Exploration (2 page)

Cat toggled her fully cloaked internal FTL commlink. '
Admiral... are you seeing this?
'

In her mind,
she heard Admiral Faragon's reply from the Bridge of the
GCP Yorktown
. "Sure are. Jason and Ken both think it looks like a crab of some sort
.
”

Jason was Caption Jason Ruck, the new captain of the
Yorktown
. Ken was Cat's close friend, pastor, and former First Officer, Commander Ken Kirkland.

'
I couldn't agree more. There is an algae and salt smell. My guess is we are dealing with an aquatic species. Can I assume my orders stand?'

"
Absolutely
. 
We need to know what is happening. We'll monitor your ocular and auditory feeds, no matter where you jump in this universe. As soon as you see a star pattern we'll calculate your location.  The sooner we can figure out where our people are going, and why they are being taken, the sooner we can put a stop to it.
"

'
Understood, Sir. I may be put in a position where I need to establish my loyalties.
'

Admiral Faragon looked at Captain Ruck who was sitting in the command chair of the
Yorktown
. Jason looked pointedly at the rest of the Bridge staff. The Admiral nodded and said, "Captain, you and Ken stay; otherwise, clear the Bridge."

Captain Ruck stood up and took one step forward so his voice would carry better. "YOU HEARD THE ADMIRAL! CLEAR THE BRIDGE. MOVE IT! MOVE IT! MOVE IT!"

When the doors closed behind the last member of the dismissed Bridge crew, the Admiral addressed the ship's AI. "Cal, lock and restrict all recordings. Please confirm request."

"
All recordings are locked and restricted Admiral.
"

"Thank you Cal." The Admiral nodded to Ken and Jason. Gentlemen... What I'm about to say stays in this room. Understood?"

"Yes, Sir!" they both echoed.

"Cat, by order of the GCP Admiralty Board, effective this date, you are promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral. You are authorized, at your discretion, to act in the best interest of the Coalition without regard to the letter of the law; if,
in your estimation, the greater good is served. This grant shall remain in effect until it is revoked by a majority vote of the Admiralty Board or myself. Is that understood?"

'Sir, yes, Sir!'

Cat watched the metallic crab shuffle up the main aisle of the shuttle. Her cybernetic D'lralu friend Commander Ben, who had volunteered to serve as security for Cat's trip to the
penal colony, stood at the front of the shuttle with a plasma rifle called a 'pointer' held ready. His teeth were bared, and Cat knew instinctively that his cultural interface was in full D'lralu mode. This was no smile.

Their visitor was obviously familiar with GCP rank because he addressed Ben as commander after seeing the three pips on his collar.

"I trust you will not be using that weapon Commander. My suit is quite impervious to most projectile weapons as well as laser and plasma beams. I might also add that my suit is equipped with a number of offensive weapons that you would be well advised not to test."

Without warning, one of the pincer legs shot forward and gripped the pointer midway down the barrel. There was a brief struggle for control of the weapon and then the alien squeezed the pincer and literally cut the weapon in half.

Ben took a step back and looked at the two pieces in disbelief.               

"As I said... You do not want to test my capabilities or my determination to acquire what I have come to acquire."

Without a word, Ben placed the destroyed weapon on the ground and held his two front paws out to the side in a sign of submission.

"Lieutenant Sassi, if you would be so kind as to join us in the main cabin we can conclude our business this afternoon."

Sassi triggered a system purge, not that there was any information in the shuttle's primitive computer core that could or would be valuable to their captors. He did it because it was the type of action that would be expected. When the purge was complete, he removed his sidearm and fired two high-speed projectiles into the interface console. He then stepped out of his control nest and placed the weapon in plain view on top of the nest. When he entered the main cabin, his appendages were clearly empty.

Captain Running Stream chuckled in an oddly human fashion as the moth-like Ashkelon Lieutenant entered the cabin.

"I trust you fulfilled your duty by destroying your navigational computer and systems log. I hope it provided you with a sense of satisfaction. It will be your last action as an officer in your Corps. From this moment on you and the Commander are slaves of the Modos Syndicate and, more to the point, all of you are now my property.

***

Captain Ruck leaned back in Cat's command chair. It was funny. He knew he had been given command of the
Yorktown
; but he still knew, at an instinctive level, that this was Cat's ship and always would be. The forward view-screen was playing a live feed from the newly promoted Admiral Kimbridge's ocular and auditory implants.

"I guess that pretty much confirms what we suspected regarding motive,"
Jason said out loud to those on the bridge.

"The real question," Admiral Faragon added, "is where are they taking the slaves and how do we disassemble what is obviously a well-established practice. We can't tolerate having our citizens kidnapped and forced into bondage.
On the other hand, it would be marvelous if we could find a way to avoid going to war."  

Commander Kirkland turned from the First Officer's station he was at to address the Admiral hesitantly. "If I may speak
freely, Sir?"

"Always Ken."

"Sir, I understand our priority has to be our citizens, but one of the GCP's founding principles is the acknowledgment that all sentients have certain inalienable rights, and that slavery is fundamentally at odds with a number of these. Having freed our people are we going to be content to allow such a practice to continue even if it no longer involves our citizens?"

The Admiral nodded thoughtfully. "I appreciate your concerns, and rest assured I share them. The problem as I see it comes down to the rights of a society to rule itself as it sees fit
versus the rights of an individual within that society. Do we have the right to impose our morality on another group even when we find the actions of that society reprehensible?"

"Sir, that's above my pay grade,
but I would counter with another question... At what point does a right become a responsibility?"

