Discovery (The Niakrim War Book 1)

by David J. VanBergen Jr.

"Have you reported this to Spiraculi yet?" Mitch asked.

  "No," Captain Wayde said, shaking his head. "I was hoping to have an explanation before I did."

  "I know what you mean," Mitch said with a smile. "He essentially called me crazy when I reported the attack on my ship. Maybe he will listen to you."

  "Maybe."

  "I will leave you to your report," Mitch said. "There’s someone I need to speak to. Kublai, get over to the transport ship and see if you can get any more information. Violet, Cyrus, see if you can find something in the database that was missed. Evidence of tampering, unknown readings, something...anything."

  THE BACKROOM at Mozzie's was empty other than Mitch and Mozzie himself. Two Vim security guards were posted outside and an experimental sound shield Mitch had recently acquired was sitting on the table between them.

  "I swear to you, Mitch, I had no idea they were going to attack IMF ships," Mozzie insisted. "Come on, you know me. I would never sell you out…or the IMF."

  Mitch looked at Mozzie, elbows on the table and his hands clasped under his chin. "I know," he said. "But this is something entirely new. The IMF has a lot of enemies, but none bold enough to attack directly. At least, not until now."

  "If they are bold enough for a move like this, we all have something to worry about," Mozzie agreed.

  "So what did they want?"

  "They brought their usual shipment of delicacies," Mozzie replied. "My chef created this dish that is out of this world. You really need to try it..."

  "Mozzie, back to the point!"

  "Oh, right. But instead of the usual terms, they wanted to deal in niakrim."

  Mitch raised an eyebrow. "Niakrim, huh?"

  "I dealt what I had, but that wasn't enough to satisfy them," Mozzie said. "For a moment, I thought things were going to get out of hand, but then they thanked me for what I had and left."

  "Hmm."

  "I know, it didn't sit right with me either," Mozzie said, looking around conspiratorially. "So I had them followed...and bugged."

  "Of course you did," Mitch laughed.

  "Now, it's not gonna transmit voices," Mozzie admitted. "Those are too easy to detect. It will transmit location, though, but only when it's pinged at the proper frequency. Very difficult to detect as it's completely inert except during the millisecond when it transmits location after being pinged."

  "Brilliant, Mozzie," Mitch said. "So where did they go?"

  MITCH WALKED through the shadier part of Proxima. He knew he should have brought Kublai, or at least one of his security officers, but that might have spooked his target. Besides, a man had to keep some things to himself.

  The building Mitch stepped into, a shop called Land of the Laux, was no different than any of a dozen galactic pawn shops on the strip...at least in outward appearances. There were display cases full of semi-valuable baubles from all corners of the galaxy, clothing racks of articles of questionable fashion, and shelves with other less valuable items of minimal interest.

  Behind the counter, a four-armed Ma'Chow man was sorting through jewelry, most likely knock-offs.

  "Laux, my friend," Mitch greeted loudly, startling the man, who dropped several pieces of jewelry.

  "Ahh, Mitch," the man replied as he scrambled with all four hands to slide everything he was examining into a drawer. "To what do I owe this pleasure? Looking for a trinket for a Geminorum mistress? I have just the thing."

  He wasn’t in the mood for banalities just then. "Cut the crap, Laux, I need to see Mattix," Mitch said as he slapped the counter. "Now!"

  "Okay, Mitch. You don't need to get nasty." Laux pushed a button and the counter he was working at slid to one side and the floor underneath slid the other. A stairway descended into the darkness below. A moment later, ancient fluorescent lights flickered on.

  As Mitch descended the rickety stairs, lights flickering, he couldn't help but feel he had been transported back in time. At the bottom of the stairs, a hallway stretched to the left and the right. He looked both directions then crossed the hallway, stopping in front of the wall. Then he stepped through the hologram. On the other side, four men sat around a table playing cards and smoking cigarettes.

  "What do you want?" A man with slicked back black hair and a thin black mustache sneered, his skinny arms accentuated by the white tank top he wore.

