Battleship Avenger (Conquest of Stars Book 2) (17 page)

Aurus was already
frozen with fear except his hands which were still trembling.

The gunman fired a
dozen more lasers into their room then Roofus heard the door creak open and
footsteps rushing out of the house.

Roofus plunged
forward towards Aurus; pistol whipped him across the forehead and dropped him
unconscious on the floor.
He would return for him later
.

Then Roofus also
ran out of the house towards the sound of the footsteps now running into the
nature preserve.

Roofus could not
see his target but he could track him by his footsteps as his spy training had
taught him. It was too dark for the gunman to take accurate shots but he had to
be careful of stray lasers. Surprisingly he fired no lasers at Roofus but kept
running.

Roofus didn’t fire
either to avoid giving away his position as he was moving zig-zag across the
trees while trying to catch up. Then the footsteps stopped and Roofus jumped
behind a tree himself and waited. The man muttered some words then started
firing his laser.

Roofus realized
then that the man had been talking on the phone with someone, maybe even with
the Cloaked Man whom Aurus had mentioned.

Then the gunman
made a dangerous gamble by coming out firing his laser at the tree that Roofus
had taken for cover and rushed him.

Roofus had to
think fast, he could not look out from behind the bark and fire back. The
gunman was good, even a professional, who was alternatively firing lasers on
both sides of the tree.

Roofus waited for
a laser to strike the right side of the tree and then ran out in that direction
while the gunman switched his aim to the left and took a shot there. Roofus
aimed his pistol at the momentary flash that he saw and fired off two shots of
his own lasers. He would not get a second chance, he was out of cover and the
gunman was turning his own laser pistol towards Roofus. Just then one laser
flew over the gunman’s head but the other one struck him in the chest dropping
him to the ground with a thud.

Roofus stopped
running and carefully walked over to the dead body.

He picked up the
gunman’s laser pistol and lifted it close to his face. It was
Gormus 0.88
,
the same type of laser pistol used to kill Nolfus Berrum. Roofus put the
gunman’s pistol in his jacket while he walked back to the cottage with his
pistol drawn. There could be more gunmen. And while Aurus didn’t appear a
soldier type – he was quaking in his boots at the sight of the laser gun – it
was plausible he would attempt some foolish action.

But Roofus
encountered no third person and Aurus was still knocked out on the floor. The
cottage was secluded and it was unlikely anyone had heard the laser shooting
but Roofus wanted to take no chance. He could not explain himself to the police
without involving VC Remus and then the conspirators would know of their
investigations.

Roofus walked over
to Aurus, took one glance at the coins out of curiosity, they were old and
rusty, from a time when electronic money had not existed, then grabbed Aurus by
both of his legs and dragged him out of the house and dragged him to the spot
in forest where the dead gunman lay. Roofus would wait for him to wake up
before he began his interrogation.

“Commodore, the
Battleship
Avenger
is out of this solar system and will soon disappear
from our long range gravitron scanner,” Horyett said.

“How long?” Raptor
asked from his command station.

“Three hours, I
will give you one hour warning,” Horyett replied.

“No need for that,
we will be out of here soon,” Raptor said.

“We can’t load
Col. Jarvyk and the Strike Soldiers that fast,” Dorrvyk said, “They haven’t
even begun dismantling their base.”

“That’s because
they are not coming with us,” Raptor said. This raised a few brows in the
command room, “We are not going to attempt a ground invasion of a planet
controlled by aliens about whom we are nearly clueless just on a whim. Our army
has special plans and teams in place for that, if they so require it. More
importantly, I don’t want a repeat of the coup attempt on Nestor. The Strike
Soldiers will help maintain order. Disgruntled Nestorians may not think twice
about firing on their Infantry Corps, but they won’t dare start a war with us.”

“I agree with the
Commodore,” VC Barryett said, “our garrison also serves as the symbol of
protection. It will be a while before our fleet reaches here.”

Thankfully
,
Raptor said to himself. He didn’t want to take orders from Segwyk. They would
be out of Nestorian space from one side before Segwyk’s fleet entered from the
opposite side.

“Meanwhile,
Capitan Pulf, you are taking control of the laser section,” Raptor said to the
assistant laser officer, a young man with crew cut and square face, who turned
around, stood up and saluted Raptor, “It’s a step up and a big responsibility,
but don’t fret, me and VC Barryett will be watching your section controls on
our terminal.”

“Yes sir,” Pulf
said, hesitated for a moment and then spoke, “Capitan Alvina sir? Is she ill?”

“Capitan Alvina is
preoccupied at the moment,” Raptor said, “She is fine physically, nor is she in
any kind of a trouble with regards to army regulations. She is helping army
detectives on board and starship guards to catch the infiltrator that Com.
Antrar had tangled with earlier. The reason for choosing her and the nature of
her task can’t be disclosed at this moment.”

