by P. C. Haring
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that just because they have similar sensor profiles does not mean they are allied. Take us and the Verasai. On average, there’s a 90% correlation between any two ship signatures. But no one would ever claim we’re allied with one another. All it means is that we have similar technologies.”
Cassie sat back in her chair, her body tensing as she listened to him. “You don’t expect me to believe that there’s no connection between them.”
“No, there’s definitely a connection. But the context of that connection will be critical.” He paused. “We are clearly still missing a piece to this puzzle and I think it’s high time we found it.
October 19, 2832
08:00
Mjöllnir - Captain's Office
AMADO STUDIED the players in the room, watching their demeanor as he held them in suspense. His people were responding as anticipated, but watching the General proved insightful. She stood behind the guest chair, shifting in her place, now for the fifth time in the past two minutes. By all reports he received, it was the general who preferred to be scrutinizing and not scrutinized.
A rap at the door drew the attention of the General, Captain, Commander, and Lieutenant Aler. This would be the security detail escorting Melor. They were late, as ordered. He bid them to enter, and the guards escorted Melor in. Rashar tried to hide the scowl, but given that he was watching her like a hawk, very little would have slipped past him. Once Melor took her seat, Cody keyed his terminal so the proceedings would be recorded. Aside from the demands of procedure, the record of what had been said might prove critical if it came to an armed conflict.
“General Rashar,” Amado began. “With respect to your allegations against Vivine Melor, a commissioned Lieutenant in the Interstellar Planetary Alliance currently serving as the Chief Engineer for this vessel, under my Command, I have opened an investigation. I have read your report as well as that of Lieutenant Aler and I have heard the testimonial provided by Lieutenant Melor. I find that while the objective facts, that a Remali vessel was destroyed by Verasai Guerrillas during the Ralgon occupation, are not in dispute, I do not believe there was malicious motive to intend destruction to the Remali people. Further, and more importantly, as Lieutenant Melor was not within the Alliance chain of command during the event in question, this command cannot compel her to stand trial.”
The cop out had the added fortune of being true. The general’s eyes widened and under her face mask Amado could tell the jawline, or whatever their equivalent, tightened in anger.
“To that end,” he continued, “I am denying your request for extradition and returning Lieutenant Melor back to active duty effective immediately.”
He paused as Melor deflated in relief, but she held her position: apparently unwilling to risk further offense to the Remali. For her part, the General was seething.
“General,” he said, turning his attention to her. “Should you wish to pursue this matter further, I advise you to take this up with the Verasai government. Should they agree to extradite her, I can assure you the Alliance will comply with their wishes.”
“This is a mockery and a ruse.” She scowled as rose from her seat in furor. “You claim to render an unbiased opinion, yet despite a clear path of investigation, overwhelming evidence, and her own admission, you still deny my request? I do not acknowledge your pitiful attempt at justice and I demand you turn her over to me.”
Melor moved to stand up and respond, but Cassie’s quick hand on her shoulder stopped the motion cold. Aler stood up in reaction, having no such restraint placed on him. Whether his actions were in defense of Melor, the Captain, or the ship, Cody neither knew nor cared. For his part, Cody remained calm. He had expected this reaction from the General, and had even chosen his words so as to elicit it.
“Or else, what, General?” he asked; his voice slow, defiant and challenging.
Rashar’s eyes narrowed to angry slits. “Or else, Captain, I will have no choice but to take her by force.”
Now he had her, or so he hoped. He leaned forward in his chair, and stood up. As he rose, Aler stepped back, moving to his Captain’s side.
“I don’t think you will. If you had wanted to attack, you would have done so already.” He paused. “In fact, you did attack, you took my officer hostage and could have walked off this ship with her, but instead you allowed your team to be cornered and disarmed.”
“Excuse me, Captain?”
Amado smiled, “General, this has been a ruse, but it is yours, not ours. You have been toying with my crew since the moment you stepped aboard. First you start a firefight, only to surrender and allow yourselves to be captured. When I insist on some level of legal jurisprudence, you quickly agree and request access to our library and a member of my crew to assist. I provide both and you put her to work on menial tasks as a way of testing her and learning how she thinks. We interview marines injured in your firefight only to find consistent reports that your people were so ineffective as a strike team, the only explanation is deliberate intent. In the meantime, your pilots are playing cat and mouse with mine. All the while you never lost your tactical advantage. An advantage you seem unwilling to exploit. I want to know why.”
The General’s chest heaved as she breathed and Cody did not have to see her face to know she was starting to crack. “You will turn the Verasai over to my custody Captain, I will not make this request again.”
Cody leaned forward over his desk to deliver his simple answer: “No.”
“Dammit, Amado! That was an unarmed diplomatic envoy. It doesn’t matter whether they were my parents or not! They came under a flag of peace and were murdered. I will not allow that to go unanswered! I will avenge them and bring justice to their killer and if I have to go through you and your ship to do so, then so be it!”
