Free Fleet #03 No Rest for the Wicked (18 page)

“What kind of guarantees do I have?”

“My word,” Marhtu said.

“Don't do it, Commander,” Krom said.

“They're our people. I'm not going to let them die if I can do anything about it,”

“He's already gone back on his word once,” Dave said.

“I know, but what are we going to do! Charge in there and save them? He says the word and they all die.” I lowered my voice so Marhtu and his minions couldn't hear me. “The rest of the Fleet is still above us. They know something’s up. They'll find us. We have the upgraded implants, the relations team doesn't,” I said.

“You're the boss,” Janice said, her voice neither condemning nor condoning. What I said is what would happen.

“You promise to not kill the relations team?” I asked.

“I promise,” he said. Fuck, what choice do I have? I thought, looking at the relations team.

“Take your weapons and armour off,” I said, a bad taste in my mouth.

As soon as our mechas were off gas grenades were tossed towards us from up the hallway. The gas worked quickly and it was only seconds before we were all slumping to the floor.

“Fu-u-ers,” I said, my face going numb as I felt my eyes rolling back.

***

I woke up to a pristine room. It didn't even feel as if I had been knocked out, but I was naked, spread apart by chains. I looked around, finding the only other occupant of the room. A woman wearing the weird multiple material clothes studied me, her baton in hand.

“I am Savrare, I will be your Orv,” she said her eyes dull and lifeless.

“What is a..,” she touched her baton to my ribs and it felt like they were breaking. I screamed in pain.

“You will not talk unless instructed to do so. You will address me as Flower,”

“Why am..,” she touched my stomach and I screamed again, my body arching in pain as I felt something rise from my stomach. She moved away as I spat out blood. I felt a pin prick in my arm and the pain remained but little blood followed.

“This is my kaaOrv,” she said, showing me the baton. It is not like the crude pain implants that the Syndicate use. This is a much more refined tool. It does muscular and nerve damage without killing the one touched by it. The drugs will keep you alive forever, you will die hundreds of times, but still you will come back,”

“What is..,” She applied her kaaOrv to my side and it felt like my broken ribs were being pushed into me. I could feel my nerves from the pained area to my spine as I tried to get away from her, the chains stopping any movement as I blacked out from pain.

I came back to pain on my head, and I thrashed as it coursed through my body. It wasn't like pain implants. It wasn't that I just didn't feel in control of my body. It was the surety that I was going to die. My body jolted in pain as I let my head hang.

“Your first death petal. Isn't it so sweet? Maybe one time I will be able to add your petal to my others,” she said as she patted her clothing. Horror dawned on me.

It's not different materials, they're different skins.
She ran her kaaOrv down my neck as blood clogged my airways. The light dimmed as I fought for air, my hands’ struggling to move as I tried to do something, anything to stay alive. The fog cleared as blood covered the floor.

“We're off to a good start, petal,” she said and I lost track of time as I had in training. There was nothing but pain. She moved from my face to my chest, killing me three times.

She was clinical, like a doctor, seeing how long I could withstand her kaaOrv, what was the most painful. What happened after repeat occurrences. She moved down my body and touched the baton to my thighs, which felt like the muscle, the tendons, and the bone were trying to separate from one another. Wherever the kaaOrv touched it left a cut. That was my only scale of time. The amount of blood I spilt. She ran it along my foot, and it felt as if my toes were bleeding and my ankle breaking.

Then there was nothing but the pain of my body, no fresh pain added.

She put a view screen in front of me. She dragged my head back, fixing it into a harness. I shook my head to fight her, getting a stroke of the KaaOrv to the back. Panting, she pressed something to my eyes which stayed open. The view screen came to life, Marhtu sitting on his skin cushions.

“I didn't want you to be without some entertainment between training sessions,” he said, his skin going orange with anger as he bared his teeth.

The screen turned into sections, each showing one of the first or second relation team as well as my protection detail.

“You fucking..!” A light touch to the base of the skull ignited my body on fire and I bit my tongue. There was no use yelling now. I would just have to do as I was told until I got out of here.

I watched my people screaming in pain. All of them being asked questions about the fleet. Most of them resisting.

Just tell them it's not worth the suffering not to!
I mentally yelled at them, knowing that I would hold out for as long as possible before answering Savrare. I didn't try to look away. I would watch their suffering knowing what they went through, and me with them, even if they didn't know it.

“Now for another hour,” Sevrare said as she moved the view screen away.

I cried openly. This was no place for heroics.

She had tortured me for one hour. It had felt like a lifetime. She got a bucket and put it under me. She stepped behind me running her kaaOrv along my back. My world dissolved into pain as all I thought about was the excited, almost manic smile she had as she worked.

