Rising Warrior-Rising Threat Read online

  “Don’t worry Jek Rote, it’s just medical equipment. I have injured people out here, and in there. On that subject, how is your man Quid doing? Has he regained consciousness?” Cade asked, sure to use the Cthoid’s full name to prevent insulting him.

  Despite Jek Rote outmassing Heclin a full fourfold, she shoved him out of the way. She shot a look over her shoulder at their Lodran crewmember. He lay on a medical bed, still not moving, unconscious since their rescue. “Quid will be just fine.”

  Cade studied the man. He was still alive, the slow rise and fall of his chest evidence of that. The air’s so dry in there, it must be like breathing sandpaper to him.

  “And you’re sure that you don’t need anything, food, water…?”

  Heclin threw up her hands in frustration; it was a question Cade kept asking. “No, I’ve told you before. Our autocook will provide for us. I’ll talk to you later.” She stomped away from the camera, back to her crew, the hostages cowering away from her.

  Cade rubbed his eyes as he leaned back, deactivating the audio and video input. His aide tapped him on the shoulder a moment later. “Boss, the rescue team is here and ready for you.”

  Cade motioned them to enter. His aide stepped into the passageway. Blazer and several others entered the room, their full Armored Combat Hostile Environment Suits (ACHES) and weapons slung across their backs making the already small room feel downright claustrophobic.

  Blazer stepped up and issued an Anulian Salute with his right hand turned to keep the thumb on top. “Blade Force reporting for duty sir!”

  Cade regarded Blazer with a shake of his head and didn’t stand, nor return the salute. “I’m a civilian negotiator Squad Leader Vaughnt, no need to salute. Now, have you read the intel reports?”

  Blazer nodded. “Yes sir, we just finished them actually. We’re ready to go on your order.”

  “Right then, set up your people.”

  “Sir if I might ask,” Gokhead inquired, stepping up.

  “Cade, my name is Cade. Call me that, not sir.”

  “Yes, Cade, okay. I’ve read the psych reports on these men. I can’t seem to figure out what, if anything, is wrong with them.”

  “I’m not entirely sure if there is anything wrong with them. A couple seem a bit incoherent and paranoid, but under the conditions they’d been in, that’s to be expected. There’s no real sign of severe mental distress either. For the most part, they appear to be lucid.”

  A giant of a man made his way into the chamber, a massive cannon hanging from its customized harness at his side. “I respectfully disagree, Cade. These are Mapper’s Guild Surveyors. They don’t crack like this. Arion Scotts, I’ve had the most negotiation and psych training. Have there been any demands?”

  He handed Arion a sheet of nanofilm., a transcript of everything the Hostage Takers had said up to that point. The most important points were highlighted. “I doubt that I will - need any help that is. So far there’ve been no real demands, but this is what I’ve pieced together from talking to them. The biggest thing I’ve been able to find is that they despise those of means. People who can afford to go on these kinds of cruises for instance. It’s like a classic class struggle, to the point of demonizing the rich in some cases. Just look at how they refer to the hostages.”

  Arion looked over the transcript with an analytical eye. Once finished, he set it aside and rubbed his temples, trying to wrap his brain around the conundrum. “It definitely does look that way, but there’s something that bothers me.”

  “What’s that?” Cade asked, fixing him with a curious glare.

  “Well it’s a couple of things actually. From what I’ve seen it’s more than simple demonizing It’s almost as if they see these hostages, literally, as monsters. That’s despite the fact that many are of the same species as the HoTaks. They even referred to the medical staff as monsters when they left the medical bay. The medical staff obviously aren’t rich types who take these cruises. Has their blood work been analyzed?”

  “We didn’t find any traces of drugs or other hallucinogens if that’s what you’re getting at.”

  Arion nodded, considering. “Also the lack of demands puzzles me. If they’d wanted to make a statement, political or otherwise, they would have at least asked for the press. They haven’t even asked for a means of escape yet. It’s almost like they think they’re surrounded, like there’s no escape for them and they’re just trying to hold out as long as possible, or until rescue. It makes for a really dangerous situation because if they think that they’re about to die or get overrun, they might just kill everyone.”

