Battleship Avenger (Conquest of Stars Book 2) (12 page)

The staff of this
section, almost all chemists and chemical engineers, were watching the controls
and monitors that displayed the state of all the different chemicals stored
therein.

In front of them,
in a large vat that was fifteen feet tall and eight feet wide, was Nestorian
spy Roofus Bolfus, floating in a thick, green liquid upto his neck and a blue
gas filled up the rest of the vat. There were displays and reading panels on
either side of the vat and a chemist each was monitoring them. The front of the
vat was translucent and Raptor and Barryett stood in front of it.

“Com, VC,” an
officer walked upto them and handed Raptor a metallic card, “I have prepared a
thorough examination report if you want to peruse it later.”

“Colonel Aurvyk,”
Raptor said, “I hope it is in Starfirian, because I can’t read chemistry,” he
chuckled, “took just one or two courses in college.”

“I took none,”
Barryett chimed in with a grin.

“Don’t worry
sirs,” Aurvyk laughed, “I have simplified as much as I can.”

Colonel Aurvyk
Tokar was the chief chemist of Starship
Conquistador
and the head of the
chemical weapons section. He was older but still a thick, solid man with a
slightly protruding belly, albeit of below average height and kept a beard only
on his chin.

“Can he hear us?”
Raptor asked Aurvyk.

“No, but he can if
you want. I can turn on the channel.”

“No,” Raptor said,
“Leave it off for now.”

“Has he been
cleaned?” Barryett asked.

“Yes we have
thoroughly decontaminated him,” Aurvyk said.

“Then why is he
still in the
Okra Juice
?” Raptor asked.

Aurvyk laughed.
The rest of the army called it that because it was dark green and tasted
similar to fried okra. It was the first line of defense for soldiers who had
been attacked with chemical weapons to be submerged in because it neutralized
the largest number of and most common dangerous chemicals.

“The
Diphthe-Octo-Mar-Alkyine
not only heals but also soothes,” Aurvyk said, “It will accelerate his body’s
recovery from the shock of alien molecules.”

“Alright, give me
a quick summary of what Mercurians did to him?” Raptor said.

“They put his body
through a large number of micro-experiments involving thousands of chemicals in
minute quantities,” Aurvyk said, “some of whom aren’t even listed on our index
records of all known chemicals.”

“But did you get
them out?” Raptor asked.

“All of them,”
Aurvyk said, “I am not surprised Nestorians handed him over to us. Fortunately,
we have a perfect knowledge of Nestorian biology so our micro-machines could
identify all alien chemicals and suction them and transport them out. We will
have to send them to Army workshop for thorough analysis.”

“Colonel, what do
you think those experiments were for?” Barryett asked, “use in invasion?”

“Certainly, but
this is much larger than that,” Aurvyk replied, “They wouldn’t need to do so
many for that. Their chemist told him he was lucky to be one of the latter ones
so they knew enough to save him, the earlier Nestorian abductees were not that
lucky.”

“Told him?”
Barryett widened his eyes in surprise.

“Yes,” Aurvyk
said, “One unexpected benefit is that the Mercurians adjusted the
micro-translators in his ears to understand their language. Our electronics
section has examined those and now we can talk to Mercurians too.”

“We should let
Col. Tollvyk make the introductions,” Barryett jested and Raptor laughed and commented,
“Then we will never have any peace.”

“Commodore, we are
done with him here. We can release him at once upon your command,” Aurvyk said.

“I take it that he
has been questioned?” Raptor asked.

“Chief Detective
Hartar was here talking to him an hour ago,” Aurvyk said, “We had taken him out
of the vat for the talk.”

“Did Hartar sign
off on the questioning?” Raptor asked.

“Yes, and Hartar
told me he believed the Nestorian wasn’t hiding anything from us,” Aurvyk said,
“He will be giving you the report directly.”

“Alright, let me
speak to him,” Raptor said.

One of the
technicians near the vat flicked on the audio switch on the panel.

“How are you
feeling spy man?” Raptor said.

“Better,” Roofus
replied, “I am grateful to you for the treatment.”

“Courtesy of your
protection contract with Starfire Empire,” Raptor said, “Please remind your new
chancellor of this.”

“I will,” Roofus
said. He wasn’t going to say anything like that to the Chancellor, but he
wasn’t going to refuse the Commodore either.

“We are going to
release you,” Raptor said.

“Commodore, I have
one final request,” Roofus said startling them.

“Shoot,” Raptor
replied.

