Birthright: Battle for the Confederation- Turmoil (25 page)

Loren didn't know the
man well enough to tell if he was attempting a joke or was really just a dry
personality.  He guessed it wasn't really important in any case. 

The coroner placed a
wristband on each of his arms, which then snugged tight to his skin.  A second
later Loren heard the thrum of the sterile fields start up.  The fields
originated at  the wristbands, and their molecules-thin barriers enveloped the
hands of the coroner, protecting him from contamination and protecting the
crime scene from his own interactions.  He  started going over the body,
inspecting and then placing on numbered trays items removed from on or around
the deceased Drisk.  An associate quickly removed the trays once filled and
returned with empty ones to start the process over again. 

The coroner had
removed the dead man's jacket and was placing his hands on the ground when
Loren noticed something. 

"This guy and
his buddy over there are both wearing the same ring," Loren noted.  The
rings were dark, a sort of brushed nickel color, with a few lines embossed
along their circumference.  "Any idea what those are?"

The coroner took the
ring off and studied it carefully, looking at it closely and then holding it up
to the lights overhead.  He mumbled a bit and coughed twice, but in the end
looked puzzled.  "They don't signify any Drisk traditions or meaning that
I can identify," he finally admitted.  "Here," he said as he
tossed the ring to Loren, who caught it in surprise.

"The scanners
didn't pick up anything," the coroner assured Loren, "and besides,
this guy's buddy over there is wearing one as well, so you can play with this
for a minute."

Loren nodded
absently as he rolled it around his fingers.  It was heavier than he'd
expected, and even after being off the victim's hand for a minute still felt
warm to the touch.  There was something familiar about it, though.  He'd seen
one before, but couldn't place where.  He'd seen it recently.  The answer
eluded him, all the more aggravating because it felt like he could almost see
it, or maybe parts of it, drifting in and out of his consciousness.

"Of all the
Gods..." Loren heard the coroner mutter.  He saw the man waving the
bioscanner around over the Drisk's body again, only now he was agitated and
nervous.  He was even starting to sweat.

"What is
it?" asked Loren, and he caught a glimpse of the scanner's readout.  The
biosigns weren't Drisk.  They weren't human, either.

"What is
he?" Loren asked again slowly.

The coroner
swallowed twice, unable or unwilling to speak.  He simply turned the display so
Loren could see.  Under the tab where it classified the DNA and other
identifiable markers, the label showed 'Priman'.

"Cory, Merritt,
Web," Loren called loudly, eliciting some annoyed glares but nothing more
among the investigators.  His comrades came back quickly, alerted to something
by the tone of his voice.  Once they all gathered around, Loren showed them the
bioscanner, still held in the white-knuckled clutches of the coroner. 

"This is
definitely not good news," Web said softly.

"No
kidding," Merritt confirmed.  "What do we do?"

"We keep it on
the down-low for now," Loren decided quickly.  He flagged down Captain
Romica, who happened to be wandering past. 

She approached
cautiously, something about Loren's agitated demeanor making her a bit wary. 
"Something going on, Commander?" she asked slowly.

This time, instead
of grabbing the coroner's hand, Loren just gestured for him to show the
Captain.  Her eyes went wide as she took in the full meaning of the results.

"We had a
Priman assault team in here?" she whispered angrily.

"It looks like
it," Loren agreed.

"Why didn't
they set off the alarms?" she countered.  "We have enough Priman
biosign data that they would have been detected five times over before they got
into this space."

"The
rings," the coroner quickly concluded.  "I scanned the deceased for
initial screens like always.  Then I passed this ring to the Commander here and
was making a sweep of the deceased again so the program could check that box
off and I could move on to the next one.  But instead of the same results, that
time he showed up as Priman.  It could only be the ring."  His voice
trailed off in astonishment.  Maybe it was fear.

"Only one way
to find out," Cory said determinedly.  She stepped over to the other Drisk
and unceremoniously dragged him the few paces to where the group stood. 
"Scan this hump, would you?" she said to the coroner, who complied.

"Drisk,"
he confirmed numbly.

