Crucible: Records of the Argos

by Michael J. Farlow

  Now, you’d think that after all the weapons fire and the victory howl of a full-grown Arkon warrior, those dummies on the bridge would just give up. But nooooo. Either they had more guts than brains or the consequences of failure from their boss were even greater than the fear they had of who or, more likely what, was outside the bridge hatch. That was something to remember.

  As luck would have it, this ship was too old to have cipher locks on the hatches. Like the prison cells on the asteroid base (which we now called Base 1) and where we met Sif for the first time, this hatch had a more conventional lock. One that could be picked if, of course, we had one of Wizzy’s mantis drones. I was lamenting my lack of forethought in not bringing one along when Amini made an “I’m smarter than you” grin and reached into a pouch attached to her suit. Sure enough, out popped one of those buzzing little drones, and it went straight for the lock.

  When the little drone broke away from the hatch and flew back to Amini, it was a sign that the hatch was unlocked. Sif elbowed Amini and me aside and lunged at the hatch. Much to Sif’s surprise, the door had less resistance than expected, and he tumbled into the bridge amid a spray of laser fire. No explosive-tipped rounds here. Somebody had a brain. Nevertheless, his suit suffered a barrage of hits from multiple sources. He found cover behind a control console at the rear of the bridge. I reminded myself to revise or, actually establish with Sif’s help, a procedure for making such entries. This spur of the moment stuff just wasn’t hacking it.

  Sif gave a thumbs-up signal from behind his cover, indicating he was okay. I wondered if, behind that helmet, he was looking a little sheepish at his rush to engage but decided Arkons didn’t know such a feeling. Amini released the little drone again, and immediately, we started getting video on our helmet screens. We counted at least five shooters who, like Sif, were sheltered behind consoles set in an arc in the forward part of the bridge. Between Sif’s console and the pirates was a large captain’s command chair.

  “Sif,” I called out through helmet communications. “Can you make it behind the command chair? Then I can roll in and take your current spot when you move. We need more guns in the area.

  “I can do that. Give me some cover to move forward. Then I give you cover to take my spot.” I gave him a thumbs-up and then counted down to one. On one, I eased my laser rifle around the edge of the bridge hatch and began spraying laser bolts indiscriminately at the hiding places of the five pirates. Sif did not hesitate and did a shoulder roll to the command chair. Pretty impressive for a big Arkon warrior in a battle suit.

  The effects of long practices in maneuvers like this left Sif in a kneeling position with his rifle up and firing. I may have hesitated just a bit but quickly tried to duplicate the warriors roll to the console just feet away. I wish I could say I was as smooth and successful as Sif, but I wasn’t. I wound up on my back, looking like I just dropped from a ten-story building and hoping nobody noticed… which they did.

  I have to say, I recovered fast and was soon in a kneeling position and began returning fire on the pirates. One of the enemies stood for a second and fell backward, dropping his weapon as he fell. One down, four to go.

  “Sif,” I called out. “This may take forever. Got an idea?”

  “We stand and rush them. Kill them all.”

  Why did I ask such a stupid question? I was about to answer when Amini spoke up.

  “When you boys are done playing, I can take care of this.”

  Sif and I weren’t quite sure we heard right. The little girl from the asteroid mines was going to take on four very nasty pirates with big guns?

  “Have you noticed they aren’t wearing pressure suits?”

  I had only seen one, the one who briefly stood and fell backward. Shit, he wasn’t wearing a pressure suit or any armor.

  I drew in my manly pride and said, “Ah, I think I did see that.” Sif just grunted.

  “Then just sit tight while I close the bridge hatch. I just found what I think is the pressure control valve for the bridge. Make sure you’re all buttoned up.”

  The hatch clanged shut, and then, through the amplified hearing in our helmets, we could hear a hiss — air being sucked out of the bridge. In about a minute, there was no more fire from the pirates. Sif was the first to stand and walk to the forward consoles and look over the top.

  “Ha, they are all dead. Amini is very clever.”

  I stood and pulled alongside Sif and looked for myself. Yup, five dead pirates. The mission on this ship was complete. I let Amini know her idea worked, and she started feeding atmosphere back into the bridge immediately. It took only minutes for the hatch to open and Amini stepped in. She went straight for the downed pirates and started putting restraints on four of them.

  “Why you doing that?” Sif asked, looking puzzled with his faceplate open.

  “Because four of them aren’t dead, you big red oaf, just passed out. I didn’t suck all the air out, just enough to cause them to lose consciousness.”

  I was going to ask why she hadn’t made that suggestion before Sif and I entered the bridge. But I thought better of it.

  I looked forward to talking to the commander of the hulk, but he wasn’t alive anymore. The poor shmucks that were left didn’t know much of anything. They spent most of their time on one hulk or another with a few trips to Tye every sixty or ninety Earth days. They knew Toor and that he was a big shot, but not much more. We were all frustrated. All this work and we weren’t any smarter about the connections and locations related to the pirate, warship, kingpin cabal.

  To get some alone time back on Argos, I camped out in the captain’s cabin on the upper deck. Like much of the upper level, this space was more for show than real use, but it served a purpose now and then, like now.

