Spot, High Orbit of Cavaras, Corti Directorate Core World
Chir
“I do have one request,” Chir said to Trycur as they slowly cruised into position. “That is my ship, and I’d prefer it if this… absurdity of a vessel would avoid tearing it apart.”
They were coming up on the coordinates originally transmitted by the Vaulting Star, the location where it would be dropping out of its warp-field and directly into a firing position. It had not yet made an appearance, but as it had no cloaking system there was no need to be overly concerned about that fact; even the most organised enemy was not immune to the possibility of being late.
Trycrur clicked to indicate she was considering the idea. “I’m not certain that it could… or at least not quickly. By my calculations it would take roughly (half a minute) of maximum effort to actually sunder a Gaoian patrol cruiser.”
Chir frowned. “That does not reassure me, Trycrur.”
She laughed in reply; apparently she had not intended to. Chir would simply have to content himself with the knowledge that she was on his side and probably wouldn’t demolish his vessel without good reason.
He stopped dwelling on the prospective fate of the Vaulting Star when he noticed the ship traffic increasing in the area; several uncloaked corporate vessels, merchants for the most part, had adjusted their flight paths to take them through this section of space. “That,” he said, pointing it out to Trycrur, “seems odd, and I find it highly unlikely to be a coincidence.”
“Askit has already noted their presence,” Trycrur replied, gently reminding Chir that the Devastator lurked somewhere nearby, concealed by its own cloak. “He has advised me that we needn’t be concerned. He has not, however, related any of the details.”
The Corti had a plan, and knowing Askit it would probably work, but he would also be wanting Chir to ask him all about it. That was the Corti ego, but Chir had spent enough time around it to know how best he could avoid feeding it. “Send thanks.”
That would irritate the little Corti hacker no end, but not quite enough to make him give up on whatever mad idea he was considering. It didn’t hurt to have some sort of backup plan, however, and Chir quickly picked out the best pattern to target the corporate ships. “Tell him we’ve also got him covered in case it doesn’t work.”
Another prod, but this time it would ensure the Corti hacker wouldn’t be holding back his efforts to prove himself; for a species that was self-professedly the most intelligent in the galaxy, they tended to be terribly predictable.
It was just as predictable when, moments later, Askit patched himself through to personally reassure Chir that his plan would work. “You don’t need to worry about them, Chir,” the Corti told him irritably. “You just focus on your ‘boarding action’. Xayn is literally hopping with excitement.”
“It is a practice exercise!” the ancient lizardman snapped back, the faintness of his voice indicating that he was some distance from wherever Askit was broadcasting.
“You heard him,” Askit continued, some amusement slipping into his tone. “I will be remaining aboard the Devastator.”
“I’d expect you to,” Chir replied, wondering at why that even needed to be mentioned. There was no reason, as far as he could tell, that anybody would want to take a hacker into battle, let alone one as frail as a Corti. “I should think that you would be providing support.”
“For you?” Askit asked, the rise in his pitch making it clear that this was not his intent whatsoever. “You’ll have all the support you can handle in a psychotic deathworld lizard, you’ll hardly need my help in there. I’ll be ensuring that my plan regarding those other vessels goes accordingly… and of course there’s the matter of what’s going on down on the planet.”
“Nothing is going on down there,” Chir replied curtly. He’d been monitoring that, or at least Trycrur had, and as of yet there had been no sign of any kind of disaster at all.
Askit’s reply was brief, but heavy with meaning. “Indeed.”
“Shit,” Chir growled, only now starting to think about what that might mean. This was the planet where Adrian had spent a significant amount of time blowing things up, the planet where he’d stolen an entire space station and had caused widespread embarrassment. He’d been half expecting some kind of problem with Adrian returning there, but even if they failed to identify Adrian it didn’t make sense that there were three humans in one place and that nothing had resulted from that. “What is actually going on down there?”
“Difficult to say,” Askit replied, sounding mildly frustrated. “I’ve not been able to give it my full attention with these ships hanging around. I do know that the area has seen a huge spike in telecommunications.”
“People responding to the presence of three humans walking around as if they owned the place, no doubt,” Chir judged. “Why hasn’t there been some form of response?”
