A New Threat

by Aaron DeMott

  “Oh, well. Load up my ‘adrenaline’ collection. High volume.”

  A loud electronic squeal that was the first chord of one of Tomed’s favorites flooded the cabin as an enemy ship came into view. Tomed glanced at the sensor holo. Four more fighters from the Goddard had formed up behind him. Tomed quickly counted thirty-two hostile fighters. Not very good odds for the enemy. A grin spread across his face.

  “Gail, filter the music out of the comm link and setup an encrypted channel with the rest of our fighters.”

  The holo-figure of Gail nodded to him a second later when she finished.

  “Psygen Tomed here. We’re out to disable the cargo ship and as many of the fighters as possible. If you have to, you can take out a fighter, but we need that cargo ship with as little damage as possible. Everyone check in.”

  “Falcon one, here.”

  “Falcon two, here.”

  “Falcon three, ready.”

  “Falcon four, here.”

  “Okay, let’s go get ‘em! Oh, and just for fun, let’s see who can get the most!”

  Tomed grinned and dumped power to the NTO to do a fast strafing run. He closed his eyes and leaned farther into the NTO. Time seemed to slow when he came within firing range. He rolled his fighter around incoming plasma beams and snapped off a few shots to the beat of the music.

  After he overshot the battle, he pivoted on his z-axis and applied thrust to re-join the battle. The alarm on the inertia dampener barely registered above his music. He scanned the rest of his squadron…

  Four enemy fighters surrounded Falcon three.

  “Stand by, Falcon three, I’ll be right there.”

  “Take your time, sir. I’ll get ‘em eventually.”

  Tomed grinned as he channeled the shields through the NTO and swung the nose of the fighter to the side. Another nudge at the NTO and his fighter sailed sideways to crash into the fighter in front of Falcon three.

  The lead pilot’s eyes widened. Tomed waved at the enemy pilot before he cut the engines off the fighter with a plasma beam. He leaned into the NTO and the disabled fighter spun back in the direction of the Goddard.

  Tomed spent the rest of the battle assisting whoever else needed help—in addition to preventing Jake’s cargo ship from being blasted apart. Two fighters broke off from the main group and headed away from the battle—presumably to make a run for it.

  The inertial dampener beeped in protest as Tomed shunted drive power through the NTO to catch them. The fighters were almost far enough out to make the jump to hyperspace. Tomed quickly switched the NTO to enhance the plasma beams and fired off two quick shots. He winged the fighter on the right on its starboard engine, which then exploded and crashed into the other fighter.

  Inertia still carried Tomed into the explosion.

  Tomed swore under his breath and slammed power back to the engines.

  Every light in the cockpit went out and all was silent.

  “Gail?”

  No answer. Tomed punched in the restart sequence. For a moment, nothing happened, and then a red light lit up and blinked. Tomed glanced at the rapidly approaching fireball and then back down at the blinking light.

  “Come on, come on!”

  If he was lucky, the stored oxygen would soon burn off and he’d run into just debris. But it didn’t look like he’d be so lucky. The metal shrapnel alone would probably puncture the canopy.

  The red light blinked faster and then changed to green. A handful of other lights came on across the board. Tomed punched in the sequence for a fast restart without a checklist. He kept an eye on the engines and fired the starboard and ventral anti-grav thrusters as soon as they came online. He glanced out the window and winced. This was going to be close.

  Everything but the NTO was online now. Tomed brought up the shields. It still wasn’t enough. This fighter had been designed to fly with the NTO—all the other systems were barely functional without it. Tomed closed his eyes and winced.

  The NTO came online with a beep, seconds before impact with the wreckage. Tomed powered up the shields and pushed the ship sideways with the engines. Small pieces of metal sparked as they hit the shields. Tomed breathed a sigh of relief and made a mental note to check his pants when he got back to the Goddard.

  Tomed returned to the Goddard and looked for Jake. The flight officer on duty in the shuttle bay directed him to the detention area. Tomed thanked him and headed down the corridor to the nearest lift.

