The Cemiess Crisis Part III
17 Sep 2016Jellicoe
A tall man sat down behind the desk in his ships ready room and lit a cigar."Computer patch me through to holo-conference 'Serabrov' voice authentication key word 'Jellicoe'"
"Voice authentication complete." the computer replied. "You are joining the conference, awaiting response." A moment later a long holographic table appeared. Around the table sat an eclectic collection of men and women dressed in almost every style from across the human bubble, many wore flight suits and had the faraway look in their eyes that typified explorers accustomed to long periods without other human company. These were the Children of Raxxla, explorers of the deep and delvers of mysteries, secretive, reclusive and maybe, occasionally, a little bit paranoid. Jellicoe knew some of these people but no names would be used here, anonymity was paramount as many sitting at this virtual table had much to lose if their membership of such a society became known.
"I think we can begin now." a flight suited man at the head of the table began to murmurs of agreement. "I presume you all know why we're here? Four days ago Lady Salomé disappeared in the Cemiess system, her last transmission said her ship had been attacked and boarded so we are fairly sure she's been kidnapped. The question is what do we do?" Angry murmurs filled the air until the man at the tables head raised his hand.
"Most of our ships are here at the rift." a man wearing the insignia of an Imperial duke put in. "Do we start sending them back?"
"No." the man at the head of the table said firmly. "Even in her mayday transmission Salomé was quite clear that the rift expedition takes priority over everything, the patrols will continue as scheduled so hard as it may be we'll have to manage with what we have in the bubble for this."
"We need to make ourselves heard, protest outside the station, drop biowaste perhaps." a tall elegant woman suggested.
"When did protest achieve anything?" a thickset man asked gruffly "Take out a few cops and they'll soon get the message."
"That would be foolish in the extreme." the Imperial duke countered. "Cemiess is a major system in the heart of the Empire, start attacking the authorities there and all it will achieve is to bring all seven hells down on us."
"No violence." the man at the head of the table said firmly. "There may come a time when we have no choice but until it comes keep your weapons stowed. We need to know the situation in Cemiess itself, Juliet Echo Echo I believe you've been there for a few days?" Jellicoe recognised his codename - the first two and the last letter of his name and spoke for the first time.
"That's correct, I arrived in Cemiess within hours of Salomé's disappearance and began a search, I checked combat aftermaths and scanned every convoy I could find, there was no trace at all. My guess is that she's either been taken out of the system or she's being held somewhere very secure and very secret, or both."
"What about informants on the ground? There's always a wagging tongue somewhere." the duke asked.
"That's where it gets, if possible, even more worrying. I had a contact here from my bounty hunting days, an information broker, he's given me tip offs to find some very dangerous people but as soon as I mentioned Salomé he clammed up, he knew something but was to frightened to say what. He was murdered half an hour later."
"Tried the local underworld?" the duke asked.
"Of course. The meeting was stormed and my contact killed, I don't know who by but they were pros I was lucky to get away myself."
"How has it been explained officially?" the elegant woman asked.
"That's something else that's strange it hasn't. No police statement or appeals for information, not even any record of a crime taking place or a missing person."
"A classified investigation?" the thickset man suggested.
"Unlikely." The duke put in. "With those they just don't reveal details of the investigation, they don't pretend there hasn't been a crime."
"We must shame them into acting." a small woman her face hidden by a cowl said slowly and deliberately and all eyes turned to her. "We must make sure the whole galaxy knows of this wicked deed. Not even the Empire can silence the truth forever."
"How do we do that?" a flight suited man with the look of a long range explorer asked.
"That's it!" the elegant woman exclaimed excitedly. "I have contacts at Galnet and Radio Sidewinder and they owe me some favours. It'll get the story out there at least."
"We should make a show of force as well." the thickset man said. "Let them see we're not to be messed with."
"I agree." Jellicoe put in. "Show them we have warships and that we're prepared to use them."
"That's good." the elegant woman replied animatedly. "A warship flashing out 'Salomé' in code with a beam laser just outside Mackenzie's no fire zone then if that has no effect a whole battle squadron a few days later."
"I'm in the system already in a Corvette, want me to send the message?" Jellicoe asked with a smile.
The following day a jet black Federal Corvette dropped out of super-cruise and approached Mackenzie Relay, while not unheard of the arrival of such a vessel was still enough to have small boys and starship spotters rushing for the best vantage points to watch ship dock, but the corvette did not dock, it came close enough to be seen before backing away. At ten kilometres out it stopped, held position and began to fire a series of short bursts of slightly differing durations with its beam laser. On the station people wondered what the pilot was doing, testing his laser? threatening someone? One rumour quickly spread that it was a demand for the stations surrender before a Federal battle fleet arrived! Even the police were confused, they approached the corvette but as no laws were being broken they had no reason to intervene. The ship repeated the same sequence of laser bursts four times and had just begun a fifth when a pair of unmarked Imperial Clippers jumped in and attacked the strange ship, without interference from the police. The corvette, apparently unconcerned completed the sequence before unhurriedly, even contemptuously turning and jumping out. On the station the excitement quickly calmed, especially as it became clear that no Federal fleet was following and people assumed it was either a pilot running a weapon test or a rampant attention seeker. At least one man though was not going to forget the strange ship at all, especially when the vessels 'message' was decoded. It was in a simple, ancient code, older than spaceflight itself and the mysterious pilot had been repeatedly spelling out a single word - Salomé.