Sertian Princess (26 page)

He turned back to the Wave Particle device.  Another couple of minutes and it would be set.  Then he would have to place it as near to the main drive chamber as possible and give himself 10.... no maybe 15 minutes to get clear of the Cleopatra in the launch.  He was confident again now.  The immediate danger had passed and he was back in control of the situation.

The Wave Particle Transformer on which he was working, was an elegantly simple device.  Its function was to disrupt the ion flow through the main ships drives, converting the ion particles into wave forms which would rapidly begin to oscillate out of control, causing the drives to go unstable.

He had used these devices twice before with total success.  The beauty of them was that once the stability of the main drives was disturbed more than 10 percent, it was virtually impossible to prevent them from going critical.  Once the device was in place and activated, the future existence of the Cleopatra, and of the Princess of Serta, would be measured in a matter of minutes.

CHAPTER 25

In the centre of the garden surrounding his quarters on the Salamander, was a quiet pool where the stream which hitherto had wandered along in an apparently aimless fashion, abruptly fell down a three metre cliff and paused briefly before resuming its circuitous route.  The fact that the pool was not precisely in the centre of the garden nor even particularly quiet, was not something which disturbed David in the least.  It was his "quiet" place.

To one side of the pool, and screened from the rest of the garden by a careful arrangement of tumbled rocks and densely growing shrubs, was a small, roughly circular area of turf just big enough to stretch out on.  Although the whole garden was his personal creation, the pool was special and not even the favoured few of the crew who knew of its existence, would dare to disturb him there.

Zara was the only person who David had ever allowed to freely use the pool and she was with him now as he sat on the springy turf.  The noise of the water dropping into the pool was filtered out by years of habit and the environment of the Salamander contracted to the boundaries of the grassy pool as he drew the comfort of the surroundings like a cloak around him.

An hour earlier he had felt the touch of Suzanne's mind before it had fled in horror from the carnage on the surface of Parm.  Now he needed to establish that link again as the last desperate means of communication with the Cleopatra.  He touched Zara's hand lightly as together they sent the power of their combined intellects reaching towards the tiny corvette, searching for the familiar pattern of Suzanne's thoughts.

The contact, when it came, was both sudden and painful.  The fear and turmoil in Suzanne's mind was an almost tangible barrier and they felt her body give an involuntary shudder as she recognised the touch of their contact.  With only the barest pause to satisfy the etiquette of telepathy, they plunged into the welter of Suzanne's thoughts and Zara gave her total attention to reassuring Suzanne that both she and David were safe and well.  Meanwhile David assessed their surroundings through Suzanne's eyes.

The small group of people in the cabin had turned to look at Suzanne, concern spreading across their faces at the gasp she had uttered when David and Zara had found her.  David recognised Princess Nerissa instantly and the two men with her were the Captain of the Cleopatra and the Surgeon....  What was his name now?

"Commander Anton Barasny", Suzanne supplied as she recovered her poise.

"Thank you Suzanne.  Please reassure your friends here that you are all right and then give them a message."

"What's the matter, Suzanne?"  Mikael was by her side now.

"Nothing's the matter.  I'm fine."  She smiled at him.  "Lord David is here with me.  And Lady Zara."

"Zara.  She's safe?"  Neri exclaimed.

"The operation on Parm was a success then?" asked Mikael.

Suzanne had to raise her voice to make herself heard above the flurry of excited questions.

"One at a time please.  Yes Zara and Lord David are both safe but they want me to relay an urgent message."

Suzanne frowned as she concentrated on the thoughts being placed in her mind and spoke more slowly now as she tried to interpret them for the listeners.

"One of the bodies found on the Aldebaran has been positively identified as a crew member of the Cleopatra.  At the same time, one of the passengers is missing and it is believed he may be an assassin known to be in the pay of Vostov.  This man is clever and extremely dangerous.  He may have taken the place of your crewman."

"But which crewman?"  Mikael interrupted.

"Galileo was the name given to us by Star Base Command at Runnymede.  Leading Artificer Francesco Galileo."

