By Other Means (17 page)

“leave the packet, go sit with your friend.”

Almost pathetically gratefully, the man tossed the little package down and jumped up. He rushed across the room far too quickly for Sorilla’s taste. She sighed, almost audibly, knowing that she should have handled that much better.

Probably scared the poor bastard half into an early grave. Bureaucrats have no stomach for anything worse than a papercut.

“That could have been more subtle.”

Sorilla kept eating as the Admiral took a seat beside her.

“Subtle isn’t exactly what I’m trained for, begging your Admiral’s pardon, sir.”

Ruger snorted, “Apparently not, Major. And you can just shitcan that boot speak, I can poor piss out of my boot if the instructions are printed on heel, Major.”

“Sorry sir.”

Ruger shook his head, smiling a little fondly, “You know, there’s not a regular officer in any branch who’d speak to me like that. That’s the sort of toeing the line of insubordination that you only learn as a Sergeant.”

“Never really planned to be anything but, if you want to know the truth. Yet here I am, an Army Captain on a Navy ship where everyone has to call me Major.” Sorilla said dryly, “That’s several promotions above my grade, plus one for kicks.”

“Well, we all have our burdens, Major.” Ruger said, “Yours is to be penned in by your own success. What did you get off him?”

Sorilla rolled her eyes, but figured she’d already toed that particular line enough for one day. She opened up the packet she’d retrieved from the diplo-mule.

“Data chip, local design.” Ruger said, “Can you read it here?”

“They use quantum storage, better than anything we’ve got,” She said as she accessed the chip, “but the interface is optical. Just takes the correct modulation and presto.”

Ruger nodded, he’d known that of course, but he hadn’t been certain what capabilities the major had packed into her muscled form. Apparently a few he hadn’t been aware of, at least.

“Mostly the coding for the items I asked him to pick up, plus a drop point for delivery. I’ll send it to your aide,” Sorilla said, “this, however…”

She trailed off, eyes wavering as she focused on the information her implants were feeding her. Ruger waited patiently, knowing that even with the intel feed right into your eyes and brain, a human could only absorb things just so quickly.

Finally the glow in her eyes faded and Sorilla adopted a pensive expression.

“What is it?” He asked softly.

“Men… uh, aliens I suppose,” She said, “alien movement on the station that’s out of the ordinary.”

“Anything actionable?”

“Maybe, they’re moving a lot of equipment. This group came in on the ship yesterday,” She said, “they’ve been skirting around the conference all morning apparently, and at least some of them are armed.”

Ruger sat up a little straighter, “Sounds actionable. Did your contact provide any images?”

Sorilla nodded, “The Alliance is almost as lousy with personal records as Earth is, there’s plenty of imagery in here.”

“Good, send that to my aide as well. I’ll make sure it gets around to the security people.”

“Yes sir.”

“nice work, major.”

“thank you, Sir.”

*****

“This is our time, from this first step we shall change the face of the Alliance itself,” The old Parithalian told his assembled followers. “No more held in check by the countering forces of the Sturm and the Ross. These Terrans have given us an opportunity, and we can pit their forces against the Ross and the Alliance.”

Those assembled murmured in approval.

“The chaos that will ensue will give us our chance, the chance to finally break this Alliance the way it should have been broken long ago.”

The old Pari knew his audience, even to the point that many of them hated each other but didn’t care. The Alliance had been a check on all their people for as long as most of them could remember. The countering fear of the SturmGav against the terror of the Ross was all that kept some from revolting.

That was what most of them told themselves.

Frankly, the Parithalian doubted it was so.

Most people were satisfied with the way things were, but that was because they were content to remain fat and lazy in the cradled arms of those who couldn’t care less about them. He’d seen things in his life, dark and ugly things, but the kindness of the Alliance was perhaps the ugliest thing of all. It would kill a people slowly, through nothing but the best of intentions.

No.

Better a death of fire than one of a long slumber ending in eternity.

He would bring his people back to what they should be if it cost him his life, if it cost many others their lives. No more the caged birds of the Alliance, it was time for the Parithalian Raptors to fly free again.

“We wait for them to settle in to the afternoon’s talks, and we will strike when everyone is relaxed, tired, and bored.” He said, the leathery blue skin pulling back across the beak like mouth and nose. “Today… we change the Galaxy!”

*****

Sorilla wished that she could deploy drones as they were heading back into the negotiation chambers. A few DOGS or a couple Dragonflys would be of immeasurable security advantage, to say nothing of what she could do with something a little more
proactive
.

Unfortunately they were the guests at this particular negotiation, and the Alliance would probably frown at a bunch of armed Terran robots running around the station. In fairness, she wouldn’t be too pleased to find any combat Golems in the area herself.

Not without my mechanized systems, at least,
Sorilla supposed dryly.

Unfortunately her TITAN Mechanized Armor was similarly persona non-grata here, and the Admiral didn’t even want to risk her OPCOM powered armor. As an official member of the bodyguard detachment she was permitted to be armed, but as powerful as her Metalstorm service piece was, it was a popgun against some of the potential threats the Alliance could toss there way.

Assuming the Alliance is the threat,
Sorilla reminded herself.

She didn’t think they were, actually. Everything she’d learned about the Alliance political structure implied that it was inherently unstable. That was good for SOLCOM, but it was also very bad for everyone involved. When she’d been given her current assignment, Sorilla had been hoping to locate a few weak cracks in the Alliance structure, places that could be exploited to cause trouble for the Alliance and get them off SOLCOM’s back while Earth and her colonies continued to bolster defenses.

Now, however, it was clear that the sprawling nature of the Alliance, combined with limitations of even faster than light communications, had bred long standing feuds in the society.

