Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (28 page)

‘I think I may know just the people that you’re looking for,’ said Chen. ‘I’ll have their full records provided to you.  As part of SOC I have clearance to some things that you do not, even though you outrank me, sir’

‘Of course you do, I was counting on that. Excellent.  There is of course one thing, Admiral Chen.’

‘Sir?’

‘If they cannot prevent Haines from falling into enemy hands or they discover that he has become host to a Shaper parasite, the individuals that you select for this mission should be prepared to terminate him without hesitation.’

McManus had been confined to quarters aboard Batavia Port.  Chen returned to the vast orbital dock from the
Trafalgar
and, following directions from Cartwright, eventually located McManus’s quarters amid the labyrinthine corridors.  A bored looking marine corporal was stationed outside.  He saluted smartly as Chen approached.

‘I’m here to see Commander McManus.  Orders from Admiral Cartwright for his release if he agrees to my offer,’ said Chen and showed the corporal a printed copy of Cartwright’s orders. The man scanned down them briefly then returned them to her and unlocked the door.

‘Yes ma’am.  You can go inside,’ he replied and stood aside to allow Chen past.

She found McManus reclined on his narrow bunk, peering through small square glasses at an age-worn book.  He looked up as she entered, noticed her rank, then hurriedly stood up and saluted her.

‘Admiral Chen.  An unexpected pleasure.’  A native of Earth,  McManus had a thick, Scots accent.  A grin split his broad, neatly bearded face.  ‘You’re something of a celebrity, I hear.  To what do I owe the honour?’

‘I have a proposition for you, Commander.  My old XO turned out to be a traitorous son of a bitch who tried to shoot me on my own bridge.  I need someone dependable, someone who’s not afraid of a fight, but someone who’s used to out-thinking their opponents.  Are you that man?’

‘Well, I am a son of a bitch, but you’ll be pleased to hear that I’m no traitor,’ McManus replied.  ‘Also, I’d love to stick it to that bastard Morgan.  I never had much time for the stuck up arsehole anyway, but now I hear he’s in league with an alien race out to enslave us all, well it’d be my pleasure ma’am.  Only one problem see?  I’m stuck on here till they bring me up on charges.’

‘You want to tell me about that?’

‘Aye, why not?  I spent a couple of years away from home, running the sort of missions that you don’t get to talk about:  dangerous stuff, behind enemy lines for weeks at a time.  The
Actium
is a good ship, a good crew.  We went to hell and back and most of us made it out alive.  I was damn proud of that.  Then the war was over and we went home and guess what?’

‘Go on.’

‘I found that slimy shite Admiral Deuchamp had been fucking my wife for the past two years.  Whilst I’d be out on the sharp end risking my neck every day he’d been having it away with my missus.  That fucking desk bound arsehole has never been near a battle - they moved him into a desk job years ago.  Oh he’s very charming, very sophisticated.  He decided to tell me man-to-man so it was all out in the open and above board.  He said it was the honourable thing to do because we were both officers and gentlemen.’

‘I can’t imagine that went well.’

‘Not really. I pointed out that gentlemen don’t go shagging other gentlemen’s wives whilst their husbands are away fighting a war. He said the old line about “all’s fair in love and war,” so then I stuck ma heid on the bastard.  It wouldna have been so bad, except he fell off my front steps and broke his arm as well.  I’m pleading diminished responsibility.’

‘Has this sort of thing ever happened before?’

‘You’ve seen my record. No.’

‘Off the record?’

‘Absolutely not.  I have never raised my hand to another crew member, my voice aye, when it’s needed, but not my fists.’

‘Or your “heid” as you put it.’

‘That neither.’

‘Mr McManus.  Right now the Commonwealth needs all the able bodied personnel we can lay our hands on.  I’ve seen the list of commendations on your record and I’ve some idea of the sort of work you’ve been involved in.  We need you.  Admiral Cartwright is prepared to make all of this go away.  If you agree to be my XO the charges will be dropped, you’ll be returned to active service immediately and you’ll have a shot at getting your own command again in the future.’

‘Cartwright?  Aye, he’s one of the good guys.  Bit of a cold fish, kind of talks to you like he’s a school teacher and you haven’t done your homework, but he’s alright by me.  Hard but fair.  He owes me a few favours.  Let’s see, I get my job back, and I get to kill some Shapers too.  I’ve been itching to get back in the action.  Sounds good to me.  You’re on.’