“Because the authorities aren’t responding,” Askit answered bluntly. “Whatever is happening, they’re not getting the information. Somebody is re-routing the notifications.”
“Corporates?” Chir guessed. “Or the Directorate? Or maybe even the Hierarchy? A lot of people really hate Adrian Saunders.”
Askit laughed, a noise he made frequently but not one that Chir imagined he’d ever get used to. “He does have a knack for really pissing people off. I’ll keep trying to find something until-“
The sensors pinged as they detected a warp-field approaching, big enough to contain a Gaoian patrol ship, and on an approach that meant it could be none other than the Vaulting Star. Chir’s stolen ship had finally arrived.
“-until the ship arrives,” Askit finished with some disapproval. “It looks like we’ve all got some work to do.”
Grunting his agreement, Chir got to his feet and took stock of his weapon, the surviving Irbzrkian stungun he’d claimed from his captors. It was strange, in a way, that a weapon he’d been instrumental in getting produced was now quickly becoming ubiquitous throughout the galaxy, both as a weapon to deal with humans and to deal with regular species.
The Vaulting Star dropped out of warp at the location specified, and Spot closed the distance with greater speed than Chir was used to. The distant speck of the patrol cruiser now filled the display and revealed a few key truths: the Vaulting Star was in darkness.
Sensors notified him that the other vessels, but not the Star, were powering their weapons. Moments later the sensors notified him that those same vessels were experiencing a variety of devastating explosions. “What in the void?” he asked despite himself.
“It appears that somebody edited the parameters in their weapons control configuration,” Askit answered, plainly pleased with himself. “It seems that’s very dangerous if done by somebody who doesn’t know what they’re doing.”
“Exceedingly so when it’s you, I imagine,” Chir replied, quickly checking over the sensor reports. The vessels in question were not destroyed, but they were disarmed and so badly damaged that they’d undoubtedly have an ambitious time trying to avoid the authorities when they finally arrived. “What is wrong with the Vaulting Star?”
“No power to most systems,” Trycrur reported. “Askit has assumed control of the other ship scanners to-“
A sensor alert. The Vaulting Star was powering its weapons, pivoting them in several directions that wouldn’t take aim at the surface. Instead their targets were the crippled corporate vessels, and moments latter the broken ships were rendered into smouldering ruin.
Chir stared at his ship in shock for a few heartbeats before he began recovering his composure. “You were saying?”
“To scan for life-signs aboard the Vaulting Star,” Trycrur finished. “The active scan took place moments before that response. All life-signs appear to be in life-pods. I do not understand what is happening.”
The life-pods in question flared a moment as they launched themselves free of the Vaulting Star, then turned in a flash of silver and set course for the planet below.
“That was rather unexpected,” Askit observed. “Our enemies don’t usually end up killing each other for us. Not that I’m complaining.”
“All life-signs were in the life-pods?” Chir asked, although he’d already been given the answer. “That means that if Grznk was aboard, he must have been within one of them. Let us proceed with retaking my ship!”
“I wouldn’t,” Askit advised him quickly. “There’s signs of a massive energy build-up in the FTL drive. They turned on the self-destruct.”
Chir glared, awkwardly aware that Askit couldn’t actually see this but feeling the need to express his frustration. “Then I will turn it off. The disintegration effect will not harm me even if I fail, provided I’m wearing my vacuum suit.”
“I estimate you have less than (two minutes),” Askit replied. “Hardly enough time to do that. You couldn’t even get to the reactor in time to turn it off.”
“As a matter-of-fact,” Chir replied, recalling what Trycrur had so recently claimed about Spot’s capabilities, “that may be all the time I need.”
+++++
+++++
Vaulting Star, Gaoian Patrol Cruiser, High Orbit of Cavaras, Corti Directorate Core World
Grznk
A Corti liked to think. It was what they did, what they were good at to the exclusion of any physical effort, and life was only satisfying when the opportunity came to exercise their minds. A Corti liked to think, but in Grznk’s opinion thinking pretty quickly became overrated when the only thing to think about was all the ways to achieve a quick and gruesome demise.
