Shadows of Golstar (34 page)

“She’s already in bed,” Hec responded, “I think she
bought into your argument and took the soother you suggested. It looks to me
like she’s started to drift off.”

“Good. I really wasn’t kidding about getting some
sleep; I’m in desperate need of some myself. Running on nerves can only get you
so far. You start making mistakes, and in our situation that’s something we
can’t afford, but...” Owens’ voice faded. He sat down heavily on the end of his
oversized bed, put the beer on the nightstand and began to remove the tight
suit.

Hec prompted, “But?”

“Oh, sorry,” Owens quickly shed the tight suit and
then sitting in his briefs, grabbed the mug and took another swallow. He rubbed
his eyes, “I’m really dead on my feet, but before I knock off, I wanted to talk
to you without her overhearing. What I have to say would undoubtedly make her
uncomfortable, if not outright hostile. That’s something I really don’t want to
risk before I’m ready.”

“Okay, now you’ve got me curious, Boss. What’s it
about?”

“Two categories,” Owens said, “The first being the
attack on the
Light Saber.
”

“What about it?”

Well, it seems pretty obvious, given the previous
efforts to blow up
this
ship; the attack on the
Saber
was just
one more attempt to take me out. The only goal the mutineers had in mind was to
get rid of
me
. You might think me egotistical, but I believe that in
order to reach that goal, by their twisted logic, they considered the loss of
the
Saber
inconsequential to their plan to get me out of the picture.
What do you think?”

“Well, as farfetched as that sounds, I really can’t
disagree,” Hec answered. “I don’t think there’s any question that their aim was
to kill you and if that meant destroying the
Holmes,
and the
Saber
along with it, so be it. It sure looks like they were taking no chances that
you’d survive the attack. When you think about it, like all the other attempts,
it was a simple plan but this one had the best chance to succeed. The third
attempt could have very well been the charm.”

“Yeah,” Owens agreed. “As it was, it came pretty damn
close to succeeding. But it’s still not over. They might yet succeed.”

“But what really gets to me is the amount of hardware
they’re throwing at us,” Hec said ruefully. “You know that
hydraulic press
I joked about keeps getting bigger and bigger. What’s next, a fleet? I’d shake
my head if I had one.”

Owens scratched his cheek. “Yeah, that’s part of the
bigger mystery, all right. Why are they, whoever they are, willing to expend
that amount of hardware and lives just to take a single man out?”

“Now don’t take offense, but I’ve got to agree with
you. What is it that makes
you
so damn important, Boss? I can’t imagine
the cost, as you say in both in money and lives, just to kill a moderately
successful private detective.”

  Owens had to chuckle, “Moderately successful? I
might argue that, but yeah, that’s another big piece of the puzzle. Money sure
doesn’t seem to be an issue with these guys. They seem to think nothing of
increasing the firepower after each failure. I for one, am not looking forward
to the next escalation, provided of course that we survive this one.”

“Hey Boss, at least you got one thing in your favor.”

“Owens knew what was coming. “Yeah? What’s that?

“Me!”

Owens laughed, “You’re right. Without you at the helm,
we wouldn’t have made it this far.” He sobered, “But the big question remains;
why? What is their motive? Why
am
I so damned important? Why are they
going to all this trouble for just one man? With this last attack, there’s no
question in my mind it has nothing to do with any of my past cases. No, with
this attack, it has to be related solely with the Golstar case, whatever in the
hell that might be. And after the Keeper of the Way’s little nap, I hope I have
a chance to explore that subject in a little more depth.”

Hec noted that Owens had stressed Sharné’s official
title and said, “Well, I admit I’m more than a little curious about this case
myself. I just hope our lucky streak continues long enough for us to find out
what’s going on.”

Hec’s casual comment about luck triggered a notion in
Owens’ mind. He paused a moment, thinking back on the attacks then said
seriously, “You know,” he said slowly, “I really don’t think there was much
luck involved.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that, Boss,” Hec said dubiously.
“Even with my brilliant help, it seems to me we were real lucky to escape the
first attack, let alone all three.”

Owens shook his head in disagreement. “I’m serious,
Hec. I’ll admit that luck did play a small role, but there were other factors
in play that allowed us to beat our attackers. In fact, they’ve contributed to
our survival all along the way.”

“And you know this how?”

“That’s a good lead-in to the second category I wanted
to explore, my observations; what I saw while I was aboard the
Light Saber
.
They helped me to identify those factors. I think you’ll see it all ties in.”

“Explain, Boss.”

“You know that observation and deduction are
fundamental to my profession. They remain the foundation for any investigation.
It’s so ingrained in me that I’m always examining and evaluating my
surroundings, even when I’m off the clock.”

“You’re saying you saw something on the
Light Saber
,
something that clued you into these factors?”

“Yeah, more than one something actually,” Owens
responded. “I saw a number of unusual things during the short time that I was
aboard the
Saber
. Now that I’ve had a little time to digest my
experiences, I can tell you with some confidence our survival wasn’t based on
simple luck.”

 “Okay, I’ll bite. What do you think gave us the edge?”
Hec asked.

“What gave us the advantage was something that simply
doesn’t sync up with anything that I was told on Denbus.” He emptied the mug
and sat it back down.

“Are you saying they lied to you back on Denbus?” Hec
asked.

“Actually no, I don’t think so. I have no reason to
believe I was not given the truth, at least as it was originally recorded by
our historians. Most of the historical information casts a dark shadow on
Confederated Planets as well as it does on Golstar. So from my perspective at
least, the story they gave me appears to ring true.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“The problem is what I’ve seen so far doesn’t support
the story’s linchpin, the reason for Golstar’s isolation.

