Version 2006 - Ch 39

Alvor's Cove

2nd Planet in the Ihyi-54 System - Free space

________________________________________ In the secret basement facilities of the Temple far below the surface and accessible only through a complicated process of ID verification hat made the Blue -Blue-Red Code process look like child play she called five women into a plain looking conference room." Arrangements have been made and a we will get a ship in three weeks. Until then we will use the time to fix your leg and to educate and we teach you a few new skills you will find useful." She activated a field screen and the face of Admiral Stahl appeared. Suddenly I wished I was not dressed like a Sojonit. While I deeply enjoyed the role and the quite provocative outfit I somehow didn't want Stahl to know my secret, but he did not mention or show any surprise seeing me like that." Midshipman Olafson I am very glad you are unharmed and in relative safety. As you know no Military Ship can enter Free Space and get you. We also must take all steps that the TSI base and the true nature of the temple as well as that of Mother Superior will be preserved at all costs. That means we must move subtle and through very secure channels. Your friends know you are alright, they know you are alive and you will see them in short time. You are for the time being transferred to the TSI under Command of Cherubim aka Mother Superior." "Yes Sir!" "I am looking forward to see you again in person and to your report, Carry on!" The transmission went dark. I felt much better now, after talking to Stahl. Mother Superior said with a warm tone in her voice." I know him for a very long time and I can see he is very fond of you!" "I trust him." "That you can. He has not changed an iota in all that time. No matter the situation he is like a rock." "It seems you are fond of him as well." I observed. "You have keen senses, your feminine side goes deeper than you think." I was taught how to overwrite and hack Computronics and advanced locks. A Terran woman taught me a secretive martial arts technique mostly through neural upload but also through practice. It had only one goal to kill ones opponent as quickly as possible by recognizing the weak spot. Through the neural upload I learned the weak spots of hundreds of species. I learned much about the Sojonit and their secrets, that this order was only one aspect of the Goddess and that another much more secretive Order worshipped and studied the destructive aspect. To them the Universe was a female spirit giving live and light but part of the Universe was also death and destruction. The innermost circle of the Sojonits enforced the laws of the Order quite effective as Assassins. Killing without mercy those who did not pay for services or those who tried to cash in on the reputation and dress like Sojonit Sisters. Fingernails with monofilament blades, complex poisons and an array of innocent looking things were in truth silent and quite gruesome weapons. While I was not really buying all the metaphysical stuff I learned that the Order existed long before Terra ascended and collected and preserved knowledge and developed skills for over 20,000 years. The art of shape shifting was not the aspect of a species but the result of studying an aspect of Psionics even unknown to Kermac and Saresii. Mother Superior who also was known as Cherubim was certain the Narth knew about it but she doubted they studied or practiced it since Narth felt no need to pretend to be anything else. She told me that if I would spend twenty or thirty years of intensive training I too would eventually be able to shift my shape and after another lifetime learn how to actually shift shape in any desired form and do it fast. From the TSI I received a programmable CITI chip that stored the Citizen ID'S of several dozen individuals and I could switch it on or off per neural command. With all this time flew and on the twenty first day and accompanying the Mother Superior I boarded small luxurious Yacht on the very same space port I had arrived weeks ago. I followed her to the spacious and expensive furnished master cabin, with a large Balcony like view port. A transparent half bubble on the side of the ship allowed a panoramic view. She made a gesture towards the leather furniture. "Make yourself comfortable. We will be on our way shortly." "I wonder why no one is attacking this ship." "It belongs to the Cartel and the gangs that control the Space Port know that. A man stuck his head in." Sorry for the delay, Mother Superior but we are ordered to be searched!" "Who dares to order such a search? This ship belongs to Donheer himself!" "Yes Ma'am it is an outrage and the Patriarch is furious and said he is sending Enforcers, but