Safety lay in staying put, staying quiet, and only doing enough to keep himself alive and unnoticed. His limited efforts had worked, and nobody had come looking for him, but it gave him far too much time for his brain to consider all the ways in which life could suddenly take a turn for the terminal.
Discovering that he was back within the Directorate’s networking field had been the only thing that had kept him from giving into his instinctive fear, and he had put that access to good use. Before today, the specifics of Starship Engineering had never been of particular interest to Grznk – the whole subject seemed dull and straightforward, so he’d never been inclined to spend any time learning about it – and while he had remained incurious on the topic he’d still invested a significant portion of his personal savings into downloading everything he could get on it, and had spent the last (several hours) letting his brain properly absorb the new information.
That lack of knowledge was, by his reasoning, the only thing that was going to stand between him and getting off the Vaulting Star, and fear was an excellent motivator to gain an interest.
And he’d worked on his plan in the meantime, guessing at what malfunctions he might be able to cause to provide enough of a distraction to let him escape. Instability in the FTL drive would do the trick, but required a hands-on approach that wouldn’t work, and interfering with the reactor’s settings could have undesirable side effects. The best he’d been able to manage from the medical bay was to make the lights start flickering throughout the ship, and the invaders had merely switched over to the more stable green lighting of an alert status.
They had been focused on something else, or somewhere they were going, and it was so important that they did not have time to deal with that kind of distraction. At least that was what Grznk had believed until the fighting started again, but this time they were killing each other.
Although that might have been a little too charitable to the losing side; there was no fight, there was only a slaughter. Grznk risked accessing the handful of internal cameras to see what was going on, and witnessed a handful of the invaders standing amongst a pile of surprised corpses, guns still drawn and ready for more killing.
A betrayal from within? Grznk had wondered to himself, but there was something about this turn of events that unsettled him, something about these soldiers that wasn’t quite right. They worked silently, their faces as impassive as that of a Corti as they took control of the command deck. Somebody less familiar with soldiers might have mistaken that for professionalism, but Grznk had served aboard a military vessel and he knew that even the most abrupt of soldiers still made the occasional utterance to keep his squad-mates aware of what he was doing.
No, this wasn’t professional silence, not when there was no need for it. This was something else entirely, and the way that they moved with such coordination was something he’d only ever seen in Hunters.
Grznk considered that thought for a moment, watching the traitors curiously as they rose as one and headed wordlessly from separate exits, leaving the command deck to the dead. They moved with singular purpose that was too singular, stared ahead without expression or any glint of self-awareness, behaving just like robots might if they wore flesh instead of polymer and steel.
And then he realised it, the reason they were behaving like automatons was as simple as it was obvious; it was because that was exactly what they were. Yet that had not been the case a few moments earlier, back when there was no indication of these events; they’d been normal soldiers, interacting with the others, and Grznk judged that most likely indicated the unknown creature had come aboard recently, or had simply been biding its time. It also suggested that it was limited to controlling those who were particularly susceptible for whatever reason.
He rubbed his aching head, too many questions and not enough answers, and it wasn’t bringing him any closer to a way off the Vaulting Star. All it had done was reinforce his desire to get off this ship at the earliest possible opportunity, likely the next planet they were to stop at regardless of the risk.
It did come as something of a surprise when the ship dropped out of FTL and the puppet-soldiers used all the life-pods, but by that time Grznk had already donned a Vacuum suit and was heading for the airlock.
The self-destruct countdown was nearly at its end, and the only thing he had time to do was to try and get outside.
+++++
+++++
Marketplace, Cavaras, Corti Directorate Core World
Adrian
The small shop was spartan, offering the usual bland furnishings provided by Corti and little besides. It was not a tailoring shop, but it dealt in fabrics and could manage to produce vacuum suits and other utilitarian garb, so clothes fit for a human hadn’t seemed like much of a stretch. That was not to say that what it could produce was particularly nice to look at, unless you happened to be a big fan of brown and grey.
Adrian couldn’t say that he was, and Darragh didn’t seem to be particularly impressed by his new ensemble either; the Irishman twisted and turned in some awkward rendition of a model as he showed off his new outfit.
“I’m not sure it’s actually possible to look good in this,” Darragh complained, taking a handful of the loose-fitting stretchy material and tugging on it disdainfully. “It does look like I’ve just been coloured in with a brown crayon.”