The command room
officers listened and a few displayed serious concern on their face. But they
returned their attention back to their tasks.

“Me and VC will
try to get her back to her station before the battle is joined,” Raptor said,
“But we may have to do without her.”

“Commodore, the
final crew working on shields has detached their equipment,” Capitan Avyk said.

“Capitan Flyptar,
prepare to de-orbit from Nestor,” Raptor said.

“Yes sir,” Flyptar
replied and started giving instructions to the flight crew.

“Dorrvyk, connect
me to Col. Jarvyk,” Raptor said.

Dorrvyk worked his
terminal and looked up at Raptor, “Col. Jarvyk on your line, sir.”

Raptor turned to his
display screen and Col. Jarvyk saluted him with a grin, “leaving us behind,
sir?”

“Can’t say which
one of us is getting the better end of the deal Colonel,” Raptor laughed, “We
are attacking Mercurians, but you have conspiracies on your hand.”

“And a potentially
volatile election,” Jarvyk said.

“That is what I
wanted to talk to you about,” Raptor said, “We may not return in time for the
election. If Solus is actually elected the new Chancellor, he will be out of
control and won’t heed Starfire’s interest. This planet Nestor has one-fourth
of the total votes and it is here the election will be won or loss.”

“Unfortunately we
can’t do anything about it,” Jarvyk said.

“We don’t have to,
this is Remus’ home planet, and he will win if there is no chicanery,” Raptor
said, “But that we can’t count on. Elections in many republics have been won
even using liquor. I am suspicious because Solus has brought in soldiers only from
his planet who are loyal to him first and foremost.”

“I am too.”

“That is why I
want you to quietly but rapidly rearm the Nestorian Republican Guard,” Raptor
said. A few officers who overheard him turned their heads and even VC Barryett
stopped his work for a few moments and tuned his ears to Raptor’s conversation.

“Sir, are you sure
about that?” Jarvyk asked.

“Yes, I want it
done,” Raptor said firmly, “It is my way of putting Solus on notice that we can
make life real difficult for him if he acts tough against us. But I am killing
a second buzzard with the same arrow; the Republican Guard must despise Solus
by now since he is denouncing them to the public and trying to disband them,
take away their pensions and all. I doubt he will move forward with that when
they have laser guns in their hands. And the Republican Guard won’t allow the
Infantry Corps to steal the election for Solus.”

“Balance of
opposite forces to preserve stability,” Jarvyk nodded his head, “I understand
you now. I will get to it.”

“Alright, Col.
Jarvyk,” Raptor said.

“Alright then,
sir,” Jarvyk saluted him once again and Raptor turned off the connection.

“Capitans Flyptar
and Overyk,” Raptor said, “I want you to trail Battleship
Avenger
, but
at a distance where her scanners can’t pick us up. This is also a good time for
our crew to practice the silent pursuit tactic. But I don’t want us to just
rely on the longer range of our scanners to hide ourselves; we will hop from
one space object to the next to mask our gravity signal inside their larger
gravity fields.”

“Yes sir,” Flyptar
and Overyk said.

“Alright, take
away the
Conquistador
,” Raptor said.

Within a few
minutes Starship Conquistador fired up its engines, left Nestor’s orbit and
rapidly started accelerating out into space.

Capitan Alvina was
looking over Detective Hartar’s shoulders as he sat in front of the computer
terminal and entered the codes and identification card numbers Alvina provided
him. Then Alvina would identify the points where she had been and used her codes
and Hartar would check them off from starship’s database. This left the spots
where the intruder had used her codes. This way they were creating a map of the
intruder’s activities and move around. They were inside Hartar’s office where
two more detectives were working separate computers to identify any attempts at
tampering with starship’s systems and weapons. Ten starship guards awaited
outside the detectives’ office which was located near the center of the
spaceship.

“Look at this
Capitan Alvina,” Hartar said, “Look at the map of his locations. It seems he
uses your codes only for the basic purposes: to access food, drinks, an extra
pair of uniform here, a dose of medicine there. Yours is the get around ID for
him in our parlance.”

“What is that,
chief Hartar?” Alvina asked him.

“He is a
professional, even an expert,” Hartar sat back and relaxed his arms behind his
head, “A smart crook uses two false identities. One to use during his nefarious
deeds, other for routine activities. The problem with using real ID for normal
routine is that it can get linked to the other ID but two false ID’s linking to
each other leads to nowhere.”

“Then how are we
going to identify him?” Alvina asked.

“Let’s see, boys
do you have any leads?” Hartar asked his two junior detectives. One of them
turned around, “Nothing concrete. There is definitely something wrong that he
was able to open Plasma Weapons Section’s door when Com. Antrar stopped him and
fought him. But we knew that before. All the codes were changed after that
incident and access privileges renewed. This must have thrown his schemes off
whack.”