the Port Rats aimed their turrets at us and demand we let them search the ship! No ship is to land or leave without them searching it!" "Prepare to take off anyway. I have a feeling they are going to be way too busy. A friend of mine is sending a little distraction!" Just as she said that, a huge cone shaped space ship sank from the sky as big as a Union Ultra. The characteristic purplish shimmer of Paradim Shields. On the side the logo of ISS Corp. Whoever was in those gun turrets probably never seen a battleship and fired . Perhaps aiming at us, but the shot fizzled like into nothingness absorbed in the shields of the giant. Our tiny yacht climbed into the sky. I saw the Battle ship return fire creating a smoking crater of molten matter where the turrets stood. She laughed."That was one of the reasons we had to wait so this ship could be here and give us a little protection. You see private Corporations do not have the same political limitations as the Union Fleet. Not the Cartel, not the Worm and not even the Kermac really want to make Schwartz Intergalactic angry" "I said the same thing to Captain Harris" "Was it when the Old Battleaxe gave you command over the Devi?" "Yes." "Ever since the Corporate War of 3422, Corporations are prohibited to have ships armed with Military grade weaponry, with the Exception of those who built ships and weaponry for the Union. They can use and build ships as test platforms for new systems and such. Of course no one stipulated how many such test platforms a Corporation can have. It's an open secret the entire Galaxy knows, SII builds over 60% of all fleet tech and has a state of the art fleet. The real secret is that SII's security fleet is not much smaller than the Union Fleet and in some aspects even more advanced." "Is that not very dangerous to have such power in private hands?" "Very much so! It is a two edged sword. It means added security to Union assets. SII also controls GalNet, owns three of the seven Space Bus lines, three of the main banks and produces most of the food consumed. SII is so interwoven in the Unions daily live that it be almost impossible to fight them and win if that ever would be necessary. But SII keeps out of politics and most wars. They do not do business with the enemies and have saved the Sol System during the second Kermac War." The small yacht had left the planet behind and I felt better already, minutes later it went into quasi space and the viewport went dark. "We will change ships at Alvors Cove in six hours. There is nothing much to do till then, but the ship has a very nice bath and comfortable beds." She said "What is Alvors Cove?" "A place as Colorful and almost as bad as Sin 4 and even deeper in Free space." "I thought we go home!" "We will my dear, but we are in the Spy business. This ship belongs to a Crime lord on Sin small crew always reports him where they take me. Since there is a Sojo Temple on Alvors Cove it is perfectly normal for me to go there. On Alvors Cove we change identities and ships, hop to Netlor. From there exists a connection to Checkpoint 96 and that is a Union controlled planet, with GalNet, Space bus connection, Clipper service and a Fleet base. It will make sure no one can trace our route. Most likely not necessary but old habits die hard." We left the luxury yacht at Alvors Cove, a bone dry desert world, with a dust and sand whipped City. The elegant ship almost immediately left after we debarked. Everyone we saw wore some sort of Cloak, hooded garment and face covers. Fine sand and dust everywhere. The city was built directly into the sheer rock walls of a canyon. and by the nature of that canyon it was very long but had only one thoroughfare . Everything was dull and dusty and in every shade of beige to brown. What immediately struck me was the lack of flyers or skimmers. I only saw two of them. Most traffic was either on foot or riding upon lizard like animals. Smaller fast ones on two legs with riders and larger ones with six legs pulling carts and wagons. A huge eight legged creature arrived just as we did pulling six big wagons. Still in the Yacht we had put on additional hooded capes and now we blended in and no one paid any attention to us. The wind was howling through that canyon and made talking almost impossible. So I just followed her. Despite the conditions there was much traffic. I also wondered about the strange hopping jumps everyone walking made. Every so often someone would jump or make a sudden move to the side. My Companion did the same and as I followed her I found out in the very last second why. Those lizards popped and those walking avoided their droppings. I did watch a sad looking group of naked men and a shaggy being drag a primitive hand cart collecting