Amantus
Copyright© 2026 by QM
Chapter 6
“I’ll need to inform the duty officer on the Lignet of this request,” Amantus informed the two.
“Already done,” the as-yet-unidentified officer replied.
“Fleet regulations regarding requests from outside my chain of command say I must do it personally, along with a document scan,” Amantus replied politely.
“It’s already done, didn’t you hear me?” the officer grated.
“You’ll pardon me if I check,” Amantus retorted, activating the comm channel on his perscomp.
“You’ll come quietly with us,” the officer ordered, reaching for the percomp, only to find Amantus avoided the grab and reached Venn on the Lignet.
“Request confirmation on an order by FleetSec for my attendance to discuss the incident on Dephrar, sir,” Amantus said hurriedly.
“Location locked, hold until authorisation is confirmed,” Venn replied. “Ship security has been informed and is en route.”
“Sir.”
“Why you jumped up little shlecker!” the until now silent other officer yelled, pulling a shock baton from his belt pouch.
Amantus dodged the thrust from the officer and avoided a grab from the other. He then avoided their attempts to assault or restrain him for two rotations until two troopers and their officer from the Lignet reached him.
“Arrest him, dammit!” one of the officers from FleetSec demanded.
“Your warrant?” the Lieutenant demanded.
“I outrank you, obey me!”
“You are not in my chain of command,” the Lieutenant replied calmly. “Now, the warrant, please, as the Lignet has no record of any requests to interview Midshipman Amantus.”
“An oversight,” the officer who held the shock baton replied.
“Unlikely, now identify yourself and hand over the warrant.”
“You shall be hearing from my superiors,” the officer said, then turned away as if to leave.
“I think not,” the Lieutenant said calmly. “Stun these miscreants and take them to the brig on the Lignet.”
The troopers aimed what I had assumed was a shock baton at the officers, only for them to collapse silently before they’d taken another step.
“Th ... thank you, Lieutenant,” Amantus said into the silence, his body shaking from shock.
“You’re welcome, Midshipman Amantus. Please allow us to escort you back to the Lignet.”
Yes, thank you, sir,” Amantus replied.
“Our pleasure.”
“Amantus was met at the boarding tube by Commander Zaka, who looked seriously pissed at the two officers the troopers were dragging.
“Thank you, Lieutenant Gant,” Zaka said politely. “To the brig with them and let us see just what gets shaken loose.”
“Questioning?” Gant asked.
“Yes, on impersonating FleetSec,” Zaka replied.
“Duress?”
“Only that which is legally permitted.”
“Understood, sir.”
“Midshipman Amantus, with me, the Captain wishes a word with you.”
“Yes, sir!” Amantus saluted.
“Well done, Midshipman, you acted within the book in dealing with this,” Mance said after the salutes.
“Thank you, sir,” Amantus replied. “Do we know why?”
“Only suspicions,” Mance admitted. “Nothing that I’m prepared to voice in front of you.”
“Yes, sir, sorry, sir.”
“In the meantime, you are not permitted to access Gevase alone. Please arrange to be accompanied should you do so in future.”
“Yes, sir.”
“This is concerning,” Mance said to Zaka once Amantus had left. “Whilst I doubt this was official FleetSec, there may be a faction allied to Amantus’s original accuser who wants him silenced forever.”
“I agree, sir, though they are currently out of Fleet’s reach.”
“Maybe, but if those two are in FleetSec, there are things I can do through official channels to make further attempts unlikely,” Mance smiled grimly.
“Captain, you have a call from Commander Broce at FleetSec,” a voice said over the comm speaker.
“Put it through,” Mance replied, indicating to Zaka that he should remain out of sight.
“Captain Mance, I believe you are holding two of my men, and I’d like them released to me,” Broce began without preamble.
“Those would be the two men accused of a kidnap attempt on one of my officers?” Mance replied mildly.
“Come now, a slip-up in documentation is hardly a kidnap attempt.”
“Commander Broce, your office failed to inform the Lignet of any warrant on Midshipman Amantus,” Mance said firmly. “Your men also failed to produce any warrant or identification when approaching Amantus, and then attempted to assault him when he contacted Lignet for confirmation.”
“Nevertheless, you’ll turn them over to FleetSec,” a slightly sweating Broce replied.
“You may send someone to collect them,” Mance accepted. “However, I’m reporting this incident to Admiral Jorik at the base as well as Third Fleet Command, under whom the Lignet is part of. Please ensure the officers collecting them have full documentation and that the Lignet is informed of their time of arrival.”
“And Midshipman Amantus?”
“You may interview him only in the presence of a senior officer.”
“Surely that won’t be necessary?”
