Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles 2: Redemption (24 page)

"Cat, by order of the GCP Admiralty Board, effective this date, you are promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral. You are authorized, at your discretion, to act in the best interest of the Coalition with out regard to the letter of the law, if...
in your estimation, the greater good is served. This grant shall remain in effect until it is revoked by a majority vote of the Admiralty Board or myself. Is that understood?"

'Sir, yes sir!'

Cat watched the metallic crab shuffle up the main aisle of the shuttle. Her cybernetic D'lralu friend Commander Ben, who had volunteered to serve as security for Cat's  trip to the penal colony, stood at the front of the shuttle with a plasma rifle called a 'pointer' held ready. His teeth were bared, and Cat knew instinctively that his cultural interface was in full D'lralu mode. This was no smile.

Their visitor was obviously familiar with GCP rank because he addressed Ben as commander after seeing the three pips on his collar.

"I trust you will not be using that weapon Commander. My suit is quite impervious to most projectile weapons as well as laser and plasma beams. I might also add that my suit is equipped with a number of offensive weapons that you would be well advised not to test."

Without warning,  one of the pincer legs shot forward and gripped the pointer midway down the barrel.
There was a brief struggle for control of the weapon and then the alien squeezed the pincer and literally cut the weapon in half.

Ben took a step back and looked at the two pieces in disbelief.   
           

"As I said... You do not want to test my capabilities or my determination to acquire what I have come to acquire."

Without a word, Ben placed the destroyed weapon on the ground and held his two front paws out to the side in a sign of submission.

"Lieutenant Sassi, if you would be so kind as to join us in the main cabin we can conclude our business this afternoon."

Sassi triggered a system purge... not that there was any information in the shuttle's primitive computer core that could or would be valuable to their captors. He did it because it was the type of action that would be expected. When the purge was complete, he removed his sidearm and fired two high-speed projectiles into the interface console. He then stepped out of his control nest and placed the weapon in plain view on top of the nest. When he entered the main cabin, his appendages were clearly empty.

Captain Running Stream chuckled in an oddly human fashion as the moth-like Ashkelon Lieutenant entered the cabin.

"I trust you fulfilled your duty by destroying your navigational computer and systems log. I hope it provided you with a sense of satisfaction. It will be your last action as an officer in your Corps. From this moment on you and the Commander are slaves of the Modos Syndicate and more to the point; all of you are now my property.

***

Captain Ruck leaned back in Cat's command chair. It was funny. He knew he had been given command of the Yorktow
n…
but he still knew, at an instinctive level, that this was Cat's ship and always would be. The forward view-screen was playing a live feed from the newly promoted Admiral Kimbridge's ocular and auditory implants.

"I guess that pretty much confirms what we suspected regarding motive,"
Jason said out loud to those on the bridge.

"The real question..." Admiral Faragon added "is where are they taking the slaves and how do we disassemble  what is obviously a well established practice. We can't tolerate having our citizens kidnapped and forced into bondage...
on the other hand, it would be marvellous if we could find a way to avoid going to war."  

Commander Kirkland turned from the First Officer's station he was at to address the Admiral hesitantly. "If I may speak
freely sir?"

"Always Ken"

"Sir, I understand our priority has to be our citizens, but one of the GCP's founding principles is the acknowledgment that all sentients have certain inalienable rights, and that slavery is fundamentally at odds with a number of these. Having freed our people are we going to be content to allow such a practice continue even if it no longer involves our citizens?"

The Admiral nodded thoughtfully. "I appreciate your concerns and rest assured I share them. The problem as I see it comes down to the rights of a society to rule itself as it sees fit
versus the rights of an individual within that society. Do we have the right to impose our morality on another group even when we find the actions of that society reprehensible?"

"Sir... That's above my pay grade,
but I would counter with another question... At what point does a right become a responsibility?"

***

Cat shuffled forward a few inches. Everyone, to include the Torn Wing's complement of convicts and crew were now on the Modos ship called the Bluefin. All were prisoners. The Bluefin was a slave transport, but it seemed to be more than that. In many ways, it was apparent that the ship was designed from the 'get go'  to process slaves... Slaves of different biological and psychological backgrounds.

Each slave was run through a battery of tests... Some medical, some physical, some psychological. It seemed this ship was designed, in part, to prepare and quantify the newly acquired slaves for something... And if Cat was suspicious, which of course she was... she suspected that 'something' was prepping them for eventual sale.

One of the first things done was to remove all personal possessions. This included clothing, jewelry and internal commlinks.  This last was accomplished by inserting an ultra- thin needle and physically fusing the internal electronics of the links rather than their physical removal. It was obvious their captors had experience doing this because the procedure was almost painless and did not result in significant collateral damage to the surrounding tissues.

Cat had anticipated this contingency. Her ultra advanced nanites provided a simulated commlink in the correct location. In addition, they cloaked her other enhancements. The Modos surgeon burned out the decoy without ever suspecting the deception. That had been about half an hour ago.

Cat shuffled a few more inches forward. She was slowly being ushered into  a circular room with two Hoppers whose names she didn't yet know. In addition, there were several D'lralu including her cybernetic friend Ben already in the room. She reached out to Ben with her quantum link. As she had suspected, they were unable to remove or disable it on the cyborg.

'
I see they left you your fur
' she said sub-vocally.

'That's more than they left you it seems.
There is something unsettling about seeing one's commanding officer in the buff as it were.'

