Eric Olafson, Space Pirate 10b

Chapter 10b: Reunion

Continuation...

Har Hi, Cirruit and Shaka were next to deliver the results of their task. Har Hi said. ““There is only one ship here ready to go. The fighters are just as he said still in warehouses and in boxes and need to be assembled if we want to use them.”

Cirruit added to this. “The ship is a Scooper Class Multi Role Brig. Minimally armed and shielded, decent cargo hold and a full set of science sensors.”

Shaka sounded a little disappointed saying: “No Virtu- but standard helm. It would be perfect to explore the system though.”

Elfi came in, sat on a sofa and crossed her legs, looking at her own PDD she said. “As for Recreation facilities there is everything you could want: Virtu Theaters, Restaurants, Bars and Clubs, Swimming Pools, Gyms, Amusement park, Aqua fun facility and a big Terran Style forest with lake, waterfall and hiking trails. The park has over 12,000 acres and is really big.” She tapped on her display and said. As for local attractions there isn’t that much listed as such things usually grow out of local observations and such but there is a list of geological surface features listed as worth visiting and there is supposed to be a cave system leading to a large underground lake with liquid water.”

I remembered how much fun I had exploring the caves with Brenda on Wichita, at least at the beginning when it appeared just to be a scientific exploration and said.

“I guess we could mount a geological survey expedition. Doing such things are after all part of our job description.”

Har Hi held up two fingers and said. “Especially now that we have not one but two Science obsessed friends. I bet they will be happy to hear you say that.”

I grinned at him. “I saw some of the hardware you packed. During such an expedition we could certainly test some of it. There aren’t any neighbors out there who would complain.”

He spread his arms. “Hey I like science and all that too. We Dai aren’t just about weapons and vaporizing things.” He mockingly tried to look insulted. “You’ll see I will go and scan rocks and go ahh and ooh when I find one that’s interesting.”

Circuit looked to the ceiling. “Fat chance there is a rock in the Universe you would find interesting.”

Shaka added. “Except perhaps if they are living rocks of some kind he could fight.”

Har Hi crossed his arms and said. “I am going to show you just how scientific I can be and I am going to ask Wetmouth to explain every second rock and make you all listen.”

As if by cue Wetmouth and Narth entered and she said. “Did I just hear my name?”

Elfi pointed at Har Hi and said. “Eric suggested we mount a geographic survey expedition and Har Hi wanted to come along and learn more about rocks and such and hoped you would point out to him the more interesting features.”

Wetmouth’s voice had a surprised tone. “Har Hi said that? You guys trying way too hard to look serious, but since you mentioned it. I actually wanted to take the opportunity to visit Richter 5. There are ruins of a civilization and they have only been superficially surveyed.”

Circuit said. “There is a ship available and it has decent science equipment, not to mention that the base here has an entire Science section with the finest Union Lab technology.”

I stopped them there and said. “We can talk about that later. We got lots of time so it seems. What did you two find out?”

Wetmouth pointed at her PDD. “Narth and I found the Mission and General Orders for a Class B station is a 17,323 page document and this one in particular. Narth has started to read it but it will even take him a little while to read it all and then summarize it. It is very dry stuff for the most part.”

Narth held up a PDD of his own. “Wetmouth was so kind to equip me with one of these. I am actually quite amazed what it can do. I am also engaged, as she said in reading the documents. So far I have found it all dry, none of the documents appear to be wet or mention moisture.”

I said. “It’s an expression to describe reading material that is not very interesting or easy to read as it contains only legal, technical or procedural subjects.”

Narth looked at his PDD. “I find it very interesting, the section I am consuming right now describes in great detail the maintenance intervals and procedures for Class B Star bases. Did you know that the acceptable dust and dirt particle count for Union Fleet Installations must not exceed 12.5 particles per cubic meter?”

I looked at him and said. “And there I was thinking it was 13.6 per cubic meter.”

For perhaps the first time since I knew him he actually sounded surprised. “You know about all that already?”

Wetmouth put her arm around his shoulder. “No he was being sarcastic and made a joke. You will get used to it. To them we are just walking Computronics and data repositories and then must suffer their mocking.”

I lowered my head. “That was a mean one, Wetty.”

She bowed. “Sarcasm is a dish that only tastes good when served to others.”

Narth actually laughed under his hood. “How have I missed all this. Narth often thinks it knows so much and yet since I am among you I learn there is a myriad of concepts Narth does not understand. But I can assure you Wetty; Eric does not think of us that way and appreciates us very deeply. His mind is currently closed to me, but his emotions and feelings are not.”

We bantered a little more when Hans came and found himself a seat after the chair adjusted to his size and delivered his report. “According to the Fleet Intel Report for this Quadrant, there were exactly 275 long range scanner contacts since the base came fully operational eight years ago. That comes to about 35 contacts a year. None of the contacts were identified as hostile or unknown. Twenty two civilian ships of various Freespace civilizations used this base as entry point into the Union and have been processed by customs.”

