Battleship Avenger (Conquest of Stars Book 2) (9 page)

“He was escorting
the spy back to Senate,” Solus continued and slightly chuckled, “your starship
almost blew them out of the sky, like you did those Mercurian airships.”

“Oh…” Raptor said,
“We thought they were deserters.”

“That’s a point in
his favor then, Commodore,” said VC Barryett as he turned to Raptor. Barryett
was sold on the exchange and wanted to push that through.

“Sure is,” Raptor
said, “Starfirians will certainly look much more favorably upon a reckless
fighter than we will on a runaway coward. Alright, let’s do the exchange.”

“Commander Krotus,
can you make preparations for Roofus Bolfus to be transferred to Starfirians,”
Solus said, “Meanwhile, you two can be our state guests.”

“Not now
Chancellor,” Raptor said, “I have a combat debriefing scheduled with my
officers. He can tag along with us.”

“I am afraid,
that’s not safe,” Krotus chimed in, “Mercurians performed chemical experiments
on him and he may have caught alien biologicals abroad their ship.”

“You mean to say
you haven’t properly decontaminated him?” Barryett asked.

Krotus felt
slightly embarrassed and looked at Solus who took over, “I am afraid the
Mercurian science is far advanced of ours. We were hoping that you could
sanitize him.”

Raptor was miffed
upon hearing this. Solus had played his cards well, only too well. Nestorians
would have requested for Starfirians to examine this spy sooner or later
anyhow, they weren’t going to take risk of some strange alien microbe from
Mercurian ship spreading on their home planet itself. And for that, they would
have had to provide Starfirians with unimpeded access to him. But Solus had
managed to turn it into a favorable exchange. Raptor didn’t like it but he had
given his word and an army man and a man of honor did not break his word.

“Ship him abroad,”
Raptor said, “We will thoroughly clean him up.”

Raptor and
Barryett formally saluted Solus as was his due as the head of state and turned
around to walk out when Krotus cleared his throat.

“Umm…Commodore,
there is the matter of the Republican Guard,” Krotus said.

“I am keeping ten
thousand Strike Soldiers on the ground who will keep holding them prisoners,”
Raptor said, “I will not have another coup attempt and I don’t want to have to
put it down again.”

“But after
Commander Nolfus’ death, we can expect the rest to…” Krotus began.

“Don’t you have
any other infantry?” Raptor asked.

“We do,” Bakus
replied, “on other planets.”

“Bring them over,”
Raptor said.

“Commodore is
right,” Solus said, “Let them hold the disloyal guardsmen, I will sign a
special order to bring in other infantry.”

Raptor and
Barryett walked out of the door and Krotus closed it behind them.

“Can you believe
their nerve to issue us diktats,” Bakus said.

“Diplomacy, my
dear general, be a little diplomatic,” Solus said, “Win me a big victory and
scare away these Mercurians from our space and I will send these elitists
packing.”

Bakus saluted
Solus and smiled a little bit. He did not like the new chancellor, but on the
military strategy, they saw eye to eye and Bakus was itching to take control of
Avenger
and make it true to its name.

Ex-Commodore
Antrar Wyft’s spaceship started ringing an alarm bell when it neared the
orbital space of Planet Bravo. Antrar woke up and yawned with both of his hands
thrown up behind his shoulders and then rubbed his eyes. He must have slept for
a long time. Once his spaceship had passed into Starfire space he did not have
to worry about being chased by Jiggermaster or followed by Silencer. Neither
would escape the scanners of army starships and hence would not dare take the
risk. He had decided to take a nap which had turned into a long sleep.

The space control
identified his ship and sent him back instructions for the spaceport. Antrar
switched his spaceship back to ‘manual’ and took control and steadily brought
it down in a controlled descent. Once at the spaceport, he registered his
spaceship under a false name and rented an airship. As a Starfirian national he
had a right to travel anywhere in Starfire space and thus did not have to show
an identification beyond proving his nationality, which his former army card
established, and avoided getting on the space traffic records.

This planet and
the region was under Regional Star Commander Carvyk Botlar and Antrar highly
suspected his involvement in the attack on
Conquistador
during its
transit to Nestor by unidentified spaceships whom he was almost completely
certain were other Starfirian army starships
. But why?
And while
commander Carvyk did not know that Antrar was abroad
Conquistador
, he
was not going to take any risk by leaving his name in the travel records.

Antrar had sent a
query to Army Records Department to get an address on Yarwyk Gyte and was
waiting to receive an answer to that. Meanwhile, there was a discrepancy about
the events surrounding the assassination attempt on Nestorian vice-chancellor
Remus Torus. He had it straight from the horses’ mouth, the assassin named
Silencer himself, a confession of his role. But there had also been a second
assassin who had been named as the sole culprit in the official version
released to the news.

