A Galaxy Unknown 10: Azula Carver (22 page)

"Carver, out."

"Okay, Lieutenant," Eliza said to Nathan. "Any questions?"

"No, ma'am. I understand our task."

"Good, then go back into the rear cabin and let me know when everyone has their suits sealed and is ready to disembark."

"Aye, Commander."

Eliza watched via the rear cabin cameras as Nathan went to each Marine or engineer and confirmed that their suit was sealed. He then reported that they were ready for depressurization.

"Roger, Lieutenant. Commencing depressurization." When the air in the cabin had been sucked into a storage tank, Eliza unlocked the hatches. "You're good to go, Lieutenant."

As the Marines and Spaccs exited the shuttle, they tethered themselves to a tow line. Nathan hooked up to the line last and towed everyone the short distance to the ship using the thruster harness he was wearing.

Upon reaching the freighter, everyone activated the magnetic soles on their boots and stood on the freighter until an engineer managed to open the emergency airlock. Two Marines entered first. Then every fifteen seconds another pair entered the ship as the airlock recycled until all were inside. Nathan, being the only one with a thruster harness, was the last one in. He was required to remain outside in case someone lost their connection footing on the freighter and began to drift away.

Eliza could only connect to one helmet cam at a time so she chose the view from Nathan's cam. Aboard the
Ares
, all seventeen cams were being displayed on the large monitor at once.

The Marines led the way but encountered no resistance or living persons. They did, however, have to step over numerous Eulosi bodies. The group assigned to recover data from the computers made their way to the bridge, and although sensors indicated that the bridge was open to space, the doors were sealed and the Marines had to cut their way through. Once inside, the group found more dead bodies. The ship's power cells still had plenty of power, so one engineer managed to get the interior lights functioning while the other went directly to the security console and began downloading the ships logs and transmitting the data to the
Ares
.

The search teams scoured the ship looking for any signs of life and found none. But they did find a Denubbewa cyborg. It had been cut almost in half by a laser weapon. An engineer on the team that found it contacted Lt. Nathan, who contacted Eliza.

"Commander, one of the teams has found a dead cyborg. Should we bring it to the shuttle?"

"Are you sure it's dead?"

"They say yes. Half its head is missing."

"Which team, Lieutenant?"

"Designation Foxtrot."

Eliza pulled up the cam images coming from Foxtrot-1. The cyborg certainly appeared to be dead.

The connection to the bridge of the
Ares
had been open since Eliza entered the shuttle, so she said, "
Ares
, are you seeing the images from Froxtrot-1?"

"Affirmative, Shuttle-06. Standby."

"Standby, Lieutenant. The
Ares
will make the decision."

A few minutes later, Eliza heard Captain Gavin say, "Shuttle-06, have the Foxtrot team recover the torso and head only. "

"Message received,
Ares
. Only torso and head will be recovered."

Eliza relayed the orders to Nathan, who relayed them the Foxtrot team. Eliza watched as an engineer used a laser to remove the arms and legs from the cyborg. As a green liquid began to run from the cut connections, the engineer picked up the unwanted pieces and tossed them aside. The gravity plates on the deck were still functioning or little green globules would have been floating everywhere.

"Torso and head recovered, Commander," Nathan said when the Foxtrot team was finished.

"Carry on, Lieutenant."

By the time the teams were ready to return to the shuttle, they had searched every part of the freighter. They had recovered all the logs and were confident there was no one left alive aboard the ship. They had taken photos of all the dead bodies, along with a small DNA sample from each, but the desiccated conditions of the corpses prevented them from being able to record lip prints, which is how the Eulosi identified individuals on their planet. One engineer suggested they bring back the heads, but the
Ares
nixed that idea.

With their tasks finished, the teams returned to the shuttle. When all hands were aboard, the hatch was closed and locked. Eliza verified the locked condition and then pressurized the rear cabin.