those droppings with shovels. They had rags tied before their faces and had metal collars around their necks and little else. A twenty meter tall relief of a Sojonit had been carved into stone of the rock wall and I knew we had reached the local temple. Two Sojonit sisters in long robes opened and let us in and ushered us through the worship hall, past the service chambers and through a hidden door at the base of the altar below. after long windy corridors we passed a solid looking Ultronit door and into a comfortable, cool and modern furnished lounge. Before the Ultronit door hummed shut I saw the entire corridor shrink and turn to solid rock! Mother Superior took of her cloak and motioned me to do the same, handed it to one of the girls and said to the other. "What news do you have?" "The Worm and the Kermac have stopped searching for the Human. A Taxi driver claims he had seen him fall to his death. They tortured and did a brain dump on his memories and they lessened the reward for the Union Officers body. Of course with little hope. The Kermac left and are relieved to return to Kermac Hegemony without their ship being discovered by union spies. The big news from back home was the GalNet televised execution of Admiral Dent and a dozen of his men and that Narth has agreed to take a more active role and do their share to protect the Union. 500 Narth have joined the PSI corps branch of NAVINT. Giving it the biggest boost centuries." "I bet Alyia is especially pleased!" Mother Superior turned to me." Alyia Lichfangh is the Commandant of the PSI Corps. She and Mc Elligott founded it as a special task force and research group to develop means of Psionic protection and combat Psionic crimes and espionage. Only beings with a HD-PSI index over 500 and intensive testing and training are admitted. Lichfangh has many Psionic talents and no one can lie or not answer her when she is present. The PSI Corps always was one of the most potent units and the very reason that Terra is able despite all espionage efforts to keep several technological developments a secret, especially that of the Translocator cannon. But they were few 500-600 agents at the most against trillions." The other sister nodded." With the addition of 500 Narth, each of them as potent as all Saresii combined the PSI Corps will become a nightmare to the Worm and the Kermac." "Will that not also endanger you and the TSI?" I asked "No thankfully not. But we need to change now and leave this planet. We went to a state of the art Auto Dresser exclusive to TSI it was able to produce bioflex masks and do temporary molecular cosmetic surgery She changed into an Ohgar Female just as brutish looking as the males, with pronounced jaws and tusk like teeth poking past the upper lips. The Auto Dresser disguised me into a humanoid feline being with fine dotted soft fur, large ears and Whiskers and a twitching tail! Over it I wore a tight brown leather bodice with a red sash. "You are a Togar Warrior now. Virtually unknown in Union space but a fierce race, quite aggressive and the red sash signals that you killed you are in heat." "I am what?" "It keeps all nosy folks away. Togar Females are even more irrational than human women during that period and kill and maim for the silliest reasons. Best thing is, every Togar we meet will instantly fight anyone to the death giving you the slightest disrespect." "I sure hope no one wants to mate with me! I don't really want to use my virginity to some love crazed two legged tomcat." "Not to worry, they are a strict matriarch society. The retractable claws on your costume are monofilament Ultronit. You could claw a robot to shreds. Trust me I used that disguise many times!" "Only you are a Sojonit Shape shifter trained in all those secrets. I only wear a clever bio flex costume! Can I not rather be some sort of human something?" "To late passage is booked for a Togar Female with a Oghar bodyguard." At least I could wear my weapons openly and I did like the claw part. I could not help being fascinated by my tail. It twitched and moved, of course part of a Neuro-Impulse program I had no real control over it. "Stop looking at your tail. It won't fall off." "I never had a tail before!" "Well technically speaking....you do ...sort of!" On our way back to the spaceport I noticed more gangs of humans and other beings everywhere with brooms and shovels fighting what seemed a hopeless battle against the dust and sand, accumulating in doorways and on sidewalks. These groups where always naked except for metal collars around their necks. "Are those Slaves?" I asked her. "Yes and I bet there are Union citizen among them. These are the ones they don't use in the Arenas to fight. These are the lucky ones. The Togar's