He ran his hand over the implant in the Shafio's brain sac.
“What were you saying, Jelum?”
“They seem to become more resilient after being trained by the Syndicate. The large ones seem to feel the most pain but also have the most courage.”
“Have you showed him the fate of the first team?”
“The Orv say they are waiting to use it, letting them to have some hope before breaking it,”
“Good. We do not want them having a shred of hope that they will merely become slaves.”
Marhtu looked to the slaves around him. All of them touched, creatures that would do anything for him.
“Be a seat for Jelum,” Marhtu pointed to two of them. Jelum shuffled forward, sitting on the slaves, looking at the ground still.
Marhtu had grown his empire from the people within this room. Outside of his tower they had been criminals, politicians that had gone against him and those that had come into power through one way or another. All of them had been touched by Marhtu's Orv, and each of them had become his slaves. So subdued he could sleep with all of them in his room without worry.
Fear and power rule all, Marhtu thought.
“What does the informant aboard their flagship say?”
“He has sent us information on the main ships capabilities. He wants us to tell him what other ships are in the formation so he can tell us what they do. He cannot see them himself.”
“Does he still believe that we will take power away from this Free Fleet in his home system and return it to his leader?”
“Yes. We have promised him one of the Battle cruisers as well,” Jalum said into the floor. The slave’s frail bodies weren't even shaking under the military leader’s bulk.
Marhtu indicated a liquour bottle with a casual wave of his hand. As the Shafio fed him his scales changed to silver in pleasure. It was coming together so well. He would turn Salchar against his own people, forcing him to give Marhtu the fleet and everything else he controlled. Marhtu wondered idly what he would have Salchar doing in his tower.
Food server? No, nighttime servant. Marhtu thought as everyone looked to the floor in submission. He would be at his most vulnerable and make this Salchar stand there and watch him sleep like a pod. He rattled as silver ran through his coat before receding.
“Send the messages to the fleet. I wish to see Salchar as soon as he is broken,” Marhtu said as Jelum prostrated himself.
“Yes, my overseer,” he said before backing out.
****
“Oi, stop your flabbing and get working!” Eddie said, his hand threateningly close to his boot.
The talking engineers quickly separated and got to their work.
“Easy does it. Make sure you don't clip anything or I'll have your hide!” a familiar voice said. Eddie followed it as he wondered what was passing through his domain without his knowledge. He came to one of the massive service hallways as a cannon was being moved from storage.
“What you doing that for?”
“Well, with Edward's betrayal we don't know what they know or not about the Fleet, so we're going to put in the upgrades we've been holding off on,” Shrift replied, rushing around to make sure the cannon wouldn't hit anything.
“Get out the way you idiot, or you’re going to get hit,” Shrift said as people made a half move to get out of the way.
Eddie had his boot off and flying, hitting the nearest person being a nuisance.
“GIT!” He yelled as he sized up his other boot. Bout time they moved with a purpose, Eddie thought as they got out of the way and found different ways to get where they were going.
“That boot is rather useful,” Shrift said as Eddie huffed, pressing his retractor and the boot sailed back to him.
“Need to knock some sense into them somehow,” Eddie grumped.
“Watch it on the left side!” Shrift yelled as the cannon moved away from the wall.
“I'll be leavin yah to it!” Eddie said as Shrift waved him off.
Ever since Shrift's experience with reactor four the Kuruvian had been less than happy about working on a ship. He was less scared, but it was still there in him. Eddie had caught the way he cradled his prosthetic manipulator when they went near a reactor. An engineer who was scared of the machines he worked on wasn't good for anyone. Wariness of the machine was acceptable. These machines could blow up a small planet and take out the ship as fast as light. Being scared that everything would go wrong made you a liability. Fear of the possibilities while doing your job carefully would keep you alive.
Eddie hoped that Shrift would either get over his fear, or find a job that he could enjoy. He and Silly were like his sons. Eddie put the thoughts to the back of his neural centre. He walked towards the rigged communications systems Edwards had made. Rick wanted him to figure out who he'd been talking to and how he'd gotten access to what he needed.
***
Edwards wondered how Rick and his crew of buffoons had found out about his talking to the surface. It didn't matter anymore. He'd gotten rid of Salchar. Soon this fleet would be in chaos and the President would take control of the resources in Sol system. Leaving them to this collection of kids and aliens was not a possibility. Edwards sat in the brig a smile on his face. He would return to Earth with a battle Cruiser behind him. There were a number of people that he was sure could fill out a skeleton crew.
Everything was perfect. He knew what Marhtu was probably doing to Salchar and he didn't care. The kid thought he crapped gold. Edwards had been working undercover and manipulating people from the background and he was not someone to be dismissed easily. Carsickle had been smart enough to get to Edwards without tripping any but his last alarm. Edwards hoped that he'd destroyed enough of the communications system that he'd put together off of a plan he'd gotten in his private messages.
Thank you for the FTL network, Edwards thought as Carsickle walked into the brig. He was clearly annoyed. Edwards smiled, and the creature’s annoyance turned to anger. These people were too soft to torture him. All he had to do was wait this out and turn them down some errant roads for Marhtu to complete his side of the bargain.
