In high orbit above the moon the Skeets
were waiting anxiously for the Blue Marlin to leave the surface and navigate
its way back through the Proximity Sensor Field when they picked up another
vessel on their long range sensors.
“Oh shit” Zerrad exclaimed
“What?”
“I’m picking up a single Firedart heading
our way” Zerrad replied
The Firedart in question was on patrol in
that sector when they picked up the beacon and decided to investigate.
The decent back down to the ship was easier
than the climb up but it still took half an hour and they still found the
atmosphere uncomfortable to walk in and they were very fatigued by the time
they got aboard.
“War Horse calling Delivery Boy, War Horse
calling Delivery Boy” Lyris said and a moment later Nulak’s voice came
back
“Delivery Boy receiving”
“We have a Firedart heading our way” Lyris
said
“Lifting off now” Nulak responded
Relieved to hear they were leaving the moon
the Skeets decided to play possum and switch off all non-essential systems and
let themselves drift away from the moon and hopefully be invisible to the
Legion vessel.
As soon as Captain Nulak had navigated his
way through the Proximity Sensor Field he activated the Stealth Cloak and was
not concerned by the imminent arrival of a Firedart as he would easily be able
to out run them, but the Firedarts pilot managed to lock on to the Blue Marlin
before Nulak had full deployed the Cloak so unknown to the Captain the Legion
craft was on an intercept cause, the Cloak didn’t make the vessel invisible in
the accepted sense of the word but hid it from detection by sensors and scanning.
What the Legion pilot was unaware of
however was that there was a Spider Hawk in the vicinity, which was biding its
time to strike.
The Skeets had seen the Blue Marlin leave
the moons atmosphere and head towards the rendezvous with the Tornado and were
tracking the Firedart so they knew both vessels were coming their way.
“Now just Remember we’re no longer at war
with the Legion so there’s no need to splash him, just disable his main engine”
Zerrad cautioned
“I know, I remember” Lyris said just as the
Firedart appeared ahead of them, then he brought the main engines on line and
gave it maximum thrust and was on the Firedart before the pilot was even aware
of their presence and only knew they were there after Lyris had fired four
precisely aimed Laser Pulses and his ship was dead in space.
Zerrad noted the coordinates and then the
Spider Hawk left the disabled fighter in its wake and set off in pursuit of the
Blue Marlin although he knew he had no hope of catching it, and didn’t expect
to see it again until they reached the Tornado, and as it turned out he was not
wrong.
There was a real sense of celebration
aboard the Tornado after they successfully completed their mission, and with no
loss of life or limb to boot.
Bagg provided them with a hearty supper and
some alcohol was imbibed
But behind closed doors in their quarters
when the couples had time to themselves the feelings were more about relief and
gratitude.
Lyris Skeets first task when back aboard,
after embracing Asti, was to send an encoded message to Supreme Commander Emad
Salmin detailing the coordinates for the becalmed Firedart Fighter, he had been
stranded in space more than once so he knew how it felt, and he was relieved to
hear a few hours later that the pilot had been recovered safely.
The moment that the Blue Marlin and the
Spider Hawk had docked, the Tornado set course for Soman, and the crew had to
man the bridge in shifts.
The next day Captain Nulak took his leave
and had to return from whence he had come.
When the Tempest Class Freighter Tornado
arrived at Soman with Merri piloting and Shiyne in the co-pilot seat,
she used the Tornado’s four vertical take-off jumper engines and landed softly
on the Apron, and when Merri and Shiyne emerged down the ramp they were amazed
at the quantity and variety of craft on the apron.
“Is this our doing?” Merri asked quietly
and Shiyne read the minds of some of the nearest lifeforms and smiled
“Oh yes”
As they walked across to the main building
Oshwin Lemik suddenly appeared at the top of the steps, he was a huge man,
built like a bear, with a barrel chest, a full beard and a booming voice.
“Captain Strong, so good to see you”
But as they embraced he whispered
“My God you’ve stirred up a real hornets
nest”
Since heading back on the return journey
they had had no meaningful contact with the outside world, they had a number of
deliveries to remote communities on Reknar but apart from that they had been
quite insular during the five day journey, until reaching Soman, when the news
caught up with them.
After the data packets were transmitted
they spread like a wildfire from system to system and with it the sordid tales,
revelations and recriminations, and many a well-respected figure had fallen from grace.
Some of them were politician’s, or public
figures, community leaders and captains of industry, while others were major
criminals, protected by corrupt members of the justice
systems, but the mostly the sinister figures were men like Neff Abery, who were
the deviant pullers of strings, the master manipulators, who did whatever they
had to, including murder, to get what they wanted.
The moment that Supreme Commander Emad Salmin
got word that the data transfer had been successful he immediately deployed the
task force he had on standby on Zenden’s moon Linden, and they moved to secure
Lindens moon Miah to prevent Neff Abery from slipping through the net, there
were other prime targets on his “to do” list, but Neff Abery was the top
target.
He had wanted to be there for the arrest but
there were so many operations happening simultaneously he had to remain at his
headquarters overseeing everything.
But it still gave him great satisfaction when
everything went like clockwork and everyone on the list were detained, as well
as a considerable number who weren’t, but the cherry on the cake was the news
that Neff Amery cried like a baby when he was restrained.
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