Starship Conquistador (Conquest of Stars Book 1) (9 page)

    “Our estimated time to destination is
two weeks. This week we are running operations drills,” Raptor said to Antrar
who got off the craft, “Next week we will begin the weapons and battle tactics
drills.”

    “Great,” Antrar said and as he was led
by the soldiers to a guest room, Raptor flew his hovercraft back towards the
command room. He dearly hoped that Star Commander had not managed to recruit a
war hero as his spy.

Capitan Jag Manus sent his authorization
codes over to the Whisper Station and after they were verified he docked his
spaceship on its guest bay. As he got out of his spaceship he looked out of the
window at the small black circle in distant space around which light was
skewed. It was the only black hole that existed inside the Nestorian Space.

    The Whisper Station was an orbital
structure built and owned by the Nestorian Army that orbited that black hole
from a considerable, safe distance. A single vertical tower in the center
constituted the operational part of the station and a circular disc that hosted
spaceship bays and living quarters surrounded the tower completely in the
center.

    Jag walked over to the guarded gate,
presented his credentials and was cleared. He was told to wait for an escort
and a few minutes later a man in black suit and pants and a white shirt with
round, chubby face walked over to him.

    “Capitan Manus,” he said extending his
hand, “I am Portus, the tour officer here. You will forgive our overbearingness
but I must accompany you wherever you go.”

    “I understand,” Jag said, “But I am
conducting an investigation and I will need some time alone with a computer.”

    “That you can have without me looking
over your shoulders,” Portus said, “but you can’t go wandering around here.”

    “In that case please direct me to your
signals archive, I am in need of nothing else,” Jag said.

    “Follow me please,” Portus said and led
him further inside the station. He walked over to an elevator bank, swiped his
card and allowed his iris to be scanned and the doors of one of the elevators
slid open. Both of them stepped inside and Portus closed the door.

    “Which signal do you wish to analyze?”
Portus asked.

    “I want to do a search through all the
long range directed signals sent across our frontier space into Starfire
Empire’s Zarrvyk Province, specifically their regional capital planet Bravo,”
Jag replied.

    “Hmmm…” Portus scratched his chin, “May
I ask the significance of it.”

    “Sorry,” Jag smiled, “Republican Guard
secret. I report directly to the Vice-Chancellor Remus himself.”

    “We gathered as much from your
credentials.”

    “And he is a very close ally of General
Bakus, the head of all Nestorian army units including this Whisper Station.”

    “I am aware of that,” Portus said, “If
you could tell us more; we could help you identify the particular signal you
are looking for.”

    “If I can’t find it myself I will ask
for help,” Jag said.

    Portus turned to the keypad and entered
a code followed by the floor number and the elevator came alive with
suction-like noise.

    “Are you able to catch all the signals
sent across the frontier space?” Jag asked as the elevator slowly made its way
up.

    “Unless the signal was weak in which
case it would fray before reaching its destination…”

    “It almost certainly reached its
destination,” Jag said.

    “Then our automated signal gathering
machines would have caught it,” Portus said, “Are you aware of the basics of
signal gathering in space?”

    Jag shook his head. He had never taken
any interest in the technical matters.

    “This black hole is the best piece of
good luck for our country,” Portus said, “The sheer gravitational power of the
black hole means tiny fragments – and I am talking nanoscale fragments here –
of signals sent across space get caught and pulled towards the black hole. We
try to grab them before they enter its event horizon. We can spy on all the
interplanetary communications within the core regions of Nestorian Republic and
we can catch fragments of signals from the frontier regions but only if they
are very strong. In this case, they would have to be to reach Starfire space.”

     The elevator came to a stop and Portus
exited first. There were guards in front of a computer room and Portus gave
them his ID and they let both of them through. The computer lab was filled with
around twenty computers and all of them were individually separated from the
others by a private glass booth. Portus opened one of them for Jag and said,
“Take your time. I will be outside.”

    Jag entered the private booth and
locked it from inside. He started the computer and began the search for
long-range signals sent to Planet Bravo and entered the date range around the
time of VC Remus’s visit. He had a theory that whoever sent the assassin must
have sent a final, confirmation signal. An assassination with huge political
consequences was not something any conspirator would take lightly and would
want to keep his options open till he thought there was no other way for his
aims. His past as a police detective had taught him that criminal masterminds
did not take haphazard actions.