  Mitch looked across the room at the man, knowing he was far more dangerous than his appearance indicated. The heavily muscled men that looked at him for guidance were proof of that. "I need to speak with you about a client of yours," Mitch said calmly. "It's important."

  The man smiled wickedly. "So the infamous Captain Mitch Cooper needs little old Mattix to save the day."

  In a flash, Mitch stepped forward and kicked the chair out from under the man closest to him. At the same time, he reached forward with both hands, grabbed the men on each side by the backs of their heads and slammed them into the table. He turned around as the first man was getting to his feet and slammed his fist into his jaw, sending him back to the ground.

  When he turned back to the table, Mattix looked back at Mitch, far less certain of himself now that all three of his bodyguards were unconscious. "As I said, this is important."

  "What-whatever you say, Mitch."

  "I need to know about the aliens you dealt with yesterday," Mitch said. "Who are they? What did they want?"

  "I don't know who they are," Mattix insisted. "They wore hooded robes. Their faces were in the shadows. I didn't even speak with them. They had a translator droid who did all the talking."

  "So what did you sell them?"

  "Information, that's all," Mattix said. "They wanted to know about niakrim deposits."

  "You sold them niakrim deposits," Mitch roared.

  "Calm down," Mattix said, patting both hands in the air. "I didn't sell them your deposits. Just a couple small ones that aren't worth your time."

  "Give me the coordinates."

  "I can't do that," Mattix insisted. "They don't seem like the kind of people that would take kindly to me selling their deposits a second time."

  Mitch pointedly looked at the three unconscious bodyguards. "Do I look like the kind of man who's gonna leave here without the coordinates?"

  "No," Mattix said dejectedly. He pulled a pen out of his pocket and wrote the coordinates on one of the cards scattered across the table. When he was done, he slid it across the table to Mitch.

  Mitch looked at the card and smiled. The ace of spades. "Thanks, Mattix. I knew I could count on you."

  CHAPTER 7

  "DID YOU LEARN ANYTHING USEFUL?" Mitch asked as he strode onto the bridge of the Krim Sprinter.

  "Same story on the other ship," Kublai reported. "The ship appeared out of nowhere, boarded the ship, and kidnapped the warp engineer."

  "Any casualties?"

  "Fortunately, no," Kublai responded. "It was a cargo ship. They didn't put up much of a fight."

  "Good," Mitch acknowledged. "Cyrus, Violet, did you learn anything?"

  "Nothing, sir," Cyrus reported. "They were in the process of starting a scan when they were boarded. The scan never initiated."

  "Other than the holes in the ship, it was like they were never there," Violet added.

  "Do we at least have a description?"

  "No, sir," Kublai told him. "The best we got was from Captain Wayde, and all he could tell us was they were hooded, impervious to phaser blasts, and they carried ancient weapons."

  "Sounds like a Sith."

  "What's that, Lieutenant?"

  "Nothing, just a joke," Violet smiled sheepishly. "Just something from an old movie."

  "I don't care where it came from," Mitch said. "If it's helpful, speak up."

  "Definitely not helpful," Violet said. "Sorry for interrupting."

  Mitch looked at her for a moment before returning to the problem at hand. "It sounds like we don't know much about them," he said. "But I think I know where they're going."

  "How's that?" Cyrus asked.<
br />
  "Let's just say I've got an ace up my sleeve," Mitch said with a smile as he handed the playing card to Cyrus. "Bring up those coordinates on the star chart."

  Cyrus just shook his head and punched in the coordinates scrawled on the playing card. A moment later, a star chart of the quadrant popped up on the forward viewing screen with three white dots. "They're relatively close, Captain. The closest is no more than a week away."

  "What about outposts?" Mitch asked. "Sanctioned ITC outposts as well as any underground establishments."

  Cyrus punched a few buttons and a dozen red dots appeared along with three blue ones.

  "How many of the underground outposts are common knowledge?"

  "About half of them are known to most smugglers," Cyrus said. "The other half are known to only a few. Two of them, we just learned about ourselves."

  "Just show the ITC outposts and any of the underground outposts that are large enough to deal in niakrim."

