Ancient Hunter

I sat on the couch in my quarters pondering over what I should do next. I was waiting for Moon Shadow to call back half tempted to call her but I held myself in check. The door chimed startling me

“It’s open.” I shouted.

The door slid open Jervic and Kelli entered their arms laden with boxes.

“We’ve got your stuff,” Kelli announced. “Plus a few things from the stores.” She gave Jervic a knowing look. “We stopped short of providing you with regulation scanties.”

“Scanties?” I felt stupid asking the question.

“Underwear military issue. No one wears them unless they are a masochist.” Kelli frowned. “I’d rather go naked than wear them,” she admitted.

“They make you itch for evermore,” Jervic added.

“I get the picture,” I said.

“One more thing,” Kelli said. “You must wear your uniform outside your quarters Xenai’s orders.”

“I don’t have a uniform.” I had no idea where it was the last time I had, had it was on Runa’s ship. That was before she had been stabbed.

“The Valkyrie returned it.” Kelli told me.

“Kelli,” Jervic said with a sympathetic look towards me. “I hate to say it we are still on duty and Gant is charge.” He blew me a kiss as they left the room.

One thing I was glad of was that he didn’t see me blush red. I turned my attention to the boxes. It was nearly all there the only thing missing was my Seven Double ‘M’. Quickly I changed out of my clothes and into my old stuff. As nice as Francine’s hand made garments were I was glad to wear something clean especially fresh underwear. I’d wash my dirties later in the communal laundry room which was opposite the gym. Which made sense when you thought about it. In fresh clothes I felt invigorated. I spent the next hour idling about and reading. Despite doing that I was itching to be on the move. I was even tempted to call home but I nixed that knowing it would end with me crying my heart out. I missed my parents, I missed the stability in my life. My comms bleeped I answered it instantly.

“Yes?”

“Come to the conference room, you know which one,” Xenai said.

The ship had several conference rooms. The one named 2-B was nearest the bridge and the one we always used.

“In uniform,” Xenai added.

“I’ll be there as soon as I am dressed.” I dressed in my uniform. It was Alliance dark blue with Lieutenant’s flashes on the high collared neck. I buttoned up my tunic admiring it looked pristine. Although it did feel a little odd after a long time out of it. Xenai musty have a purpose in mind if I was to wear my uniform. Dressed and after a quick check in the mirror I headed to the conference room.

The room was as I remembered it big enough to seat twenty people. A long plastic and metal desk dominated the room. In the centre of the table was a holo projector. Xenai sat at the far end of the table from the door. Behind her was the Alliance symbol of two hands within a wreath. She wasn’t alone. My team was seated along one side of the table. Along the other side of the table were others in Alliance uniforms. I recognised a couple by sight as to the others were strangers.

“Please take a seat Lieutenant Hunter.”

I sat with my team next to Denassi. I was sure Xenai smiled when I had done that. I had hardly any time to get settled in when Xenai spoke.

“Comms!”

The empty seats were filled with holograms of others in Alliance uniforms. Which made it more relevant that I had to wear mine.

“Thank you for attending,” Xenai said to the holos. She outlined the reasons for this conference. “I’m sharing this information with both the Empire and Com Ops.”

Combined Operations was the equivalent of the Empire’s Central Command. They handled all military activities. Deployed the fleets, the armies. The Alliance had a separate command structure independent of both the Empire and The Confederacy. The Alliance’s only remit was to fight the Rhosani and their allies wherever they were. The only restriction was they could not enter the Orsini Commonwealth. Then the Confederacy and the Empire did not either. No one wanted a full-scale war against the Orsini. It was a frustrating situation as the remaining Rhosani were somewhere within the Commonwealth.

She grimaced and continued. “What they do with it is another matter.” She looked at her crew. “Elkins!”

A human male in a blue uniform got to his feet. He was of average height with greyish stubble for hair and a ragged moustache also greyish. “We’ve obtained this image.”

An image of a purple crystal appeared above the holo projector many times larger that it actually was. Clear visible in the image was that the crystal was full of bubbles. It kind off reminded me of the holes in a Swiss cheese. At the centre of the crystal was a dark object the size of a pea.