Adrian gave a slight shrug to indicate that he wasn’t exactly contesting the statement. “You kind of remind me of my Aunt’s vinyl couch.”
“Oh good,” Darragh retorted, “I’ve always wanted to be upholstered. Fecking dream come true.”
“Don’t worry, mate,” Adrian reassured him. “There’s no way she’s going to wear those colours any better than you do.”
Darragh scowled for a moment, but didn’t make any reprisal. “How long’s she going to take, anyway?”
Adrian raised an eyebrow, reckoning it hadn’t really been all that long when you considered the factors involved. “You’ve never been clothes shopping with a girl before, have you?”
Darragh frowned. “I’ll have you know-“
“Your mum doesn’t count,” Adrian interrupted, and couldn’t help but smirk when he saw he’d been on the money.
Darragh had resumed scowling, and crossed his arms defensively. “Then, no. Not as such.”
“Well, best get used to it,” Adrian replied, “and just be glad it doesn’t include sitting on a fucking bench next to the ladies undies. I really don’t know why places stick their change rooms in a place like that.”
Darragh snorted. “You’re sure you’re not just some sort of pervert?”
Adrian laughed a little at that. “Mate, I might be a bit fucked in the head, but I can’t see myself watching old ladies pick out their new knickers for the fun of it.”
Keffa chose that moment to emerge, hearing enough to give Adrian a puzzled and slightly disturbed look. She wore the same colours as Darragh, she hadn’t a choice in that, but she’d spent the extra time with the beleaguered Corti merchant to ensure it fit her properly.
Adrian looked her up and down, quickly assessing the construction of the outfit as both functional and surprisingly becoming, and then noticed that Darragh was just staring like an idiot. Keffa noticed that too, and shifted uncomfortably.
“What are you looking at?” she demanded, giving the Irishman a stern frown. “This was the best I can do, and it’s a hell of a lot better than that damned blanket.”
“Where is that blanket, anyway?” Adrian asked; it had been one of the few items he’d actually taken from Cimbrean and he’d been hoping to get it back once Keffa was done with it. It was some kind of woollen blend and had been a little itchy, but it was a small reminder of home and he’d…
The look she gave him in reply told him that wasn’t happening. Adrian sighed and wondered how he’d go about getting another one without needing to return to the human colony; he didn’t much like the idea of going back there to ask Powell for a replacement blanket.
“So…” Darragh began. “Perhaps we should be going?”
The Corti merchant cleared his throat. “There remains the matter of… the price.”
“Free is a price,” Adrian replied. “We’ll call it an even zero whateverthefucks you use.”
“Credits,” Keffa helpfully supplied. “Although the price is still going to have to be zero.”
The Corti merchant sighed but seemed generally unsurprised. “I suppose that in the case of the Human Disaster and associates, I will have to agree to that obscene demand. My only request is that you leave and never darken my door again. I’ve seen the trouble you cause, and frankly I have no desire to become a part of it.”
Adrian smiled broadly, letting his teeth show and privately enjoying the way the Corti merchant flinched. Of the three humans present he seemed to be the only one who still smiled with parted lips; the other two had clearly had the instinct trained out of them.
“Fucking A,” said Adrian, turning to leave. “I’ll be sure to recommend this place to all my friends.”
Corti weren’t usually given to gurgling cries of despair, but this one seemed to be the exception. “I would prefer if you did-“
The air was split by rolling thunder ending in a shattering boom, followed swiftly by a second and a third, and by the time Adrian had made it to the doorway he could only see red streaks of heat slowly dissipating in the sky and a hot glow on the horizon.
“Human Disaster…” the Corti breathed behind him. “What… what have you done to the city?!”
Adrian stared at the horizon as several more points of thunder and flame broke the sky, listening to the distant wail of emergency crews scrambling towards the affected locations. “I don’t think that was me.”
The beep on his communicator came a moment later, and the urgent voice of Askit rang through as soon as he’d accepted the call. “Adrian,” he said with undisguised relief. “Things have not gone according to plan!”
Adrian glanced back at the serious faces of those with him, and grimaced along with them. “I gathered that from the explosions… what the fuck was that? The Vaulting Star?”
