Felix
“There are almost a hundred moons in this system, and only half of them are even developed,” Felix said. “Why did this Facilitator go to the trouble of building a space station? It’s not like there’s a shortage of available real estate.”
“Paranoia,” Ggorgos said. “Desire to control every aspect of the environment. Long-term security, too. It’s not uncommon for polities to retroactively declare that any natural object in a given system is its sovereign territory, which doesn’t go well for the people already living there.”
“I suppose if you can afford it, building your own station is worth it for the peace of mind.” Felix was beginning to relax a bit around Ggorgos, and Ggorgos, for her part, had become a bit more talkative and slightly less intense since they’d reached the Rantula system. She’s just driven , he’d decided. Now that they had a lead to pursue, Ggorgos had a place to direct her dark energies, rather than letting them spill over onto everyone else.
They’d received permission to dock their shuttle at the Facilitator’s station, which saved them the trouble of insisting with threats of missiles and so forth. That was good. Making too much noise would draw the attention of the local authorities, such as they were. The Rantula system was ostensibly independent, a loose affinity group of moons with a distinct commercial lean toward “specialty goods” – things that could be produced here and exported elsewhere, unencumbered by pesky local regulations. The rumor was that the Hylar supported the system on an off-the-books basis, but there was also a nearby wormhole that led to Letnev-controlled space, so maybe they had a hand in things here, too.
The Facilitator didn’t provide specialty goods; they provided specialty services. “Concierge to the stars,” Felix muttered. “They say the Facilitator can get anything, for a price.”
“It’s a sound business model,” Ggorgos rumbled. “If there’s something you can’t get, you simply claim the client can’t afford it, and your mystique remains undiluted.”
Only Felix and Ggorgos were on board the shuttle, as far as the Facilitator knew. Calred had wanted to come, expressing an unusual degree of eagerness to do field work. He was usually happy to stay on the ship, but he said after serving as a transport service for Jhuri, he was eager to do something more interesting. Felix had to leave Calred behind, though. If he’d come along, that would have left the Temerarious uncrewed… since Tib Pelta was secretly on board the shuttle, too, ready to slip unseen and stealthily through the station to search for signs of their rogue Hacan.
“The station looks like a sort of black crystal knife, doesn’t it?” Felix enhanced the view of the Facilitator’s facility as they approached. The station was a simple structure: a central spike, with the pointed end at the bottom (relative to their position), with a wider disc surrounded by windows near the top. The whole structure was oddly faceted and threw off counterintuitive sparkles in the illumination of the star, the planet, the nearby moons, and even the shuttle’s lights.
Ggorgos grunted. “Like the ceremonial daggers your ancestors used to cut out the hearts of sacrificial victims.”
“My ancestors?” Felix said. “That doesn’t sound like my ancestors. I’m sure my ancestors were lovely. Wait. Why do you have conversational knowledge of ancient human murder techniques?” Actually, upon reflection, that didn’t really surprise him.
“I used to be a xeno-anthropologist,” Ggorgos said.
That did surprise him. “Why did you go into that line of work?”
“I sought to refine the Kingdom’s diplomatic efforts by developing a deeper understanding of the alien cultures we dealt with.”
“Really. If you don’t mind me asking, how did you, ah… transition from that field of study into your current line of work?”
“I had several difficult interactions with the alien cultures I studied,” Ggorgos said. “Those experiences altered my worldview. Now I pursue diplomacy by other means.”
“I see.” Felix looked at her scars, and wondered what other marks might be hidden beneath her carapace. That kind of trauma would have altered his worldview, too.
The station’s docking system sent approach instructions, which the shuttle’s computer handled more or less automatically. They approached the center of the spike, where a forcefield wall covered a small hangar bay. The station wasn’t immense, but it was pretty big for something owned by a private individual. Of course, it was possible the Facilitator was some kind of consortium. No one really knew.
