Battleship Avenger (Conquest of Stars Book 2) (13 page)

Roofus Bolfus
looked out of his spaceship’s side window at the humongous starship he had left
behind. It was hard to believe that he had avoided getting smashed into bits by
this very ship not too long ago. Then it had sent him into a tailspin towards
the ocean. But he had heard what
Conquistador
had done and why it had
hidden out in the ocean and he admired the battle tactics of its officer class.
He was also glad they could drain out all the chemicals from his body that had
just flummoxed the Nestorian scientists. Roofus had been scared, he did not
know what side effects the experiments were going to cause in him but now he
felt fresh, fresher than even after a hot shower.

He did not remember
the technique they used as they had made him unconscious. Apparently, they had
sent thousands of micro-machines into his body to grab even a single molecule
of any alien chemical lingering around. This was not something Nestorians could
do yet.

He turned his head
and looked out the opposite side window and saw Battleship
Avenger
departing from the orbit just then. Roofus wanted to be on there, to pay back
the Mercurians. More than anyone else, Roofus had personally witnessed the
Mercurian cruelty and callousness in using Nestorians as guinea pigs for their
experiments and to what end, he didn’t know. But he wanted to be part of a team
that would avenge their fellow citizens. He had been a fighter pilot in his
days, a damn good one and he could don the attire and gear once more.

He saluted
Avenger
as he watched it take off into space and then disappear from his eyesight.
General Bakus had assigned him a very important and secret mission. Bakus did
not believe that late Republican Guard commander Nolfus was the sole leader of
the attempted coup. As Bakus had put it, Nolfus neither had control over any
battleship fleet nor any political power. He would have needed generals and
senators to make his coup successful. Bakus wanted Roofus to find out who these
were but this would be an unofficial mission.

Roofus turned his
spaceship towards the base Starfirian soldiers had established on the outskirts
of the city that housed the Senate. He wanted to get started on the work right
away. He also wanted to avoid getting in Nestorian air traffic control’s
database as he was going to be working in the shadows. Starfirians didn’t
bother to comply with any Nestorian air or space traffic regulations and
Nestorians couldn’t make them. That was arrogant of them but Roofus figured a
spaceship traveling from
Conquistador
to strike soldier’s base would be
identified as Starfirian one and ignored by air traffic controllers.

The strike
soldiers assumed likewise too and he was able to land without any problem or
question. But when he walked out of the spaceship, a couple of soldiers who
were on patrol walked over to him.

“Who is escorting
you?” one soldier asked.

“No one,” Roofus
replied.

“You are on a
Starfirian base, you need permission,” the other soldier said.

“Excuse me, you
are on Nestorian planet,” Roofus said.

The two soldiers
looked at each other and grinned.

“Alright, what is
your business here?” the soldier asked.

“I am here to see
Colonel Jarvyk,” Roofus replied, “I come straight from meeting Com. Raptor.”

“Follow us, we
will escort you,” the soldiers said.

They walked on
either side of him with their laser guns in their hands but pointed outward and
they walked to a tall, metallic, cylindrical building that Starfirians had
constructed in the center of the base. The soldiers accompanying him conversed
with the soldiers in front of the large door and a couple minutes later he was
inside. The insides were sparse and metallic with black shoes of the soldiers
matching the shiny black floor and walls. The soldiers led him to an elevator
and to the top floor where he was standing in front of Col. Jarvyk’s desk a couple
minutes later.

“I just received
the orders from Commodore Raptor to let you have a copy of the report on
Republican Guard commander’s autopsy,” Col. Jarvyk said as he got up and
grabbed a folder in his hand, “Follow me, I will explain to you in the morgue.”

“You have a morgue
here?” Roofus asked surprised.