“Its crew,” Askit replied. “They jettisoned in life-pods, but turned their escape into a planetary bombardment. I am having difficulty understanding their pointless sacrifice, but their targets were corporate headquarters. Somebody was feeling vengeful, and it wasn’t towards us for a change.”
Adrian paused; he wasn’t certain what to make of this information, and he certainly wasn’t used to explosions going on nearby without him being the cause or intended target. The whole thing had him at a bit of a loss, and the confusion on the faces of his eavesdroppers told him there wasn’t much of chance they’d be able to offer more insight.
“What about the Vaulting Star?” he asked, somewhat lamely. “And Grznk?”
“Let’s just say that our companions are unlikely to be enthusiastic about the results of their endeavours,” Askit replied somewhat cryptically. “But at least we now know that your ship cannot in fact tear all the way through to the reactor of a cruiser class in under (two minutes).”
“Good to know?” Adrian half-asked, little idea of what to make of it.
Askit snorted. “I doubt that Chir would agree with you, but you can ask him all about it when you see him. Right now I’m busy picking up our intrepid boarding party and a surprisingly alive Corti doctor from wherever the air-burst sent them spinning. Trycrur is coming to collect you, I suggest we leave before the authorities learn of your presence. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
“Shouldn’t they already know I’m here?” he asked. He’d been planning to make the trip quick and low-key from the beginning, but had brought his shotgun for the inevitably violent outcome. It was strange that they hadn’t shown up yet, even from a distance where they could simply observe him while they tried to figure out what to do.
“Like I said,” Askit replied. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
+++++
+++++
Chir
“That… was a miserable failure!” Chir fumed as he stepped aboard the Devastator. He was the second to be picked up by the ship, roughly (ten minutes) after Xayn, and there’d been plenty of time to contemplate where everything had gone wrong while he’d been waiting.
Trycrur had been incorrect, Spot had not been powerful enough to tear through the Vaulting Star as quickly as they’d needed, and Chir’s hands had only just touched on the reactor controls when the FTL drive had activated and disintegrated the patrol cruiser’s structure in a carefully shaped unstable warp field. He supposed it was a good thing such systems didn’t destroy anything else, like the occupants, but that had still left him adrift in a mountain of debris that had to be gently shifted away before he could be recovered.
“It feels exactly like being robbed,” Chir muttered. “Again.”
Xayn hardly looked up from where he was sitting, checking over an ancient weapon that hadn’t needed to be fired. He was already long out of his vacuum suit, which meant that Chir would need to remain in his until they could get Grznk aboard and the surgery complete. That was unless he was willing to enjoy the original Jennifer Delaney scenario all over again.
“It was a good thing for us that this ‘self-destruct’ of your era is so pitiful,” Xayn reflected. “In my time we used enormous bombs, or in the case of my father’s vessel, the ‘Crucible of God’, which was powerful enough to scour life from a world. That is a real self-destruct.”
“That was the Devastator cannon,” Chir recalled. “Adrian managed to use it to great effect against the Hunters, but left the Zhadersil so incredibly radioactive that we had no hope of getting inside.”
“An unfortunate casualty in a great victory,” the lizardman said, growling appreciatively. “My father would have done no less.”
Askit pivoted around to face them at last, looking equal parts concerned and bothered. “I’ve been in contact with Grznk. We should be picking him up shortly. Needless to say he was greatly relieved.”
“I can understand why,” Chir replied coolly, his frustration still gnawing at him. “I rarely enjoy being propelled through the void on a pocket of expanding gas, myself. But you don’t have the look of someone with good news to share.”
“I have plenty of good news,” Askit snapped back. “But the funny thing about good news is that it doesn’t worry me. I’m trying to figure out how to deal with this particular problem and I am not sure that I can.”
“Which problem?” Chir demanded. Stars knew that he had enough to deal with already, but a fresh problem would stop him thinking about losing yet another ship and that habit was getting a little bit depressing.
Askit sighed, pausing for a few moments to frown and gather his thoughts. “If I had to guess,” he said, “I would say that someone out there can take people over through their neural implants. And if I had to guess who… I would say it was the Hierarchy.”
