By Other Means (21 page)

He couldn’t pick up any signs of overt tension from either of them, not beyond the normal paranoia he might expect at least, so he assumed that their investigation of the terrorist attack had gone as well as could be expected. With luck they’d be able to wrap things up in the next day or two, sign the treaty, and turn the bow of the Mexico for home.

*****

“Remember, give them time to settle in before you make your move.”

The old Parithalian nodded resolutely, he knew his orders. “We will move on schedule, have no concerns.”

“We are on an alien battleship, surrounded by people who have been killing us for some time, I have
many
concerns and I believe I will keep them until we are done.”

“Of course. I apologize.”

“Do not apologize. Finish your task. It should not have come to this. This is the least likely of all our options to do what we need, but because you failed, it is the only chance we have left open to us.”

The elder Parithalian looked away from his superior, not saying anything.

“If this doesn’t work, everything we’ve done… everything we lost, and are going to lose, will be for nothing.
NOTHING!
” The man screamed, “I don’t know how your Gods deal with failures, but mine are not so forgiving as one might think. So finish your task, and in your last moments pray to your wind gods that this does as we hope… or I swear to my own that I will personally rise up from whatever tortures my fate has for me and
drag
you down into the singular abyss with me. Am I quite clear?”

“Yes, you are.”

“Good. Now wait until the talks are fully underway. Most of the humans will be back to their normal routines then.”

The elder Parithalian nodded his thin head, not saying another word. It wasn’t the time, and it certainly wasn’t the place for any discussion.

His superior just snorted and walked out of the transport and into the Terran ship beyond.

*****

Sorilla watched as the people filtered out of the hangar bay, her eyes remaining locked on the alien ship. There was something about it that was making her feel… wrong, somehow. She just couldn’t work out what it was.

Probably just don’t like being this close to Alliance equipment, let alone have it on another ship that I’ve been assigned to,
she finally decided.

She was far from stupid, and she didn’t like to think of herself as blinded even to her own faults, so Sorilla was well aware that she had… issues with the Alliance. The loss of the Los Angeles had largely been masked by the more immediate threat and deaths of her squad, but over the run of the war she’d taken a few too many of those large and often abstract losses.

Jane Mackay hadn’t been a friend, not exactly, but she’d been something of a distant mentor. The Captain of the Hood had been one of those rare people who not only cared about everyone under her command, but was able to make the whole crew feel it. Her loss, and the loss of the entire command structure of the Hood over Hayden had been a brutal blow.

The loss of Admiral Brooke, however, had almost destroyed a part of Sorilla that she hadn’t even known was there.

One thing she knew, she couldn’t take another hit like that. Not and remain in the military, Sorilla just couldn’t do that again.

She turned her back on the ship, walking toward the main lift area that would bring them all up to the observation spires of the Mexico. She knew that the Captain and Admiral had gone well out of their way to roll out the proverbial red carpet for this particular set of meetings, so she figured she should put in an appearance at least.

It would look odd if she didn’t, even though there was very little she could personally do while they were meeting on the Mexico. Her mission was largely complete anyway, Sorilla had already put together most of her report on potential vulnerabilities in the Alliance political structure. There were at least three worlds within reasonable jump range where enough trouble could be fomented to give the Alliance a real headache and draw considerable assets away from their front line deployments.

If SOLCOM elected to go with any of her recommendations, Sorilla wanted to personally take one of the missions. It would be good to get back to doing the job she had spent her whole career training for, rather than the straight combat missions she’d worked during the war or the Intelligence op she was currently on.

In any case, her part of the current mission was effectively complete, putting in a showing at the meeting would just serve to seal her cover as part of the security detail. There was no point in giving them any free intelligence if she could avoid it, after all.

Sorilla didn’t notice one of the Alliance personnel on the ship behind her staring at her back as the doors closed behind her and she began the run to the observation spire.

*****

“That was her.”

“Leave it be, she’s not our concern.” The elder Parithalian said.

