Ion 417: Raiju (10 page)

"Captain, are you really planning to scan the ship of a Director?"

Traxel fairly jumped where he was walking along beside me. I just hoped that he wasn't about to fall over with a failed heart. Cardovans had a tough carapace, but the insides are kind of squishy from what I'd read. If he died then I probably wasn't too far behind him. The Captain didn't even acknowledge that I'd spoken, but I caught the subtle downward wave of his hand at the scanning crew. They stopped working with the scanners and stood rigidly as we walked by. The Captain called over his shoulder.

"I was merely getting a crew ready to assist with your damage assessment."

Captain Korcktl led us down passageways that wound through a ship several times larger than our own. We passed several more of the Kanari, who seemed to be busy doing whatever Kanari Reliance Guardsmen do. Where the ones that had boarded our ship all wore the armored suits, these uniforms were a bit less heavy duty. They all stood aside just like the scanning crew when they saw the Captain approaching.

We ended our tour in a room that had two chairs at a table, and nothing else. Even the door closed without leaving a seam. With a wave of his hand the Captain motioned for me to take the chair opposite the door. He took the other chair, leaving Traxel to pace in circles. His tension hadn't eased any, and it even went up a notch when the tiny lurch indicated this ship had begun accelerating.

"Now Captain, I understand that...."

"It's Director!"

My mind had been racing the whole walk through both ships. Our best chances meant sticking with the ruse, even though it was flimsy enough to fall apart under any kind of cross checking. A certain Fleet Admiral that was famous for a battle I'd never known, had written in his memoirs that it was best to never give up a bluff, let the opponent prove it was a bluff first. I hoped that by the time it came to proving this was a bluff, that both Traxel and I would be gone from the Captain's grasp. I pulled upon the memories of watching that hated grey Teryn Elon talk to lab workers.

"Uh, yes.... Director. What happened to your ship?"

Here it was. I hoped that my story could sound believable. I was going to try and impress a veteran space captain with things I had read in texts. I hadn't had a lot of preparation time either. This was going to be my one chance to lay a believable groundwork to sustain the bluff. I let the hunter instinct feed my nerves to quell any signs of fear I might exude, and kept the ruse as simple as possible.

"As the ship was coming out of high drive there was a loud noise and we lost power. We were attempting repairs when you came along."

"You can't expect me to believe that. For one thing, where's the rest of your crew? They jumped out of the airlock to lighten the load?"

Now he mocked me in a move to counter my bluff. This was his initial stage -- probing the defenses. I wonder what they taught him to do in cases like this. Before I could utter my counter to his counter, Traxel's nerves reached a limit and he blurted out.

"You insult the director! She..."

Again I cut him off with a glare. I couldn't tell if he was scared or trying to enhance the bluff. His little outburst had been timed just right, but the question remained if that was skill or luck. The knife's edge I walked was getting sharper. The captain turned his hard gaze on Traxel. The insectoid was fairly shaking, and he didn't even have the chair to steady himself with.

"Ah yes, let's not forget the pilot. Just what were you trying to tell the... er... Director anyway? You started to say 'if they'. If they what?"

I was unsure just how far I could push this captain with the assumed authority of a director. I didn't even know how much power a Director possessed. By now this captain had been developing a bit of a sneer, and what I took to be sarcasm in his tone. Maybe I could keep his attention shifting between us enough to bypass the questions that had no good answers.

"He's worried you'll find his store of holo's"

"I asked him!"

"Yes, my collection of classic holo's; Irreplaceable."

He tossed accusations at us, and we did our best to deflect the more direct questions, or I should say that I did. Traxel was nervous, and every time the questions got too close to the truth he would start stuttering a bit. The Captain wasn't slow about picking up on the nervousness either, and when Traxel began stuttering, the questions would get really direct at him. A few times we were saved by the Captain's comm signaling a message that he took note of before resuming. The break usually gave me the chance to think of a way to steer the questions away from topics that had no answers.

