~ The Hunters ~
by JA Bard
christine@christinerapoza.com

Chapter 8

Diana blinked at the ceiling, wondering what had awakened her. She trusted her armed sentries to warn her if anyone entered her quarters and they were silent. But, then again, she never trusted anything completely when it came to her life, and that gave more weight to what had wakened her.

Sounds and movement of the ship, though barely discernable to most, were acutely noticed along with the patterns, and smells. Nothing out of place there. Focusing on her breathing, Diana slipped into an altered state, releasing her Sentinel.

Everyone had their own name for that part of their self that could wander at will through solids as well as distant space in a matter of seconds. It was the third deck her Sentinel moved through. Hovering near the ceiling she was astonished to see soldiers dressed in light armor raiding the hydroponics areas as if it didn't matter if their theft was noticed. They looked like they were on a break because their weapons were absent and so were helmets.

Sloppy.

Sentinel returned suddenly, leaving her breathless for a few important moments. The screamer was wailing and weapons fire from the front room had her rolling off the bed too slow. Falling to the deck on her hands and knees a body stumbled into her, falling over her and coming to rest on his back. Eyes barely discernable in the low lighting looked up at her surprised. He whispered something softly.

Diana grabbed a handful of cloth from the fallen man's shoulder and dragged him into the bathing room, making the quick decision that if he was wounded he must have something important. Her intention was to leave out the back way with him. The screamer was doing its damage to whoever was trying to enter but there were always a few that knew how to get by.

A sound behind her had her letting go of the wounded stranger and whirling around. A soldier moved his weapon toward where she had been and fired. Her continued motion took her around with so much force, when she slammed his armored wrist she could hear the sound of bone cracking. The force drove him back, but a weapon in his other hand automatically loaded and searched for a target. Before he could fire, she knocked him off balance so the weapon clanged against the bulkhead. He bounced back, his uninjured arm swinging to find a reading on her. Either he was unconscious or believed his armor could do all the fighting for him.

Grabbing his broken wrist, she stepped inside his reach and then shifted her weight, pulling him off balance. Knowing the short comings of the armor and where it overlapped or ended, she grounded him flat on his back. The two moved in a blur to the ordinary eye. From the ground he twisted and kicked her in the ribs. Diana moved away and some of the impact was lessened, but not the pain.

The extended leg didn't get retraced fast enough and Diana grabbed it and twisted it while lifting him off balance. He tried to do the counter move to hers but she knew it as well and shifted so he would remain off balance. He grabbed her by the shoulder with his good hand, and only managed to pull her nightwear askew. Her tattooed shoulder was like a dark undergarment.

"Mortleige, is it," the voice muttered with contempt. "I kill you for sport." Blood from his mouth splattered on her. "You shall die," he coughed.

A drugged-hyped soldier wearing a computerized suit of armor; single minded and focused so that even near death he was dangerous. She jumped kicked him with both feet to the chest when he said die, knocking him to his back and jarring his suit's circuits. Her follow up kick broke his neck. He should have read the warning label on the suit.

The sudden silence of the screamer had her scrambling over his body for the dead soldier's weapon. Grabbing the collar she jerked the corpse into a sitting position. Using him as a shield, she wrapped her hand over his and started to fire at the soldiers that now began to enter the front room. It was awkward trying to get the feel for the weapon when using someone else's hand. The soldiers panicked when the shooting began again. She had the advantage of surprise and it served her well. They were afraid to shoot their leader even though he was shooting at them. That was something an experienced soldier and or mercenary would never let happen. When there were no more shots fired at her she peeked around the dead soldier and then let him drop to the ground.

There were bodies everywhere. Stepping into the room she surveyed the damage. No helmets on any of the suits. None prepared for all scenarios. Ages varied as well as species. No females. Leaning down warily she pulled the weapon from one of the dead's fingers.

Strigners. At least they're concerned about blowing holes in the bulkhead. Beginners stuff. Who are these people? No insignia. Blister new boots, too.

"You're all a bunch of new recruits. So, what's this all about?" She leaned over another, palming a medallion that rested on his armored chest. "Didn't they tell you no jewelry? It's easy to get a read. Bang, you're dead, kid." For a moment she studied the medallion, not recognizing it as belonging to any particular gang or group.

After removing all the weapons and securing them in the bathing room with only a medbot to watch over them, she surveyed the person she rescued.

He wasn't wearing armor. A wrist band caught her attention. She removed it to study later.

"This is just great. The captain isn't going to be too appreciative that she has dead soldiers on board, and unannounced passengers." Leaning over the soldier whose neck she broke, she lifted an ID tag from inside the armor. "Standard issue in the Mogovian forces but they can be bought on the black market." She removed his armor to see if he wore a uniform underneath. It was the usual tunic worn under armor, with luck charms sewed over the heart. The pattern and what emblems he chose would be a clue to where the solder came from, but a blood stain from a broken bone puncture covered it up. New recruits usually stuck to what they knew from their culture. Battle hardened soldiers developed their own. Some would go to a sorcerer to create one for them.

He had no pockets for personal mementos and no jewelry a sensor could pick up. She glanced at the medbot that was working on the wound of the first person. How had he gotten by her screamer?

"Light up one level," she ordered. She sighed heavily when she was able to see the wound better. Not deadly if treated in a better equipped medical facility. He was going to need a medical biobed to freeze him until he was in a real medical facility.

*.*.*.

O'Rouke tapped the comm on her monitor. She had fallen asleep going over the last log Vicky had compiled. "Captain O'Rourke, here." She cracked her neck to relieve the pressure.

"Captain O'Rourke, this is Diana. I think you should come over. I've had uninvited visitors and one will need medical treatment."

Diana's hair was tussled looking and her eyes were dark. O'Rourke glanced at her clock. It was 0400, early morning.

"Okay. Do I need to dress special for this?" she asked cautiously.

"Armor, if you have it handy."

"I'll be right there." She cut off the comm and entered the locker area. Over her sleepware she dropped the new armor. She shoved her feet in her boots feeling the autolock engage while selecting two hand weapons. Automatically the charge was checked while her thoughts were on what to expect when she stepped out into the corridor. A rush of adrenalin hyped up her senses. She stepped out of the locker area back into her room, her focus on what was outside her door. In a crouched position the door slid open. The corridor was deserted. The odor of stringers fire was heavy in the air. Her eyes moved to the alarms that protected her quarters. They were engaged. She was not the target. Should she feel slighted?

The entrance to Q slid open when she was a few feet from it. Her ears hummed from the energy that was still charging the room. Leaning against the doorway, she scanned the room. The place was in shambles with a dozen bodies dressed in light armor looking very dead. They obviously were not expecting a fight. She stepped over a spent screamer, pausing just to note that it was not a household security model. It had teeth, and by the looks of the room, it lived up to its guarantee. No medbot amongst them telling her they were all dead.

"Captain, the bathing room," Diana's voice called.

She looked up and could see Diana crouching next to someone. She had a weapon in one hand. The medbot from the owner's quarters had a light on its side indicating it had called for a medical stretcher.

"Be right there," she answered. Cautiously she made her way around the armored bodies; stopping at each to make sure they were as dead as they looked, and there were no weapons available to anyone should they have more visitors. They all wore the ridiculous turtle armor, and had no helmets amongst them. The captain suspected Diana Rue stripped them of weapons rather than leave herself open to further attack.

"Who's that?" the captain demanded. Carefully, she stepped over another body that she knew she didn't have to check if he was still alive. His head was at an unnatural angle.

"A messenger. Did you pick up some new recruits?"

"No. Anyone you know?" Staring at the bodies she wondered what she was going to do with them. They were evidence for an investigation.

"Never saw any of these people before. I thought maybe you were transporting a green group of pirates."

"I'm not transporting any bodies. What happened out there?" She gestured back to the front room.

"I guess they thought this was their reserved suite and had strong objections to my being here. This is the type of wake up call that makes me antisocial for the rest of the day."

"I'll bet. Thought this was empty, did they?" The captain remembered LeMarks upset that she had rented out the Q's stateroom. If it was worth the effort she would rouse LeMarks from his hybersleep and ask him.

She studied the collection of weapons that were on the tiled bathing room deck. All strigners. Silent but deadly to living tissue, but most importantly, they didn't damage ship's hulls.

"I guess they made the owners cabin a mite more soundproof than is called for," Diana commented.

"You said he's a messenger?"

"He has a message for you; however, he won't be talking to anyone for a while. This is not the typical industrial wound your bots are programmed for."

"Medical has been sent for." Captain O'Rourke tapped her comm link to Susa. "Susa, can I see you for a moment? GP PP."

"Hopefully, no one is waiting to take her out. I don't want to scare you but there are more of those fighters from where these came from. They work in groups of ten yet…there are two dead squad leaders in the front room and that one there is a captain. That means you have fifty more recruits somewhere on this ship and alive without their leaders."

"You seem to know a lot about military recons."

"I also know you know that if this is a military recon, a legitimate one, and you haven't been notified, it's not in your favor. However, those soldiers out there had the makings of untested and they were not following the simplest of rules about personal jewelry, and wearing only broken in equipment when on an assignment."

"Why are you here?"

"I have some business on Hebron, remember? You have a bigger headache than me."

"You two okay?" a voice demanded.