    His search came up empty but he was not
surprised. Next, he entered the authorization codes of VC Remus which would
have in theory provided him access to any signal archived on this station. This
time the search returned a single record of a signal that met the query
criteria and he tapped it with his finger. Once again he took a photograph of
the detail. The signal had originated from Planet Nectar which was not
surprisingly located only one star system over from Planet Beacon.

    He hit the key for ‘Analysis’ and the
computer spit out ‘No Analysis Possible’ message.

    Jag tapped on the glass and called
Portus over. He pointed to the screen and asked, “What is this?”

    “Not sufficient signal fragments were
captured to allow for an analysis,” Portus said, “We have a saying: people talk
loudly but we hear whispers. Signal capture declines with the distance and
Planet Nectar was the frontier planet just two generations ago.”

    As Portus walked out of the booth, his
words lingered in Jag’s mind and he had a hunch and typed in ‘Location of
Boutrous Golus offices’ in the search and on top was the message ‘Headquarters:
Planet Nectar’.

    Jag Manus smiled and shut off the
computer. He allowed Portus to escort him to his spaceship and then took his
leave. After he was cleared for takeoff, he accelerated away from the Whisper
Station and punched in the coordinates for Planet Nectar in his navigation
computer. If Boutrous Golus was installing long range gravitron scanners to
monitor the frontier space than it would have definitely had major offices on
the frontier planets.

    One more line of inquiry and he would
return to VC Remus with his findings.

Former Commodore Antrar Wyft was examining
the interior of Starship Conquistador and was impressed by what he had seen so
far. It was the best constructed ship in the Starfire Fleets that he had the
opportunity to examine. And he knew something about starship design and build
up because besides having been a Starship Commodore, he was also a structural
engineer who had participated in the construction of a multitude of spaceships.

    It had been four days since he had come
on board and Com. Raptor had been quick to get his ID and mission verified. But
he had nothing to do till the battle drills began and thus spent his days
strolling the vast interior of the starship and watching the crew perform their
task. Their discipline and efficiency weren't up to the standards of his crew
however his soldiers had been through the biggest space battle in the lifetime
of the current generation and hardened through it. He couldn’t expect other
starship crews to operate near the same level.

    He started walking to the plasma
weapons chamber. He had eschewed the hovercrafts because he actually needed to
pass the time. Plasma Weapons Drill was scheduled three days down the road and
Antrar hoped he could participate in other weapons and tactics drills as well.
After all he had the experience that this ship’s crew would find useful.

    He came upon the corridor leading to
the Plasma Weapons chamber and saw a large, two sided metallic door that
prevented access to unauthorized personnel. Every day for the last three days
he had stopped by this place before moving on to one of the restaurants further
down the corridor.

    He turned around and started walking
back when he saw an officer coming down from the other side who smiled at him
and tipped the front visor of his hat as he passed him by. Antrar informally
saluted him and kept walking and then suddenly stopped. A thought had occurred
to him. He turned around on his heels just in time to watch the officer slide
his ID card at the card reader outside the plasma chamber and the large
metallic doors slowly opened inward.

    “Officer,” Antrar said and the man
turned around a bit surprised, “You can’t go in there.”

    “Excuse me,” the officer said, “you are
who?”

    “You are wearing the uniform and
insignia of an infantry officer,” Antrar said, “Starship capital weapons are
off-limits to those who are not Starship officers or technicians.”

    “Mind your own business. What would a
civilian guest know of army regulations,” the officer said and turned back
towards the door. 

    “Furthermore,” Antrar said quickly
walking towards him, “Only plasma section staff can go in the plasma weapons
chamber.”

    “Go to hell,” the officer said.

    Antrar reached near him and placed his
hand on the man’s shoulder and said, “Show me your ID card or better yet let’s
get the ship’s plasma officer here.”

    “Yeah right,” the man turned around
with a massive swing of his right hand but Antrar was ready and quickly stepped
back. The metallic doors closed behind as their timer for remaining open ran
out.