“She murdered our comrades, brothers…”

“And she will die for that, very shortly in fact. Focus on the task,” was the order, “we have an important one to complete, and we must not fail.”

“I won’t fail.”

“Good, then ready the weapon. We are not far from the target location here, but we are not close enough, either. The plans made during the war show that this class of ship has a singularity eight decks beneath us. We will have to get there, and I do not believe the Terrans will be overly anxious to allow that.”

“What they allow is not my concern, the weapon is ready, Master.”

“Then deploy it.”

The diplomats were doing what they did best.

Talking.

Not like normal people either, no that wouldn’t do for a discussion of this high a level, Sorilla mused to herself as she listened. No, they were using double talk, weasel words, and every lawyer speak trick in the book to make themselves completely and utterly impossible to understand.

She had heard it all before, though she had to admit not normally from this close or on this elevated level of the art form that was diplo double speak. Normally she dealt with the slum lords of the diplomatic world, Intelligent assets brokering backroom deals to get weapons into places that weapons weren’t legally supposed to go… occasionally local religious figures who wanted their cut before they would endorse the “people’s movement”, and other forms of filth.

This was respectable, unlike her normal experiences.

She was amused by how many of the words and phrases uttered by such respectable people were variations of those used by the scum she had dealt with most of her adult life. Oh, the threats were more subtle, the language more flowery, but the meaning was the same.

The Alliance and SOLCOM ambassadors were jockeying for position, each trying to prove that they represented the alpha of the neighborhood. The funny thing here was that it was the first time Sorilla had ever been in a room where it seemed that neither side was really certain just who the alpha was.

Usually there was a fairly good idea that both sides acknowledged on that point, even if only tacitly. At first, when Sorilla had walked into the rooms back on the station, she had gone in thinking that SOLCOM was clearly holding the short end of the stick, the Alliance was the clear alpha… however, as she began getting a feel for the alien language… particularly their unspoken cues, she began to realize that they weren’t as sure of that as she was.

That uncertainty on the side of the Alliance was probably what was dragging these talks out as far as they were. Neither side was going for the throat the way they would if they were more confident in their position, despite Sorilla’s advice to the Admiral and Ambassador.

Not that she was an expert, so she couldn’t blame them for not listening to her on the subject.

It did mean that now, after the eighth time of listening to them go over the same section of the proposed treaty, Sorilla was beginning to lose interest in the whole process.

The fact that she was still being plagued by that damned burr in the local gravity wasn’t helping the situation much either.

Her lack of attention abruptly came to a halt as the Mexico’s computers reported a power loss on the lower decks, however, and Sorilla stiffened in her seat as her eyes glowed red with the reports scrolling past her implants.

*****

The entire deck was plunged into total blackness, save for distant showers of sparks from some unshielded systems, sending up a pulse of panic through the majority of the hangar bay’s occupants. In the Alliance ship, however, a calm certainty held sway instead.

“Put your vision enhancers on, it’s time.” The Elder Parithalian said, pulling a bulky pair of goggles over his face.

His team followed suit and soon they were stepping out of the ship and onto the deck of the Terran starship for the first time.

“The access doors are this way, Master,” One of them said, nodding toward the far wall. “The ship appears to be identical in layout to the one captured during the war.

The Elder nodded, thankful for that at least. Most Alliance ships were built similarly in concept, of course, but there were some species who considered every single vessel a work of art. Even they couldn’t find their way around their own ships without considerable effort.

The group moved through the confused Terrans, most of whom were feeling blindly around the darkness, trying to discover why the ship had been plunged into near total blackness. Behind them, on the deck of the Alliance ship, a smoking one shot weapon rested as both the answer to their question and a warning of what was to come.

*****

Sorilla leaned over to where Ruger was sitting, “Power blackout, six decks above and below the landing bay, Sir.”

Ruger scowled, “That’s… oddly specific.”

