Free Fleet #03 No Rest for the Wicked (28 page)

“We could've used that, when Parnmal knew that Nancy was coming, or countless other times,” I said, containing my anger.

“It's for AI's only. Organics have to be given permission by the council. Otherwise the relay is shut down and another one built with different codes,” she said.

“Then what about that right there?” I said, pointing to the conference room door.

“He was technically talking to me and you were just there. At least that's what we'll tell the council if they ask,” Resilient said.

“Is Lare part of this FTL network?” I asked.

“Yes he is, though whether he knows he is I don't know. I was going to tell him when I next saw him. Most AI's block it out. There's usually a lot of chatter and garbage on it. Like any communications where there's a lot of people,”

“Is there anything else you're keeping from us?” I said, as I finished her report. It was filled with generalities and feelings rather than numbers. She hadn't described our force strength, where our people were or our technology and resources once. It was more like a 'how are you doing' postcard that one got at Christmas, a lot of information but little to no specifics.

“If I am I don't know about it,” she said as I nodded.

“Doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but its the best we're going to get I guess,” I said as Captains and commanders started coming online holographically.

“Alright you've all seen the video. Now we've got to decide if we're going to trust the Planner and Foshunti.” I gave them a minute to breathe before pointing to the first person.

***

“So what did he say?” Foshunti asked. Planner hovered, a seeming sphere of floating mercury.

“He didn't make a decision,”

“If he had I would be worried,” Foshunti said. It had taken two decades from when he was accepted into the Syndicate to build his fleet, even longer to forge his contacts and people to the standard they were at now.

              His bridge crew moved about, doing their jobs with ease and competence. Memories of the things he had to do to gain his position and retain it, still haunted his mind. However he had been trained for a purpose. For a Dvark it was the highest calling to be a champion. He had not only been a champion, but he was being given an opportunity to be the one that could lead the Dovark back out into the Galaxy and bring back the PDF and Union. He had plans already made for doing it by himself, but this Salchar and his people had proved themselves to be a worthy adversary.

While Salchar had his own plans to make, Foshunti had to weigh if it was better to join his fleet to the Free Fleet, or to continue on his path. He craved to be free of the crazed personality of Foshunti that he had come to embody. Yet he knew that being free of that personality was a small consideration compared to the survival of the Dovark.

“What do you think of him?” Foshunti asked Planner.

“I think that he is a highly capable warrior. Having him at your side would be advantageous. Though to judge him by the people around him, I think that he might beat even you in battle, if it was on a level playing field,”

“So I would crush him if I fought him in this battle?” Foshunti asked, his time competing to be a champion made him always evaluate himself according to the competition.

“Not quite,” Planner said, clearly amused.

“How so?” Foshunti asked. The forces massed were in Foshunti's favour. He had a super-carrier, twelve Dreadnought's twenty two Battle Cruisers, thirty three Destroyers, twenty nine Cruisers (He hated the things), and forty seven Corvette's. He had Salchar by four times the weight of ships, guns three times.

“You'll find out if you join him, or not,” Planner said in his oh so mysterious way.

Foshunti wished there was a way to show how what Planner said was true. Yet for the Dovark it had imperative that his true purpose be kept secret. He looked at the info-graphic of Talhalla. She was a kilometre and a half long, with two massive fighter hangars built directly into her structure that rested three quarters down her mass. It gave her the look of an atmosphere capable ship. Her bow came back, looking like a rounded arrow head before it cut in in front of the fighter hangars.

Turrets and missile batteries lined the hull. They ranged from heavy cannons to medium ones. She looked like hell. Scars ran through her hull plating, atmosphere leaked from places, turrets and missile batteries were missing, and there were piles of slag on the hull. One of the five massive ion engines was out, and she had a famous issue charging her wormhole generators. It was a clever disguise. While the ship looked like crap inside and out, everything that was online was fully operational.

Making her look to be perfect would have only raised suspicions. Foshunti hated the holes in his armour. Yet his shield generators worked perfectly. He'd salvaged parts for two reactors that Lady Fairgate and no one except his chief engineer knew about. The old Kuruvian had been slated for killing because he had done shoddy work on every ship that had come through his yards on purpose. All of them were flaws that ended in the ship coming apart if it wasn't looked after properly.

              The Kuruvian took all of the blame, probably to shield his younger brother that was being used by the Syndicate already, and his two young’uns who were still on the planet. Foshunti had saved him and given him the choice to join him. He would never be allowed to see his brother or his sons again however.

“How are we looking?” Foshunti asked the chief engineer directly. He was one of Foshunti's best friends.

“My joints are old and leaving Talhalla in this condition is doing my soul in. What are you calling about, really?” the Kuruvian asked.

“Come on, Etil. Can't we just act like captain and chief for once?” Foshunti said, smiling, unseen to his friend.

“Pah. Too much rot gut and stumbling through Talhalla for that now!” Etil's joking manner was clear.

“Alright, you old coot. Don't go telling everyone. I've got to keep something of my dignified appearance,”

“Since when does a sociopathic madman have a dignified appearance? I should bring you down here and educate you on the finer things of wrench turning,” Etil said.

“I give up. I give up. I'm calling you for something else other than to see to it that Talhalla doesn't fall apart.” Foshunti smiled in anticipation of Etil's reaction.

“She won't and you bloody well know it! Now get to the point and stop talking bad of your own ship,” Etil groused.

“Well, I got Planner to reveal my identity.”

“You did. To who?”

“You really need to get out of that pit you call engineering sometime,” Foshunti said, shaking his head.

“Well, yah going to tell me?”