  A loud growl distracted Tomed as his finger hovered over the button for the detention area. He dropped his hand back to his side. The noise was his stomach. It was probably a good time to get something to eat. Jake could wait a few minutes.

  The galley was crowded this time of day. Tomed popped his head inside the doorway and searched for Nilre. He didn’t see her, so he grabbed a few sandwiches from the counter and continued on to the detention area.

  Jake leaned up against the back corner of the detention cell away from the other pirates. Tomed nodded to the guard, who then opened the cell door. Tomed looked around at several different prisoners before he finally pointed at Jake.

  “All right, we’ll start with you.”

  Jake ignored him. Tomed motioned to the guard who pulled Jake to his feet and shoved him out the door. Tomed grabbed Jake’s collar and dragged him out into the hallway.

  As soon as the door shut behind them Jake cleared his throat.

  “Are you going to let go of me now?”

  “Hmm.” Tomed paused for a moment before he let go of his collar. “I’d thought it’d be fun to parade you around the ship like that.”

  “Ha, ha. Very funny, mate.”

  “I’ll buy you a drink. Anyway, what’d you find that got the pirates so agitated?”

  “Here,” Jake dug around in his pocket and tossed Tomed a small datachip. “That’s all the computer in the Paradise Capitol knows. I also managed to break into the Vincents’ house and swipe a few printouts from his home office. That’s what brought the pirates down on my tail. Oh, I took some holos of the printouts I couldn’t swipe. They’re on the datachip too.”

  “Anything on the missing ambassador in there?”

  “Don’t know.” Jake shrugged. “I dumped everything I could get my hands on without looking at it first. Everything else and the hardcopy stuff I swiped is in my ship.”

  “All right. Go to my quarters and I’ll make sure someone brings by some food.”

  Jake tossed Tomed a mock salute and ambled down the corridor.

  The captain wasn’t on the bridge or in his office. Tomed idly tapped the datachip on the captain’s desk. He debated whether or not he should leave the chip there with a note. He could see if Nilre wanted to have lunch with him. Technically he and the captain shared leadership decisions on this mission. It wouldn’t be out of line to have the captain review the data first…

  And he wanted to talk to Nilre about his close call in the fighter. He’d lost count of the close calls he’d had over the years. Instead of getting used to it, every one of them seemed to get more and more frightening. Nilre was good to talk to after such an experience; she always seemed to know what to say. Or perhaps it was just talking about it with a close friend that helped.

  Tomed sighed. Whatever they found in the data, it would take them a while to get to where they could do something about it, and he’d have plenty of time to talk in transit. Delaying just gave the bad guys more time. He pulled up a holo-window and put in a request for a meeting with everyone involved in two hours. He pocketed the datachip and returned to his quarters to review its contents.

  Bast jumped from the couch and took a few steps forward. Her front-left paw lifted, and she willed it back down. Pacing wouldn’t solve anything. It would, however, burn off some extra energy. Patrolling for pirate attacks was boring. There had to be something productive she could do. She didn’t know the SeQish ambassador’s location, and she couldn’t make the humans decide to go after the pirates right now. On top of that
, it probably wouldn’t be safe for the ambassador if they attacked the pirates before they found where he was hidden.

  For the umpteenth time she mentally ran through what she knew about the pirates and the missing ambassador for anything she might have overlooked. Nothing came to mind.

  A yawn from the far corner of the room distracted her.

  Rrrark stood and stretched. “Still pacing?”

  “Trying not to. I know we can’t do anything right now, but I still want to do something!”

  “It’s all part of being a scout. Think of it like hunting. There are moments of action, but most of your time is spent slowly stalking your prey, waiting for just the right moment to pounce.”

  Bast sat down on her haunches. “I hadn’t thought of it like that.” She cocked an ear partway down. “I suppose this is a lot like hunting. I was thinking of it more like herding kittens.”

  Rrrark smiled. “It is rather like that as well.”

  A soft ding interrupted them. Rrrark walked over and pushed the flashing square on the comm panel next to the door. Bast came around to peer over Rrrark’s shoulder at the holo-window that popped up.