  Cade looked down at the weapon again. It was a curious thing and was in no way a standard-issue piece of hardware. It looked like they’d grafted the plasma injector off a fighter to the body of a crew served anti-personnel battery plaser. There was even the ammo drum from a Heavy Repeating Plaser welded to one side. The other side, disconnected now, featured the connection to the hard case on Arion’s back. Where does he keep the ammo for that beast? There’s no way he’s carrying a full plasma bottle on his back? And what’s powering it? The whole thing looked too heavy for even the big man to carry, even with the throttle of a fighter acting as a second handle. He must have a degrav generator attached to it. He motioned towards it. “I noticed that too. You know, for a heavy weapons man you seem to actually know your stuff.”

  Arion smiled and patted the weapon like a proud father, confirming Cade’s suspicion that it was a custom build. “Thank you.”

  Before Arion could say more Blazer stepped up. “If Arion’s right, what if we put on a little show? We make them believe that we’re rescue team here to take them home. We fire off a few rounds, you call out that the ship is being invaded by Confed…”

  “No!” both Cade and Arion snapped.

  “Blazer, these people are in a fragile state, if we start shooting the place up, then they might too,” Arion explained before tapping the screen with a gloved hand. “If I had to guess, I’d say that the injured Lodran is the key. They’re waiting for him to either wake up or die. Once that happens, I think they’ll make their move.”

  “Exactly,” Cade agreed.

  “Has anyone been able to get in and examine him since they’ve taken the room?” Marda asked, a scowl on her face. “According to this log,” she continued, pointing to the empty air of her internal micomm projection. “He was in really bad shape, and he doesn’t look much better now.”

  “They took the medical team with them to the dining hall. But they don’t have any equipment and, and the rest of Heclin’s crew are keeping them away. They can’t do anything.”

  An elf with a cocky look on his face poked his head in from the passageway. “I take it drugging them is out of the question?”

  “Yes, there’s no aerosol knock-out gas we can use that will affect them without killing some of them or the hostages. We can’t even get anything into their food. They won’t accept any food or water from us. They take everything from their autocook,” he replied tapping the device on his screen.

  “What about venting the room, or at least the oxygen?” Blazer asked.

  Marda shook her head. “Same problem, we could kill some of them doing that, and that Cthoid,” she began with a shiver. “It can survive almost half a hect in hard vacuum.”

  “Plus,” Cade added. “If we went for a full vent we’d blow out half the ship’s air in the process. That room is centralized and on three different air supplies. It would take far too long to pressurize; we’d lose too many hostages before we could get them any air.”

  “Blazer, since the air ducts are clear I’m going to take up my position in the upper duct,” the elf commented. He stripped out of his armor down to the body glove and tactical harness, the power packs for the muscle fibers standing out on his thighs and back.

  “Good idea Rudjick. All teams move to designated breach points. Marda, Arion, Gokhead stay here with me. We’ll coordinate until we’re sure we have to breach.”


  The team responded without question, and moved like a swift wind from the small chamber to their assault points around the dining hall.

  Gokhead stared at the beat-up device plugged into the wall of the dining hall as the other dispersed. “What’s the story behind that autocook?”

  “I’m still not sure. They brought it with them from the ship. That one, the Otlian, Gef,” he said pointing to the four-armed being. “He had his arms locked around it when he was brought onboard. He was unconscious at the time and the medical team couldn’t even pry it out of his arms before he woke up. Since then, they haven’t gone anywhere without it.”

  Blazer’s face scrunched up and he exchanged a look with Arion. “That makes no sense at all. Arion and I used to be in the Guild. Our captain used the autocook as a form of punishment for minor infractions, when it wasn’t breaking down. Sheol, I recognize that model, it can barely make ration bars. So why?”

