by Kal Spriggs
Lieutenant Commander Capdepon looked up, "It's a mixed bag, sir. There's a number of cargo ships we've impounded, either for carrying stolen goods or because their own records show them operating as slavers. We can use some of those, but most of the civilians we've rescued have no desire to return to their home colonies. Most of the ships we seized don't have the legs to get very far on their own."
"Having seen what passes as a senior officer here, I can imagine why they'd want to leave the system," Daniel grunted. "Okay, so what about the other vessels?"
"There's a dozen of the transports we've seized, but there's another twenty or so ships who we could possibly seize for conspiracy," Lieutenant Commander Capdepon said. "They haven't done anything really illegal, beyond selling goods at a port frequented by pirates and slavers."
Daniel shook his head, "That's not a good precedent to set. We want free traders like that to see us as the good guys, to remember that we protected them when we took the station..." He frowned, "their ships have better range?"
"Most of them, yes sir," his XO nodded. "Three or four of them could probably make Nova Roma, even with a cargo of passengers."
"Charter them," Daniel said after a moment of thought. "Tell them we could seize their ships, but instead we're going to offer them a choice transport job, five percent above the normal cost with a bonus for swift delivery. Any of the people who want a ticket to the United Colonies, we put aboard those ships, the ships get paid upon delivery. Anyone who wants to go elsewhere..." he consulted his ships discretionary funds. They could probably afford it, but he'd need to answer for the use of those funds after the voyage. "Anyone who wants a trip elsewhere, we can cover that too, within reason."
"Sir?"
"We're going to piss off the Centauri Confederation no matter what we do," Daniel shrugged. He held up a hand as his XO started to protest, "It doesn't matter that we stopped a bunch of criminals and that we uncovered corrupt officers in their forces. It doesn't matter that we can prove all that. What matters is we came into one of their star systems and made them look bad. They've already got a bone to pick with us over bringing Halcyon into the United Colonies. They know that we don't like how they've seized Volaterra and Lavinium. This is going to look like a slap in the face and their media is going to play it up that way."
Daniel shrugged, "In a perfect world, we'd get a pat on the back and commendations... but in a perfect world, they wouldn't be corrupt enough that a system commander was on a crime family's payroll." He waved a hand, "Now, what else have we got?"
"We seized fifteen military or paramilitary vessels. Most of Tomas Kanreich's people stood down when they couldn't contact him, so we seized the majority of their people and assets without a fight," Lieutenant Commander Capdepon replied. "It'll probably be weeks or months before our intelligence people are finished going over all the data we've received... but one thing is clear, however..."
He transferred a file over to Daniel's display. "This is a series of weapon shipments from Willy Pye. It seems that he's been supplying weapons and equipment in bulk to a mystery client, weapons and equipment that he acquired from the Slivko Crime Family."
"Okay..." Daniel frowned as he considered the data. The shipments looked to be mostly weapons, armor, and military-grade environmental suits. It took him a long moment to notice the correlation. "These highlighted items were found aboard Porax Station?"
"Yes sir, and the ones below that correlate to shipments intercepted by Shogunate forces," his XO pointed out.
Daniel gave a low whistle, "You mean to tell me that this pirate alliance had a mole... and he was selling weapons to Reese?"
"That or else through some cutout to one of Reese Leone's people, yes, sir," Lieutenant Commanded Capdepon nodded.
Daniel shook his head, "Tell me we have something to go on?"
"We may, sir," Lieutenant Commander Capdepon nodded, "One of Pye's transports is set to depart sometime in the next few days to drop off a shipment. We may be able to intercept the buyers."
Daniel nodded. Interception and capture would be good. Following them back to their base would be better. This might be the break we needed... he thought to himself.
He just hoped that Reese's people didn't know about the attack yet.
***
"Thank you for delivering Tomas Kanreich to my custody," Kapitan Langsdorff said, his voice oddly tense. "Unfortunately, my force has been recalled to Tau Ceti. There has been a number of questions asked about the legality of our operation here."
Daniel's eyebrows went up, "Recalled?" He didn't like the sound of that.
"Yes," Langsdorff gave a resigned smile, "sometimes politics can interfere in realms military. A political element of our Unity Party has seized upon the attack here as a flagrant disregard for our Rules of Engagement, where we are to coordinate all activities through those system governments whose space we operate in."
Daniel frowned, "But then they'd have warned the pirates we were coming."
"That is," Langsdorff replied, "I'm afraid, part of why they would wish us to do so. The Unity Party does not want conflict. They do not understand that pirates and terrorists will continue to do what they want until they are confronted with force." He shrugged, "Though I admit, your use of missiles and antimatter warheads despite your agreement to avoid such use has given them plenty of ammunition in that regard. I am given to understand that there will be an inquiry and I will have to testify. Should your investigation turn up the location of Reese Leone, I will attempt to ensure that my forces are made available."
"Thank you, Kapitan zur Weltraum," Daniel said.
"No," Langsdorff responded, "thank you. Tomas Kanreich was a scourge and now he will face a public trial and imprisonment for his crimes." He nodded once more and then gave Daniel a crisp salute. "Go with honor, Senior Captain Beeson." He cut the transmission.
