Chapter 13
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Joni said, “I know we aren’t due out there for another hour; do you think we can get them to sweep us out early? I'd rather sit there and observe minor traffic than sit here and do nothing.”
I opened a comm channel to dispatch. “Mr. Gruend. What’s the chance you can get us swept out early to the intercept point for the inspection of the Carlson?”
Hela replied, “One moment, Mr. Beutcher. OK, it looks like we can work that. The transfer deck was down while they were doing a full inspection after the bombing. It looks like it’s online again. I’ll send you over to transfer control if you’d like.”
Joni grinned as I replied, “We would appreciate that, Mr. Gruend. Send us over.”
After a short time for transfer setup, we were soon sitting in free space just outside SS5. A portal window opened and swept across our location, leaving us in the shipping lane where the freighter Carlson would be passing. After an hour of waiting, the ship was detected by our nav sensors. I broadcast the all-stop signal and began my quick study of the Carlson’s layout.
As the ship approached, it didn’t slow. “Carlson, this is the Daunte; we are a New Alliance security vessel, and you are being ordered to stop for an inspection of your cargo. Please comply.”
The Carlson continued at full speed.
Joni said, “They aren’t stopping.”
As the Carlson began to pass our position, I pushed the throttle to full and quickly matched speeds. “Carlson, this is the Daunte, please bring your ship to a stop, or we will be forced to shut down your core.”
The ship remained unresponsive.
Joni said, “Have you ever shut down a ship before?”
I replied, “Once, early in the New Alliance. It was a group of AMP separatists. I hated bringing them in, but they were intent on running past me. Sad thing is, they weren’t running any contraband, they were doing it as a matter of principle. The punishment they received was severe and in no way in line with their little protest. The new security chief at the time felt it necessary to hold them up as a lesson for the public to see.”
Joni pulled up an image of the ship. “What exactly happens to the ship when you shut down the core?”
I pulled up a diagram of the power systems and transferred it to her holo-display. “We shut down the power core. It means all systems go offline. Lighting, environment, propulsion, everything stops. I just hope there's no one in the docking bay, as the gravity wall in there will shut down as well. Anything not tied down risks being blown out into space.”
I again hailed the Carlson. “This is the Daunte. You have thirty seconds before we shut down your core. Please bring your vessel to a full stop and prepare for boarding.”
The thirty seconds passed quickly. I reached for the core override and hesitated as I looked over at Joni. The button was pressed, and several seconds later the Carlson went dark. I maneuvered the Daunte into the docking bay and set her down on the deck.
As I stood, I said, “I know you're the trainee, but this is an unusual situation. I need you to stay here and keep the Daunte secure. If anything should happen, just use your best judgment.”
“I can do that. Could you at least turn on your helmet feed so I can see what you're up to?”
The video feed was switched on as the Daunte’s ramp-way lowered. I stepped through our gravity wall as Raptor watched with a concerned eye.
When I reached the deck, it was completely dark and silent. “Gravity boots are on. I’m proceeding to the bridge through the bay air lock. It will take me a few minutes to get up there, as I’ll be going up fourteen flights of stairs. No power, no elevators.”
“Well, it’s not like it will be tiring or anything. There’s no gravity out there other than your boots.”
After maneuvering my way up the stairwell, I passed through a door into a hall. At the end of the hall was another door leading onto the bridge. I slowly opened the door to the pitch-dark room.
As I stepped inside, I said, “I’m seeing a complete absence of any crew. I’m moving to the power station for a reboot of her systems. This is strange. You would never completely abandon your bridge. Do a full scan of the remainder of the ship and tell me if you have any bio-signatures at all.”
“Roger that. One scan coming up.”
As I moved in front of the power console, a small light brought the console to life. I entered an unlock code for the core override, and the ship’s systems began to slowly come back to life. When the nav system was fully online, I entered an all-stop command.
“Knog, scan says there are no life-forms on here besides you and me. I am showing that all lifepods have been jettisoned. Looking in the logs shows the crew left eleven hours ago. There is one entry about blaster fire and then nothing else from the crew or captain. I’m not seeing anything about intrusions. I’d say whoever used the blaster was one of the crew already.”
“OK, looks like we're on here by ourselves. The ship’s course was still set for the colony. Bring up the manifest logs and meet me down in the bay. I want to check out this cargo.”
After reaching the Daunte, we proceeded to move to inspect each of the giant tanks that carried freshwater for the dry colony. The first nine of the sixteen large tanks checked as normal. On tank ten, Joni stopped and looked at the data several times.
“You got something there?”
“The water has looked perfectly fine in every tank. I just don’t get why the pressure is so low. These tanks aren’t under pressure, but the ship’s gravity generators should generate some pressure down here at these spigots. I’m getting very little from it.”
I pointed to the steps that led up to the top of the twelve-story tank in front of where we were standing. “Let’s go up and have a look at the cleaning hatch.”
When we reached the top, I opened the hatchway into the tank and was soon standing atop a catwalk that ran across the length of the top of the tank. The water level in the tank came up to within a few centimeters of the bottom of the catwalk.