  “Wizzy,” I called out in vexation.

  The AI’s holographic avatar appeared, floating in space before me with a pencil held above one ear and a clipboard in one hand.

  “What now? I was busy calculating the storage capacity of the Argos’ computer core in exabytes when you caused me to miss count. Now I have to start all over.”

  “Ah, sorry, Wizzy. What’s an exabyte? Never mind, I don’t really want to know. What I do want to know is, have you had more luck than we have in learning more about the pirates?”

  “You mean has the magnificent, stupendous Wizzy done a better job than you monkeys?”

  “Monkeys? Are you referring to me and the rest of us?” The reference was pushing my blood pressure up.

  “Umm, I see your point. You may be smarter than monkeys, at least a little. I know you don’t have tails, and that makes you part of the ape family and smarter than monkeys. Apes, chimps, humans, all the same, compared to me.”

  I was in no mood for Wizzy’s spartan sense of humor. “Wizzy, just answer my question.”

  “Oh, that. I did that long before I started counting exabytes. An exabyte, by the way, is the equivalent of one billion gigabytes. “

  “Wizzy!”

  “OK, OK. Don’t get huffy. I did, in fact, learn more than you. Not that it was hard. Toor is in charge of all the basic pirating activity and runs this storage area, as well as the one you were captured on. The records show there are at least two other storage and distribution facilities, but the locations are not recorded. Most cargo is sold in multiple markets and places on Tye. That is to avoid flowing too much material through just Kiber and Viron.”

  “You say most of the cargos. Where does the other stuff go?”

  “That is a good question. There are a few references to T, C, G, B, and S. Logic suggests the first three may refer to Toor, Coriolanus, and Gurko. B and S are unknown. Keep in mind those are the recipients of the cargo. Probably used as food and supplies for operations. It says nothing about money or script.”

  “Nothing like a bank or a business in any of the records?”

  “Good qu
estion, Nicky. But no.”

  Crap. We don’t know much more than we did before. Maybe there will be answers on the captured ship, but it seemed unlikely.

  “What do you think?”

  “I think there’s some monkey business going on, homeboy, if you catch my, heh, heh, drift.”

  “Wizzy! Enough with the monkey stuff. What does your magnificent brain suggest to you about the next step?”

  “Umm, let’s see. No, not that. Umm, not that either. I know! As a next step, why don’t you ask Toor what’s going on?”

  “Wizzy, I was looking for something practical, something we could actually do.”

  “You asked what I thought, and I gave you my suggestion. After all, who do we know that knows the most about what’s going on? Who has access to intimate details? Hmm?”

  Wizzy had a point. A good one. We could waste our time chewing around the edges of the problem, or we could take the direct approach. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. Capture Toor and wring out from him the information we need. But capturing Toor wouldn’t be easy. We’d need help, like from the Resistance.

  We took the captured cargo ship with no problem and turned it over to the original crew. We also loaded the freed prisoners that were held in the hulk’s cell along with the pirate prisoners we captured. Let the Resistance take care of them. Before the ship departed, however, we had a talk with Larona and explained what we wanted to do. It surprised her. In fact, she didn’t think it was possible but agreed to help just in case we pulled off a miracle. We discussed plans and sent her on her way with the freed cargo ship. The next day, we maneuvered the Argos (still masquerading as the faded blue Planar) to uncontrolled space above Kiber and waited in stealth. We had been on this mission nearly a month, actually about twenty-five days, and were still in the dark about too many things. Again, travel time between places, as well as the time we spent waiting for one thing or another, continued to pile up. The time we spent in actual operations was nominal. A fact of life in space with only FTL capability.

  Chapter 11

  Several days later, we received a message from Larona telling us that Toor was in a small place on the outskirts of Kiber. Resistance members would meet us near there, guide us, and assist in Toor’s capture. So, I asked myself what we should wear to the party. That’s not a dumb question. If we decided on full battle suits and we had to chase Toor into town for some reason, what would that look like? We didn’t need any bigger profile than necessary. On the other hand, if we met with serious opposition at Toor’s place, we would need some armor protection. Oh yeah, Sif picked up all the explosive-tipped rounds he could find on the hulk we took over as well as a bunch of the rifles. Then we set up a small shooting range in cargo bay 2 and used a battle suit for target practice these last two days. That was my idea, not Wizzy’s. We were in luck. The explosive-tipped rounds did not penetrate the battle armor, including the helmets. That was the good news. The not so good news was that rounds hitting the helmets made a sound like a big bell being struck by its clapper. That was okay for the people around the suit. It was just that a hit to the head could make hearing anything for a while a bit difficult.

  Where was I? Oh yeah, what to wear. I explained to Sif that he might be the best choice for a combat suit and lead the assault on Toor’s location. He was good with that. Amini and I would each wear one of Phil Loomis’ lightweight, skintight undergarments that afforded some protection but would also leave us free to be mobile and relatively inconspicuous if we needed to chase somebody into town. Doc would stay on the Argos with Wizzy and monitor us. The Resistance folks had some homebuilt armor of their own.