Har Hi frowned. “It certainly is a quiet corner of the Universe then and I can almost understand the Commanders sentiment.”

Hans tapped on his PDD and said. Internal security however reported eighty nine fatalities including suicides and accidents, since this base became operational. Recent accidents include two officers who were crushed by a tunneling robot, about a year ago, an able spaceman second class drowned in the recreation lake after drinking too much and falling of his inflatable raft and only six weeks ago, ten just recently assigned officers perished in a surface mission as their crawler cat drove into a dust lake and the reactor overheated.”

I sat up straight. “That is a very high number of accidents for a quiet place like this.”

He agreed and said. “Fleet came to the same conclusion and an investigation was done. The investigation team of CID came here. In their final report they state that carelessness due to boredom was the underlining cause.”

Shaka said. “I can understand that. I mean if you are posted here for a year or more it might get boring. I wonder how many of these obsolete or unnecessary posts there are, staffed by bored crews.”

Wetmouth interrupted her reading and said. “These postings are usually voluntary but the so called Cabin Fever syndrome is well documented and known for millennia. Normally a good commander knows how to keep his troops occupied but after several years that might be difficult in a place like this. I checked into the personnel files and all the core officers are here for eight years and have not filed for transfers but asked for extensions. With few exceptions all officers and enlisted have been requested by the Commander.

I said. “It’s less than eight weeks for us and I am sure we can keep ourselves busy. I still want us to cross train each other. During my little odyssey recently I realized how little I still know about Xeno tech and that my Navigation skills are not anywhere near those of Krabbel or Shaka. Despite the jokes earlier I think we all need to brush up on general science some more. Since none of us is a real Medic I also want us to focus on learning more about battle field medicine and general first aid. I want to know what I can do if Krabbel gets hurt, or Circuit and I am certain all of you have areas that could be improved.”

Har Hi grinned. “I thought school’s out? But you’re right. I sure could use some more science knowledge and I mean that seriously.”

I slapped my hand flat on the desk and said. “Well let’s figure this out tomorrow, it is almost 2000 hrs and I’d like to see you at that time in the restaurant on top of this building.

--””--

Krabbel and Mao had outdone themselves. A long table was beautifully laid out with a center piece of sculpted ice and set with fine Union logo decorated china and silverware.

There was beautiful music playing in the background which Wetmouth identified as Mozart, who was according to her a Terran composer.

Mao greeted us almost as if he was the restaurant owner and rubbed his hands. “Friends it is served, we’ve got steamed Slime Diggers of Calva IV, Stunned Humm-Beetles, carefully aged raw Dino Livers, Nuflug Larvae marinated in Nanda blood, Sucki-Lums, Baldarian Mud-mash and some really stinky cheese from Terra.”

I almost gagged just hearing the choices and I cursed. “Teaches me to ask a Spider and a Cannibal to make dinner.”

Krabbel snickered. “I think we really got you fooled this time.” He lifted the covers and said.”Pizza, roasted fish, mashed Quadtatoes, gravy, steamed veggies and roast beef; for desert of course ice cream but with a hot berry sauce over it. We do have Sucki-Lums but they are for Mao, he insisted.”

I glanced at the one remaining covered dish and was certain the metal lid had moved by itself. “Do I want to know what Sucki-Lums are?” I asked.

Har-Hi, Hans and Wetmouth simultaneously said.” No you don’t.”

Elfi stopped Mao from explaining anyhow and said. “Go eat those later or on another table.”

Wetti groaned.”You can’t be serious. You aren’t Oromal”

He smiled defending his choice and said. “Never judge before you tried. If you get over the fact that they...” Elfi said with a sharp tone. “Mao.” then glared at him with her trademark dark eye glare and he ducked his head.”Alright I’ll eat them later.”

At exactly 2000 hrs I delivered the toast and raised my glass. “Recent events made it even clearer to me, how blessed I am for having such friends. I am convinced beyond any doubt that I have discovered the greatest treasure there is to be found in the Universe, you.

So I raise my glass and thank you for the privilege it is to be considered a friend by you and be in your midst once more.”

They lifted their glasses and there was a moment of silence then we drank and started to eat.

I told them about the Pulse Stink Maggot incident during my first academy year because whatever Mao had under that covered dish reminded me of that.

They laughed but when Mao suggested to take a few out of stasis freeze, we quickly turned to another subject.

We ate and had a great time and just as we were almost finished and a tending robot, Mao had activated, served Coffee and liquor; the Base Commander appeared from the IBT shaft and came over.

This time he did look much more presentable and how a Commander should look. He was clean shaven, wore a clean uniform and shined boots.

I called my friends to their feet and to attention. He looked somewhat surprised over the spread and motioned with his hand to continue and asked “What is the occasion, someone’s birthday?”