****

Resilient appeared in Rick's quarters without pre-amble. He and Marleen both raise their weapons before realizing who it was. Resilient gave off a light blue hue and she looked concerned.

“Salchar,” she said.

“What happened?” Rick asked as he finished putting on his battle suit, Marleen doing the same.

“He was being jammed. Then Krom shot through the tower wall and we have a partial message from him as he descended from the top of the tower. We're not picking up anything now,” Resilient said.

They walked out of their room to the bridge, Resilient’s holographic presence floating with them.

“For a few seconds the tracker wasn't active but now it is. I think they pulled his tracker,” Rick set his jaw, fire in his eyes. Marleen grabbed his hand, squeezing it, and he returned the gesture. She looked at him with eyes that seemed to say,
we’re getting him back.

With that they were at the bridge bulkheads. They cycled open and closed. The second watch captain moved from Salchar's chair and Rick settled himself in it.

“Fleet on alert. I want a line of communication to the surface,” Rick said, his joking manner gone.

He was only this serious when he was in battle, getting James the information he needed while he directed the fleet.

“Hello, this is overseer Marhtu's office,” a Slevaran answered the communications request.

“This is COS Rick. I would like to talk to Commander Salchar,”

“What is this regarding?”

“We have some new developments with
Ouquishar,”

“I will tell him in the morning. It is our sleep cycle here and we do not wish to disturb him,”

“He would want to know,” Rick pressed, trying to not look desperate as he remembered to smile. How the hell does Salchar keep up this facade with people? He thought as the secretary looked to be checking something,

“Overseer Marhtu is also asleep. We have strict instructions to get him before disturbing our guests. It is one of our traditions,” they said with a smile.

This one's a good actor. Made that tradition thing sound almost real.

“Then wake him up. This information cannot wait. I am pressed to get a shuttle down there to have him brought up and look at it himself.” Stick that in your beak and smoke it, Rick thought as he kept up his smile.

“I will have to talk with someone of authority on the subject. I will contact you as soon as I know if it is acceptable to have them communicate with you,” The secretary bowed her head as she closed the channel.

“Nice how she didn't mention when that would be, or if she would get them after their night cycle,” Vort said. The first shift had been rotated in as Rick was talking.

Everyone looked to Rick for an explanation.

“Resilient, do you want to tell them what happened,”

Resilient told them all what she had told Rick and Marleen. Rick wasn't surprised by the anger that seemed to radiate from the bridge crew.

“I want the Fleet prepared. We need to make sure this is a real issue. We can't make a planet of thirty trillion our enemy over some mishap,” Rick said as the bridge came alive with everyone checking over their systems.

“Rick I think there is an issue with my systems, someone has been sending messages to the planet,” Resilient said.

“Who?” Rick felt his hands bunch in anger.

“I am not sure but I am left to wonder what is amiss.”

Rick cursed when he realized what was going on: he had time to think on the bridge. Edwards hadn't been on the bridge the entire time that the Free Fleet was in orbit of Daestramus.

He opened a channel to Commander Carsickle.

“Get me Edwards now,” he ordered, his voice cold.

Chapter - Control

Overseer Marhtu sat upon his pillows as military leader Jelum bowed as low as he possibly could.

He stayed like that until Marhtu told him to rise.

“Are the communications ready?” Marhtu asked.

“Yes, my overseer. We have the videos ready to make it look as if Salchar is meeting people.”

“Good. Do you have everything that you need to break the communications code of these ships?” Marhtu asked as his Shafio Orv fed him.

“Almost. Your Orv have worked for a day and a half now but still these stubborn creatures have not revealed all of their secrets. They have been hard to break.”

“Are you saying that my Orv are not up to the task of breaking them?” Marhtu said conversationally.

“No, my overseer!” Jelum said as he prostrated himself again in front of Marhtu.

Marhtu let his hand glide over the Shafio's gelatinous mouth cavity, which had the strength and elasticity to separate his arm from his body in seconds. Marhtu shivered in excitement at the control he held over the Orv, a beautiful female that had been thought the best in her community. Until he turned them into his creatures and their gentle and kind manners were removed. Replaced with nothing but the feeling of pain.

He ran his hand over the implant in the Shafio's brain sac.

“What were you saying, Jelum?”

“They seem to become more resilient after being trained by the Syndicate. The large ones seem to feel the most pain but also have the most courage.”

“Have you showed him the fate of the first team?”

“The Orv say they are waiting to use it, letting them to have some hope before breaking it,”

“Good. We do not want them having a shred of hope that they will merely become slaves.”

Marhtu looked to the slaves around him. All of them touched, creatures that would do anything for him.