Silence hung in the room as one of the last pieces fell into place. With that, everything fell into a new context, one that told everyone that Rashar had lost. Her personal stake ensured the matter would never be taken seriously by the Verasai and she would never get her hands on Melor through any legal course of action. A part of him could not help but feel sympathy for her.
Still, her feelings were not his priority. That lay in protecting his officer and his ship. The legal issues were over. With the general’s outburst recorded, there would be no way the Central Command Authority would support extradition. But Rashar was out for blood in this matter, and regardless of Cent-Com’s support, the Mjöllnir could not withstand the assault should the General decide that his ship be that blood. Still, her unwillingness to attack choreographed the entire dilemma; for as much as she wanted her justice and revenge, she would not cause an interstellar war to obtain it despite whatever threats she might make to the contrary. She was not that reckless, she could not afford to be.
“I’m sorry for your loss, General, but we both know you won’t open fire.”
“How’s that, Captain?” She scowled.
“Firing on us doesn’t serve your interests. If you take Melor by force, I will have no choice but to respond in kind. You may succeed in destroying this vessel, but not before I send messages to the Verasai and my Central Command. The Verasai will retaliate against you to reclaim their citizen. The ISPA will retaliate against you to punish the attack on this vessel and to reclaim their officer. Can you survive a war on two fronts against two enemies coordinating with one another? Would the price you’d pay be worth the revenge you seek?”
Rashar remained quiet, though seething beneath the surface. From behind her, Melor stood up despite Cassie’s attempts to stop her. The Verasai did not move to attack or present any aggressive or hostile stance, but rather she assumed a neutral posture.
“General,” she began, her voice solid, her tone sincere, “for whatever it’s worth, I apologize to your people for my part in the loss of the envoy and I apologize to you personally for the loss of your parents. We didn’t know who they were, but when we saw the ship docked at the same bert
h as the Ralgon and sitting there without any challenge or sign of battle, our natural assumption was that they were a friend of our enemy and thus our enemy. We acted accordingly. Had you been in my place, and seen the atrocities I witnessed, and had you been there to do what I was assigned to do, you would have assumed the same. I regret what happened, and I apologize for it. But it was not an intentional act.”
No one in the room moved or spoke as they waited for Rashar to respond. Melor’s apology had come as a surprise to all, including Amado, and especially the General. In other circumstances, he might have added the issue of the association between the Remali and the Ralgon, since somehow the Ralgon had allowed that ship to dock. But as he watched her chest and shoulders heave, Cody Amado decided that adding insult to this injury might just make matters worse. There would be plenty of time to suss out the connection later.
She finally broke the silence. “The Ralgon, Lieutenant Melor,” she spoke in a calm, measured tone, referring to the engineer by her proper title for the first time, “are not our allies. They are our enemy. My parents had been tasked to contact your underground and ally with them against the Ralgon. They were ignored by the Ralgon because they were unarmed. They risked their lives to cross into hostile territory and find you. For their efforts, you killed them.”
“It was a war and a case of mistaken identity,” Amado said. “It is unfortunate, it is regretful, it is even tragic, but it is not something for which to condemn a woman fighting for the freedom of her people.”
“We wouldn’t be able to survive,” Rashar said as if Amado had not said anything at all.
“Excuse me?”
Her head rose to meet the Captain’s eye. “My people are already fighting a two-front war. If you were to enter against us, we could not survive.”
“Who are you fighting, General?”
She held a moment, as if considering how much to say before she conceded, “You already know of our ongoing struggle against the Verasai. We also fight for our survival against the Ralgon.”
Cody’s eyes widened in understanding, but not surprise. He should have expected that, but for some reason did not. As though a distant light at the end of a tunnel had appeared, a thought formed. If he could not stand the General down, perhaps he could offer her a more suitable target and let her actions show in evidence to whatever relationship there might be between her people and the Ralgon.
“General, we have a common enemy. Aside from a war they waged against us a decade ago, we believe the Ralgon have attacked one of our colonies, resulting in the deaths of a quarter million of our people. It would be counterproductive to fight each other when we share a reason to unite. Wouldn’t you agree?”
The Remali offered the subtlest of nods as she grieved once more.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
October 25, 2832
Deep Space
HAD she been asked two weeks ago, how she thought things might shake out between the Alliance crew and the crew of the Battlefield Valor, Nira Amado would have hoped for some sort of tense peace. She would have echoed the sentiments of her husband and sister-in-law over the need to find the connection between the Ralgon and the Remali. She would have argued that true cooperation would take far too much time and that the best they could hope for would be an arm’s-length respect.
But as she sipped her coffee with Cody and the General she was more than happy to have been proved wrong.
“Are you sure we can’t offer you anything to eat or even drink.”.
“Thank you, Doctor Fen, but I don’t require anything at this time.”
This was the same response as yesterday and the day before going back to their first meeting. She wasn’t sure what she found more curious; that Cody continued to invite her to breakfast, or that Rashar continued to accept their hospitality. Based solely on her observations, Nira had concluded the Remali face masks were removable. At one point, she thought she had spied the General opening a mouthpiece on her mask, only to close it again. That made sense, it would allow them to eat and drink, but why they refused to remove their masks, Nira still did not know.