The captain and Diana nearly jumped at the sudden appearance of CWO EPE Henison.

"What's going on?" His stance in the bathing room doorway was so that he could keep an eye on the front door as well as the bathing room occupants. His eyes rested on Diana and had a most peculiar expression.

O'Rourke had a feeling he was not asking her that question but she couldn't think of why he would be asking the passenger that.

"And what are you doing here?" she demanded of Henison.

"O'Rourke," he warned. "Don't go getting domestic on me. Where did they come from?"

"Probably stashed in biobeds so their life signs wouldn't be picked up on regular scans," Diana suggested.

"What?" O'Rourke turned to Diana, feeling off-balance with Henison's remark and at the same time realizing that if what the Diana said was true, then her careful scrutiny of all decks didn't safeguard her and her crew from pirates or wherever these soldiers were from.

"This is a cargo carrier besides a repair ship, right? Don't you have biobeds for each crew member stashed in one of the cargo bays and replacements should any of the waystations need some?"

"Yes, but if they were activated I would have been notified," O'Rourke objected. "Henison, your CO oversees WO Miles. Did she…where is Susa anyway?"

O'Rourke ran a hand through her hair. When she went to battle these two were not who she would want watching her back. With Henison, it was not because she didn't trust him with her life, only that whatever he did would be unpredictable and it left her grabbing for a life raft. She was the captain and should be in control. As for Diana Rue, what was she doing with…?

"Reading the ship's info were ya?" Henison asked Diana.

"I like to know if an emergency occurs just where everything is. Never can tell when a pirate is going to board."

"Pirates? You keep bringing up pirates. Are you a spy for…?"

"O'Rourke, don't be asking for more trouble," Henison told her.

"No," Diana assured her at the same time.

O'Rourke didn't know what to believe but something was not feeling right about these two. She watched them as she touched her comm link. "Captain O'Rourke to Lt. Commander Susa."

The two quietly were sizing each other up. If O'Rourke was not concerned about the whereabouts of Susa she would have been asking them questions. She had a good feeling that her intuition about them knowing each other was right on the mark.

"Computer, locate Lt. Commander Susa."

"Lt. Commander Susa's locater has been deactivated," the computer informed her.

"O'Rourke, I think you should put the ship in lockdown," Henison suggested.

"Too late," Diana nodded to the bodies.

"They're in light armor and not carrying serious weapons," O'Rourke commented. "That means they weren't expecting resistance. We need to find out where their main unit is."

"We could…" Diana started.

O'Rourke waved her to silence. "Computer, lock all systems to my command only, Captain Helen O'Rourke. Rubecube red rocker."

"Systems have been locked to your command only Captain Helen O'Rourke," a different voice announced.

"Locate all crew members and passengers."

"Don't you think you should get a gurney to pick up these bodies?" Henison worried.

O'Rourke rolled her eyes. He hated being around dead bodies. She had never met a soldier that hated being around the dead more than him.

"Send the coroner's bot to the owner's suite. Thirteen to pick up," she ordered. "Anything else, Henison?" she demanded.

"Got a plan?"

"Yeah," she told him crabbily, taking satisfaction in not telling him what it was, except she was going to have to once she knew what was happening on her ship.

"You two sound like a married couple. You know that?" Diana asked.

O'Rourke sputtered and Henison smirked.

"Ah," Diana commented.

"We're not married!" O'Rourke informed her.

"Location scans completed."

O'Rourke turned to go into the front room to see the location of her crew. She left the two in the bathing room, feeling better once she was out of the small room. She was sure it was Henison's vibes. He always irritated her.

O'Rourke's curses brought the two to her side to see what the monitor was displaying.

"Looks like someone's deactivated everyone's location devices," Henison remarked.

"You think?" O'Rourke crossly demanded.

"Or maybe the scan's been disabled," Diana volunteered.

"Well," Henison continued. "You have a point there because O'Rourke's and mine aren't reading either."

"Henison, sometimes you irritate the heck out of me when you state the obvious," O'Rourke bristled. "Why don't you contribute something I don't know?"

Henison smiled. "Then it wouldn't irritate you."

"I think we need to find out just how many people you have armed and dangerous…" Diana stopped abruptly.

"We're changing course," the three said in unison.

"Computer, are we changing course?" O'Rourke demanded.

"Course remains as programmed" was the response.

"What is the course?" three voices asked.

"Unknown," was the reply.

"Unknown?" three voices demanded.

"Will you two let me handle this?" O'Rourke crossly demanded.

"What's with her?" Diana asked Henison conversationally.

"Don't know. Whenever I'm around it seems to put her into some sort of PMS state, if you know what I mean."

"Hmm," Diana hummed in understanding. "The vibes," she whispered loudly.

O'Rourke was taping in commands on the terminal and half listening but agreed with Henison's appraisal. Some species set her nerves on edge. With Henison it was the edge of a cliff and each time she willingly jumped. It was disgusting. There was no sexual interest between them…or at least not on her part, but whenever he was around her, things happened. It was the adrenalin type of things, where wearing armor would be a good idea. That was good if she was bored and she had been, she grudgingly admitted to herself. So maybe she shouldn't be complaining.

"I'm going to do a visual check on decks…" she started.

"I'll take the lower decks," Henison quickly volunteered.

"I can take a few," Diana said.

"Alright. We need to find out where the rest of this armored group is, locate passengers, and my missing crew."

"Your stasis tubes are on deck eight, seven and six, right?" Diana asked.

"Yes. I'll check them. It'll require a captain's override to get into those areas. Take the top…" she frowned at the thought of the twelve juveniles on deck four and then the other passengers. "Diana, you take the first four decks. Just make sure everyone is secured on deck four, not join them. I'll take these," she pointed to the diagram of the ship and as her finger dragged across the outline it went yellow. "Henison, this area you take." Her finger drew a blue line over the lower decks and the Hydroponics Plants. "We'll meet back here in two hours." Captain O'Rourke looked at her time piece as the others. "I'm going to stop on the bridge."

"Why back here?" Henison looked at her quizzically.

"These quarters are independently maintained during a crisis. All systems including the computer can be accessed without the main system knowing its being monitored."

"That's not too smart, considering that's the first place a pirate boarding party will take over," Henison informed her. "Just look at this place."

"I think it makes perfect sense," Diana disagreed. "Besides having the room to quarter a lot of people, it's also sound proofed and it took a lot of shots, yet not a break in the bulkhead."

"Great," Henison began, "but…."

"People!" O'Rourke demanded. "We have to get going. End of conversations." O'Rourke felt like she was getting a double dose of adrenalin standing so close to Henison. Not good for thinking strategy. She paused to pick up weapons from the bathing room and ammunition.

"Right. Let's get." Henison had his own collection of captured weapons. One was a small energy disrupter that would give a good headache to anyone that walked in front of it. He waved O'Rouke through the doorway first and then turned to Diana who wasn't moving.

"I need to change clothes," she told them, gesturing to her light clothing.

Henison nodded, giving her a wink, and followed O'Rourke out.

As the two headed for the elevator Henison glanced at O'Rourke. "So what do you think of her?" he asked in a low voice.

"I'd like to know who she is. She wants to visit Hebron…what?" O'Rourke demanded of Henison when he started in surprise.

"Nothing, nothing. Hebron?" he asked to cover his surprise.

"There is something. You know who she is," she accused. "Bridge!" she snarled at the elevator computer.

"Well, now…O'Rourke why do you keep thinking I'm holding back…"

"I know she's mortleige, Henison. What I don't know is why she's here."

"Because our ship was going in the right direction and at the right time?"

"Now I know you're full of… Course change. What is going on?"

"I'm with you on the bridge," he informed her firmly.

"You wait here in the elevator. If something's going on I don't want you disappearing too."

"The exact reason why…" he stopped abruptly as the elevator stopped on the bridge.

Both were crouched low when the door opened. No one was on the bridge.

"What the Hades happened to my bridge crew?" demanded O'Rourke, straightening up. Cautiously both moved onto the bridge looking for anything to tell them why the bridge was vacant.

"Anything?" Henison asked, meeting her back in the center of the bridge.

"Yeah," she snorted. "I got lucky. Someone signed on with LeMarks ID. I had deleted him from the system the other day. Whoever it was, and it could be LeMarks, restored his profile with a lot more authority than I ever gave him. They released a lock on the medical pods we're hauling for Jensen's Medical Equipment on deck 6. Jade and I both verified they were empty and unprogrammed. If that's where all these soldiers are coming from, then a group of people on this ship have pulled a fast one."

"Think maybe the doc is involved in this? Though, he's not conscious most of the time so I'm not sure when he would do anything."

"Maybe he's been faking it. The bots are programmed to check the pods and Jade and I've been running scans on all the decks the last week," O'Rourke informed him.

"I knew you would take my warning seriously…though, this isn't what I was…"

Both grabbed onto something secure as the ship made another abrupt course change.

"I take it you're already tried to take helm back," he asked as the lights on the bridge went out and only the screens for the nonexistent crew gave off light.

"We have to get off this deck. The life support is shutting down in five minutes."

"So, what now… hey!" Henison yelped as he was pulled off balance by the captain's grip on his shoulder. He hated when she did that. She was taller than him and always gave the appearance of looming over him.

