Chapter 37: Interlude: Bone Yard

Swybar stood in the cargo bay of the Red Dragon and watched as a gang of S10 robots stowed away containers with real Loki torpedoes. His Kermac associate stood next to him with an almost feverish stare in his eyes. It would not take much and he would actually drool. The Agent of the worm was nowhere to be seen, but he expected him to be around. The Kermac pointed at a large cylindrical object that an Octobot had just lifted into the bay.” Is that really what I think it is?”

“Yes this is a genuine Terran P Bomb. One such device is enough to ruin the day of any planetary based opponent.”

“How does it work and why is it called a P Bomb?”

“Officially it is designated a Ship to surface planetary incendiary device. It ignites a nuclear fire that consumes any matter. Once ignited on a planet the fire spreads and turns the entire surface of a planet into molten matter, there are no conventional means of stopping the fire as it consumes whatever you put on including water, depending on the elements present the process can turn violent and the planet turns into a temporary sun. It takes millennia to burn out and what’s left is a smooth ball of nuclear cinder, turning the world into a parking lot, hence we call it Paring Lot Bomb, or P Bomb.”

“It amazes us how many nasty weapons the Union has and still claims to have the moral high ground.”

“Using will benders and enslaving entire Civilization to do your dirty work isn’t exactly very moral either.”

“It is the natural way of things, we Kermac are superior and it is only fair that we open the eyes of others to that fact.”

Swybar was a ruthless man and his own morals had eroded long ago, but he did not become an Admiral of the Union fleet because he was stupid. He had been trained by the best and went through the most comprehensive training to become a Union Officer and he was trained to expect the unexpected and react to it. Something was wrong, at first he could not say what it was, but then he noticed that the Octobot had disappeared despite the fact that there was still a pile of supplies to be lifted into his ship.

The Kermac did not notice anything and said. “There is a manual I added to your supply request, make sure I get it right away when it comes aboard.”

“You added something to my request form?”

Swybar asked carefully controlling his breath. “The secret to stay under the sensors is to play by the rules of the system. This fleet is not run by officers and Admirals but by bureaucrats and you must stick to the rules. There was no room for anything to add. What did you order?”

The Kermac shrugged. “I am aware of your primitive bureaucracy and since I am unable to obtain a Transform Canon, I ordered a maintenance manual. It should give our engineering thralls enough clues to figure out how they work.”

Swybar hit the Kermac so fast and so hard that he was thrown to the floor.” You idiot. You ruined everything. You could have had a ship load of secrets, more than every Kermac spy ever dreamed of taking home, but you were not satisfied. We are lucky to make it off this planet alive.”

He turned and said. “Computronic, Emergency Procedure Theta Sigma. Emergency Lift off.”

The Kermac touched his torn bio flex mask and the bloody lip below. The entire ship shook, hit by something powerful. As the bay doors closed he saw the shape of a Marine Troop carrier in the distance.

Swybar touched a panel on his left glove. “Rama Command. Defend this ship and destroy all Intruders.”

He knew, even the mighty Rama bots would not be enough to stop a drop ship load of Union Marines, but until they came up with the correct command codes it would buy him time enough to escape. He went as fast as he could to the ships bridge. Chances are the Marines did not come alone and there was a Union Battle ship or two in the system as well.

Not even with the powerful weapons he had installed would he dare to go against a full armed Battle ship, but with the new Attikan Engines and the Saresii Camouflage he certainly could out run them before they decided to launch Wolfcrafts.

It was worse than he thought; there were five Battle ships in Orbit, and a sixth one just dropping into Real space. He recognized the newcomer as the USS Shetland. It was the Union flagship, and he knew her commanding officer Captain McKenzie. She was as experienced as they came, but as bad as it looked he had a few aces up his sleeve.

The Red Dragon was the last product of the Yakazuma Ship Development Corporation. It was not moth balled because it was obsolete, but because Yakazuma lost the corporate battle against almighty SII. The Red Dragon was to be the answer of Yakazuma to the Fast Raider design competition. A Competition he himself initiated. Yakazuma once had been SII’s number One competitor in the field of space ship design and they had gone all out on this last effort to secure a company saving fleet contract. SII won the battle as it usually did with a hostile take-over and with every dirty trick in the book, but not by coming up with a better design. The Red Dragon was fast and now with oversized Attikan Engines, almost as fast as a Wolfcraft. It was meant to operate deep behind enemy lines, to raid colonies, destroy space factories and interrupt supply lines. It was designed to carry and drop special forces commandos on enemy planets, unseen and for this the finest Saresii camouflage technology available was incorporated. He deployed all eight decoy drones. Little marvels of Terran Saresii technology, emitting the engine and mass signatures of battle ship sized enemies while his own engines emitted no more energy than a D 20 long range shuttle. While the Union Battle ships chased after eight blazing signals, he slipped away like a shadow.