“Just a large
room,” Jarvyk smiled wryly and walked down the hallway. Roofus followed him.
They took stairs a couple of floors down and Jarvyk slid his card to open a
door to a large, rectangular room, painted metallic black like the rest of the
building, with cold storage lockers for dead bodies. He entered his code to
open a locker and pulled out the floating board that held Nolfus’ body. He
lowered the board till it was hovering in the air just above their waist.
Jarvyk handed him the folder and Roofus started flipping through the pages – he
was going to read the details once he had left this base.

“How did he die?”
Roofus asked.

“Shot by a laser
pistol, Nestorian
Gormus 0.88
to be specific,” Jarvyk said.

“A Nestorian laser
pistol?” Roofus almost jumped, “I thought your soldiers shot him.”

“No,” Jarvyk
replied.

“But colonel, that
is not possible,” Roofus said.

“See here,” Jarvyk
pointed to the penetrating wound on Nolfus’ chest, “Our machines analyzed the
residual heat and the wound shape, estimated the energy released and the
structure of the laser fired and matched it to all known weapons in our
database. This was no Starfirian laser gun wound; it was Nestorian,
Gormus 0.88
as mentioned earlier. Do you want technical details of laser energy analysis?”
“No,” Roofus said, “that would go over my head. But perhaps one of your
soldiers picked up this laser pistol from a fallen republican guard during the
street battle?”

Colonel Jarvyk
laughed, “Look at the wound again,” he pointed to the open hole in Nolfus’
body, “a straight shot to the heart. Someone who knows Nestorian biology. Our
hearts are in the center of our chest, yours are much further to the left and
near the bottom of your chests. Strange species you are,” Jarvyk chuckled a
bit.

“And?” Roofus
intoned.

“Look,” Jarvyk
said with a serious face this time, “I personally instructed my soldiers to
take head shots against Nestorians because they don’t know where your vital
points are. But every specie is vulnerable in the head. These are elite
marksmen they would not accidently hit the heart when aiming for the head.
Besides,” Jarvyk folded his hands across his chest, “When strike soldiers
stormed the makeshift headquarters set up by republican guard, they quickly
surrendered and Nolfus’ body was found on the street, already dead. No
guardsman could say how it happened.”

Roofus grasped his
head with both of his hands, “Gen. Bakus’ suspicion was right. He had
collaborators who offed him when the coup appeared to have failed.”

“That is the
conclusion I put in the report you are holding,” Jarvyk said.

“Colonel, why
didn’t you tell us? Why aren’t you investigating?” Roofus blurted out.

“Are you joking?”
Jarvyk said, “Your government hasn’t requested this report, but then again
given the utter chaos in the aftermath of the coup and the Mercurian attack and
the new government taking power, I wouldn’t be surprised if they never get
around to it. And as far us investigating,” Jarvyk guffawed, “we already caught
a lot of flak from some of your senators and peoples about picking your next
chancellor. We don’t interfere in the internal affairs of protectorates and
that is a big reason why a lot of small and medium spacefaring nations become
our protectorates. You can’t expect my soldiers and detectives to go around
asking questions and roughing up suspects. It’s your coup, you deal with it.”

“Colonel, then I
must take your leave,” Roofus said and Jarvyk shoved the dead body back into
the cold storage. He walked with Roofus to the elevator and left him there.
Roofus rushed to his spaceship and started reading the report hurriedly to
satiate his curiosity while he entered the coordinates for a parking space near
the Senate building.

Roofus barged into
the personal office of Vice-Chancellor Remus Torus in the Senate way earlier
than his meeting had been scheduled. Remus raised a brow when he looked at the
clock. He put aside the papers he was working on and pushed away the mobile display
he was watching. Gen. Bakus had set up a meeting between the two of them before
he had left.

“That folder
contains some revelations about the coup?” Remus pointed with his pen to the
folder Roofus was holding.

“How did you
know?” Roofus asked and took a seat in front of Remus’ table.

“We weren’t due to
meet for forty minutes and you are a disciplined person, given your background
and the work you do,” Remus smiled, “Something has gotten you excited and you
want to share with me.”

