She nodded. “I’d prefer it if we could keep this casual, Captain,” she said. “It’s only Dr. Makhbar that prefers the formality.”
“Good luck with that,” Kaycee said. “I started out on the business side of things with him and it took months to get to that point with me.”
He shrugged. “I’ll try but old habits often die a tragic death. Anyway the ground rules.”
“Of course,” she said.
“First, you don’t talk to Leo without either Ammo or Kaycee with you.”
“If you haven’t managed to get his trust, I think it would be better for me to talk to him alone and see if I can get him to open up,” she said.
“Absolutely not. If there’s some kind of psychological manipulation going on with him, I’m not handing you over to become a hostage.” He shook his head. “As soon as you put a foot on my deck, I am responsible for your safety, so this is a non-negotiable point. Make no mistake about it, I will take you back to the surface before I compromise on this.”
She clamped her jaw closed and drew in a deep hissing breath. Finally, she nodded again.
“Second, one of my security handlers will also be present in the room with you, and you will submit to a search before you go in. We need to be certain you aren’t carrying anything he could use as a weapon.”
“What?” Her mouth fell open in disbelief. “Are you saying you think I’ll help him escape?”
“Not at all. But a desperate person can turn your hair clips into a weapon if he sees it as an opportunity.”
She reached up and ran a finger over one of the ornamental picks that held her long hair back in the ferocious winds of Sha-Kahna Ri. “He’d have to get it off of me to do that.”
“Yes, and that’s why one of my handlers will be in there with you. As a second line of defense,” he said.
“Fine. Anything else, Dr. Makhbar?” she asked, glancing over at Ammo. “I see why Alaran likes him.”
Ethan raised an eyebrow but let the sarcasm slide past. “The last thing I will need from you is a complete report on what you learn while talking to him. My ship and my crew’s lives may depend on anything you catch. Anything. Even half-felt hunches of a remote possibility. Leo implied that Jetaar had some kind of evil-overlord dreadnaught he was working on. If you can find out what that is, that’s my biggest priority.”
“I’ll do my best for you, but you have to realize that finding out about the Saknussemm and our people is my focus,” she said as the door opened, and she stood up.
“I understand that,” he said. “What we all need to know is whether we’re likely to lose more of our resources or people to whatever it is Jetaar’s doing. I only have to get past him to get your payload home, but you people here may end up living with him unless we figure out what’s he’s got going for him.”
“Of course. You’re right,” she said.
He stood up and nodded toward the door. “Ammo show Dr. Tegan to where we’re holding Leo, and pass my instructions to Angel. Stay with her for now.”
“Aye, Boss,” she said, leading her out the door.
Kaycee stood up to follow, but Ethan shook his head. “I have to talk to you about my knee.”
What’s wrong with your… Oh that,” she said, sitting back down in her seat.
“Care to explain why you didn’t want me to blast him into orbit when he snob-punched you?” he asked, dropping into his seat. “Of all of us, you’re the only one aboard that’s qualified to breathe his air.”
“That’s one of those things I don’t like to put out there unless I need to,” she said. “It’s like using my full name. The fact that I have a rich family and a pretty good education tends to work against me sometimes.”
“A pretty good education?” Ethan leaned back, resting an elbow on the arm of the chair, and parking his chin on his fist. “You’re exactly the kind of expert Makhbar needs, and for some reason you don’t want him to know that.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Don’t play with me Kaycee,” he said. “As soon as he mentioned that they thought it might be Shan Takhu technology, your entire attitude shifted. You jumped in there and asked to see an example of the written language. You opened the door and then let him slam it in your face.”
“Yah, that was a mistake. I should have kept my mouth shut,” she said, looking down at her hands in her lap.
“Why didn’t you let me push back on that?” he asked. “He’s an officious prick and he needs to know—”
“Ethan. No, he doesn’t need to know,” she snapped. “Nobody needs to know out here. It’s just a bad idea for me to be more than a simple doctor working runs on a common cargo hauler.”
“I don’t get that,” he said.
“You don’t have to. Just trust me that the less people know about my background, the safer it will be for all of us.” She launched herself through the door before he could say anything else.
“Frakking secrets will get us killed, too,” he muttered, getting up and following her out.
Chapter Eighteen
Ethan sat with his feet up on the observation windowsill and almost dozed. It had been a long day. Although they were unloaded and Nuko had moved one of the cargo containers to the loading location for them, it would be at least several days before they got the artifacts ready to go. Marti and Rene were holding the ConDeck and keeping an eye on the sensors while Nuko caught some sleep in her quarters.
Kaycee and Ammo had taken turns keeping an eyeball on Dr. Tegan while she talked to their prisoner. It had been almost twelve hours, and nobody had given him a progress report. So, he waited, resting his body and trying to quiet his mind.
He realized there was someone standing behind him. Ammo. Her presence felt distinctly different than anyone else on the ship and even though he didn’t turn, he knew with absolute certainty it was her. “What have we learned?” he asked.
“That I don’t think I’d want Taryn Tegan as a mother,” she said, stepping around and dropping into the seat beside him. “That woman knows every evil parenting, guilt manipulation trick ever imagined.”
