by Linda Mooney
“It would account for him coming after us in a damaged ship,” Kyber agreed, then turned to continue on their way.
She glanced up at his face, hoping to get some clue as to what he was thinking. When they reached the elevators, they entered an empty car. She took that moment to ask what had been on her mind ever since hearing Colonel Pfeiffer’s proposal.
“Do you think you’ll take the colonel up on his offer?”
“We need to discuss this with the others first.”
“You’re hedging, damn it, and you know it.”
He turned to stare at her. “You know my heart, my one. So you know my answer.”
The doors opened. They exited into the corridor.
“Yes, I know your answer. And you know mine,” she added as they approached room F27.
Kyber tapped the panel below the room number. A few seconds later, a familiar voice drawled, “Friend or foe?”
“It’s us, you old cuss guzzard,” Kelen quipped.
The panel opened to reveal Fullgrath’s beaming face. “Hot damn, it’s good to see you! Come on in!”
Cooter got up from where he was sitting at the monitor and came over to shake Kyber’s hand, as well as give Kelen a quick hug. “We were wondering why we haven’t heard from you two in a while.”
“We’re in room twenty-four,” she informed the men.
“I need to know how quickly we can gather everyone together,” Kyber mentioned.
“I’ll go let the others know,” Cooter informed them, and vanished out the door.
Fullgrath stiffened. “Why? What’s going on?”
“A lot,” Kelen admitted. “And, unfortunately, not all of it is good.”
“Oh?”
She grinned. “Never a dull moment. How have you guys been doing?” Like herself, he and Cooter were wearing clean but unembellished uniforms.
“Doing a hellacious amount of sleeping and eating.” He gave her a quick head-to-toe examination and smiled. “You two look pretty good.”
Cooter rushed back in. Behind him came Mellori and Dox. “The others are on their way.” No sooner had he said that than Massapa, Kleesod, and Gaveer appeared.
“The physician and Jules will be here shortly,” Gaveer noted.
Dox walked over to give Kelen a hug. Five chittered happily and climbed up her arm to sit on her shoulder. Kelen scratched under the furry’s arm where she knew he liked it. “Good to see you, Ikko,” she whispered. The little creature peeped happily and rubbed his face against the back of her hand.
The door opened again, and Sandow and Jules came in. They exchanged hugs with Kelen, then everyone found a spot to settle.
Kyber smiled at them. “It is good to see everyone again. You look almost fully recovered.”
“Yeah, but it’s getting to the point where boredom is starting to set in,” Cooter dryly remarked. “Almost makes me wish we could go back to that neverwylde planet just to see a little action.”
“We have that option,” Kyber stated.
The others stared at him in stunned silence. “I was kidding,” Cooter remarked.
“We’re not,” Kelen countered, straight-faced.
The stunned expressions returned. Sandow was the first to speak. “We’re listening. What have you got?”
“Kelen and I have spoken at length with Colonel Pfeiffer. He is the commanding officer of this outpost. After our chemical interrogations, he is convinced we are not the convicted criminals my brother claims we are.”
“Is that why we were released from the brig and given allowance to roam freely?” Massapa asked.
“Precisely. He also believes, as Kelen and I do, that all of Duruk’s bluff and bluster is a smokescreen to hide his real intent.”
Kelen laid a hand on Kyber’s arm. “Actually, we have taken into account Duruk’s rhetoric. We believe the man means what he says, and that is he’s out to bring Kyber down by every means possible. But there’s also a second purpose to it.”
“In what manner?” Massapa asked.
“We think the real purpose behind all this is because the Seneecians don’t want word to get out about the existence of Neverwylde,” she responded.
“You mean Ganj,” Mellori corrected her.
Kelen shook her head. “No, Neverwylde. It’s a Seneecian term regarding a planet that’s suffered a catastrophic event, yet continues to sustain life.” She motioned to Dox. “Dox was correct all along in calling it Neverwylde. Although, I don’t know how he knew of the term.”
“Written on the wall,” the young man declared.