I answered him. “No Sir, we just like to do this whenever we can. It became somewhat like a little tradition with us, would you like to join?”

He shook his head. “No not really, Ensign. I tend to have dinner earlier and already ate.” He then flared his nostrils and sniffed.

“Either someone here has used the table for a bathroom or there are freshly opened Sucki-Lums.”

Mao grinned. “I found a whole case in the Hotel Stasis freezer.”

He pulled up a chair and sat down. “In that case I do accept. It’s rare to find someone who isn’t Shail, Shiss or Oghr that appreciates Sucki-Lums.”

Wetmouth shivered. “It’s even rare to find Shail that still do.”

Mao lifted the cover and picked something about the length of a human finger. It was oozing with a milky yellowish slime. The odor that wafted over instantly reminded me of the Environmental tanks Har-Hi and I had to clean once and I could not help but cover my mouth to suppress a gagging reflex. The semi translucent finger long oozing thing moved and suddenly made a hissing sound fighting the grip Mao had on it, and I could see a tiny mouth with teeth.”

With a face of utmost content, Mao stuck it in his mouth. I heard it hiss even louder and it seemed he had to fight whatever he just put in his mouth before he managed to swallow it.

To my horror the Commander did the same.

Mao proudly explained. “It isn’t entirely without dangers. You have to get them just right or you will know why they are called Sucki-Lums.”

Har Hi was no less affected than I was but had it somewhat better under control as he said to me “It’s considered a great feat in the Shail society to eat ten of them without getting hurt or killed.”

While Elfi pressed a Napkin before her mouth, Wetmouth said. “It is because Captain Elgar of the USS Wintergreen did just that, swallowing ten of these and during an Shail banquet. That the Shail begun to respect and trust humans and the Union. The Shail used their considerable influence over the Nosirrah and instead of war, dialog was started and it ended all with the Shail and the Nosirrah joining the Union.

I noticed the Commander’s name tag and only now learned that his name was Cardwell.

The Base Commandant nodded. “All this of course made the reasons to build Richter Base obsolete.”

He shrugged and after eating another Sucki-Lum and drinking a glass of water he said. “I don’t mind, I love this post. It is very quiet and leaves me time for my hobbies, but some can’t handle it and get crazy.”

I asked. “Like the Ensigns in the Crawler Cat?”

He swallowed his third slime thing and nodded while fighting the thing inside his mouth. He swallowed and said. “Totally unnecessary too, they held races across the surface, intoxicated with alcohol and drugs, way too fast and not wearing protective suits inside the Cats, which is required by the way and would have saved their lives.”

He burped, applauded Mao for doing what he just did and pointed at us. “That is why I was looking for you and came up here in the first place. I do not want to lose my cozy posting because you guys get bored and do stupid things. I was told you checked on the ship.”

“Yes we were considering taking the ship to explore the system a little.”

Wetmouth added. “I am certain you have heard of this, Sir. The initial survey team also checked on Richter 5 and found the remains of a primitive civilization and I was hoping to go there to examine that further.”

He leaned back and declined Mao’s offer for the last one and said. “I told you can do what you like. Just do it properly and with all safety precautions observed.”

I said. “I promise you Sir, we will.”

And was glad Mao put the cover back on the plate.

“Well then carry on and remember C & C is off limits.”

He got up nodded to Mao and left for the Elevator.

Mao followed him with his eyes as the man left and said. “Maybe he isn’t such a bad person. I imagine it would take a certain type of personality to take a posting like this.”

I could see his tongue moving inside his cheek while he was talking and then realized it wasn’t his tongue and Mao said. “Darn I missed the head!” Something crunched and he looked happy for a moment then leaned forward. “That is what my mind tells me, my guts tell me he was acting a role.”

Wetmouth almost whispered. “Do you know where he graduated from?”

Har Hi groaned. “Please don’t say Newport.”

She said. “Sorry, but it was plain to see on his ribbon read out.”

Narth who had until now and with great interest followed the Sucki-Lum proceedings said. “His pulse rate increased and I could sense a jolt of fear as you mentioned the crawler cat accident. He didn’t like that you knew about it.”

I put my coffee down and cursed.”To Hel with all those scheming, worm infested bastards. There is no way this is a coincidence. No one can be that unlucky to get postings like that all the time and run into those shady characters and strange situations all the time. Before the Fleet expends even one person and one ship, they should start cleaning their own backyard first.”

Har Hi also put his cup down and said. “Maybe that is why we here?”

Hans asked,” So what are we going to do about it?” while eying the covered plate that was moving.

I said “We continue exactly as ordered. He has not done anything wrong or treated us badly, but I think we should check our quarters for listening devices and keep our eyes wide open.” I pointed at the covered dish and we are going to make sure the food we eat is well done and not moving the tableware.”

