Nemesis: The Search for Orion Read online

  “She really doesn’t know you’re alive.”

  “No, but I know she’ll do what is required.”

  Cinny looked at Grant and said, “You should go pick up a shuttle.”

  Grant nodded and left the bridge. Stockard looked at Cinny, “He loves you very much.”

  “That should prove to you we’re not the Genetics.”

  “How is that?”

  “From what we’ve been able to learn from captured data bases, they had compulsions placed in them preventing them from having feelings for each other.”

  Stockard smiled, “Love conquers all.”

  Cinny shook her head, “Not all the time. The people on Avalon loved their world and look at it now.”

  “I see two Avalon survivors that intend to make sure it does.”

  Cinny smiled at him and said, “Touché.”

  • • •

  Amy Elizabeth Stockard woke and knew that today was the day Channing would contact her if he was still alive. General Montgomery had pressured her to leave Mejinan and return to Earth and she had been hard pressed to put him off.

  She finally had to resort to tears, yelling at him to find her husband and she would gladly go home. She sighed and waited for the morning to pass. She prayed he was still alive. Life would be empty without him. She watched the clock that seemed to take forever for a minute to pass. And then it was twelve minutes until ten A.M. He was shot at eleven minutes before ten. She closed her eyes and held her communicator tightly. Suddenly, it vibrated and she pressed the receive button. Her tears started falling and she fell back on the bed weeping. Thank God he was still alive. She erased the message and pressed a series of keys. Tatum Stockard appeared on her communicator and she didn’t wipe the tears from her face, “I can’t bear to stay here any longer. Will you send one of our family’s ships along with my nieces and nephews to have a brief ceremony in the morning?”

  “You don’t want the Fleet to bring you?”

  Amy’s eyes lowered and she said scornfully, “They didn’t protect him. I want nothing to do with them.”

  Tatum watched her closely and nodded, “I will inform the Admiral of your requests.”

  “Thank you, Father.”

  • • •

  “Your Excellency, are you sure you don’t want us to escort Madam Stockard home?”

  “Admiral, are you telling me you have free ships?”

  “We can pull some off duty to escort her.”

  “I want every available ship you have searching for the ones that took my son. Do you understand me!?”

  “Yes Sir, I do.”

  “I’m sending a wing of Scouts that are piloted by my brother’s and sister’s children. They will provide an escort and make sure no one is able to come close to her through subspace.”

  Admiral Hall cursed his bad fortune. He was going to send subspace scouts to follow Lady Stockard but now they would be detected by the Stockard Scouts. He didn’t dare risk antagonizing the Head of Military Funding. “I will keep my fleets searching for your son, Excellency.”

  “See that you do!”

  • • •

  Amy and her relatives had a small ceremony the next morning and placed a small marker in the street where Stockard was shot. They boarded their ships and lifted off the planet. Amy handed the ship’s commander a piece of paper with a set of coordinates on it, “Take us to this location after our initial jump.” The Commander looked at the coordinates and nodded.

  • • •

  Cinny looked at Stockard and barely recognized him. His beard had grown out and the black wig with long hair made him look twenty years younger. “Are you sure you can spare this scooter?”

  “We’ve discussed it and it will be much more difficult to trace than a shuttle. I do hope you’re right about those coordinates.”

  Stockard smiled, “She’ll be there.” Stockard powered up the scooter and activated his armor. The faceplate dropped and he looked at Cinny, “Thank you for saving my life and providing this video to take back with me.”

  “It’s the right thing to do.”

  Stockard held out his hand, “I know you don’t have good feelings about Earth. But not all of us are the monsters you’ve seen.”

  Cinny took his hand and shook it, “Good luck, Ambassador.” Stockard lifted the scooter off the landing bay’s floor and flew it through the force field holding the atmosphere in. He jumped when he was a quarter of mile away. He saw the cruiser disappear a moment before he activated the scooter’s jump drive.

  • • •

  Amy waited in space and the Commander said, “Why are we here, Lady Stockard?”

  “Someone is supposed to meet us here.”

  The head engineer’s ears went up when he heard her and he wondered who they were going to meet. The Admiral would want to know. The Scan Officer said, “I’ve just had a scooter emerge into normal space.”

  Amy stood up from her chair and said, “Show him to my quarters as soon as he comes on board.”

  The Commander nodded, “Yes, my Lady.”

  The Engineer watched the landing bay on his console and saw the young man step off the scooter and raise his faceplate. His long black hair spilled out of his helmet and he appeared to need a bath. He looked at the Weapons Officer, “Who is that?”

  “He’s actually a distant cousin. Lady Stockard told him she would give him a ride to Earth.”

  “He doesn’t look like a Stockard.”

  “Did I not tell you he is a distant cousin? I think his family wants him taught proper behavior.”

  The Engineer shook his head, “He needs it.”

  “Indeed he does.”

  • • •

  The Commander saw the Engineer turn off his video of the landing bay and smiled. This spy wouldn’t have anything of interest for his superiors. He wondered why the Stockard Family continued to allow him on one of their ships. Perhaps it was a method of sending false information to the Military. Whatever the reason, everyone knew he was a spy and no one ever said anything of importance around him.