The forcefield shifted to admit them, and then the shuttle settled to the floor inside. A Rokha wearing a white dress with gold cuffs – a striking look against her void-black fur – approached, arms raised in welcome, as Felix and Ggorgos descended the ramp. Felix looked around, and there was the Naaz, a tiny four-armed creature zipping around on a small hovering platform. The Rokha and Naaz species were closely intertwined, almost symbiotic; they shared a homeworld, and even when they went abroad in the galaxy, you seldom saw one without the other.
The Rokha bowed. “Honored guests. I am Makena.” She gestured to the Naaz. “This is my partner, Craic.”
The Naaz zipped past them – Ggorgos swiveled to keep an eye on her – and then said, in a buzzing voice, “We did not realize you were bringing a third guest. Hello, friend Yssaril.”
Felix managed not to wince. The little Naaz must have some kind of tech that enabled her to see through the natural camouflage of Tib’s people.
Tib shimmered into visibility and stepped forward to stand beside the others. “This is my first officer,” Felix said. “She decided to come along at the last minute.”
“All are welcome!” Makena said. “Come. The Facilitator has only a brief window open in their schedule, but when they heard both the Mentak Coalition and the Xxcha Kingdom were requesting an audience, how could they possibly refuse?”
“Very civic-minded,” Felix said. Ggorgos grunted, and Tib snorted.
“Please, follow Craic.”
As they walked through the hangar, Felix was keenly aware that they were being led by an alien floating in what might very well be a miniature mobile weapons platform, while there was an immense humanoid panther at their backs. “I’m surprised you didn’t check us for weapons,” Felix said.
“We politely asked you not to bring any,” Makena said. “Surely we can trust you?”
“Of course,” Felix said. “I just wouldn’t expect you to rely on trust.”
“I am not worried overmuch for my own safety,” Makena said. “And the Facilitator is in no danger from any of you.”
While it stung a bit to be dismissed as a threat, Felix had to admit that the Facilitator had something of a home court advantage here.
They were led to a rather nice lift, all dim lights and glittering black walls. “What is the station made of, if you don’t mind me asking?” Felix said as they ascended. “I’ve never seen material like this before.”
“Something developed by the Gashlai,” Makena said.
“They use this material as armor on their War Suns,” Craic added.
“The Facilitator helped the Embers with a… tricky negotiation… and this was the reward they offered,” Makena said. “I gather it’s the only significant quantity of the material in existence outside Gashlai space.”
“I’m surprised people aren’t constantly trying to chip off samples to take home for analysis,” Felix said.
“That would be rude,” Makena said. “Our clients are never rude to the Facilitator.”
“It’s also rather resistant to chipping,” Craic said.
The elevator doors opened, and they were ushered into a round, windowless room, completely empty except for a chest-high (to Felix) pillar of the same glittering, faceted material. “The Facilitator will see you now,” Makena said.
Felix looked around. “Will we see the Facilitator?”
Makena and Craic didn’t answer, but simply withdrew to the elevator. The doors closed behind them.
“The walls are full of scanners,” Ggorgos said, peering around through her artificial eye. “That pillar is entirely opaque to my sensors, though.”
The pillar said, “Let a mysterious entity keep a few secrets, would you?” The voice was soothing and neutral, neither low nor high, and clearly artificial.
“Where are you transmitting from?” Ggorgos said.
“No preliminary niceties? All right. It’s hard to say where I’m transmitting from. The signal bounces around a bit, and I’m always on the move. It’s so hard to keep track. If you’ll allow me the niceties: welcome, Ggorgos Skal of the Kingdom of Xxcha, and Captain Duval and First Officer Pelta of the Mentak Coalition. I have had no contact with Terrak since the commission of that heinous crime.”
“How did you know why we were here?” Felix said.
“Knowing things is half my business, captain. In this case, though, I didn’t even require informants, just deduction. You’re an international delegation of military personnel, dispatched from a space station where a murder was committed by one of my known associates. I was expecting you sooner.”
Ggorgos said, “Did you help arrange Terrak’s escape?” Her voice was flat, without particular menace, which was somehow even more menacing than a roar would have been.
“I did not.”
Felix sighed. “If you knew we were coming, and knew you had nothing of value to tell us, you might have saved us the trouble of actually coming all this way.”
