Katadromiko 2, unknown location
Bache had set a quiet alarm for the middle of the ship’s night period and slipped out of bed as soon as it woke him. He crept into his main room and peeked across to the guard’s station across the hall. He didn’t really have to check, you could probably hear the guards snoring from the next system. Once he confirmed it was the guard making the racket and not a Dasonian tractor, he stepped over to his entertainment keyboard and touched his wrist to its receiver node.
Many years ago, Bache’s father had been on Paradeisos and negotiated a little secret deal for a couple of the Theo-designed organic dermal data chips, giving one to his son. Although technically illegal, they were almost impossible to detect and any standard scans would fail to find it hidden under the skin. It had already proved invaluable and had saved Bache’s life on more than one occasion.
A menu opened up, enabling him to quickly run through the ship’s systems. Finding the listings for security station 8, he shut down the door field on cell 3 and exited the menu hopefully before his electronic intrusion could be detected.
The guard was still sawing wood as he crept past, silently exited the station and headed directly for the nearest tube station. He had expected the ship to be quiet at this hour and was able to get to the quartermaster’s deck in a little under fifteen minutes. Keeping his head down from the cameras, he was pleased to see the storerooms were deserted. Again using his dermal chip, he let himself in and headed directly for the military section. Selecting everything he wanted and putting it on, he was about to leave when he had a thought. Searching for and finding a decent-sized backpack, he went back down the lines of shelving and picked another identical uniform and stuffed it in the pack. The sizes he had to guess, but knowing the recipient well, he didn’t think he’d be too far out.
Retracing his steps to the tube, the next part of his plan wasn’t a given. He arrived at the hangar where they’d left the gunship and peeked through the airlock porthole. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw it was still there and even the outer airlock was still open.
The hangar unfortunately wasn’t deserted. A crew of mechanics were working the late shift on a freighter and all turned to look in his direction as he cycled through the airlock.
This was going to be the first test for his new marine officer’s kit. He’d deliberately chosen a set of basic operational armour as this came with a helmet that obscured most of your face, which was now a real necessity as he’d worked with a couple of these guys before.
‘Something you need, sir?’ asked the one who must have been in charge as he had clean overalls and was standing back with a tablet.
‘Captain’s orders—sent to search the gunship over there,’ he said, changing his voice down an octave and striding past them as if he didn’t have a care what they thought.
‘Oh, that’s a relief,’ the mechanic said, grinning. ‘I thought we’d done something wrong.’
Bache strode purposefully over to the gunship and entered. His and Clunk’s weapons were where they’d left them. He checked they were both set to a low stun and stuffed one into the backpack. He waited a few minutes before running the gauntlet past the nosey mechanics and quickly headed out the hangar back to the tube.
The next part of his plan was the most dangerous and had several ways for it to go spectacularly wrong.
As the tube train reached his next destination, he took a few deep breaths, exited the carriage and walked resolutely towards security station 3, hoping to hell his target hadn’t been moved since he checked the detention logs.
Relieved to see, as with his security station, just the one guard on duty—only this one was awake. He entered, made sure he closed the door firmly and strode over to the desk.
‘Captain wants to see the prisoner on the bridge,’ he said, firmly.
The guard eyed him suspiciously and raised his eyebrows.
‘Does he now?’ the guard scoffed. ‘Considering the captain only left here a few minutes ago and it’s the middle of the night, tells me that might not be entirely true.’
Bache saw his hand move across the desk and down, but before the smug guard could press the panic button that Bache knew was there, he stunned him with a shot to the chest. He collapsed backwards, his chair on wheels scooted out from under him and crashed noisily into the back wall.
‘Shit,’ said Bache, glancing over his shoulder and hoping no one was walking past the station as that happened. He jumped as a voice boomed at him from his left-hand side.
‘Could you make any more bloody noise, Loftt?’ said Whipper, standing just the other side of his cell door field. ‘Would you mind turning this fucking thing off?’ he added, running his eyes around the frame of his door.
‘Sorry, Captain,’ said Bache, trotting around the desk and switching the field off and dragging the guard’s unconscious body over to the cell as Whipper stepped out.
‘Put this on,’ he said, unpacking the other light armour suit from the backpack.
‘A lieutenant,’ Whipper sneered, as he saw the suit’s rank. ‘D’you mean I have to be an equal rank to you?’
‘I was in a bit of a hurry,’ said Bache. ‘Think yourself lucky I didn’t grab a corporal’s kit.’
He got a glare as the captain donned the uniform.
‘You’re welcome,’ said Bache, as he reset the cell door field so the guard couldn’t raise the alarm.
‘Did you bring one for the first officer?’ he asked, pointing towards another of the cells.
Bache shook his head, as they both stared at an empty doorway.
‘Dumb-arse could sleep through a nuclear exchange,’ said Whipper. ‘We’ll come back for him later.’
‘What’s first on the agenda, boss?’ Bache asked.
‘The bow ROR,’ he said, squeezing his helmet on. ‘Couldn’t you find a smaller hat for ancients’ sake?’
‘Sorry—I didn’t know you had such a big head.’ Bache couldn’t see the captain’s eyes, but he knew he was getting glared at. ‘A remote operations room?’ he questioned, changing the subject quickly. ‘Isn’t that the first place she’ll look?’
‘There are circumstances at play presently that you’re not a party too,’ said Whipper.
‘Would that have something to do with the chief engineer’s visit not so long ago?’
‘The less you know, the better for you when all this comes out in an enquiry one day.’
‘At a guess, she’s playing both sides?’
‘No comment—come on,’ he said, striding towards the door.
‘Did you know Desulet is involved?’
The captain stopped dead and turned to face Bache.
‘And how do you know that?’
Bache explained what he and Clunk had witnessed on Berge.
‘You’re absolutely sure it was him?’ said Whipper.
Bache nodded. ‘One hundred percent.’
‘Do you have video evidence?’
‘On the gunship.’
‘And it’s still in one piece and not in bits on some red katapato planet somewhere?’
‘No, it’s all in working order and in hangar 41.’
‘It’s a miracle,’ Whipper muttered, rubbing his chin in thought. ‘We need to go there first and retrieve it.’
‘No need, boss,’ Bache said. ‘I’ve already sent the footage to the President.’
‘What?—when in the name of the ancients did you do that?’
‘A few hours ago.’
‘But the communications officer would’ve intercepted it.’
‘Not if it was hidden inside an array sweep that passed over a communications satellite somewhere,’ said Bache.
‘You’re kidding.’
Whipper stared at Bache for a moment, his expression hidden behind the helmet visor. Finally, after a moment of silence he looked down and rubbed the inside of his wrist before whispering a name.
‘Tirexian Loftt.’
‘My father’s got nothing to do with this,’ said Bache, the surprise evident in his voice at the mention of his dad’s name.
‘He gave you a Theo chip too, didn’t he?’
Bache opened his eyes wide.
‘You have one too?’ he asked.
‘I was wondering how you got out of your cell so easily,’ said Whipper, shaking his head. ‘You wait till I see him.’