“Salchar, the Commander of the Free Fleet,”

“Captain of the Resilient,” Etil said breathlessly… “Shit!” He sounded as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing.

“Etil, is everything okay?” Foshunti asked, concerned. He'd never heard the air go out of his chief engineer's sails so quickly or completely.

“Planner, who is the chief on Resilient?” Etil said, hardly breathing.

“I don't know,” Planner said, coming into the conversation.

“It can't be, no. He's probably dead. Light willing, I need to know,” Etil rattled off to himself.

“Need to know what?” Foshunti asked, but Etil didn't reply.

“He needs to know if his brother Eddie is alive. He was the Chief on Resilient when she left under the control of Captain Welick. He's served on her ever since his recruitment. There was more than one reason why I got you to take the risk of hiring Etil,” Planner said.

“Don't the Kuruvians have a way of communicating to one another without the Syndicate knowing?” Foshunti asked.

“Yeah, we do,” Etil said. Foshunti could hear the Kuruvian moving quickly.

“What are you doing?” Foshunti asked as he heard switches being thrown and buttons being pressed.

“Sending a damn message that might get the Free Fleet on your side, sir. Planner, would you do the honors of giving me an FTL channel,” Etil said. Foshunti didn't know what he was shocked by more; Etil calling him sir, or how he might have the Free Fleet on his side.

“Done,” Planner said simply.

“Come on you bastard, pick up you old senile Kuruvian you,” Etil said to the computer.

“You have command, Wasta,” Foshunti said to his second in command. His long legs took him from his bridge to the nearest transport that would get him to engineering.

***

“Chief, we need you to come and have a look at this,” Engineer Uetak said.

“Of course I do, what cha idjits get up tah now, eh?” Eddie said, manipulators and hands deep in grav-plate emitters and electrical conduits. They were interfering with one another something fierce. People couldn't go down the hall for fear they'd get tossed into the roof, or dragged to the floor. For now it was a low gravity area, emitters on the floors above and below were compensating.

“We didn't do anything. Someone sent you a message over the Kuruvian system,” Uetak said.

“So youse gittin me to stop mi 'ard work to answer the phone?”
I live with the eternal curse of slackers.

“We can't open it. It's locked out. It says it's from Etil,”

“Fuck!” Eddie said as he sat up in the crawlspace. He quickly pulled himself out of the small area, not caring for the green blood that ran from his head.

No, it can't be. He's dead,
Eddie thought as he raced through Engineering, leaving more than one person in shock as he jumped, sidestepped and wall ran a few spots to get around people. He got to the terminal, waving Uetak away.

“Don't touch a bleedin’ thing, yah hear!” he said as he looked at the message. It was encoded, and it had a password.

What letter does my son's names start with?
Eddie hit the
S,
and the message opened. It wasn't a recording but a live channel, meaning that Etil knew that others on his ship would see him transmitting. Lending credence to the fact that Foshunti wasn't truly with the Syndicate.

“Oi, you old bastard,” Etil said, his manipulators moving in a combination of happiness, joy and excitement.

“I, how wah? Youer deahd,” Eddie said as he looked at his older brother in confusion.

“The heck you doing, Etil?” A long legged and armed looking creature said as it entered the camera's view, running from somewhere.

“Captain Foshunti, meet my bruv, Eddie. Eddie, meet Cap'n Foshunti,”

“How in the hell?” Eddie said, scratching under his cowboy helmet.

“The hell is that thing?” Etil said, pointing to it.

“It's mi hat there, boyo. Don't cha be disrespectin' a man's hat now!” Eddie said as Etil’s lips spread in a grin.

“God I've missed you,” Etil said. Eddie felt his own manipulator's move in a show of happiness.

“Eddie, who are you talking to?” Shrift asked, carrying parts for the heavy cannons.

“Come, come,” Eddie hauled Shrift to the feed, parts going flying.

“Come on! I'm going to have to clean that up!” Shrift said, coming in view of the camera. Shrift barely paid attention to Captain Foshunti who was looking from Etil to the screen. Or the look of joy on Eddie's face.

“Oh shaddup and talk to yah Dah,” Eddie said, forcefully turning Shrift's head and pointing him at the screen.

“Wah..,”

“Hi Shrift,” Etil said as Shrift looked at the Kuruvian in confusion.

“Uhh, hi!”

Eddie grinned as Shrift studied the Kuruvian, seeing the familiar markings on his carapace.

***

Rick and I left the conference room. The Fleet was unsure what to believe. The Captains and Commanders that were freed slaves from the Syndicate just wanted to see them all burn.

“Commander, I think you should see this,” Rick said, throwing me a feed into engineering. Eddie and Shrift were talking animatedly to another Kuruvian on the engineering console they were working on.

“What am I looking at?”

“Seems that once again the AI's have out-planned us,”

“Well, sometimes we do,” Resilient said lightly. I was still not too pleased with her.

I watched the two grubby Kuruvian’s manipulators moving in excitement and joy. Clearly whoever they were talking to was important.

“So what did you and Planner do?” I asked Resilient.

“We had people on our ships that knew one another, so that we wouldn't have just our words. It looks liked Planner got Etil, Eddie's brother.  And also Shrift and Silly's father.

I changed the feed so I could see the console that Eddie and Shrift were talking to.

Well, that's strange,
I thought as I saw Captain Lord Foshunti standing in the background looking confused.

“What other surprises do you and Planner have for us?” I asked.

“Oh, a few, if Foshunti joins you,” she said.

“Vort, can you get me a channel through the same system? I think it's about time that I talked to Captain Lord Foshunti.”