5. Spook's time
The uniform that the GESTEBO officer was wearing had been designed for two things, and comfort was not one of them. It mattered not to the intelligence officer who was wearing the uniform, because it did the other things so very well. All black except for the small silver lightning bolts on the collar, it had obviously been designed to intimidate. Right now it worked it seemed, with the Itani human norm cringing underneath the gaze of the interrogator. Most of the Itani that had been captured were of little or no interest being traders or gunners on trade vessels but this particular Itani had been flying security. And it looked like he had some military grade bionics in him that betrayed his former occupation.
"So, I will give you a last chance to tell me exactly where you got those implants and what you do with them."
The interrogator pointed to the young Itani male that was held by one of the massive Special Forces operatives, a picture of pure terror painted on his face.
"Or I can tell Günter here to start ripping your friends limbs off."
The brute showed absolutely no outward emotion, but the Itani both believed that he would do it. Still, the interrogated man refused with a shake of his head. The interrogator nodded to Günter who grabbed the left arm of the Itani and ripped it off. The screams of pain soon stopped as the young man fainted. Günter applied a tourniquet to stop the bleeding and scrimmaged around for a wake-me-upper. The interrogated man shook his head and started talking, his loathing and contempt for the interrogator almost a physical entity in itself, but nevertheless, he talked. When the interrogator was satisfied that he had given everything he got, he once more nodded to Günter who removed the other Itani from the room.
"Well Itani, it seems that you have just won yourself a tour to Geira Rutilus where you will be entertained by the Serco State."
He took the captive's chin in one hand and directed his face to enable him to look straight in his eyes.
"And with the slightest of lucks, you have just secured my promotion."
The Itani spat in the face of the interrogator who moved back. Chuckling he wiped the spittle off with one gloved hand, showing the other thing that the uniform was very good at. It was stainless, perfectly stainless.
"I see. Well for that little insolence I shall let you witness what happens to the other prisoners."
He activated a control and the far wall became a video screen showing four Itani prisoners getting pushed out of an airlock. The captive tried to look away, but could not. Instead tears started trickling down his cheeks as he witnessed their agonising deaths in silence.
"Do not concern yourself with them, they got the easy way out. You on the other hand gets to meet the Grand Inquisitor."
The GESTEBO officer injected something into the captive's neck and he passed out. Sweet darkness, sweet sleep.
###
Professor Raewon frowned and then shook his head. He marvelled, how on Eo do they find such stupid people and place them in high command? He mentally agreed with himself that it had to be a question of loyalty way above capacity and intelligence. He cleared his throat and addressed the IDF high command.
"With all due respect Admiral Otestrom, I think you are grasping this whole idea wrongly. First, we do not know if we can duplicate the results with another Omega, we do not know if we can make another Omega, we do not know what the long-term effects are on the Omega, and lastly we do not know what the effects are on the pilot. So, I urge you to give us more time instead of throwing what may be our best shot at ending this continuous bloodletting away."
The officers around the table looked towards the Admiral of The Fleet in expectation of one of the outbursts of rage that usually was part of the retort to anything that went counter to what he wanted accomplished. They were disappointed when he merely leaned forward and explained in a low voice.
"I hear your arguments, and they are very good. However I aim to deploy the weapon as soon as possible against a Serco foe to test it in real combat. Have the necessary equipment set up for a combat patrol in Deneb in two days from now along with the 62nd fighter squadron. This is not a request, it is an order."
The Admiral leaned back and kept staring at Raewon until Raewon looked away.
"Yes Sir, I'll see to it."
"Very well, dismissed."
The Admiral opened the next matter of urgency for the IDF high command.
"What the hell is this? Who in the name of Akan wanted me to address this matter?"
He looked around and the Admiral in charge of logistics raised his hand slowly.
"I should have known it was you. Tell me in one coherent sentence why I should care about what problems you have with procuring socks for the navy? No, even better tell me what you are doing to solve this and why the HELL it is on my desk?"
Raewon got up and left the high command to more urgent matters, happy that at least the sock problem had been solved at Tellus.
###
Fletholm cursed under his breath and closed the screen on his computer to hide the game of solitaire he had been playing, before yelling a "Come In" in response to the knocking. Didn't they know he was a busy man? Eggert walked in, a sheet of paper in one hand and a data disk in the other.
"Sir, I think I have something on the Tellus case."
Fletholm looked at him without showing any signs of having understood what the young man just said, waiting for further information.
"Sir? The case with the Valkyrie?"
"Yes, I know very well. You said you have something, what?"
Eggert closed the door and presented the paper.
"I have here a hospital slip showing that Captain Taerow was submitted two days ago."
Fletholm sighed loudly.
"Just tell me what you have figured out? My time is valuable, I do not have extra to spare for drawing conclusions that I pay you to draw."
"Yes Sir. As I said, Taerow is hospitalised. However he has been working on that project as far as we know. Our informants tell us that he is the attached pilot. The correlation is that he fell ill immediately after the Doom Valkyrie docked."
"The Doom Valkyrie?"
"Yeah, that's what I call it. Anyway, it has not flown since."
Impatiently Fletholm raised his eyebrows and looked at the young man.
"And?"
"Around the same time that the Doom Valk flew, a group of six regular Valkyries and six Centurion IBG left Botelli Hold. They never arrived anywhere, indicating that they were lost."
Fletholm felt the Interstellar Coalition of Ulcer inducing cells settle in his stomach with the force of a nuclear weapon. A stream of acid tried to force its way up in his oesophagus, always a sign that the end product of human food consumption was about to hit a particular rotating blade situated above his head.
"Do you have the proof on that disk?"
Eggert nodded and handed it over.
"Right, continue working on that Doom Valk, I want to find out what it does. I'll have to go brief the Admiral on this."
Eggert grinned fiercely, made a mock salute and walked out. Fletholm grabbed his coat and moved towards UIT HQ. Somehow he was not sure he was going to finish his game of solitaire anytime soon.