Cirruit said “Those are high security suites we are in are equipped with the latest anti spyware to give Ambassadors and Flag Officers the required privacy.”

I just looked at him and Cirruit raised his hands. “I am going to sweep them never the less.”

I waved the robot to get me another coffee and said to him. “They have been here for years and had all the time in the world to circumvent things, if they are indeed up to no good. It was him who recommended these places in the first place.”

For the first week we explored the base and used the recreation facilities. Krabbel could not get enough of the vintage style thrill rides that were part of the local amusement park. Har Hi worked out a class schedule and we continued to cross train each other. Har Hi turned out to be quite a task master as he drilled us in the still empty Marine training facilities and in Zero G combat, where he was unbeatable. To my surprise it was Narth who deeply enjoyed the physical aspect. He in turn began to train me and Elfi, who was already somewhat talented in Psionics. The training at first consisted of simple meditation exercises, which weren’t so simple after all. He wanted us to sit in a darkened room and listen to our heart beats, our breathing. Har Hi and the others even Cirruit joined as well. Our sentient machine friend had of course no Psionics whatsoever, but Narth was convinced that even Cirruit could become more aware of these things.

Elfi deepened our knowledge in communications and Galacto Politics. It turned out she was very knowledgeable how the individual members of the Union worked together, what the issues were and how they perceived each other. The internal politics of the Union at Federal level were easy to understand but the nuances below were quite complicated and I learned many surprising little facts and issues I had never known to exist.

Hans, who knew much about that as well, deepened our knowledge about the various task forces, federal departments and law enforcement agencies that existed, about crime and counter intelligence efforts and challenges.

The Worm so I learned was only one of several such organizations. And even the Worm had independent cells. Old criminal organizations of the Ult, the Sarans, the Pan Sarans, Terra and all the others did not disappear after the Union was founded but adapted and evolved. Some united their efforts and some fought each other for territories and influence. It sounded worst than it was as he said that the Union was a very lawful and orderly Mega culture if looked at as a whole. Wetmouth considered crime and criminal organizations even to be a vital part of a civilization and that only a few completely totalitarian societies such as the X101 and Klack that did not know organized crime. Krabbel however told us that crime, theft and murder were virtually unknown in their society. Despite their carnivore origin, the Archa so it turned out were among the most innocent and open societies I had ever heard about.

Shaka gave us complicated helm exercises and also made sure we all understood the different helm systems and their technical aspects. Especially Narth and Elfi had still very little Helm experience.

Doing all this filled our days and time flew, even in this uneventful surroundings.

On the first Saturday after our arrival Wetmouth took us on a geological tour on the surface of the planet and surprisingly Har Hi did ask her lots of questions and I knew he wasn’t just pretending to be interested.

As we returned with the Crawler cat and several boxes of rock specimens, the Commander greeted us at the entrance. “I see you do keep yourself busy and I am actually quite pleased that you keep to yourself. Maybe I misjudged you to be just another bunch of busybodies. So what did you do out there anyway? We watched you as far as we could and didn’t see you do any races or other stupid things.”

Wetmouth opened a specimen box and said. “We did a geological survey and I think this world is quite rich in minerals and has an abundance of iron ore and if I am correct I think there is a wealth of rare earths to be found.”

He looked disinterestedly into the box containing the rocks and shrugged. “I guess that can be interesting, but Iron Ore is quite abundant everywhere, I personally don’t see the attraction, but I guess you science officer types find carpet mites interesting. I actually came to tell you that you are welcome to use the base ship to go to Richter 5. Maybe over the weekend and make me a nice long report about those ruins you mentioned.”

Without really giving us a chance to say anything he walked off.

Hans said holding an entire stack of sample boxes. “If you ask me I think he wants us off the base for the weekend. Every time this character talks to us, I feel I need a shower.”

Narth who stood next to Wetmouth looking inside the open specimen box said. “I can confirm that suspicion. He was quite nervous and hoped we would take him up on his offer.”

Krabbel said. “But we scheduled the rest of the day as free time. I wanted to go to the Amusement Park again.”

Mao laughed. “There are no scarier rides than the elevators of Archa and he can’t get enough of roller coasters.”

Krabbel spread his upper leg pairs and said. “Roller coasters are much more fun and besides there is a Robot vendor that sells freeze dried ice cream. It looks like colored sand but it is ice cream.”

I shrugged. “He didn’t give us an order or anything so we can do that tomorrow. Go and have fun you two.”

Narth held up his hand and three fingers. “You should say you three as I intend to accompany the Archa and experience the rides again.”

I grinned. “Don’t tell me you actually enjoy that?”

Narth cocked his head and said after a brief moment of silence. “One comes to the conclusion that I actually do. It is fascinating I think I just discovered what enjoying means. Besides one must sample freeze dried ice cream, again.”