‘Excellent.  Glad to have you as part of my crew.  We’ll have you out of here within the hour.’

Chen’s eye strayed to the book that McManus had left on the bunk.  She couldn’t make out the title from here, but the faded dust jacket showed a vessel from the great age of sail, its cannons blazing away at an unseen enemy.

‘What are you reading?’ she asked.

‘That? Oh, it’s a biography of Thomas Cochrane.  He was a Napoleonic era captain in the Royal Navy.  The man was either a military genius or a total crazy bastard, no-one was really sure.  A man after my own heart.  I’ll lend it to you after I’ve finished it if you like.’

‘Thank you,’ replied Chen. ‘He sounds like a man after mine too.’

Chapter 17

              ‘I’ve got a proposition for you both,’ said Chen, standing inside the cargo bay of the
Profit Margin
as Isaacs and Anna downed tools and broke off from their work repairing the loading conveyer.

              ‘You have?’ said Isaacs. ‘More work?’

              ‘Yes, I have a job for you.  That is, if you’ll take it.’

              ‘Is it dangerous?  I mean compared to what we’re used to.  Danger has become a somewhat relative concept of late.  Personally, I’m just relieved if a day goes by without someone trying to kill us.’

              ‘It is dangerous, yes.  I realise I can’t compel you to follow orders.  But we really need you this time, and you’ll be well compensated.  You’ll be looking at five million each.’

              Isaacs let out a low whistle.

              ‘You know, I do find numbers with lots of zeroes on the end to be a major motivating factor in my work.’

              ‘Come on,’ said Anna.  ‘What was all that you said the other night about “being a part of something,” or were you just trying to sound all heroic?’

              ‘Well...’

              ‘Admiral Haines may still be alive,’ said Chen.  ‘We received a message from an emergency beacon.  The transmission came from the surface of Orinoco in the Achernar  system.  We need to find out where he is and see about a rescue.’

              ‘Wait a second,’ said Isaacs.  ‘That’s a little out of our league.  Shouldn’t the CIB or Spec Ops be handling this?  We wouldn’t even know where to start.’

              ‘CIB may have traitors in their own ranks.  Special Ops need to know where he is before we can launch a rescue op.  We need you.  You won’t have to do anything except get one of our SOC operatives onto the surface of Orinoco and then support him with whatever he needs once you get there.’

              ‘Okay, but won’t the enemy be on the lookout for ships entering the system?’

              ‘Our recon flights have indicated that traffic in the renegade systems appears to be returning to normal, although ships coming directly from systems still loyal to the Commonwealth are being stopped and boarded before they can dock.  We have arranged for you to meet our man in an unclaimed system near Vreeth space, far out to the east.  I’m sure with your skills you can disguise where you’ve been, and you have your ship’s new found stealth capabilities to assist you.  We’ll see to changing your ship ID again as well as making changes to registration databases.  It won’t be as easily traceable as a fake this time.’

              ‘Well yeah, I have managed to acquire the knack of keeping a low profile, I suppose,’ said Isaacs.

              ‘You managed to escape Achernar and arrive here without being followed.’

              ‘True.  Listen, Admiral.  The truth is: we’re anxious to find out what’s happened to our comrades in Achernar.  We’d planned on heading back there anyway.  I don’t suppose you could render them some sort of assistance?  They’re sitting ducks.  Ours was the only ship that survived the Shaper attack undamaged.  It’s possible that they may have managed to repair the surviving Nahabe ship and escape, but we’re worried.  I’m sure you can understand.’

              Chen looked thoughtful.  ‘Why don’t I sweeten the deal a little further?  We’ll be issuing you with a secure comms unit.  I take it that this ship of yours has hidden compartments that you use for smuggling?’

              Isaacs looked a little sheepish.  ‘Kind of, yeah.  Some of the internal wall panels can be removed.  I used to stash stuff behind ‘em.  It won’t stand up to a detailed scan though.’

              ‘Fine, we can have some of those spaces lined and make them opaque to cursory scans.  As well as giving you the secure comm. unit, we can then fill those spaces with weapons and ammo for your friends.  What do you say?’

              ‘Okay, what the hell. Deal,’ said Isaacs.  ‘Anna, are you in?’