“If you’re sure.”
“I am.”
Nira excused herself and cleared her dishes. She needed to get started on her day. Grabbing her lab coat, she said her goodbyes to her husband and their guest.
The decks seemed quieter now that the specter of armed conflict with the Remali had gone out and things returned to normal. It made moving through the ship much easier not having to contend with Foster’s drills or sealed bulkheads due to active security measures.
The lift arrived only a minute after she pushed the button to summon it to her station. It slid to a halt. Two Remali stood and exited. They seemed more interested in their conversations than her, which suited Nira just fine. But as they passed her, one caught her eye for just the briefest instances before turning away with a snort.
“Weak…”
She had barely enough time to register the comment before the automated voice of the lift bade her to sit as the door slid closed. Nira watched through the glass as one of them turned to look at her once more before the lift began its trip down the length of the ship to the engine room.
“There you are, Lieutenant.”
Melor looked up as Nira entered her office. “Where else would I be?”
“I don’t know. These days you seem to be hiding. The only place anyone ever sees you is here.”
“I work here. Then I go back to my quarters.”
“Keeping a low profile, I take it.”
Melor nodded. “I’m in no mood to get tangled up with the Remali. With them on board the ship, it’s almost inevitable that something is going to happen again.”
“The Captain has the situation well in hand.”
“I’m sure he thinks he does. Forgive me if I’m not as confident.”
It was as if the room had suddenly gone cold. “Well, I won’t keep you,” Nira said. “But I wanted to come down, check on you and see if you’d followed up on that referral I gave you for Dr. Braun.”
“Thank you. I’m doing well and yes. I’ve seen the counselor a few times now. I appreciate it.”
“Any time. Have a good day, Vivine.”
Melor turned back to her work and Nira headed back to the lift. A group of enlisted stood around a support post, holding hand straps and did not notice Nira as she sat down a few meters away.
“I’m telling you,” one of them said. “those blue skinned fish people are trouble. Just look at what they did.”
“Don’t be racist. Besides, the Captain has them under control,” responded a second.
“Does he? Does he really? Is that why we’re on board their ship, looking over their shoulders, peeking into every corner of their ship and asking them every obnoxious question we can think of? Oh wait,” he paused. “We’re not. They are.”
“Some exchange,” a third crewman said. “We give them everything they ask for, they give us nothing in return.”
“Except for safe passage,” the second said. “That has to count for something.”
“Oh please… they’re just waiting for the right moment to take us down. If you think any different then you’re just as naïve and stupid as the Capt…”
Nira allowed herself a brief glance in their direction. One of the crewmen stood there, staring at her, his face as white as a sheet.
The lift slid to a stop at her destination but the enlisted crew made no attempt to move or speak. The one’s mouth still hung open.
“Have a good day, gentlemen.”
October 25, 2832
Deep Space
MIRESH MELOR STOOD powerless in the command center of her ship, the Lorencha, and for the Regent of the Verasai, powerlessness remained far from a comfortable thing. Her flagship hung silently in the void, waiting for its next instruction. She had none to give. In the two weeks since her system picked up the distress call from the transceiver she had given her daughter, Miresh had stalked the All
iance and Remali vessel as far as she could without crossing into Remali territory. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, but when the two ships slipped out of sensor range, the Matriarch of the Melor family found herself at a crossroads. While the Alliance would not take great offense to a violation of their borders with the Verasai, the same could not be said for the Remali. Her dislike of the blue-skinned vermin had to give way to what was practical. She would not tolerate it if her Generals violated Remali boarders on a personal vendetta. But she was about to do just that.
Therein lay the conflict. Vivine’s transponder had linked up with her personal ID chip and Miresh could read her daughter’s bio data in near real time. Based on that, the medical staff had told her she was fine, in no real danger. There was no need for her to come running.
But the distress call had been triggered and Miresh had promised her daughter she would come if called. Now it had happened. She would not tolerate this act from her subordinates, but she was not a subordinate. She was regent and her rank carried privileges. She would need a proper hunting fleet but when those ships arrived, she would track down her daughter and the Remali would rue the day they interfered with her family.
October 25, 2832
Deep Space
HAD she been aware of the Verasai’s plans to invade, General Rashar would have called off the tense alliance between her and the Mjöllnir and sent them home whether they liked it or not. Trusting these outsiders was hard enough on its own, made only worse by their threats of violence. There would be hell to pay for her when she got back to the home world, but in the end, she had done her duty to protect the confederacy, even if that meant letting them in. But even so, there was something about these people. Their arrogance and defiance said something about them, something that, despite herself, Rashar found herself admiring. They had not been wrong about the attack. Yes, she had wanted their Verasai, but she could have shredded their ship had she wanted. That arrogance of theirs emboldened them and gave them courage to stand up in the face of a superior foe. That they were willing to go to war over one individual on a ship with over ten thousand, spoke of a loyalty she had not seen in a long time.