"We're not going down an elevator. I don't trust whatever has control of this ship."

"Well did you at least see where we're heading?"

"Somewhere near Elton's star. There's a small light blinking on it."

"That's a galaxy over and there's a war in that part of space."

"Yeah. And we're not exactly armed."

She grabbed the handles on the maintenance panel and pulled it back. Ducking in she quickly moved to what the crew called the wormholes. They were actually grav tubes behind the inner hull that moved through various levels behind the engine plants that the bots used. The energy that swirled in the tubes left anyone entering it disorientated and grateful it was intended for bots and not them.

Chapter 9



Diana started on the first deck. According to the ships logs, no crew members were on this deck. All the available space was for storage. Moving her sensor around she found no life signs. Deck two and three were the same as the others. No life signs and no signs of disturbance.

On deck four, Diana studied the long corridor before stepping out of the grav tube. The damaged monitoring devices caught her immediate attention. Here was the difference from the other decks. The damage was done with a small weapon and whoever had done it was a good shot and knew exactly where to shoot. No repair bots in sight. Sniffing the air she recognized the smell of a mixture of species but nothing that would indicate any were fearful. Moving along the corridor she ran her scanner over each door looking for a life form in the interior.

Nothing.

She pushed open each door to inspect closer. The rooms were small and not meant for much more than sleeping in. Working on a freighter was composed of long hours with shifts overlapping. If anyone wanted to unwind it was in the mess hall where it doubled as a social hall.

At the end of the corridor Diana turned around and looked back the way she had come, trying to sense anything out of place besides the fact that no one was there.

Did the fifty missing soldiers move them? It seems they did…but how without panicking the passengers?

Her scanner was blinking as if it were digesting a reading. Looking down at it she could see a bioreading being processed. It was behind one of the closets used for storage. Diana put the scanner in a pocket and moved to pull the closet open, however the door swished open before she was ready.

"Who are you?" a short mercantile demanded. Unlike some people that thought all mercantiles were rude and too blunt to be tolerated, Diana liked most that she met.

"Diana Rue, and you?"

"Rutherford the IV," he announced and stuck out his hand.

Diana took his slim hand with four fingers wrapping comfortably around her hand.

"So, did you find the others, Diana Rue?" he demanded.

"No. How come you're still here?"

"I was over there," he pointed to the waste hatch. "I didn't particularly like being stuck on the same deck as those other people. Quite disgusting," he informed her.

"So did you see anything the captain may be interested in?"

"Yeah," he drawled, checking her out.

"Well, let's go talk to her. Do you want to collect anything from your room?" she asked as they started back to the elevator.

"I'm a stowaway," he announced proudly. "I don't have anything but what I have on me."

Suddenly it dawned on Diana who she was talking to.

"You're not that 'Never Say Can't' fellow are you?"

He beamed up at her. "Well, that's what the newsies call me. A lot of the cruise liners say I can't stowaway on their ship because of their security and I like to prove them wrong."

"So, what are you doing on this ship?"

He shrugged his shoulders. They both stepped into the elevator but jumped back out before the doors closed. Both could smell Carrion. Being trapped in the elevator would have been perfect for an ambush.

The mercantile, though only four feet, was fleet of foot and was ahead of Diana by a yard. He reached his closet and held it open for Diana before slamming it shut. The sounds of more than one Carrion could be heard banging on the closet hatch.

Rutherford the IV started to climb a ladder the moment he shut the hatch. Diana followed just as quickly, deciding that if he was the famous stowaway, his survival skills were reliable.

Rutherford the IV took her to the tunnel on deck two that led to the secret entrance to her present quarters. Of course he would know about it.

Captain O'Rourke was studying the monitor screen while Henison was fretting about something.

"Hey," Diana called to let them know that they were not alone.

Henison whirled around and spotting the mercantile let out a barking laugh.

O'Rourke slapped her forehead in mock dismay. "Didn't I tell you that one of these days you were going to stowaway on a doomed ship?" she demanded.

"Not your ship," he informed her confidently.

"That's the point. It's not my ship right now," she informed him dryly. "Somebody or thing has it tip to stern." She looked at Diana, "We got to the bridge and noticed someone had activated pods on the 6th deck but there aren't any active. We went to engineering on the same deck and found no one on duty and all systems on auto. Henison wasn't able to hack into the secondary controls in engineering so I thought to give it a try here."

Diana was watching the screen quickly change as whatever O'Rourke sent it to study was scrolling the results.

"Doesn't look too good with life support being shut down in various sections," she remarked, pointing at one red line that remained consistent on six decks.

Henison was about to say something when a glare from O'Rourke had him closing his mouth tightly.

Rutherford the IV plopped down on the couch, making himself comfortable. "Did you two ever…"

"No!" shouted an enraged O'Rourke while a more amused Henison gave a dramatic shrug of his shoulders. Henison and Rutherford the IV laughed at O'Rourke's glare.

Diana was impatient with the reunion. "We have the entire forth deck gone," she informed the captain, to bring her back to a more important problem. "The only person I found was your friend here."

"Sleep walked right into the elevator," Rutherford the IV informed them.

"Maybe not such a good idea to put them all on one deck," Henison mentioned to O'Rourke.

"It's mute. What does that matter when there's no one on any of the decks. We're it." She turned back to Rutherford the IV. "Do you know where they were taken?"

"They weren't taken. They walked themselves to the sleep pods, programmed in their information, and 'beddie bye'. That was deck 8. Kinda scary when you think how powerful that type of mind control is," Rutherford the IV said.

"You followed them then…what about crew members? Any of them in that lot you saw?" O'Rourke interrupted.

"A lot of pods filled. I didn't see who was in any of them."

"You all wait here," O'Rourke ordered.

"Where are you going?" Henison demanded.

"To take inventory."

"I'll go with you," he informed her.

"No you aren't…that's an order," she told him firmly.

"What about the Carrion that came after us?" Diana asked.

"What? Carrion! I knew it! It's those teen age pheromone driven females," O'Rourke said. "How many followed you?"

"Sounded like two." She turned to Rutherford. "Did any of them get taken by that subliminal call?"

"One. The others became distressed. They went hunting," he nodded solemnly.

"Hunting my eye. I'll bet they're hiding out in one of my hydro plants," Henison guessed. "They've been too nosey about them since they came aboard."

"You knew, Henison!" O'Rourke accused.

"If I said anything you would have given me that 'tell me what I don't know' attitude," he argued.

"You two should get married," Diana and Rutherford the IV said in unison.

"Will you two stop that! Have you ever thought it means something else like I'm the boss and not him? So stop giving me orders," she turned to him just as he was opening his mouth. "I'm going to check out the pods in bays on 6 and 8. You," she pointed at Henison, "go check the hydroponic plants."

"Captain," Diana began. O'Rourke had already started out the door. "Captain!"

O'Rourke itching to get out of Henison's proximity didn't stop.

"You should consider that whatever subliminal is running will be affecting you too…" she reminded her.

O'Rourke turned around when she was out of the room and looked back at the three.

Rutherford the IV held up his wrist that was equipped with an energy disrupter, which like Diana, let her pass by monitors unseen. It would also cause subliminal messages to be broken down into meaningless energy waves.

O'Rourke pulled her sleeve up and pointed to her wrist.

"What's that mean?" Rutherford asked bewildered.

Diana shook her head but she was already moving to the captain's side. Henison was looking at his wrist puzzled. Neither was wearing a disrupter, but why should they?

Diana stood in front of O'Rourke. "When you look at your wrist, what do you see?"

For a brief moment she thought the captain was going to hit her.

Henison let out an exasperated sigh from behind them. "This is serious O'Rourke."

"Henison, will you shut up or find another phrase when you're upset," O'Rourke snapped as she stomped past him back into the room to the console. She tapped in commands and a ring went out. It was the sound of a bell and it rang three times, descending in tone until it was a low bong. She stared at her wrist until the last tone died out.

"There. Now I see nothing on my wrist. Well, let's get on with it. We'll do deck sweeps once more, and hopefully we'll not miss out on what we may have the first time. Every thirty minutes the bells will ring throughout the ship. It will disrupt the mesmerizing sounds."

"Blazes but I bet that's why we didn't see anything. Where do you want any bodies we find? Henison asked.

"If they're in the pods, until I get my ship back, they're safer there. If you find any others…bring them to 26A in the medical bay. I want a full medical run on them. Meanwhile, let's go over the decks again and see what we may have missed."



* * *

Diana chose to take the grav tube again. Something about being able to see above and below her and not worry about someone taking over the elevator was a better gamble over the grav tube shutting down. What bothered her was if the ship's company was influenced would she also be, and why did only one Carrion follow the piper? She had witnessed many times how subliminal messages were used in public broadcasts, in visual art, as well as government indoctrination, not to mention that she had used it on occasion with great success on some of her assignments.

Pulling herself onto the platform on the first deck. Diana took time to get a sense of what was before her. Sniffing the air she picked up the faint scent of familiar crew members. Nothing changed since her first perusal. Not even bots had passed by. She was at the juncture of section A and C. A fourth of section A was blocked off due to it was directly above the bridge. The rest of the area was used for storage and ship wiring. The arms that formed a u-shape to berth small ships they repaired had open levels of access to repairing the exterior of the moored ship. Peering out the viewer Diana wondered how to check if anyone was hiding out there. She found nothing in the dark space. Not wanting to be an easy target herself she stepped back.