“Is it working?” He unlaced his fingers from beside his head and turned to face her.
“I think so,” she said. “She and Kaycee are showering. Once they’re done, she wants to make a preliminary report to you and Alaran and then get some sleep before she goes another round with him.”
“She’s spending a night?”
She nodded. “She asked if we could get a conference comm set up to the surface, or whether it would be better to shuttle back down and do it there. After I told her it wouldn’t be a problem, I went ahead and set her up in one of the staterooms.”
“That’s fine,” he said. “I’m not in the mood to take her back down tonight and Nuko’s been behind the controls of the DSL all day.”
“She’ll be traveling back to Zone One with us and the artifacts,” she said. “I assigned her to the bigger stateroom if that’s alright.”
“Makes me no never mind. Tell Quinn to set another place at the table in the morning. I’ll go set up the ready room,” he said. “It’ll be a lot less posh than what she’s used to, but it’s got a good screen and enough chairs for all of us to sit around if we’re very friendly.”
“I didn’t even know we had one of those,” she said.
“Yah, it’s cleverly disguised as a closet,” he said, standing up. “You know the door on the starboard side behind the ConDeck? That’s it.”
“I’ve been aboard for almost a month now, and I had no clue,” she said.
“We don’t use it because it’s too damned small, but it will work,” he said, sighing. “I’ll go dust the chairs and get the lights turned on.”
A few minutes later, Ethan sat with his feet up again on a windowsill waiting for the meeting to begin. The room was still as clean as he’d left it last time he’d used it several months previous. Dust wasn’t a common occurrence in a well ventilated spaceship.
“We
have established a link to Dr. Makhbar, and he is holding,” Marti said as Kaycee and Ammo led Dr. Tegan into the ready room.
“This is cozy,” she said, glancing around the room and smiling.
“And you’re polite, Doctor,” he said. “I think it was supposed to be a storage locker until some ship architect decided to crowbar a conference table in here.”
She laughed and dropped into the seat beside him. Kaycee worked her way around to the opposite side and Ammo took the place closest to the door.
“Unless we have anything we need to discuss first, shall we begin?” he asked. Nobody objected, so he tapped the icon on the table and the screen opened.
Dr. Makhbar sat glaring. “What have you discovered?” he asked without preamble.
“Let’s start with the fact that Captain Walker is correct,” Dr. Tegan said. “Jetaar captured the Saknussemm as it entered the system from Transfer Hub Four.”
“How is it that Leonard survived?” he asked.
“As far as he knows, they killed most of the crew, but they kept the science staff aboard the Saknussemm until they were unloaded at some kind of operations base,” she said. “He says he hasn’t been in contact with any of them since, so he can’t give us any information on their current safety.”
“Did he say where this base was?” Ethan asked, drawing a glare from Makhbar. He chose to ignore it.
“Unfortunately, no,” she said. “We can infer from other things he said that it may be close. Within less than a day travel distance, but possibly much less than that.”
“What kind of science vessel is the Saknussemm?” he asked, turning his attention back to the archaeologist.
“It is a Cousteau class ship,” he said, looking almost defensive when Ethan blinked in reaction. “We intentionally purchase older ships because they tend to attract less attention. It serves my purpose to keep below the background noise.”
“Whatever,” he said. “I just want to know how far it could travel in a day, not analyze your miserly proclivities.”
Taryn and Kaycee both gasped, but Ammo nodded and winked. Apparently, she thought it was alright to insult the man paying their salary.
“Under fifteen light years,” Marti supplied through his command comm earpiece. “Although that would be dependent upon maintenance and modifications. The actual range may vary and is likely less.”
“From that information we can determine how close he is and whether or not we’re likely to face a return performance before we get out of here with your artifacts,” Ethan said, not letting on he was getting information while he talked.
“That volume of space includes forty-one M-class dwarves and six larger stars including the proposed Newfoundland Colony Site Claim on Cygnus Gamma-381,” the AA said, again over his earpiece.
“That’s something like forty-seven stars,” he said. “FleetCom will certainly find that information useful.”
“You will not disclose our position to FleetCom without my express consent,” Makhbar said.
“I understand,” the captain said. “But if they choose to resurvey these systems to see if they can weed him out, chances are they’ll discover where you are.”
“That is unacceptable, Captain Walker,” he snarled.
“I am sure it is. To you,” Ethan said. “What’s unacceptable to me is letting a cutthroat bastard vent a crew into space and steal their ship.”
“Certainly, their loss is tragic,” Makhbar said, looking shocked that he’d lost the upper hand in the conversation.
The archaeologist does have some sort of moral center even if you have to kick the shit out of it to find it. Ethan thought.
“We can discuss this later.” Makhbar continued. “For now, I want to remain focused on the threat we face in the immediate term. I believe that knowing how Leonard was compromised, and exactly what information he may have divulged, is relevant to making that assessment.”
“I agree that may be essential in assessing what to anticipate from Jetaar,” Dr. Tegan said. “Leo is intentionally vague on some points of how he came to be working with the pirates, but I think it is possible someone approached him while he was studying at the Academy of Proxima. He hasn’t come out and said that specifically, but he’s resistive when I press him on it.”
