Progeny (The Progenitor Trilogy, Book Three) (44 page)

‘Chen’s people provided you with a secure comms unit.  Correct?’

‘Yeah they did.  It’s stashed away behind one of the internal panels,’ Isaacs replied.  ‘Let me get my tools and I’ll retrieve it for you and set it up.  I take it that you want to let the Commonwealth know what we witnessed at Gagat’s Colony?’

‘Yes.  If the Shapers are collecting antimatter to build a weapon of mass destruction, the Commonwealth needs to make plans to do something about it.  I can’t help but wonder if anyone has witnessed this sort of thing going on anywhere else.’

Later, once the encrypted message had been sent and the ship was underway in hyperspace once more, Steven disappeared into his cabin for some time and emerged having transformed himself.  His appearance startled Anna when she first saw him again outside his cabin. Such was the difference she at first thought that they had picked up a stowaway.  The wild hair and straggly beard were gone.  Now he was clean shaven with his black hair cropped close to his skull.  The scruffy, stinking clothes, meanwhile, had been replaced with casual ship-board garments.  Anna appraised his physique.  He was lean and taut and moved quietly with a predatory purpose, like a cat on the prowl.  He was undeniably attractive, but she had vowed to be a good girl now that she and Cal were back together.  Still, she thought, she could admire him from afar.  She caught up with him as he ambled aft towards the engine room.

‘So, this is a new look,’ said Anna brightly as she approached.

‘Yeah, this is what I actually look like.  The booze-soaked vagrant look isn’t really me, but it’s good cover in a place like Gagat’s Colony.  People pretty much make an extra effort to ignore you.  Means you can move around in plain sight and no-one can see you.’

‘So why the change?’

‘Looking like this won’t get me very far in the Achernar system.  Orinoco in particular is a pretty wealthy place.  Lots of people on the make, assuming they haven’t been enslaved by the Shapers yet.  Someone looking like I did would stand out to the point where I’d find it difficult to move around - too many doormen, security guards and whatnot in the cities and they’d turn someone like that away without a second thought.’

They reached the engine room.  Amidst the throbbing machinery, they found Isaacs staring intently at a small display set into the jump drive’s external shielding.

‘Everything okay?’ said Anna.

‘Uh-huh.  I think so,’ Isaacs replied, intent on his work.  ‘I really ought to get this thing serviced, but I think we got away without any damage to the drive.  All the diagnostics come back in the clear.’

He closed a panel over the display and clicked it shut, then turned towards them both.

‘You need me for anything in particular?’

‘As a matter of fact, I do,’ said Steven.  ‘We have some time before we get to Achernar.  It would be a good idea if we formulate an idea of how we proceed once we get onto the surface of Orinoco.  Initially I’d planned to do this alone, but after seeing your files, you may be able to assist me.  Ideally we’d have a team of agents in place, but with things the way they are at the moment, there aren’t enough people that we can trust amongst the ranks of the intelligence services.  It would be a recipe for disaster to bring along anyone else.’

‘So what did you have in mind?’  said Isaacs.

‘You guys used to work out of Achernar in the past, correct?’

‘Yeah, that’s right.’

‘Do you have any contacts there? Friends, business associates and the like?  Anyone with their ear to the ground who might know what’s going on?’

‘One or two.  They’re all in Bolivar City, mind.  I never ventured that far from the spaceport, so if you’re looking for help crawling through the jungle looking for Haines, I can’t help you.  I wouldn’t know where to start looking.’

‘Anyone with connections to the military, or the local police forces?’

‘Maybe.  There’s this bar I used to hang around, a lot of the independent captains go there.  I think the owner had some sort of links with the local crime syndicates to keep them off his back.  It might be worth a try if you’re after information,’ Isaacs offered.

‘Every little helps.  We are, after all, looking for one man and we need to know the situation on the ground.  Even if we could work out where the
Lincoln’s
escape pods came down it would help, though doubtless the enemy will have pounced upon any that they’ve found and stripped them of any clues. Still it would give us a general area within which to start looking.’

‘So what sort of approach did you have in mind?’ said Anna.