for example pay good money for humans so they can hunt and eat them!" "We should not allow this! Slavery and the trade with sentient life is disgusting!" "What would you do?" "Take the fleet, hunt all Slave traders, Destroy these cesspools like Sin 4 and this place. We could do it!" "You talk like your friend Stahl. He too thinks we should simply take the entire Galaxy by force and force our laws and morals upon everyone and kill and destroy all those who don't" "I don't see why this would be bad. Out laws are good and protect the rights of the individual and evil is evil under any set of morals." She laughed."Never seen Earth, born generations removed and still you are a real Terran. Yes I believe we could conquer the entire Galaxy, eradicate the Kermac, the Shiss and the Nul-Nul and whoever else might still be out there, but it would cost the lives of many billions and entire generations would know nothing but war. The Union was not founded as an Empire. Empires fail, always have. It is a Union, welcoming everyone who wants to freely join and accept our common laws. It works surprisingly good so far." She nodded towards the Slaves. " I detest it as much as you do, but open war and agree something has to be done and something will be done, but subtle and not with the Terran sledge hammer." "I hear that all the time." I said while we entered a drab passenger lobby carved into the side of a sand colored rock formation. An area of the rocky desert had been bulldozed smooth and that was the landing field, at least there was no trash anywhere. While the Air was always full of dust and fine sand, it was dry and didn't stink like the air on Sin 4. Two small space ships stood on that landing field. One looked worse than the other. The one further out I did not recognize. it looked somewhat alien but had all the usual components Drive pods, Hull and landing gear. The other was a true antique, a Poodle III. Out of production for nearly 500 years! I only recognized it because it was part of an old children story about a Colonist family. There were only about a dozen beings in that bare waiting lobby. It had a glass front and a few crude looking benches. Nothing else. "Do you know the real reason you were abducted by the Kermac?" "You told me, because they wanted Narth Secrets, right?" "Yes, but more so they wanted to make the Narth question their membership with the Union and return to their isolation. The Kermac are very afraid that Narth helps the Union with technology. They believe and not without reason that if the Union and foremost the Terrans would attack and eradicate the Kermac Hegemony. If even a small percentage of the Narth legends are true, then Terrans with Narth weapons would be unstoppable." "I doubt that be the case. Admiral Mc Elligott said to me once that even the worst peace is better than the best war." She sighed." War will come again. It is certain all we can do is delay it as long as possible." I got a little angry." It's the Kermac who always agitate and pull the Tyranno-Fins tail. They do that even before Terrans were around! They tried to attack us with Psy spores. It is them who send spies and abducted me!" "Of course you are correct but I am a spy all my very long live, and to be a successful one you need to learn to see things with the eyes of your enemy." I glared at her and said without thinking." It can be very dangerous to do that. One might lose focus and not only see things like the enemy but think like it as well!" "I am very aware of that, and our common friend Richard Stahl said that to me more than I can count. You are in many ways very much like him!" "I doubt Stahl would dress up as a Sojonit and enjoy every second of it!" She laughed." That is true. He actually would rather die!" A fat human in blue robes and dust mask came in and he was followed by six naked slaves. Each of them carrying great loads. The fat man barked at them in a language I did not understand at his slaves and they set up a table and cylinders and boxes on top of it. The blue dressed man placed himself behind the table and yelled in several languages including Union idiom." Water, refreshments, perfumes, carbo snacks and meat sticks." I felt her hand on my arm and she hissed."Don't do it! Not now!" "We got to do something. Those are human slaves!" "Calm down and let it be! I promise you will have the opportunity to do something about it, but not now!" ________________________________________ Netlor was quite different from our previous stop. While it too was a World in Free Space, it was actually a Vacation Planet with ancient ruins of a long gone civilization and considered a holy site for a religious sect. This sect had members both in Free space as well as in the Union and