry, Harris, my entertainment programming is limited to pet-like reactions.”
“If you take orders, then I want you to not talk to or around anyone but me. This will be our secret.”
“If you feel that is beneficial to the situation, I will comply.”
Harris nodded. “It’s beneficial. You’re now on silent mode unless we’re alone. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Chapter 23
_______________________
“Harris.”
Harris chuckled to himself. “A talking dog. All this time. I feel like an idiot.”
“Harris.”
“You think I’m an idiot?”
“Harris.”
“What?”
“There is a vessel approaching on the nav display. It’s not an exact trajectory. They may not have seen us.”
Harris grinned as a ship ID showed on the screen. “It’s Baxter Rumford. And she’s gonna be in range of our railguns in thirty seconds.”
“Harris, I would advise against destroying that ship while we are this close. It would not only give away our position, but would also inform the New Earthers that we have some level of stealth capability.”
Harris turned the Bangor toward the Fargo as it passed their location. A slow acceleration had him closing on the slightly slower ship.
Harris grinned. “Finally I get some revenge for the trouble she’s caused. In five minutes she’ll be out of their sensor range and it will be Goodbye, Baxter Rumford.”
Farker said, “Would it not be better to overtake and then question her about the Earthers and their plans?”
“Probably, but it wouldn’t be as satisfying.”
Farker tilted his head. “Is vengeful satisfaction more important than the rescue of your people?”
Harris frowned as he looked down at the dog. “Well, no, but it would be more satisfying.”
“Is that standard Human reasoning?”
Harris sighed. “Fine. I’ll try to make her stop so I can beat some information out of her. Come to think of it, that might be more satisfying than ending it with a tungsten pellet. Of course, I’ll have to listen to her voice again. That’s a big negative.”
The dog tilted its head in the other direction.
Harris growled. “Whose side are you on anyway?”
The dog stared.
“Great. I’m being guilted by a mechanical pet. Fine. I’ll see what she has to say.”
As the ships passed safely to a distance that was beyond sensor range of the Earthers, Harris opened a low power general comm.
“Hello, Red.”
“Goober? Is that you? Where are you? We need to talk.”
Harris chuckled. “Good. I was just about to suggest that. Why don’t you bring the Fargo to a stop. We’ll dock and you can come on over.”
“Good, your timing couldn’t be better. I’ll see you in a minute.”
The ships came to a stop and a docking tube extended. As the airlock on the Bangor opened, Baxter Rumford strolled through.
Harris met her with a Fox-40 in his hand. “I’ve been waiting a long time for this meeting.”
Bax scowled as she waved. “Put the gun away. What I have to say, you’re gonna want to hear.”
Harris chuckled. “That you’re sorry? That you didn’t mean it?”
Bax sighed. “No. That we’re on the same side.”
Harris laughed. “Yeah, like I’m buying that one. You’ve repeatedly tried to have us killed. You left us out to dry more than a couple times, and to top it off… you’re annoying. You’re all perfect until you open your lying mouth.”
Bax sat on one of the bench chairs in the cabin. “So you like me. Never would have guessed.”
Harris returned a disgusted look. “Like you? I’d like to see you spaced, or vaporized maybe. Or maybe staked out on the desert down there at high noon. I’d like you in any of those three circumstances.”
“Are you done?”
“Well, not yet. You’re gonna tell me what you know about the Earthers’ plans.”
Baxter scowled. “You already know what their plans are, you moron. They want the titanium. And thanks to you it looks like they’re gonna get it.”
Harris waved his Fox-40 back and forth. “Wait a minute, who’s the one that opened a mine for them? Who already tried to deliver a shipload of refined ore to new Earth?”
“I delayed that shipment as long as I could. The Earthers are persistent and don’t take no for an answer. Had you not stolen that ship it would have been destroyed through sabotage. Thanks to you though, I didn’t have to reveal myself.”
Harris laughed as he sat on the other
bench. “This is rich. You expect me to believe you were about to blow that ship?”
“I was. And I would have paid the ultimate price for it.”
“And I suppose you were heading back to Domicile to tell everyone you were sorry for possibly bringing the Great War back?”