‘I’ve been thinking:  this shipment of ours.  Rather than just sell it straight away, we should pretend that this is just a sample of our goods.  I can pose as a representative of parties offering to supply rare and expensive items to discerning customers, the sort of things that might have become more difficult to obtain since Achernar split from the Commonwealth with the other renegade systems.  The Sirius Syndicate on Orinoco was decapitated recently.  The death of a certain Mr Bennett with whom I believe you’re more than familiar had a lot to do with it.  There was a power struggle afterwards which CIB naturally exploited as a way of starting to dismantle the organisation in the system.  Consequently, the black market is a bit of a free for all.  Sirius Syndicate had the place locked down pretty tight and shut everyone else out.  Now, despite the war, it’s a golden opportunity for smaller crooks to grab what they can and start empire building as well as for those lower down the food chain in the Syndicate who now see an opportunity to advance themselves, providing of course that the Shapers don’t decided to enslave every man, woman and child in the system.’

‘And you’re intending to pose as such a person?’

‘Yeah, I am.  I have a number of identities available to me, all with official documents and so on with corresponding records that have been discreetly inserted into the usual databases.  Background checks won’t reveal anything suspicious, won’t show that I’m not who I say I am.  The rest is mostly acting like I am who I say I am.  In this case: a middleman for gangsters and smugglers.  I don’t have any new false IDs that I can tailor to you two, so you’ll need to let me do the talking, most of the time.’

‘Had you considered the possibility that we’re both wanted individuals?’  said Isaacs.  ‘We had a few near misses recently.  The Spica system springs to mind.  Plus our recent encounter at Gagat’s Colony.’

‘They got a look at this ship in Spica but they never got you.  Whoever they arrested never talked.  Similar story in the Hadar system: the authorities are looking for a ship of this type, but there’s no record of the real ID.  SOC did their work to cover your tracks.  Whether anything was picked up by the enemy after they seized Gagat’s Colony, I can’t say.  They certainly got a look at this ship, false ID and all.’

‘How do you know all this?’

‘It was in the file I was sent, of course.  SOC did their homework before sending you out to me.  If you were a risk, we wouldn’t have used you.’

‘Hmm, well that’s nice to know,’ Isaacs replied, a little uneasily.  ‘So what are we pretending to be then, if you’re pretending to be this smuggling type?’

‘You don’t need to pretend to be anything.  Just be yourselves.  If you’re known in Bolivar City it would be pointless pretending to be anyone else and it wouldn’t serve our purpose.  Like I said, I need you to sniff around for me and see what’s what.  Meanwhile, we look and act like I’ve employed you for your services and your local knowledge.  You’re ferrying me around and acting as a man in the know with local connections in the freelancer community and being hired muscle in case I run into any trouble.’

‘Hired muscle?’ said Isaacs incredulously.  ‘You took down K’Soth in a fight, you said so yourself.’

‘Yeah, but they don’t know that, do they?’

‘True,’ Isaacs agreed.  ‘So what, do you bring a bag of disguises or what?’

‘Something like that, yeah,’ Steven replied.

‘Weapons?’

‘No.  I figured it was too much of a risk taking them through port security.  What I need, I’ll acquire locally.  You know of anywhere or anyone who might be able to provide?’

‘Yeah, us.  Chen had her people stash enough guns and ammunition in the walls of this ship to mount a revolution.  Take what you need.  The compartments have been lined with sensor opaque materials.  I was assured that they won’t show up on port scanners unless they look really closely.’

‘Wonderful,’ said Steven and grinned.  ‘Mind if I take a look at what you’ve got?’

Over the following few days, Steven occupied himself in the hold, practising with the weapons that he had chosen from those stashed in the hull of the ship.  Although Anna and Isaacs often wandered down to the hold to watch him or try and strike up a conversation, he said little.  He seemed ever more focused on the task that lay ahead of them.  He had taken a variety of guns and spent hours taking the various pieces apart and putting them back together, often with his eyes closed so he had to rely on touch alone.  There was a brace of laser pistols, a long barrelled rail rifle with gyroscopic stabilisers and telescopic sights, a combat shotgun, and a heavy looking semi-automatic.  Though he could not fire any of the guns on the ship, Steven spent hour after hour practising drawing the smaller weapons from various holster positions, getting the feel of each gun, how they weighed in his hand, how the triggers felt under his finger, how quickly he could reload them.  Then he would go back to his cabin and pace up and down impatiently.