  All but two of the red dots disappeared. "Show our position now." A green dot appeared on the screen.

  Mitch walked closer to the screen and studied it for a moment. "I'll bet our next niakrim haul that this is where they're going." Mitch traced a line from the Krim Sprinter through four outposts, two underground and two ITC, to the closest niakrim deposit.

  "They've already got a head start on us," the captain said. "We're gonna have to fly long shifts. You up for an all-nighter, Cyrus?"

  "Always, Captain."

  "Good, I'll talk with Belzaire. Be ready to leave in thirty minutes."

  VIOLET SPENT the thirty minutes she had connected to the ITC security database. Before her assignment on the Krim Sprinter, she had been given Alpha-2 level clearance which gave her access to virtually any classified information in the system. Her security clearance was only exceeded by her great-uncle and Admiral Ablack, head of the Intergalactic Military Force. She shivered just thinking about the admiral. He was not a pleasant man to be around.

  She started her search in the alien species database. From previous experience, Violet knew there were dozens, if not hundreds, of alien species that were not known to the general public. Some of them would cause galaxy-wide panic if the public knew about them, her uncle had told her. Fortunately, most of them lacked the technology or size to cause any real problems.

  After twenty minutes of searching the alien species database, Violet had found nothing that matched the limited descriptions they had received from the crews of the Enforcer and the cargo ship. With only a few minutes until the ship left the space station and her connection to the ITC database would be severed, she switched the focus of her search to warp technology.

  She quickly skimmed through the general information about warp technology and drilled down into the origins of it for ITC ships. If she could learn more about that, she might be able to figure out how another civilization could have gotten it.

  The information displayed was common knowledge. An alien race that subsequently became known as the Jabuka had crashed into the mountains. Their technology was harvested—and reproduced—and the Intergalactic Trade Federation was born. She typed in the name Aleksi Prozorski, distant relative who was one of the original scientists to study Jabuka technology. She was interrupted before any information pulled up.

  "Five minutes until departure," a voice suddenly boomed over the intercom. "All personnel report to your stations immediately."

  "So much for learning more about warp technology," Violet muttered to herself.

  As she returned to the console to log off, she was startled by a flashing message on the screen that she had never seen before.

  ACCESS DENIED. YOUR ATTEMPT TO ACCESS CLASSIFIED INFORMATION HAS BEEN RECORDED.

  THE KRIM SPRINTER raced through the galaxy faster than Violet thought possible. And it wasn't just because they had flown for twenty-four hours straight now. She wasn't an expert at reading star charts, but she was relatively certain that they were moving faster than warp three, which was theoretically the fastest speed a ship could travel.

  The first time they stopped was in the Solari 421 System. Seven planets orbited a nearly dark star. A small moon orbited the second planet and was home to a small smuggler's outpost without a dock that could handle a ship as large as the Krim Sprinter, which wasn't really all that large.

  "Kublai, prepare the landing shuttle," Mitch ordered once Cyrus had established orbit around the moon. "Cyrus, you and Belzaire get some rest. Unless we get some unexpected information down below, we're back into warp in two hours."

  Two hours later, they were back in warp, chasing the mysterious enemy that was still almost a full day ahead of them. For the next thirty-six hours, the Krim Sprinter continued traveling through the galaxy faster than any known ship.

  Violet's presence wasn't required on the bridge the entire time, but she found it hard to sleep. It wasn't that she didn't trust Cyrus, but a tired pilot was prone to making mistakes and it only took a small mistake when traveling at warp speed to kill everyone on board.

  When they finally reached the smuggler's outpost on the ninth planet in the Solari 287 System, Violet was exhausted. While Kublai and the captain took the shuttle into the mountains on the hot and nearly-inhospitable planet, she took the opportunity to sleep, just like Cyrus and Belzaire.

  Three hours later, when Mitch and Kublai returned to the ship, Violet was back on the bridge but far from refreshed. Cyrus, on the other hand, seemed ready to fly for another two days.

  "We're gaining on them," Mitch announced when he returned to the bridge. "Cyrus, I want us back in warp as soon as Belzaire is ready."