Before she could respond the lights dimmed and the temperature dropped precipitously. Cat's nanite augmented eyes compensated automatically. It seemed the room was still illuminated,
but the frequency of the light had shifted into the ultraviolet. Based on the reaction of everyone, besides the cybernetically enhanced Ben, no one else could see in this light.

Cat pretended to grope out blindly. In addition, She swatted and folded one arm about herself to conserve heat. Her nanites automatically adjusted her heat signature to match that expected by a normal nude human exposed to the cold conditions present in the room. Her body began to shiver. It was all an act.
In reality, she could easily survive direct exposure to the vacuum of space, but it was vital that she maintained the facade of being a normal human.

Since Ben was quite obviously a hybrid being, he had no such restriction. He immediately walked over to Cat and folded his first four arms around her and held her body close to his; ostensibly to share
warmth.

"Thanks" Cat said out loud while adding through their covert entangled commlink '
I think this is some type of test.
'

'
I agree
.' Then, verbally, he added "There are clothes on the floor on the opposite side of those Hoppers."

"I can't see.  Can you get them for me?"

"Certainly Commodore."

Cat smiled despite herself. "Ben it's just Private now."

Playing his predetermined role to the hilt, Ben responded forcefully... "Hogwash. That trial was a sham, and you know it. You were the finest officer in the fleet, and if the Admirals weren't afraid of you and your raw skill... you still would be!"

'
I think you may be overacting a tad...
'

'
Perhaps but aside from the --afraid-- part, most of what I just said is true. Besides... how often do I get to see you blush in your birthday suit?
'

'
My nanites are programmed to a very specific heat profile based on the environment... and that does not include blushing you lecherous old dog!'
Cat said via her internal commlink. Out loud she said, "Thanks Ben."

The clothing confirmed her suspicions. It was a lightly silvered jumpsuit that fit her form snugly. Embedded within the fibers of the fabric were numerous sensors and surprisingly,
a low power microwave system that Cat suspected, based on an analysis of the frequencies involved, was a pain inducer.

There were no other articles of clothing  designed for humans so Cat's hair hung free and she went shoeless.
The jumpsuit did provide some warmth, but it was still uncomfortably cold. The others in the room continued to grope around randomly. Cat let Ben pull her out of the way of one of the heaviest Hoppers either of them had ever seen.

The frequency of light shifted once again,
and Cat heard the D'lralu in the room mutter the Canine race's equivalent of a gasp. Clearly the spectrum was approaching visible frequencies for them. As the frequencies were still beyond the range of an unenhanced human, Cat continued to feint blindness.

Ben commented that it was getting lighter.

"Your eyes must be naturally better than mine," Cat said, between nanite-induced shivers, for the benefit of any Modos listeners.  In point of fact, her enhanced vision could see in almost total darkness. They could easily function with little more than the reflected radiant  heat of her body.

She kept a hand on Ben's mid-shoulder.
It was important that they establish a visual bond in sight of their captors. If the analysis Cat had shared with the Admiralty broad was correct, Ben's very survival might depend on the establishment of that bond. As a cyborg, the normal physical deterrents that applied to fully organic slaves might not apply to him. On the other hand, if she could be seen as a potential point of leverage for her friend, then the Modos would feel that both could be controlled.

The frequency of the ambient light shifted yet again. Cat's internal systems informed her that the frequency was finally in a range that normal humans could detect.

"It's getting brighter," Cat said out loud.

The Hoppers and the three D'lralu were milling about the center of the room. It was obvious that the Hoppers were just becoming able to see
as well. This was not a surprise to Cat as she knew their visual acuity was roughly equivalent to humans... at least as far as luminosity was concerned. 

Cat's ears picked up a subtle change in the sound from the ventilation system. A light mist entered the room. It had a smell that seemed to be an odd cross between an avocado and mint. Her internal Heshe encounter unit did a quick assessment and determined it was an aerosolized form of diphenhydramine.
In addition to being an antihistamine, it also was a mild sleeping aid. In the concentrations present it would have little effect on a human other than to clear up a little congestion. The effects on both the Hoppers and D'lralu were far more pronounced... The Hoppers practically collapsed in place. The D'lralu became markedly agitated... snapping at each other (and in one case drawing blood), before they too collapsed.

A familiar voice filled the round room... It was the synthetic voice she associated with Captain Running Stream.

"Please be so good as to place an appropriate  control collar on each of the others."

"No,"
Cat said calmly.

"Forgive me. I phrased the statement like a request. Understand me when I tell you it was not."

"No, " Cat repeated.

"Perhaps I need to make myself clear"

Several dozen circuits, embedded in Cat's jumpsuit, activated. They emitted a microwave pulse that penetrated just deep enough through her skin to simulate the nerve endings located there. Her nanites blocked the pain centers of her brain. At the same time her AI, which resided in her internal and fully cloaked Heshe encounter unit, calculated the probable effect on a normal human. It sent appropriate simulated responses to various parts of her body. Her muscles spasmed, and she crumpled to the ground in what looked to be complete agony.

The pain emitters stopped. Cat continued the ruse by gasping for breath. Ben reached down to help her up. His eyes were wide despite knowing about Cat's technological advantages.

"I trust I will have your cooperation now" Captain Running Stream continued.

"No,"
Cat said between clenched teeth. "I will not give you the ability to do this for others."

She began to remove her jumpsuit but the moment her hands touched the fastener her body was ravaged by another round of debilitating agony...
this time it did not stop after a moment.

"MAKE IT STOP!" Ben yelled while trying to hold her still.

"Then place the collars on the others..." the voice said patiently as if it were a parent talking to a slow child.