Chapter 11. The Contact
07 Oct 2020Black Llama
September 30, 3306Deep space, Nandh system
The two ships dropped out of supercruise near a derelict beacon, a few thousand light seconds from the system's star. One was an unmarked Federal Dropship. The other one was the Rogue Star, with Mila Skinner at the controls.
The Dropship's pilot opened the comms channel. "Hey Skinner, long time no see. Nice ship."
"Zhang. I would love to pretend it's mine, but it's a company ship." After a pause: "Thanks for responding. Wasn't sure you would."
"You were one of us, and you know we put our Intelligence family above everything else" came the response. "Let's make this quick. The whole Agency is a hornet's nest right now, with the whole Starship One trial situation. I need to be somewhere else soon."
"You got the data packets," Skinner said. "My boss is really interested in what you can tell us."
"The ship signals were easy - we have most Imperial capital ship's signatures on record. The interdictor that attacked you is the INV Wandering Sword. It is part of the Imperial 11th Intervention Fleet, created during Patreus's rearmament program. The fleet is under the command of Duke-Admiral Antonio Belgard, who seems to mostly use it for his own private purposes. Now, as to why they attacked you on Hermitage, we have no idea. I'm sending over some files on him and his family."
"Thanks. And about the other data? The people?"
"The woman you know as 'Maggie', Margaret Rosa Belman, is wanted in a few systems in Fed and Alliance space, under different aliases. Charges such as petty theft and illegal data access. I found a rap sheet from Sol system security which I can send you. In recent years she has stayed mostly within Imperial space and hasn't done anything that particularly attracted our attention. The old photo... now that was much more of a challenge. I couldn't find out much. To tell you the truth, INRA is still a delicate subject within the Agency. Some records have been destroyed, others are too closely watched. And I cannot afford to attract too much attention, not even with what your boss is paying."
"Did you identify anybody?"
"Only half of the people in the photo. It seems we have no records on our end for the man you said your boss knew as Holland Belman, Margaret's father. He should try finding a contact in Alliance space, perhaps he'll get lucky again over there."
"And the mother?"
"Ah, we did have a file on that one, even if it wasn't that big" Zhang said. "Aurélie Flammarion. Born in the Nahuatl system, no relatives known to us. Naval Academy graduate, specialized in comms and cryptography. After INRA dissolved she returned to the Imperial Navy, and she was really good at her job. Gave our crypto guys a lot of headaches. But then sometime in 3272 she disappears without a trace. We don't have records of a partner, or a child. I'm sending what I could collect."
"Much appreciated, Zhang. I won't hold you any longer. I'm sending the private key for the Bank of Zaonce account as we agreed. I think you'll be quite happy with the amount. Perhaps some other time we'll be able to meet more openly and share a drink. "
"I'm glad to see you doing well, Mila. Especially after what you went through, with Cameron and Sara."
Skinner's smile vanished, and she turned to the controls to plot a route back to Zandu. "Yeah, well, I try not to think about that."