THE PRIZE: BOOK TWO - RETRIBUTION (42 page)

“We need to be careful about what these people sample, people.” Ellis said in English. “Apparently, sugar is like alcohol to them, pure, 100% pure alcohol that is.”

“You do have some very interesting products on your planet. It’s a wonder you aren’t all dead.” She laughed. I’m wondering if I should declare that a dangerous drug.” Ellis returned the smile, and just to show that is wasn’t poisonous to humans, she took a spoonful into her mouth.

With all the work that had to be done to recondition the ship, and get her repainted it would take three weeks local time. The planet had an eighteen-hour rotation measured against Earth standard and that was acceptable to Ellis. They still had the need to find suitable food to take with them, and again the Doctor was helpful in providing the testing unit she had, recalibrated to human dietary requirements. Not hard on a planet that catered to so many different species. Ellis took one group out first, just to get a feel of the town, as having been to many different worlds while in the Imperial Marines she knew she could get a feel for the place very quickly. There were a few places near the spaceport she noted and advised everyone to steer clear of as well as to go out in groups, armed. There were no local ordinances prohibiting them from carrying weapons, but she made it a rule they only go ashore during the day, and be back aboard before nightfall.

The port authorities arranged to move the ship to the service area and she was soon inside a huge hanger being worked on, inside and out. They also provided a security detail and promised that all workers would be bonded and members of the local union. That still didn’t prevent the engineering crew from watching them like hawks just on the off chance one of them might get sticky fingers. Ellis’ next problem was getting hold of the local star charts to try and figure out where they were. The control tower staff was a little leery about giving out that information, but a few carefully placed ‘information’ taxes and she had what she wanted. Sadly, they weren’t as much help as she’d expected and by loading in the data to the Nav computer, she deduced they were still only halfway across Thrakee space. At least they were going in the right direction, but the Sethian’s couldn’t tell them much about what was further down the arm, nor how far Silurian space was, or where it began. She did discover that the Thrakee visited here every so often, mostly to trade, and so far, they hadn’t made any attempt to invade, or include this star system into their territory. It could be that it was so far out on the very edge of the spiral arm that it wasn’t worth bothering about. It wasn’t as if it was in a border region between Thrakee and Tellurian, or Silurian space and didn’t present any military threat to them. The three weeks passed quickly and once fully serviced and with sufficient foodstuff to last them a long while, they departed, all with the good wishes of the locals and many requests for them to return with more Earth products, especially tea. Sadly, Ellis knew it might be a long time before any Earth ship visited them again, but she refrained from saying so. One last visit from the Doctor and she blushingly admitted that even as little as two CC of tea was sufficient to keep a male Sethian going all night long and then some. She even confessed that several labs were now busy trying to synthesize the active ingredient in the tea in hopes of producing it in pill form, much like Viagra, Ellis thought. She did one last walk around outside the ship and admired her new paint job, now it did look like a bird of prey and downright intimidating at that.

With the addition of the local star charts, between them, she and Jack were able to plot a course down the arm, skipping from star system to star system, and hopefully closer to Silurian space and home. Ellis tried not to think of the many dangers that lay between them and safety, but even so, a slight shudder run down her spine. It was all well and good Richard and her doing crazy things for themselves, but now they had to think in bigger terms. One look into the faces of the people she’d rescued told her she and Penn needed to concentrate on making the whole Human Race safe. The only way to do that was to weld the whole Human Race into an unstoppable fighting force, and teach everyone how to defend themselves, but to do that, she first had to get back to Earth.

Chapter Twenty-One

End Game

“Lieutenant Amraa Hassar. I have an assignment for you.”

“Yes, Colonel.”

“I’m giving you a field promotion to Captain and placing you in charge of this station.”

“What! - I mean thank you, Colonel, but…”

“But what, Captain? Is there something you don’t understand about my orders?”

“Um - No, sir. It’s just that - I thought I was going with you.” Hassar’s eyes remained locked on a point on the bulkhead over Penn right shoulder as he came over and stood before the newly promoted Captain.