“Wait.” Jules pointed at Dox. “The word Neverwylde was inscribed in those glyphs?”
Dox nodded instead of answering. Jules gave a low whistle and looked back at them. “Do you realize what that means? It means the Seneecians have been there previously. It means they may have been exploring that half world in the past.”
“Which further bolsters the supposition that they’ve come across something that’s so valuable, or dangerous, or hell who knows, and they’re damned and determined to keep it safeguarded,” Cooter remarked.
“If that’s true, then Five’s people must have had contact with the Seneecians,” Sandow surmised.
Kelen started to ask Dox if he would question the furry to see if Seneecians had been on the world before them, but the young man had anticipated her question. A series of squeaks and chitters were exchanged between Dox and Five, then Dox replied, “Many many cycles ago, yes.”
“Don’t reckon the little critter could tell us the name of the Seneecians who were there, could he?” Fullgrath quizzed.
Dox bobbed his head. “Pavilor.”
Kelen noticed Kyber stiffen. A quick glance at the other three Seneecians showed they also appeared to recognize the name. “Who’s Pavilor?”
“A brilliant and well-loved Seneecian scientist and explorer. He and his crew disappeared many years ago and never returned.” Kyber turned to look at her. “There have been stories and rumors through the years that his ship was discovered someplace far away, although no bodies were ever recovered.”
“Which brings us around to that bombshell you dropped on us a couple of minutes ago.” Fullgrath crossed one ankle over a knee. “You’re thinking of going back to Neverwylde?”
“Colonel Pfeiffer has spoken to several heads at Central Command,” Kelen told them. “They’re willing to send a special envoy and at least forty troops to the planet to explore it, investigate it, and hopefully discover its secrets.”
“And let me guess, they want us to lead the way since we’re already familiar with the planet,” Cooter concluded. He made a cocking motion with his hands and raised his arms to simulate firing a pulse rifle. “Just give me my baby back, and I’m there.”
“To make this clear, this is not coming down as a mandate,” Kyber hastened to inform them. “Your participation is voluntary.”
“Do we know how long this so-called voluntary assignment is supposed to last?” Jules piped up.
“They’re thinking a minimum of three weeks,” Kelen answered.
“Okay. Say we’re there three weeks, and we don’t find anything worth getting our feathers all ruffled over,” Fullgrath scratched the bridge of his nose. “Then what? We get to go home?”
Kelen smiled. “Yes.”
“How about you two?” Sandow wondered. “Where will you two end up? I mean, I don’t see Earth welcoming Kyber. And I doubt you’d get a warm reception on Seneecia, either.”
“That is our problem, not yours,” Kyber remarked, his voice warm and not condescending. “But thank you for your concern.”
Mellori snorted. “Wonder what in the world could be so damned important about that planet that is making them go all ape-shit?”
“Too bad they confiscated your tablet and all when they took us off that planet,” Cooter remarked to Jules.
The navigator grinned. “They may have my tablet, but not its brain.”
Kelen stared wide-eyed at the man. “Yo
u have the CPU?”
“CPU?” Kleesod repeated. “Is that like the brain?”
“It stands for Central Processing Unit,” Jules explained. “And, yeah, it’s the brain.” He grinned. “I got it safely stored away at the moment.”
“Between that information and Lil’ Bit there…” Fullgrath motioned at Kelen. She’d forgotten the creature was still on her shoulder. The furry had curled into a ball and fallen asleep during their conversation. “Shouldn’t that be enough to blow apart the Seneecians’ cover-up?”
“It is a start,” Kyber admitted. “But it will take more than that to convince the Galactic Council to declare any direct actions.”
“One more thing in our favor,” Kelen mentioned. “And that’s the fact that the tegris is not in Seneecian space.”
“More than likely, Neverwylde isn’t either,” Fullgrath drawled.
“Which explains why the Seneecians are trying to keep the planet hush-hush. They wouldn’t act like this if it was under their jurisdiction,” Sandow concluded. “We don’t need their permission to go there, but you know they’re going to do all they can to prevent any ships from he—”
“D’har Kyber.” The stern voice interrupted from the monitor sitting on the desk.