“I would like a
copy of your report on our Republican Guard Nolfus Berrum’s death,” Roofus
said.

“Why not,” Raptor
said, “your government should have officially asked for it, I have received no
request to sign off on the release. You can pick up a copy from my Col. Jarvyk
who is still down on Nestor. I will transmit him an order to release it to your
care.”

“Much obliged,”
Roofus said.

Raptor pointed
with his finger to the audio and the technician turned it off.

“Cut him loose,”
Raptor turned to Aurvyk, “Have a few of your starship guards escort him to his
transport shuttle. The bay officer can call me for confirmation.”

“I will take care
of it,” Aurvyk replied and saluted both Raptor and Barryett who turned around
and walked out of that section and hitched ride back to the command room on
their hovercraft.

Antrar was reading
news on the large display screen when his gravitron scanner started beeping. He
was coming in on to his destination. He looked out from his front windows and
saw the planet his spaceship was cruising towards. He had arrived close enough
that it looked the size of a big watermelon, was rocky, striated and purple.
Pure purple that had given it its name: Purplex.

Red, blue, green,
brown, white and black planets were common in the galaxy and one could find a
large number of planets of other colors and shades. However, purple planets
were rare and
Purplex
was one of those rare ones. Antrar wondered why
that was so, he was told the reason for their rarity in the army training but
now had forgotten it.

The news
interested him more. He hadn’t received any messages from Raptor and they had
decided to keep it that way unless absolutely necessary to avoid possible
interception, but apparently he had won a major victory against the unknown
aliens who were harassing Nestorians and had installed a new chancellor after
defeating a coup. The Imperial Capital was in a simultaneous state of euphoria
and turmoil. Commodore Raptor was being hailed as a hero by many at the same
time as being denounced a buffoon by others. The latter for appointing a man
who was a sworn opponent of Starfirian Empire and its Aristocratic form of
government.

Antrar laughed and
turned off the news and took control of the spaceship by turning off the
‘Machine Flight’ option. He had been sent the current address for Yarwyk Gyte
by the Army’s records department. Yarwyk had decided to settle on Purplex since
right after his retirement from the Army and had lived here ever since.

Antrar flew his
spaceship down to one of the spaceports of Purplex, once again signed off with
a fake name and rented an airship. It took him about an hour of flying to reach
Yarwyk’s home and he parked his airship in the field in front. He walked over
to the house and saw that even the grass on this planet was purple.

Yarwyk’s home was
a large, rectangular box with a smaller second floor whose rooms were unevenly
but craftily built on top of the first floor. The bottom floor walls were
purple and the top floor rooms were painted black from outside. The
aforementioned purple grass surrounded the house in the exact same rectangular
pattern and then there was purple dirt stretching in all directions till the
neighboring homes that were at least half a mile away on each side. There was
however a small pathway made of white stones that had been polished to create a
flat, smooth texture.

Antrar walked over
this path and rang the bell to the house. He waited a couple more minutes and
then rang again.

A minute later an
old man in his early seventies, wearing a black bathrobe with velvety texture
and pattern of red diamonds thereon with light brown trousers, opened the door
and was taken aback nearly pulling back his steps.

“Commodore Antrar,
is that really you?” he said squinting his eyes.

“It is me,
Commander Yarwyk,” Antrar smiled.

“Come on in,”
Yarwyk replied. He slowly walked backed in and headed towards the living room
when Antrar interrupted him, “If you don’t mind, can we sit outside on the
porch. This planet has an amazing atmosphere and color.” More than that
however, Antrar wanted to make sure that he wasn’t followed.

“Sure,” Yarwyk
said, “follow me.” Yarwyk walked up the stairs and Antrar followed him. There
was a small terrace on the second floor with a couple of chairs and a small
round table in the middle. Yarwyk pointed to one of the chair with his fingers
and returned inside to retrieve a whiskey bottle and a plate of snacks.

“You could have
given me a heads up,” Yarwyk said as he took the chair opposite from Antrar,
“Corina goes out shopping with her friends every Wednesday and has lunch with
them. She would have liked to see you too.”

“Actually, I am
glad I caught you alone, say hello to her for me,” Antrar said, “It’s been a
long time but unfortunately this is not a social visit.”

“What is troubling
you?” Yarwyk guessed from the creases on Antrar’s forehead that he had come to
talk a serious matter.

“Lambda Man,”
Antrar said.

Yarwyk was just
about to raise his whiskey glass to his mouth when he stopped mid-air upon
hearing those words, smacked down his glass on the table and turned to Antrar
with wide eyes.