  “My assessment was to keep us from drugging them. Why else would they keep it?”

  Blazer shook his head in doubt. “Not with all that food sitting there, food that couldn’t be tampered with.”

  Arion scratched at his chin, as he looked up at his squad leader. “You’re assuming that they see all that as food.”

  Marda bit at her thumb in concentration like she was trying to access some memory that was just out of reach. “What have they been making with it?” she asked.

  “Just water and rations as far as I can tell, nothing more complex.”

  “Are there any orbs aboard that we can send in to recon the room?” she asked.

  “No, this is an orb free ship, that’s why so many of the cruise-goers are mediums.”

  Before Marda could reply, Heclin reappeared on the screen. “Hey!” she called out, drawing everyone’s attention. “We hear something. It sounds like someone’s in the air ducts, what’s the big idea?”

  Cade fixed Blazer with a hard look for a moment then turned to the monitor to reply. “Nothing’s going on Heclin. The circulation system probably just sucked something in. Can you describe the sound?”

  Saliva spraying out from behind his tentacle-covered mouth with every syllable, the Cthoid yelled back at them from beneath the vent. “Cloth rubbing against the interior of the duct. I heard a metal clasp hit the duct at one point.”

  “Sounds like someone accidentally dropped a shirt or jacket into the inlet duct,” Cade replied before shutting off the mike. “Tell your man in the duct to ditch some clothes and let them get sucked into an outlet grate,” he ordered Blazer.

  Blazer stepped out of the room and relayed the order over his micomm, annoyance written across his face.

  “That might be it, but why would it stop all of a sudden then?”

  “Maybe it got caught on something…”

  “Heclin look,” an Anulian HoTak called out, pointing to one of the overhead grills. A shirt flapped in the opening.

  “Okay, you were right, I’ll talk to you later,” Heclin responded, turning from the camera. She walked back to the table where they’d stationed the autocook, the Cthoid watching the shirt with malice in his eyes.

  Cade sighed and turned off the pickups for his screen before turning to face the Blade Force still present. He took a calming breath - now was not the time to lose his cool. “I’ve spent the last half cycle building up their trust and your elf nearly ruined it all.”

  “Anyone else would have made much more noise than Rudjick,” Arion replied in Rudjick’s defense. “He went in as quietly as possible, the Cthoid just got lucky to hear that.”

  Blazer shook his head then nodded before he addressed the group. “Just finished a text comm with Rudjick. He slipped on some lubricant he hadn’t seen inside the duct. He recovered as fast he could, but they still heard him.”

  Cade turned towards a 3-D map of the dining hall. “Where is he now?”

  Blazer pointed out the location for Cade. “Two ducts down from the shirt Chris tossed in after him.”

  “Fine. That was almost too close.”

  Blazer shook his head once. “Rudjick also said something else. He said he smelt something when they activated the autocook. He couldn’t place it though, just that it smelt wrong to him, out of place.”

  It was all Cade could do not to throw up his hands in frustration. “Could he be any more vague?”

  “Huh, that’s all he could say” Blazer replied. He pointed to the docking bay and the explorer ship parked alongside their dropship. How thoroughly has their ship been checked?”

  “All their files were checked. Other than that we just did a cursory inspection. Nothing really stood out when we looked.”

  “Okay, I have a hunch. Gok, Marda, with me. Arion, keep the rest of the troops calm. We’ll be out of communication for a few,” Blazer ordered and headed out of the room, Gokhead and Marda hot on his heels.

  MGS-15156, CPV-Lady of the Stars Docking Bay

  Half a hect later, Marda slid out of the last cramped crew compartment of the small ship. She took one last look into the space and shook her head. “I can’t believe you went almost three annura with a room no bigger than that. Anyway, what exactly are we looking for?”

  Sitting at the engineer’s station, Blazer examined the life-support system for the third time. He was tired and frustrated and concerned that he might have led them down a false path. “We’ll know it when we find it.”