Cory grabbed the
ring on his left hand middle finger and pulled it off, tossing it to Loren. 
"How about now?"

The coroner scanned
the man and once again registered shock.  "It can't be," he said in
awe.  "It says he's Priman as well."  He looked at Loren, then
Captain Romica.  "Do you know what this means?  They can conceal their
identities just by putting on a ring.  That's astounding!  I mean, there must
be some prosthetics involved, which would be easy enough to install or remove,
but faking a bio scanner is incredible.  There's no way they could fool a
determined DNA scan, but they didn't have to."  He sat there, resting on
his haunches, knees on the floor, hands on his hips.  "They could be
anywhere among us."

A cold shiver raced
down Loren's spine.  "We don't need that kind of panic right now," he
said firmly, then turned to Captain Romica.  "Captain, we need to keep
this under wraps, at least until we can track down the Priman rescue team and
Velk in the city."

"You think
they're still here?" she asked doubtfully.

"Yes," he
said confidently.  "Before we came down here, I reported in to my
captain.  He said all in and outbound traffic to the surface has been
blockaded.  They didn't get off-planet, and most likely didn't even leave the
city.  We have the upper hand right now, because we know what to look
for."

Silence hung in the
air as everyone tried to piece together the puzzle.  "We need  to hunt
down anyone wearing a ring like that," concluded Web.

"You know
it," Loren replied.  He turned to Captain Romica.  "But we need to
keep this quiet.  Seriously quiet.  We don't know how many more Primans or
their agents are in the system, so if we start a large scale search they're
going to find out.  You know what's going on, and I doubt I can convince you to
not take part, but you need to be as discrete as possible."

"I know what
I'm doing, Commander," Captain Romica said sternly.  "I've been
running investigations since before you soiled your first flight suit,
kiddo," she replied.  "Yes, you're a pilot," she said in answer
to their quizzical looks.  "You all are.  Gods know you all stand out. 
Not that it's a bad thing; it's just a thing.  Of course, your flight jacket
there," she jutted out her chin at Merritt, "doesn't help conceal
your purpose, either."  She smiled.  "I would love to nail these
Primans, but if my groundside people and your fleet types are going to both be
following up, we need to stay in touch.  Agreed?"  She gave them a stern
look, which Loren accepted.  "Oh, and you should keep one of the rings. 
Maybe you can pick something else out of it." 

"Trade comm
addresses?" Loren asked, and she nodded.  That done, Loren gave her the
second ring and she parted ways while stalking off with new purpose, the
coroner trailing in her wake as she started trying to impress upon him the
importance of keeping quiet.

Loren, Web, Merritt,
and Cory just stood there in silence for a minute.

"I suppose
there was no way to convince her to just let us handle this?" Merritt
asked glumly.

"Nope,"
Cory said for Loren.  "We should probably be happy she didn't try to pull
a jurisdiction rap and tell us this was her case since it happened on the
ground."

"Cory has a
point there," Loren conceded.

Loren suddenly
realized where he'd seen the ring before.  He looked at each of them in turn,
then spoke.  "I know who else around here is wearing one," he said
cautiously.

"Cough it
up!" said Web.

"It was Tana
Starr, one of Dennix's closest advisors ."

Nobody said
anything.  Finally, Merritt found his voice.  "Wouldn't surprise me if
Dennix was sporting one as well."

"We need to
keep that thought to ourselves," Loren warned.  "Besides, he was
wearing several rings; I wouldn't be sure about it.  But Ms. Starr; she had
one, and she's in the inner circle."

"So what do we
do?" asked Merritt hopefully.

"We watch
her," said Cory.  "If she's a Priman, or aligned with them, she's a
perfect fit for the inside person on this job.  I mean, you heard them talking
about how there weren't enough guards on duty.  Those Primans who attacked knew
where to go and what to do.  Somebody on the inside set this up.  And she's the
perfect candidate."

"Our only
problem is that Avenger is under orders to break orbit and head to the yards as
soon as possible," Loren said, putting a damper on things.