As the rear cabin reached full pressure, Eliza announced, "Do not remove your helmets. The sensors indicate that your suits have been exposed to radiation. When we reach the
Ares
in a few minutes, you'll undergo decontamination procedures. Lieutenant, you'll have to remain in the rear cabin so you don't contaminate me or the flight deck."

"Understood, Commander."

It took just minutes to travel the twenty-five thousand kilometers to where the
Ares
was waiting. After entering the shuttle bay and moving to the assigned parking location, Eliza shut down the systems and remained on the flight deck until all search team members had exited the ship and been scrubbed and cleared. The decontamination team then entered the shuttle and cleaned the rear cabin. When Eliza finally left the small ship, she was checked for radiation and then cleared. She went to the EVA preparation room to remove her suit before going to her quarters. She still smelled of perspiration from her earlier run, so she showered, changed into a clean uniform, and reported to the bridge. She immediately noticed from the view on the front view screen that they were still in close proximity to the derelict freighter. Captain Gavin was in his office, and the door opened to admit her when she stepped in front of it.

"Come in, Eliza. Good job. We've positively identified the ship as the
Lina Algocoldo,
and I've sent a notification to Space Command, plus a copy of the logs we recovered."

"Are we remaining here by the freighter for a reason, sir?"

"Interestingly, we're almost in the exact center of Region Two. There have never been any reports of Denubbewa sightings or attacks within a thousand light-years of this location. Now we find a freighter that appears to have been attacked by the Denubbewa, and its ten kilometers of cargo is missing. And— we find a Denubbewa corpse aboard the derelict ship. What does that suggest to you?"

Eliza knew he was looking for an answer other than the most obvious one, so she said, "Well, sir, if the attack wasn't perpetrated by the Denubbewa, then it had to have been committed by someone who wanted us to believe it had been committed by the Denubbewa."

"Exactly. And who do you suppose that might point to?"

"Other than the Raiders, I can't think of anyone."

"Neither can I. I seriously doubt the Tsgardi would be able to come up with a complex plan that pointed to another perpetrator. And the Uthlaro fleet was virtually wiped out. It could be a pirate group who got their hands on a destroyed warship and managed to get it operational after Jenetta wiped out the Uthlaro fleet, or even an Uthlaro crew who simply went rogue after their empire was gone. I want to remain here until I hear back from HQ and learn their assessments."

"That could take days, sir, or longer."

"I'm not in a hurry to be anywhere else."

Eliza smiled. "Neither am I, sir."

"The engineering section is trying to learn what they can about that Denubbewa corpse. They tell me that the torsos of the Denubbewa recovered after we destroyed the motherships out near the Hudeerac border all had a memory module in the chest. Our scientists haven't understood everything they've been able to download, but they have made a little progress in deciphering some of the coded data. Engineering has sent the data from our corpse's module to SCI. Perhaps we'll learn if this cyborg was part of the attack group here or if it was simply part of some space junk the real attackers found in the area of our battles and they're trying to mislead our investigation."

"Yes, sir. If someone found a corpse near a battle site, they could very well also have found some unexploded missiles there. We know the Denubbewa fire them by the hundreds in an effort to inundate their enemy with destructive blows, but many missiles never hit their intended targets and eventually go ballistic."

"That's true, Eliza. That's all for now. Dismissed."

~ May 22
^nd
, 2289 ~

As with felines on Earth, the Jumaka cubs grew astonishingly fast during their first twelve weeks of life. All were now larger than a fully grown Terran housecat, with Cayla's brood being slightly larger because they were born a little earlier. All had been weaned off their mother's milk, which was a relief for Cayla and Tayna. The babies now consumed the same food as the adult Jumakas.

They had become a real handful when they were in the palace and seemed to be everywhere all the time. The family and staff were extra careful not to step on them or trip over them, but occasionally a tiny scream of pain would be heard when the tip of a tail or a paw was underfoot. For that reason, Cayla and Tayna kept them outside as much as possible. Arturo and Berl would spend all morning, every morning, after breakfast playing made-up games with the cubs as their Terran and Jumaka mothers looked on. Then they'd eat lunch, take a nap, and be ready to play all afternoon if Cayla and Tayna hadn't taken the cubs into the denser part of the garden to learn survival and hunting techniques in the wild, although it was doubtful they'd ever need them. The training was useful though because it reinforced their natural instincts while sharpening their reflexes, which better prepared them to defend themselves and their Terrans if trouble arose.