“Opening door five,” someone said as Edwards cell opened. Carsickle took one of the strange seats that Chaleelian's used, lying down facing Edwards. Edwards thought it ridiculous.
Just like this man's planetary military. Maybe we should create strife within their government and then put a mission out to 'assist' them. We'd work out a contract to get food and keep their military out of the way. Win- win.
“You have been communicating with the enemy. As such your status as an emissary is nulled. We now have the ability to look through all of your communications and see who your other conspirators are. They too will be captured and charged. Do you have anything to say at this time?”
“How long did you think this little band of misfits would keep on working before someone who can turn it into a real military took over?” Edwards asked. Carsickle paused before saying anything.
“While this lot might be a bit unconventional, they need to be. I wanted to make the Free Fleet more militaristic. You know, saluting all the time, parades, and speeches. That stuff won't fly here. People who do that stuff are just kissing upwards,” Carsickle's ears twitched in lieu of a sigh.
“They have too much autonomy. Any of them could rise up at a given time. They haven't been properly molded into soldiers,” Edwards said as he leaned towards Carsickle.
“I can see that I'm not going to convince you otherwise,” Carsickle returned. “You will await transport back to Parnmal when the scouting fleet returns.” Carsickle stood and moved his chair back. “We will be stopping our protection of Earth and reconsidering our contract.”
Edwards crossed his arms and sat back in his chair.
Carsickle’s ear's twitched in disgust.
****
Things were a lot less calm in the conference room, where all the leadership was in a state of uproar that was equal parts unea and t
he feeling that he needed to act. Rick sat back, trying not to get into the fray as he let them exhaust themselves. He had learned from Salchar to sit back and see what the other commanders came up with. Salchar knew broad tactics, but he relied on his teams to fill in the blanks for him. He, Rick, and Henry had spent hours together to build up his vocabulary of military terms.
These people were used to action. Since they'd left their homes there had always been something to do. Now they were waiting as their leader was missing. There had been a transmission of Salchar meeting with different city leaders, as well as a personal message from him. But there had been no safe word and Resilient was coming up with flaws in the videos.
Bok Soo was also quiet as he waited. The Avarians seemed to be the loudest, not only because of their stature but their loyalty to their battle master. This has gone on long enough now.
Rick leaned forward as he cleared his throat. Nothing happened for a moment and Bok Soo spoke up.
“Silence!” he said, his voice thunderous even through the meeting system.
“Thank you,” Rick said, Bok Soo nodding to him.
“Now, I think we can assume that Salchar has been taken hostage, as well as his protection detail and the two relations teams.” Talking broke out and Rick silenced them with a glare.
“We do not leave our own behind. As such I have deemed that we will be preparing for a surgical assault on wherever Salchar is being held.” He sat back, all eyes clearly on him.
“We need to find out where they are being held. We cannot drop onto a planet and just start going house to house to find him. It will alert them to our intentions, allowing them to move our people or separate them. We have a cell on the surface that we will send a message to. We will get them to find the information for us. We will get our people back,”
“Who will command the fleet if Salchar is dead?” a ship commander asked.
“That's what we have a chain of command for,” Bok Soo drawled as the ship commander looked shame-faced.
“Till we have the information we need I want you to keep your people busy, but ready. We don't know when we'll get the information or how fast we'll have to react to any changes. Am I clear?” Rick asked.
He nodded as the room’s assent came back.
“Very well. Shrift also has some words on what we can do in our prep-time,”
“Thank you, Chief of Staff Rick. Now, every ship here has extra armaments in their storage lockers. We don't know what we'll be doing or when, but replacing the new weapons as well as shield generators will give whoever comes at us a little surprise. Some of you may know that there is a new standard armament system for each ship. If you haven't got it yet ask me. It's estimated that the implementation of the guide on each ship could improve its offensive and defensive capabilities by twenty percent. Any questions?”
Rick watched as Schrift answered questions. His thoughts were further away. He’d had the intelligence department send the operatives on Daestramus a transmission through their flight lights. Resilient said that it didn’t seem as if anyone on the planet had found it particularly suspicious. Rick hoped she was right.
****
It was the second time that Min Hae had been too late. The more he found out about Marhtu the more he regretted not telling Salchar to stay aboard Resilient. Gogs had found that the cushions that Overseer sat on were actually made from other creature's skin. The females in red were professional torturers, and the staff he kept were slaves. He'd submitted everyone around him to torture so intense and insidious that they could do nothing but obey him. Everything about him was made to emphasize his cruelty, power and control and no one was willing to cross him.
Without aid... But maybe I can do something about that.
Min Hae and his crew’s adventures into the bar's and darker corners of Daestramus had allowed them to garner a large base of contacts and a number of operatives who wanted to do something about their situation. Min Hae wasn't ready to use them yet. Once he gave them an opening they'd take it, but wasting people was a useless pursuit.
“Where the hell is he?” he muttered, Ulika who was manning comms and Gogs not saying anything as they continued their searches. It had been a full day since Resilient's message and still they had nothing.
