Knight of the Empire

I felt frustrated as I lay in the medbay bed. There had to be action soon. Five days waiting, five days of lying in this bed on doctor’s orders. There was still tension between the Ezarans and the rest of the crew both sides accusing the other of the attack. If things didn’t change soon there would be open riot. The room was dark with only the minimal of light from the regenerator that contained Gena. Doc Brown had assured me that she was getting better but I still worried about her. I wouldn’t have wanted to be in that thing as long she was. I lay back and tried to keep my mind from wandering with boredom. I had to stay alert no matter how late it was. Someone from my squad would be back in the morning to guard me.

At the moment the door to the medbay was locked and only Doc Brown had access. Suddenly I heard a hiss as the medbay door slid open. The bay should have been flooded with light from the corridor but it remained dark. Slowly to not reveal I was awake I slid hand in between the mattress and the bedside to get the sidearm I had stored there. A darker shape outlined against the dark and squeak of a heel on the floor surface had me ready. My ears and eyes readily tracked the target. I hoped he wasn’t wearing night vision gear otherwise I would be at a real disadvantage. I heard a slight clang as my target bumped against the Doc Brown’s desk. Feeling more confident I brought my weapon up I wasn’t going to give him and I assumed it was a him a chance to escape. I counted to three as he edged closer and fired. Flashes of light lit up the medbay as I emptied my clip at the target.

“Light!” I yelled and the bay’s lights flickered on.

A man lay on the floor blood pooling around him. Two of my shots had hit him in the chest the rest peppered the bulkhead behind him. I gazed at the corpse unable to assign a name to him. He was tall in his thirties by my judgement with short close-cropped blonde hair. He wore skinnies and boots and had crew insignia on his shoulder. The door opened and Doc Brown rushed in. He stopped and stared at the holes in his wall then stooped over the body on the floor. He stood examining something in his hand.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“A hypo,” he replied shaking his head. “I guess he was going to be certain that he finished the job.”

“Know what’s in it?”

“I get it analysed later. But my question is who the hell is this?”

I was surprised by the Doc’s question. “You don’t know?”

“He never been to see me. And I see everyone. No one gets aboard the ship without me updating their medical records.” Doc Brown walked over to his desk and picked up a portable scanner. In a short step he was back over the body scanning both arms. He straightened up a confused expression on his face. “No ID chip. The damn thing must be broken.” He shook the scanner hard. “Give me your wrist I’ll need to recalibrate this scanner?”

Everyone who joined up had an ID chip implanted in their wrists. I had one and knew battlefield medics carried a scanner. It was a quick way to identify the wounded or the dead. Or in more extreme cases to ID what bits were left. I had seen too much of those on Anoxi. I held out my wrist to him to scan.

Doc Brown shook the scanner again. “I should have gotten a new one. Piece of junk I knew it was broken!”

I realised the problem and tapped the bangle on my wrist. Camelia had given me the bangle when we had escaped the Baron’s trap. It was supposed to hide me from sensors, as my chip would have set off alarms. It would explain how I was able to slip out of the palace and not set off every alarm in the place, although it didn’t explain how Eel was able to thwart my attempts to return to the Confederacy. Wearing the bangle was as automatic as putting on my gloves to hide my mark. The only place I could remove them without any penalties was my apartment. “Sorry,” I muttered removing my bangle. “Try again now. I tend to set off Terran security alerts.” I forgot it on several occasions triggering major security alerts and received a stern lecture from Camelia every time.

Doc Brown ran the scanner over my wrist again and was satisfied with a bleep from the scanner. “You check out,” he sounded relieved.

The sound of the door opening had me turning the empty sidearm still in my hand. Marsha strode in accompanied by Shawna and Kriaeusus in full armour weapons at the ready.

Marsha stared at the body then turned to me surprise on her face. “Who’s this?”

“That’s what we’re trying to establish.”

She looked at Doc Brown. “You don’t know?” Her voice sounded accusing.

“Perhaps Ocynca might?” He shrugged back unfazed by her accusation.

“Ocynca to medbay immediately!” she barked into her comms unit.

The door opened Steve and the rest of the squad entered. His first glance was at the holes in the bulkhead. “Someone needs practice.”

“Yeah put blind firing on the training schedule,” I replied sarcastically.

“I don’t know this one.” Steve jerked his thumb towards the corpse on the floor.

“We’re hoping Ocynca will be able to give us an answer.”

“Captain, Lady Sandra?” Ocynca bowed to the both of us he looked half asleep.

“You know everyone Ocynca,” Marsha demanded. “Who’s this?”