“You will tell us everything you know,” Ggorgos said. “Your station is impressively armored, but you made the mistake of letting me inside it. And–”
“And your carapace is full of drones loaded with horrifying quantities of explosives, yes, I know.”
Ggorgos seemed taken aback. “You should not be able to scan beyond the surface of my shell.”
“I can’t, but I can scan information archives. You were once captured on a Letnev science colony, thoroughly searched, and taken to their secure facility, which promptly exploded. You walked out of the wreckage. You’ve done the same trick a few other times. Given the patterns of the explosions I’ve studied, there were multiple ignition points, and in most of those cases you didn’t have time to place multiple bombs yourself, so: drones. Threatening me is silly. If you disrupt my operations, so many powerful people will be very unhappy with you. Anyway, it’s unnecessary. I am susceptible to bribes, not threats.”
Just like Jhuri said. “So, you do have useful information?” Felix said.
“I do. You have identified two known associates of Terrak’s in this system: myself, and an agricultural importer-exporter, correct?”
“You answer our questions,” Ggorgos said. “You don’t get to–”
“Yes,” Felix said. Ggorgos glared at him. “That’s right. I assume you know something we don’t?”
“There is a third associate.”
“Tell us who.” Ggorgos was vibrating, with rage or eagerness or probably some combination of the two.
“If I give you the information you need to find this associate, what will you give me in return?”
“If you obstruct the lawful investigation of the murder of a member of the Xxcha Kingdom–”
Felix rubbed his forehead. “Ggorgos, a word?” He turned his back on the pillar, and Ggorgos glared before stepping up beside him.
“There’s no privacy here, Duval. Why are you turning your back on a pedestal with a speaker inside it?”
“For my own psychological comfort, Ggorgos. This is a situation that requires finesse, and possibly a bit of charm, and the soft skills of an equitable negotiation. Perhaps you should let me handle things?”
“Handle them swiftly .” Ggorgos stomped across the room to stand by Tib Pelta, who was staring off into space, looking bored, which probably meant she was thinking hard.
Felix turned and faced the pillar. “Facilitator. What would you like in exchange for this information?”
“I’m so pleased you asked!” the Facilitator said. “I’d love to have the full unredacted dossier on the Thales affair.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Felix lied. “Pick something else.”
“That’s all I want that you can offer. Unless… you’d like to offer me a favor?”
“What kind of favor?”
“Mmmm… for this information… a small favor. Nothing that would compromise your mission, threaten your life, or endanger the interests of the Mentak Coalition.”
“I am going to need something more specific than that, Facilitator.”
“We’re talking about you taking a package from one place to another and making sure no one looks at the contents, including yourself. That sort of thing. You wouldn’t even have to go very far out of your way. A secure courier with military credentials is a useful thing to have.”
Well, if it was only smuggling, that was fine. “Agreed. Who’s the third associate?”
“I am not entirely sure.”
“Bombs,” Ggorgos said in a voice like lead. “I have so many bombs.”
Felix winced. He wouldn’t have offered a threat of mass destruction at this juncture, but Ggorgos clearly had her own way of doing things.
“Please, don’t be so dramatic,” the Facilitator said. “The vagueness of my information is the reason why you only had to offer me a small favor. Here’s what I know. Terrak tried to cover his tracks, but he often went to Huntsman’s Moon when he visited the system. He visited an industrial area on the outskirts of the northern city, but I can’t narrow his destination down beyond a two-kilometer radius. It’s hard to track someone on foot in such a desolate neighborhood, and since no one was paying me to spy on Terrak, I didn’t allocate very many resources to the problem. There are half a dozen plausible groups or individuals in that area he could have been meeting with – various engineers and scientists doing work that would be frowned upon in more closely regulated parts of the galaxy.”
“That’s all you know?” Felix had been hoping for something more. The exact location where Terrak was hiding out, and the details of any security he might have, and why Amina Azad was involved in all this, and, well, lots of other things, really, in a perfect world.