  "Yes, sir. It should only be a few minutes."

  "Good," Mitch said. "I'm going to get some sleep. Wake me before we get to the Promethius System. I don't want a surprise waiting for us at Promethius Prime."

  PROMETHIUS PRIME WAS one of the most beautiful planets Violet had ever seen. It had a very Earth-like appearance and a similar climate. The sky was purple in color and the wispy pink clouds gave it the look of an eternal sunset. The Krim Sprinter landed several hundred kilometers from Proctar, the largest city on the planet, and the officers and security crew boarded the shuttlecraft.

  Despite the beauty, there was a high level of tension in the shuttle as it soared through the planet's atmosphere toward the settlement that was home to the ITC outpost. They had been unable to make contact and given the potential presence of an aggressive alien ship, that was troubling.

  "Take the ship down," the captain suddenly ordered just as they got their first look at Proctar.

  At first, Violet didn't see anything wrong, but as she studied the city on the horizon, she realized the city's huge communications tower had collapsed and wisps of smoke could be seen coming from the star port.

  "Now we know why we couldn't communicate," Mitch said to no one in particular. "Everyone gear up. We go the rest of the way on foot."

  Now we're getting into what I expected, Violet thought to herself, jittery with nervous excitement. It was finally time for her first expedition on an alien planet.

  The atmosphere on Prometheus Prime was similar to Earth but contained less oxygen. The ten kilometer hike through mountainous terrain was going to be strenuous, though, so they each carried a small oxygen tank and an oxygen supplementation mask. In addition to that, they each carried a weapon…or in Kublai's case, several. Violet chose a blaster, feeling more comfortable with a rifle than with a handheld phaser.

  "This planet is generally hospitable, but you never know what you'll run into in the wilderness," Mitch told the crew before they disembarked. "Keep your eyes and ears open."

  "Yes, sir," the crew replied in unison.

  "And whatever you do, step carefully. I haven't been on a planet yet that doesn't have a dozen kinds of snakes that can kill you," Mitch said, then added with a smile, "Sometimes I think that was God's original method of population control."

  Undeterred by the potential danger, Violet marched out of the shuttle
with her head held high, both hands on her rifle. Finally, time for my first space adventure.

  An hour later and less than half way to the settlement, her enthusiasm had waned considerably. She sat on a rock with her elbows on her knees, head hanging low, trying to catch her breath after removing her mask so she could cool down.

  "Nasty buggers, aren't they," Dak said with a smile as he sat on a rock next to her. "I'd rather do without the oxygen supplementation than have to wear that mask."

  Violet looked up, surprised to see a man who was apparently completely unaffected by the hike and low oxygen levels. His hair even appeared to be perfectly combed. She ran her hands through her sweat-soaked hair, suddenly feeling self-conscious. "How do you do it?"

  "I'm not human," he said with a smile. "At least not entirely. My great-great-grandmother was Aus’Ti. Got the stamina of a bull."

  Violet looked at him, expecting Dak to start laughing. Instead, he just winked at her.

  "Oh," was all she could say.

  "Most people don't know," he said. "I have gone to great lengths to make sure my heritage isn't known. You wouldn't believe how much harder it can be for someone of mixed ancestry. The IMF is always questioning your loyalty—as if I was gonna sell out the human race because I'm one-sixteenth Aus’Ti."

  "I had no idea," she said. "I'm sorry you have had to deal with that."

  "No worries," he assured her. "Now that you know my secret, why don't you tell me yours?"

  "What do you mean?" Violet asked, suddenly on edge.

  "Everyone's got a secret," he said with a smile. "I want to know how a beautiful young woman like yourself winds up on the crew of the most notorious ship in the fleet."

  "Oh," Violet said, losing the edge. "I guess I'm just a space nerd who used her influence to get what she wanted."

  Violet was glad that the captain called an end to their break before the conversation could go any further. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy talking with Dak, he was quite handsome and intriguing, she just didn't want any more questions about why—or how—she wound up on the Krim Sprinter.