“Has to be an EMP, sir. A big one.” Sorilla voiced.

“The ship is hardened, Major.”

“Yes, but most of the shielding is in the hull plates,” Sorilla countered, “If you got an EMP
inside
, like in a shuttle?”

Ruger closed his eyes, “Damn it. Is this their plan? Did the Alliance intend…”

“I doubt it, but I think it’s safe to say that they’re security is either a lot worse than we expected, or they’ve been infiltrated by this rebel faction.”

“Same thing,” Ruger growled, “I’m telling the Captain to put the Marines on it.”

“Permission to take a look for myself, Sir?” Sorilla asked, “I’d like one of them alive, if possible.”

Ruger shot her a look, then went pensive for a moment before nodding with a wry smile, “Still on mission, are we, Major?”

Sorilla stood up, “I was told to look for cracks in the Alliance structure, Sir. This is one hell of a crack.”

“Just keep it from splitting
us
wide open. Go.”

“Yes sir.” Sorilla said before she turned and walked calmly out of the room.

*****

“Where is she going?”Sienele asked, scowling as the Terran Sentinel walked out. Her speed and body language seemed calm, but there was something off about it all the same.

Kriss grunted, “I’m not sure, but we have an issue ourselves, Sir.”

“What is it?”

“I’ve lost comms with the ship.”

Sienele frowned, “Perhaps the Terran ship is interfering…”

“No.” Kriss said definitively, “We were in contact until a few moments ago.”

Sienele considered that, his mind going over what just happened, and then he froze.

“Sentinel Kriss…”

“Yes?”

“I require that you return to the ship, re-establish communications, and
secure
it until these discussions are complete.” He ordered firmly.

“Secure it? You think the Terrans…”

“No, I do not.” Sienele said sharply, “Just go. Contact me as soon as you’ve done as I bade.”

“As you order.” Kriss said, getting up. He glanced to the Terran guards at the door, “They will have me watched, of course.”

“If what I suspect is true, they’ll not let you leave alone at all. That, however, doesn’t matter. Go.”

Kriss clapped his arm over his chest and retreated from the table, heading for the door of the large observation deck.

*****

Sorilla met a squad of Marines In the lift on Deck 30, ten decks above the blackout zone. They were loaded for bear and had active night vision systems, the Colonel in charge offered her one. Sorilla shook her head, turning it down.

“The decks are completely blacked out, Major,” Colonel Krieg told her, “Your passive light amplification systems won’t work there.”

“I have thermal as well,” She answered, “plus you lot are going to be pumping more than enough infrared around for me to see with. You know the mission?”

“Recon the flight deck, secure the alien transport, and determine the cause of the blackout.” Krieg answered, smirking, “not our first rodeo, Major.”

Sorilla nodded, “Let’s do this, then.”

The lift doors closed and they began the drop to the flight deck, taking only seconds to traverse the sixteen decks in between. The doors opened onto blackness, only the lights in the elevator casting any sort of illumination beyond but the deck was so large that they may as well have been candles in the abyss.

“Infrareds on!” Krieg ordered, pulling his goggles down. “Move out.”

The group stepped out into the darkness, letting the doors close behind them. Only a faint green glow could be seen from their night vision systems, and a fainter glow from Sorilla’s own eyes as she activated her own passive implants.

The flight deck was enormous, it had to be to house space craft large and powerful enough to land on a planet and then return to orbit, but the immediate effect was that even with the powerful infrared floodlights carried by the Marines, they couldn’t pierce the cloak of darkness that enveloped the area.

“Alien ship is straight ahead,” Sorilla said, “We should check that first.”

The Colonel nodded, “You lot heard the lady, take it by the numbers. We still don’t know what caused this mess.”

Sorilla, who was examining the scene through her implants as well as her eyes, wasn’t so sure of that.

We’ve got no signs of any EM fields in the entire deck, aside from what we’re carrying. Something blew out every power sources for six decks in either direction. That’s not an accident.