its members traveled there as part of a pilgrimage. Scholars and Archeologists from the Big Four as well as independent societies also frequented the planet. A private company operated an old Leyland Space bus from here to Checkpoint 96 and back. While this area of space was pirate infested we were assured that the planet paid all the necessary bribes to ensure a relative safe journey. We changed our identities in a small but quite clean Hotel near the ruins. The religious sect believed the ruins were left by the UNI, who many believed were responsible for the many humanoid civilizations thru ought the Galaxy. It was generally believed that the UNI ruled or controlled much of the Galaxy at a time when Dinosaurs roamed on Terra. According to a local guide pamphlet no scientific evidence was found that would support the Sects believe that this indeed was a UNI planet, but such things never bothered religious groups and they claimed they could hear the ghosts of the UNI whisper to them and give them answers to their personal questions and problems. Mother Superior believed that a clever Kermac or Saresii perhaps used his or her Psionic abilities and earn a pretty profit. We did not check out the actual ruins. The space bus only made the trip once a month and if we would miss it we would be stuck. Dressed in the golden colored gowns that was the costume of the pilgrims we boarded the transport with a gaggle of others similar dressed beings and arrived nine days later without incident at Checkpoint 96. Non Union ships wanting to do business in Union space would have to stop at one of the Checkpoints and get Customs clearance and a Union transponder. While civilian ships could freely enter Union space. They could only land on Union Worlds with the proper Customs documents. Checkpoint 96 was a small ice and rock planet the size of Sol systems Pluto, that along with five other similar small planets circled around a very old bloated red sun that probably swallowed most of the bigger planets as it expanded. But as we left the ship and stepped on the spotless clean surface of the landing field which was build inside a large crater I felt suddenly free again! Working slide belts, advertisement signs for Mc Donald's, Arthur's Swine and Dine, Holiday Inn Portel and Harold's Mercantile made me hungry. I felt my throat constricted by pride as Fleet Destroyer landed, Octo Bots scrambled and a platoon of Marines stomped in perfect military precision toward that ship. It never became clearer to me than now that my decision to become a Soldier to defend all this was the most important decision I could have ever made in my life. At the checkpoint to the Terminal I swiped my CITI, my outer appearance made no difference to the identification process and the Customs Officer said."Welcome back Citizen. Did you bring any luggage, weapons or illegal wares?" "No luggage but I carry weapons." He checked them and my readout." The Kermac Line Blaster needs to be registered or disposed. The H&K cannot be carried loaded other than that you are cleared." I simply left the Kermac weapon with him. She also cleared customs without problems and said." It feels good to be back in Union space does it not?" "It made me realize how fortunate we are to be Citizens." "We need to get changed and you back in Uniform." She walked right to the busy public restrooms, deposited a few Creds and ushered me into the human female section and into a bathroom stall."Can I not rather use my own. I don't mind being frugal but I got millions!" She giggled. "Silly goose!" Then she pressed her hand against a wall tile and the floor turned into a lift platform lowering us fast down a short chute. A beautiful Saresii woman in a tight black velvet jumpsuit and the stylized Brain pin of the PSY Corps on her collar greeted us. She could have been a Sister to Webb's assistant." Welcome home Cherubim!" "I am glad to be back." An hour later I once again wore a crisp clean Navy Uniform complete with the black Leather jacket and the mirror shine boots. My 45 back where it belonged and TKU Side arm in an auto draw low slung hip holster. I felt right as rain, but I could not help but miss being female, that part of my adventure I had to admit to myself I enjoyed very much. A tall woman in a skintight leather cat suit and silver chain belt stepped out of the other Auto Dresser. She had long blonde hair but she still wore the somewhat stiff female mask she had worn as Mother Superior." You may call me Cherubim now. That I am also the Mother Superior of the Sojonit Order must remain a secret "Of course. I understand." "I got good news for you. The Devi is on her way and only 2 days out." "The Devastator is coming here?" "Along with the entire Olafson Gang!"