Ocynca examined the body. “I really don’t know captain.”

I was aware of the stunned silence as everyone stared at Ocynca.

“How the hell did he get on board?” Marsha sounded shocked.

“And how did he remain undetected for so long?” I wondered aloud.

Marsha’s eyes narrowed. “I want a full search. Ocynca speak to the crew find out if anyone had seen him.”

“Hold on,” I interjected. “We’ll have to be careful he may have had accomplices?”

Marsha scowled. “I hate this sneaking about it isn’t very Valkyrie.”

“I don’t either,” I admitted. I’d rather face things head on but my inner self advised caution I guess I did learn a few things being around Camelia and Eel.

“What are we going to do about this?” Steve gestured towards the body.

“I can take a tissue and blood analysis we don’t have the equipment to do an in depth study. I can at least tell you where he came from,” Doc Brown said. “And afterwards we’ll put him in cold storage.”

“Do so!” Marsha regarded me.

“I’ll speak to Vorra and see what she can find out.”

“You’re not going out alone!” Marsha’s eyes flashed.

I could see the signs she wanted a fight. I wasn’t going to do that, best if I steered her compulsiveness in another direction. “I’ll take Kriaeusus with me and in the meantime Shawna can shadow Captain Yanik.”

“Ma’am?” Shawna sounded confused.

“If he has accomplices they might go after the captain next.”

Marsha opened her mouth to complain but I shut it with a touch of my finger to her lips. She looked affronted but I wasn’t going to let her have her say. “Harms just do it!”

“Yes ma’am I understand,” Shawna said she was quick on the uptake.

I was glad she got the message. “Ok people we’ve all got our tasks. Let’s get to it!”

Vorra was seated on her bunk looking bored when I walked into the squad quarters. I’d been here of a few occasions mostly accompanying Gena. The quarters had enough space for ten double bunks and storage lockers. There was a small table and chairs at the far end. Like all ship furniture they were bolted to the floor. On the table was a small terminal. I glanced across to Gena’s bunk feeling a dull lump in my stomach. I felt helpless unable to protect her. I vowed to find those responsible and make them pay.

She looked up surprised to see me. “Major!” she said as she stood to attention and saluted.

“At ease Specialist,” I replied it was easy to slip into the old routines and the familiarity comforted me. I needed all the comfort I could get at the moment. Quickly I explained the situation.

“That means my exile is over?” Vorra sounded relieved.

I hated to burst her bubble. “Sorry Vorra not until we find if he had an accomplices. He got on this ship somehow?”

“Major?”

“I want you to go over everything you can think of. There must be some trace of how and where he boarded this ship. You up to the challenge?”

“Yes ma’am! This human insulted every Ezaran on this ship. I want his hide. Excuse the pun!”

“Accepted Vorra.”

Another week passed without finding anything significant. We were meeting in the briefing room. Marsha was in her usual place seated at the head of the table her back against the screen on the wall. A terminal lay open in front of her. The squad was there along with Ocynca and Marsha. Vorra was starting to look haggard. I guess that was my fault for pilling the pressure and I don’t think I was the only one.

“Reports!” Marsha barked. I guess she hated the waiting around as much as I did.

“I spoken to the crew,” Ocynca said as if nothing was wrong. I wished I had his air of calmness I really wanted to punch something or someone. “Only three people have seen our corpse and everyone of them thought he was on the another watch.”

The crew was divided into three watches. Marsha had the prime watch. I as her XO had the second watch and Lieutenant Armaradies a T’Arni had the third watch. The lieutenant was a pleasant faced woman who was a bit of hard ass. We had locked horns on several occasions but she was a professional and refused to let it effect efficient running of the ship. We weren’t friends but if there was a problem she always brought it to me dutifully following the chain of command.

“He must eat and drink!” I snapped aware of the eyes on me. “He wasn’t an android.”

“The cooks were the first ones I questioned,” Ocynca said. “I was discrete.”

“Vorra?” I asked, somebody must have found something. Marsha wanted to drop into normal space and message Com Ops. I was against it. I hadn’t wanted to play our hand too early.

“I may have something?” she said, that got everyone’s attention. “I’m not sure.” She paused. “Using a Terran term it’s a shot long?”

“The term is a long shot but go on Vorra.”

“I grew desperate so I started to look into aspiration levels.”

I gave Vorra my best blank stare. I have never been very good where it came to techie things. “Aspiration levels?”

“Breathing,” Marsha explained to me.

“Oh yes,” I replied looking shame faced. A chuckle rippled around the table.

“I noticed a increase of CO2 and a decrease of O2 in one of the storerooms.”