Chir felt cold, and all too keenly aware of the implant in his own head. “What do you mean, ‘take over’?”
“Grznk described the behavior of the soldiers who just fired themselves at the planet to be ‘robot-like’, and we all know what a faulty translator can do to a brain,” Askit explained. “Or a faulty neural implant of any kind, but the translators have the most significant level of integration.”
Chir sat down, feeling the sudden need to be off his feet. If taking his Vacuum Suit off hadn’t meant instant infection he would have done that too, so stifling did it now seem. “That would mean anybody woth a translator could be compromised.”
That made practically everyone he’d worked with a potential Hierarchy spy, and even for a strategist it held inconceivable implications.
“Yes,” Askit agreed. “With the exception of us.”
Chir turned his attention back to the Corti, piercing him with a questioning stare. “What?”
Xayn was quick to offer an explanation. “Because we are invincible in all things.”
Askit ignored him as was appropriate. “When we were aboard the Celzi ship I had too much free time,” he said. “I started messing around with hacking translators and found them full of junk files and processes, running on a protocol that was practically open. So… I fixed it.”
“You fixed it? Imagine for a moment that you are speaking to an idiot,” Chir replied, ignoring the less-than-complimentary expression the Corti. “Or a young child.”
Askit thought a moment before continuing. “The software was not secure. I made it secure. It was full of rubbish. I cleaned it up. This really should have been done by the responsible Directorate department but I am hardly surprised that they left it in that state. Anyway, I installed my version of the software on every translator I’ve been around since making my discovery, including everyone on that Celzi ship and on New Askitoria.”
“So you’re saying we’re… immune?” Chir asked.
Askit shook his head. “I’m saying that they won’t be able to freely access your implants without taking the time to decrypt a ten-thousand bit piece of protection.”
“Which gives us how long exactly?”
“Until long after the heat death of the universe,” Xayn replied. “Unless they have a truly staggering amount of computing power.”
There was a hiss from the airlock as they began to receive their final missing companion, and their conversation was put on hold while Grznk emerged looking very glad to be there.
“Well,” the Corti surgeon said, looking Xayn up and down, “they certainly don’t make them like that anymore. But I’m itching to get this suit off, so let’s not wait.”
Chir nodded; he couldn’t agree more.
+++++
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Hierarchy Communications Link
Three
+0003+: There is no need to be so concerned. The offenders have been appropriately chastised.
+0009+: An interesting use of the word, Three. If bombarding the headquarters of those profit-driven fools with their own men was purely a chastisement I would hate to see what you would label punishment.
+0003+: You believe it excessive?
+0009+: I believe it pointless. Why not let them kill Adrian Saunders for us?
+0003+: I don’t think we should be encouraging the corporations to conduct orbital strikes against civilian worlds, Nine. Besides, this has allowed me to do some very important things.
Three decided it was probably best to keep talking to avoid giving Nine or any idlers the opportunity to point out that Three had conducted the orbital bombardment instead.
+0003+: First of all we have reminded the corporations of their place. Secondly we shall shortly be releasing information that paints Chir as the mastermind behind the attack, thereby completely blackening his less-than-sterling reputation and that of Adrian Saunders along with him.”
+0009+: All of which could have been achieved without-
+0003+: And now we have a man directly next to Chir and Saunders. I seized an opportunity that presented itself and now we will know what they know. I have already learned two very unsettling things.
There was a brief pause to give his listeners time to grow curious. What he’d learned was deeply worrying and wasn’t the sort of thing you dropped on an unsuspecting audience without first alerting them of the gravitas.
+0009+: Go on then, Three. Unsettle us.
+0003+: The agent in question reports finding the translator in the host completely inaccessible. No word from the inhabitants. There was obviously no issue accessing those of the corporate mercenaries aboard the Gaoian ship, but the same problem has been recorded against Chir and Askit, and I expect identical results from everybody the Corti hacker has had time to modify.
+0012+: This is a serious problem, Three! The last time this technique was in use it was by the Scourge, and we know what happened there.
+0009+: He did say it would be unsettling. Nobody wants to start from scratch again, so we need to get on top of this early. The Corti hacker must now be a high priority for elimination.