“Be a seat for Jelum,” Marhtu pointed to two of them. Jelum shuffled forward, sitting on the slaves, looking at the ground still.

Marhtu had grown his empire from the people within this room. Outside of his tower they had been criminals, politicians that had gone against him and those that had come into power through one way or another. All of them had been touched by Marhtu's Orv, and each of them had become his slaves. So subdued he could sleep with all of them in his room without worry.

Fear and power rule all, Marhtu thought.

“What does the informant aboard their flagship say?”

“He has sent us information on the main ships capabilities. He wants us to tell him what other ships are in the formation so he can tell us what they do. He cannot see them himself.”

“Does he still believe that we will take power away from this Free Fleet in his home system and return it to his leader?”

“Yes. We have promised him one of the Battle cruisers as well,” Jalum said into the floor. The slave’s frail bodies weren't even shaking under the military leader’s bulk.

Marhtu indicated a liquour
bottle
with a casual wave of his hand. As the Shafio fed him his scales changed to silver in pleasure. It was coming together so well. He would turn Salchar against his own people, forcing him to give Marhtu the fleet and everything else he controlled. Marhtu wondered idly what he would have Salchar doing in his tower.

Food server? No, nighttime servant. Marhtu thought as everyone looked to the floor in submission. He would be at his most vulnerable and make this Salchar stand there and watch him sleep like a pod. He rattled as silver ran through his coat before receding.

“Send the messages to the fleet. I wish to see Salchar as soon as he is broken,” Marhtu said as Jelum prostrated himself.

“Yes, my overseer,” he said before backing out.

****

“Oi, stop your flabbing and get working!” Eddie said, his hand threateningly close to his boot.

The talking engineers quickly separated and got to their work.

“Easy does it. Make sure you don't clip anything or I'll have your hide!” a familiar voice said. Eddie followed it as he wondered what was passing through his domain without his knowledge. He came to one of the massive service hallways as a cannon was being moved from storage.

“What you doing that for?”

“Well, with Edward's betrayal we don't know what they know or not about the Fleet, so we're going to put in the upgrades we've been holding off on,” Shrift replied, rushing around to make sure the cannon wouldn't hit anything.

“Get out the way you idiot, or you’re going to get hit,” Shrift said as people made a half move to get out of the way.

Eddie had his boot off and flying, hitting the nearest person being a nuisance.

“GIT!” He yelled as he sized up his other boot.
Bout time they moved with a purpose,
Eddie thought as they got out of the way and found different ways to get where they were going.

“That boot is rather useful,” Shrift said as Eddie huffed, pressing his retractor and the boot sailed back to him.

“Need to knock some sense into them somehow,” Eddie grumped.

“Watch it on the left side!” Shrift yelled as the cannon moved away from the wall.

“I'll be leavin yah to it!” Eddie said as Shrift waved him off.

Ever since Shrift's experience with reactor four the Kuruvian had been less than happy about working on a ship. He was less scared, but it was still there in him. Eddie had caught the way he cradled his prosthetic manipulator when they went near a reactor. An engineer who was scared of the machines he worked on wasn't good for anyone. Wariness of the machine was acceptable. These machines could blow up a small planet and take out the ship as fast as light. Being scared that everything would go wrong made you a liability. Fear of the possibilities while doing your job carefully would keep you alive.

Eddie hoped that Shrift would either get over his fear, or find a job that he could enjoy. He and Silly were like his sons. Eddie put the thoughts to the back of his neural centre. He walked towards the rigged communications systems Edwards had made. Rick wanted him to figure out who he'd been talking to and how he'd gotten access to what he needed.

***

Edwards wondered how Rick and his crew of buffoons had found out about his talking to the surface. It didn't matter anymore. He'd gotten rid of Salchar. Soon this fleet would be in chaos and the President would take control of the resources in Sol system. Leaving them to this collection of kids and aliens was not a possibility. Edwards sat in the brig a smile on his face. He would return to Earth with a battle Cruiser behind him. There were a number of people that he was sure could fill out a skeleton crew.

Everything was perfect. He knew what Marhtu was probably doing to Salchar and he didn't care. The kid thought he crapped gold. Edwards had been working undercover and manipulating people from the background and he was not someone to be dismissed easily. Carsickle had been smart enough to get to Edwards without tripping any but his last alarm. Edwards hoped that he'd destroyed enough of the communications system that he'd put together off of a plan he'd gotten in his private messages.

Thank you for the FTL network,
Edwards thought as Carsickle walked into the brig. He was clearly annoyed. Edwards smiled, and the creature’s annoyance turned to anger. These people were too soft to torture him. All he had to do was wait this out and turn them down some errant roads for Marhtu to complete his side of the bargain.