“Go on?” I was intrigued.

“The odd thing when I checked the sensor logs I couldn’t get access to that section.”

“I gave you all the access I could,” Marsha told her directly.

“That’s what got me thinking so I thought about running it past you. But you called this meeting.”

Marsha turned on the terminal. “Send me your data.”

“Transferred captain,” Vorra replied touching the screen on the datapad in her hands.

Marsha stared at the screen for several minutes with everyone else waiting silently. Suddenly she thumped the table hard. “My ship damn it!”

I glanced to the squad. “Gear up full armour and weapons LT.” We were going into an unknown situation.

“Yes ma’am,” he replied sounding authoritative.

Marsha looked up at me her eyes narrowing. “I hope that doesn’t include you!”

“It does,” I told her. “I am your XO or have you forgotten. Do you want me to quote the regs?”

Her stare hardened but I wasn’t about to give in. Finally she took a deep breath. “Stay safe.”

“Likewise,” I replied and added. “Evacuate any areas above and below it. Then seal all bulkheads.” I glanced across to Vorra. “Location?”

“Storage room 3b-17.”

“Squad gear up and meet me there.”

The corridor was wider than normal I guess it had to be to truck stores to the storage areas. The floor was remarkably clean for an area not supposed to see much through traffic. I glanced at the datapad in my hands 3b-17 was supposed to house redundant equipment. I gestured to the squad to spread out and ready weapons. Slowly we edged towards the offending door. I signalled to the squad to take position. We had to do this silent we didn’t want to tip anyone there that we were outside from our comms signals. This was the type of operation Marines trained for. They were the precision while the GF was the sledgehammer. I punched in the code on the door not easy with gauntleted fingers. Nothing happened. I gestured to Vorra. She nodded and took over from me. After fifteen minutes I began to regret not bringing in cutting gear. I broke comms silence all hope of a surprise had gone out the window. “Problems?”

“Not now,” Vorra replied as the door slid open.

I peered around the door edge there were several shelves and a few boxes. After all that tension it sure was a downer. “Damn it I thought we had it!” I could hear the others muttering in the background. I stepped into the room feeling something odd about it. “Vorra you have the schematics for this room?”

Silently she handed me her datapad. The image on the screen showed larger dimensions than I was currently seeing.

“There’s something wrong here,” I signalled the squad to back off. Slowly I reached out to touch the nearest shelf. My hand went straight through the shelf as if it wasn’t there. “Hologram!” I barked out. “Stay frosty I’m going through.” Something like a hologram on this scale would have a powerful energy signature yet I was reading nothing. It was as if someone had taken Camelia’s holosuit and made a larger version of it. I took a deep breath and stepped through the hologram and stopped staring hard at the scene that confronted me. I hadn’t known what to expect but I didn’t expect to see what I was seeing. Floor to ceiling was crammed with crates of stores enough for a person to survive on for months. From my position I could see a camp bed and desk with a terminal. On the back wall was a bank of monitors accessing a number of sections of the ship including the corridor we had been in. There was no way we could have sneaked up on this person. I knew Marsha would blow her top seeing this as an insult to her heritage. I called the squad in.

“Hell’s this will take us hours to search through it all,” Steve commented.

“Scan everything before you touch it, it may be trapped.”

“Bacare, Kriaeusus standard sweep I wanted everything recorded,” Steve told them.

“Me LT?” Vorra asked.

“See what you can do with that terminal once we know it’s clean?”

“Aye sir!” She saluted and made her way to the terminal.

I tried the comms link and couldn’t get a signal. Whoever it was had the room shielded. This was some sophisticated tech. I didn’t like the way my thoughts were going. The only people in the Confederacy with the capabilities involve to set up an operation on this scale was Com Ops. The thought that Com Ops had tried to kill me brought out a mammoth headache. All our communications went through Com Ops including any intelligence reports. I couldn’t believe the whole of Com Ops was tainted but the signs were indicating someone with high level security had instigated this. “LT.”

“Ma’am?”

“Can’t get a comms signal in here. I’ll try and get a signal outside.

I hurried into the corridor and tried again this time it worked.

“Yes!” Marsha sounded angry.

Quickly I explained what we had found feeling my anger begin to match hers. Any calmness I had exhibited earlier faded suddenly I had the urge to punch something hard.

“We’ll drop into normal space and inform Com Ops.”

“No wait!” I blurted out. “Com Ops may involved!”

She cut the signal off.

“Damn!” I swore. “LT,” I shouted through the door.

“Ma’am?”

“Keep a tight lid on this! I’m going to talk to the captain.”