  As far as weapons were concerned, Sif was in love with the explosive-tipped, round firing rifles. They could fire more conventional rounds, but Sif liked the big stuff. Amini and I went conservative with stun pistols and conventional laser rifles. The pistols were for Toor. We wanted him alive, a goal we would insist the Resistance follow as well.

  When we were all dressed, Amini flew Sif and me in a stealth shuttle to the designated point on the surface of Tye. This was the first time on this mission that we landed on an unprepared surface on a planet. I was a little concerned about the noise we made. In atmosphere, propulsive power shifted to air-breathing turbines, which had a distinct whine. We also depended on the shuttle’s short stubby wings for lift. As we approached the ground, the compressed air below the wings amplified the noise of the approach. Fortunately, the surrounding foliage of the landing site held our noise to a minimum. When we landed, we were met by a dozen or so armed and armored Resistance members who greeted us and pointed in the direction we needed to go. Sif took the lead with one of the Resistance members, and the rest of us followed, making as little noise as possible. On the way, Amini released a small bottle of fireflies that received direction from Wizzy back on the Argos.

  We only traveled about a quarter-mile before we saw Sif and his companion kneel down, each holding up a closed fist, the signal to stop. Then the two waved their arms, signaling for the force to form a line on the left and right of Sif and his partner. We could now see the long narrow building that Toor was using for whatever business he was up to. Light shown through the few windows of the building, which allowed enough light for us to see at least two guards in the front entrance. On a signal from the Resistance fighter in the lead with Sif, two Resistance members quietly left their positions and began circling around to the other side of the building. One went left, and one went right.

  That was a good move because the fireflies found two more guards watching the back door to the building. Four guards that we could see. Somehow to me, that didn’t seem like enough, but I guess Toor felt comfortable enough here that he didn’t see the need for more, at least on the outside. One good thing about our combat suits, like the one Sif was wearing, is that they contain their own stealth systems. When the first suits were used several years ago, they gave a very light shimmer now and then. A sharp person could detect the shimmer. These new suits did away with that fault completely. With the signal coming from the rear of the building that there were only two guards, Sif stood and casually walked up to the two guards in front. He was careful not to drag his feet and make small dust clouds. When he was within arms distance, he pulled out his battle knife and lifted it over his head. I could hear Amini take in a short breath like she was guarding her emotions when watching the inevitable death of two people. But Sif fooled us. At the top of his arm swing, he flipped the knife so that he held the blade in hand as he brought the big handle down on the tops of both guards’ heads. Thump, thump, the two guards dropped. Something similar happened on the other side of the building as we saw those two guards go down in the firefly images.

  Now the real show could start. The assault force broke in half, one staying in front and one moving the short distance to the rear. Amini stayed with Sif in the front, and I went around to the back with the other team. Those of us with faceplates (including some Resistance members) that could see what the fireflies were seeing and broadcasting from inside could see everyone in the building and exactly where they were. Most were in a long, thin room with a long table and chairs. As many as eight were sitting and were either arguing with each other over something or giving loud instructions. It looked like a planning session with plenty of ideas being thrown around. The one thing I didn’t see was Toor.

  “Amini, Sif, do you have eyes on Toor?”

  Both replied no.

  “Wizzy, do you see Toor in there?”

  “No, I don’t, and I’ve had fireflies searching every part of the building.”

  “Send some outside the building just in case he might be sneaking away.”

  “Done, Captain Nick. But so far, there is nothing. Wait, let me see. Yes, I have discovered a heat trail leading away from the rear of the building and into the city. That may be your man. I’m sending more fireflies in that direction.”

&
nbsp; “Good. Sif, stay here and take over. See what you can find out from those inside. Amini, get back here with me, and we’ll follow the heat trail as far as it goes. If that was Toor, we still have a chance before he gets too deep into the city.”

  “On my way!”

  To keep the low profile we wanted, Amini and I took off our helmets and replaced them with some glasses Wizzy had made over the last few days. They had all the sensory capability the helmets did, just not the bulk. Wizzy plotted the heat trail on our glasses. We could clearly see the yellow-orange heat trail that Wizzy was projecting. I was sure he was enhancing it for us poor mortals, but that was just fine. The trouble was, the trail was weakening as we went deeper into the city. Everyone there had a heat signature, and if it weren’t for Wizzy, we could never have followed the one track we wanted as far as we did. Eventually, we lost it altogether. We stopped in front of a small shop and looked around, hoping to see some trace of a short, fat, red-eyed man. But nothing.

  “Wizzy, we’re done. I can’t find the heat trail anymore. Too much interference.”

  “Yes, I know. Even my magnificent skills cannot follow him. However, I have launched more fireflies from the shuttle behind you in the hope of catching a glimpse of him in the city. This may take some time.”

  Knowing Wizzy was probably right, I decided to collect Sif, return to our shuttle, and get back to the Argos. Let the Resistance deal with the captives — they had their own transportation. As we departed, I was more than a little annoyed at the mission failure. Nobody liked to lose. Plus, I didn’t like the nagging idea that somebody in the Resistance group may have given away our plan and allowed Toor to escape. If it was true, our job just got harder.