  “Looks like there’s a meeting in two hours,” Rrrark murmured.

  Hrrarr’s ears pricked up. “Did they find anything?” He jumped to his feet and crossed the room in a leap.

  “Hard to say. Looks like we’ll find out,” Rrrark answered.

  Two hours could hardly feel longer, Bast thought as they approached the door to the briefing room. She filed in behind Hrrarr and Rrrark and found only Captain Trenton and Tomed were seated. Bast squeezed into a seat next to Rrrark across the table from the humans and kneaded the edge of the chair with her claws as she tried to wait patiently for the rest.

  Finally Nilre arrived and sat next to her. Major Hood wasn’t far behind. As soon as he was seated, Captain Trenton pressed a button and the captain of the Heim joined them via hologram. At a nod from Captain Trenton, Tomed cleared his throat before he spoke.

  “My informant has managed to secure both printed and computer data proving that the pirates are working with the colony governors to take over the Paradise Colony.” Tomed looked at each of them before he continued. “In addition, it provides concrete evidence that Ceres is Jonathan Vincent. I’ve forwarded this information to UGAL to let them decide what to do with it.”

  Tomed nodded at the Meskka. “Hrrarr, I’ll send you copies of everything to review. Since we have no official contacts with your people, in the event that you disagree with UGAL’s decision on a course of action, your advice will be taken under consideration, but that is all.

  “Also, your involvement is a matter of some debate. UGAL considers the colony takeover an internal dispute. You don’t have to help us at all if you don’t want to. However, the pirates did attack your world and we want to assist as much as possible with your investigation of the attack. This information proves that the same group is involved in both incidents.”

  Hrrarr studied Tomed for a moment before he answered. “The pirates have attacked a clan’s khaal. As a ranger of the Council, on my world I would have the full authority and duty to do everything in my power to hunt down and kill the ones responsible. We do recognize that the criminals are not on our world, and that your laws are different. In the interests of future goodwill between our peoples, we will ignore the insult of offering to leave us out of the matter.”

  Hrrarr stood in his chair to stare down at the humans. “I am a Ranger of the Council and Bast and Rrrark are scouts of the oldest clan on Alkask. We are not civilians to be protected, but hunters already sworn to seek and devour the unjust, regardless of where they may attempt to run or hide. We would request full cooperation in all aspects concerning the pirates.”

  Tomed glanced over at the captains as Hrrarr sat. Captain Trenton nodded.

  “All right, you’ll be fully involved, unless UGAL hands down a different order, in which case we’ll re-evaluate. Moving on to the information we’ve found.” Tomed swiped a finger across the display in front of him. “In addition to confirmation of the pirates’ plans, my operative’s data also contains the location of several bases.”

  Tomed tapped a button on the desk and a holographic map of UGAL space rose out of the tabletop and slowly rotated.

  “We’ve already found the pirate bases on SeQish, Paradise, and the space station.” Each of the locations lit up with a red dot on the map as Tomed named them. “They also have a small storage facility on a moon in an undeveloped system near Mining Colony One. They use this base as another drop-off point for stolen goods—to keep most of the pirates ignorant of the overall plan. There is also information suggesting the SeQish ambassador may be held there, but it’s not definite.”

  Tomed nodded to Captain Trenton, who stood and addressed the room. “Half an hour from now, we’ll depart for that base. We’re going to raid it and recover whatever stolen materials we find, including the ambassador, we hope. Dismissed.”

  Bast fidgeted in the back of the shuttle while the marines poured out of the airlock into the pirate base. Both Rrrark and Hrrarr waited patiently. She didn’t see how they could. All she could do to sit still was to go over the pre-launch mission briefing in her head.

  The marines would clear the base of any pirates, then she, Rrrark, and Hrrarr would search for the ambassador while the others loaded and sent the recovered goods to the Goddard and Heim. Bast twitched her tail, eager to finally be doing something. The sound of blaster fire and the smell of burned plastic, metal, and flesh drifted back through the open airlock. As the last of the marines exited the shuttle, Hrrarr nodded to Bast and Rrrark, who quickly padded down the ramp after him.