“Aye ma’am.”

I called Marsha again. “Marsha meet me in the briefing room in twenty minutes we need to talk.” I had an idea but it wasn’t the best on my ideas. My next call was to Shawna. “Shawna you heard that? I need you there to.”

“See you there Sandra!” She sounded concerned and I didn’t blame her.

Quickly I headed to the squad quarters and stripped out of my armour.

The briefing room was empty when I entered. I had got here ahead of Marsha. Although I started to feel ill I had no choice but to carry on. That was if she was coming. I headed to the end of the room and pressed the button that recessed the table and benches into the floor. I felt better as I pulled off my boots and stood ready. I knew enough about Valkyrie thinking to know I had to do this. The door slid open and Marsha and Shawna hurried in. Of anything my biggest regret was involving Shawna she had to understand. They both stopped and stared, of the two of them I saw understanding in Marsha’s eyes.

“Shawna wait outside the door,” I ordered her.

“Sandra, what’s going on?” she was reluctant to obey.

“That’s an order!”

“Marsha?” Shawna pleaded with her.

“Please Shawna do as Sandra says.”

“Yes Marsha.” She shot me a look of pure venom.

I breathed a sigh of relief once Shawna had gone. “You and I are going to have a talk.”

“About what!”

“The reason you aren’t going to drop out of hyperspace and call Com Ops.”

“Oh yes!” Marsha stiffened her fists clenched. “I am the captain. This is my ship!”

“If you win you get to drop out of hyperspace. Although I do think that will be a bad move.”

“And what would you have me do?” I saw her fists tighten.

“If I win we carry on. I don’t want to give those responsible time to make an excuse or work out another attack. What they don’t know they’ll have to guess and hopefully give us time to find them and stop them.”

“And this?” Marsha gestured to the mat.

“You need this as much as I do.”

I took up a fighting stance my feet slightly apart and my fists raised. She stepped close to me I threw clumsy swing in her direction. I needed to provoke her into fighting. I could see she was reluctant to take me on.

“Have it your way!” she scowled but her eyes were alight. I guess her Valkyrie blood was getting the better of her. She stripped down and launched her attack.

I was ready, unlike before I knew what was going to happen. Quickly I side stepped her punch grabbing her arm as it whistled past my face. I twisted it and threw her hard. She flipped twisting in the air to land of her feet. Immediately she counterattacked aiming a series of punches to my head and abdomen. I barely avoided her flurry of blows. I took a risk and stepped close elbowing her in her face. It barely fazed her. I was too close and she used her superior height and weight to throw me to the floor. I rolled as her foot descended had it connected it would have numbed my hip. I took a chance and scissor kicked out. She folded over my foot and gasped. We fought on I lost all track of time. Even though Doc Brown had given me a bill of health I was rapidly tiring. I wasn’t going to last much longer. With one last effort I threw Marsha to mat my legs folded and I collapsed falling to the mat beside her sweat stinging my eyes and aching from bruises all over.

“I win!” I gasped my lungs were burning.

Marsha began to laugh. “No I win!”

“You know that you are both idiots!” Shawna growled.

“Shawna I told you to wait outside!” I looked up seeing her standing by the door she didn’t look all that pleased. My lungs began to hurt worse.

“I couldn’t do it. Two of my best friends were fighting I couldn’t stand by and let you kill each other.”

“We weren’t going to kill each other,” Marsha assured her. “We needed the exercise.”

She sat up and regarded me lying beside her. “So XO explain why I should do as you ask?”

“Because someone in Com Ops is responsible.” I wasn’t feeling good and the room was staring to blur. My vision receded further and the pain in my chest increased. Marsha sounded distant and I was hard pressed to make out her words every breath came out as a gasp. Somewhat displaced from reality I felt a hand shake my shoulder.

“Sandra!” the distant voice called. “Sandra!” I vaguely heard the words. “Crash team to the briefing room.”

Darkness rushed to greet me.

I woke with an oxygen mask on my face in the too familiar environs of the medbay. Doc Brown was leaning over me one eye in the monitor above my head.

“I don’t know how I ended up with two Valkyrie?” he muttered under his breath adding louder. “Stubborn idiots. Had I known the stupid stunt you pulled I would have confined you to bed.”

I winced at that but his next words chilled me further.

“Captain she’s awake!”

I turned my head to see Marsha standing there. She leaned over and brushed her hand over my hair. “You had me worried.” Was all she said.

“I didn’t think that would happen.” I had to be truthful. What worried me more was that she had jumped out of hyperspace and called Com Ops. Until I knew what was going on with them I had to class them as an enemy. It hurt to think that way I knew most of the senior officers in Com Ops and thinking that one of them was a traitor hurt my beleaguered brain.