“Nolfus had partners
in crime,” Roofus smacked the folder on the table. Then he proceeded to tell
him about his meeting with Col. Jarvyk of Strike Soldiers.

“I am not
surprised,” Remus said picking up the folder and skimming through it, “I will
read it later at leisure.”

“You knew?”

“No I suspected,”
Remus said.

“What about
Chancellor Solus?” Roofus asked.

“He suspects Gen.
Bakus of being the mastermind,” Remus said.

“That’s crazy,”
Roofus said, “Bakus asked me to investigate.”

“Because he knows
that when Solus appoints an investigation he is going to all but set them upon
Bakus, trying to dig dirt upon him,” Remus said, “Solus has always barked,” he
stopped himself and laughed, “our great chancellor has always proclaimed that the
officers were planning to usurp the Republic. He will ride this to the high
hills for all the gold.”

“We have to find
the real culprits,” Roofus said and Remus nodded his head.

“The coup attempt
and the assassination attempt on myself are somehow connected,” Remus said,
“That is why it can’t be Nolfus alone. What would he have gained by removing
me?”

“You were next in
line,” Roofus said.

“And third in line
is the Interior Minister,” Remus leaned forward and whispered, “Republican
Guards are interior ministry’s charge.”

“You suspect
Minister Lemon Bree?” Roofus asked. Now he himself started wondering that.

“Can’t say,” Remus
leaned back in his chair, “But that’s why I can’t go to Commander Krotus. I
trust his loyalty and he risked his life in the fight against the coup. But the
interior ministry would know every detail of his investigation.”

“That’s why you
and Bakus want me to play detective,” Roofus said.

“You have always
played spy, now you play the other side of it,” Remus said, “By the way,
Republican Guard may be disbanded.”

“What?” Roofus
jumped up from the chair and stood up.

“Solus introduced
a bill to abolish them saying they were ‘
an elitist institution infected
with contempt for commons
’, his words,” Remus said, “Me and Lemon managed
to stop the bill. But Solus will turn the senators he needs. He is handing out
sops from the treasury to every other planet, buying their senator’s support.”

“In a time of
war?” Roofus said.

“He says the
wealthy will pay for this war, not the peoples,” Remus said.

“I see,” Roofus
said, “But where do we begin our inquiry?”

“Now listen
carefully,” Remus said, “I had tasked Jag Manus, the capitan of my personal
guards to find answers about the hit put on me. He was killed while he was en
route to Nestor with information. But in the message that he had managed to
send he had mentioned a man named Aurus Janus, an employee of
Boutrous Golus
Company
on planet Nectar, and an associate of Nolfus who was headed to
Nestor or already here.”

“Are you sure he
is still on Nestor?” Roofus asked, “He would have run into deep space after the
coup failed.”

“No, he wouldn’t
have run,” Remus said, “Presumably he expected to be reward by the coup
leaders. The Republican Guard had seized space traffic control and prohibited
all traffic from leaving Nestor. When Starfirians showed up, they enforced a
similar ban, and then Gen. Bakus suspended all civilian traffic during the
battle. No civilian spaceship has left Nestor since then without being examined
and registered. I have access to all the databases of spaceships arrivals and
departures and Aurus’ name was nowhere on the departure lists.”

“He is still here
then, hiding out somewhere like a rat,” Roofus said.

Remus laughed,
“Yes he is, and if you find him, he will lead us right to Nolfus’ associates.”

“Do you have any
photos etc.?”

“Yes,” Remus
handed Roofus a metallic disk, “All the data on Aurus in government databases
is on this including his photos.”

“I will find him,”
Roofus said.

He left VC Remus’
office and exited the Senate building thereafter. Finding one man on a planet
of three billion people was a job for an entire police department.
Nevertheless, he wasn’t distraught, because during the course of his spy work
he had acquired many useful tricks for searching hidden individuals and
objects. First, he had to learn more about the coup itself for any missed
clues.