Every time Traxel became the focus, he came close to breaking down and admitting the lie we were telling. When it got that close, I had to pull the focus back to me with a show of power. I didn't know if I could get away with actual threats, so I merely left it at hints about incorporating him directly into research. That hinted threat actually seemed to stun the Captain for a minute. It left me wondering how powerful Teyrn was to get a reaction like that.

Finally the door opened admitting one of the Kanari. She came in and whispered into the captain's ear. I would surmise that the message held important news as his pointed ears sagged noticeably. I hoped that the news meant good fortune for us. I was running out of ways to stall him, and had basically been repeating a few of the more effective ones. She handed the captain a holo cube, like the one the young Kanari had handed us when they first boarded the ship.

The Captain slid the little cube into the viewer slot on the table, and we all watched as the holo field lit up. The first thing that came up was a very familiar symbol. I'd seen that thing every day of my life, worn by all the people on that orbital lab, including me. The shipsuit I currently wore had the same thing near my left shoulder. Next the scene shifted to display a ship -- our ship. I'd seen the image in the operation manual.

That's when the surprise hit home. The view shifted to an image of me! The only thing about it was that this image was one that had never existed in reality. It displayed me with my hair pulled into a braid as I sometimes did, but this image had me wearing clothes I'd never seen before. They were similar to some of the things I'd pulled from Teyrn's closet, but my one and only suit was this one that I currently wore. The image was also captioned 'Region 1 Senior Director Ion'.

It was hard reading the mood of this Kanari Captain, but it seemed like all the air of importance seemed to have left him. He even seemed to shrink a bit as he turned back to us with a softer tone to his voice.

"I... uh... Director! Thank you for your patience in this... situation, as it were. We..."

He glanced at the Kanari still standing by his shoulder. She handed a tablet to the captain and stepped back. She looked as though she would rather be a thousand parsecs from there at that moment. Reading from it he went on.

"Your ship appears to have hit an unregistered plasma stream upon entry to this system. I will record this event so that the stream can be located and listed. Your ship's systems were overloaded resulting in catastrophic damage to virtually every system aboard."

The Captain looked up at me. I think Traxel had been forgotten several minutes earlier. His change of posture was so sudden and complete that I began to wonder just how big of a bluff I was executing. Could a Director really out power a Reliance Guardsman Captain? My assumed position had enough power to not only get us past this Guardsman captain, but he was actually frightened. All the texts said that this was a point to keep up the front, but reduce the pressure to mild as a way to instill relief. He continued reading from the tablet in a monotone.

"The stellar drive is still non-functional, life support is currently working in marginal conditions. The cyber AI system is not responding, the data grid seems to have escaped with minor damage, and the comm system is half melted."

He was absolutely pleasant as he offered to tow us into Reliance Station. He even extended the invitation to enjoy the view from the bridge of his patrol craft. I started to decline when Traxel tugged at my arm and whispered something about a gift.

I nodded to him: "Of course. Oh, and Captain, my visit here is intended as a surprise. I'd like to keep it that way if possible."

"Of course, Director."

Traxel had a better understanding of the game that was being played at the moment. I had the simple lessons on it from the texts, but this was the first opportunity to put that knowledge into practice. Let him pull off one of his Rampari style victories. Now that his life was not in imminent danger, he was back to his old self. Traxel left the room heading for the air lock, followed by one of the guards, while the captain escorted me to his bridge. I had no idea what gift Traxel could be thinking of, but had to trust that any gift would help about now.

The hatch opened, and we stepped onto a much larger version of the cockpit. Right away I could see why he wanted to show it off. It was impressive. Where our ship had three seats in a triangle, this one had two at the fore, with another three in a row behind those, forming a truncated triangle. The central seat was different in that it had no dedicated console to operate. As we entered a Kanari jumped out of the seat offering it to the captain. He waved the offer aside telling them to take us into the Reliance Station by way of the sun-lit side.