Her sensor shut down and a tickling sensation of energy ran over her body as she stepped into midsection of C. It was above the hydroponics plant. She heard of sensors not working around some of the older hydroponics plants, but that was ages ago before the Wesley was refitted. She thought the refitting would have covered one of the most important systems of the ship, considering everyone needed natural foods mixed with their chemical creations. Each storage room she looked in was labeled with its destination and packed with parts both ordered and spares. Turning around at the end of the corridor she began her walk back staring at the energy field she could now see. On the other side in section B she found the same setup. What could have been crew space was filled with parts for specific ships or small and fragile objects for people that special ordered. Diana knew a good freighter crew always kept their eyes open for something that a customer would be interested in and was able to sell it for an affordable price.

Nothing unusual. I wonder if the captain is going to need help counting all the bodies she finds in her lifepods. Hopefully they aren't dead.

Diana stepped up to the grav tube, looking down to where she was going. She quickly ducked back and out of sight.

Soldiers in heavy armor! They have slinged pulse repeaters. Those can either put a hole in a bulkhead or suck the wind out of someone's lungs. I'm going to guess it's for air extraction. These aren't rookies.

Quickly she detached an eye from her sensor and had it peeking over the edge of the tube to see what was going on. The soldiers were on deck seven. When it was cleared of activity she dropped down, rapidly moving to deck eight where O'Rourke may be.

* * *



O'Rourke jogged along the corridor on deck 6, stopping at each security kiosk. Since she had no access she reset each one using the captains wand, thus depriving anyone who did have access a moment of black out. When each came up they would require either her or head of her security to acquire them. She could do that from Q. The sleep pods, not enough to store her crew were all empty and still sealed as new or refurbished. Once finished with deck 6 she dropped to deck 8 anxious to see what was in the pods here.

Her weapon held at ready and fully armed for a confrontation moved as her eyes, sweeping over the ceiling, vents, bulkhead and anything that bore watching. The charge would not damage the ship hull but it would disrupt ship equipment that was on the other side of the bulkhead if she weren't careful. It was meant to incapacitate an aggressor no matter the species. The temperature had risen considerably as her breath took in warm moist air, but the armor suit kept her comfortable.

Again she stopped at each security kiosk and reset them. Finally she was before B8C where the emergency and hibernation pods were stored. She took one more quick glance around her and then stepped in, dropping immediately to her knee and fired one shot.

A soldier dressed in full armor turned to see who entered but fell before he completed his turn.

Sloppy. You never turn your back to an entrance. The rifle he was carrying slid under a cargo cover as he fell. A shot whined near her ear from another direction, burning her cheek. Ducking around a pod she fired back. The howl let her know she hit someone.

Click…click, click. Click.

A stalker's code. She guessed there were four.

O'Rourke didn't bother to wait to be surrounded. A third soldier came around on her left but his shadow gave him away.

Amateurs!

O'Rourke rolled behind a pod, fired, and moved on before the soldier could get a fix on her.

For a few moments she listened for any other movement. Curious she took a quick peek in the pod she was crouching next to. It was an ancient face, too old to be a soldier and not someone she recognized from any newsies.

Great, someone hijacked a body from the retirement center. I knew our luck was running too good. Old coot is probably the leader of a cult, why else would someone put an old man too close to death to be worth the credits to haul around?

Quickly she turned and used her elbow to the throat of the soldier that came up behind her, then the rifle butt to one of the weak points in the joint on the armor, freezing it. A shot knocked her into a crate. Her armor protected her but the impact stunned her for a moment. A dark figure dropped in front of her to finish her off, and she shot him. I can't believe how easy this is. Was Diana right and these are untested recruits?

Breathing heavily she tried to calm her heart so she could hear if anyone was near. Minutes seemed to pass and there were no more attacks. Cautiously she moved along the row of pods studying their settings and the unfamiliar faces. They were all set to open in twenty-four hours. That would have put them at Hell's Gate, a small space station that space miners from the nearby mines on a meteorite visited. Entertainment of all sorts was what the station specialized in, and it was one of Wesley's most appreciative of customers. The geek loved running maintenance on their games because they gave him one hour of free game time on any game he wanted to play.

Why mail all these people unregistered people to Hell's Gate?

She was faced with two questions; one was who were these people and two how did they get here?

I need to get to the control board and change the time of their release.

A noise to her left had her dropping to one knee, and bringing the smaller hand weapon around looking for a target. A kick at her wrist to dislodge the weapon banged the back of her hand against a container. She grabbed the extended leg and pushed her attacker off balance. A shot over her shoulder finished him off.

"Need help?" a voice whispered.

O'Rourke looked up startled.

Diana dropped next to her. She leaned down and pulled the soldiers weapon from him and disengaged it by removing a part. "What are you intending on doing?"

"There's a control room to the pods. I want to reset the release time."

Diana nodded. Both looked toward the control room where they now could hear voices arguing. O'Rourke pointed to herself and then gestured she would go to the right.

As O'Rourke neared the control room she could see someone was working frantically to open up the pods early while another stood at the doorway with a weapon, angrily urging the other to hurry it up. That was not always wise considering it took nearly a day for the life support to change the chemistry of its charges.

Diana rolled towards him and kicked up knocking him out and firing at the one working on the console. He was flung back and bounced from the bulkhead and over the console. Diana stepped over him, checked his vitals and then looked down at what he had been doing.

O'Rourke looked around her and then joined her at the console. There were over one hundred engaged.

"Where did they come from? Vicky and I had searched this place and didn't find anyone here." Were we under the influence of some mind control?

"It's not all that difficult to put a fake board up so that whenever you're sending out inquires you get what you expect…system okay."

O'Rourke's objections were held back as the physical evidence that somehow a fast one had been pulled was before her. It had to be at one of the last two stops. LeMarks was locked up good and tight during that time and she had removed all his access. Her suspicion that LeMarks was just a decoy was stronger now.

"Most of those people are too old to contribute more than a nod to a conversation and more than a few look disagreeable about being in the pods," O'Rourke thought aloud. "I sure hope this is not some group of experimental specimens that the prisons gave up for the space and credits."

"That could be a possibility. However, there isn't that type of legal laboratory in this section of space and from what I saw of those in the pods, there isn't a known prison colony for two of those species."

O'Rourke nodded, but something was not right about the people she took a peek at. And then again where were her crew and the passengers?

"Looks like we'll be at our destination in two days," Diana remarked to O'Rourke. She had pulled up a star chart to check on their heading.

"We need to move the bodies we shot into pods."

"Not into hoisting them into space, huh?" Diana asked as she followed O'Rourke out into the bay. Diana dragged out an empty pod from it's space and tapped it's control pad. "It's not coming on."

"You stand watch I'll take care of that. I'm not going to toss anyone out, even the dead until I find out what's going on."

"Well, then hurry up, I got a feeling we'll have company soon, and it won't be Carrion."

O'Rourke nodded. She brought all the hibernation pods online and with them a pair of medical bots that monitored them lit up and moved out of their closets. While the bots moved the bodies into the pods, O'Rourke changed the times on all the sleep pods. No one was going to wake up until she overrode the command.

Diana was standing on top of a stack of supplies which gave her a better view of the bay. Her binocular vision telescoped in on one of the control panels on an occupied sleeping pod. "Doesn't look like it's changing those times," Diana warned.

"Give it another five minutes when it recycles," O'Rourke muttered as she continued her tapping. It was a few minutes later that both of them heard a whoosh and warbling. The two women looked at each other.

"Do you think it's real?" Diana asked O'Rourke.

"Do you want to stick around to find out?"

"Not unless you see a reason to," Diana offered. She glanced worriedly at the doorway. Carrion posing as azions or real ones?

"We'll take the back way out," O'Rourke explained as she waved Diana to follow. Blood sucking azions were not her favorite adversaries. A gang of them had jumped her and her guards at what was labeled a neutral port. She had hickies all over her exposed body parts. Her second in command had problems with not smirking during the entire shift. Since the medical bay was busy with more serious cases from the confrontation she couldn't justify her with less than life threatening injuries occupying a medbot or a physician.

"Don't you think that's obvious?" Diana remarked when O'Rourke headed to the exit chute.

O'Rourke laughed and stopped at a locker. She tapped in a code and swung the door open. Inside was a rack of space suits. "Just take it," she ordered. Fastening the suit to hang over her shoulder, O'Rourke climbed up the locker and opened a vent behind it. She turned around and looked at Diana in askance.

Diana climbed after O'Rourke into an air tube. From the tube they moved into a maintenance tunnel and from there into the corridor. Diana kept glancing behind them, catching the sounds of pursuit.

O'Rourke took the grav tube to the second level. They entered the captain's private exercise room. O'Rourke stopped at a locker and unlocked it. It was an armory. She hung the space suit up and gesture for Diana to follow suit. "That was to make them think we're planning on outside work."

"Not taking any chances are you?" Diana drawled, peering at her collection of combat weapons. Most of the weapons Diana recognized. They were all specialized and not from one galaxy. Her eyes quickly found the Precie Armor tag on a cube. It was not from the usual travel corridors of the empire. She always wanted to try one on.