  A thin film of smoke hung in the air as Bast stepped through the shuttle’s airlock into the pressurized dome of the pirates’ base. The base was on the first moon of the fourth planet in the system. Bast could just make out the planet, a medium-sized gas giant, through the smoke that clung to the top of the dome.

  Can you smell the ambassador? Hrrarr asked.

  Bast bent down and sniffed the dust that coated the rock inside the dome. It was hard to smell anything through the smoke. She sniffed again. Human scent covered the area. She sniffed again. There was also another scent she couldn’t identify.

  I can smell something, but I’m not sure what yet, she said.

  Fan out. Hrrarr lifted his head and twitched his whiskers. I’ve never met a SeQish, so I’ll keep my eyes and ears open while you and Rrrark concentrate on finding a scent trail. Let everyone know if you find something.

  Bast worked outward in a circular shape and sniffed the ground around her. About two meters out and to the right of her starting position, Bast smelled something familiar. Among the mixed odors of rock, human scent, and something she thought was a lubricant humans used on their machinery, Bast detected a clearly SeQish scent.

  I’ve got something over here, she called to the others.

  Rrrark and Hrrarr were at her side in moments. Rrrark bent to sniff the ground where Bast pointed.

  It’s faint, but definitely SeQish. Probably a few weeks old. If he’s still here, he hasn’t been moved from where they’re keeping him, or if he has, they used a different route.

  Bast carefully followed the trail, Hrrarr and Rrrark close behind her. The trail stopped at a small building. Hrrarr pressed an ear to the door, and placed the pads of his front feet against it.

  Someone is inside, not close to the door.

  They might have one of those blasters the humans use. Rrrark flattened himself against the wall to the right of the door.

  Bast took the opposite side while Hrrarr backed up a few paces before he took a running leap. His shoulder smashed into the door which cracked and flew open. Hrrarr rolled when he hit the ground and came to his feet. Bast and Rrrark dashed inside together a split second later. A figure crouched at the end of the hallway, a blaster in its hand. Bast ran forward to pounce at him, but Hrrarr beat her there.

  He tore th
e blaster out of the man’s grip and flung it down the hallway with one front paw and smacked the side of his opponent’s head with the other. Two doors on either side of Hrrarr opened as the first man slumped unconscious to the floor. Hrrarr leapt up and twisted sideways. He grabbed each assailant and threw them into the opposite room from which they had come.

  Bast crouched low and slipped inside the door to the left. Three humans were clustered around a large bed in the middle of the room. She darted forward in a zigzag pattern to evade their shots. Bast leapt at the closest human and threw him into the second. A quick slash with her hind claws took out the third pirate.

  A blanket covered a large shape in the center of the bed. Bast couldn’t hear breathing or a heartbeat from the shape, but the scent of SeQish was strong in the room. They might have drugged the ambassador. She stepped forward, grasped the blanket with her teeth, and eased it back.

  An assortment of pillows sat piled on the bed. Bast hissed at the deception and turned to find the other Meskka. Rrrark stepped out of the doorway.

  “Nothing in there but a table and a food storage compartment, mostly empty. What’d you find?”

  “A bed with pillows on it. Smells like the ambassador was here recently.”

  Rrrark walked into the room to join her, Hrrarr right behind him. He stared at the bed for a moment before he pulled back the bottom sheet.

  A large water tank sat underneath the bed. Bubbles from an aerator still floated to the surface.

  “Would the ambassador have been in here?” Hrrarr asked.

  “Yes,” Bast answered. “They are amphibious and capable of spending periods out of the water, but they sleep in chambers like this. At least, the ambassador’s room at the hotel on Earth looked a lot like this.”

  Rrrark prowled around the room and sniffed the walls and floor. “This scent is fairly recent…at most two days old.”

  Hrrarr growled in frustration. “Bast, report back to Tomed and tell him what we’ve found. Rrrark, you and I are going back outside to try to find an outgoing scent trail.”