"Galileo.  But that's impossible.  He's in my sickbay right now."

"Are you sure it's Galileo, Tony?  Did you recognise him?

"Well no.  I'd never seen him before.... but he must be genuine. Otherwise he wouldn't have matched the real Galileo's medical records."

"Unless the records had been tampered with.  We know our man has accessed the main computers.  You'd better check with Erik to see if the medical records have been updated."

Anton hurried from the room as Mikael leaned across to the intercom.

"Bosun, I want you and two of your finest, on the Bridge now.  In full combat rig."

He turned back to Suzanne.  "Is there anything else that Lord David can tell us about this man?  Anything at all?"

"Wait a minute, I'll try to verbalise it for you.  'He operates under a whole string of aliases but it is believed his real name is Junius LeFevre.  He first came to notice as a student at the University of Salkar where he was reading Astrophysics and Space Technology Engineering.  Reports from the University say that he was a brilliant student.  Then one day the entire Space Technology Laboratory was destroyed in an explosion which flattened half the campus.  For a long while LeFevre was believed to have been killed in the explosion, until he suddenly turned up working as a scientific advisor to various mercenary outfits.  It is known that he served for a while with the rebel forces on Rigel before leading a delegation to Vostov and effectively vanishing.  Information since that time has been a lot more patchy.  He has been linked with the assassination of several prominent figures but there has never been any proof.  He specialises in causing mechanical accidents on spacecraft using the knowledge he gained in his student days.'  Lord David says that's about all we know of him."

"Yes we'd gathered that he had some expertise as a saboteur," Mikael said drily.

He looked up at the knock on the door to see the bosun, in full armour, almost completely blocking the opening.  He went across and spoke quietly.

"Bosun, you know we suspect that there is a saboteur on board."

The big man nodded quickly as Mikael went on.

"We have information that he may be in the sickbay masquerading as L/A Galileo.  I want you to go to the sickbay and seize anybody there who you don't personally recognise.  If there's nobody there, leave one of your men to secure the area and report back here at the double. And be careful, this man is extremely dangerous."

"Aye aye, sir."

The bosun departed, unblocking the door frame and allowing Anton to come back in with Van Gelst.

"You were right, sir," Erik said.  "We were narrowing the search down to the medical records anyway, but when the surgeon suggested Galileo we went straight to it.  His records were updated from the command console in the launch during the time that the launch was docked with the Aldebaran."

"So.  We seem to be getting somewhere at last.  Let's hope the bosun finds him still in the sickbay."

"I've cancelled his security clearance anyway, sir.  Routine precaution.  If we seal the bulkhead doors now, we should isolate him in whatever section he's in."

"Thank you Erik.  I'll decide about the doors when I hear from the Bosun.  Meanwhile, knowing that it's Galileo should make it easier to trace the accesses he's made to the computer files.  I want the complete log of all accesses in the name of Galileo, made during and after the rendezvous with the Aldebaran."

"I've already got them working on it, sir.  You'll have it within the next five minutes."

The intercom buzzed noisily.  Mikael reached over and pushed a stud on the wall unit.  "Captain."

"Bosun here, sir.  The sickbay is empty.  No sign of anyone and nothing obviously out of place.  I'll secure the room and leave Yates here as you ordered, sir."

"Thank you, bosun.  I'll have the surgeon come down and check the place over.  Let Yates know and then report back here."

"Aye aye, sir."

Mikael looked at Anton who nodded in acknowledgement and slipped out through the door.

"Well, I guess we shouldn't expect to get too lucky."

He turned back to the intercom.  "Frank."

"Yes sir?"

"Has that sweep for stowaways been completed yet?"

"Yes sir.  Every compartment and locker large enough to hide a body has been searched.  Nothing was found."

"Was there any sign of Galileo?"

"I don't know, sir.  I didn't see him myself but I'll have to ask the other search party."

"It's only a long shot but check on it anyway and then get back to the bridge.  As soon as you and the bosun get here, I'll be bringing the ship to Action Stations - Condition Red."

"Aye aye, sir."