O'Rourke handed Diana a cube. "You know how to dress-up?"

Diana paused, "Why don't you show me?"

O'Rourke didn't waste time with banter but stripped off her light armor, leaving her in her undertunic. She popped the lid from the cube and poured the silvery liquid over her head. Diana was impressed as it molded like liquid mercury over her body, including head and face, forming into a helmet. She pressed a notch on the neck and the helmet receded. Once her entire body was covered, energy emanated from the suit. Diana's senses had a brief blast from the energy as if something was tested on different levels.

Diana poured the armor over her light clothing. Whatever she experienced from O'Rourke's donning of her armor didn't happen when she put hers on. It seemed the wearer was protected from its own defenses. O'Rourke didn't watch Diana but had continued arming herself, sliding what she could to the belt she buckled on, to her leg holster and arm holster. She turned to Diana and gestured into the locker. "See anything you like?"

"All very nice," she commented. "I'll take a couple of those, that, one of the whipwackers, nice brand, two of the knuckle rappers, three rings, four…"

"Just grab what you can carry," O'Rourke told her dryly.

Loaded up, both hopped in place to settle everything, then O'Rourke led her through the closet into the owner's stateroom.

Henison and Rutherford had not arrived. O'Rourke went to the console and checked on the ship and the whereabouts of her crew and passengers. Still no biosigns and what was annoying was she couldn't read anything from the life pods. Diana had been right. Someone interfered with the monitoring equipment. There was only one person that skilled and she was hoping it wasn't the geek, but saw no other person able to do it. He was also the one that was supposed to be monitoring the systems.

Diana settled near the front door of the room, expecting unfriendly visitors. Mentally she ran a check of the placement of each weapon. The sensitivity of the armor increased her determination to get one for her arsenal. Handy to have it stored in a small cube that fit in the palm of one's hand.

Both women braced themselves as the ship took a sudden change of direction.

"Just why the changes in direction?" Diana wondered aloud.

"Travel gates," O'Rourke muttered. "Looks like whatever is driving my ship has preferences." She frowned over the choices.

"I thought the destination was already set?"

"It is. It hasn't changed." O'Rourke shook her head perplexed. "By the energy readings, these are old gates. They're not on my star charts but you better believe I'm saving this information. Never can tell when I'll need to know some shortcuts," she whispered. "This is interesting. Codes are needed to open them and this ship is sending them."

Diana glanced at her and then returned her attention to the front door. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up. Somebody was aiming an energy disrupter at the door.

O'Rourke looked up. "These suits will protect you from anything short of a nuclear missile."

"Not that I want to test that belief out myself, but I did see a fellow wearing one that went down with an energy disrupter aimed at his feet," Diana said. She didn't explain that it was her that found the weak spot or that he was standing in a puddle of blood ready to step into an air car.

A boom sounded and the front door held.

"Ready?" O'Rourke asked.

"Ready," Diana replied.

"I'll take left," O'Rourke informed her.

Both women engaged their helmets. The door slid open.

They began firing at anything that moved on the other side of the black whirling smoke that was sucked up into the vents from the corridor. It made sense to Diana that whoever built the owner's suite intended it to be a safe room incase of hostile boarding. It certainly was taking a lot of weapons fire today and holding up well.

Deciding there was not enough return fire, Diana leaned against the bulkhead and caught O'Rourke's eye. She jerked her head at where she wanted to go. O'Rourke nodded.

Moving with the rolling smoke she found herself face to face with an armored soldier. Her reflexes were automatic. She thumped his helmet retractor and then slammed him in the face. He fell like a sack of rocks. His partner knocked her against the bulkhead but O'Rourke's shot took him out. Diana crawled over to the one she killed and investigated what he had in his fist.

Geeze! Are they nuts? This kind of explosive will blast a hole to the outside! Ten minutes we've got. What a joke. They expected us to catch these fellows and take it back into the saferoom to let it harmlessly blowout the owner's quarters. Not going to happen you dirt pounders. There's something about me and following the game plan that doesn't make me a cooperative team player.

As her thoughts moved she was already searching for the trash dispenser. Usually there was an evac tube that would disperse the contents directly into space. Diana didn't think the redesign would have removed the tube from the military ship or very far from the captain's quarters.

And there it was well marked.

"Captain!" she hollered. She didn't have time to figure out the code. Diana lifted her weapon to give cover to the captain who came to her side.

"Criminy," O'Rourke grunted as she opened up the evac tube and let the canister Diana held fall.

Shots hit the bulkhead next to Diana knocking her against O'Rourke and both fell. They tried to get in a defensive position to face their attackers. O'Rourke took a hit that knocked her off Diana. Diana started to fire the moment her arm was freed. Without pausing she was on her feet and moving toward the shots. She was halfway to the corner of the corridor when the five fighters became frightened that their shots not doing permanent damage.

Suddenly shots were coming from behind their attackers. Caught between two sources of fire they succumbed. Henison came trotting toward Diana looking smug. "Nice suit you got there, Mandy," he greeted in a low voice.

"I should have known your information on a great berth for cheap travel would mean I wouldn't be bored," she answered back grinning. "And you didn't say you'd be on board."

"Hey! You two! Get me outta here."

The two turned to the forgotten captain. The shot she had taken had knocked her into the kiosk where she was stuck.

"Some suit this is," muttered the captain.

Diana could hear the thudding of feet. She holstered her weapons and grabbed one of the captain's armored arms, with Henison on the other, and both tugged. The sudden release had all three falling to the deck. Scrambling to her feet, Diana pulled her weapons out and took a defensive position at the doorway, waiting for Henison and the captain to get in. When the door closed Diana moved to secure the rest of the suite while Henison helped the limping captain over to the couch.

Henison looked over at O'Rourke who was rubbing her head. "So, what do you think of your new armor?"

"It better hold up or you're returning my money," O'Rourke answered. Right now she was wishing for some meds to get rid of the headache. "I knew if you were around I would have trouble," she growled. "This ship isn't a hunter class but she's a good ship Henison. You set her up as bait, and I swear I'm going to toss you out the waste tube."

"I'm surprised with you O'Rourke. I thought you liked being right dag smack in the middle of things."

"Maybe I've matured, and don't need a hyped up life to let me know I'm alive."

Henison waved a finger at her, "I know better than that. You're up to something."

"Don't you two ever stop?" Rutherford the IV asked.

O'Rourke turned to Rutherford and two of her crew; neither having any unusual abilities to help her out of getting her ship back.

"What's your story?" Henison demanded of the two. Since they were under his supervision he had some rights to interrogate them first.

Both looked embarrassed.

"Oh, just say it!" Rutherford the IV told them impatiently. When they were not forthcoming quickly enough, he went on. "They were…"

"Trolling," the captain and Henison interrupted dryly.

"This is one instance I won't reprimand you," O'Rourke informed them.

PO Langley looked uncomfortable but spoke up. "Ma'am, we went out to look at the outside hatch to the hydroponics and got locked out. We weren't trolling on purpose. We've been trying to get back in but…from the outside, we've been seeing some really strange things and decided to stay out in the soft U until we thought it was safe to come in."

His partner nodded guiltily giving everyone a guess that it was not the entire truth.

"So, what did you see that you were not comfortable with to return?"

"Aliens, Ma'am."

Only Rutherford the IV didn't stare at the two men as if they were crazy.

"He means real one's Captain. Nothing we've ever seen before."

"And we've seen a lot traveling with you, Ma'am, I mean Captain," PO Langley gulped.

"Describe them, man!" Rutherford told him impatiently.

"Please," O'Rourke told them dryly.

"I…I can draw them, Captain. But I can't describe them. Too…"

"Different…" his shipmate helped.

O'Rourke went back to the terminal and cleared the screen. "There you go."

"I don't do so well on screens, Captain. I use pencil and pap…thank you," PO Langley nodded toward Diana who produced what he needed.

While Langley settled on the couch and proceeded to make a quick sketch with his crewmate assisting, Henison and O'Rourke stood near his shoulder.

Diana turned to Rutherford the IV who was watching everything as if he already knew what the outcome was going to be. He had one arm wrapped around his belly and the other arm bent with his chin resting in the palm. It gave the small character a comical appearance.

"So, what's your take on this?" Diana asked Rutherford conversationally.

"Well, since you asked me, it sounds like they're from that new planet that the UTA is deciding as to whether to let them join the space traveling community. Butumabutu, they call themselves. If the UTA isn't nice to them, they'll travel anyway and scuttle anyone they can reach. Everyone knows the Blanstone Pirates recruit members from planets the Association refuses to acknowledge; only I think they're going to be mighty surprised with these people."

"Why would the UTA not let them in?"

"They would like to have for dinner a good number of present members," he laughed.

"As in eat them?" Henison demanded.

"They hunt for prey and are looking forward to a rewarding chase with what is out in the galaxy. Their neighbors are clamoring for them to be locked down, and prevented from traveling through space."

"Well, then they better lock them down now."

"Too late, if what your crew is saying he saw some aboard."

PO Langley held up his paper. Rutherford looked at the drawing and nodded. "That's them alright. I knew it when he said aliens."

"They're…"

"Revolting. That's the idea. Scares you so you stop in your tracks." Rutherford didn't seem concerned.

