Al stooped beside one of the bodies and came up holding a plastic card. ‘Thankfully we may not need to find out.’ He swiped the card over a reader set beside the door and it levered away from them revealing what looked like a large computer room beyond.
‘Can you seal it?’
‘I do not believe so.’
‘Damn.’ Slipping Racine into her holster, Aneka held out her hands. ‘Give me that canon and go plug in.’ With the gun in hand, she positioned herself beside the door and waited while Al set about connecting into the system.
Guards appeared at the end of the corridor, but after the first couple fell to a hail of needles, the remainder held back out of sight. Aneka watched, knowing that they would be bringing up heavier weapons, perhaps some form of force screen they were hoping would withstand the gun. Hurrying Al would get them nowhere, however. It was going to take as long as it took.
‘Aneka,’ Gwy’s voice came over their comms with an urgent tone, ‘I am detecting three aircraft flying in this direction.’
‘You’ve got rid of our passengers?’
‘I have. Do you wish me to engage the targets?’
‘Stay cloaked and quiet. We may need to take them out before we leave, but not yet.’
‘I have located the data we require,’ Al said. ‘Downloading to internal storage now. I estimate ninety seconds to completion.’
‘The aircraft will arrive around that time,’ Gwy responded. ‘Initial identification suggests one gunship and two troop transports.’
Aneka frowned. ‘Damn it… All right, take them out before they can put troops on the ground and prepare for evac. Al, get the bombs placed.’ The guards had to be waiting for the new troops to arrive, which was good. The issue was whether they would attempt any preparatory work before that failed to happen.
The answer came just as Al unplugged from the computers. Three smoke grenades bounced down the corridor blocking infrared reception as well as vision. ‘Hot smoke,’ Aneka said. ‘They’re expecting reinforcements. How are those aircraft, Gwy?’
‘The gunship just went down,’ Gwy replied. ‘It got a shot off, but my shields were sufficiently resilient. I am taking small arms fire.’
‘Return fire, but aim for suppression. We’ll be out shortly.’ Aneka handed the machine gun back to Al and pulled Racine. Two plasma rounds left trails in the smoke and the detonations were visible even through the thick, white fog. ‘Let’s move.’
There was no more resistance, but the air outside the building stank of ozone as Gwy’s gamma-ray laser turrets flashed out in the direction of men hiding behind whatever cover they could find. The small ship settled to the ground inside the wall and Aneka and Al ran for the opening hatch.
‘I’ll transfer the data to Gwy as soon as we get in,’ Al said as they ran. ‘There was quite a lot concerning Ella and Captain Kade. A disquieting amount, in fact.’
‘You’ve got us a location for Haven though?’
‘I am not certain, but it has to be in there. I located over twenty terabytes of data.’
‘Right. Gwy, immediate lift-off once we’re in. Get us into space and hit the warp drives as soon as possible. Once we’re out of this system we can pause and plot a proper course.’
‘Understood, Aneka. I can do that while Cassandra and Al are “hugging.”’
‘You said that with far too much sarcasm, young lady-ship.’
‘I must have been spending too much time around you.’
04.12.559 FSC.
‘We should arrive on the twelfth,’ Gwy said as their course through the galaxy was displayed over the cabin ceiling. Not that it made a lot of difference; they were on their way and that was what mattered.
‘Great,’ Aneka replied, looking up from the bed. ‘Hopefully we can catch up with her before she goes off somewhere else.’
‘That,’ Al said, ‘may be difficult. We have uncovered the Pinnacle’s plan and it will result in Ella and Kade heading for another target rather quickly.’
‘Should we head straight there?’
‘It is possible we may intercept them at Haven, and if not we should be able to overtake them.’
‘Okay, what’s this plan?’
‘It’s going to sound silly,’ Gwy predicted. ‘It’s really over-complicated and I’m amazed it seems to be working.’