That wasn’t a shock, actually, almost every group that reached a certain size seemed to develop similar issues. What was surprising was how quickly it was spilling over into Terran affairs. Normally, she would expect a much slower burn, but it seemed that wasn’t the case after all.

The key was going to be keeping the Alliance’s problems internalized, and then maximizing them to the benefit of SOLCOM. Unfortunately, it was clear, that those problems had no intention of staying internal, for whatever reasons, and were actually deeply intent on dragging Earth, SOLCOM, and Sorilla into the mix.

Which made her objective simple, actually.

Make sure they failed.

Easier said than done, I suppose,
Sorilla grimaced,
but at least I don’t have fifteen different conflicting objectives this time around.

Sorilla opened her implants up, not something she normally did because in her particular line of work stealth was normally more important, and used her overrides to slave the implants of everyone else in the room to her own. Her processing ability jumped up over fifty times normal, while all the feeds from the many people in the room became accessible to her.

She ignored most of them, the diplomats and assistants who were just looking at each other and their Alliance counterparts. They were only useful for the added processing power she could offload onto them. The bodyguards, however, they were looking outward.

She had a use for them.

The SOLCOM override codes were accepted across the board, even the Admiral’s implants bowed to hers… though Sorilla noted Ruger twitch when she sent the signal so she knew that he, unlike most of them, at least had clear warning of what she was doing. Likely he could override them himself as well, but he chose not to.

Sorilla kept her fingers moving on the computer, but they were tapping out pure gibberish. She was focused internally. Something was up, now she was as ready as she could be to meet it.

Game On.

Let’s play.

*****

Sienel had a bad feeling.

He couldn’t figure out what it was coming from, however. Everything seemed in line with where it should be. The negotiations were frustratingly slow, but that was the norm for such matters in his experience. None of the people involved seemed surprised, or even especially annoyed, by the pace, so it wasn’t his concern anyway.

However something had changed after the meal.

He couldn’t figure out what it was, but there was a new feeling in the room, a tension that hadn’t been there before.

Sienel hated it when he couldn’t put his digit on a feeling, it usually meant that he was missing something important.

Sighing, he waved over one of his assistants.

“Sir?”

“Have security increase their levels.”

“Yes sir… may I tell them why?”

Sienel wavered for a moment, then just waved the question off, “Those are my orders.”

“Yes Sir.”

What could he tell them? That he had a ghost feeling based on something even he couldn’t pin down? No, they just needed to know that he wanted them more alert. That was their job, his was to see to it that their job was completed correctly.

Now, if he could just figure out what had just changed?

The old Parithalian observed the increase in security with mild annoyance, clearly something had tipped off those in charge, however it was equally clear that they had no clue what was happening otherwise they’d have done far more than add a few guards and order them to look alert. No, the plan was still intact, but this would mean a little more resistance going in.

So be it. No one claimed this would be an easy task, and the greater the challenge the greater the victory when it is complete.

“All our people are in place.”

“Good,” The Pari said softly, “Issue the order, then.”

The tension that had been building up all morning vanished then, there was no longer a reason to worry. Either they would succeed or they would fail, worrying no longer mattered.

The order passed quickly back through the group as they broke from their positions and began to approach their targets.

*****

The strike came quickly and nearly without warning.

Sorilla caught the barest flash off one of the security detail’s implants, not enough to issue an effective warning, but thankfully she didn’t have to. It wasn’t aimed at any of the human security, instead the first blast took out one of the Lucian guards.

The grey skinned alien went down hard, half his face a smoking wreck, his left arm entirely missing. In those few shocked instants, however, orders had already been issued to the human security.

Sorilla had to give it to Swift, he picked his men well and they were well drilled. They didn’t know that she’d hijacked their command structure, but that hardly mattered. They reacted on orders with the precision she’d expect from an elite team, following her cues and grabbing cover even as they drew their weapons.

She directed them to the cleanest cover with the best vantages, splitting their fire among the tangos she’d identified. In the
seconds
it took for them to get into place and begin returning fire, however, three more of the Alliance security personnel had gone down under heavy fire.

Interesting. They’re targeting their own people. Setting us up, or is this a genuine grudge match?

Of course, Sorilla was all too aware that possibility A simple did
not
preclude possibility B. In fact, if they did have a genuine grudge, the smart move was to set the new guys on the block up for the deed. Unfortunately, for them at least, Sorilla couldn’t let them get away with it for any one of a multitude of reasons. She sent new orders to the security, while simultaneously issuing fallback orders to all non-combatants.

The room was exploding in chaos, humans and aliens alike were reacting without thought, making things more complicated as they did so, and generally mucking with Sorilla’s defense strategies. She was used to dealing with unexpected factors, however, as a guerilla warfare specialist the unexpected was her sword and her shield.

Sorilla, herself, didn’t move as everyone burst into motion. She focused internally, looking through her implants and the eyes of everyone else in the room. Her combat processor was handling the majority of the image discrimination, picking out the best vantage points as they became available, and letting her focus on the situation that was unfolding.

She slipped orders into the queue for Swift, logging them through the Admiral’s processor to avoid any hassle. Technically even Ruger wasn’t in command of Swift’s detachment, but she doubted that the agent would take this point in time to duke it out with an Admiral, something he might just do with a lowly Army Captain.

They’re coordinated, trained, but a little rough on teamwork,
Sorilla noted with the same eye she used to judge what kind of material she would have to work with on assignment.

If she’d been brought in to train this lot in Assymetrical Warfare Tactics, she’d have been marginally encouraged by the quality of the base material. Of course, she wouldn’t be pleased with their strategic acumen in the least. Only fundamentalist morons picked a target they couldn’t reasonably expect to walk away from, and in her book a secured space station was certainly one of those!