“I just narrowed your search area from seventy moons to six addresses on one moon. I’d say I know plenty. I can offer more, though: Terrak frequently visited the moon immediately after meeting with the importer-exporter. I have a high degree of certainty that Terrak met this unknown associate through the fruit seller, so if you go ask him –”
“Let’s go,” Ggorgos snapped. “If you have further details, Facilitator, send them to our ship.” She stomped out.
Felix bowed to the central pillar. “A pleasure doing business.”
“One last thing, captain?”
Ggorgos and Tib were on the elevator, and the doors closed when Felix turned back to the pillar. “What’s that?”
“Terrak is probably innocent,” the Facilitator said. “I have run multiple simulations, and my confidence level is around ninety-two percent. Terrak is mildly corrupt, yes, but he’s much smarter than most people realize. Anyone can be a killer, if pushed the wrong way, but it’s highly unlikely Terrak would have committed such a violent crime in such an obvious way.”
“People have psychotic breaks,” Felix said. “There are crimes of passion. It happens all the time.”
“My model accounts for those possibilities, captain. But do people who have psychotic breaks then stage unlikely jailbreaks with the help of unknown associates?”
“If he’s not the killer, then he was framed. Who’d want to do that?” Felix said.
“I have no idea.”
Felix sighed. “I’m just supposed to apprehend Terrak and bring him to justice. The courts can determine his guilt or innocence.”
“If he’s being framed, captain, it’s because someone wants to discredit him, or remove him from the field of play in a game you don’t even know is happening. That means Terrak knows something, or can do something, to disrupt the plans of people who are happy to commit murder. Terrak is frustrating those efforts by going on the run. If he is the victim of a conspiracy, do you think the conspirators will give him the opportunity to testify in court, or even tell his version of events to the authorities? My models suggest he is likely to meet with an accident soon after you apprehend him. What precisely are your orders, captain?”
Felix frowned. “I told you. Apprehension. Terrak won’t come to any harm while he’s in my custody.” There were all sorts of mysteries and uncertainties swirling around this business, but Felix was sure of his own orders and intentions, at least.
“Mmm. Even if you don’t intend to do him harm yourself… can you say the same, with certainty, about everyone else on your crew?”
Felix scowled and, like Ggorgos before him, stomped out of the room in a foul temper.
•••
The fruit seller – a Hacan so physically imposing he made Calred look slight – went flying across the warehouse and crashed into a pile of crates. Wood splintered and broke, and small round green fruits rolled across the warehouse floor. Felix picked one up, took a bite, and frowned. “Sour,” he said, and spat it out.
“It’s a lime , Felix,” Tib said. “I’d think you’d recognize it. You see slices of them on the rim of your glasses all the time.”
“I assumed it was some sort of exotic fruit,” he said. “Since this is an alien fruit warehouse.”
“Limes are alien and exotic to the Hacan.”
“Point,” Felix said. They were standing off to one side while Ggorgos ran the… interrogation, for want of a better word.
Ggorgos advanced on the fruit seller, who stood up, groaning. The Hacan put up his fists, still game to fight, though he was a bit unsteady on his feet. “I will ask you again,” Ggorgos said. “Tell us the identity of Terrak’s other contact.”
“You can’t come into my place of business–”
Ggorgos moved faster than Felix would have expected for someone so heavily armored and shoved the Hacan sprawling back into the crates. Felix wondered if there were cybernetic or chemical enhancements at work. Or… maybe all the Xxcha could move that fast if they wanted to, and simply didn’t bother, since they were generally an easygoing and phlegmatic culture?
“Answer me,” Ggorgos said. Some of the faceted panels of her exocarapace slid open, and small sleek drones rose up, hovering, pointing various nozzles and barrels at the Hacan.
The fruit seller closed his eyes and covered his head. “All right!” he shouted. “It’s a Hylar chemist, her name is Lonrah!”
“Why would Terrak go see a chemist?” Tib said.
“No clue,” Felix said. He was trying to convince himself he didn’t care if Terrak was innocent or guilty – that the issue was outside his mission parameters. Unfortunately, Felix had never been good at staying strictly within mission parameters. “Her name is on the list of possibilities the Facilitator gave us, though.”