“As you can see the crystal is perforated with tiny vesicles each one containing a toxin. In this case lethal to T’Arni. We are still in the analyst stage of our investigation.” Elkins frowned. “Some of the component structures are similar to those sample we obtained from Davenport.”

“That toxin was Human based,” I said out loud thinking of the brewery. “And I’m sure the one from the hidden jungle camp was the same?”

Elkins stared at me as if I’d sworn at him and looked as if I’d stolen his thunder.

“Lieutenant Hunter was responsible for infiltrating both facilities and shutting down their operations.” Xenai said to Elkins. I heard her warning in her voice she must have read something in his mind.

The first part wasn’t true I’d fell down a crevice and knocked myself out. The next thing I remembered was waking to find a pervert of a guard trying violate me.

Elkins nodded to me. “Good work,” he said and continued. “As I was saying the toxin was identified and an anti-toxin created. Doctor Brown aboard the Havok was the first one to do this. That toxin was air based. He gave the antidote to his patients and both made a full recovery.”

Elkins continued clearly warming to his subject. “The toxin decays when it is exposed to air. Which was why it wasn’t as effective. A coated version was deployed on Saros.”

That had me sitting straighter. The Black Stripes had tried to kill me at the Gala. If it hadn’t been for my Valkyrie training vest they might have succeeded. I already knew of the link between the Black Stripes and the Rhosani. The Curator had revealed that before he killed himself. The Director as far I knew was still in Confed custody she was a traitor to the T’Arni. If my guess was correct the Rhosani were the middlemen between the Black Stripes and the unpronounceable or UP as I had designated them.

Elkins spoke further. “This used an injection version that spurted the toxin when the blade made contact.”

This was more than I knew before at least Ljufu could have told me that. She probably didn’t want me burdened by that.

“We traced that toxin to a jungle lab on Davenport. As to the poisoned beer it was traced to the bottle caps. It was activated when the bottle was opened. The cap lining contained micro bubbles of toxins. Again this was a contact version.” He paused to take a breath. “Getting back to the crystal the vesicles were designed to burst on contact. What we don’t know is what they used as a delivery system. Most types of percussion system would shatter the crystal before it could hit its target.” With that Elkins sat down his face flushed.

He had given me a lot to ponder on. I remember the tubes the fake Orsini carried none of the dead fakes carried such weapons.

As soon as Elkins sat down then an unknown male Ezaran stood he had the typical Ezaran fur and a head of bushy hair and like all Ezarans looked as if his uniform didn’t fit him.

“What have you got for us Ventassi?” Xenai said to the Ezaran.

Ventassi enlarged the image of the crystal focusing on the black spot at the centre of the crystal.

“This is a quantum entanglement transmitter.”

“That thing?” Someone said one of the holos.

I was glad it wasn’t me.

“Aren’t they huge?” Another of Xenai’s people a female T’Arni with long mousy hair. “The relays I mean.” She blushed at her inadvertent words no one laughed.

“Relays hold thousands of quantum bits which are both transmitter and receiver as well as housing the comms system,” Ventassi stated.

“How is it related to the crystal?” I asked.

“The power needed to hold the quantum bits in place is enormous. The same power used as the same as a small spaceship.”

“And?” Xenai said.

“Captain, we believe.” Ventassi looked at Denassi. “That this crystal didn’t receive an activation signal. We speculate that the other crystals were sent a locator signal so they could be retrieved.”

“Why weren’t they retrieved when the Landottir were attacked. They had plenty of time to get them afterwards?”

“Again this is more speculation but we think the crystal retrieved from the caves activated a trigger signal which cascaded initiating the others.”

“Can we say if the false Orsini received this same signal. I can’t see how close they were to attack like they did?” I asked.

“That’s what we are here to discover,” Xenai announced. She looked at Ventassi. If we activate this one will we expect to be attacked?”

“With certainty ma’am.” Ventassi replied looking Xenai in the eye.

“Make it so.”

The die was set only time would tell if anything came of it. There were still many unanswered questions. Questions that needed to be answered.