  • • •

  Stockard entered Amy’s quarters and she looked at the two who had escorted him in, “Leave us alone!” They bowed and backed out of the room. She immediately rushed into his arms and wept with happiness. Stockard held her close and lightly stroked her hair. “I’ve been so frightened.”

  “So have I, darling. We must keep my presence here a secret.”

  Amy took a quick breath and forced a smile, “You’ve gone a long way in making that possible. Is that your hair?”

  “It will be for the foreseeable future until my own grows out.”

  “You’re going to have to color it.”

  “I know. There will be some chrome in it.”

  “Don’t you mean grey?”

  “Nope, I call it chrome.” Stockard pulled her close and she lost herself in his arms.

  Chapter Seven

  Blake spent the next three weeks transferring the members of his bridge crew to other ships and bringing in his former crew from the destroyer he commanded. They in turn issued transfers to members of their ships that they knew they could trust. After six weeks, Blake felt he could speak openly without the fear of being reported to Admiral Hall. The crew quickly found those that were possible leaks and had them isolated in one wing of the giant battleship. In another month, they were replaced as well.

  • • •

  Blake looked at Captain Patel, “Have you found all of them?”

  “There may be several more on the ship, but the bridge is clear.”

  “I guess that’s all we can hope for. Get Admiral Hall on my board.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  Blake waited and Admiral Hall appeared on Blake’s panel, “Yes Admiral?”

  “Sir, I’ve been wondering about the weapon that was used to kill the Dragons.”

  Hall’s eyebrows went up, “What about it?”

  “Where did it go after it was used?”

&n
bsp; Hall stared at Blake and after a moment began shaking his head, “I believe we’ve been so busy looking for the Ambassador that no one has investigated that item.”

  “Sir, it had to be as powerful as a warship’s main beam. That means it was too big to move quickly unless…”

  “Unless what?”

  “It might have been a weapon being used by the Choten-Zan.” Hall’s eyes narrowed and Blake said, “I request permission to go and speak with them again.”

  “What do you hope to learn?”

  “If they were involved in the death of the Dragons and if they’re starting to interfere with our conquests.”

  “Do you think they’ll tell you?”

  “Sir, their arrogance is more than you can believe. If they’re involved, they’ll probably brag about it. I want to remove them as a suspect before I start chasing after wrong leads.”

  “How many ships do you require?”

  “To take more than one would be dangerous. I’m not going to enter their system; I’ll remain on the outer edge.”

  “Report what you find out to me!”

  “Yes Sir.” The display went dark and Blake turned to Aubrey, “I want you to broadcast on the Zan’s frequency that I am coming to their system to communicate. I will have my force field down and all weapons inactive.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  Blake looked at his new XO, “Cleve, what do you think?”

  “You’ve got more hair on your…”

  “Cleve, there’s ladies on the bridge.”

  “They’ve heard me before. Why on a green frog’s backside do you want to go there?”

  Blake snickered, “That’s where the bugs end up.”

  Cleve looked up and smiled, “I guess you’re right about that.”

  “They know more than I do. I’m flying blind here.”

  “Well, if they fry us in the toaster, I hope we make a good sandwich.”

  Blake watched Cleve go to his station and decided he hadn’t changed over the years. He watched Aubrey transmit the message and after half an hour he said, “Jump to the outer edge of their system in five minutes.” Blake looked at Bobbi Homes, “Captain, turn off all our offensive and defensive systems.”

  “You know that will make me feel naked, don’t you?”

  “You’ve been around Cleve too long, Bobbi.”

  Bobbi smiled, “I think we all have, Sir.” Bobbi looked around the bridge and said, “Can I get an amen on that.”

  All twenty crewmen, except for Cleve shouted, “AMEN!”

  Cleve shook his head, “You might as well admit it, you’d miss me if I weren’t here.”

  “AMEN!”

  Blake laughed and felt at home again.

  • • •

  “Holiness, that Earth Admiral has been transmitting that he’s coming here to communicate. What would you have us do?”

  “When we stop talking, we will no longer have a purpose in this universe. I want everything we say to be prevented from being heard by anyone other than that Admiral and me.” The Head Servant’s eyes lowered and the High Priest smiled, “I suspect this Admiral has a troubled soul.”

  “Why would you ever think that?”

  “He’s coming in spite of the danger. Only a troubled soul would take that risk.”

  “He could be coming to launch a weapon.” The High Priest stared at the Servant and after a moment the Servant said, “You’re probably right.”

  “Put him through when he arrives.”

  • • •

  Skimmy waited until after midnight and crawled out from under the step he had been hiding under since the attack. He went to his smallest size and crawled through a hole that had been shot through the door’s lock. He looked up at the sky and saw a scooter coming out of high orbit and moving toward the city. It arrived outside a restaurant four blocks away and he increased his size and ran at high speed toward it.

  • • •

  Cinny went in the restaurant and smiled, “I have a call in order.”

  “Name?”

  “Captain Surjin.”

  “It’ll be here in a moment.”

  Cinny waited and a few minutes later the register attendant passed three bags across the counter. Cinny put several small discs on the counter and saw the attendant’s scowl. “Is there a problem!?!”