“Alright. Let us assume for the moment that someone compromised him prior to arriving here. What does that imply?” Makhbar asked.
“That Jetaar has been recruiting people from all over the Coalition?” Ethan suggested.
“This seems like a much larger operation than a pirate would mount. It sounds like you are of the opinion it is more like an ideological indoctrination program.”
“That’s an interesting distinction to make,” Kaycee said. “Leo never refers to Jetaar or his people as pirates. He calls them privateers and seems to be offended if we call them anything else. A need for personal differentiation is often a sign of ideological identity.”
Makhbar glared at her for several seconds and Ethan fought the urge to jump in on her behalf.
“Why do you assume Jetaar is at the top of this?” he challenged.
“He may not be, but he was seen in Escabosa before Dr. Westmore disappeared,” the captain said. “Obviously he’s got a human network in place and he’s working well beyond the local system.”
“How do you know he was seen there?” he asked.
“Captain MacKenna of the Magellan warned us before we left on the last leg to get here,” Ethan said. “It’s also why we were on our guard when Jetaar sprung his trap.”
Makhbar shook his head. “That might explain why he knew your arrival time, but unless he is sitting around waiting for the very infrequent traffic into this system, how would he know about the Saknussemm’s schedule?”
“Here again I am working with partial evidence, but I think it’s possible that Leo knew it,” Dr. Tegan said.
“How?”
She took a deep breath and swallowed it. “His father might have told him. They were in frequent contact.”
The archaeologist snorted. “I have known Ricardo Stahl for almost a decade. He has run my personal operations for most of that time. I trust him implicitly.”
“Do you think he would trust members of his own family?” Ammo asked. “It’s possible he didn’t know his son had been radicalized.”
“Radicalized?” Makhbar snorted. “I would say compromised may still be a more appropriate word.”
Dr. Tegan shook her head. “I disagree. He shows more than a little ideological deviance.”
“This is troubling,” Makhbar said.
“At this point I’d have to say he’s at least a willing participant in Jetaar’s operations,” Kaycee said.
“And likely much more,” Dr. Tegan said.
“They must be coercing him somehow,” he said.
“I don’t think so,” Kaycee said. “He seems dedicated to their cause in a fundamental sense. This is one factor that supports the hypothesis that they recruited him previously.”
“Calling piracy a cause might be a slight exaggeration,” Ethan said. “They might have sold it to him as a way to earn freedom from the Coalition, but I don’t see it as anything but trading the yoke of one society, for enslavement to a charismatic leader of another.”
“I agree with Captain Walker,” Makhbar said. “What demonstrable ways has he shown his dedication to this pirate captain?”
“He claims he’s been involved with several operations,” Dr. Tegan said.
“He’s only been missing for thirty-three days. That would be improbable at best.”
“If he was taken here in CG-670 that’s also problematic,” Ethan agreed. “Unless he’s been involved in a pirate summer camp program somewhere, any places where they could have hit in the last month would have to be close. There just isn’t that much traffic within a few parsecs of here.”
“And if they were overworking the local traffic, FleetCom would be all over that kind of thing,” Ammo said. “They’d
never risk hitting multiple targets in a small area and giving away their location.”
“Or he wasn’t lying about that superfast ship,” Ethan said.
“He said they were still looking for scientists to get that running,” Kaycee whispered. Her eyes told him she wasn’t at all comfortable with the idea that it might be possible.
“What bearing does that have on us?” Makhbar asked.
“If the pirates have a base in or around the CG-670 system, we’re all in some serious danger right now,” the captain said.
“Once we get the artillery operational, we will be safe,” he said.
“You haven’t done that yet?”
“The weapons are not functional at this time,” the archaeologist said.
“What the hell is the hold up?” Ethan asked, shaking his head in disbelief. “It took Eriksen’s people less than fifteen minutes to get one of them set up in our hangar deck and fully charged.”
“We have encountered some technical problems.” Makhbar looked down at the table like he was ashamed of something and trying to hide it.
“We’re all defenseless if you don’t have those guns up,” he said.
“I understand that, Captain, but to complete the setup we need a certified power systems engineer.”
“My understanding is that the guns can connect to any power supply. For frak sake, we ran the one on the hangar deck off the small power plants in the shuttles. That isn’t an engineering issue.”
“Ordinarily that wouldn’t be a problem,” Makhbar said. “Our power systems engineer was on the Saknussemm too. Because he is not here, we do not have a way to hook up to a suitable power supply.”
“You don’t have your own standard reactor?” Ethan looked at Dr. Tegan. She shook her head. “Did you forget to order one when you spent a bazillion cred buying everything else for your fancy-ass operation down there?”
“We have several small ones. Unfortunately, none of them can provide sufficient power for the artillery,” he said.
Ethan stared at Makhbar. “Maybe archaeologists don’t need to know about how things work in the real world, but that seems like common sense. What are you not telling me about in this setup?”
Wings of Earth- Season One Page 30