“So finally I asked him if he had any contacts in the Imperial military. Suun said he did, so I asked him if he could find out anything about you,” He explained looking sideways at Anna.
“I didn't tell him why,” he added hastily.
“Just that I wanted to know anything he could tell me about someone in the Imperial military named Anna Jackson. Suun had his contact do some checking and told me that there was a record of a Commander Anna Jackson working in Imperial Intelligence. Unfortunately that was all Suun's source was able to dig up and I never told anyone about it, not even Saskill.”
John threw a guilty look at his stepfather.
“Anyway,” he went on quickly.
“Suun and I stayed in touch, he would sometimes leave excess supplies from the outpost at a set of coordinates he had sent me. I told him about how I had been raised by a Clan of shengyet. I never give him our location or any real details, but he knew that most shengyet were pressed for resources and he wanted to help.”
“When I found out that Karss and his gang were going to raid the outpost, I had to warn Suun. The day before the raid I took out a fighter. Only when I got closer, I ran into a patrol of Imperial fighters. They disabled my ship and took me into custody. They started interrogating me, but before things got really nasty I was rescued.”
Saskill nodded.
“When I found out where John had gone, I decided to use Karss's planned raid on the outpost as a chance to rescue him.”
“Wait a minute,” said Anna.
“Something still doesn't make sense.”
“John, did you tell Imperial Intelligence anything about me?”
“Of course not,” John bristled.
“There was no way they were getting that out of me and like I said, they hadn't even really gotten started by the time Father showed up.”
Anna stared off into space.
“So then how did she know.”
“How did who know what?” Asked John.
“Major Clark,” replied Anna.
“On our way to Eridanus Five she talked to me in private, she told me she knew about my past. How my brother and I had been raised by shengyet.”
“She knew!?” exclaimed John.
“Yes I did,” came a voice from above them.
They all looked up to see Major Clark standing in front of them.
“Sorry, I'm eavesdropping,” she apologized.
“But I couldn't help overhearing the last part of your conversation.”
“So how did you know?” Asked Anna, slowly getting to her feet.
“Precisely the way I told you Commander,” said Clark.
“You couldn't have,” interjected Anna.
“When I spoke to you, I left out a few details in the report Commander.”
“Like what?”
Major Clark gave Anna an apologetic look.
“I’m sorry Commander, I should have told you, I just didn’t think it was relevant at the time.”
“Tell me what?
Major Clark looked at John.
“You were interrogated,” she told him.
“And you told the interrogators everything you knew.”
“No I didn’t!” John protested.
“You did,” Clark assured him.
“You just don’t remember.”
“I don’t remember, how could I not remember something like that?”
Suddenly it dawned on Anna what the Major was talking about.
“They did a mind probe on you,” she explained.
Major Clark nodded.
“And then wiped all memories he had of the event.”
“Wait, they stuck something into my brain?!” said John, feeling his head.
“Not exactly,” replied Anna.
“They injected you with a dose on nanites designed to interact with certain areas of your brain. The technology only works on humans, which is why Imperial Intelligence doesn’t use it all that often. The nanites will make a subject highly suggestible and compliant, basically incapable of lying. They also impair the brain’s short term memory functions, so when it’s over, the subject has no memory of the event.”
John gave Anna a frightened look.
“Are they…are they still in my head?”
“No,” Anna assured him.
“The nanites are removed after the procedure.”
“So, then it was my fault they knew about you,” said John looking crestfallen.
“No it’s not your fault, no one can resist the procedure.”
At that moment the continuous drone of the ship's engine changed pitch and a moment later cut out entirely. The outline of a door appeared in the wall and melted away to reveal the young woman.
“We have arrived,” she announced.
“Please follow me.”
Chapter 22
Lieutenant Harbid angled the troop shuttle away from the planet he had used for a slingshot orbit to pick up some speed. Switching on the auto pilot he turned to the navigation display that showed their current position. Their initial jump had taken them here, a system the navigation display identified as XJ5. In other words a place so unimportant and remote, no one had even bothered giving the place a real name.
The door to the cockpit opened and Ensign Katie Smith entered. She glanced at the navigation display.
“XJ5,” she read aloud.
“Pretty much the definition of nowhere.”
Darmst turned in the co-pilot's seat to face her.
“It was the first place I found in the navigation computer's databanks, so I just punched it in,” he explained.
“The question is, where do we go now?” Harbid Asked.
He turned to Katie.
“What about Admiral Constantine? He should be able to help us.”
Katie looked uncertain.
“He could, the problem is how do we contact him? We're light years from the nearest Imperial communications relay and Jones will most certainly be looking for us.”
“Yeah and I imagine he's in a rather foul mood right now,” said Harbid.
Darmst looked from Katie to Harbid, a puzzled expression on his face.
“This Admiral Constantine you mentioned, is the Admiral Constantine. The head of the Imperial military?”
“I'm sorry Darmst,” Katie apologized.