‘They have been working on dropping hints that they will be attacking a world called Iyonvrie for some time,’ Al explained. ‘The world has effective defences and a lot of resources. They do actually want to capture it, but the timescales, as far as we can tell, are quite long. They have been suggesting a more immediate assault and have indicated that they are stockpiling antimatter warheads at a nearby border station. There are records suggesting that they even dropped hints about this attack in front of Ella while she was on Ariadne.’
‘I’d imagine Kade might want to stop that, and getting her hands on that kind of ordnance would be worth some risk too,’ Aneka said.
‘The Pinnacle’s psychological profile of her suggests that you are correct. They believe she has been gathering intelligence on the station and trying to keep up with news on the attack. They are now ready to spring their trap. Word has been sent that the attack is imminent, which means that Kade will need to move quickly. They knew she would be in the Ariadne system looking for information while Ella was there and ordered that all efforts be made to get the two together.’
‘Why? I don’t get that part.’
‘Because Kade’s ship has a Xinti cloak and she would be likely to notice the trap when she arrived there. They would not have time to do sufficient damage to her vessel before she could escape. So they planted a remotely triggered beacon device under Ella’s skin. A signal from the station will trigger it as soon as they exit warp, and then they lock on and open fire.’
‘But how do they know Ella will be here?’
‘They don’t, but they believe that Ella will want to see the attack stopped, as well as having other motivations to go, and they believe Kade will want Ella involved because she will be attempting to ally herself with Shadataga.’
‘Their psychological and sociometric analysis seems sound,’ Cassandra put in. ‘I am actually quite impressed with the level of detailed manipulation involved.’
‘Huh,’ Aneka grunted. ‘So if we can’t stop them, they’ll be flying right into a trap.’
‘Indeed,’ Al agreed, ‘but there is more. They are busy arranging for news of Ella’s involvement in an act of piracy to come to light. It may not have much sway back home, but it will make things harder for us among the worlds around Pinnacle space.’
‘Politics,’ Aneka growled. ‘I hate politics. All right, let’s stop this before it gets out of hand.’
‘I think we may be a little late for that. Something tells me that this is only going to get more complicated, and worse, before it gets better.’
12.12.559 FSC.
‘All right,’ Aneka said as they dropped out of warp, ‘what do we have?’
‘I have catalogued over forty energy signatures,’ Gwy said. The star field on the flight deck was suddenly decorated with markers. ‘Haven is a colony built around converted asteroids. I am gathering more detailed information as we speak, but the largest occupied rock is this one.’ One of the markers glowed brighter as she spoke and a thought from Aneka zoomed the image in to show the target in more detail.
‘Docking gantries. Is that a bay door?’
‘Probably.’
‘It’s rotating. Spin gravity. Which is kind of low-tech, but energy efficient. Okay… Let’s get in closer and observe. That looks like the best place to go hunting, at least initially, but we should make a more thorough assessment first. Look out for radio traffic. See if you can identify Kade’s ship.’
‘There is the possibility that they have already left,’ Gwy pointed out.
‘I know. Get a course plotted for that border station. Hopefully, if they have gone, we aren’t too far behind.’
Aneka grinned at the AI’s image. ‘You’re just the most awesome ship in the galaxy, Gwy.’
‘Second most awesome. Aggy is the most awesome.’
‘I bet she would agree with me.’
‘Why yes, she would. But she is blinded by adoration.’
Pirate Cove, Haven.
‘Pirate Cove? Seriously?’
‘That is what the inhabitants appear to call it,’ Al replied. ‘Your gun will not be remarked upon and I believe that eschewing your jacket was a wise move. From our analysis of the message traffic between asteroids, you are not exactly a good exemplar of a pirate, but close enough.’