Bax shook her head. “I was being called to New Earth for a direct discussion with the emperor. I don’t think it was planned for me to make a return trip. I’m being blamed for your people keeping that new well offline. As I should be. I did everything I could to keep them going in the wrong direction on that.”
Harris sat back, rolling his eyes. “And you expect me to believe you were voluntarily heading to New Earth, even though you suspect they would off you? Come on, that’s a long stretch you’re expecting me to buy into. You have to have something better than that.”
Baxter nervously tapped her fingers on her leg. “OK. How about this? I know you’re working for the DDI. For Admiral Warmouth.”
“And how did you come to have that bit of information? From your Earther spies? They have moles inside the DDI?”
“No. I got that word from the admiral himself.”
“Warmouth told you I worked for him?”
“Yes.”
“Oh. This tale just keeps getting better.”
Baxter Rumford let out a long sigh. “During the war I did contract jobs for the admiral. When the truce came, he brought me into the DDI fold as an operative. He wanted to know what the Earthers were up to on Eden, and we set up a sting with you to get them to show their hand. Only you kept interceding and fouling things up.”
“You expect me to believe you work for the admiral?”
“That’s called being good at what I do. You and Tawn, I actually like you both. You’re patriots, you’re courageous, and best of all, you get things done. Not sure how sometimes, but you do.
“Anyway, I think I’ve had enough of the admiral. I don’t trust his motives. He says he’s setting up things with the promise of a big surprise coming for the Earthers, and then nothing happens, or things change so much that it no longer matters.”
Harris shook his head. “So you feel like the admiral has been working you, huh? That all this you’ve been doing is somehow for the good of Domicile and her citizens? You really disgust me. I wish I had gone ahead and wasted you with my railguns.”
Baxter shrugged. “If you want, I’ll get back in there and you can do just that. I’m dead anyway. If not by the Earthers, then by the admiral.”
“And why would he do that?”
Bax leaned forward. “Remember I said I was planning to destroy that first freighter of titanium that was leaving my mine? Well, a second one launched yesterday.”
“Funny. My people said there hasn’t been any ship movement coming off that planet.”
Bax nodded. “That’s because it never made it off the planet. If you take a scan about fifty kilometers east of the mine, you’ll see the remains of a freighter. I blew it up. Scattered a full load of ore to the winds. That was against the wishes of the admiral. And that’s why I’m being called to New Earth.
“I had a couple patsies who were gonna take the fall for me, but one of them somehow walked away from that freighter. The forward section stayed intact after the explosion and he managed to live as it crashed down from two kilometers up. Unbelievable, really, but he somehow survived. Anyway, I’m already dead.”
“Now why would the admiral be against blowing that up?”
Baxter smirked. “This is the one that will get you riled up. He wants the war restarted. They’ve been threatening to cut the DoD budget in half, which includes monies for the DDI. The admiral was gonna be out of a job. He has some crazy notion that the war is somehow better than peace. And you know what? With the mistakes some of those politicians are making, he might be right.”
“How could the war possibly be better?”
“Think about it. If our military has half its resources and power stripped away, and at the same time the Earthers go through a massive buildup, we would have no way of stopping them. They would roll through our reduced fleet and come all the way to Domicile before we had a chance to rebuild. It’s a doomsday scenario, and the admiral thought he could head it off by bringing the war back before it was too late.”
Harris sat back. “You know, my brain is screaming to listen to your message, but my gut is telling me to undock and shove you out that airlock.”
“You want to know what the Earthers are planning?”
Harris gave his best fake smile. “Here we go. Give me your wisdom.”
Bax stood. “In the next few days, you’re gonna see several ships dragging a fat asteroid into high orbit. It will be positioned directly above Fireburg. Once they’re ready, that asteroid will be directed at your dome.
“Now, of course this will cause panic and elicit a response from those rail cannons you have positioned around it. And they will likely do a good job of pulverizing that rock into small enough pieces that your precious dome will survive. At the same time, they will attack with ships, but not enough to do any real damage and not close enough to take any damage.
“What your people won’t see coming is the team who will be raiding your pumphouse and destroying the wellhead. If I’m not mistaken, you already used your spare. So your entire compound will be without water, probably in a matter of hours. It will be a forced surrender.”
Harris thought for several seconds. “What do you think, Farker? Any of that make sense.”