***

Inside one of the crawlways alongside the cable ducts to the engine room, LeFevre heard the klaxon signalling Action Stations.  His absence from the sickbay must have been discovered and the Captain was obviously taking no chances.  The next step would probably be a full-scale search of the ship.  Say 10 minutes if they were efficient plus a couple of minutes thinking time.  He did a quick calculation of the time it would take him to reach the launch, decided it was less than 10 minutes and relaxed again.

He set the timer on the Wave Particle Transformer for 15 minutes to give himself a safety margin.  Then, wedging it securely amongst the control cables at the point he judged to be nearest to the main drive units, he began rapidly inching his way backwards towards the launch bay.  There was a T-junction just beyond the engine room which enabled him to turn round.  He checked his watch.  Two minutes gone.  Still he would make better time going forwards again.  And he still had minutes to spare before the Captain realised he could not be found.

The gas, when it came then, almost caught him off-guard.  A prickling of the hairs that warned of imminent danger and caused him instinctively to freeze until the threat had been identified.  Then training took over as he felt in one of his belt pouches for filter plugs.  His time sense expanded so that each second seemed like an hour before he could insert the plugs in his nostrils and take a breath again.

"Damn."  He started to crawl along the narrow serviceway once more.  But faster now.  Skin disappeared from knees and knuckles but he took no notice.  "Damn" again.  That Captain was either smarter than he looked or he was panicking and had made a lucky guess.  On the whole, experience had taught him not to believe in lucky guesses, so the pursuit must be closer behind than he had thought.

He considered the implications of this last conclusion as he made his way towards the launch bay.  It would be guarded now for a certainty.  He checked his watch again.  Seven minutes gone.  He reached the access hatch to the passageway outside the launch bay and took a few seconds to control his breathing before cautiously easing it open.  A flash of violet light almost blinded him as an energy bolt just missed the narrow opening and ricocheted its way down the corridor.  He slammed the hatch shut and took off again down the crawlway.

In the glimpse he had before the lightning flash, he had seen two heavily armoured sailors, one facing each of the two nearest access hatches to the launch bay airlock.  They had not only been guarding the launch but they had been expecting him to emerge through one of those hatches.  He heard the hatch open behind him as he wriggled round a corner and stopped out of sight.  Both the men he had seen had been in full space armour so they could not easily follow in the confined space of the crawlway.

But the easy route to the launch was cut off.  He looked at his watch.  Over nine minutes had gone now.  In just over five minutes they would start to notice problems in the engine room.  How long there was after that depended on how accurately he had calibrated the Transformer.  Maybe another 10 minutes.  Maybe a little more.  But within that time he had to seize and make off with a well-guarded ships launch.

***

Mikael was in the Captains seat on the bridge, flanked by Nerissa and Suzanne, when the reports came in of the activity at the airlock. He was not really surprised that the gas had been unsuccessful: he had judged LeFevre to be too quick to be caught that way but it had been worth a try.  It was a pity though that the shot at the airlock had missed its target.

"Where" he wondered, "will he try to break through next?"

He was so engrossed in calculating the various attack/defence permutations that he did not realise he had spoken out loud until Suzanne replied.

"Captain" she began.  "My Lord David suggests that it may be more profitable to discover where LeFevre has been, rather than worry about where he is going next."

He looked at her in puzzlement.  He had not realised that she was still in mental contact with Lord David.  There was no outward sign.  She looked and talked normally but, inside that beautiful head, there were the thoughts of two other people.  It was not something he could easily understand.

But all he said was, "Why so?"

"Because we know where he's going, Captain.  He's trying to reach the launch and escape.  That means he's probably already done whatever damage he was planning to the Cleopatra."

"And has Lord David got any suggestions where to start looking? There are several kilometres of those serviceways, all interconnecting."

"Unfortunately, the man LeFevre appears to have some latent telepathic ability and is partially blocking our attempts to read his thoughts.  We cannot help, Captain."

Mikael swung the command seat to face Van Gelst.  "Erik, set up the TacAn Computers to backtrack the saboteur from the point of emergence at the launch bay.  Restrict the possible routes to the service tunnels."