18. The enemy?
Aeolus Trading Prefect resonated like a giant bell from the impact of Lebermac's Orion Convoy Guardian. He had aimed for the docking bay but missed by only a couple of feet. Okay, so he had missed by almost two hundred metres but at least he had hit the station, which was a wonder in his current stage of inebriety. He had moved towards Helios as fast as he could even finding his escort ship to be a bit faster but that had proven to be a bad decision. After launching from Bractus Stronghold he had found the stashed bottle of Teh Killa but recognising the importance of his mission he had put the bottle back untouched. Until he hit Odia and the bottle had somehow re-appeared in his hand, the top un-screwed and a quarter of it disappeared. He had looked for the capsule in vain for at least three seconds and decided that it would be a shame to toss the liquid now he couldn't store it, gulping it down instead. He grimaced as the oily taste of the synthetic liquid covered his mouth and grabbed his hip flask to rinse the evil taste away. Three healthy gulps later he had finished the flask of Helio Mists and the oily unpleasant taste had disappeared unfortunately along with his depth perception. That was the reason his ship was now a metallic smear along the side of the station and why the recovery service had to retrieve him in his pod. Fortunately he had tried it before and was quickly sent on his way. He rummaged around in his pockets and found a "Sobr-M-Up" pill that he downed along with a swig from a bottle of "Aeolus Finest Rhum" that he had appropriated from one of the rescue crew somehow. He requested a position from Riddik and got it, sub-level 66a. Why the hell did he want to meet up down there, the armpit of the station? Lebermac sauntered over to the lift; after all he was in no hurry at all. Wouldn't do to arrive before the bottle was empty.
The lift was a bit too fast and he had only just emptied the bottle when the doors opened. A familiar stench filled his nostrils but the pill had not yet flushed the ethanol from his body and so he couldn't place it. He walked out into the corridor and turned left towards Riddik's position. A lot of red liquid was smeared along one wall and it slowly dawned upon Lebermac that it was blood he could smell. Cautious now he turned the corner and saw the three black clad persons in various degrees of deadness, Riddik against one wall and a single person on the floor that aimed something right at him. He reacted and pulled back instantly avoiding getting his head blown off by the shot of darts that instead impacted on the wall on the opposite side. Lebermac cursed and shouted.
'Riddik, what the hell is this for a welcome? I have crossed oceans of boring space to be here and then I get shot? I could understand a shot of tequila but not a shot of darts."
###
Riddik opened his eyes again when the gun went off and heard Lebermac shout. He had been dozing slightly, his brainpal deciding that it would be best for him with the damages he had sustained. He saw Cat with his heavy needlegun in her hands pointing it towards the lifts.
"Hey Cat, belay that shooting."
"It was an Itani Riddik."
"Yes, I know. I asked him to come here."
The shock was almost palpable when Cat replied.
"But he is Itani Riddik. He is the enemy, they torture our kind to death, they destroy our sanity with their mind tricks."
"Cat, don't believe everything the Bureau of Righteous Thoughts tells you. Most Itani are decent people and this particular one is my friend even though he is a bit rough around the edges. Besides, your own kind was just about to interrogate you which would probably end with a plasma bolt in the back of your head, no?"
Cat looked at Riddik in amazement, she had never considered that the Itani were people and as such capable of all the same emotions and feelings that she had. She nodded and put the gun down.
"Leebs, it is okay. Just had to convince this young lady that not all Itani are child eating monsters."
Lebermac peered around the corner and smiled at Cat.
"Where I am from, we are taught that all Serco suck the brains of living humans for sustenance. Took me a while to figure out otherwise. Hi, I am Lebermac."
Cat nodded and moved a bit to the side; apparently she was not entirely convinced.
"Crap Riddik, I thought it was Keria that needed help?"
Riddik smiled and grimaced from the pain that particular movement caused.
"It was when I was asked to help the young lady here."
"They were only three of them, you must have lost your edge."
Riddik pointed to the side corridor where the remaining corpse was sitting against the wall, headless. Lebermac nodded and produced a hip flask that he took a large gulp from before kneeling down to the handcuffs around Cat's hands.
"Right, I'll get these off and then we get Riddik to one of my pals. I need a location for Keria too mate, then I can send someone to get her there too, okay? I am pretty sure he can fix you and the missus even though he never graduated from med school. On the other hand, he is cheap."