“Opening door five,” someone said as Edwards cell opened. Carsickle took one of the strange seats that Chaleelian's used, lying down facing Edwards. Edwards thought it ridiculous.

Just like this man's planetary military. Maybe we should create strife within their government and then put a mission out to 'assist' them. We'd work out a contract to get food and keep their military out of the way. Win- win.

“You have been communicating with the enemy. As such your status as an emissary is nulled. We now have the ability to look through all of your communications and see who your other conspirators are. They too will be captured and charged. Do you have anything to say at this time?”

“How long did you think this little band of misfits would keep on working before someone who can turn it into a real military took over?” Edwards asked. Carsickle paused before saying anything.

“While this lot might be a bit unconventional, they need to be. I wanted to make the Free Fleet more militaristic. You know, saluting all the time, parades, and speeches. That stuff won't fly here. People who do that stuff are just kissing upwards,” Carsickle's ears twitched in lieu of a sigh.

“They have too much autonomy. Any of them could rise up at a given time. They haven't been properly molded into soldiers,” Edwards said as he leaned towards Carsickle.

“I can see that I'm not going to convince you otherwise,” Carsickle returned. “You will await transport back to Parnmal when the scouting fleet returns.” Carsickle stood and moved his chair back. “We will be stopping our protection of Earth and reconsidering our contract.”

Edwards crossed his arms and sat back in his chair.

Carsickle’s ear's twitched in disgust.

****

Things were a lot less calm in the conference room, where all the leadership was in a state of uproar that was equal parts unea and the feeling that he needed to act. Rick sat back, trying not to get into the fray as he let them exhaust themselves. He had learned from Salchar to sit back and see what the other commanders came up with. Salchar knew broad tactics, but he relied on his teams to fill in the blanks for him. He, Rick, and Henry had spent hours together to build up his vocabulary of military terms.

These people were used to action. Since they'd left their homes there had always been something to do. Now they were waiting as their leader was missing. There had been a transmission of Salchar meeting with different city leaders, as well as a personal message from him. But there had been no safe word and Resilient was coming up with flaws in the videos.

Bok Soo was also quiet as he waited. The Avarians seemed to be the loudest, not only because of their stature but their loyalty to their battle master.
This has gone on long enough now.

Rick leaned forward as he cleared his throat. Nothing happened for a moment and Bok Soo spoke up.

“Silence!” he said, his voice thunderous even through the meeting system.

“Thank you,” Rick said, Bok Soo nodding to him.

“Now, I think we can assume that Salchar has been taken hostage, as well as his protection detail and the two relations teams.” Talking broke out and Rick silenced them with a glare.

“We do not leave our own behind. As such I have deemed that we will be preparing for a surgical assault on wherever Salchar is being held.” He sat back, all eyes clearly on him.

“We need to find out where they are being held. We cannot drop onto a planet and just start going house to house to find him. It will alert them to our intentions, allowing them to move our people or separate them. We have a cell on the surface that we will send a message to. We will get them to find the information for us. We will get our people back,”

“Who will command the fleet if Salchar is dead?” a ship commander asked.

“That's what we have a chain of command for,” Bok Soo drawled as the ship commander looked shame-faced.

“Till we have the information we need I want you to keep your people busy, but ready. We don't know when we'll get the information or how fast we'll have to react to any changes. Am I clear?” Rick asked.

              He nodded as the room’s assent came back.

“Very well. Shrift also has some words on what we can do in our prep-time,”

“Thank you, Chief of Staff Rick. Now, every ship here has extra armaments in their storage lockers. We don't know what we'll be doing or when, but replacing the new weapons as well as shield generators will give whoever comes at us a little surprise. Some of you may know that there is a new standard armament system for each ship. If you haven't got it yet ask me. It's estimated that the implementation of the guide on each ship could improve its offensive and defensive capabilities by twenty percent. Any questions?”

Rick watched as Schrift answered questions. His thoughts were further away. He’d had the intelligence department send the operatives on Daestramus a transmission through their flight lights. Resilient said that it didn’t seem as if anyone on the planet had found it particularly suspicious. Rick hoped she was right.

****

It was the second time that Min Hae had been too late. The more he found out about Marhtu the more he regretted not telling Salchar to stay aboard Resilient. Gogs had found that the cushions that Overseer sat on were actually made from other creature's skin. The females in red were professional torturers, and the staff he kept were slaves. He'd submitted everyone around him to torture so intense and insidious that they could do nothing but obey him. Everything about him was made to emphasize his cruelty, power and control and no one was willing to cross him.