Aneka glanced down at her unitard and boots. The former of those was a new fabrication which she had made precisely because she was hoping to see Ella again. It had a slight translucency to it, just enough to give a hint of the body beneath. Ella had always liked dressing her in that kind of clothing and Aneka was going back to that style to indicate that there were no hard feelings about Devor. She was still expecting her redhead to go on a guilt trip, but that they could work through. The fact that this outfit suggested that she was pirate crew made her wonder just what kind of pirates she was dealing with.
‘The kinky variety, obviously,’ Al put in.
Shaking her head, Aneka stepped out of the shadows and into the open, park-like area which she had found once Al had hacked his way through the airlock controls.
‘It looks nice enough,’ Aneka commented.
The park itself was primarily grass, but there were a few trees, most of them belonging to species Aneka did not recognise. This section was a strip surrounded on three sides by structures which were likely housing. She could also see structures further around the ring which had the straight rows of more cultured growing practices; it seemed likely that those belonged to hydroponics plants supplying fresh vegetables to the station, and maybe to other stations as well. Above them, looking past the central hub area which seemed industrialised, Aneka could see denser, rather less wholesome-looking structures.
‘What’s the population here?’
‘Thirteen thousand, estimated.’
‘Somehow I’d expect to see more people in the park.’ There were not large numbers on the grass. There were enough to suggest being there was not against whatever rules the place had, but there were not that many, and none of them were children.
‘Perhaps there is more activity in the core section.’
‘Maybe, but we’ll do this systematically. We’ll go through this area and then head into the other ring when we’ve got the feel of this one. Gwy? Are you getting anything?’
‘Not of specific interest,’ the ship replied. ‘I am still getting no indication that any of the vessels here are Captain Kade’s, though several appear to be pirate ships. I have succeeded in tapping into their main network, however. Cassandra and I are searching through it now.’
‘It seems to have been created by a committee of idiots,’ Cassandra added. ‘There’s little organisation. The structure is haphazard at best. I believe the leadership of this place is relatively undisciplined. Be careful.’
Aneka allowed herself a smile. ‘From what I’m seeing, there’s nothing much here that can give me more than a scratch. The tech is as haphazard as the data structures. Some of it must predate what the Federation had and there’s nothing much at the level of the Pinnacle.’
‘And the populace appears to be keen to give us a wide berth,’ Al added. ‘They seem almost afraid.’
‘That isn’t going to make this easy,’ Aneka replied. ‘It also seems a little odd. You’d think if this place hosted most of the pirate ships they’d be used to the crew.’
‘Perhaps,’ Cassandra said, ‘Haven is not such a haven after all.’
~~~
Bar number four appeared much like bars one through three, but perhaps a little less reputable. The first three had featured bored staff serving customers who also looked more or less bored, and who made sure they never caught her eye. There had been few people around who seemed to have large amounts of money, and they were generally dressed in more conservative clothes than Aneka, but most had some form of weapon about their person.
This one had more pirates in it, though they did not look like very good pirates. The clothing was heavy on the leather, and there were more weapons. And the almost entirely female serving staff were topless. Well, technically they were all wearing a waist cincher which gave them a bit of lift, but they were bare-breasted and more skittish than the girls in the other bars.
‘Low rent or what?’ Aneka commented silently.
‘Somehow more of the kind of thing I’d expect,’ Al suggested. ‘Though the staff should be sassy and making ribald comments to the patrons.’
‘I don’t think real pirates actually had that kind of life. I mean, the sea-going ones. And from what I’ve read, the few that used to operate around the Federation were more business-like than that. This is like…’
‘People playing at being pirates?’ Cassandra suggested over their comms link. ‘The social communications we’re monitoring tend to romanticise the people on this station. There are a number of sites hosted on remote servers which devote themselves to particular captains. Kade has several.’
‘That’s sort of like the old pirates, I think. There was a lot of romantic twaddle talked about them back when they were hitting ships in the Caribbean.’
‘It definitely seems that they are portrayed in a relatively heroic light. Some of the postings could almost be classified as idolising them. We’re also cataloguing a lot of traffic which heavily vilifies the Pinnacle.’