Shaka, Hans and Elfi left the group to watch a Virtu- Theater show. They went to experience a new Saran opera. In it you could take the role of one of the performers but you ended up singing for three hours before you actually were allowed to kill the evil guy or kiss the girl. It wasn’t exactly my cup of tea.

Cirruit and Har Hi decided to go back to the Fleet house and sleep a while. There was nothing Cirruit would rather do than sleep, take a nap, except perhaps shopping.

Har Hi said before they left. “I’m actually going to read for a while and check out that book Wetty recommended:Rock Hounding for Beginners and I am sure it will put me soundly to sleep.”

Wetmouth could not be kept away from the Labs where she wanted to catalog our finds and do some further analysis.

So it came that I suddenly found myself alone. Riding a weird contraption with Krabbel holding to the ride car and listen to him scream at every turn was fun perhaps two times ... not twenty.

As much as I enjoyed our excursion, my scientific curiosity was well satisfied and I didn’t want to look at rocks through a micro viewer.

So I simply stood on one of the main artery slide belts and let it carry me through the sections of the base.

There were faster Inter Station transport tubes but I wasn’t in a hurry and had no particular goal.

After passing through the main complex and the connection tunnel to the Station recreation park, I stayed on the belt and it carried me to the third dome under which Richter town was located.

It was eerie to see an entire town, designed to be home to twenty maybe thirty thousand individuals. Neat rows of family houses near the rim of the dome. Clean streets and tree lined boulevards with little stores, shopping centers and businesses and all silent and empty of life.

The Town had an artificial sky simulating the open sky of a Terran type world with one golden sun, clouds, birds and light wind.

I wondered if anyone would ever live here, but there was no industry except the Fleet Base and thus no incentive to move here.

The Downtown Area had a nice little shopping district with small shops and restaurants. Most were empty but not all.

I had left the slide belt and was slowly walking along a pedestrian shopping area. A shoe store for human females caught my eye. It was a boutique with expensive brands, we had the same one in the Star port mall on Nilfeheim and it was one of those places I had visited with Sif, Astrid, Elena and Hedda. I wondered what they were doing right now. From my last talk with Egill, Sif was studying hard to catch up what she had missed and had become a very good student. Elena of course would soon be the first female clan chief in Nilfeheim history and would marry. Hedda and Astrid were dead. While I was thinking about these things I noticed the door was unlocked, it slid open as I walked by and so I went in. There was a fine layer of dust and I did not see a Robot attendant. The sales room was not all that big and the shop lights did not come on, but it was not dark, light came through the windows from the outside and cast the entire store in a mild shadowy atmosphere. It smelled of leather, perfume and new fabrics.

Rows of shelves and displays of shoes and boots mostly for humanoid females and looking at them made the other side of my personality stir and I could not help but wonder how some of those shoes might look on me an so with no one around I tried on a pair of heeled boots.

A voice interrupted the silence “Oh those are nice. They would go great with a mini skirt.”

I almost jumped out of my skin, and my hand dashed to my side arm, but I recognized the voice and with the guilty feeling being caught doing something wrong I turned to look. Wetmouth stood in the door of the shop.

A thousand thoughts went through my head. What would they think about me if they found out? What would Har-Hi and Hans think?”

She came in all the way and took a pair of sandals from a display stand and said. “I am sorry I didn’t mean to startle you. I didn’t feel like examining rocks and decided to see what you are up to.”

My mind raced to find some sort of explanation, when she reached out for my hand.”It’s perfectly alright, don’t be ashamed. I am a Sojonit, I understand.”

Her hand was warm and tender and the gentle tone in her voice made me relax and I sighed. “I battle this demon, this curse all my life and I still don’t really know to which side I belong.”

She squeezed my hand a little tighter and I could see her big green eyes sparkle behind the slits of her mask. “I will gladly help you, but I don’t think you need to chose a side, but find a balance between them. You know not everything needs to be black or white; there is always a third option.”

What she said resonated with me from what the Coven sisters had told me, maybe she was right. Maybe I didn’t need to chose between Eric and Freya and could find a balance between both sides of my personality.

She kissed me on the cheek and said. “Let me try on these sandals and then we go to the shop I found across the street. They do have great outfits.”

It never came to that, as Har Hi called us. “Eric, could you come to the Swine and Dine. They got ribs tonight.”

It was our special code we had come up with, if one has an important issue and feared he could be overheard.

With my uniform boots back where they belonged we rushed to the next IBT and reached the main concourse of the Base Star port in a few minutes. After crossing the open area we reached the restaurant. We arrived almost at the same time as Krabbel, Mao, Narth and Hans. The others were already there. We purchased ribs to go and followed Har Hi to my rooms. We spoke the entire time about ribs and souvenirs. Har Hi praised the special sauce and Cirruit told us about the Souvenirs he had seen.

Only after we had closed the doors of my suite and Cirruit assured us the room was secure Har Hi said. “About an hour ago a space ship landed and it is a Kartanian Armed Freighter.”