“But were there
any unauthorized attempts?” Hartar asked.

“Sure,” the other
detective said, “We had a couple reports from Starship Guards who were ordered
to do manual checks of IDs outside superweapons sections by Capitan Styx after
the tussle with Com. Antrar. The guards saw some person approaching the
section, then backing off and leaving after seeing their presence. I mean it
could be our intruder who realized that he wasn’t going to pass the guards’
inspection even if he had the access codes. Or it could simply be innocent crew
members lost on this vast spaceship. The latter happens more often than we
imagine.”

“True,” Hartar
said, “Alright keep at it.”

“What are we going
to do now?” Alvina asked slightly frustrated.

“We can’t identify
him, but maybe we couldn’t because he isn’t in the ship’s personnel system,”
Hartar said, “and maybe we don’t even have to. If we can discover his den
abroad we can directly interdict him there.”

“How?” Alvina
asked.

“Algorithm,”
Hartar smiled. He tapped a few keys on the computer and ran a program that
evaluated all the spots on the map that the intruder had accessed using
Alvina’s codes, their timestamps and their chronological order. Then the
computer program used mathematical techniques to spit out the most plausible
staying location of a person with those behaviors and routine and it marked
them as Red ‘X’ on the screen with probability of each displayed below in
percentage terms.

“Should we ask
Capitan Styx to send his guards to all these locations?” Alvina asked pointing
to the X’s on the screen with her finger.

“There are twelve
of them,” Hartar said, “It will cause a commotion with that many guards running
around, might alert the intruder. We can narrow down the possible targets.”
Hartar then ordered the computer to display information about each spot marked
with the X in order and he read it quietly, contemplated it for a few moments
and moved to the next one. After reading description of the final location,
Hartar got up, pointed to one X on the map and exclaimed, “This is where we
will find him.”

“How do you know?”
Alvina asked perplexed.

“Detectives hunch?
Experience? Call it whatever,” Hartar said, “This is excess cloth reserve
section. The cloth is used to create new uniforms if large numbers of crew have
their uniforms torn and ripped in a battle. The intruder knows we haven’t had a
need for that so it won’t be visited by any crew member. The spaceship is sterile
and no organisms to eat cloth exist abroad and it requires no maintenance.
Besides, he can also access machines to create uniforms to pose as an officer
of different sections.”

“That’s great
thinking,” Alvina said, “Let’s go get him.”

“I might be wrong,
but I can use a walk,” Hartar said.

“Me too,” Alvina
smiled.

“Boys, message
Capitan Styx to meet us at cloth reserve,” Hartar informed his detectives as
they walked out of the room, “and tell him my reasoning.” His detectives nodded
their head and went back to their work.

Hartar and Alvina
collected the ten starship guards patrolling outside and hiked the half mile
distance to Cloth Reserve. When they were near their destination, Hartar asked
four guards to walk in front with their laser guns drawn and he himself
unholstered his laser pistol.

The hallway inside
the section was narrow and the ‘walls’ on either side were actually stacks full
of reams of cloth piled high all the way to the ceiling of this floor where
single yellow lights enclosed in oblong glass were affixed twenty feet from
each other in a straight line. Hartar, Alvina and company rounded the corner at
the end of the first hallway and stopped stiff when they saw a figure approach
from the other end.

That person
hesitated momentarily but then continued his walk towards them and picked up
pace.

Hartar aimed his
laser pistol at him and yelled out, “Stop right there. Who are you?”

The man was
dressed in the regular uniform of the steward section which would not put him
out of place here; however he was also wearing some type of mechanized armor on
top of his uniform.

The four Starship
Guards had also aimed their laser long guns at him but this did not faze him.
The next instant two laser pistols popped in his hands with such swift that
Alvina thought he had materialized them out of thin air. But instead of taking
an aim at them, he pointed both of them towards the ceiling and without looking
up, he fired one laser shot each and took out the two lights that were closest
to their position.

 In the resultant
murky dimness Alvina saw a shadow bolt at them like a cannonball and there was
noise of backs smashing against the stacks and the breaking creaks from bones
and concomitant yells of pain. Next Alvina heard a sound of a fist pounding a
gut, a fizzle of paroxysmal burp and a scream from Hartar who went to the
floor.

“I don’t strike a
lady,” a strange voice whispered to her.

“I have no such
compunction,” Alvina retorted and whipped her pistol at the silhouette of a
head – remembering the lack of armor thereon – and whacked it against the
stacks wall and her fingers writhed with pain and she lost sensation in them
right thereafter. A few more punches and kicks followed, and creaks from jaw
fractures and cracks from head bangs preceded yelps of agony and cries of
anguish and then it was all over. Alvina barely saw a shadow turn the corner
into the hallway they had come from.