    The officer pulled out his laser pistol
from his belt and raised it towards Antrar who kicked his hand and the pistol
went up in the air in an arc. The officer reached for it with his right hand
but Antrar stepped forward and punched him in the face. The man fell down and
this time Antrar went for the pistol but the man swept his legs and Antrar
landed on the ground on his lower back.

    The officer reached forward and quickly
grabbed Antrar’s right leg and wrapped  both of his own legs around it and
twisted his ankle the other direction. Antrar yelled with pain and tried to
yank himself backwards but couldn’t escape the leg lock. His pain subsided when
the micro-machine embedded in his skull came active to counter the pain and
reduced the signal to his brain.

    Antrar tried to kick the officer with
his free left leg but the officer leaned the other direction and avoided the
kicks. Antrar remembered that the infantry assigned to Starships weren’t
regular soldiers who received the same physical combat training as he himself
had. Instead, they were elite troops who were masters of combat and he wasn’t
going to defeat this officer in wrestling or fighting.

    He had to think of an unorthodox move.
The man was trying to break his ankle so he could get to the pistol before
Antrar and finish the matter. Antrar reached down his left leg with his left
hand, yanked a thread and unraveled his lace, and clicked off his boot. Then he
threw it with all his might at the man’s face who was smacked straight in the
nose and he let go Antrar’s right ankle for two seconds. Time enough for Antrar
to pull himself back and try to stumble to his feet.

    As Antrar was trying to stand up on the
leg that was still hurting and he was trying to balance himself with the help
of the wall, the officer quickly got up and looked at the pistol. He moved
towards it. Antrar could not walk but the man was not too far away so he jumped
and speared the man in the waist and slammed him on the metallic floor. Antrar
started throwing punches at his face while still pinning him down with his
other hand. The man started punching Antrar back with both of his hands and
twisted and turned to try to slide out from under Antrar. Both of them were
bleeding profusely from their nose and mouth.

    Footsteps were heard coming “What is
going on there?” a voice yelled out.

    Antrar turned around and saw two
starship guards approaching with their laser long guns drawn. The other man
found his opportunity, slid away from Antrar, shoved him and ran down the side
corridor.

    “Get that imposter,” Antrar yelled. He
tried to stand but stumbled. The two guards held him from either side and
stabilized him. The man had crossed the short corridor and disappeared around
the corner. The guards were stunned and had stood there frozen. He was not
surprised. If they had seen a civilian guest beating on an officer who was on
his back on the ground they would have detained the civilian on the spot. But
they knew this particular civilian was a former commodore and a war hero. No
doubt their dilemma in deciding who was the villain here had paralyzed them.

    “Imposter?” a guard asked, “he wasn’t
an army man?”

    “He was,” Antrar said, “But an infantry
officer who somehow opened the door to the plasma chamber.”

    “That’s not possible,” the other guard
said.

    “I saw it with my own eyes,” Antrar
said.

    “You should tell Commodore Raptor,” the
guard said, “Actually, he sent us looking for you. He wants you in the command
room right away.”

    “I am on my way,” Antrar said and wiped
the blood on his face with his shirt sleeve. Having a red shirt albeit of a
different shade would prevent it from drawing attention to itself.

    “Wait, we have brought a hovercraft for
all of us,” the guard said.

    “No, you two must stay here, the
imposter could come back,” Antrar said then hesitated, “and do whatever,
espionage, sabotage, whatever he had in mind. I am on this Starship to test
this new, secret plasma weapon. No doubt foreign powers would want data on it.”

    “But if what you say is right we can’t
let you go alone. He could ambush you.”

    Antrar knew the guard was right. It was
a long distance to the command room and he didn’t know this starship at all.
The intruder could very well get another laser gun and be waiting for him in
ambush.

    “Let’s call Capitan Styx,” a guard said
and took out a radio pad from his waistband.

    Capitan Styx and four armed guards
escorted Antrar into the command room where Commodore Raptor and VC Barryett
were conversing on the floor while other officers frantically worked their
computers and panels.