Elfi said. “We are not exactly friendly with the Kartanian but we have trade relations with them and their ships are sold everywhere and to anyone.”

Har Hi nodded. “True that, but this particular Armed Freighter is the Blood Lust of Captain Grimgore, a notorious pirate and high on the Union wanted list accused of acts of piracy, the trade in sentient life forms and is suspected to be behind several Colony raids.”

No one spoke as he continued. “I saw Union personnel and robots starting to load Union fleet supplies into the cargo holds of the Pirate ship.”

Shaka cursed. “Holy Shit, there are warehouses with Wolfcraft fighters, Quasimodos, Cerberus Robots and I am sure there are secure warehouses with Translocator cannons and bombs.”

Wetmouth turned from the GalNet Terminal and said. “I can’t call out; the entire system is powered down.”

Just as she tried again the terminal came on in local comm. mode and Commander Cardwell appeared, he said. “It was just noticed you tried to use GalNet, I am sorry but we are upgrading Software components and a shutdown was necessary. Since I see you are all together, are there any Data Heads among you?”

I said. “Sir I fail to understand the significance of this question.”

He snarled impatiently. “I asked you a simple question and I expect you to answer it.”

“Sir this pertains private information and I am not compelled to answer it but if you can give us a valid reason.”

He almost yelled. “Because I am ordering a complete Communications Black out.”

I knew it now that he was fully aware of what was going on and said. “What is the reason for the Black Out? Are we attacked by that Pirate ship and are you under siege?”

There was a pause and we heard another voice outside the visual pick up. “So I was right my men did see the Dai snooping around and he did recognize my ship. I want them dead.”

I said. “Why I am not surprised Newport scum. I guess you missed watching the hanging of the Newport crocks. Dealing for the Worm and selling Union supplies, aren’t we?”

A man with a bearded face moved into the visual pick up. “Remain where you are and we let you live, do anything and we kill you all.” The bearded man made big eyes. “There is a Narth.” Right after that statement the terminal went black.

I said. “There is not a moment to lose. We need to get in our battle suits and take our weapons, before he opens this complex to the outside atmosphere or sends battle robots. We meet in five minutes at the Main elevator.”

Now I cursed my decision not to read the second order chip earlier. I did take it out of the secret skin pocket, but there was no time to activate and listen to it.

Wetmouth flipped open the manual input keyboard from underneath the terminal and her fingers flew over the symbols. “I have put the station Computronic in a deep diagnostic cycle and after a reboot it will have to be connected to Fleet main before they can use it, that means they need to go to Environmental and shut down life support manually and that isn’t done in a few moments and it should disable most of the intruder containment systems of the base.”

Narth said. “I informed the Narth representative and he will relay this information to fleet command.”

I praised them. “Good thinking, but now get going.”

The Auto dresser was not responding, getting a Space or Battle suit was out. So I girded my blaster and went out.

Twelve S 10 Robots with Shock batons stomped down the corridor and the lead unit snarled.” You are arrested. Resistance will be met with force.” I wondered why S-10 Robots were used for security on a base like this and not Cerberus Battle robots as usual. Not that I was complaining we would have had no chance otherwise. I said to the lead bot.

“No Robot may arrest humans without a Commanding Officer present.”

The robot snarled. “Correct. Remain were you are till an officer arrives.”

I said. “No robot may issue commands to a human without a human supervisor present.”

Again the robot followed its base programming and said. “Correct.”

The shock batons lowered. Those poor simple Multi Use bots without Computronic guidance were no real obstacle. So I said to it. “Robot weld all elevator doors shut except main shaft. Disengage communication equipment and follow verbal spoken commands only.”

“New Order acknowledged.”

The others came running.

“Krabbel holding four TKU blasters, Hans carrying his big blaster and Har Hi wore his complete Dai battle suit and handed me one of the old TKUI Rifles he had secured at Quagmire Bog.

“Take this one, looks like we have to go against bots and suited troops.”

“Am I the only one not traveling with an entire arsenal?”

I said and looked surprised at Wetmouth. She carried not only a blaster but a long sword over her back, making me suddenly wish I had Mjördaren with me as well and I asked her. “A sword?”

She said. “It is a very special one, you’ll see.”

We went to the Main Elevator shaft. It was out of order, but Hans had little problem opening the sliding doors with force. I wanted to stick my head into the shaft but Har-Hi pulled me back and a laser beam singed my hair, luckily nothing else.

He said. “Part of the Intruder Containment System, independent from the main systems. We Dai lost quite a few men to those nasty shaft lasers in Union ships.”

While he said that he tossed a little round thing down the shaft.

We could hear the sharp shriek of laser beams and six sharp explosions. He then held one of his blades into the shaft and nodded. “My scan seeker has destroyed the nearby sensors.”

