21. Insertion team
The old battered green and yellow matted moth was carrying a cargo of Carbonic ore, 120 crates of roughly 300 kilos each. Hailing from Azek originally and running under UIT government license, it had moved with no incidents at all to the border post at Jallik Watch. The customs officer had lifted one eyebrow in disbelief at why anyone would move carbonic ore any distance, but the manifest fitted with the actual cargo. He had scanned two random crates and come up with correct weight and content.
“Something about a special roid that would allow Eo roses to attain those fantastic colours” the pilot had said.
Sometimes he wished he were stationed in Deneb instead where once in a while a trader tried to smuggle contraband in the form of Serco items across the border, but his luck had guaranteed that he would be stationed here in the ass-end of Space. If he did well in this posting he could ask for a transfer maybe next year or something. Bah, and his lunch was getting cold too. Sighing deeply, he signed the customs document electronically and sent the trader away on his way to the home of the Itani people, Eo.
The pilot fired the twin engines on the moth and boosted to 160 m/s, the maximum for the ship. The pilot anticipated the 1,3 G forces as the ship accelerated and leaned back in his seat to let it take the brunt of the force. He smiled broadly; phase one was now complete and the team had infiltrated Itani space with no problems. The team had discussed whether to take the direct route to Cantus and thus transgress the border in Deneb, but the risks of getting discovered had been deemed too high. This route would take three days to insert the team but the risks of discovery were pretty low. Besides, with the team in suspended animation inside the crates time was not really a factor and someone was supposed to have stalled the Itani program a bit. Bored at flying the large cargo vessel, he twisted it slowly doing a large barrel roll while engaging the jump engines.
###
The cancer inside Utia's head had decided to manifest itself in one of the most embarrassing ways that he could think of; he had lost bladder control. The doctor had been very understanding and had provided him with a small implant that could be controlled with a remote and ensured that he did not wet himself all the time, but that was beside the point. He had finally managed to gather the courage to ask Yarina out for dinner and she had against all his expectations accepted. However, the luck he had been receiving lately would naturally ensure that the device, so unflatteringly named an Incontinence Manager, would fail during the evening. Well, he could always hope that the good Lady Faith had forgotten about him for tonight and left him alone. He dressed in his uniform and made sure that his medals shone like they should. Especially the 100 kills starburst he had received three months ago. He grinned, all girls he knew off liked a man in uniform and he hoped that Yarina would too. He hefted the ceremonial dagger and placed it on his hip making sure the safety was on. Satisfied he turned and walked out of his room to go pick up his date whistling an old song slightly off-key.
###
Keria let her fingers caress Riddik's face in farewell and left him to board the Vulture that was standing by in the launch bay. While she acknowledged the decision that her husband had taken, it was not one she could take herself. She could not leave the Serco people no matter what cost and she knew that Riddik would never have it any other way. She closed the canopy and launched following the STC's commands for a safe jump vector to Serco space. She was going back to see if what Riddik had told her was really true. If SCAR had indeed allowed her to be delivered to GESTEBO it had lost its value for her and she would be forced to take drastic measures. At least the extradition order had been rescinded and she was allowed to pass the boundary turrets with no problems with only a friendly hail from the border strike force to welcome her back into the realm of Lady Serco. She clenched her jaw and set course for Skycommand for the headquarters of SCAR.
###
The single photon canon attached to his helmet provided the only light in the otherwise pitch-black tunnel he was working in. One could be excused to assume that the depths of space would be cold, harsh and unforgiving especially when that particular piece of real-estate was so far from the nearest sun as to reduce it to a mere quarter-inch point, that is, when he was lucky enough to actually see it. They would be right too, well almost right. He had never sweated so much as after he started here, he had never been so tired and never had so little hope as the last week and he had no idea how he would last the next one. If there was a hell this was surely purgatory. Brix cursed the day he had called his friend to ensure the speedy delivery of a package that would have given him so little. Actually he cursed the Serco that had killed his friend and effectively himself as well that horrible day. Why the hell had he singled him out? He would give just about anything to get even with that accursed people. Her realised that had been inactive for too long again and the light inside his helmet flashed angrily red twice. He closed his eyes in anticipation of the punishment that was about to arrive and was not disappointed when the inducer implanted in his cortex fired and destroyed all the nerve endings in his entire body as if he had been power-hosed in sodium hydroxide. Well at least it felt like that; in reality he knew that the damage inflicted was purely imaginary but that did not make it hurt less. He awoke again, soiled and tired with little choice but getting up and heft the heavy mining drill. He would like most of all to get back at the Serco but in reality he just wanted this to end.
###
William twisted his Valkyrie slowly while moving on the most efficient vector toward Tellus and a well-deserved break. He had been on search patrol for almost twelve hours with his wingman Janice Parsons. Wingman, he grinned, Janice would take offence to that and probably beat whoever called her a man in whatever context it was delivered. She had been right about this assignment, it had been a wild goose chase with nothing but a couple of bot CPU's to show for it. Unfortunately he had thought that they would find something and had agreed to her wager meaning that he would have to use some of his hard earned money on a set of real steaks from real live cattle on Eo and prepare them in their home.
"Bet you are sorry we made that bet now Bill."
He laughed aloud at the message from the other Valkyrie; only Janice could manage to pack so much schadenfreude into one sentence.
"Nah, at least I am sure we are going to get some tasty well prepared food tonight."
"Don't tell me you are going to make raw meat again."
"What, raw? It was heated to several degrees above ambient. I wouldn't want to spoil the taste of the meat by charring it."
"There better be salad too. The little one needs her vitamins"
William laughed out aloud once more. Life was truly great and going to be better in five months time. He docked the ship and vaulted out of the cockpit, running to the other Valk docked next to him. He grabbed his fiancée around the waist to carry her into the station to mock protests about her not being made of glass and that he should put her down.
###
The special operative finished with the last memory reading and terminated the life of the subject he had worked on. In accordance with Itani law the bodies had been cleansed of their hosts and would be used again for a mind that needed it, most often the military. He smiled a wry smile when he considered that this exact mind/person had in fact been opposed to the military and especially the reuse of bodies. Being convicted as an enemy of the state naturally removed any choice the person had had in the matter and allowed the state to use it as it saw fit. Sometimes life gave some unanticipated twists and this was one of them. As far as he could see the victims had all been guilty of crimes against the state in various degrees but none of it anyhow related to the project he had been asked to look for. He reckoned that the group would have been the recipient of maximum three years of suspension at the most for their collected crimes but that was second-guessing. Seemed like someone had needed a scapegoat. He sent the information on to the high secretariat and terminated his part of the case.
###
"All pilots power down and await my command. Do not acknowledge signal."
Cat received the signal from the leader of her squadron, Kalimenshae Kael, and did as ordered. The silence inside her SVG was deafening and when she closed her eyes she could just as well not have existed. She hated waiting like this but understood the necessity of extreme secrecy. If the Itani knew that two Serco strike teams were now floating through space no more than a jump away from the most secret research station in Itani space, they would undoubtedly be launching everything that could fly towards them. They had infiltrated Itani space in singles, forming up inside Cantus space a day or so before the attack was about to commence. Soon they would be given their flight orders and the wait would be over. Cat powered her internals down and slaved her awareness level to the threat indicator on the SVG. If something hostile arrived her ship would wake her.