+0003+: And what of their pet V’Straki?
Three may have been wrong, dropping that sort of information on Nine was very satisfying. It had certainly restored silence to the room.
+0012+: Explain.
+0009+: Now.
+0008+: Yes, explain! The V’Straki are long dead, our ancestors made certain of that. It is on record!
+0003+: I think you’ll find otherwise. Adrian Saunders has one aboard, and presumably all that technology along with it. If anybody had the capacity to disintegrate over such a large region it seems likely to be him.
+0009+: Fifty-four has yet to confirm anything of the sort… and there remains no motive. Despite what the public think he doesn’t start destroying things without reason. Keep investigating.
+0003+: I had already intended on doing so. All that lost knowledge… the secrets of the V’Straki… with care it should be possible to claim them for ourselves.
+0009+: Priorities, Three. We can come to the knowledge in other ways, but we must look at preventing it from reaching the public awareness. That technology cannot be allowed to reach anybody but ourselves.
+++++
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Spot, High Orbit of Cavaras, Corti Directorate Core World
Adrian
“Right, well… fuck, that’s one item off the fucking to-do list, I guess,” Adrian said as the two young adults took their seats on the command deck. “It’d just be nice if we could go somewhere without being blamed for causing some kind of fucking cataclysm.”
Keffa frowned. “But you had nothing to do with it this time…”
“That’s apparently not what the news networks are saying,” Adrian replied. Askit had just finished copying him in on the latest broadcast and it had mixed a lot of truth with equal parts lies. “According to them it was Chir making some sort of fucking terrorist attack on my behalf.”
“Well…” Darragh said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “You did blow up a whole lot of stuff the last time we were here…”
Adrian glared at him, but the Irishman wasn’t wrong; he might have been working on behalf of forces in the government, and he might have been fighting arseholes, but it had still an unsanctioned conflict and he’d broken too many laws to count. “I guess I’ll just harden the fuck up, then.”
“What’s the plan now that we’ve got something to wear and have Grznk installing that Corti vaccine in the lizard as we speak?” Keffa asked. “Intending to make good on your promise to find me a new and better ship?”
Darragh broke into abrupt laughter. “You must be joking! You’ve seen what happens to any ship he’s been on! It’s like he’s pissed off some old gypsy woman or something.”
Adrian smiled, having previously wondered as much himself. “Well, I do have a few things in mind. We’ve got to find Trix a new body, find Xayn a way to rebuild his entire fucking species, and of course rescue Jen from whatever trouble she’s found her way into.”
“What makes you think she’s found her way into trouble?” Darragh asked. “She did very well for herself while we were on Cimbrean. Wasn’t until you actually showed up again that things went south.”
“This was before you signed on, but I’m sure you’ve heard that I actually saved her life in the process of ‘showing up’,” Adrian reminded him. “And she’s as bad as I am at keeping out of trouble, but doesn’t have the benefit of an education in fucking things up and everything an ancient dinosaur warship wanted to teach.”
“About that…” Keffa interrupted. “What’s the deal with wanting to resurrect a long and probably rightfully extinct civilisation that sounds like it was genetically coded to cause everybody a shitload of problems? I’m not a genius, but that sounds like a bad idea.”
“She’s right,” Darragh agreed. “I’ve seen Jurassic Park… ‘clever girl’.”
Adrian nodded, he could see their points and had considered them himself after he’d made the promise. “I’m not saying you’re wrong,” he said, “and he does have a face like a fucked up blue-tongue, but in a galaxy without another species to match ourselves against the human race will have nothing to drive them. Think of it as friendly competition.”
“There’s the Hunters to be afraid of,” Keffa replied. “They’re actually dangerous even if you do manage to kill several thousand of them in a single fight. Then there’s the Hierarchy who I don’t imagine think all that highly of humanity.”
“On that topic,” Adrian said, happy to use the segue to change the subject, “it seems that those fuckers can use Translators against their owners. You’ve got Askit to thank for being the exception to that particular rule.”
Keffa rubbed her head where the Translator was installed, and Darragh did similarly; both of them looked worried by the news and would probably be dwelling on it for days.