"Then we have
to find a reason to keep her here, so we can stay here and run this
ourselves," Cory said in a tone that brooked no argument.  "We also
need to get some backup that we can trust so we can keep this mission as
under-wraps as possible.  We need expertise and resources if we're going to
track these Primans down.  Hell, just running surveillance on Ms. Starr will be
a full time job."

"I'll bring
Halley in," Web suggested.  The rest of them looked at him with knowing
smiles.

"Now,
Web," Loren began, "I know you've probably been waiting weeks to find
a reason to ask her to drop in, but there is the small matter of where she is. 
I mean, we need this to start tonight, maybe tomorrow at latest.  If Starr is
in league with these people, we need to start watching her right now."

"No
problem," Web said easily.  "I'm pretty sure she's in the Delos
system."

"And how would
you know that?" asked Merritt doubtfully.

"Well,"
Web began with a smile, "you must admit Halley has a certain, style, let's
call it.  If there are bodies on the ground and explosions in the air, Halley
isn't far off.  I've come to recognize some of her calling cards and
techniques."

Cory and Merritt
just looked at each other, then shook their heads.  "You are so in love
with that woman..." Merritt said.

"I never
claimed otherwise," Web answered proudly.  "In any case, yesterday
there was a major bust out on Delos Seven."  Delos Seven was one of
several habitable moons orbiting one of the gas giant planets in the outer
system, and there in fact had been a sizable police action along with some
well-placed explosions.  "There was a cell of Priman sympathizers,"
Web continued.

"What, we have
Priman sympathizers now?" Cory interrupted. "Give me a break!"

"They claim
that the Primans are on the right track- that maybe we should let somebody else
try running things since humanoids can't seem to really perfect the
system," Web continued.  "This one group out on D7 has been getting
militant; they blew up a Confed Navy recruiting station a week ago. 
Anyway," Web plunged on, waving a hand in the air dismissively, "the
pattern of explosions, the convenient arrival of police on scene, and the
roughed-up and hog-tied leaders all point to Halley."

"You're
serious," Loren said, eyes boring into Web.

"Damn
straight."

Loren nodded
quietly, chewing on his own thoughts for a second.  "Alright," he
continued, "make the call.  Don't give her too much in the way of details
on the call, of course, but if you can get her here by tomorrow we'll bring her
in.  We can trust her and we damn well know she can handle herself if it comes
down to it." 

Loren straightened
up and tugged on his tunic, pulling it back into place.  "All that's left
is for me to convince Captain Elco to find a way to keep Avenger in orbit so we
have a place to operate from.  No big deal; we just need to ask the captain to
break our ship." 

They returned to Avenger
as quickly as possible.  Loren started making his way directly to Captain
Elco's quarters while Web left to call Halley and Cory and Merritt elected to
drop in on their squadrons.

Avenger was oddly
quiet at this hour.  The overnight watch had just started, eight hours of
nothing interesting since the ship was tied up in orbit over the Confederation
capital.  Normally while underway the third watch was less staffed than the
regular daytime shifts, though not extremely so.  The ship still needed to be kept
up and steered, maintained and tested. 

Now, though, safely
in orbit over Delos, the third watch was a skeleton crew, and it showed.  Loren
saw only a handful of crew as he walked through the ship toward the Captain's
quarters.

Loren arrived at
Captain Elco's hatch and tapped the button that would signal his presence
inside.  It only took a few seconds for a reply.

"Captain Elco
here," was the response. 

"Captain,"
Loren began, "it's Commander Stone.  I have some very important
information to discuss."

"You must be
very excited about it considering the time of day and your fun filled evening
at the detention facility.  Come on in." The hatch clicked, the sound of
the locks disengaging.  Loren tapped another button and the door slid sideways
into the bulkhead, allowing him entry.

Captain Elco was
sitting at his desk in the day cabin, tunic jacket hung neartly over his seat
back.  He beckoned Loren over to have a seat, and as his XO did so he tried to
arrange the clutter on his desk to give him a place so set his arms.

"I take it you
found something when you went back into the facility?" Elco asked
curiously.