“It might have come to your notice Captain that I am not in the habit of repeating myself.” Hassar swallowed.

“No, sir - I mean yes, sir that had come to my attention.”

“Good. You will assume command of this station and get it back into working order. That means getting rid of the assorted scum and turning this place back into the station it was intended to be in the first place. A trading and monitoring station. Is that clear enough?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then carry on and be about your new duties.” Hassar saluted, about faced and marched out of the office. Penn flicked his eyes to Sergeant Brask, seeing a slight smile on his hard face.

“You have something to say, Sergeant?”

“That was one way of getting rid of the young fool.”

“The other being?”

“Slitting his throat.”

“A rather bloodthirsty method to deal with the problem, Sergeant, but unnecessary in this case.

“If you say so, sir. What now?”

“Now I take over the Fleet. Follow me.”

Taking his usual position, three steps behind Penn, he ported his weapon and followed Penn up to the communication center. He put a belated call to the Admiral of the Fleet and waited for a reply. It wasn’t long in coming, and a portly, older Var appeared on the screen. Penn schooled his features into a hard mask, one that Director Markoff would have recognized. He called it the Penn killer look. The old Admiral immediately launched into a tirade about junior officers refusing to answer is calls, and what happened to said officers who did that. Penn let him rant, keeping his face impassive, and his eyes hidden behind the shades. Getting no response from the black dressed human with the twin lightning bolts of the Imperial Security Special Command Unit on his collar, he finally ran down.

“Well! What have you to say for yourself Colonel?” He demanded at last.

“Are your Chief of Security and Master at Arms present, Admiral?”

“What - no, of course not.” The question took him by surprise and his face pulled into a puzzled frown.

“Then I suggest you bring them to the bridge at once.”

“Why in the name of the Holy Mother should I do that?”

“Because I will need their services to make some arrests.”

“Yours being the first, I presume.”

“No, sir - members of your senior staff in connection with a plot against the Emperor.” The Admiral’s face blanched and he turned his head to say something to someone off screen. Penn took to pacing back and forth across the communication room, ignoring the Admiral’s demands for him to explain. At last, the two people he’d asked for came onto the bridge, and the screen zoomed out to show all three of them.

“What this about a plot against the Emperor?” The Fleet Security Officer demanded. Penn noted the twin lightning bolts on his collar. He was IMPSEC, not Navy and so much the better. Penn slowly walked back and stopped in front of the pickup and waited a moment before bringing his hand from behind his back holding some documents.

“While investigating reports of a conspiracy in the Fleet, I tried to question this station’s commander. I failed to do so as Var Petofi chose to take his own life before I was able.”

“Go on. We did hear of that unfortunate event.”

“I did however manage to review the contents of his vault, and it came to my attention that several high ranking officers in your fleet are implicated in a plot to depose the Emperor and replace him with another person more amenable to the concerns of the Var elite. General Nassis and his late nephew being two of them.”

“Holy Mother - and you have proof of this?” Penn looked down at the documents in his hand.

“Var Hartag, Var Lockoff, and Var Tween. Please have them arrested immediately.”

“This is preposterous - I know those Var personally…” The Admiral spluttered.

“Oh yes, and Admiral Var Zarakoff of course.” Penn added. The Admiral’s name wasn’t on the list, but he was betting the old Var knew of the plot.

“What - you can’t do that… I’m… I’m…” But even as he spluttered his innocence’s the Master at Arms came forward and relieved him of his sidearm and secured his hands behind his back.

“I will interrogate them myself, and I’m sure I will discover additional officers involved in this murderous plot against our beloved Emperor.” Penn almost gagged saying that, but it sounded right. As the protesting Admiral was led away, another officer stepped into view.

“Colonel - I’m Var Danoff, Captain of this ship - what are your orders, sir.”

“As of this moment, you are hereby promoted to the temporary rank of Admiral. I shall be aboard shortly to meet with you, and begin interrogating the prisoners.”

“Of course, Colonel.”