“Commander Broce, my level of trust in the integrity of FleetSec is in the gutter. You will either follow the procedure to the letter, or you may not speak to or approach Midshipman Amantus. Is this clear?” Mance stated firmly.
“Crystal,” Broce replied, then terminated the call.
“I suspect the crew of the Lignet will now be targeted with low-level harassment when at Gevase,” Zaka chuckled.
“Won’t be the first time, plus they’ll have to be careful,” Mance smiled. “I also expect Admiral Jorik to summon Broce for a ‘chat’ about the rules.”
“True, though it’s unlikely Third will do anything.”
“It’ll be logged, though,” Mance replied.
FleetSec interviewed Amantus on board the Lignet in the presence of Commander Zaka. The interviewer was a lowly lieutenant, and all he did was go over the events of the assault before leaving.
“I doubt they do that for every assault,” Amantus murmured.
“They don’t; their excuse will be your status,” Zaka replied. “Even then, I suspect this is merely a cover-up.”
“Ah, you suspect Lendmenos Hachat meddling?”
“Someone high up in his clan, yes,” Zaka nodded. “So be careful.”
“Yes, sir.”
Amantus returned to his cabin, thinking furiously. He did not doubt that Hachat was pulling strings via contacts in FleetSec, though he was unsure as to how he could force Hachat to back down. Then it occurred to him that there was a way to contact his mother, if somewhat in a roundabout way. Checking his personal account, he carefully calculated the cost of sending a freight item, a letter, as it were, handwritten on pseudopaper. Writing down the details, he arranged with Crendon to be escorted to Gevase Station’s commercial section and his selected carrier. Once there, he paid a large sum to have the letter delivered to Trisa, his mother’s personal maid, hoping she would hand it to his mother.
“Seems a bit expensive just to make contact,” Crendon opined.
“Tri-dee contact would be blocked,” Amantus explained. “Items dispatched directly to the family are opened in advance by clan security.”
“But not those to servants?”
“No,” Amantus chuckled. “A bit of an oversight to be sure.”
“Just better hope this servant cares enough to get it to your mother,” Crendon shrugged.
“I do, but it’s all I have, and I was always polite to Trisa out of respect for my mother.”
“Question is, will your mother be able to do anything?”
“She’s a granddaughter of the clan head and has direct contact with him,” Amantus explained. “Hopefully, he’ll be able to get Hachat to back down.”
“I hope so, otherwise you’re going to spend a lot of time onboard ships and not get any leave,” Crendon smiled.
“I know,” Amantus sighed.
“Still, we’re on patrol tomorrow for a binary cycle, hope you got enough reading material,” Crendon replied, knowing Amantus’s hobby.
“I have,” Amantus nodded. “Plus, I get to watch the lady troopers exercise.”
“The untouchables,” Crendon laughed. “Because if you do, they’ll snap you in half.”
“Isn’t that the truth, plus regulations, etc...”
“Yup.”
The Lignet set off from Gevase the next day at the start of orange shift, with Amantus sitting at the navigation station alongside Lieutenant Commander Herri, who explained what the screens on the desk showed and how they tied into the pilot station and the detection system.
“Normally, the pilot can follow the track we’ve set without incident,” she explained. “But occasionally, detection will monitor an object ... usually a ship straying into our route, and we have to correct the XD transition point to ensure the Lignet hits it going in the right direction.”
“We can correct in XD space, surely?” Amantus queried.
“We can, but it’s easier to do it before then,” Herri smiled. “Every rotation spent there requires a greater correction.”
“I see,” Amantus nodded. “And as this is a short hop to Merrin, it could shleck up the whole patrol if we get it wrong.”
“Got it in one, Amantus,” Herri smiled. “The computers will offer course corrections on the fly, should detection pick up anything, but we check to see if it will affect the transit.”
“Um ... detect what though?” Amantus asked.
“Other ships, mostly, the grav detection system will warn if we approach too soon or if we are getting boxed,” Herri explained.
“Boxed, as in getting forced out of XD?”
“Yes,” Herri replied.
“Happen often?”
“It has happened a couple of times when we’ve encountered the Trema’s and the Emirate on border patrol, yes.”
“Not the Tronek, though?”
“Those jokers aren’t that good at anything other than raiding weakly defended planets,” Herri grimaced. “Dangerous enough when they do, though, as they’ll often commit an atrocity to tie down pursuing forces.”
“So I was reading about in the biography of Admiral Sessla,” Amantus nodded.
“One of our best,” Herri replied. “Promoted sideways to make room for a ranking noble and then forgotten about.”
“Surprised they allow them to write biographies,” Amantus chuckled.
“Heh! Only spacers read them, and they already know how the system works.”
“Yeah, I’d guess that’d be true.”
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