Later, he started to examine the explosives that had also been concealed within the
Profit Margin
.  There were tiny grenades, shaped charges, anti-armour limpet devices and a couple of man portable missile launchers.  Steven took time to study them in detail.

They brought him meals, asked him if there was anything he needed.  He thanked them politely and went back to his preparations as the
Profit Margin
hurtled towards their final destination in the Achernar system.

‘I have to ask,’ said Isaacs on the fourth day, as he brought Steven a reheated meal from the ship’s tiny galley and found him poring over a map of Bolivar City.  ‘Is this personal, or what.  Or do you just really throw yourself into your work?’

‘A little of both,’ Steven replied. ‘I fucked up on a mission once. A lot of people died.  Wasn’t directly my fault, but my lack of judgement contributed to it.  I like to be properly prepared for whatever I’m about to walk into.  I have to be.’

‘Yeah but... I can see it in your eyes.  There’s something else, isn’t there?  I’m only saying because sometimes I catch myself in the mirror looking like that.  The Shapers do that to a man.  Trust me, I know what it’s like.’

‘I know you do.  Your bomber squadron was captured by them.  You were the only survivor.  Correct?’ Steven looked at him intently.

‘Yep.  I guess it’s all in the file you read,’ Isaacs replied.

‘It certainly is.  You still want more payback for what they did?’

‘That and the rest.  Well, I’m here, aren’t I?  You think I fly deep into enemy held space for a laugh?  We need to get these fuckers.  I can’t say I like the thought of what happened at Port Royal and Gagat’s Colony happening to the rest of humanity.’

‘You’ll get a chance to do your part, I promise you that,’ said Steven, firmly.  ‘We get in there, we pull Haines out and we get a good look in the process as to what’s going on in Achernar and debrief Haines.  Then we call for the cavalry.’

‘The Navy?  What good will that do?  They got their arses handed to them in Achernar, and Chen’s force only survived the battle for Earth because the Nahabe showed up.’

‘Command will have a few tricks up their sleeves, plus, if the new sensors that you brought us the details of work as intended, they should be able to hit the Shapers where it hurts and catch them off balance.’

‘I wish I had your confidence, I really do,’ Isaacs replied and shook his head dismissively.

‘It’s all I have to go on.  What are we supposed to do, roll over and let the Shapers enslave us?’

‘No.  So, you never answered the question.  Is this business or pleasure?’

‘Both.  I’ve seen a few things that keep me awake at night, put it that way,’ Steven replied and shifted uneasily in his chair.

‘Care to elaborate?’

‘Well, I can’t really tell you too much.  But I saw one or two things during the war, and I’ve been beyond the borders of explored space as part of an SOC scouting force.  Arkari led deep recon patrol.  We were gone for over a year.  I’ve seen their worlds, Captain Isaacs.  Deep into the galaxy, in the remains of the civilisations that they have already dominated, are worlds of unimaginable horror.  Living beings are remade there, prisoners mutilated and altered by those creatures, innocent beings turned into living weapons for their hordes.’

‘I’ve seen them too,’ said Isaacs.  ‘Not the worlds, but those pitiful slaves you mentioned.  They attacked Port Royal and stormed us.  I saw my friend die under a mountain of those things.  She was a good kid and they tore her to pieces.  We killed them all but... god, their faces...’

‘Yes,’ Steven nodded hurriedly.  ‘We think that the hosts for the Shapers’ more primitive creatures are still aware of everything that is going on.  Only their bodies have been hijacked and they are forced to watch the atrocities that they commit, powerless to do anything about it.  What we saw on that mission... it drove some of my team insane.  The power of the Shapers is immense and witnessing such a force of near unstoppable horror, the sheer scale of the atrocities that they have committed, was too much.  This is just the calm before the storm that we see now.  The Shapers have been waging this war of domination for centuries in the core and only now have they begun to spread into the spiral arms of the galaxy.  Perhaps they underestimated humanity and focused too heavily on the Arkari who seemed to have held them in check on their first attempt.  They will strike back, and I very much doubt that they will make the same mistake twice.  What we have seen so far in the Commonwealth is little more than a fraction of the forces available to them.’