The one that had vacated the central seat turned and repeated the orders to the others seated in the seats with consoles. They each gave a short reply to let him know they'd heard him, though I was convinced that everyone had heard it first when the Captain had spoken. The ship altered course slightly bringing a bluish-green planet into the lower part of the wrap-around view port, which was easily twice the size of the one on our ship.

Even though the central seat lacked a console, there were several controls in the armrests. The Kanari touched a few of them, before calling our attention to a small box on the screen. It looked to be an enlarged view of a minuscule dot hovering over the planet. The enlarged one allowed me to clearly see the cylinder with a string that went all the way down to the planetary surface. There was also a large ring that circled the upper portion of the cylinder.

A speckling of lights along the ring had to be view-ports. There must be thousands of them. That would make the ring a good ten or twelve floors high, and it was only a part of the cylinder. That segment had to be close to five hundred meters tall. Even as I watched, a long tube crawled up the thread into the end of that cylinder.

The lower third of the cylinder was painted the same dull yellow as the uniforms around me. In that space there were at least twenty ships docked that were bigger than the patrol craft I was now riding, but they weren't big at all compared to some of the ones in the white part of the cylinder.

There were likely a hundred other ships attached along the rest of the cylinder. Some of those had to be more than a kilometer in length themselves. It looked like a hive of activity with small sparks lighting up where ships moved nearby. The game I was playing just increased in complexity and risk. I was walking through a field of nettle thorns, where every barb was tipped with instant destruction.

Oh, well. Into the nettle cluster we dive. I had no idea how I would escape from this place.

The captain, oblivious to my dread, introduced the crew on the bridge, and began telling me the details of his ship. There were over sixty Kanari aboard, although it only took about fifteen to run the ship. The rest were boarding soldiers for when they encountered pirates. He named off weapon types and power that meant nothing to me. For my part, I nodded along with his monologue as though I fully understood every detail he was relating.

The one bit of statistics that sparked a recognition came when he talked about the missile bay on his ship that could be put to great effect should some military force decide to try taking them on. His ship had twenty missiles rated at fifteen whole Jumbarian units each. I kept it to myself that Teyrn had tossed two missiles at us that were each nearly four times the power of his. He really had meant to turn us into dust floating through the cosmos.

His monologue was interrupted by the return of Traxel leading the guard to the bridge. The guard was carrying the box of bottles from the stateroom. I caught his nod to me and hoped I understood his intentions. It brought to mind notes I had read before concerning the intricacies of diplomatic exchanges. Thank you, Traxel, for thinking of something to top off the delicate ruse.

"A gift to you, Captain! A thank you, to you and your crew, for your kind and generous assistance." Traxel Proclaimed.

The Captain's mood brightened visibly when he pulled out one of the bottles to read the label. He tried to make it sound casual as he instructed the Kanari to place it into his cabin for the moment, but he was nearly bouncing now. Traxel had come through and found a way to really alleviate any last vestiges of fear in the Captain. A fearful captain could have spelled unpredictable dangers.

With two hours more until docking he treated us to a tour of his ship -- treated me actually. I think Traxel tagged along as an afterthought. It put the captain in his element to be bragging about his ship. The part of it that I'd seen before, as we were led up to the interrogation really hadn't conveyed the proper size of the ship. I had thought it to be about three times the corvette, but it was twice again more. No wonder it moved the joined ships so easily.

I couldn't help but notice the Flux Genetics' symbol imprinted on many of the equipment pieces throughout the ship. When we passed through the weapon room everything was labeled as such. I was beginning to get an idea of just how sharp the knife edge was that Traxel had set me to walking along. So that would help explain why the Captain had deferred so greatly to a Director.

We ended back at the bridge in time to watch the docking maneuver. By now we no longer had to look at an enlarged view of it, the cylinder was facing us close enough to dominate the view-port. As we drew close grapples were shot out to attach to the corvette. Once they were secure it was released to be towed into an enclosed bay. The patrol ship slid sideways several berths before docking. It didn't enter an enclosed bay, but merely nosed to a coupling along the side, spinning at the last moment to dock tail first like our ship had been on the orbital lab.