“I forgot this is all new to you. I don't know any of the details, but apparently Admiral Constantine sent Major Clark and her crew on a secret mission that no one in the Imperial Military was supposed to know about.”
“The mission the Chief and his children went on?” Asked Darmst.
Katie looked surprised.
“Sorry, the what?”
“Saskill, the Chief of our clan,” explained Darmst.
“Major Clark arrived in the system where our base was. Apparently a soldier she needed for her mission had crashed near our base and she made a deal with Saskill for our aid in finding him. As it turned out the soldier in question had already made it to our base by the time Major Clark arrived. Major Clark had promised Saskill and the rest of our clan safe passage out of the system in return for our help.”
“Safe passage?” Asked Harbid.
“Yes an Imperial fleet had been sent in earlier to remove our clan from the area,” explained Darmst.
“The Major said she could ensure that the entire clan was given safe passage out of the system.”
Harbid shook his head.
“This makes no sense,” he said.
“What kind of mission would Admiral Constantine send Major Clark on that involved making sure a group of shengyet weren't captured or harmed? Uh, no offense,” he added hastily with a glance at Darmst.
“None taken,” Darmst assured him.
“I wondered the same thing at first, but the soldier Major Clark was there to rescue was a member of the Invictus Legion.”
“The Major obviously really needed him for her mission, a very important mission,” he added.
�
�Why do you say that?” Katie wanted to know.
“Because the Chief and his children Joined Major Clark on her mission as well.”
“They joined Major Clark's mission?” Asked Katie perplexed.
“Well not exactly,” Darmst corrected himself.
“The chief's daughter was already on the Major's mission, Saskill and his son were the ones that joined after we got away from the fleet that chased us out of the system.”
Harbid and Katie gave each other disbelieving looks.
“Let me get this straight,” said Harbid.
“Major Clark had a shengyet Clan leader's daughter assigned to her mission?”
“Yes, I believe she was the commander of the ship the Major arrived on,” said Darmst.
“What!?” said Harbid and Katie together.
Darmst looked at the shocked expression on both their faces, then something seemed to dawn on him. He chuckled softly to himself.
“I think I should have clarified something earlier,” he said still sounding amused.
“Saskill's children are not his biological offspring, they're his adopted children and they're human.”
Katie and Harbid both looked stunned.
“You're telling me that a shengyet Clan leader adopted two humans as his children?” Asked Harbid incredulously.
“They were very young when some of our clan's scouts found them,” explained Darmst.
“Their transport had crashed. When we found them, their parents and the pilot were dead. They had no one, so Saskill decided to adopt them as his own.”
“It's just, a shengyet chieftain would be the last person I'd expect to adopt two humans,” said Katie.
Darmst looked at her defiantly.
“Saskill does not believe that the innocent should be made to suffer,” he said curtly.
“I'm sorry, I didn't mean,” Katie began looking flustered.
“It doesn't matter how or why we got into this situation,” Harbid cut in.
“We need a place to lay low for a while, a place where Jones won't find us until we can contact Admiral Constantine.”
All three of them lapsed into silence, thinking hard.
“I think I've got an idea,” said Katie slowly.
“Eridanus Five.”
“Okay, now I know you're joking,” said Harbid.
“No really, just hear me out for a second,” said Katie a grin spreading across her face.
“The task force that was supposed to remove the shengyet was ordered out of the area when Jones and his ships arrived. Even if they came back later, they must be long gone by now. Jones would never think to look for us there.”
“Yeah because he doesn't think we'd be foolish enough to go back,” said Harbid.
“Actually, I think he'll be expecting us to be so afraid of him and his mighty task force, that we'll run as far and as fast as we can.”
She looked from Harbid to Darmst.
“Oh come on, you know how arrogant Jones is. He'd never dream we'd have the guts to go back to Eridanus Five.”
Harbid looked at Darmst, who gave him a puzzled look. Harbid sighed and turned to Katie.
“Okay, but I just want to go on record as saying this is a really bad idea.”
Katie smiled mischievously.
“Trust me James, it'll be fine.”
“Right,” snorted Harbid as he turned to the navigation controls and brought up a jump route for Eridanus Five.
“Trust me, famous last words.”
He switched on the ship's intercom.
“Everyone get ready back there, were about to make another jump.”
Switching off the com, he diverted power to the Dimension drive.
“First jump vector laid in,” Darmst announced from the co-pilot's seat.
“Dimension Drive charging,” said Harbid.
“Fifty percent, sixty percent.”
Katie grabbed one of the cockpit's handholds.
“Eighty, ninety, full charge,” announced Harbid.
“I hope this works Katie,” he said softly.
“Me too,” she replied.
Harbid pushed the final jump button and a swirling vortex of light appeared in front of the shuttle. Slowly they glided forward, the vortex collapsing behind them.
Vice-Admiral Marcus Jones glared across his desk at Captain Gerard.
“You had better have a good explanation for this Captain,” he said icily.
