Mutant Hunter

by Tobias Roote

  “Hmmh ! How contagious ?” he asked, as he hadn’t heard of any such virus and was immediately worried about his own people and the millions of others out there in the civilian sector.

  “Not in the slightest, it would seem. It’s been contained internally within Core and there are some saying it was a targeted virus specifically aimed at Core clones. They’ve kept a lid on it, but I informed our people some time ago.”

  “Okay, so we have a small crew that we can coerce into flying the ship, is that what you’re saying ?” Dalt asked.

  “Yes, but coercion may not be required. Most of them are conscripts and Perrinwold found many ways and methods of ensuring they were kept beyond their delistment dates. There are none sympathetic to the Core, if that’s what concerns you. We have also been working to get a team aboard specifically to take advantage of just such an opportunity to obtain this latest drive from the Core,” Charon replied.

  “You can take this ship, seriously ?”

  “WE can take this ship. I don’t have the experience you do. I would follow you and so would my team. Grell ! More than half the crew on this ship would follow you if it meant getting out of the Core,” Charon replied.

  Dalt tapped and held down his earpiece.

  “Frenga, what’s the situation down there ?”

  The answer came through his earpiece loud and clear, but only Dalt could hear anything.

  “Leader, we have all the charges placed, the ship will go up in a big way and, these crazy bastards have anti-matter mines in here.”

  Grell ! thought Dalt. Anti-matter ! That stuff had been banned since forever. They were definitely armed for war and if all of their ships had similar armaments, then it was going to be a very short war indeed.

  “Whatever you do down there don’t go near them, we would need to be a long way away from here to be safe from any fallout. When you’re ready don’t place the timers. We may have a better plan. I will get back to you, but in the meantime guard that armoury with your life, don’t let anyone in there,” Dalt finished.

  He looked at Charon peevishly, “You are heavily armed for war - you have anti-matter mines. You wouldn’t carry them if it wasn’t for a very good reason - they are too unstable. What aren’t you telling me ?” Dalt knew that something important was going on and he had no time to contact DIA control.

  “They intend to wipe out the AW if they don’t get control of it in the next few days. They have plans to take out the AW navy fleet. Once the Empire has lost its front-line defence, they expect to take control of the main planets within weeks. It’s all been pretty hush-hush. I only found out the information this morning when the Archon blockade was set-up,” Charon confessed, but continued nervously now.

  “Honestly, I haven’t had an opportunity to advise Control, but I do know it has something to do with Archon-5. Captain Perrinwold said that a thorn in their side had been removed. I thought it was your team, but they must have been mistaken.”

  “You know about my team ?” Dalt exclaimed accusingly as if Charon had said something wrong. In fact he had, there was supposed to be no knowledge out there of his activities. Who had talked and how high up in the hierarchy of the DIA was this young officer in front of him.

  “Everyone knows of the famous Dalt and his team of assassins. Your brother Olgar, was often employed by the Core to carry out missions. We had the luck to meet on occasion. He’s a cult hero, as are you,” the officer confessed.

  Dalt paled at the reminder. “Olgar was in the other ship,” was all he said.

  Charon went very quiet.

  “I’m sorry, Leader. He will be sorely missed.” as Charon bowed his head.

  Dalt was too numb to show any grief, he might never do so. “It is what it is,” he said, but war, he thought - that’s a different matter and one that needed to be headed off if it could. How could they stop the attack on the Alliance of Worlds ?

  Then, he knew and understood that Olgar’s sacrifice was for a reason, these complete run of circumstances had evolved from that and now he realised that he had a lever, a fulcrum that might just give them an edge to get a stalemate and stop a war in the making.

  He pressed his earpiece again and when it answered he gave Frenga his instructions. He watched Charon’s face while he spoke and saw the concern in his eyes and the tightening of his face at the impact of what Dalt planned.

  Dalt grabbed Charon and moved back to the bridge where it seemed nothing had changed.

  He stormed towards the captain who had been cleaned up a little and was now looking bellicose, but Dalt had plans for him.

  “Captain - I’m feeling generous, he said caustically, loud enough to be heard across the Bridge. “I should just execute you here and now for killing my man in the hangar as well as destroying my brothers on the other ship, but I have been convinced by your First Officer here, that I should be lenient and follow the rule of Core Military law. Officer Charon here assures me that you acted out of haste and not on official orders which were apparently to arrest us and return us to face charges at Core Central. So, I’m going to hand you over to the other battleship captain with instructions to have you returned to face charges of murder.”

  The captain looked strangely at Charon, who just shrugged as if he had no idea what was going on, which in truth he probably didn’t.

  Dalt continued his orders. “First officer, process the orders would you please and advise the Carristo of the circumstances, along with our request for them to proceed to Central immediately along with the prisoners whom we have retrieved along with their ship. Advise them that information we have discovered requires us to follow up on a fugitive still at large, one Philus Grady and the Citrix who has skipped the blockade and is headed toward neutral territory,” Dalt completed his orders to the comm’s specialist.