"Well, that sucks," Lieutenant Commander Capdepon said softly.
Daniel nodded. With the Tanis Defense Force sitting on the sideline along with Admiral Collae, that only left the Shogunate forces as close allies and support. He glanced at Lieutenant Giovanni, who he'd invited to observe the meeting. "Any idea how this might shape a potential future alliance?"
She shrugged, "Not really, sir. I haven't studied much about Centauri Confederation politics in general, much less specifically about Tau Ceti. Sorry I can't be more helpful."
"Not your fault," Daniel said. The ongoing civil war in the Centauri Confederation changed on a regular basis, with the only constants being that Tau Ceti and Centauri systems were on opposing sides... most of the time. Individual planets and colonies switched sides seemingly at random and the "liberty" that the Tau Ceti Separatists stood for seemed a vague and ill-defined thing. The bizarre rules and regulations that seemed to cripple their military made Daniel wonder if perhaps the United Colonies wouldn't be better off without them, after all.
"Alright," Daniel said, "we've got a weapons shipment to intercept. Hopefully we'll have more luck there."
They had a fourteen day voyage to Luyten’s Star. With the delicacy of the operation, he just hoped that they'd finally gain intelligence on the location of Reese's base.
***
Alannis stepped onto the lift next to a pair of Marines in conversation. She wasn’t really paying much attention, but she had no choice but to listen as the lift doors closed.
“Yeah,” the first Marine said, “I can’t believe my daughter is twelve. The years really fly by, you know?”
“My son’s enlisting next year,” the older Marine replied. “Yeah, trust me, I know.” The two of them continued to talk, but a realization washed over Alannis so hard that for a moment it was all she could do not to sway on her feet.
Alannis missed her son. She wanted nothing so much as to hold him in her arms and to hear his soft snores as he slept. She longed for the times that she'd spent with him, on her breaks from the Academy. When she got home, if she got home, she needed to spend more time with him.
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She'd been headed for the gym, but as the lift doors opened, she waited as the Marines got off and then hit the destination as her quarters, instead. They didn't send personal messages via the ship's ansible, in part as a security measure, but she could send a personal message on the next dispatch.
It seemed to take her forever to get back to her quarters. Her hands trembled a bit as she opened the hatch and then sat down at her desk. She pulled out her datapad and brought up the recording software. "Hi, Anthony. It's your mother," she began. "I know it's been a few months, I just wanted to tell you that I really miss you. I know that things have been difficult, but I promise that this is the last big mission I have, and then hopefully I'll be headed home."
She felt tears well up but she blinked them away, "Your Uncle Lucius says you've been doing very well at your studies. I can't wait to spend some time with you. Take care, and I love you."
She could barely see the screen as she ended the recording.
She wiped at the tears in her eyes. Alannis didn't know why the two Marines discussion hit her so hard... but she felt the oddest sense of foreboding.
Alannis had come here to find Reese, to make him pay for his crimes. Yet some part of her shivered as she considered the fact that she'd be killing her ex-husband and the father of her child. Yet what choice did she have? Reese was far too dangerous to allow to go free. She had no other option.
Like the other choices she might have had, Reese had taken those away.
***
Sidewinder waited patiently as the civilian freighters dropped into the upper atmosphere of the gas giant.
Chen-Lung Station hung in the gas giant’s clouds, held aloft by the atmospheric buoyancy and hydrogen-powered fusion drives. Those drives created a massive thermal bloom and the ionized gasses coming from it fed the electromagnetic storm that also kept it hidden from the authorities. The station serviced a number of independent and pirate vessels, in particular, this convoy of which Sidewinder had identified several vessels as possibilities for support of the human called Reese Leone.
Ideally, Sidewinder's people could have seized the ships and gone through their logs to find his target... but so far that had proven fruitless. The humans had multi-tiered security measures in place, so that even if Sidewinder were to capture crew alive for interrogation, they often either didn't know the information he wanted or they'd been conditioned so that no manner of mental compulsion or even physical torture could get the information he required.
Sidewinder would have to settle for hurting the humans. They needed the fuel here at the station, so he would make certain that they didn't get it.
As the convoy drew near, he signaled his waiting vessels. Six of his destroyers hovered in the atmosphere, kept invisible by the storm and the powerful electromagnetic discharges.
They opened fire in perfect synchronization. If their ships had used the powerful main beams, they would have gutted six of the thirty-ship convoy. Instead, they fired the dispersed beams, each ship firing dozens of beams at specific targets on the human freighters.
Universally those ships lost power as the hits damaged or destroyed their reactors. Two of them exploded, but the others began to fall, systems and drives offline as they tumbled into the gas giant's depths.
Disappeared as if they never existed, Sidewinder thought with satisfaction. He spared not a moment of pity for the human crews, trapped as they plummeted to their deaths. They were an inferior species and now that he had been further enhanced, he knew just how dangerous they were, not in themselves but for what they could cause.