***

Cat shuffled forward a few inches. Everyone, to include the
Torn Wing's
complement of convicts and crew, were now on the Modos ship called the
Bluefin
. All were prisoners. The
Bluefin
was a slave transport, but it seemed to be more than that. In many ways, it was apparent that the ship was designed from the 'get go' to process slaves... Slaves of different biological and psychological backgrounds.

Each slave was run through a battery of tests. Some medical, some physical, some psychological. It seemed this ship was designed, in part, to prepare and quantify the newly acquired slaves for something. And if Cat was suspicious, which of course she was, she suspected that 'something' was prepping them for eventual sale.

One of the first things done was to remove all personal possessions. This included clothing, jewelry, and internal commlinks.  This last was accomplished by inserting an ultra-thin needle and physically fusing the internal electronics of the links rather than their physical removal. It was obvious their captors had experience doing this because the procedure was almost painless and did not result in significant collateral damage to the surrounding tissues.

Cat had anticipated this contingency. Her ultra-advanced nanites provided a simulated commlink in the correct location. In addition, they cloaked her other enhancements. The Modos surgeon burned out the decoy without ever suspecting the deception. That had been about half an hour ago.

Cat shuffled a few more inches forward. She was slowly being ushered into a circular room with two Hoppers whose names she didn't yet know. In addition, there were several D'lralu, including her cybernetic friend Ben, already in the room. She reached out to Ben with her quantum link. As she had suspected, they were unable to remove or disable it on the cyborg.

'
I see they left you your fur,
' she said sub-vocally.

'That's more than they left you, it seems.
There is something unsettling about seeing one's commanding officer in the buff as it were.'

Before she could respond the lights dimmed and the temperature dropped precipitously. Cat's nanite augmented eyes compensated automatically. It seemed the room was still illuminated,
but the frequency of the light had shifted into the ultraviolet. Based on the reaction of everyone, with the exception of the cybernetically enhanced Ben, no one else could see in this light.

Cat pretended to grope out blindly. In addition, she swatted and folded one arm about herself to conserve heat. Her nanites automatically adjusted her heat signature to match that expected of a normal nude human exposed to the cold conditions present in the room. Her body began to shiver. It was all an act.
In reality, she could easily survive direct exposure to the vacuum of space, but it was vital that she maintained the facade of being a normal human.

Since Ben was quite obviously a hybrid being, he had no such restriction. He immediately walked over to Cat and folded his first four arms around her and held her body close to his; ostensibly to share
warmth.

"Thanks," Cat said out loud while adding through their covert entangled commlink, '
I think this is some type of test.
'

'
I agree
.' Then, verbally, he added "There are clothes on the floor on the opposite side of those Hoppers."

"I can't see.  Can you get them for me?"

"Certainly, Commodore."

Cat smiled despite herself. "Ben, it's just Private now."

Playing his predetermined role to the hilt, Ben responded forcefully, "Hogwash. That trial was a sham, and you know it. You were the finest officer in the fleet, and if the Admirals weren't afraid of you and your raw skill, you still would be!"

'
I think you may be overacting a tad...
'

'
Perhaps but aside from th
e
—
afrai
d
—
part, most of what I just said is true. Besides, how often do I get to see you blush in your birthday suit?
'

'
My nanites are programmed to a very specific heat profile based on the environment, and that does not include blushing, you lecherous old dog!'
Cat said via her internal commlink. Out loud she said, "Thanks, Ben."

The clothing confirmed her suspicions. It was a lightly silvered jumpsuit that fit her form snugly. Embedded within the fibers of the fabric were numerous sensors and, surprisingly,
a low power microwave system that Cat suspected, based on an analysis of the frequencies involved, was a pain inducer.

There were no other articles of clothing designed for humans so Cat's hair hung free and she went shoeless.
The jumpsuit did provide some warmth, but it was still uncomfortably cold. The others in the room continued to grope around randomly. Cat let Ben pull her out of the way of one of the heaviest Hoppers either of them had ever seen.

The frequency of light shifted once again,
and Cat heard the D'lralu in the room mutter the Canine race's equivalent of a gasp. Clearly the spectrum was approaching visible frequencies for them. As the frequencies were still beyond the range of an unenhanced human, Cat continued to feign blindness.

Ben commented that it was getting lighter.

"Your eyes must be naturally better than mine," Cat said, between nanite-induced shivers, for the benefit of any Modos listeners.  In point of fact, her enhanced vision could see in almost total darkness. They could easily function with little more than the reflected radiant heat of her body.

She kept a hand on Ben's mid-shoulder.
It was important that they establish a visual bond in sight of their captors. If the analysis Cat had shared with the Admiralty board was correct, Ben's very survival might depend on the establishment of that bond. As a cyborg, the normal physical deterrents that applied to fully organic slaves might not apply to him. On the other hand, if she could be seen as a potential point of leverage for her friend, then the Modos would feel that both could be controlled.

The frequency of the ambient light shifted yet again. Cat's internal systems informed her that the frequency was finally in a range that normal humans could detect.

"It's getting brighter," Cat said out loud.

The Hoppers and the three D'lralu were milling about the center of the room. It was obvious that the Hoppers were just becoming able to see
as well. This was not a surprise to Cat as she knew their visual acuity was roughly equivalent to humans, at least as far as luminosity was concerned. 

Cat's ears picked up a subtle change in the sound from the ventilation system. A light mist entered the room. It had a smell that seemed to be an odd cross between an avocado and mint. Her internal Heshe encounter unit did a quick assessment and determined it was an aerosolized form of diphenhydramine.
In addition to being an antihistamine, it also was a mild sleeping aid. In the concentrations present it would have little effect on a human other than to clear up a little congestion. The effects on both the Hoppers and D'lralu were far more pronounced. The Hoppers practically collapsed in place. The D'lralu became markedly agitated, snapping at each other (and in one case drawing blood), before they too collapsed.