Game of Ghosts
03 Oct 2019Jellicoe
The Guttersnipe bar, Robardin Rock, Carcosa"Got any spare change for an old spaceman fallen on hard times?" the hooded stranger asked in a voice that was an echo from a time long in the past.
"Somerville?" Jellicoe asked uncertainly his eyes studying the dishevelled figure in the shadows, a sight entirely at odds with the man he associated with the voice, "heard you were dead."
"Think you got the wrong man Guv, I'm just a down on his luck spacer looking for work," the man dropped his voice to a whisper, "but I do have a message from an old friend, where can we talk in private?"
"This is as good a place as any."
"Our friend disagrees, offer me a job take me to your ship and we'll talk."
Somerville took a seat as Jellicoe poured him a stiff brandy, long matted hair and a bushy, unkempt beard thick with grease hid any trace of the dashingly elegant naval officer he had once been, a ragged scar from forehead to chin added to the changes and worn, filthy clothes perfected his cover as casual, out of luck ship crew.
"Genuine Lavian," Somerville said approvingly as he sipped the pale liquid, "Ashorian Gold?"
Jellicoe nodded as he sad down in his favourite armchair and lit a cigar. "So what the devil are you doing here? Heard you'd been killed in a shuttle accident, presumed it was Sleer's work."
"It was certainly her plan, fortunately we got wind of it just in time and Craddock got me out, I've been running errands for him ever since."
"And what errand brings you to Colonia?"
Somerville raised his glass and smiled. "You do, you and what you and your friends are building here."
"Go on."
"The bubble's lost," Somerville began, draining his glass and looking expectantly at his old friend, "this 'club' or whatever you call them have their hooks sunk in to everything to deeply to shift, but out here? Here we might be able to build something beyond their reach, a haven for free men and the base for a resistance movement."
"That's certainly our thinking," Jellicoe replied refilling his friends glass and pouring one for himself, "but why all the cloak and dagger drill? You're in free Carcosa now, out here nobody can touch us."
Somerville raised a single eyebrow. "Free? Yes, for now at least but if you think they're not watching and listening or that you're beyond their reach you could be in for a nasty surprise, ever heard of a chap called Hyford?"
"Rings a bell," Jellicoe replied thoughtfully, "something to do with that Black Flight business in the Pleiades?"
"That's the fellow, got on the wrong side of them and thought he could escape by coming out here. he was wrong, this was picked up by a listening post in Colonia itself." Somerville worked his wrist computer and an audio track played.
This is Commander Hyford and I fear this might be my last log entry. so far I’ve been able hide from them, but I don’t know how much longer I can go undetected.
I should never have left that message for help. They must have tracked me using the it somehow.
Well if this is it I’m not going quietly. There is a data cache at the following co-ordlnates Lat:39.1472 Long:29.2425. It contains all my ships log and data scans.
This is some kind of private military outfit, they operate outside the realm of the usual powers. I don’t know who they answer to but the chain goes up pretty high. They are monitoring for alien encounters and tech. People are going missing. They are taking them and running experiments. That’s what I was delivering. Escape pods full of people. I’m sorry for my part in this. It was a job that’s all. Oh god help me…
I’m out of time.
"So you see," Somerville said quietly when the message had ended, "not even Colonia is beyond their reach. Craddock thinks you're right and this place could be built up into a fortress against them but we need to act quickly before they can sink their hooks in too deep here, and we need to know how deeply they're in already."
"Which, no doubt, is where I come in." Jellicoe answered dryly.
"Quite so old man, with me to supply the brains of course."
"So where do we start? Does Craddock have any solid leads?"
Somerville frowned and took a long sip from his brandy before answering, speaking quietly as though even here, on the commanders sitting room of an old friends ship he still risked being overheard.
"This is a game of ghosts old man, one where we don't even know who the enemy is, they are everywhere and nowhere, most of the people working for them don't even know they exist and they are such masters of manipulation that half the time even their enemies end up doing what they want. We're chasing shadows so what we're doing is looking for connections, common threads running through apparently isolated events and incidents and trying to pick up the trail, one of those trails leads to Colonia."
"Carry on."
"Have you noticed the number of people who've been going missing in the last few years? The civilians taken by the Black Flight in the Pleiades, freighter crews grabbed by pirates in the California Nebula even Aegis operations carriers with more space for holding prisoners than ammunition, what the blazes are ships supposed to have been built to fight the Thargoids doing with bigger prison wings than most systems?"
"Keep going." Jellicoe replied leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers in thought.
"Hyford was killed because he found out the Black Flight were experimenting on the people in the pods he delivered for them, there were reports from the California Nebula that Turner's people were also experimenting on at least one recovered pilot out there, the places people are disappearing is exactly where the people experimenting on them are, and I wouldn't trust any of them with a barge poll."
"I was warned Aegis are little more than the club's military wing and that the Black Flight are probably linked to them," Jellicoe said remembering Alessia's warning, "Turner is certainly in their pocket." He added thinking of a conversation with Yuri in Coma.
"There you go!" Somerville exclaimed exuberant;y, slapping the arm of the sofa. "People going missing in large numbers and everywhere it happens there are agents of the club neck deep and rumours of experimentation."
"So where's the link to Colonia?"
"This snatch of coms chatter was picked up from a bulk freighter in Luchtaine a couple of jumps from here." Somerville replied before playing another audio track.
To pirate vessels, cease fire and we can negotiate terms of surrendering our cargo.
We don’t come for your cargo commander, we come for your crew.
"Just the same as in the California, alleged pirates ignoring enough cargo to make them rich for the rest of their lives to take prisoners," Somerville concluded when the track had finished, "yet this is less than fifty light years from where we're sitting."
"If it's Turner's people they'll be long since back in K space by now, same if it's the Black Flight, doesn't give us anything to go on for a link to Colonia."
Not necessarily, know the name Etienne Dorn?"
"heard of him, one of these engineers isn't he? My ship was well and truly tuned up back in the bubble so I've not needed any of the ones out here yet, what about him?"
"He collects humans." Somerville said flatly. "Lots of them, see for yourself I don't doubt you'll have attracted his attention, have a look what he wants in return for his services."
Jellicoe worked his holo-fac bringing up the unread, half forgotten message from a man he'd never thought he'd need and an almost physical shock went through him as he read the words 'There's a lot of salvage to be had out there Commander. For me the most valuable is human traffic. Deliver 25 occupied escape pods and we can start talking upgrades.'
"Sound familiar? Escape pods same as Hyford was delivering for the Black Flight, and what do you think he does with them? There's certainly no slave markets round here. The Pleiades Nebula, the California Nebula and Colonia," Somerville said counting them off on his fingers, "all with people being taken prisoner in large numbers, all with agents of the club on hand and all perfect places to hide rather less than ethical practices wouldn't you say?"
"Is there any reason too suspect Dorn of being linked to the club?" Jellicoe asked quietly.
"Apart from exactly the same MO we've seen in two other places from people who almost certainly are?" Somerville asked, a trace of sarcasm in his voice, "Listen we're pretty certain the club were behind the sudden appearance of these engineers, we know Turner is a knowing collaborator, we strongly suspect Martuuk is as well, the rest we don't know but we're sure as can be that it's the club who're pulling their strings. Even if Dorn doesn't know who he's working for I'd put a pound to a penny it's them."
"Then I suppose we'd better see what we can dig up." Jellicoe replied.