"They're on this ship?" O'Rourke demanded. "Are they the one's controlling my ship?"

"We need to get control back," Henison stated with conviction. He went back to the console and touched the screen but nothing was responding to his commands or inquiries.

"I happen to have it from a good source, they don't like heat. Heat slows them down to near incubation," Rutherford informed them.

"Where did you get all this information," O'Rourke demanded.

"I can't say…nor can I rightly remember. I…"

"You overheard someone's conversation on one of the ships you hitched a ride on, aye?" Henison guessed.

Rutherford didn't answer but he folded his arms around his small rounded stomach as if he would say no more.

"So, this heat is a good thing in one way….if what you say is true. But then, who has control of my ship? Is it someone that knows these creatures are onboard and is using the heat to keep them from taking over the ship? What's keeping these butumabutu's from blowing the Wesley into dust?"

"Where would these things most likely retreat to if it were to get hot for them?" Diana asked Rutherford.

Rutherford looked thoughtful but only gave a shrug of his shoulders. "Somewhere that's cold?" he asked.

"The U fold. How big are these things?" Henison asked PO Langley and Seaman Sealy.

"About R4s size," PO Langley gestured to Rutherford the IV.

"R4!" Rutherford huffed. "I don't insult you. I do have a full name. You want me to be calling you POL, as in Polltuck or Pol…"

"Alright, alright, Rutherford. Let's stay on track," O'Rourke interrupted, giving Langley a glare.

"I'm getting the feeling there's more than one game going on here. We need to figure what the games are and then which to shut down first." Diana looked at O'Rourke.

"I'm thinking we need to eyeball each deck and find out where everyone is," O'Rourke told them. "No splitting up this time. Two look while others keep an eye out. I'm thinking there's something we're missing."

"Where can a small army be hidden away on a freighter?" Diana asked.

"Small army?" PO Langley and Seaman Sealy asked together.

O'Rourke stepped toward the two who gulped audibly. Diana glanced at the captain and noticed her eyes were eerily darkened. "What do you know about an army being on my ship," she asked in a low voice.

"Spit it out before the captain tosses you out the tubes without a suit," Henison growled.

"Peders Package," Langley blurted out.

"That's the haul for the medical biotubes for the hospital on Station Oa," O'Rourke identified. What would they want with the elderly? Don't they have enough of their own? Do they have some kind of laboratory for elderly research?

"Right, right. Commander LeMarks and Ensign Tarish had arranged to deliver some new military recruits to Bollto via the biotubes. They figured the biotubes freight expense was already paid for and they are used so why not make some extra credits by selling the space. It's not too far from Oa. That's all I heard."

"Why didn't you bring this to the Captain's attention?" Henison demanded. "Withholding information like that is grounds for Captain's dismissal…that's short for hoisting you out the afts."

Seaman Sealy turned pale. "Don't we get some leeway in telling you now?"

"We were going to tell you but we got locked outside, Captain," Langley quickly spoke up.

"When did you overhear the conversation?"

"The night we got locked out," Langley spoke hastily.

"Do you think someone locked you out purposely?" O'Rourke asked.

Seaman Sealy shook his vigorously. "I don't think they knew we were outside, Ma'am. As soon as PO overheard the conversation in the hydroponics bay he came over to me to ask what to do. It's not like we have direct access to you. Honest, Ma'am. We were out there because we didn't want anyone to overhear our conversation."

They're spinning as they go. This is a waste of time. "That's not the complete truth," O'Rourke informed him too nicely.

"Captain?" the two asked in unison.

"You two are notorious for selling inside information as well as…telling tales for a bit of money on the side. Swindling is what some would call it."

"Captain, I swear we only talked about it. We didn't do anything," Seaman Sealy swore. He gulped remembering the scuttlebutt of what the captain did with anyone she caught involved in illegal activities.

The two were sweating noticeably. For that matter, Diana noticed that Rutherford looked heated too. Diana's attention went back to the captain as she played her game.

"So, you were first going to try your hand at blackmail, however, when you discovered those 'aliens' on the Wesley that changed the game. And here you are with a new plan. So what's your game now," O'Rourke asked softly. Her eyes were silver as she studied the merchantman.

"Captain, it's not a mutiny," Langley blurted out.

"That would take a ring leader with more than an army of two or three," Henison commented.

"So, I'm missing an entire crew. They're not on deck 8 and not on 6," O'Rourke mentioned casually to the two men. "Where are they?"

The two men vigorously shook their heads that they didn't know, looking frightened.

"So, I now know where the soldiers came from, the medical bays storage area but there isn't enough room to store my crew there even if the pods were stacked one on the other. These soldiers, if they were being meant for delivery on Oa what had them coming out so soon?" she asked the two merchantmen.

One shook his head and the other gulped under the captain's change of temper.

"Notice it's getting hotter?" Diana asked.

"I need to locate the whereabouts of my crew and then do a deck by deck sweep for the Carrion and anyone else that's wandering about. And you two…are going to be stashed where you can't make trouble."

An alarm from the console had the three crowding around it to see what was happening.

"Life support on every deck is shutting down," muttered O'Rourke as she tried to override the shut down.

"We can take shelter in one of the shuttles. They have their own life support."

"Good idea. We can drop down the grav tubes."

"Oh, I don't do grav tubes," Rutherford told the others. "I get sick looking down."

"No time for that," Henison said, grabbing his arm and hurrying him after Diana and O'Rourke.

Chapter 10



"Two shuttles missing." Henison turned slightly to O'Rouke, "Looks like the captain's shuttle is one of them."

"I can see that." The captain spent a few minutes venting while angrily punching in her access code. Her shuttle had the ship's emergency codes. It was isolated from the ship's systems so if there was any sabotage of the Wesley, it would not affect her shuttle that held the key recovery data. No one knew of the backup plan but Vicky.

"It's not as roomy as the utility shuttles," Rutherford informed them. He stepped on the shuttle ramp to Brillant Rays sticking close to the captain. He plopped down in one of the seats behind the pilot's seat, running his hands over the upholstery. "This is okay for a utility shuttle."

"How do you know what the inside of the captain's shuttle is like?" O'Rourke turned around in her seat.

"How do you think I got on your ship?" He beamed a big smile showing yellow points.

"Not!" she disagreed.

"Well, not when you flew her," he amended. "One of your crew flew her. Went to pick up your special delivery."

Diana looked over at Henison who suddenly looked busy at his console. Diana peered over his shoulder and could see him poking at system inquires and getting beeps. Not authorized kept coming up on the screen.

"What special delivery? If there's any special deliveries in my name, I pick them up myself. Gods, my entire crew is sneaking around behind my back! And I'm not even finding out about it from my security. Was it someone in security?" she demanded.

"Just what was in the delivery?" Diana asked, intending on sidetracking the captain.

"Say, shouldn't we be worrying about getting your ship back?" Henison asked. "I can help if you give me access."

"Just boxes," Rutherford stated in a sing-song voice.

O'Rourke glared at Henison. "Did you take my shuttle for one of your pickups, Henison?"

"I would never take your shuttle without permission, Captain."

"I'm glad you noted that I'm the captain. Who gave you permission to take my shuttle and who said you can pick up unauthorized passengers."

"You. Your wording was, '"Do what's necessary short of illegal."'

While the captain and Henison went back and forth about using her shuttle, Diana was growing impatient. To refocus, she leaned back and closed her eyes. She needed to sort through what was happening. There were too many different people with their own agendas. That was causing the mix of energies on the ship so she could not separate the usual ship's extraneous business to the outside tampering business.

"Hey, I found out who has your shuttles," Henison announced.

Diana sat up and leaned over his shoulder.

"Like I don't already know," O'Rourke told him. "I'm tracking them. I don't appreciate those Carrion stealing my shuttles."

"It's a tiny planet on the other side of M2R4," Henison returned.

O'Rourke slapped the side of her console. "Like I have time for this!"

"Anyone notice the ship is powering down?" Diana asked standing up.

"It's orbiting around a moon," Henison announced.

"Ha! I got in!" O'Rourke began reading the information the ship was finally letting her see. "They're in the life pods. Everyone is in the pods." Her voice sounded relieved and by her expression, she was determined to free them. "I have to bring life support back on line before I get my crew back."

"What about the shuttles?"

"This is Captain O'Rourke to the occupants of MY shuttle, Destiny, come in."

"Hello, Captain," a voice responded. "Sorry about borrowing your shuttle without asking, but you were preoccupied with other matters."

"Why are you taking my shuttles and where?"

"My name is Numba, Lieutenant Numba from the Royal Guard of the United Municipalities of Colmus. Princess Amiee is my assignment and…" there was a long hiss or sigh, "she has disappeared, or not disappeared but took one of your shuttles and has landed on a small planet. I intend on bringing her back and your shuttles."

Rutherford looked at the captain and shook his head puzzled. "When I saw her walking, she was in a trance like all the others."

"She was in a trance, yes," Lt. Numba said. "And that is what is puzzling. All the others went into the sleep pods but she went to a shuttle."

"Do you know who these people are?" Henison whispered softly to O'Rourke.

She shook her head.

"They're Hunters. They must be on the scent of an artifact," Henison said.

"The one you gave me?" O'Rourke asked.

"Maybe," Henison hedged.