‘To be expected, I guess.’ Aneka drained her glass of the beer she had ordered. ‘The beer is actually not that terrible. Someone must be growing hops. There’s a shop across from this bar. I want to check what they’re selling.’
‘A shopping trip at this time?’ Al asked.
‘Curiosity. I’m wondering what they make to sell to the locals.’
The shop was a fairly large, open sort of place with a lot of benches with goods on. It looked a little like the kind of general store you saw in Wild West movies. Aneka was not entirely sure that they had existed in reality, but the idea seemed a little boring to have been made up. There were some interesting similarities and also some significant differences.
‘Do the clothes here look handmade to you?’ she asked as she looked at a pair of leather jeans which probably would not have fitted her hips.
‘The irregularity in the stitching suggests they are,’ Al replied. ‘All of the goods here seem to have been manufactured by hand rather than fabricated. Though I can’t speak for the drugs.’
There were racks of them. Tubes of powder, ampules of fluid, all of them on open display at the back of the store. It all appeared entirely manufactured; none of the chemicals seemed like they were refined from a plant or anything similar.
‘There has to be a lab making this stuff locally,’ Aneka said. ‘There’s too much variety for them to be shipping it in. And the clothes… There’s not enough space on this station for that kind of production without it being a sweatshop. I think you were right, Cassandra. Haven isn’t quite the refugee utopia it seems.’
Leaving before some assistant could attempt to sell her anything, Aneka threaded her way further into the maze of buildings, and that was when she found the brothel. It was dimly lit and there was a bar, but its nature was obvious from the supply of scantily clad people, most of them women, scattered around the lounge area. Aneka wandered over to the bar and ordered another beer, paying with one of the coins they had manufactured on Gwy. Then she sat on a stool and peered around.
The notable thing was the women wearing odd collars of curled, silvery metal. They had a look about them which did not match the other staff. There seemed to be something broken about them and Aneka pulled a small hand scanner
from where it was sitting on her right hip, instructing Al to run an analysis on the nearest one.
‘Human,’ Al said as the results started to come back. ‘One of the subspecies anyway. Sending genome data to Gwy for analysis. The collars are electronic… Some form of neural stimulation device.’
‘They do not look stimulated. In fact, they look–’
‘What’re you doin’ with that?’ Aneka looked up to see a heavy-set bouncer with a blaster of some sort on his hip glowering at her.
‘Comms unit is on the blink,’ she replied, giving the sensor box a slap.
‘That don’t look like a comms unit.’
Aneka looked the man up and down. Muscled, but overweight. No hair. Facial tattoos. Maybe an ex-pirate, maybe just a wannabe. Almost certainly a bully. She slipped off her stool and pulled herself up straight; she was an inch or two taller than he was. ‘Are you calling me a liar?’
Silence fell across the room. Very suddenly the bouncer seemed to have found himself alone facing an angry woman who was probably from one of the pirate crews, and he knew he was alone, because the other three men in the room who seemed like they had the same job had just made themselves conspicuously absent in a hurry.
‘Uh, no, ma’am.’
‘Good, because now I’m going to have to go back to my ship without getting any, so someone standing in my way is likely to discover how pissed off I am.’
The bouncer almost fell over his own boots in his urgency to step aside as Aneka marched for the door.
‘Aneka,’ Gwy said as Aneka set off down a random street in what appeared to be a foul mood, ‘the genetic signature of that woman matches the general pattern for a Pinnacle female.’
‘She was Pinnacle?!’
‘Apparently. Further, I found records of the type of collar she was wearing. They are employed on Pinnacle worlds to control slaves. Neural induction elements allow the wearer’s pain receptors to be stimulated on command.’
Aneka’s mood had become about as foul as it looked. ‘I am really starting to go off this place.’
~~~
By the time Aneka had covered the entire habitation section of the ring, the place was going into a night cycle and further investigation slowed as people left the streets.
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