“Back to the ship!” Ggorgos said, and headed toward the shuttle.
Felix and Tib walked over to the fruit seller and helped him up. “Sorry about all that,” he said. “You obviously shouldn’t call this chemist and warn her, or my Xxcha colleague will be very unhappy.”
“Who cares about that?!” he bellowed as he rose. “Look what she did to my warehouse! And my employees!”
Felix looked around. There had been a certain amount of… wastage, in terms of smashed crates and pulped fruit. And a couple of the warehouse laborers, who’d attempted to act as ersatz bodyguards, were moaning on the floor by the door, though they didn’t seem irreparably damaged. Felix said, “You can invoice the Mentak Coalition Embassy on Rex for any damage or medical costs. You can pad the invoice by, oh, fifteen percent, and I’ll vouch for its accuracy. All right?”
The fruit seller stood to his full height, nearly a meter taller than Felix, and gazed down at him. He showed his canine teeth. “Twenty percent,” he said.
•••
Back on the Temerarious , they filled Calred in on their adventures, and set a course for Huntsman’s Moon. “Will you let me come for this mission?” Calred asked. “I’ve got a new rifle I haven’t had a chance to point at anyone yet.”
“I’ve had enough field trips for the day,” Tib Pelta said. “I’ll stay on board. Also, I doubt Ggorgos has a tactical plan in mind that would make use of my special abilities. She’s more run-and-gun than stealthy sneaking.”
Ggorgos was standing at the navigation panel, glaring at it, as if doing so would make the ship go faster. “Your security officer may join us,” she said. “His marksmanship record is adequate.”
“Adequate ?” Calred said. He held several fleet records for sharpshooting.
“You have to understand, coming from her, that’s the highest possible praise,” Felix said. “I dream of being adequate.”
“I need to make a call.” Ggorgos left the bridge.
“I should fill Jhuri in on things, too,” Felix said, and headed to his ready room.
•••
“The minister’s autopsy didn’t turn up anything unusual,” Jhuri said.
“Did you expect it to?” Felix said. “I thought, well, big spear through the neck, it all seemed pretty clear.”
“I was troubled by the reports of the victim acting strangely before the murder. I thought there might be something there, but we got nothing from toxicology, and no unusual findings from the pathologist, so… maybe the ambassador was just having an off night. Something strange did happen, though. I was questioning the other guests about Terrak and met a woman from the Federation of Sol who’s known him for years. In our initial interview she told me, very adamantly, that Terrak was never violent, had a wonderful relationship with the victim, and was certainly innocent of the crime.”
“I heard much the same from the Facilitator,” Felix said.
“Let me finish. This woman, Lillith, came back to me a few hours ago and said she had a confession to make. Now she claimed that, actually, things had been terribly strained between Terrak and Qqurant, and they’d had a serious falling out. She didn’t know the details, but said Terrak and Qqurant had gone from friendly to frosty to vicious in recent months. She said she’d overheard arguments between them that included threats of violence. She told me she’d lied earlier because Terrak was an old friend, and she didn’t want to see him in trouble, but that her conscience had been bothering her, and compelled her to come forward with the truth. Her conscience! She’s a trade representative!”
Not a type famed for their ethical inflexibility, Felix thought. Combined with the Facilitator’s claims, it was looking more and more likely that the official narrative about Terrak wasn’t the whole story. “What do you think it means?” Felix said. “Was Terrak framed? Did someone reach out to Lillith, and, what, bribe her to change her story?”
“A murder that brazen and obvious is a truly stupid crime,” Jhuri mused. “And everyone agrees Terrak is anything but stupid. Slightly corrupt, a bit lazy and self-indulgent, but a sharp operator all the same. I don’t know what’s going on, Felix, but I’ll be very interested to hear what Terrak has to say when you get him in custody.”
“Assuming Ggorgos doesn’t shoot him first.”
“See that she doesn’t, Felix. I’ll be in touch if I find out more.” Jhuri cut the connection, and Felix went to prep his gear for their visit to Huntsman’s Moon.