"Blasted gamers."

"It's not a game, O'Rourke."

"Well, I have something more important here," O'Rourke said exasperated.

"I think it's related," Henison aid.

"Oh, you do do you?"

"Have you noticed everything has suddenly come to a halt. Everyone in sleep pods…"

"But us. Why is that?" O'Rourke demanded. The energy from Henison was causing her body to vibrate to the point of giving her an itch. The temptation to scratch was over powering.

"Maybe we're supposed to be down there too," Rutherford interjected.

Diana gave Rutherford a hard stare, then Henison, and O'Rourke. "You have to be kidding. An artifact is responsible for all this?" Diana shook her head. "Henison, this is really over the edge."

"It's a tool, Diana. I've seen it happen thousands of times."

"Are you trying to tell me I need to send someone over there to give her guard support? I have a ship to get back," O'Rourke interrupted.

"I'll go," Diana answered.

"Me too," Rutherford said.

"They're under your protection as passengers…." began Henison.

"Don't tell me my duty, Henison," O'Rourke exploded. "Gods I hate being around you!"

Henison and Diana smiled. "It's the energy," they said in unison.

"Some species have that effect on others," Rutherford nodded in agreement.

"You can't use a shuttle without a crewmember. Henison, go with them and bring back my shuttles."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes," she said emphatically. It was too close in the shuttle and if she did not know better, she would have sworn her hair was sticking up from his near energy. She had long ago stopped trying to figure out why when she was near some people, not necessarily species determined, she felt like she had inhaled a stimulant with all her nerves and hair fibers standing on end.

"Take the Nebula Star. Maintenance did a full system overhaul. You can test it out," she added. It was to irk Henison who was looking too happy to be given groundside duty. Though he denied that the closeness did not affect him, she suspected he was not immune.

*.*.*

Henison went over the planet's readings again. "This is a false reading. Says only one spot on the whole planet is safe for us to land."

"Just like in the stories," Rutherford nodded excited.

"We need survival packs, just in case we suddenly find ourselves in unfriendly territory and I don't just mean who we should be meeting up with," Diana said. She was feeling excited by all this unexpected adventure.

"Each shuttle carries a dozen. Did that bodyguard sound competent enough to have her crew grab one?" Henison looked up from his screen to Diana who had pulled one out and was rummaging through it.

"Lieutenant Numba," Diana repeated thoughtfully. "She seemed competent to me." However, the name was familiar but from where she didn't know. In her line of business, it meant something.

"We should take two packs each, just in case," Henison went on planning.

"Oh, I don't think I could be carrying one of these. They're heavy," Rutherford objected. "How about just this?"

He had slipped a facemask over his face and made faces at the two.

"That will be our weapon," Henison laughed. "Doesn't this feel like old times?" he asked Diana.

"No. This feels like we need to get the passengers back on ship and help the captain get her ship back. I remember hearing there were twelve in Princess Amiee's party. No way are we going to be able to carry our packs and one for each of them, Henison. Don't these shuttles carry mobile carriers?"

"Yeah. It's back there. Get ready we're breaking through the atmosphere."

The landing was smooth with not even a bump. They landed between the other two shuttles.

"Looks like a parking lot," Rutherford commented.

Diana ran up the ramp of one shuttle while Henison ran up the other to see if they were empty. Neither expected to find anyone. Both checked to see if any supplies were removed from the shuttles. The captain's shuttle was the only one with all the emergency supplies intact. The lieutenant had seen to her charges as well as her princess.

"Let's lock them up so they aren't stolen while we're looking for the group." Henison pressed the device on his wrist and the ramps recessed.

"What happens if we're chased off this planet?" Rutherford asked.

"Always make sure you have an escape route," Diana mocked.

"Always know you're escape routes." Rutherford added.

"There's the path. Shall we start?" Henison resettled his pack and started up the only path available to them.

As the forest surrounded them, they all noticed how quickly it became dark. It was eerie to look up and see no sky just tall trees yet still be able to make out the outline of the trees and path.

"How do you think we get light here if we can't see the sky?" Rutherford asked as he trotted to keep up with the longer legged pair.

Henison grunted an answer, more intent on studying everything around them. Sniffing the air he found even that did not register as familiar. He might as well be in a space suit with filtered air.

Diana was behind Rutherford so he would not get left behind. "Why ask?"

"Aren't you curious?"

"I would guess that whatever made just one spot on this planet cleared for us to land, which we've passed the small area already, is giving us light."

"Hold up," Henison said, stopping abruptly. Unfortunately, Rutherford was barreling along to stay the pace and ran into Henison, pitching them both into a pit.

Chapter 11



O'Rourke watched the shuttle leave looking for any anomaly as they pushed past the normal energy buffer around her ship. There was no visual displacement, and there should have been.

Leaning back in her seat to think of what she was going to do, she listened to the familiar sounds around her. It should have reassured her that everything was alright.

O'Rourke slapped her palm angrily on the console. It stung.

Rising from her seat she moved to go out of the shuttle without her spacesuit. The door refused to open.

"If this is a dream, I am in control now," she stated firmly. Yet the door did not open. Sitting back down in her seat she accessed the computer for information. "What did Henison call that artifact? Ruger. Computer, find information on 'Ruger'."

Information began to scroll across her screen. "Gods but he had to pick something that has more stories than a sailor has girlfriends."

Dejectedly she scanned down the stories looking for something that would catch her eye. "Oh, this one is a real idiot's choice. Sail to unknown destination; perform set tasks; complete them as best as you can and wait for results. And this is what Hunters find so interesting?" Letting out a sigh of exasperation she continued through the stories. They were all like children's tales where the believer fulfills the tasks and a prize is awarded. What she wanted to know was what were the tasks and then let Henison take care of that while she took back control of her ship.

After for what seemed a long time she leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes.

"Blasted artifact. Take away the cause, and the effect must cease. That's what Vicky would say." It made a lot of sense. "Hades, but that means whatever business that artifact is up to, it needs to be taken care of before I can get my ship back. Do I trust them to get it done quickly?"

The idea of leaving her ship went against her belief of a captain leaving her ship when it was in trouble. Her fingers tapped on the console as she stared at the bulkhead of the shuttle. Suddenly she stopped the tapping. Leaning forward she strained to hear what sounded like an echo of her tapping. Experimentally she tapped a code.

"Vicky!"

Vicky tapped her whereabouts, outside of Wesley in a pod attached to the bulkhead but independent of the ship. It was something they had come up with on one of their brain-storming ideas on how to prevent a complete pirate take-over. It had been necessary for her to have forgotten it so if she were questioned by pirates she would not have remembered. Vicky tapped the code that had her remembering.

By the time O'Rourke typed out all that was going on and Vicky giving her her appraisal and suspicions O'Rourke's fingers were tired. They both took a break to think out a strategy.

Vicky suspected the Geek was in on a scheme with LeMarks. That was frightening in itself. It meant that LeMarks was not as stupid as they thought. Vicky had dropped off the system to trace LeMarks and the Geek. Vicky was not aware of the hidden soldiers in the medical pods but was not surprised. Security under LeMarks was hinky.

O'Rourke suited up in an armored space suit from the shuttle locker. It was time to take her ship back.

From the arms cabinet she removed weapons Henison and Vicky had hidden for such an occasion. Vicky would meet her in the medical lab. O'Rourke was beginning to suspect that for all the criminals that were dumped on her, there were probably more than two situations they needed to bring under control. The Ruger she would leave to Henison and his group.



Chapter 12



"Just grab the rope!" Diana told the two at the bottom of the pit impatiently, jiggling to emphasize her command. Such bickering and whining from people their age! And Henison of all people.

Nothing was happening. Not daring to lean too close to the edge, Diana strained to hear what was going on. There was no sound. She jiggled the rope again. "Hey," she called near the edge. Diana looked at the tree the rope was wrapped around. How safe was it to climb down herself?

Sitting back on her heels she thought about priorities. If Henison, a very good tracker, fell into the pit, then chances were the others had fallen in. Pits usually had thorns that were soaked in either a poison or a sleeping chemical.

Diana tied a second rope around another tree, thinking if there were a lot of people then the more ropes the faster they would get out of the pit…if she could wake them. As far as she was concerned, there was nothing deadly about this quest.

From her utility pack she pulled out a light and fastened it to her forehead. Slowly, she moved down the pit, noticing it got darker as she descended, but what she was able to see were sharp spikes randomly placed on the sides of the pit. Her boots were impervious to most sharp objects, but this was not the normal pit one would encounter in a stroll through the woods. Glancing back up at the rim of the pit, she worried about the sharp spikes cutting the rope. As the space above her head became smaller, Diana was thinking that how much further down she had to go. Pausing, Diana's lamp searched for the bottom of the pit. Movement from outside of the light beam had her swinging it to the other side of the pit. Something dark ducked back into a hole.

Whatever that was, must have dragged those two into it's hole.

Gauging the distance, Diana decided by jumping up she would be able to reach the rope if she let go. After assuring herself she would not be landing on anything alive or dead, she pushed off from the wall and dropped down.

Pock, pock, pock, pock, pock, pock.

The noise startled Diana until she realized it was from her shifting weight, though slight. Slowly, she moved into the shadow of cave's entrance and the noise ceased.