“I do hope that you are not among those the prisoners named who are also connected with this plot, Admiral.” Penn gave him a smile, seeing the Tellurian visibly shiver.

Knowing the Var, especially high Var, Penn would have bet his best boots and garters most of the senior officers on the flagship were aware of the plot. The high Var were always plotting, mostly against Director Markoff rather than the Emperor, but then again, who wasn’t plotting against Markoff. Penn killed the connection before anyone could ask him any more questions. That should bring the pot to a boil very nicely before he arrived. Returning to his commandeered living quarters, Penn prepared to leave, but as he was about to walk out, Brask held his hand up.

“That was nicely done, Sir, but I think we might have a problem the moment you walk onto that ship.” Penn stopped, a slight frown on his face, wondering what he’d forgotten, and what Brask was talking about.

“What did I forget?” In answer, Brask pointed to the lintel over the doorway.

“It took me a while to catch it, but as you and the boys have walked in and out of the room, the scanner control panel has flashed red.”

“Shit!” It was something he should have remembered.”

All imperial facilities had scanners embedded in the main doorways so that every time someone walked through, it scanned the implanted chip all Tellurians had implanted at birth. It registered their name, status, rank if they had one, and other miscellaneous personal data. Even slaves had them implanted during processing and reported who owned them and what places or facilities they were permitted to enter. As the two boys had never been processed, but purchased from some slaver on the station, the scanner would flash red as unauthorized, as it did when Penn walked through. Due to his odd metabolism, every chip Markoff implanted in the back of his neck dissolved within a couple of days. Normally the chips were tamper proof and designed to explode if they were tampered with or removed. The explosion wasn’t large, just sufficient to sever the person’s spinal column and kill them. Of course, Penn had never told Markoff how he’d managed to remove the chips, not that he had to, his body did that naturally. Now the problem was, the moment he stepped aboard that ship the bio scanner would start beeping and flashing red. That would alert the ship’s security detail that he was unauthorized, something no genuine IMPSEC officer or Tellurian crewmember would ever be.

“Var Petofi must have had a chip security override so he could update a chip.”

“True, sir. Most commanders do, so they can update your chip if you get a promotion, or demotion in some cases, or change of status, but there’s not much we can do if someone doesn’t have one in the first place, like you and the boys.”

“Yes, that is a bit of a problem.”

“I have an idea, sir, but you might not like it.” Without explaining he walked into the bedroom, returning a few moments later holding out a large yellow lace napkin, or handkerchief.”

“And?” Penn asked.

“I noticed before in other places that some Var who liked umm… well boys, wear something like this tucked into the sleeve of their coats. They’d take it out and wipe their lips, or sniff it occasionally.” Penn took the offered handkerchief, finding Brask had applied a goodly amount of perfume.

“So, I pass the boys off as my personal servants and bed warmers I take it.”

“Yes, sir. No one is going to question it, but what about you? The moment you pass a scanner the game will be up.” Penn thought about it for a moment, then smiled.

“My Dad once told me something which I found was true on Earth as it is with Tellurians at least.” Brask looked puzzled. “Do you ever question an officer’s orders, Brask?”

“I’m not sure I understand the question, sir.”

“Simple, you see someone in an officer’s uniform or another sergeant for that matter, did you ever stop to question his authority or orders?” Brask thought about it for a moment and shook his head.

“No, sir. I don’t remember ever having done that. Why?”

“Because it seems to be a universal rule that we believe what we see, the mask you might say. If I was dressed, say as a priest, would you question whether I was one or not?”

“No, can’t say that I would, and you are right, we do believe what we see. But how does that help you?”

“Simple. If I present myself as an officer of unknown rank belonging to some ultra secret division of Imperial Security, who is going to question it?”

“Someone might, say the flagship Security Chief, he’s IMPSEC, and they are a suspicious lot at the best of times.”

“Good point.” Penn paced back and forth for a moment. “What if… get Trooper E’shee in here. I have a job for him.” While he waited, Penn spoke to the boys.