“It sounds like a reasonable scenario.”
“The dog talks?”
Harris held up his hands. “I just told you to never speak around anyone else!”
Farker replied, “You asked me a question, which implied you desired a response.”
“Seriously, the mutt talks?”
“Long story. Which you don’t deserve to hear.”
Harris took two steps, pushing Baxter back onto the bench as he began to pace back and forth. “This is not what I was expecting to come out here and find.”
Harris walked over to the command console, pressing a button that disconnected the docking collar and retracted the tube.
Bax asked, “What are you doing?”
“I’m verifying your freighter story. Just sit back and enjoy the ride. And keep in mind if you’re having thoughts of trying anything, my reflexes are insanely fast and I won’t hesitate to splatter your innards all over this cabin.”
Bax smiled. “Not a problem. I’m just fun and friendly Bax now.”
Harris scowled. “Like I would believe that.”
Ten minutes later the Bangor was again docking with the Fargo.
Bax laid her arm across the back of the bench. “I hate to burst your little time bubble, but we probably only have about a half hour before the Earthers will be sending out ships to track me down. Their emperor doesn’t take kindly to being stood up. You got a plan here or what?”
“I’m thinking. Let’s say I cut you loose. Why not run back to Domicile?”
Bax laughed. “And do what, blend in? In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t blend in well anywhere. This face, this body, this hair… it’s as much of a curse as it is a blessing. They will open doors, but they don’t let me hide anywhere.”
Harris gave a sarcastic frown. “Yeah, well, you see these tears of mine rolling down my cheeks for you, right? You’re really a piece of work, you know that?”
“I’ve been told.”
Harris said, “OK, I know I’m going to regret this, but you’re coming with me. I haven’t figured out why yet, but I’ll have a use for you somehow.”
“And telling me this is gonna help you how?”
Harris smiled. “It allows me to irritate you. So it helps to relieve frustration.”
“I thought you Biomarines were heavily trained in psychology. You aren’t supposed to get frustrated.”
Harris glanced over his shoulder. “Just shut up. I’m trying to think.”
A
fter a jump to a far planet in the Eden System, the Fargo was parked on the surface of a small rocky moon. Harris covered the nav display while making Baxter look away as he made another jump back to Midelon. Forty minutes later they were settling on the grass outside the bunker.
Harris said, “We’ll determine what to do with you as a group.”
Bax smiled. “I look forward to your decision.”
Harris opened a comm: “Tawn, bring the others out here. We have something to discuss.”
The hatch opened and seconds later Tawn Freely and the Boleman twins stepped up into the cabin.
“Can’t get Sharvie. She’s—“
Tawn stopped and stared. “What the… you caught her?”
Harris nodded. “I did.”
Tawn took a step forward with a grin. “Let the beatings begin.”
Harris cut her off. “Not so fast. She has a story to tell. Listen to it first. If you still want to give her a beating, she’ll be right here after.”
Tawn stepped back. “This is gonna have to be one whopping tale.”
“Have a seat,” said Harris. “Will take more than a minute. Same for you two.”
Tawn, Trish, and Gandy all sat on the bench across from their nemesis. Baxter Rumford began to tell her story, to scowls and headshakes. She told of getting captured by the Earthers, of reporting it to the DDI and being made a double agent. She told of setting up Harris and how it was out of her control, and why the gunrunning operation had been conducted and why it had been such a success.
Her story finished with her capture by Harris just off Eden. “I had nowhere to run. And now I’m here. And I won’t say sorry because it wouldn’t be genuine and you wouldn’t believe it anyway. All I’ve done was for Domicile. My days of kissing up to the Earthers to further my cover are finally over.”
Tawn huffed. “And you expect us to believe the admiral wants the war back on?”
Bax leaned forward. “He hasn’t said as much, but the evidence all points that way. Look, I stuck my neck out when I destroyed that last freighter. My cover was about to be blown. And with that went my ability to blame slowdowns and delays on Domer sabotage. I can’t believe the only thing you people did to stop us, aside from that hijacking, was tampering with that well. While effective, there was so much more you could have done. But you weren’t doing anything, so I had to coordinate those actions myself.”
ARMS Harris' Revenge Page 22