“I suspect what we
feared with
Lambda Man
has happened,” Antrar said, “It might have gone
rogue pursuing its own agenda.”

“That is why the
Constellation was opposed to its creation in the first place,” Yarwyk said,
“but we persuaded them to allow us to form this group by agreeing to their
condition to report every action to the House of War.”

“But it is
possible for it to operate independently and keep its decisions secrets,”
Antrar leaned forward, “No?”

“What have you
come across, Antrar?”

Antrar told him
the cover up regarding the involvement of ‘The Silencer’ in the assassination
attempt on Nestorian vice-chancellor.

“If ‘Silencer’ was
involved it has to be
Lambda Man
,” Yarwyk said, “I can’t see any reason
why our government would want VC Remus dead, indeed if I remember the news
correctly many Constellars were asking why wasn’t he made the new chancellor by
our starship commodore as he is more favorably inclined towards Starfire
Empire.”

“Then you agree
with my conclusion about
Lambda Man
?” Antrar asked.

“Maybe,” Yarwyk
shook his head, “It was started to carry out operations on alien worlds where
we couldn’t use our own soldiers for political reasons. We harnessed characters
from the galactic underworld for these secret missions. The six members of the
group are each a senior officer drawn from a different army department who
collectively take decisions and approve missions and operators. However, there
is a silent seventh member who is always an army commander from House of War
who oversees all activities on their behalf.”
“But it can keep him and the House in dark,” Antrar said, “We were both
members of it; hell you were the founder of Lambda Man and you recruited me. We
controlled the funds, the weaponry, the spaceships, we contacted and hired from
the underworld. We were honorable or honorable enough to report the missions
and get prior permissions from House of War through the Commander, but we could
have cut him out of the loop.”

“Yes I was the
founder,” Yarwyk said, “It seemed a great idea then, I am not sure now. But it
is Army Investigation’s responsibility to deal with internal crimes. Antrar, my
dear friend, we did our duty in our time, both of us fought in the late war –
you in space, me on land – I suggest you let this slide and enjoy your pension
in peace.”

“Were that it was
just corruption, I might have been content to file an anonymous report with
army detectives, but,” Antrar stood up  and looked over the horizon, “there is
a lot more I haven’t told you, but will now.”

Antrar told him
all the events of the ambush when he was abroad
Conquistador
and his
conclusion that they were attacked by other Starfirian spaceships.

Yarwyk’s old hands
slightly trembled as he heard the entire story. He calmed his nerves by sitting
back straight and pushing back his hair with both of his hands.

“I…I…can’t imagine
who would even…” Yarwyk stuttered as he spoke.

“I would hate to
believe in such a theory too,” Antrar said, “but the mechanical evidence is
incontrovertible.”

“But what do you
want me to do?” Yarwyk recovered himself, “I was just one of many land
commanders in the war. You are the decorated war hero; you should go to House
of War with this.”

“I intend to, but
first I need to know the identities of everyone who is currently on Lambda
Man,” Antrar said.

“I retired from it
even before you,” Yarwyk said.

“But you were the
founder,” Antrar said, “That means you must know a way to reach it. Perhaps a
master password in the original database? Perhaps identities of accounts and
banks used for funds transfer? Anything?”

“Hmmm…” Yarwyk
said, “I did set up all its operations so I do know some things, but can’t be
sure how much of it is still in place.”

“But you will
try…” Antrar looked at him earnestly.

“We are getting
over our heads here,” Yarwyk said, “But for our army and our country, yes I
will help you. What do you expect to get out of knowing these names?”

“I want to see how
any of them might benefit or be in a rank and position to arrange an ambush on
our own starship,” Antrar said.

“We will have to
make discreet inquiries,” Yarwyk said.

“You will, I am
headed to our capital Redfire,” Antrar said, “I know an army detective there.
Actually, he was the chief detective under me for my starship and he has done
quite well for himself since then. Last I heard he was only three or four ranks
away from the top commander of Army Investigations Department.”

“When do we meet
again?” Yarwyk asked.

“I will send you a
signal,” Antrar said, “I will have a couple of vetted detectives with me and we
can proceed further when we have those names.”

“Alright, good
luck,” Yarwyk said.

Yarwyk escorted
Antrar out of the home and to his airship. He wanted to invite him to stay over
but realized the urgency of the matter. Antrar entered his airship and took off
towards the spaceport and Yarwyk knew he had his work cut out for him.