Engage the station, he directed. The other four vessels of his force opened fire. Their shots ripped apart the buoyancy tanks and fusion drive pods on one side of the station. As the station began to list, they waited, watching as the station's panicked crews fought to save their doomed station. A handful rushed to a shuttle pad and Sidewinder waited until they boarded their escape craft before he ordered it destroyed.
The station began its slow fall into the gas giant's depths and Sidewinder and his vessels waited patiently until he sensed all humans aboard had perished.
The strike would set a precedent. No one would know what had happened, whether it was an accident or deliberate attack. Word would get out and humans would be thrown into confusion. In that confusion, he might learn the whereabouts of his prey.
In the meantime, Sidewinder ordered his ships to rise out of the storm. They had other targets to hit.
***
Minder greeted his daughter, "Welcome, I'd like to go over the latest estimates that you sent." What is your take on the Alpha Canis Majoris system attack?
His daughter smiled, "Well, father, I think the numbers really speak for themselves. But the defense expenditures are going to climb as we continue to build up our military forces." Though we hoped for higher casualties, she replied mentally, the outcome is much as you anticipated. Our agents in the system government have stirred the appropriate levels of nationalism and paranoia. Tau Ceti has already recalled their ships in order to testify in front of their Senate.
"Well, we'll have to find the money somewhere," Minder said. It amused him to lead this double life, in that all of his wealth and power was merely a front for his true nature... and that the power he wielded from behind the scenes dwarfed his apparent power.
His people had infiltrated the government of Tau Ceti, just as they had the government of the Centauri system. He didn't control everyone, but he had enough of his kind in important positions of the military, government, and industry that if he wanted to, he could bring their political and economic processes to a grinding halt.
The ongoing civil war served his purpose, pitting the most technologically advanced humans against one another in a fashion that robbed them of any moral standing to the rest of the human race. The occasional atrocity on either side only furthered that cause... and now he had an opportunity to bring the United Colonies and their allies into that war.
"There may be some cost savings in going the route of shared development with some of our weapons buyers," his daughter said. Sidewinder has reported that he's hit a number of independent stations and colonies along the edge of the core systems, his daughter reported. I have not yet learned of any leads on the location of Reese Leone's base, nor the identity of his backers.
"I can't say I'm eager to share any of our secrets," Minder replied. The fact that no humans had stepped forward to volunteer the location of Reese Leone bothered Minder more than anything. Decades of his work had proven to him that humans were fickle and self-interested. Normally there would be dozens of humans eager to sell Reese out... yet Sidewinder and his other agents had turned up nothing. "Still, if that's the only way," Minder made his human face smile, "I suppose we don't have much choice."
We need to prepare for a potential attack on the Temple of Light, he told his daughter. Order Sidewinder to station a force in the system. Should anyone attack, they should focus their efforts on eliminating any attempt to access the Enforcer Station.
With the limits of communication and the necessity to remain concealed, they probably wouldn't be able to stop access to the Temple itself, but that was a secondary threat. Control of the Enforcer Station would allow for their every effort to be put at risk. At least Reese Leone can't know the full potential and purpose of the Temple of Light.
"I'll see to the preparations, father," his daughter said.
He waited for her to depart and then opened his mind to his other subordinates. Most of them were far weaker --barely sapient-- tools that had minimal self-awareness beyond their tasks and purposes. It was a moment's effort to give them direction. He could not allow this potential point of conflict with the United Colonies to pass. Even if it didn't lead to outright war between the Centauri Confederation and the United Colonies, it would still provide an added layer of tension that he could use to provoke a possible war.
It wasn't in the nature of his species to need rest or to take breaks, but
for just a moment, Minder regretted that. His labors had continued unabated for decades. Even as his outward appearance took vacations, inside he continued to monitor his agents and work towards his goals. Even should he be victorious, his task would not end... not without the destruction of humanity.
And I can't have that, he told himself within the privacy of his own mind, for if they are destroyed then I would have no further purpose and my species would no longer have a need of me or the rest of my kind.
***
Chapter XIV
Location Unknown
March 1, 2410
Forrest took a deep breath as the guards opened the door. As always, this was when they were at the highest alert. They called the prisoners forward, a few at a time and Forrest and the others followed their directions as they got to the hallway.
In the corridor, they moved along in a line, and Forrest monitored their progress. The squad of guards was the most extended as the last few prisoners came out of the prison barracks. At that point, there were still four guards inside the doors, two more in the hallway just outside, and the other six were spread along the long line of prisoners.
That was when Forrest made his move.
As he came up next to the nearest guard, he stumbled and started to fall. As he did so, he drew the shank that he had formed from one of the plastic spoons they ate with. He popped to his feet as the guard stepped forward and drove the shank up into the guard's inner thigh, near his groin.
As the man tumbled back with a shout, Forrest scrabbled to pull the guard's rifle away.
He heard shouts as some of the other prisoners reacted, some rushing other guards and others ducking for cover. Forrest brought his stolen rifle up as he saw the guards around the doorway begin to react.
The other prisoners reacted in time, though, rushing the guards as they tried to bring their weapons around. One of them got a couple shots off, the noise muffled by the bodies and the close confines of the corridor. Hopefully no one heard that, Forrest thought.