No one seemed to know where Salchar and his protection detail had been taken. It looked like the Shadows were in charge of the whole operation. At least Min Hae now knew who controlled them.
Ulika said nothing, concentrating on working her contacts. Min Hae looked to Gogs, who'd barely left his station since they'd found out about the underground bunker system. It was nearly halfway mapped at this point.
“Alright, we need to switch off,” Min Hae said, hating the words he was saying. Yet knowing that they needed to be said.
“Gogs,” Min Hae said as he kept on working. Ulika was slowly disengaging from her systems. Min Hae sent a message to Baldabuh for him to take over.
Min Hae went to Gogs systems gently shaking him.
“C'mon. We need some rest. We're getting frustrated and getting nowhere,” Min Hae said, putting an arm over the console so Gogs couldn't see the screen.
“But they're there, I can find them!” Gogs said and Min Hae saw the pleading in’ the little creature’s eyes. He could see how much Gogs cared that no one was ever taken hostage. Min Hae never knew what happened to Gog's kidnapped nephew but he felt that Gogs was pushing himself to make sure the same fate didn't befall the Free Fleet people on the surface. Gogs wasn't strong or tough, but he was brilliant with technology. It was the one thing he could do to help these people where he couldn't help his nephew.
“Come on. The sooner you rest, the quicker you can find them,” Min Hae said, seeing how Gogs's eyes were cast downward as the relief crew came in. They conferred about what they had found out as the new crew got into the vacated chairs, continuing the search as Min Hae made sure Ulika and Gogs made it back to their cabins.
When he found Salchar he was going to resign, become a Commando. He wasn't any good at being chief of the intelligence department. He thought he'd made progress only to have a fleet attack Earth without warning Salchar, and then have Salchar and twelve Free Fleet personnel captured.
That is if he comes back, Min Hae thought, doubt creeping into his thoughts and fear creeping in with it. Salchar didn't know everything. He threw battle plans together from basics and had a lot of help from Rick and his other advisors. Yet the man had a drive that infected everyone around him. He believed in the people around him and pushed them forward. It was always a rollercoaster with Salchar. It seemed to never stop. But thinking of a Free Fleet without him was hard. I'll make sure it lives on, no matter what, Min Hae silently promised as he walked into his cabin. He would not let the greatest creation he knew of die here. Doing so would only show what a fool Salchar was.
Sometimes a strong headed fool who relies on his friends and a good poker face is what the universe needs to give it a swift kick.
Chapter - Breaking Point
Janice didn't know how long she'd been strung up for. There was nothing but pain. The drugs in her system wouldn't let her sleep and kept her in a constant state of feeling as her KaaOrv played her Orv over her body. She crunched in pain as her calf felt as if someone was putting it through a chipper. She felt something loosen on her right hand. The relief nearly made her pull against the loosened fixture.
No, hold out. She thought as Dalsee played the Orv over a nerve port.
Janice shrieked in pain as her lower body went through fluctuations of control and not, while her nerves went from numbing pain to expressive shrieking pain. The KaaOrv hadn't said much in the time she'd been working on Janice. There had been no demands or orders, just a steady stream of degrading comments. Just tell me how to make it stop. Janice mentally pleaded as she felt bile rise in her throat.
How can I think such things? I am a Free Fleet Commando, Salchar's personal guard. She drew strength from that, using the pain as a reminder of t
hat. Trying to not pull on the loosened fixture. She would have her freedom and she would burn down the bastards that had done this to her and her comrades. She had seen how the first relations team had died in agony. They had said anything to get out of being tortured.
Janice didn't feel hatred or anything negative for them. Everyone broke from being tortured. It was just a matter of time. She felt proud whenever they had misdirected their KaaOrv.
“You look perfect, my dear,” Dalsee said with a smile as she traced Janice's arms and nerves, leaving her in a state of continuous pain as she worked her Orv with painful precision.
“Good girl,” Dalsee said as she moved away. “Movie time now,” She said in a singsong voice as Janice tested the chain, the bolts from the roof were nearly off.
Nearly. She thought as she waited for Dalsee to come within arm’s reach.
Dalsee moved the view screen into position. Her attention being focused on that she didn't notice as Janice pulled on her chains. She turned as they came free from the ceiling. Dalsee raised her Orv as Janice put her arm around the other woman's neck and squeezed. The chain wrapped the two of them together, and Dalsee shrieked in pain as her raised Orv was driven into her stomach. Dalsee being a Slevarian flickered in a rainbow of colours. After a few seconds she stopped, slumping. The chains became tighter, digging into Janice's skin.
Janice felt around Dalsee's clothing, pressing a remote through the skins and she dropped to the floor as the chains released. Her muscles had atrophied over time and with the torments of the Orv, making co-ordinated movements hard. Freeing herself from the chain wrapping her to Dalsee she tried to stand. Her legs were too weak to allow her to. Tears rolled down her face at her inability as she grabbed the Orv and a mop that was used to clean up Dalsee’s work area.
Free Fleet #03 No Rest for the Wicked Page 17