              ‘Hell yeah,’ Anna replied.  ‘I mean, who wants to live forever anyway?’ she said dryly.  ‘So, how do we find this guy?’

              ‘I’ll provide you with the system details.  You get yourselves there without being followed and he’ll find you.  You get picked up by the enemy, and we’ll have to think of something else.  Just act natural.  Pretend that you’re doing what you used to do before you got mixed up in all this.  Our operative will have your details.  Obviously we can’t divulge his in case you’re captured en route.’

              ‘Just like that, huh?’ said Isaacs.

              ‘Just like that.’

              ‘You trust this guy?’

              ‘As much as I trust anyone these days, yes.  He’s one of SOC’s best. He’s very good at what he does and we go back a long way,’ said Chen.

              ‘Has he fought the Shapers before?’ Anna enquired.

              ‘Yes he has.  As long as I have, in fact.’

              ‘Okay, good,’ said Isaacs.  ‘So, when do we leave?’

              ‘As soon as humanly possible.’

Chapter 18

              Morgan poured whisky from the bottle into the tumbler on his desk.  His hands shook involuntarily and he spilled some.  The glass half full, he lifted it to his lips and took a mouthful.  The alcohol would steady his nerves.  He had to numb himself to the fear clawing at him, clutching at his guts.  He was too scared now to contemplate leaving the residence.  Most of the time he was too terrified even to leave the suite of rooms that had belonged to the Governor and which he had taken over.  He heard noises in the night.  Terrible noises coming from the basement.  He saw them taking people down there.  The ones that came out were no longer human, he knew that.  The ones that didn’t... he saw covered trucks leaving under cover of darkness, and smelt the butcher’s stink that rose from them: offal and burnt meat.

              He wanted to make a run for it.  He fantasised about making it to the spaceport and boarding a ship and escaping back to the Commonwealth to face whatever charges they could dream up to pin on him.  Anything was better than this.  But he knew that he’d never make it out of the grounds of the residence and what his new masters would do to him then didn’t bear thinking about.  He knew that he would be the one doing the screaming in the basement, before they put one of those things into his head, and he ceased to be himself anymore, just a husk for some alien thing to walk around in.  He felt the warmth from the whisky spreading outwards from his stomach as he took another gulp, easing the pain and terror he felt inside.

              After the Shaper had invaded his skull and read his thoughts, he had woken up hours later, sprawled on the carpeted floor of his office in clothes sodden and stinking with his own effluvia.  The thought of that swarm of things inside his head still made him shudder with revulsion.  The last thing he had experienced before he passed out was their millions of tiny limbs scrabbling inside every orifice in his head, in the interstices of his brain.  He had told them the truth, something that their invasion of his skull had verified.  If he had been lying, he knew that he would be dead by now.

              Since then, he increasingly lived in a bizarre, parallel world.  Outside, life on Orinoco appeared to return to normal.  Businesses re-opened, trade resumed with the other systems in his new Freedom Alliance and people began to go about their daily lives once more.  Many, it seemed, supported the new regime.  There was a great deal of criticism of the old, corrupt Commonwealth, whose Earth based government cared little for anything outside the richer, core systems.  It was time, said many, for dynamic and inspiring leadership in the newer, more distant colonies.

              Morgan knew why they said this.  The local media outlets were being controlled by his new masters, their directors replaced by agents.  Dissent was being crushed.  Those who spoke out were disappeared or replaced until the majority of the people began to fall in line with the message of their new government, a government that was itself a sham.  They were all puppets, nothing more.  Morgan knew this too.  Some, having been made hosts, were literally so.  Others like himself, were controlled through fear alone.  He made speeches, read the words that they wrote for him and said what they told him to say, smiled for the cameras and publicly shook hands with men he knew were no longer to be considered human. 

              It was Cox who terrified him the most.  The man who had been Cox, he corrected himself.  He was almost fully healed now, and would soon be able to appear in public if he wore bandages over the wounds.  Only Cox’s right eye and hand remained to be repaired, and those could be explained away as injuries sustained during the alleged defence of the system when he had bravely attempted to stop Admiral Haines attacking Orinoco Station, or so the lie went.  However, if anyone were to look too closely they would see the horrid tendrils moving back and forth inside the socket as they rebuilt the tissues.  Sometimes the bandage over his eye
moved
.