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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