The Hidden Trail
16 Jun 2020Jellicoe
James Somerville former captain in the Federal Navy, a man who had once cut a splendid dash through the officers clubs of Sol and Nonomam and made his home in the commanding officers quarters of a battlecruiser adjusted his position slightly on cold hard ground of the hide drawing a sharp look of disapproval from the ex lieutenant of Marines he shared this scratch in the earth with. For the last two days they had layed up here on this airless rock, the barren dustscape stretching as far as the eye could see broken only by the once sinister but increasingly welcoming looking lights of the Kraken's Retreat base in the distance, all movement kept to a minimum, even the temperature control in their Remlok survival suits set to the lowest setting possible to keep them alive to minimise their heat trace and Somerville had never in his life been colder or more miserably uncomfortable. What made it all the more galling was that his companion seemed to be actually enjoying himself and, he suspected, enjoying his own discomfort, he knew well from his time in the service that marines regarded naval officers as soft and effete, fine on their high tech spaceships or sipping gin and tonic in the wardroom but useless in the field, well he was damned if he was going to let his misery and discomfort show."Ship coming in." Somerville whispered as the scanner he was operating vibrated and an orange contact showed dimly."
"Got it," Harry Soames replied all but inaudibly and with minimal movement and zero sound angled their portable manifest scanner toward the approaching vessel, "Krait Phantom with fifteen occupied pods in the hold."
This was all Jellicoe's fault Somerville thought savagely, an advanced recce on Dorn's base and the cargo being shipped in and out made perfect sense but he had seen the smirk on his old friends face when he assigned Somerville to this mission, he'd probably see the funny side of it himself once he thawed out. Probably.
"That's one hundred and eighty three going in over the last two days," Somerville whispered, "none going out, whatever Dorn's doing with them it isn't the slave trade. I think we've seen enough what about you?"
"Yes we can leave as soon as it's dark," Soames replied with a grin, "Don't worry sir you'll have a G&T back in your hand in no time."
"So nearly two hundred people shipped in in escape pods but not one leaving?" Jellicoe asked pouring his friend a brandy as they sat in the captains quarters aboard the Resolution.
"Not one, not even as a slave. Look Stannis old boy can we do this later ? I've barely slept for two days I hurt in places I didn't even know I had and I think I've lost the feeling in my fingertips."
Jellicoe smirked. "Got to keep the navy's end up old chap, can't have these marines thinking we're a load of soft desk wallahs. So he's not trading slaves, what is he doing?"
Somerville scowled and shifted position trying to get his aching body comfortable. "We always thought slave trading was unlikely, has that hacker of yours turned anything up?"
"Claude? No, he gave me the usual slury of techno babble but it's all Greek to me, boiled down Dorn's security is too good for him."
Somerville took a sip of his brandy and looked around the deliberately antiquated decor of the sitting room, oak panelling on a starship, only Stannis, forever weighing the present against an impossibly idealised version of the past.
"We need to get inside the base and have a good look around." Somerville said.
Jellicoe leaned back in his green leather armchair steepling his fingers in thought. "To do that we need to be able to land, Dorn will see me but only if I give him twenty five escape pods, which given what we know I'm not going to do."
"Somerville gave a conspiratorial smile. "There might be a way around that old boy, ever heard of a system called Nomai?" Jellicoe shook his head, "No reason you should have it's pretty insignificant in the scheme of things but our old friend The Black Flight were running convoys out of there, we hit one and got quite a few of the buggers in the bag, I'm sure Craddock would release enough of them to get you in with Dorn."
Jellicoe stood and walked to the porthole, looking out onto the soothing view of the spectacular Colonia starscape. "What are we becoming James?Handing over prisoners to God only knows what fate and we say we're the goodies?"
"This is a dirty game Stannis, anyone who plays it ends up neck deep in the shit."