I said, “Take a sample from here.”
Joni leaned down, dipping the sensor into the clear, calm liquid. “Hmm. There is something in the water, but it looks inert. Let me bring it up on a visual. It looks like we have some type of little microcapsules suspended in it. I’m going to see if I can smash a few of those with my glove. Whoa! This stuff has enough cyanide in it to kill, well, to kill the whole population on that colony.”
“Encapsulated cyanide?”
Joni nodded. “Why would someone do that?”
I pulled up the image on my arm pad holo-display. “I’d say someone wanted to kill off the miners on that colony.”
Joni looked over the display with a confused expression. “Why encapsulate it?”
“Encapsulation is heavily used in pharmaceuticals. It offers a time-release mechanism, dispensing whatever drugs are needed on a strict schedule, rather than having the individual control the taking of individual doses.”
Joni shook her head. “What?”
I pulled up and zoomed in on the image of one of the microcapsules. “This coating—it may take a week or two for the digestive bacteria in your gut to break it down. When your doctor prescribes medication for you, it generally comes in a single pill. You take that pill, and the medication continues to be released into your system for anywhere from immediately to an even spread across a couple of weeks, or even all at once a few weeks later. The miners would consume this water, and a week or two later they would all drop dead. The encapsulation would ensure that they all consumed it before it hit anyone.”
Joni again shook her head. “Why would you want to kill off an entire colony?”
“That will be for the organization to find out.”
Joni pointed to the water. “What do we do with all this water? We can’t send it on.”
I pulled up a nav screen on my display. “We could divert to the closest star and dump the contents. The freigh
ter could be sent back to its origination point.”
Joni pulled up diagrams of the Carlson. “Or, we dump one tank and use the ship’s own water filtration system to filter out the capsules. We could have the valving reconfigured in about ten minutes. These freighters are versatile when it comes to configuration.”
I laughed. “While that is all good in theory, it would take weeks just to filter a single tank with the ship’s pumps and filters. However, I do see merit in filtering out the poison. The miners need this water supply. So, how about we just send it on its way with a message for them to heavily filter it before its use. If they decide it is better to dump it, then that will be their choice.”
“I could live with that. We just have to be certain they know the issue.”
“We set a software lock on all the tanks that can only be disabled after reading whatever message we have to leave. Simple to do, and it lets us get on to our mission at Zebulon.”
After a quick reconfiguration of the valve locks, the Carlson was sent on its way. We pulled into the Zebulon system several hours later than expected.
Gretchin came on the comm. “That was supposed to be a quick inspection. Don’t worry over it this time, but we need to be on time for future tasks. The timing of most of these missions can be critical.”
Joni said, “We had a problem with poisoned water. We posted notifications for the colony inspectors.”
“Just the same. In the future, stick to your assigned schedules.”
Our task was then given. We were to sit and watch as a steady stream of transports showed up to conscript the entire population of the Zebulon colony. More than eight million Saurians and three hundred thousand Humans would be taken away for the war effort. Our mission was to observe and report. When the last of the transports had departed from Zebulon, we were released to return to SS5. It had been an assignment that neither of us was fond of.
The two weeks that followed passed quickly. They were filled with standard inspections and no new assignments from the organization. As we prepared for an intercept of a freighter, new orders came in.
Gretchin said, “Hello, my two favorite agents. When your inspection here is complete, you are to proceed to an observation point of the mining colony on Dansk. This mission is another simple observation. Should all go well, the next task will have an elevated risk level.”
I replied, “Dansk? Isn’t that where that water run was going a few weeks ago?”
Gretchin replied, “Yes, and your discovery of the poisoning plot is why your next mission will be of a higher level. The higher-ups have really been impressed with the two of you. So much so that they are now considering having all agents operate as teams.”
Joni turned toward me. “Looks like we saved all those lives on Dansk just to have them sent to the war front. I can’t say we did them a favor.”
“We did what was right. We can’t help what happens afterward. I don’t think either of us is in favor of conscription, but wars are fought with people, and if the other side has no interest in peace, you have to fight.”
As we sat on station in the Dansk system, the transport ships again came and went in a steady stream. Three million hard-luck miners and their families were soon on their way to training camps where they would be committed to fight for our freedom and our way of life, whether they agreed to it or not.
The following week, we received a new assignment from the organization.
Gretchin spoke over the comm. “Good morning, team. Our task for the day will be to proceed to Arianus III to pick up a cargo for delivery to the Melok colony in Theta.”
I replied, “How are we to get out to Melok? That's a month-long run from Arianus.”
Gretchin laughed. “Not to worry, honey, we have you covered. You will be swept out to Melok from SS12 near Arianus. We’ll have you back today.”
Joni said, “It must not be much of a cargo if it will fit on the Daunte. Why aren’t they sending it through the portals? If it fits on here, it will fit through them.”
“Sorry, dear, my job is not to question why. There are any number of people assigned to making these decisions. We need to carry them out on our end if we want to contribute to the success of the war effort. Standard portal transfers have inspections, and even though we as an organization may have use of our own portals, that use is limited. The powers want this cargo delivered in this method, and it’s up to us to do it.”