Diana dampened her light and peered in the hole. There was no light coming back at her. She switched her lamp to pick up thermal readings, realizing not all unfriendly species would register. Turning the light to ultra violet she studied the ceiling, ground and sides. The ceiling was low, requiring her to crawl to get in. Her light came to rest on a dark form over two body lengths from the entrance, but distances could be deceiving in dim lighting. Switching back to lamplight she found the figure to be wearing the same clothing as Henison. On her hands and knees she crawled close enough for her fingers to reach for Henison's boot and only touched the tip.

Checking above her again for anything that would be a danger to her, she crawled in further. The entrance widened into a huge cavern. Shinning her light around the area she found lumps of bodies everywhere. Turning off the lamp and switching to seeing thermal readings, they were all alive.

Turning back to Henison she brought out a health scanner to see just what was wrong with him. The scanner came up with nothing. Shaking his arm she had to jump back so he would not hit her.

"Hey, watch out," she whispered. Strange echoes played all around her. Worriedly she looked around her, before looking back at Henison. He was not moving any further. Giving him a stimulant was tempting but this was not a normal situation. To give stimulants when it was not called for would confuse whatever was going on.

"Henison, if you don't wake up, you're going to be doing the cleanup," she said softly.

Mumbling came from him which was a good sign.

"Get up," she nudged him.

"I am up," he grunted and made to roll over but stopped with his pack in the way. "What did you hit me with," he asked.

"You fell down a pit. Get up, Henison. We have bodies all over the place and I know there's something down here. You do remember falling down a pit, don't you?"

"I didn't fall. I was pushed," he grumbled. He looked around him, but saw nothing. "Hey, shine your light over there."

"Oh, gods! What is that?"

"A guardian," Henison said happily, sounding wide awake.

"To what? We're in a dark pit. Henison, that's… It's coming this way."

A dark shape with no details or eyes that shined in Diana's light moved toward them. It came to a stop in front of Diana.

You are the leader for the next journey.

And it disappeared.

A lot of moaning and groaning echoed throughout the cavern as the dark unconscious shapes came awake.

Diana put her hands over her ears to stop the noise. Just as suddenly, everyone's groaning stopped. Her hands came away from her ears slowly, as if not trusting the sudden silence. It was as if she were deaf. Tapping her scanner she listened for a sound.

Nothing.

Tapping again she thought she heard something from far away.

"Hello," is what she believed she said, but there was no sound from that. In fact, she didn't even feel the vibration in her throat.

This was a dream.

Chapter 13



O'Rourke paused in the corridor; sure that she had heard something. Turning down the corridor to the engineering bay she froze against the bulkhead. LeMarks, a wholly changed man, accompanied by the Geek, were trying to access the engineering panel. O'Rourke took aim and shot the Geek, whom she thought more dangerous. He would not be waking up until she administered the counter drug. Another toy from her weapons locker that Henison sought to fill with unusual weapons. LeMarks, trimmer and quicker lifted his weapon and put a hole in the bulkhead where O'Rourke had been standing.

"Vickie, this is O'Rourke. One down - the Geek. LeMarks is loose in the engineering section. He's not the same shape and mind as we knew him to be."

"He touched the panel and now he's a marked man," Vickie gloated. "I can trace him. I'm going to flood that area with noise. It's going to hurt so get out of there."

"I'm down one deck," O'Rourke said, dropping with a thud on the said deck. Running down the deserted corridor concerned with LeMarks' clever disguise, O'Rourke turned another corner expecting anything. Moving quickly, she scanned bulkhead, top and deck with her weapon's nozzle softly clicking that it found deck mines. They had been activated by Vicki.

For LeMarks to have taken on an elaborate disguise for as long as he had, meant that something big was being planned. It was difficult to decide whether it was coming from the pirates that were determined to undermine her and take over the trade corridors or if it was aimed at taking over just her ship. O'Rourke stopped at a kiosk just to see if it was operational. A tap on "activate" was rewarded with a beep. There was an advantage in them being in lock down. LeMarks, whatever his real skills were, would not be able to logon. They were all off-line and disconnected completely from the main systems.

As she dropped to the next deck, she looked down both ends of the corridor before heading to the medical center. Not trusting anything she slowed to a walk, looking over the bulkhead and emergency hatch covers for anything that did not belong. Her walks through her entire ship at various shifts enabled her to be able to recognize people and changes. Vicki signaled her from the other end of the corridor.

"We've got some real trouble heading our way. LeMarks sent a beacon to someone. You're not going to believe who," Vicki said, sounding more excited than worried.

"Evangeline Meso?" It was a wild guess, but everyone knew LeMarks had a large wanted poster of her in his quarters.

Vicki gave her a thumbs up. "I traced the signal, though it may not really be her. I can't find any ship within our ships scan range. It could be moments or weeks. The important point is, we're not where we were supposed to be."

"If that's a consolation. We need to wake up the crew."

"Why?" Vicki asked. "We can't trust the majority of them. Their loyalty is as transient as a cloud of puff-seeds. Whichever way the wind blows is where they go. Do you want people like that to rely on?"

"Vicki, now is the perfect time to find out where their loyalties lie. When this ship becomes mine, I want those that proved their loyalty."

"If you stay alive that long! Gods, spare me from captains that want their crew to go through fire for them," Vicki mocked. "So…"

The ship shuddered from an explosion.

Vicki checked the device on her wrist. "Deck 4. Someone must be running and set off four."

"I don't like those things going off on my ship, like unpleasant rumblings in one's innards. We need to get to the crew. That way," O'Rourke pointed to the medical center.

"I hate to say this, but the crew can be anywhere with the geek messing around with the settings."

The medical bay was dark, not even dimmers were on. The night glow that outlined important structures in case power went out had been covered.

"Who has control of the bots?" O'Rourke asked.

"Me. Before I cut all power I ran the UAB."

O'Rourke glanced at Vicki. "We don't have an UnAuthorized Boarding program."

"I found one. Since the geek was involved, I thought going back into Osmona's security was a good idea. That woman was no slouch. Geek dumped her program because he couldn't hack it. Put in his own stuff. Osmona had you down as her second so it was easy to enable it and shift over everything to one terminal. However, you're going to have to tell me how we ended up here."

"Later. I think we have company," O'Rourke said. "Notice there's more of them than us? I think that's the rest of the missing soldiers." O'Rourke smirked. "You would never believe what those idiots are doing."

"Abandoning ship?"

"Could be. They look like new recruits on their first drop. Turtlittes."

The both sniggered at the armor the soldiers were wearing.

"So where do you think they're going?"

"Planetside, I hope, but there aren't any planet's fit for them to land on around here, so maybe another ship."

"I noticed they don't have any officers in charge," Vicki said.

"Our mysterious guest, Diana Rue, took care of that. Four officers, two NCOs and a dozen newbies tried to force entry into her quarters."

"The owner's quarters," Vicki said thoughtfully. "They made a lot of mistakes a veteran soldier would not have made, not even a pirate."

"Maybe they thought LeMarks had everything under control." The two looked at each other knowing that in their squad, no matter how safe a place may seem to be, never trusting the security around you was part of the training taught so that it was second nature to be careful, something you owed to your team and yourself.

"So, what are we going to do here?" Vicki asked.

"They look like they're waiting for someone. They don't look worried about security but, maybe they have some bots the geek setup independent of the ship."

"Shall we test them?" Vicki tapped her wrist and a dial came up.

"What test is that?"

"An alarm."

"I want to first locate the crew."

Vicki shook her head. "O'Rourke, if LeMarks was this good at keeping his real self disguised so well for as long as he had, there's going to be other sleeper agents."

"And we're going to use this to find out who all that is. Come-on. I have a way into the medical so we don't have to pass them."

Fifteen minutes later they were in the storage room of the Medical Bay. Robots were moving one group of pods onto the service elevator while others were moved out. O'Rourke gestured for Vicki to take the one group and she scooted onto the elevator with those being moved out. Not trusting her presence was secure she quickly checked the pods, setting each to open immediately whether there was a body in it or not. Not waiting for the elevator to reach its destination, she escaped through the emergency opening. In the elevator shaft she quickly climbed back to the medical bay, listening at each grate she passed for noise to indicate they were being used.

Her suit alarm alerted her to someone or something was approaching her with great speed. O'Rourke looked up as she pulled herself close to the shaft wall.

"Vicki!"

The body fell past her too quickly for her to free one hand to stop her fall. The body bounced against the shafts walls before it was stopped by the safety buffer. Looking up she could see LeMarks pointing something at her. White light flashed near her shoulder, blasting a hole in her ship. The vacuum of air it sucked in pulled her into it.

"How does it feel to see your ship under someone else's command?" he yelled down the shaft. Another shot hit between her feet as she was kicking away from the hole.

"I'm going to put holes everywhere. When this heap is dragged into the shipyards, she's going to be there a long time - maybe buried."

O'Rourke could hear his weapon clicking with nothing happening. The ship's self preservation safeties finally kicked in. Her consolation was that LeMarks had now been marked by the ship as the enemy. She hoped he made other idiot decisions.

A piece of equipment was pushed into the shaft, it's metal shrieking as it fell toward her. There was nowhere for her to escape to. Where were the ship safties?

Continued...

J. A. Bard's Scrolls
Index Page