Antrar sensed that
an answer he might find here could blow the cover up wide open. But first, he
had to get himself an ally and in particular someone who was experienced in
investigations. He could not go to the Army because its hierarchy had been
penetrated by a very strange sort of a conspiracy and he did not know where
its’ tentacles had spread. But there was the SPASI: Secret Politics And State Investigations.
It was the civilian state department for all government investigations inside
Starfirian space and it had a totally separate chain of command from the
Department of Army Investigations and it answered directly to state leaders,
not to army commanders.

Antrar’s airship
came to a stop in front of a four story rectangular building that was protected
by a wall and armed guards with laser guns patrolled atop it and on the roof.
The building was in a sparsely populated area and its address was available in
the airship’s database. Antrar parked the airship outside the wall and walked
towards the gate where two SPASI guards stopped him and inquired as to his
business.

He was let in
without delay after he showed his former army card. On the first floor the
receptionist waved him away when he asked for an appointment with the chief
detective of the office and asked him to schedule it for days down the road.
But when he gave her his name, his status as a war hero quickly got him
scheduled on the calendar for that very day.

Antrar took a seat
on a sofa against the wall while the receptionist talked with her chief
upstairs. She put down her phone and turned to Antrar with a smile.

“Com Antrar,” the
receptionist said, “the base chief will see you now in his office on the fourth
floor. You won’t miss the signs.”

“Thank you madam,”
Antrar replied with a smile of his own and took the elevators up. He followed
the signs and knocked on the door of a large, spacious office that had been
left open.

“You would be
Commodore Antrar Wyft?” SPASI man said and extended his hand, “I am chief
detective Rockvyk Torryen, chief of SPASI for planet Bravo and the entire
Zarrvyk Province.”

“Former
Commodore,” Antrar shook his hand and Rockvyk pointed him to a chair in front
of his desk. Rockvyk was a large man standing four or five inches over six feet
with a wide chest and strong shoulders. He had a hard, rectangular face that
did justice to his name, a rocky jaw but with gentle eyes carrying glint of a
grin and slightly disheveled short hair with one strand coming over his left
forehead. He must have been in his forty’s, Antrar reckoned and his hand grip
was as strong as he looked.

“I am honored to
have a man like you in my office, sir,” Rockvyk said. Antrar noticed that his
eyes made his grin appear far more cunning than the man probably intended.

“Chief Rockvyk, if
you don’t mind me asking, what is your background?” Antrar asked.

“Well sir, I am a
SPASI lifer,” Rockvyk replied, “father was a policeman, so I did two years in
police right after school. But father had made enemies and they couldn’t get to
him as he was ranked higher but when he retired they took out their revenge on
me assigning me the shabbiest of the tasks a policeman can do. And I dreamed to
be a big shot detective anyhow, so I told them fellas to take a hike and quit.
Then I joined SPASI and stayed with it for the next twenty four years.”

“No, that’s not
what I meant,” Antrar laughed, “I mean your postings and departments in SPASI.”

“Sir, I know you
were a big time commodore in the army and all,” Rockvyk put both of his hands
on his waists, “but that knowledge could be state secrets.”

“I understand, but
I need to be able to trust you and don’t call me sir,” Antrar said, “You wanted
to be a big time detective…”

“Wanted as a young
man, all young SPASI detectives dream of it but then you realize that most of
the work is information collection and interviews and all but you come to like
it and realize its importance…”

“How would you
like to investigate a matter that could become the biggest scandal of the
century or even a millennium,” Antrar asked leaning forward. He knew that if
Rockvyk was part of it, he could suspect Antrar was talking of the same, but
Antrar had concocted a false tale in his mind, just the same, if he did not
come to trust this SPASI man.

“Alright, if we
can’t trust our own war hero, then who can we trust, right?” Rockvyk said.

“Right,”

“I have been stuck
in the Counter-Smuggling Division of SPASI since I started,” Rockvyk said while
he walked over to a drawer, took out a folder and yanked a piece of paper
therein that he smacked down in front of Antrar on the wide table, “That’s my
record. All twenty four years’ worth. I worked in the interior space in all but
the last two years identifying smuggling dens hidden in interstellar space.
Then I was sent to the frontiers to identify smuggling routes into our space.
They call it a promotion and it is as far as rank and pay goes, I became a
Chief Detective after all, but it is demotion when it comes to the lifestyle.
You must have seen outside of our office, nothing much to do around here.”

“Lucky for me
though, that is just the type of background I trust,” Antrar said, “don’t take
it the wrong way, but no one would think of involving you in a high level
scheme.”

“Now you tell me
what is all this about, all this talk of a scandal of a century…” Rockvyk began
to speak.

“What do you know
about the assassin who tried to take out Nestorian VC Remus?” Antrar asked.