“What can they use them for?” Keffa asked. “To spy, or-“
“To turn you into some kind of fucking meat puppet if I could hazard a guess,” Adrian replied. “That’s Askit’s theory based on what Grznk saw, and it seems likely to me as well. Using implants to take you over… that’s just the sort of thing those fuckers would do. I’m sure there’s been movies made about that idea.”
Darragh was trying not to rub the scar from his implant but his hand kept drifting back there of its own accord. It didn’t seem that he was a fan of being turned into some mindless drone, and who could blame him?
“And exactly what did Askit do to protect us?” he asked as calmly as he could manage.
“Patched the software, added a firewall, that’s how we’d understand it anyway,” Adrian explained, then saw the lack of understanding in Keffa’s eyes. “Those of us raised on Earth, anyway.”
“Then then plan is…” Keffa asked again, trailing off in the expectation that Adrian would finish the sentence for her.
He obliged. “The plan is to have a meeting to discuss the plan.”
Darragh sat back into his chair with his full weight and rolled his eyes. “Oh, perfect.”
+++++
+++++
Date Point: 3Y 8M 4W 3D AV
Perfection, Class Three Dominion World
Laphor Metmin
The legends of Six-Skulls Zripob painted him as a berserker capable of boarding a ship on his own, so feared that his mere presence was cause to set the self-destruct and find the nearest life-pod. He was supposed to be a force of fury and blood, the essence of battle. He was not supposed to be of calm and quiet words.
The only thing that prevented Laphor from suspecting some sort of ruse was the intensity the Chehnasho mercenary carried at all times, as though he was barely keeping his true nature under control. That would certainly fit in with the stories, but it was still disconcerting to watch him pretend to be something else.
“I think you should tell me what you know,” Zripob said simply, not even bothering to point his gun at the fearful Corti information specialist. “My sources place those I seek close to here, and we all know that you’re the only individual worth visiting in this gilded neighbourhood.”
Vakno stared at the lowered gun, not daring to make any sudden movements. Somebody as well-informed as she was would certainly know Zripob by reputation, if not by sight, but Vakno seemed to be very well informed indeed. “My sources place you as probably dead,” she said. “Apparently there are limits to my knowledge.”
Zripob tapped his gun with a single finger to great effect, and Vakno quickly continued. “However, I did meet with Chir, Kefani and Darragh… I did not meet with Adrian Saunders, thankfully… I’d probably be dead if I’d been that unfortunate.”
“And what were these three asking you about?” Zripob pressed, still being polite as he was able, which was a damned sight more polite than Laphor would have expected. Somehow the politeness made her skin crawl, as though she was in the presence of a predatory beast, although on reflection that might not have been far wrong.
“Doctor Grznk had gone missing along with their patrol cruiser,” Vakno said without sympathy. “At the time I uncovered hints that it was taken by an association of corporations with a vested interest in killing Adrian Saunders. Today I hear of Chir committing an atrocity on Cavaras and of the Human Disaster himself going down to the planet to visit the shops.”
“Neither of those seem likely,” Zripob replied, the tempo of his tapping increasing only enough to be noticeable. “Possibly the names were reversed…”
“They were not,” Vakno replied vehemently. “My information on this is accurate. I have a vested interest in making sure none of them ever bother me again, so I do this thing called ‘double-checking’.”
The tempo of the tapping slowed. “Hm. Cavaras… either brave or foolish of him to return. He managed to escape?”
Vakno winced, although it seemed to be in irritation rather than fear. “He did, but now there are bounties posted for him everywhere. Twenty million credits are posted for his corpse, and five each for that of Chir and Askit. I imagine you’ve got quite the race to win.”
The tapping stopped, and Vakno froze along with Laphor, waiting for the moment when the gun would pop and Vakno would die. Waiting for the storied Zripob to make his appearance and paint the room in Corti blood.
It didn’t happen; Zripob holstered the weapon and strode from the room with fresh purpose, forcing Laphor to hurry to catch up. She called ahead to make sure the ship was ready, not wanting to let Zripob reach it and find something to his dissatisfaction now that the pressure was on. And if she was honest with herself, Laphor was eager too; for a share in twenty million credits she’d push her people past the point of exhaustion and then some.
Now that was a reason to hurry.