    “Whoa!” Raptor exclaimed upon seeing
Antrar’s bloody face, “What happened to Com Antrar? Medical officer tend to him
right away.”

    There were two medical officers on duty
who were watching from afar. Both of them rushed to Antrar and took out wipes
from their pockets to clear blood from his face. An officer got up and offered
his seat to Antrar who sat down as the medical officers scanned his face with
their handheld machines.

    “I don’t know if I should tell you in
the public,” Antrar said.

    “We don’t have time,” Raptor said.

    “Alright,” Antrar said and gave a brief
narrative of his encounter and fight with the unidentified infantry officer and
concluded by saying, “we have a spy on board.”

    Raptor turned to look at Tollvyk who
was intently listening to the story and then nodded his head and said, “I will
put our ship’s Chief Detective Hartar on this matter right away.”

    Antrar was surprised that while the
rest of the room was listening with gawking eyes, Raptor and Tollvyk were
unperturbed.

    “Com Antrar, I am going to transfer you
to a room near my quarters,” Raptor said, “The guest quarters are mostly empty
and it’s lonely out there.”

    “Thank you,” Antrar said.

    “Capitan Styx,” Raptor said, “I want
round the clock armed patrol outside all the weapons chambers. And a second,
manual verification of all personnel whose IDs can open the doors.”

    “Consider it done sir,” Styx said, “Me
and Hartar will find this intruder.”

    “And double the guards outside this
command room.”

    “Yes sir,” Styx saluted him and left
the room along with his guards.

    “We have stopped the bleeding,” medical
officer said, “he has received concussions and we will have to examine his
ankle in our office.”

    “No, it has to be here, I need his
advice,” Raptor said. 

    “We will do the best we can,” the
medical officer replied and sent his assistant to fetch some equipment from his
lab.

    Raptor walked over to Antrar and
pointed to a large screen that had been newly set up on the floor straight
ahead from Commodore’s central section.            

    “We picked up a tail about an hour
ago,” Raptor pointed to the three dots displayed on the screen some distance
behind the central symbol that represented their starship. “We thought it was
transit traffic but VC Barryett suggested some maneuvers and our tail adjusted their
routes to match our changes.”

    “Pirates?” Antrar wondered.

    “Which pirate would dare follow a
Starfire Army’s spaceship?” VC Barryett said.

    “No pirate, except perhaps
Jiggermaster,” Antrar said, “Only pirate I chased across deep space whom I did
not eventually bring to ruin.” 

    “Jiggermaster doesn’t have three
spaceships,” Barryett said, “I was sent to shoo him away once after you had
retired and he still had one.”

    “Can I see the star charts from our
point of origin to the point of destination,” Antrar said, “Sorry I can’t walk
over to the navigation computer.”

    “Overyk,” Raptor said.

    “I will get it on there,” navigation
officer Overyk walked over to the computer in front of Antrar and displayed the
comprehensive star chart of their planned journey.

    Raptor and Barryett leaned over
Antrar’s shoulders as he read numbers and coordinates off of the screen and
thought for a few seconds.

    “Where is the Lorrvyk Point?” Antrar
asked Overyk.

    “Aha!” Barryett exclaimed, “I see what
you are getting at.”

    “So do I,” Raptor said.

    Overyk pressed a few keys and a red dot
displayed on the chart. All three of them looked up at the large screen at once
and realized that their starship was practically on the coordinates of the dot.

    “Best place to ambush a spaceship,”
Antrar said, “is at the point in its journey where its distance to any planet,
star or asteroids is the furthest.”

    “And it’s known as the Lorrvyk Point of
that journey,” Raptor said, “named after Commander Lorrvyk, one of the earliest
space warfare theorists who created this concept.” This was all drilled into
the officers’ head at the Academy.

    “If they are hostiles they should
attack us just about now,” Barryett said.

    “The unknown spaceships are accelerating
and closing distance,” gravitron scanner officer Horyett proclaimed and the
whole room saw the dots moving in closer towards them.

    “Red Star Battle Alert,” Raptor said.

    Communications officer Dorrvyk hit the
switch for the alert and red lights started flashing all across the starship
along with a distinct siren of the impending battle.

    “Battlestations!” Raptor shouted.