“Oh, you mean…”

 “I mean their vastly overwhelming technology.” Owens
began ticking items off on his fingers. “One, where were the strangely
configured starships? You know, like the one that penetrated Confederated
Planet’s defenses three centuries ago? The
Light Saber’s
design was a
little odd. It was big, but it looked to be built along similar lines of
Confederated Planets ships. It didn’t come close to the vids of the craft the
government provided me.”

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Hec said. “I just pulled
some of that ship’s images from the
Holmes’
library and nothing that
we’ve seen so far comes close.”

“That’s why I make the big bucks,” Owens said with a
grin. “Still, the
Light Saber
did have a number of notable and unusual
characteristics.”

“Like what?”

“Like when I first entered the main entryway.”

“What’s so unusual about an entryway?”

“It was the design, Hec. I was struck by the
entryway’s design. I expected something techno-modern and ultra functional,
instead it looked like something right out of Earth’s ancient history.”

“Hmm,” Hec commented. “I know there are many in
Confederated Planets that are aficionados of historical periods. Even so, I
wouldn’t have expected similar interests to flourish in Golstar, especially not
in their warships. I’ve always imagined them as militant pragmatists, more like
a warrior culture. I figured they would have leant towards the
ultra-utilitarian school of design. So, what
did
it look like?” 
  

“Well, to my eye at least it looked like the
Saber’s
builders had made a serious attempt to recreate a vision right out of the
Victorian period of ancient Earth’s England.”

“No offense, Boss, but have you looked at this room
lately?”

Owens smiled, looking over at the roll-top desk and
chair, “What can I say? I like old furniture. Anyway, it was the fancy
metalwork design in the entryway that allowed me to see some of the
superstructure.” He paused and yawned. “Although I didn’t recognize it at the
time, that was the first clue that the
Light Saber
was not all what it
seemed.” He went on to describe in detail what he saw when he had entered the
Saber,
including the intricate metal work and odd mottled color scheme.

He raised another finger, “Two. It wasn’t until a
later incident that happened during the attack, that I recognized an earlier
clue had already presented itself in the
Light Saber’s
entryway. A
picture was coming into focus, a picture of Golstar that would run counter to
everything I was told back on Denbus.”

“Incident?”

“Yeah, it was the blowout of a power coupling housed along
one of the ship’s inner corridors. It had apparently failed under the stress of
the attack. When it blew, it took out a big portion of the wall, making quite a
mess and effectively blocking our path to the escape craft.”

“So far I don’t see what you’re getting at, Boss.”

“Have a little patience, I’m getting there. Since we
were stopped dead, I had a brief opportunity to look at the damage; it was a
real jumble. I had just contacted you and while we were talking, I knelt down
to get a better view. When I looked at the rubble, I was struck by the
fractures in the primary metal supports and brackets. What intrigued me was
that most of the metal was broken and shattered rather than twisted or bent.”

Hec interrupted, “I have some background in metallurgy
from my past life, and that doesn’t sound right at all. Wait...” A moment later
Hec said. “I retrieved some data from the
Holmes’
library, and it
confirmed that the alloys used in Confederated Planets ships’ hulls and
superstructures are designed and fabricated to allow for the slight stretching
and twisting that normally occurs when a ship transitions to and from subspace.
The metal and ceramic composites are made flexible in order to endure the
repeated stresses caused by subspace jumps.”

Hec went on, “As my human self, I remember seeing a
few newscasts of wrecked ships. Some of the close-ups of the wreckage always
displayed clumps of metal in twisted, stretched and torn masses. The narrator
never failed to mention the peculiarities of the alloys used in spaceship
construction.”

“Yeah, I know. It syncs up with the overviews on ship
manufacturing that were included as part of my pilot certification training,”
Owens agreed. “So I was surprised when I took a closer look at the metal debris
and found, for the most part, it was fractured rather than warped and bowed. I
admit the emergency lighting wasn’t very good for examining the fragments, and
the smoke haze made it even harder to see, however, I still managed to get a
decent look and fingered a few pieces of the metal understructure.”  

“Okay, what did you see?”

Owens shrugged, “Now
I
don’t have a background
in metallurgy, but to me, the surfaces where the metal gave way felt grainy and
from what I could see at the point of the fracture, it seemed to sparkle, even
in the dim emergency lighting. It looked crystallized. I also looked at a
section of the corridor’s paneling that had blown out when the coupling gave
way.”

“The ship was falling apart, and you still had the presence
of mind to investigate your surroundings?”

 “Yeah, I know it’s a little weird, but in spite
of all that was happening around us, I couldn’t stop myself from snooping. This
was an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I just kept adding to my observations.”

Hec asked, “Just how did you find the time to do all
this? I repeat, the ship was falling apart around you.”

“I don’t know. It just happens sometimes,” Owens
replied. “Time will seem to slow down and regardless of the circumstances, my
curiosity never sleeps; I took advantage of the few opportunities I was
presented.”

“What? You’re always on-duty, on the alert for
anything suspicious? The ship was literally disintegrating, but you were still
the cool and calm private eye to the very end?”

Owens laughed, “Cool and calm? No way. As to being in
detective mode, I’m guilty as charged. Remember, I was mostly just storing
these observations in the back of my mind. I didn’t get a real chance to
consider them again until we were well out of the harm’s way.”

“My hero,” Hec said in a falsetto voice.

“All part of the job, ma’am,” Owens imitated an
ancient actor’s gravelly voice. “Anyway, back to what I was saying, do you
remember my mentioning the antique design and odd color scheme I observed when
I was in the
Light Saber’s
entryway?”