~     ~     ~

"The meeting will come to order," Chairwoman Gladsworth said to the members of the Raider Upper Council assembled around the meeting table as she pounded her gavel once, then put it down. When everyone had quieted down, she said, "Councilwoman Overgaard has informed me that Mikel Arneu aka Nicole Ravenau, plus a number of other aliases— including Arthur Strauss for a time and now Aliana Shanara— is here and waiting with her guards outside this chamber. Shall we bring her in?"

Everyone nodded affirmatively and Gladsworth touched a contact point on a console by her right hand. A couple of seconds later, the chamber doors opened and three burly guards and the Chief of Security followed the comparatively petite Aliana Shanara into the room. Her hands were cuffed behind her back, and she was wearing the outfit she had worn the day they found her on Pelomious. Since then she had only worn pajamas in her cell.

"Has she been checked for weapons?" Gladsworth asked the Chief of Security.

He nodded.

"You're damn straight I've been checked for weapons," Shanara said. "I was checked on Pelomious and then several times every day since while in my cell where there was no possibility I could have acquired any new weapons. Usually it took three of them to check me."

"Are you that dangerous?" Gladsworth asked.

"No, they just enjoyed searching my body for weapons."

Gladsworth chuckled. "I can understand why. That's a very attractive body your people fashioned for you. Guards, release her and leave the room."

"I ask that you reconsider, Madam Chairwoman," the Chief of Security said. "She's extremely dangerous and clever. She killed one of my men on Pelomious."

"I warned him not to touch me," Shanara said and then snickered.

"We'll be fine, Chief. Now do as I ask."

"Yes, ma'am."

Shanara rubbed her wrists after the cuffs were removed and the guards left the room.

"You've been with us for a long time, Aliana," Gladsworth said as she read from a screen in front of her. "You joined us as cargo handler, third class, and worked your way up quickly. In 2258 you were already a Senior Grade Supervisor on one of our remote bases. Then you proposed an idea for a hidden base inside an asteroid and were put in charge of overseeing construction— a very responsible position for such a young man. Your performance was always rated superior by your supervisors. When Raider One was finished, you were given command of the base and you began to assemble a group of scientists to work on the DNA Manipulation and Age Prolongation Processes, which I see you named after your original identity."

"Why am I here?" Shanara asked.

"I especially applaud your work on the two formulas. Most of this Council has benefited from them greatly."

"Your appreciation didn't stop you from chasing halfway across Region One to find me and drag me back here."

"You were brought back here because you killed Arthur Strauss."

"And now you intend to kill me. So get it over with and stop with the history lessons."

"Do you want to die?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"There might be an alternative."

"You're not going to have me killed?"

"The matter is still open for review. The answer will depend on you. You've done some very fine work for us. But we can't have you running around killing your co-workers and employees without good reason. Destroying the lab where you were in charge was extremely costly. The buildings you destroyed represented a large investment, but that pales in comparison to the deaths of the workers there. Some of the people you killed were the finest scientific minds in the galaxy."

"I had good reason. Strauss had threatened to kill me several times. I believed he had only spared my life temporarily because he still needed me for some purpose. I had to eliminate him first and then cover my trail to protect my own life."

"Yes. Arthur Strauss. Hardly a day goes by we don't miss his firm hand on the tiller of the Lower Council and mourn his loss. Surprisingly, you did a remarkable job of standing in for him. No one suspected for a second that our most recent Arthur Strauss was no longer the same Arthur Strauss who had so deftly guided the efforts of the Lower Council for so long. You probably could have stayed in that position for years, and no one would have been the wiser."

"When you chose four of my subordinates to fill positions on the Upper Council, passing me by for promotion, my value to the organization was made abundantly clear."