We all went in and climbed down the emergency ladder incorporated into the side of the wall. The shaft was barely lit and appeared to go on forever.

Har Hi had taken point and I was the last. He asked looking up.”Where are we going exactly? Fighting our way to C&C and kill that bastard?”

I responded looking down. “If they have battle sealed it, it will be as hard to penetrate as a battle ship bridge. We go to the Hangars and see if we can send a message with the Brig’s TransDim Radio.”

Elfi said. “That’s a long way. Let’s hope we won’t run into any Cerberus Robots.”

Wetmouth just climbing below me said. “He is using S 10’s all over the base because he cannot use Cerberus Robots. They are highly intelligent and have GalNet incorporated and their programming cannot be altered.”

Cirruit below Wetmouth looked up. “Then we are lucky because there is a Warehouse full of them. We wouldn’t stand a chance.”

I said. “That’s it then. We go and activate the Bots and let them secure the base.”

We had climbed all the way to the ground level and I could barely feel my arms. It must have been 1000 meters at least. Hans had forced a door open, Cirruit yelled for me to look up and I saw the elevator car coming down at great speed. There was no way we could all make it through the hole before it hit us.

I fired my blaster into the rails, hoping to cut the power and engage the security breaks. The elevator car did come to a shrieking stop only about ten meters above my head But molten metal showered down and one blob of molten metal hit my wrist. It burned so bad I lost my grip to the ladder and fell.

“A thin, barely visible silvery thread stopped my fall and Krabbel pulled me to safety; the elevator cabin rushed with speed centimeters past my feet, a heartbeat just after I had cleared the shaft.

We had reached the ground level of the Crew quarters tower. Access to the Base concourse was blocked by a massive reinforced Ultronit Door.

Commander Cardwell’s voice blared through the Base PA system. “I give you one last chance to surrender. I am no monster and I make you an offer. I have read your personnel files and I know that Mr. Olafson has the highest security clearance there is. I need you and your code key to open a few doors with me. In exchange I will let your friends go free with the Brig right away and I will let you go on the first Freespace planet we stop at. I’ll even throw in a million Credits. Consider it, it’s not a bad deal. To help you make up your mind you need to know that there are four men in Quasimodos on your heels and when they reach you the deal is off the table.”

Har-Hi whispered. “If he gets your key and codes and combines it with his key he can open the Translocator warehouse. You know we must first die before we can have these get into the wrong hands.”

To Cirruit I said. “Can you open that door somehow?” I asked

“No sorry, that thing weighs a hundred tons or more, made of molecular compacted Ultronit and the power is cut. It would take days to burn through it.”

Wetmouth pulled her sword and said with a confident tone in her voice. “I can cut it.”

At the same time I could hear the heavy stomping of Battle suits from the other side of the corridor.

I yelled “Find cover,” and threw myself on the floor behind a sofa seat group. I heard Cirruit.”Holy Mother-machine that sword is cutting the Ultronit like paper.”

I didn’t turn to look but yelled: “Everyone protect Wetmouth while she cuts.”

The doors that sealed the other end of the ground entry lobby and half the wall it was set in shattered as four Quasimodo Suits stomped in. Har-Hi said with a calm voice. “Everyone concentrate your fire on the left one.”

His strategy made sense, there was no way we could stop fully shielded Quasimodos with one or two blasters, but with all our fire power combined we could wear them down one after the other.

I fired and so did my friends, twelve thermo kinetic bolts hammered into the shields of the first suit. Due to the fact that we used these old style super strong TKU’s and Krabbel was firing four at the same time, the Quasimodo’s shields were overwhelmed almost instantaneously. The wearer did not use his additional force field shield he could have deployed from his underarm and thankfully it was not a Heavy Assault version. The first man died a heartbeat later. If he or the others had been trained marines we would have been toast by now. But whoever used those suits now had no training and it was obvious they still had trouble even walking straight. As easy as it might sound it was quite a challenge to walk in a Quasimodo battle suit, especially in a confined area since every move was augmented and even a little step ended up being a giant stomp.

A blast roared over my head, missing me by a good five meters, still the air became very hot. I fired into the ceiling above showering the next two with molten metal. One of them instinctively raised his arm to protect his face; it was a reflex even though the molten metal shower could not have hurt him.

It gave me time to send a second blast into the floor. This trick had served me well against the Y’All and it worked better here.

The man’s tumbled, actually backhanded the one next to him with his left arm.

Har Hi yelled: “Everyone close your eyes and cover your ears.”

A second later an ear shattering boom lifted me of the floor and a stinging hot pressure wave rolled over me pressing the air out of my lungs.

The sofa seats were on fire.I smelled the distinctive scent of burned hair. When I could see again, the rear half of the room was gone, replaced by a molten crater some 7 meters in diameter and two suited men dying in screaming agony as their suits melted around them. The fourth was still standing but his neck snapped suddenly inside his helmet and he collapsed as well.