  “Well we had better find it quickly then,” Marda commented. “The last communication we got from Arion indicated that Zithe is getting antsy waiting for us. Plus the HoTaks have gotten more hostile.”

  Gokhead slipped into the cramped cockpit with the Captain’s macomm. “I think I’ve found something. According to this log, the autocook had a short circuit on the third cycle after the accident.”

  Blazer nodded, our unit was always breaking down. We spent more time fixing it than using it.

  “The memory was wiped during the incident. So they had it scan one of their emergency ration bars and a used bottle of water in order to replicate those,” he went on highlighting the relevant entry.

  Blazer looked at the log, frustrated. “So what does that get us?”

  Gokhead highlighted a suspect log entry. “Well a couple cycles after that is when she makes her first somewhat irrational comment in her logs. I think the emergency rations, or the water may have been tainted or altered.”

  Marda held up the opened, empty ration case and looked inside. “No way to tell now. All they left us were empty wrappers,” she continued, fishing one out. She held out one of the foil sheaths to show the few miniscule crumbs that remained. “Even if the ration bar they used was contaminated we have no way of knowing which of these it was.” She jiggled the box to illustrate just how many empty wrappers were inside.

  Several pieces of the puzzle fell into place for Blazer, but one gaping hole still kept him from seeing the final picture. “Think about it. They were almost finished with the rations when they decided to try and rig the autocook to replicate them. I mean, I hated those things too but why would they wait so long?” he asked fixing them both with a questioning look. Come on guys, the solution is right there, give me the push to find it.

  Gokhead smacked his head against the wall as the answer came to him. “It’s because the autocook had shorted out. I should have seen it before.”

  Marda slapped her forehead as an answer came to her as well. “The autocook was damaged, so the food it turned out was altered. Something in the food and water is what’s driving them crazy. They’re slowly being poisoned or drugged…”

  Gokhead stood bolt upright as that realization hit him. “And each time they use the autocook the items it makes get worse. We need to destroy that autocook and get some real food and water into them. Then it’s just a matter of waiting until whatever it is, works its way out of their systems.”

  Marda tapped her right temple to activate her micomm. “What I wouldn’t give for a hyperweave access stitch,” she muttered and t
hen fell silent, her eyes dashing about. A moment later her face lit up and she stabbed at a point in the air. “Got it, had it in my old class notes, Kefid,” she called out turning towards them. “It’s an old drug, really hard to detect, and no one tests for it anymore. It was one of the first you could synthesize with an autocook, and the symptoms are matching up. If the ration bar and water they replicated contained Drashig and Cthoid proteins, say from the two sampling the samples, then the autocook would have all the ingredients it needed. It causes nasty hallucinations in most species, paranoia, fear, and in Cthoid, uncontrollable rage. Plus, it has this really strange scent, barely detectible, almost like dirt - freshly turned dirt.”

  Blazer turned and ran for the airlock. “We have to get to the security station and let them know. On the bounce people!”

  Security Room, CPV Lady of the Stars

  Arion was grinning at Blazer as he and the others skidded back into the room. “Rudjick confirms that what he smelled was like freshly-turned soil.”

  Cade even looked happy to see them. “Good catch there, and Mister Scotts here is doing an excellent job helping me out. Now what do you suggest we do to counteract the drug?”

  Marda shook her head, without access to the larger hyperweave she had only old classnotes on the drug to work from. “First, we take out that autocook. Kefid takes a long time to build up enough to have any real effect and it’s primarily a hallucinogen. It doesn’t stay in the system that long, that’s why it wasn’t popular as a street narcotic. Once you stopped there’s a huge let-down, and most races will just pass out as a result.”

  “So how do we do that?” Cade asked.

  Good question, Blazer mused.

  Gokhead dropped into the seat in front of a nearby console. “Easy, the autocook has already had one short circuit. We just cause another one and burn it out permanently. Since they hooked it into the ship’s power, all we have to do is force a power spike. I can target it to blow just that one socket, but nothing else in the room.”