Kyber went around and flipped the toggle. “Kyber here. Major Baffrey?”
“Report to Colonel Pfeiffer’s office immediately. The Seneecian ship is within range of the outpost, and the D’har is demanding you be returned.”
“And if he refuses to go back with them, then what?” Fullgrath yelled.
The major chose to ignore the question. “D’har Kyber, your presence is needed ASAP.”
“On my way.”
Massapa jumped to his feet from where he’d been sitting on the floor. “We are coming with you.”
“We all are,” Jules added, also standing.
Kyber gave them all a thankful look, then headed out the door. The rest followed in tow. The colonel didn’t hide his surprise when the entire group converged on his office, and got to his feet.
“Thanks for getting here so quickly.”
“You sounded concerned,” Kyber replied.
The man gave a nod. “We’ve received a command, not a request, from D’har Duruk. He wants you and your men returned to him, and he’s given us approximately ninety-nine minutes to comply.”
“Ninety-nine minutes?” Kelen gave the two men a quizzical stare.
“His ship will be within transport range at that time,” Pfeiffer explained.
Fullgrath stepped forward. “What if he refuses? What is he going to do then? Fire on an outpost that’s equipped with twelve protonic cannons?” He made a rude noise. “That’s like pitting a blaster against a volcano.”
Pfeiffer’s expression hardened, to the point where Kelen’s level of concern rose several notches. “There’s one bit of information you don’t know. The D’har isn’t alone.”
“What do you mean?” Kelen asked.
The colonel glanced at her, then back at Kyber. “It appears the man has brought along several of his friends, the same as you have brought yours along with you here. Right at this moment, six Class R Seneecian warships are approaching this outpost. Granted, their firepower can’t match ours, they can still do catastrophic damage to this place and be back in their sector before any supportive help arrives.
“By granting you and your people sanctuary, I’ve placed twelve hundred of mine in imminent danger. I need to know, and I need to know now, what is your next plan of action?”
Chapter 20
Clue
Kelen knew what her husband would say before he uttered the words.
“I will turn myself over to them.”
“Kyber!” She grabbed his arm, but his word was resolute. As much as she didn’t want him to be taken prisoner again by his brother, there was no other solution. Her husband would not sacrifice the lives of others for his own safety.
He refused to look at her, but continued to stare eye-to-eye with the colonel. After a few tense moments, Pfeiffer let out a loud sigh. As he parked himself in front of his monitor, his door signaled he had visitor. It turned out to be Lieutenant Colonel Williamsburg and Major Baffrey.
“Where are we on Operation Jeef?”
Apparently Kelen wasn’t the only person giving the colonel a quizzical look. The officer appeared nonplussed.
“Isn’t that what you said those little creatures called themselves?”
“Uhh, yeah,” Jules managed to answer first.
Williamsburg gave them the update. “I’ve requested a Kergocian battle cruiser to be delivered. It’s due to arrive within three hours. That means it should dock, barring any unforeseen circumstances, before the Seneecians. I was also informed it‘ll be carrying one hundred ninety-eight troops, including crew.”
“Good. That’ll give us time to brief those soldiers before the Seneecians arrive.”
“Why a Kergocian cruiser?” Mellori questioned.
“Kergo Ai has a hands-off treaty with Seneecia,” Baffrey explained. “It’s rather lenient. Not so much a peace treaty as it’s a ‘you leave us alone and we’ll leave you alone’ agreement. The ship will be manned by Kergocians. The Seneecians won’t challenge it. Even if they did, they won’t try to stop it.”
“We hope,” Cooter wryly remarked.
“What are we going to brief them on when they get here?” Sandow asked.
“Can you draw up some maps of the areas you explored?” the colonel countered.
“We can do better than that. We have the chip from Jules’ tablet that the Seneecians failed to find when they confiscated all our materials,” Kelen offered.
Everyone turned to see the navigator holding up the microchip that was no bigger than his little fingernail. “Give me another tablet, and I can download all the pictures and schematics you’ll need.”