  Charon stepped to the command chair and indicated to the comms officer to resume his station and proceed. Several others did also while the captain was manacled in preparation to being escorted off the bridge. The crew appeared to take the change in leadership in their stride. All but two officers returned to their consoles. The remaining officers looked furiously at Charon as though he was a traitor. Dalt immediately came to another decision and added to his orders.

  “Those officers who are not prepared to follow Charon’s command should join the captain and be escorted to the other battleship.”

  He was pleased to see that only the two officers went and stood beside Perrinwold. He indicated to his men that the three should be escorted down to the Dispersalista vessel and watched them as they left the bridge, thinking that his revenge on the malicious captain would be as sweet as Bagaarian honey.

  He was suddenly bereft. He missed his SIC, they would have had a discussion as to why they were giving away their ship to the enemy when they could have simply been placed on a shuttle. He would have explained to him the reason and they would have shared a secret smile.

  He instructed another of his team to follow them, “Put the ship on remote and lock down all controls, they can have the captain and the ship, but they will have to fight to get it to give up its secrets. Use the tractors to push it out towards the Carristo and then make your way to the armoury and join the rest of the team there.” Dalt dismissed him and began to make an inventory of his new crew.

  “Charon, what will the captain of the Carristo do in response ?”

  Charon turned and thought for a moment. Dalt took the time to evaluate his movements and body language and was impressed. He had no knowledge of his background, but to attain the position of first officer of a leading-edge ship, a prototype battleship no less, he decided he had to have some excellent qualities. He intended to find out what they were in the next few hours.

  “I think he will be suspicious of your intentions, but he will see the prize of the DIA ship and crew as an unexpected bonus. There is never any love lost between ship captains in the Core. It will come as no surprise to you that he will enjoy making C
aptain Perrinwold’s time on the Carristo one that he will remember,” Charon mused further on the matter.

  “As it occurs to me that he will immediately be concerned when he only receives three crew from this ship and none from yours, I wonder when you will activate your plan. He may well respond aggressively when he realises we have taken the new Core star-drive from under their noses.”

  Dalt leaned over Charon briefly and addressed the young man who was talking to someone on his headset.

  “Comms, has the DIA vessel been tractored out into open space yet ?” Dalt asked.

  The man turned at the sound of his designation being called and looked at Dalt, then Charon who nodded, before responding.

  “Yes, sir. It has just been directed towards the Carristo, they have a tractor coming out to retrieve it.”

  “Let me know the moment they grab it.” He turned to the pilot and navigator. “Helm plot a course towards the Preteus system and prepare to move out at full speed instantly on my command.”

  Dalt looked sideways at Charon while continuing to appraise his response to Dalt taking command.

  He said to him softly that none of the other crew would hear. “The trap is set, we will spring it as soon as we are sufficient distance and speed from the Carristo to minimise any response from them.”

  “Carristo’s Tractor has it in tow, sir. It will be aboard in approximately forty seconds.”

  “Helm, proceed at maximum acceleration. Advise crew to prepare for impact damage.”

  As the klaxon sounded and the verbal warning went out to the small crew of the battleship the bridge crew all went into lock down and strapped themselves into their seats. They had no idea what was about to occur, but clearly understood that something fairly big was going down. Dalt and Charon both leaned against the command chair and grabbing a stanchion either side braced themselves for the aftershock.

  “Give me visuals on rear-facing sensors and cameras,” Charon called.

  The view showed a battleship and three cruisers all in close formation. As they watched a bloom of light appeared midships of the Carristo and expanded outward encompassing the whole ship and the cruisers. Further explosions followed the anti-matter limpet mine which had activated on touchdown of the DIA vessel in the Carristo’s hangar. The smallest mine from the Dramatus armoury had been held underneath the ship with a twenty second time delay. It wasn’t long, but enough to ensure the hangar doors were closed forcing the explosion inwards along the corridor system directly to the Carristo’s armoury.

  The cruisers closest to the Carristo disappeared in a wave of debris and exploding weapons. They, in turn, caught the edge of the third cruiser and flipped it end over end almost in position which lasted about five seconds before a large chunk of one of the ships caught it midships and it echoed the fate of the others. Four for four, Dalt thought. Serves them right for intending to use anti-matter bombs. They were banned because the output of even small missiles or mines was horrendous. They were called ‘ship-killers’ for a good reason. There would be no survivors.

  As the bow wave of the explosive force hit the back end of the Dramatus it distorted the bulkheads causing them to ripple. The gasps from the crew said it all. Several alarms broke out and Dalt listened as Charon called the emergency teams to the areas where damage control was needed. He suspected concussion leaks, a common occurrence in space battles. Those areas would be sealed until they could be repaired.

  Charon looked sad, Dalt realised the officer had known many of the men on those ships, quite a few would have been DIA sleepers and part of his undercover team, but this was war and that meant turning away from regret and facing the hard decisions. Dalt knew then without a doubt that Charon would always do what was necessary, or die in the attempt. His resolve showed in the steely glance he gave Dalt.

