Dark Deeds and Black Flights - Part VIII
07 Oct 2017Jellicoe
Pleiades Sector GW-W C1-14 System, Planet 2 aThe first moon of the second planet was a thoroughly unremarkable body in an entirely nondescript system, a small ball of ice of limited interest to anyone in a system which had been charted but lacked features of either scientific or commercial interest. There was no reason whatsoever to visit this system, much less the moon of its second planet and save for the occasional explorer refuelling at the star nobody would spend any longer here than it took their jump drive to spool up. Today though was different, today for probably the first time spacecraft had landed on the icy surface of Pleiades Sector GW-W c1-14 2 a, two of them, and not explorers either, these were warships one an inelegant, block like Core Dynamics Dropship, the other a brutally powerful looking Federal Corvette sat next to each other in the shadowed recesses of a large crater on the dark side of the planet. The Corvette looked in pristine condition with even its paintwork immaculate, the ship a statement of the wealth and power of a commander with the resources to keep her in tip top condition while the Dropship appeared more shoddily maintained with mismatching plating and faded, peeling paintwork, the kind of vessel typical of a pilot struggling to make ends meet. Appearances were very deceptive. The interior of the Dropship was packed with cutting edge tech, the apparently down at heel cargo hauler being transformed once inside into a sophisticated command and control ship, receiving and disseminating information to and from a network of agents across the bubble and beyond. In a plush, well appointed office deep in the bowels of the ship sat two men drinking real Scotch whiskey and smoking expensive Kamitran Cigars. One, an older man with a military bearing and a distinguished look about him was absorbed in his desks holo-display pausing only to sip his whiskey while he considered a particular nugget of information, his companion was younger, just on the cusp of his middle years wearing an expensive flight suit, his open, friendly face contrasting with cold almost empty eyes.
"This really is first class work Stannis M'boy, very thorough, very disturbing." The older man said looking up from his reading. "Are you sue you can trust this Commander Roberts?"
"I trust him implicitly." The younger man replied. "I didn't mention you or whatever it is you're running here, as far as he's concerned it was just the two of us."
"Good." Craddock said nodding. "Anyway from what you've dug up this looks bigger than we'd imagined. The logs refer to these people as the 'Black Flight' this isn't just a black ops military unit, these people have got the whole sector locked down, murdering explorers, brazen seizure of private property, illegal detention of civilians and apparent control of the local police forces to preserve some great secret."
"Have you any leads on what's happened to the prisoners they've taken?" Jellicoe asked.
Craddocks face momentarily wore a look of utter disgust. "We managed to make contact with this Commander Hyford, the poor chap's half mad with fear but he told us he was carrying human cargo." Jellicoe's lip curled. "But that's not the worst of it." Craddock continued. "According to Hyford these people are conducting experiments on human beings."
"Communications Hub Zeta and the ships Pandora and Victoria's Song." Jellicoe counted off on his fingers. "There are over four hundred people on board them." Craddock nodded gravely. "The log said any survivors from the Victoria's Song were to be taken to somewhere called 'Overlook' any ideas on what that is?"
Craddock's face was darker than Jellicoe could ever remember it. "I'm afraid so, see." He ran his fingers over his control console and a holographic map of a star system appeared above his desk. "The HIP 22460 system, it's permit locked so the quality isn't the best, this is put together from long range probe data, now if we zoom in here do you see that?" Jellicoe nodded. "It's hard to see the detail from this but it's a massive ship and it's tagged as Overlook."
"Who controls that system?" Jellicoe asked quietly, already fairly sure of the answer.
"It's a Federation registered system." Craddock said in a voice thick with anger. "The Pleiades Resource Enterprise ."
"They're a Federation unit?" Jellicoe asked, he had long since lost his illusions about the Federation and its benevolent role in the galaxy but this was something else, he was also acutely aware that he had fought for the PRE against the Empire when it was establishing itself out here, it was not a pleasant thought..
"Perhaps, but there is another possibility."
"Which is?"
"You followed Salomé, you saw the Teorge logs, this shadowy cabal that stands beyond Federation, Empire and Alliance, we may be seeing their hand at work here. This might be our chance to flush these people out into the open."
"Human experimentation," Jellicoe said. "That's more in the Empire's line, why the link with the PRE?"
"I wouldn't be too sure of that M'boy." Craddock replied quietly. "You've heard of the Silver Comet I presume?"
"Of course." Jellicoe replied, smiling despite himself at the memory of terrifying new pilots with stories of an invincible super ship preying on the unwary. "But it's just a fairy story to frighten kids fresh out of flight school....isn't it?" His voice becoming less certain as he spoke."
Craddock looked uncomfortable. "The Silver Comet was the product of a top secret programme to boost human performance, durability and life span and marry them with tech no ordinary pilot could operate, officially it never existed, unofficially was shut down almost two centuries ago, in truth who knows? there are some things even fleet admirals aren't told but at least one pilot escaped, went rogue and operated for at least a hundred and fifty years afterwards and for that they'd have needed significant logistical support from inside the navy.
"That would certainly fit with the pilots we encountered." Jellicoe said tugging his jacket into place as he did when he was tense. "Some of the manoeuvres they pulled off should have blacked them out, but what's all this for? What are they hiding?"
"We don't know but given the lengths they've gone to it must be big, and from these logs of yours it's something on planet surfaces, several planets surfaces."
"A network of bases?" Jellicoe suggested.
"Maybe but..." Craddock began to reply when a woman's voice cut him off.
"Admiral switch on frequency 7 now, this is earth shattering." Her voice trembled as she spoke. The admiral worked his console, the system map being replaced by a grainy close in image of a planets surface, rocky and clearly atmosphereless but what drew the eye was a huge area covered by a green haze and what appeared to be a spiral of objects or structures clearly not of natural origin.
"Where's this from?" Craddock demanded.
"Intercepted feed from an independent pilot, it's being broadcast in clear so this will be all over the galaxy within hours." The two men watched as the site came closer, strange and chilling, clearly not natural rock or ice but like no imaginable buildings either. The image Jellicoe had was of the giant skeleton of some long dead beast of monstrous proportions, he remembered the fairy tales from his childhood of great dragons slain by gallant knights, their massive bodies left to rot away until only the vast bones and skulls remained. Whatever this was it was not any creation of man.
"Have we got the location?" Craddock asked urgently.
"We will have soon." The woman answered. "We're just triangulating the signal." Craddock looked questioningly at Jellicoe.
"On my way." The commander said getting up. "Send me the co-ordinates as soon as you have them."
"I will, open coms once you arrive and Stannis, do be careful."