“I don’t have one handy, but that shouldn’t be a problem.” Pfeiffer hit the comm button. “I need a tablet delivered ASAP.” He looked at the others. “Anything else?”
“That’s a solid beginning,” Kelen told him.
“So you plan to head out to Neverwylde before the Seneecians arrive? Is that it?” Mellori asked to clarify.
“That’s the plan,” Williamsburg confirmed.
“And you plan to use Kelen and Kyber as bait, to keep the sneeks from realizing our true intentions?” Cooter continued. Turning to Kyber, he added, “Sorry. Old habit.”
“No offense taken,” Kyber assured him. “And to answer your question, I guess you could say we will be more of a diversion than bait.”
“Decoy,” Dox inputted.
They were interrupted by the arrival of a yeoman who’d brought a tablet. Jules took the instrument from the young man and hurried to replace its CPU with his. Pointing to the monitor on the colonel’s desk, he asked, “May I, sir?”
Pfeiffer gave him permission with a wave of his hand, and Jules proceeded to link the tablet with the outpost’s computers. As it did so, Jules ran the images through the holo projector, enabling everyone to see. It took less than a dozen still shots before the lieutenant colonel let out a breathy whistle.
“Dear God.”
Fullgrath chuckled. “Wait’ll you see the vids. Those’ll blow you outta your skivvies.”
“Oh, sweet heavens, what is that?” Williamsburg exclaimed.
Jules paused the shot. “That is what we call a Hoov.”
“Those bastards are at least seven feet tall and voracious meat eaters,” Mellori explained.
“And they’re intelligent bastards,” Cooter added.
“One of them was wearing a translation necklace,” Sandow commented.
Kelen inserted, “Believe it or not, they weren’t the worst that planet had to offer.”
They perused another fifty or so still frames before Pfeiffer asked Jules to close down the graphics. Kelen noticed how pale the three officers’ faces were.
The colonel dropped into his seat. “You wer
e damned lucky to get off that planet when you did.”
“We agree,” Kyber concurred. “We doubted we would have lasted another couple of weeks if Duruk had not honed in on our signal.”
Pfeiffer gave him a confused look, but it was Baffrey who remarked, “Signal? Am I missing something? I thought you said during your interrogations that your lifepods landed on the planet. That your ship was swallowed up by the tegris.”
“It was, and we did.”
“Then what signal are you talking about?”
Pfeiffer waved a hand for attention. “Let’s clear a bit of confusion here. Kyber, you said your ship sent out a distress signal when it came in contact with the wormhole, right?”
“Correct.”
“So how was Duruk able to pinpoint your location on the planet?”
Kyber pointed to Dox. “He built a transmitter out of odd parts we found.”
“You found?” Baffrey repeated.
“Yeah. Hold on. I have a vid here.” Jules rifled through the tablet’s databank, then turned the holo back on for them to watch. It was a slow scan of the room where they’d found the piles and piles of confiscated goods Hoov and its people had collected and stored. Every so often the camera zoomed in on one of them, including a lingering shot of Dox pulling out several unidentifiable items and stuffing them inside his uniform.
Pfeiffer turned to Dox. “Where is that transmitter?”
“They took it.”
“They who? Duruk?”
Dox gave a single nod. “Said it was Bollian.”
The colonel stiffened. “Did you say Bollian?”
Kelen sensed her husband alerting to the man’s unease. “Is that supposed to mean something?”
Pfeiffer turned to her. “Are any of you familiar with the Prai Mer Principle?”
She shook her head, as did Kyber and several others, but Mellori raised his hand.
“I am. It’s supposed to solve the problem of the teleportation of matter over extreme distances.” Seeing that the other crewmembers weren’t connecting, he cleared his throat and tried again. “Right now in order to get from point A to point B, you have to take a ship and travel for days and weeks on end to get there. Unless, of course, you happen to find a wormhole that kind of takes you in and spits you out close to your destination. But we all know that sort of phenomenon happens more frequently in fiction than in actuality.