Har Hi said with an apologetic expression on his face “Sixteenth of a Gram AM Grenade, was a tad more than I expected.”

I said quite angry. “You realize that we are on a planet with a hostile atmosphere?”

He apologized and said. “I calculated the safety margin to the outside walls from here to be adequate. I forgot you don’t wear armor.”

It actually hurt when I grinned and I expected to have at least first degree burns in my face. “Well it worked and I should be glad you even have such a thing with you.”

He said. “I always do, I am Dai.”

Krabbel assured me that the singed hair of his legs would grow back and Narth confirmed he was also alright.

We went back to the blocked entrance and to my and the others surprise her sword cut big chunks out of the several meters thick emergency door. Her mysterious sword sliced through reinforced molecular compacted Ultronit as if cutting butter with a hot knife.

All excited barely containing his amazement Har Hi gasped. “What kind of blade is this?”

She had carved a neat tunnel into the metal and now made a final circular cut. She answered without stopping. “It is a very unique sword. I tell you how I got it at a later time.”

Hans stomped against the last piece she just had cut and a meter thick disc of at least two tones of Ultronit clanged onto the shiny floor of the space port concourse and the way was open. Har Hi glued something into the breach Wetmouth has just cut, and explained looking to me. “Proximity Mine, A full gram.”

We had made it into the Base main terminal. Six men armed but not in battle suits were totally surprised by our presence and were burned to atomic ashes before they could send one bolt into our direction.

Cirruit said pointing the way. “We have to make it across the main lobby, cut again through one of these Ultronit doors and into the connection tunnel, traverse it and cut into the Warehouse section and...” Circuit collapsed as if someone had cut the strings of a puppet, simultaneous all the lights went out. Our weapons went into safety lock and shut down.

Elfi pointed at a Group with a Tech Stop projector across the hall and three of them struggled to put a P4 Paralysator on its tripod.

Hans grabbed the several ton piece of metal; Wetmouth had cut and threw it like a giant Frisbee all across the lobby, before the Paralysator beam hit him first.

The disk hit them with force and destroyed the Paralysator and smeared the three men into stains across the floor.

The other two manning the Tech Stop projector dropped to the floor with their heads twisted to their backs. Despite the fact that I would have killed them too, I felt sick to the stomach seeing how deadly Narth’s telekinetics were. I shouldered Cirruit, and noticed how heavy he was and said. “Everyone see if you can drag Hans.”

Without Narth we would have had no chance to get our big Saturnian friend across to the next door. Hans floated behind Narth and together we made it to the Tunnel entrance. Again Wetmouth’s Sword cut through the metal and sliced a big round passage. An enormous detonation rolled across the Lobby and Har Hi grinned. “Amateurs.”

We made it unhindered through the Tunnel, Cirruit was starting to move and I lowered him to the ground. He sat up in a very mechanical motion his head turned completely to his back and his eyes blinked in red and green colors. Finally his white expressionless mechanical pupils rolled into their sockets and his head rotated into the normal position. He got back on his feet and said with a coarse more mechanical voice than usual. “Tech Stop does things to me you don’t want to know. Any more of it and I would not be able to get up again.”

Wetmouth administered a drug into Hans, she had taken out of her small first aid kit and after a few Moments Hans also moved, still groggy but able to get up and walk.

With our friends back on their feet, Wetmouth cut the next locked door and I rolled through it first. Again two men were putting a large weapon together. Too far away to be jumped, my Blaster still deactivated I pulled the 45 and fired. Neither man wore shields but both had armor. One of them I hit square between the eyes, proving that this old chemical slug thrower was still quite deadly, the other was not hurt as the slugs careened off his helmet socket, but the impacts of the two shots made him stumble back and a flickering metal streak managed to hit past his raised arms through a tiny opening right into his mouth. One of Har-Hi’s knives, showing only part of the grip as it stuck between his teeth.

We rushed into the room and Cirruit said: “Down that corridor are the Cerberus storages.”

Twenty five men in Battle suits and a strange six legged being with purple fur all heavily armed dropped from the ceiling. One of them was the Base Commander in a fully operational Cerberus, and by his moves he knew how to use it, he was after all a trained Union Officer. He held a strange device. “This is a Saresii Psi Seeker, if the Narth even so much as tries a Psionic trick you all die. Your weapons do not work, ours do. Surrender now.”

The bearded man we had seen before stepped forward and the purple animal jumped the entire fifteen meters that separated us, I fired the Colt three times and all three slugs hit their target and into the belly of the being I was certain I killed it, but my slugs could not stop its momentum and it hit me full force. Something painful stung me into the stomach and chest and I fell backwards, buried almost completely by that purple animal. Everything around me begun to dissolve into a blurred mix of colors and lights, through this haze I heard a voice. “The Wurlag stung him, it’s over for him.” and then there was nothing.

Chapter 11 »