I pulled up a nav map. “How do we get to Arianus from here? That's a three-day trip all on its own.”
Gretchin hummed a tune into her comm as she transferred instructions to our displays. “You will be swept out to the C5 shipping lane coming into Arianus for a scheduled inspection. That inspection will be canceled before the ship is to arrive. You will proceed from there to Arianus Port-96, where the package will be loaded. It’s then on to SS12 for a sweep out to Melok for delivery and then back to SS12 afterward, and finally back to SS5. You'll be back in Bay-17, all safe and sound, before you know it.”
Our assignment went as planned. The inspection was canceled. We soon made our way into Port-96 on Arianus III. When the cargo master arrived at the ramp, he had two packages that were nearly a meter square.
I said, “We were only expecting a single package. Are you sure this is supposed to go to us?”
The cargo master replied, “I show two boxes, check, for the Daunte, check. Yep, these are yours.”
As the cargo master pushed the first box up the ramp-way, Raptor was waiting for him. Without hesitation, the man reached out to pet the large, muscular dog. I felt the urge to dive forward to save him, but Raptor did nothing more than wiggle his stub of a tail.
The Igari cargo master said, “I love Human dogs. Such loving and loyal creatures.”
The boxes were deposited and the cargo master departed.
I turned to Joni. “Not much of a guard dog, is he? I almost choked when he just reached his hand out there.”
Joni laughed. “They're smart animals. If you show fear or act in a strange way, they can sense it. That’s when they react.”
I looked down at the two boxes. “We have our cargo. I can’t say that I like the fact there are two boxes instead of one. We we're told to collect a single package.”
Joni pressed the button to close the ramp-way. “Let’s just get them over to SS12 and get them delivered. Someone else can sort out why there are two boxes instead of one.”
After a quick run to SS12, we were swept out to Melok for our cargo drop. When the cargo master of the port came out to collect our payload, he only had orders for a single package.
I said, “Are you sure you aren’t supposed to have two?”
The cargo master replied, “Sorry, pal. Shipping docs say one box with the following identifier. I can’t take in any strays.”
Our sweep back to SS12 was quiet, followed by another sweep, returning us to SS5.
As we settled into Bay-17, Gretchin came over the comm. “I see that you're reporting the delivery as complete.”
I said, “We dropped the package, but we have a problem. There were two boxes loaded at Arianus. We still have one of them sitting here.”
Gretchin was silent for a moment and then replied, “Huh, well, what’s in it?”
Joni jumped in. “How are we to know what’s in it? Our mission wasn’t to open boxes, it was to deliver one.”
Gretchin laughed. “Wow, you two sure are high strung. I say we just open it up and have a look. We have to know what’s in it to know who is supposed to get it, right?”
I pulled a cutting tool from my utility drawer. The seals were separated, and a pry bar was used to open the container. I picked up a smaller box from within, one of twelve, and set it on the deck.
Using the cutting tool again, I opened the smaller box. “Coffee? It’s coffee. Looks like twelve cases of it.”
Gretchin again laughed. “Coffee? Huh. Weren’t you just running out of coffee? How lucky is that!”
I shook my head.
“Was this of your doing? If so, what are we supposed to do with it?”
Gretchin sighed. “Oh, so sorry, Mr. Beutcher. I was under the impression that you already knew what to do with coffee. I’ll tell you what we should do. We should consider this a bonus for you and Miss Salton saving the lives of all those miners. Without your efforts, three million of our citizens would have been lost in the war before they even got into the fight.”
I replied, “So, this is a reward for what we did in the line of duty?”
Gretchin laughed. “Now then, it seems like you're finally catching on! Enjoy the coffee, Mr. Beutcher and Miss Salton. It is a well-deserved benefit for your service. Oh, and if you were wondering, I should have a new task for you immediately following your next inspection.”
I said, “Getchin, the captain hasn’t been around to see us much. Did something happen with him?”
“Well, to make things easier on the captain, a new pilot program was put in place for running inspectors as teams. You and Miss Salton are the first team to participate. As such, your schedules are being coordinated through the office of security for the entire Alpha sector. The trial is scheduled to run for a year, and the captain and your chief are no longer in the loop. Your chief was a little put off by the grab of her new stars, but she dropped right in line when a bit of pressure was applied from above.”
I pulled up our scheduling screen. “So, you're now responsible for our complete schedule?”
Gretchin sent over our new task. “I hope there is no problem with that arrangement, Mr. Beutcher. I have enjoyed working with you so far.”
I shook my head. “No sense in breaking up an effective team, Gretchin. Thanks for the coffee, and thanks for the new task.”
Gretchin smiled over the video feed. “I’m thrilled that you feel that way, Mr. Beutcher. I would also like you to know that they will be ramping up our assignments going forward. The three of us will likely stay very busy.”
Joni said, “I’m up for that. I get stir crazy sitting around here waiting all the time. Give me something to occupy my time, and I'm happy.”