The handcuffs released their grip on her hands as if by magic and Cat got up to collect the weapons and ID tags from the agents. She finished and turned to Lebermac.
"So, where are we going? I need to inform my boss."
Lebermac looked at Riddik who merely nodded.
"Tell your boss we are going to Dr. Nick Esquicilante, he can meet us there."
###
Kassad slipped away from the station as unnoticed as he had arrived boosting for the 3k-jump mark immediately. He needed to find someone to replace Yarina fast and he was not really all that sure he had anyone that could. At least her schooling had been good enough for her to realise when she became a liability instead of an asset and warn him in advance. He jumped to an unmarked location and from there jumped randomly seven times before powering his ship down to passive sensors only. He waited the full thirty minutes that the manual demanded before jumping a new set of three random jumps that ended with him jumping to the wormhole that was the closest guarded secret of the Brotherhood of Akan. The wormhole led into a cull de sack or at least they had not yet found another wormhole in the system. That enabled the brotherhood to keep their presence a secret not only for the Serco, but also for the Itani. Not all Itani were of the same radical opinions as the brotherhood after all, and the brotherhood did not hold evil will against them for that. In the end they would be saved from the Serco whether they wanted to or not.
###
Vaso was ejected into space and abandoned by the ship that immediately burned hard for the 3-k mark and jumped back to the safety of monitored space. The intense cold of nothing bit hard on the skin causing extreme discomfort but not as bad as the pain he felt on the raw ends of his wounds. He had his eyes closed; they were the only part of him that could not take direct vacuum for prolonged periods but was scanning in the entire electromagnetic spectrum for his new ride. After five minutes he began doubting whether or not the bloody UIT had dumped him in the wrong sector displaying their incompetence in a new and for him lethal way. He could feel his core temperature sink to below thirty degrees and activated the small emergency power source that would heat his vitals for around twenty minutes. After that it was a losing game for him and he would slowly become a large meatcicle ending with his brain freezing after about thirty minutes of exposure. He stopped the blood flowing through his lower extremities and wiggled his toes for the last time. They were not essential after all, but he kinda liked them. The radar energy that hit him after a further five minutes almost made him open his eyes and shout with joy but survival ensured he kept as still as before. He felt the jolt of the ship scooping him up like a crate of Aquean ore and waited for the hold to re-pressurize be fore opening his eyes and taking a deep breath.
"You failed Vaso. You were caught."
Vaso searched for the voice in vain and realised that the person speaking was not present.
"I have something that needs to go directly to Diplomatic Services immediately."
The door to the inside of the ship opened and two heavily armoured and armed marines stepped in followed by Asteroth himself.
"This better be good if you expect it to save your skin son."
"Not only my skin Sir, but that of Arhem too."
Vaso opened his prisoner coverall and drew out two packages, one with a bio-contamination label on it.
"This is the brainpal of Arhem Sir, complete with his last memories. It appears that it is only slightly damaged but accessible. The other package is to you from commander Fletholm himself. He was adamant that only you were allowed to get the package."
Asteroth ignored the bio-labelled package and took the other. He opened it and shook the single mem-crystal out.
"When was your latest mem-storage that we have Vaso?"
"I believe it was two weeks ago Sir. We submitted one to Silia and I am assuming that she sent it to you."
Asteroth nodded and smiled.
"Perfect, that allows us to clean up this mess completely."
He turned and walked out of the door with Vaso following him with his eyes all the way. The two marines levelled their heavy plasma beams at Vaso.
"I see. So be it, Hail Lady Serco."
The marines fired the heavy plasma bolts into the torso of Vaso, vaporising the man from the neck down. One of them then used the stock to crack the skull open and extract Vaso's brainpal before firing a plasma shot into the remains vaporising that too. The two brainpals were handed over to Asteroth who smiled at the marines before heading up on the flight deck. If the data was as good as the late Vaso had said it was he would ensure that the two boys were given a new chance but without the trauma of having been defeated and captured. The two-week memory loss was not too much to sacrifice for operational security after all. He would get all the data stored in their brainpals and then destroy them. They would never know and neither would anybody else but him. Well maybe Fletholm but he would also know what had happened to Vaso and Arhem. Otherwise he would not have sent the brainpal along.