“Huh?” Rockvyk was
slightly confused, “I know everything because I was there escorting VC Remus
when the assassin fired lasers from an orbital resort into Commander Carvyk’s
palace.”

“And he was found
dead, correct?”

“Rocket Troops
from the palace flew there and shot him,” Rockvyk said.

“And what about
the second assassin?”

“What second
assassin?”

“Don’t you find it
suspicious that no rocket trooper was shot trying to take down a professional
hitman?” Antrar asked.

“It is possible
they ambushed him,” Rockvyk said, “What is this about second assassin?”

“Magyar Harwyk,
the notorious assassin also known as The Silencer,” Antrar said, “He was about
to take a laser shot from the moon at VC Remus when he was interrupted by the
Nestorian shooter. It was Magyar who shot him out of anger for messing up his
hit.”

“No one can take a
shot from a moon to the planet…”

“The Silencer can,
he has done once before as a freelance contractor for Starfire Army,” Antrar
said.

“Whoa! Commodore,
should you be telling me that?” Rockvyk raised his palm in air facing Antrar.

“No, but you
shouldn’t be telling me either, I am retired after all,” Antrar grinned.

“Suppose I believe
you, what evidence…”

“Fellow, I talked
to Silencer and he confirmed it in his own words,” Antrar said, “You can call
me a liar but there it stands.”

“Commodore, I am
not going to call you a liar,” Rockvyk said scratching his chin but his hard
chin did not move at all, “but suppose it is true, suppose the Army does not
want it known that Magyar was hired as a backup…”

Antrar guffawed
and chortled at the same time, “Magyar is one of the best hitman in the
galaxy.”

“Alright, then
suppose the other one was hired as a backup…”

“One doesn’t hire
a backup to a man like Silencer, but let’s go with your reasoning,” Antrar
said.

“And the army
doesn’t want it known if Silencer is caught and he spills the beans of his
previous clients, but even then it would just be an embarrassment, not a
scandal of a century, let alone of a millennium,” Rockvyk said.

“I love the
Starfire Army, just like you I have been a lifer, never did nothing outside of
the army till I retired,” Antrar said, “I would never embarrass the army in
public. This is about something a lot bigger and I can only lead you on to it
once you start believing me that there is something shady going on here.”

“Can you arrange a
meeting between me and this Silencer?” Rockvyk narrowed his eyes as he asked.

“Are you willing
to come fly with me to Jiggermaster’s Den?” Antrar asked with a smile.

“Joking huh? I
have booked many of his smugglers, he would tie me to a rocket and blast
against an asteroid,” Rockvyk said.

“You know about
his methods too, eh?”

“A pilot of a
smuggling vessel who was going to rat on him to us, he blasted that way.”

“That’s not an
option for us, but I can do one better,” Rockvyk said, “You see,

I talked to
Commodore Raptor of
Conquistador
who was VC of
Victory
at the
time of the assassination attempt and his starship tracked Silencer’s flight. I
can arrange a meeting between us and Commodore of
Victory
, whoever that
is.”

“I would certainly
be interested in that,” Rockvyk said. He knew it was not SPASI’s job to
investigate dubious plots inside the Army but as a detective his curiosity to
uncover mysterious was overwhelmingly strong. “But it would be difficult to get
an appointment with a commodore…”

“You forget, it
will be me calling upon him,” Antrar smiled and got up.

“Then let’s go,”
Rockvyk said. He returned his record to his drawer and picked up a couple of
items, told the receptionist on the phone that he would be out for the rest of
the day and both of them walked out of his office. Rockvyk locked the door and
they headed outside to Antrar’s rental airship.

Antrar and Rockvyk
boarded a transport space shuttle to Starship
Victory
which was
stationed in the orbit of Planet Bravo. Starship Victory was an older spaceship
that had seen better days and even some worse days when it had taken beatings
in the battle. It was approximately 15 miles long on its longest axis and 7
miles wide at its broadest. Like most Starfirian Army starships it was painted
red and black, with black predominating to allow camouflage against space when
needed with a star field painted on black for further authentic blending
against the background. The red paint was concentrated on the angular locations
for emphasis of the distinct structure. All the paint pixels were actually
micro-screens that could be changed to any color to allow blending into any
background such as planetary, stellar or asteroid field.

Even for an
ex-officer like Antrar it would have taken many hours to get permission to
board the starship and his name would go on the records of the channels he had
perused. However, as a former commodore he knew all the secret radio
frequencies starship command rooms utilized to communicate with each other and
he radioed directly to
Victory’s
command room and requested permission
to board. This was granted and they were escorted into the Commodore’s personal
leisure room upon boarding the ship.

“Commodore
Antrar,” Commodore Dartar Myft rose from the sofa and offered his hands to
Antrar and Rockvyk. “You remember me, don’t you, we have met before.”