  “No, I don’t have a problem.”

  Cinny stared at him, took the bags and walked out of the restaurant. She looked at the display between the handlebars and saw a small spider sitting in the center of it. She smiled, boosted into space, and boarded her cruiser.

  An officer on a battleship in orbit above the planet sighed, “What are you sighing about?”

  He looked at his assistant and shook his head, “Those free Scouts really have it good. They come and go as they please and answer to no one. That’s a job I’d like to have.”

  “Then do something dramatic to get promoted.”

  “I wish it was just that easy. You also have to know someone.”

  “That’s life.”

  • • •

  The Triton emerged into normal space and everyone on the bridge subconsciously raised their shoulders and lowered their head. When they were still alive a minute later, they started to relax. “If you came here to talk, start talking.”

  “I…”

  “You should know that our conversation cannot be heard by anyone but us.”

  Blake paused and looked around the bridge. He looked at Cleve who shrugged. “I’ve found out about the Raider Colony that was destroyed on Avalon.”

  “And?”

  “I find myself in a quandary. I’m caught between being loyal to my government when I know they deliberately had more than four billion humans set up to die.”

  “What are you going to do about it?”

  “I’m not sure I can do anything. I’m just one man.”

  The High Priest smiled, “Then perhaps the best thing would be to do nothing.”

  “What?”

  “You’ll have to figure that out yourself. You appear to have enough intelligence to work through it.”

  The High Priest looked away and Blake quickly said, “Before you go?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’ve examined a beam that was used to kill one of our Elite Units and it matches up perfectly with the beams that were used by the genetically modified animals. We are currently operating on the belief that we killed all of them.”

  “What are you going to do with this information?”

  “At the moment, nothing.”

  “See, was that so hard to figure out?”

  The display went dark and Cleve burst out laughing. Blake looked at him and Cleve said, “I think I like that being.”

  Bobbi said, “You also like liver.”

  “Not the same thing.”

  Blake heard the crew start getting into it and thought about what the High Priest had said. No one else had examined the beam. And no one else even considered that the male and female were the dead Genetics.

  He thought about that and smiled. Earth was making one mistake after another. Perhaps doing nothing was the best thing to do. But first, he needed to speak with them. He knew how to find them. Cleve had spent a week examining fleet records and had come up with the answer. He looked across the bridge and saw the crew was really having a go at Cleve but he was holding his own. Thank God Cleve’s former Commanding Officer was glad to be rid of him. He never saw his brilliance, only that he was a troublemaker. Blake smiled as he heard Bobbi say, “Oh no you didn’t just say that!!” If the universe were a bowl of soup, Cleve would be a spoon. He kept things stirred up.

  He looked at Aubrey, “Send this message to the Scout Wing on the top.”

  Aubrey looked at the message and looked back at Blake with a troubled expression. Blake nodded and Aubrey shrugged.

  • • •

  Grant and Cinny were sitting around the fire on the Animal’s planet when Ana interrupted them, “Grant, Cinny, the
Admiral has sent orders for you to meet him at a coordinate in open space.”

  Cinny blew out a breath, “Our cover has been blown.”

  Grant shook his head and then heard Ana say, “He says he’ll meet you there on a scooter.”

  Grant looked at Cinny with a shocked expression. She shook her head, “He’s what?”

  “He’s coming on a scooter…alone.” Cinny and Grant stared at each other and Ana continued, “He must have received your message and wants to discuss it.”

  “How would he know it came from us?”

  “I have no idea, Grant. We can find another Scout Team to ambush and take new markings.”

  Grant thought furiously and said, “Whippet, Slippy, go to your ships and start scanning that area of space; Cinny and I will join you there. Ana, when are we supposed to meet him?”

  “In six hours.”

  Cinny looked at Grant, “He knows we’ll see if anyone other than him is coming.” Grant took Cinny’s hand as they ran toward their scooters. Whippet and Slippy had already boosted off the planet’s surface.

  • • •

  “Whippet, move your ship to the edge of your sensors toward the galaxy he’ll be coming from and Slippy, you go in the opposite direction. I want immediate notification if you detect anything moving our way.”

  The two Scout Ships disappeared and Cinny watched her display. Should we both be on the same ship, Grant?”

  “He wants to talk with us. I don’t know how he figured it out but he must know we’re not dead.”

  “That’s a reach, Grant.”

  “No it isn’t. He wouldn’t be coming alone if he thought we were just some rogue Scout Wing. He’s managed to put things together.”

  “Grant, I have a small disturbance moving your way.”

  “Thanks, Whippet. Are there any others?”

  “No, just the single disturbance.”

  Three minutes later, the scooter emerged into normal space. Grant looked at Cinny, “Do you see anything dangerous?”

  “No, just a standard scooter.”

  “Permission to come aboard.”

  Grant blew out a breath and raised the Scout’s landing bay door as the scooter flew toward them and entered the bay. Grant watched the Admiral remove his combat helmet and place his blasters on the scooter’s side bags. Grant pressed the intercom, “We’re on the bridge.” The Admiral walked out of the landing bay and a few moments later, entered the bridge.