“I’ve reviewed everything we found.” She scowled her free hand rested lightly against my shoulder while her other continued to stroke my hair.

I wasn’t going to get into that again. I had steered her in Shawna’s direction and that one drunken night was a mistake. I liked Marsha as a friend but nothing further. She stopped stoking my hair and stared deeply into my eyes her arms falling to her side. “I’m not being fair on Shawna am I?” she admitted to herself. “I hate to say it Sandra but you were right,” she said changing subjects. “That bastard even had our scuttle codes.”

I felt a chill race up my back. Scuttle codes was a captain’s last resort after all else had failed and the ship was in danger of falling into enemy hands. They had been put in years ago during our frequent clashes with the Orsini. The Orsini had a habit to capturing equipment and turning it on it original owners. I had seen that first hand on Anoxi when they turned captured MRECV on us. I had watched helpless as I saw troops torn apart by missile barrages. Then battle rage had overwhelmed me and took on one head on. That was the day I earned my second Confederacy Star and my greatest shame. I hadn’t done it for bravery I just wanted revenge for my father’s death.

Marsha glanced at Doc Brown. “Tell her what you found about the body?”

Doc Brown nodded thoughtfully. “The body? Yes I traced that to Davenport.”

“That’s a known ATL stronghold!” I blurted out. Davenport was one of eleven original colony worlds that had broken away from the empire and had formed the Confederacy. “They’ve never been that ambitious!” The ATL or Anti-Terran League had always been a minor irritant although the name was a but of a misnomer since nearly everyone in the league was human.

“There was a strong resurgence during the war with the Terrans,” Marsha told me.

“That wasn’t our fault.” I winced at that. I wondered where my loyalties had got so mixed up.

Marsha continued as if she hadn’t heard my outburst. “A lot of ATL affiliated news feeds directed their ire at the Empire and you in particular.”

“Why me?” I protested. It wasn’t like I had a choice at the time I had my orders.

“They say you betrayed the Confederacy.”

That shocked me more than anything else. “I’m no traitor! Com Ops knew this all along. They ordered me to Earth.” I began to see things from Camelia’s perspective. She knew I would get upset over this and she had shielded me from myself. She could have at least warned me about it but why did she have to go to the lengths she had to protect me.

“I do know,” Marsha told me. “I was there.”

“Is this because Com Ops wants to keep the Rhosani threat a secret?” I could understand the need to stop a mass panic but why try to kill me that didn’t make sense. I know I was clutching at straws another of those Terran expressions I’d picked up. I couldn’t understand what was going on.

“Not to my knowledge. There have been many more saying you aren’t. General Pitney and Admiral Prmi are foremost amongst them. The most vocal has been General Osward of the 43rd GF.”

I was a bit surprised about Admiral Prmi that wasn’t the impression I got from our last meeting. He had seemed very reluctant to involve me on the mission. The very mission had changed my life. I wasn’t sure if it was for the better but I was stuck with it. General Pitney had been a friend of my father’s. As for Osward he was my CO when I with the 43rd.

“Osward?”

Marsha grimaced. “He been trying to get you reinstated in the 43rd.”

That was good to hear but Marsha was holding something back. “And you?” I asked her directly.

“Want you in Special Operations you’ve proven yourself on Anwa Padak and Tate’s world. I forwarded a recommendation myself while you were wounded before you went to Melanos.”

“And?”

“They said they’ve taken it under consideration.”

“Why Marsha, I’m practically a Terran now?”

“Because they need you.” She nodded to Doc Brown. “We need you.”

I wanted to say more but my chest started hurting again. I lay back trying to control my breathing.

“Why don’t you take a break captain you have a ship to run and I have a patient in need.” He shooed her away I had never seen a Valkyrie act so compliant. “My medbay my rules,” Doc brown said to my unspoken question. “Hold still.”

I felt a sharp jab in my arm. “Be careful!” I protested.

“It only a hypo,” he replied. “You have a serious infection in your lungs.”

“How, I’ve had my immuno jabs when I came aboard?”

“The neurotoxin screwed up your body chemistry and I have been trying to readjust that. For a while you be prone to illness. As such you are confined to medbay until I’m satisfied you aren’t going to get sick again.”

Immuno injections were the miracle of modern medicine. They could prevent the occurrences of nearly all diseases although there were few it had no effect on. I lay back it looked as if I was here for the long haul. With that though in mind I lay back in bed and drifted off to sleep I hadn’t anything better to do.