  For his part Dalt was not unfeeling, he had already lost people close to him. He shared Charon’s loss of his agents and the serving crews of the ships. Equally, he knew that Charon had acquitted himself well and for a moment felt guilty as he considered his next move, the memory of his son’s sacrifice still a fresh memory, but his mind was made up.

  “Charon, you will be my new SIC, I intend to catch up with the vessel we were protecting when we engaged the blockade. The agent aboard has valuable data relating to the Archon sector and he, as well as that information, must make it to the AW Command on Fording Station.”

  Charon nodded approvingly.

  Dalt continued to outline his plan and as they went over the fine detail, he concluded,

  “We will have one chance, that of total surprise. We must make it count.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The Preteus system

  The Citrix had been sitting behind the dark side of the moon of the gas giant for nearly a full day and Grady was getting impatient. Transportation through the naval blockade at AW Command was been arranged by Kildark, but Grady had no details because they didn’t want any pre-warning going to the Core navy. So, he had no way to plan their next move. His report had been received and Kildark had replied stating cryptically, “All things are clear to those that look,” and indicated to Grady that the reason for the attack on the AWA headquarters was possibly a prelude to a strike against the Empire, possibly over the discovery of Archon-5. Although Grady felt it seemed a little over-dramatic that the whole of the Core navy would assemble above the AWC - until he read the rest of the report that had been deliberately hidden within the reply.

  The intercepted corporation report explained everything and was an eye-opener even for Grady.The data was comprehensive and he wondered how it had been intercepted. It wasn’t the kind of material that was bandied around. He suspected the DIA were responsible since they had assets everywhere. He read it quickly, then summarised it in his mind.

  The Archon planet had two important raw materials that were of such high value not only in financial terms, but strategically important to ENCIO. The rare compounds that had been discovered were vital components in a new interstellar drive that was being rolled out. The Core navy already had several ships outfitted, but the materials were hard to come by and the sources were in already disputed space. There had been incursions by Core ships into that region and the AWA fleet was now patrolling it vigorously. As a result the corporation could not afford to have the Archon planet in dispute. Neither could they do their usual trick of making the planet uninhabitable and walking away until the dust settled.

  So, whilst they needed Archon-5 free and clear of any encumbrances, without a doubt the research they had carried out from the CRN Persipis indicated that the population appeared to be neither mutant nor clone and there was a high possibility it was an indigent species. The measurement of the known population clearly indicated an established world with a developed infrastructure, albeit completely non-technological as far as the report could establish.

  The report writer scathingly referred to the Dispersalista and their repeated historic references to planet seeding. They admitted that if the Dispersalists were made aware of the existence of the planet they would activate all their assets to elicit the full set of facts and publish their findings across the Empire. Therefore, ENCIO must at all costs avoid giving them the political coup of finally proving the existence of a possible Dispersal planet.

  Grady considered the implications. It would mean war, of course, which was obviously why the Core were trying to nip the head off the AWA as a pre-emptive strike against the Empire.

  Grady remained deep in thought while Shrilla read the rest of the report. He’d seen enough to know they had to somehow resolve the Ektepoi’s problems and avoid outright confrontation with the corporation bully boys as well until they had a better handle on the situation. Without a shadow of a doubt the Empire would have no prior warning of this and would be caught wrong-footed, unless the AWA fleet could hold off the Core until a diplomatic solution could be found.

  “We’re in trouble,” Shrilla sighed clicking the final page of the re
port and leaning back to stretch her limbs. They had been sitting inactive for hours.

  Grady agreed, but had more background than she did so knew more about the full extent of their dilemma. So, he added his thoughts.

  “We’re not in as much trouble as Kildark. He has half the Core navy sitting on top of the AWC and according to Range’s latest report they still haven’t found the traitor who is feeding updates to the fleet above him. It’s why he’s being circumspect in his reporting. Whoever it is that is spying on the AWA is still in the system and reading everything that Kildark writes. I suspect we only know half of what’s happening over there.” Grady drummed his fingers absently on the corner of the unit. They couldn’t do anything to help. The Citrix would be blown out of this dimension by every Core vessel as soon as sighted if they tried anything.

  Ario interrupted his drumming.

  “There’s a vessel approaching GG42-3A in this sector. Its engine signature says it is a Core navy battleship, but it’s using a restricted transponder code identical to one that the two allied ships were using before they engaged the blockade.”

  “What ? It could be a trap !” Shrilla responded, taking immediate charge of the comms console she tapped in some codes.

  Grady who was looking over her shoulder saw a brief glimpse of the AWA logo and then a string of numbers corresponding to known AWA transponder codes. “It’s not a known ‘friendly’ code,” she murmured while continuing to type. “Ario, release all unregistered transponder codes in your databanks to my console,” she ordered.

  Grady grunted in surprise when Ario complied. He’d had those on restricted access, yet Shrilla over-rode his protocols without a murmur from Ario. He needed to overhaul his AI once he got his ship back to himself, he decided.