Captain Gerard swallowed and stared at the wall behind the Vice-Admiral.
“Sir, it seems that one of my crew has shown himself to be a traitor.”
“What?!” Snapped Jones.
“Y-yes sir, a Lieutenant Harbid who was the-,”
“The head of the Imperial Intelligence division on this ship,” Jones cut him off.
“Yes he seemed rather reluctant to continue interrogating those shengyet prisoners. How did he escape?”
“He had the area from the high security cells to one of the hangar bays cleared of personnel,” replied Gerard.
“Harbid must have taken them down there and then commandeered one of the troop shuttles.”
“Anything else?” Jones asked.
Gerard glanced down at the report he was holding.
“Yes sir, one of Lieutenant Harbid's subordinates is missing, Ensign Katie Smith. She may have found out what Harbid was about to do, in which case he would have had to get rid of her.”
“Unlikely,” said Jones.
“No, I think you had two traitors aboard your ship Captain.”
Gerard said nothing.
“That will be all Captain.”
“Yes Vice-Admiral,” replied Gerard with obvious relief.
Jones watched the doors slide shut with a growing sense of unease. Things were rapidly spinning out of control. This whole thing was threatening to blow up in his face. With the shengyet prisoners’ escape, he had no way of finding out where Major Clark had gone. He could simply head to the location where the Dominance had been destroyed and wait for her. The problem was, he wasn't sure that was where Clark was headed.
At first he had been sure it was, but the fact that she had gone to the Eridanus Five system. If her mission had been to investigate what happened to the Dominance, then why not head straight there? Not to mention that business with the shengyet, what in the universe had that been all about? Jones closed his eyes and leaned back in his padded chair. He tried to relax and go over everything he knew, perhaps there was something he'd missed.
Major Clark had taken the Twilight from Earth to the Eridanus Five system, there she had met up with a shengyet pirate gang. Then presumably, they had jumped to the Kathol system, where he had found the shengyet in one of the asteroid miner's barracks. Suddenly Jones sat up straight, his eyes snapping open. The fighter group that hadn't reported in, that was what had led him to Kathol in the first place. When he had discovered the shengyet hiding there, he had completely forgotten to find out what had happened to those fighters. Had something happened to them here, or had they jumped to another system?
Keying the view screen on his desk, he called Captain Gerard. Five seconds later Gerard's face appeared on the screen.
“Yes Vice-Admiral.”
“Captain,” Jones began eagerly.
“When we arrived in the Kathol system, was any effort made to ascertain what happened to that group of fighters that led us here?”
Captain Gerard turned his head, apparently skimming through the various reports on the screen next to him.
“No sir,” he said at last.
“Naturally we conducted a full sensor scan, but we found no trace of the fighters.”
“No debris either?” Asked Jones.
“No sir, but we that doesn’t mean there isn’t any. If you like, I can send out fighters and recon drones.”
“Never mind that Captain,” said Jones.
“Who's in charge of the mining facility here?”
Gerard looked to the side again.
&n
bsp; “A bessra, Administrator Quilleck.”
“Bring him to me at once,” said Jones
“And while you're doing that, have two full Cohorts search every millimeter of that facility. I also want a complete scan of the computer systems there.”
“Yes sir, right away.”
Ten minutes later, there was a knock on his office door.
“Enter,” said Jones.
Two Imperial soldiers marched in, they were flanking a bessra dressed in expensive looking robes. Administrator Quilleck looked terrified, his yellow eyes were wide and the fur on his face was twitching restlessly.
“Leave us,” commanded Jones.
The two soldiers spun on their heels and left the office. Administrator Quilleck stood frozen in front of Jones' desk. Like all bessra he was tall and thin, almost seven feet. His limbs were roughly proportional to a human's. His hands had six digits, each adorned with a small black claw. Apart from his shiny gold and green colored robes, he also wore a small breathing mask that covered his snout-like nose and mouth.
Vice-Admiral Jones leaned back in his chair.
“Do you know who I am?” He asked coldly.
Quilleck nodded.
“Good, now I'm going to ask you some questions. If you answer me truthfully, I'll let you go. If however, I find that you have lied to me,” Jones paused for effect.
“I will order my task force to blow your entire operation to bits, with you on it.”
“I understand,” Quilleck croaked.
“Several hours ago, a squadron of Imperial fighters passed through this system. What happened to them?”
Quilleck swallowed hard.
“I don't know Vice-Admiral,” he replied.
“They entered the system and contacted us, they said they were looking for a group of shengyet.”
“What did you tell them?”
Quilleck hesitated.
“I didn't know, I mean that Major told me not to say anything.”
“Major Clark?” Jones cut in.
“Yes.”
“Go on.”
“Well, they were about to leave, when one of the pilots seemed to notice something.”
“What makes you say that?”
“One of the fighters peeled off from the formation and went to investigate something. Then they jumped out of the system.”
“What were they investigating before they jumped?” Jones asked eagerly.
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