He cursed the captain of the Shetland; she had barley dropped out of Quasi and already deployed Wolfcraft and Augurs. The Augurs was an unarmed version of the Wolfcraft, stuffed to the brim with the finest scanning technology. They would soon determine the true nature of the Decoys.

He had to reach the local sun fast.

Both his companions came on the bridge, just as his ship was rocked by another explosion. Frantically he checked the ships sensors, but no Wolfcraft or anything else was in range. Of course if one of the Battle ships noticed his location it would be too late, one single shot of a long sniper TLC would end his plans and he would not even notice the explosion that ended his live. So what happened?

The Red Dragon kept accelerating and with a brief sense of satisfaction he saw the Wolfcraft chase his Decoys and seconds later six bright suns stood in space behind him. Sniper rounds had ended the existence of his decoys.

He wished for an experienced bridge crew, this ship was too big and too complicated to be flown into combat by him alone, but then he saw the reason. The damage board blinked red and indicated the complete loss of his most treasured secret. He howled as if in physical pain. His well-guarded secret, his own Translocator cannon had just exploded, but how? He had the engineers remove all safe guards or so he thought.

It could not be helped, he still had plenty of fire power, and he had to escape. He had no illusions of escaping the hang man again if they ever caught him.

There one of the Argurus turned. It had found him. No need to panic. He had three Silkworm Anti Fighter missiles. A shame to use them now, but it could not be helped. He fired all three, revealing his position for sure to the Argurus, but that Sensor ship was doomed, not even a Wolfcraft could evade three of them at once, it gave him the necessary time to slip into Quasi space. He immediately chanced course and followed exactly the particle trail of one of the incoming Battle ships. He was certain it would take them days to figure out which trail he used to mask his escape, but even an hour delay meant he made his escape. He had done it. He had outsmarted and out maneuvered the first Battle group, not bad for an old logistics Admiral.

The Kermac held a Line blaster leveled at him. “Chance of plans, Human, we will not go to Koken; we will now take direct course to Kermac Prime to analyze what we got. Then I will teach you the consequences for hitting a Kermac Wizard.”

“If it wasn’t for your stupidity we would have everything including a Translocator canon. I had enough of you.”

The Agent of the worm stepped aside. “We must go to Koken that is the purpose of our agreement. If that is no longer possible then my association to this endeavor has ended.”

The Kermac waved his gun. “This is but a symbol of my power. You have a Kermac device in your cranium, human. Do as I say and change course. Have a taste of pain.”

With a mental command the Kermac agent activated the device and nothing happened. Swybar grinned at him.

“This ship is equipped with a state of the art Auto Doc Sick bay; the first thing I did was a detailed med scan. Your device is long gone, Kermac. You are nothing but predictable and I expected such a device ever since I woke in the Coffin.”

The Agent of the Worm suddenly emitted two bright beams from his eyes and the Kermac Wizard collapsed, much of his head burned to ashes. “The Equation has changed and so has the parameters of my assignment. I hope we can come to an agreement.”

“I see you have hidden talents and it might be good to have an agent of the Worm along, now that we are freelancers.”

“What are your plans now? Are you still planning your revenge on McElligott?”

“Yes, but I am not in a hurry. He is well protected and need a lot of planning. I also have not forgotten that snot nosed cadet. He might not be big in the scheme of things, but he is the reason I ended up on the gallows and want him dead.”

“This Cadet is of interest to my employer as well.”

“Why is that so? What could a Cadet have that is important for the worm?”

“To show you some good will and my willingness to cooperate with you, I tell you. This Cadet Olafson has somehow managed to rise to importance with the Narth. My employers would like to know details.”

Swybar leaned back in his command seat.” I can see where increased Narth activity within the Union could spell problems for the Worm, indeed.”

“For now that is a good reason as any. I do have a contact that could help us there, someone who knows more about this Cadet than anyone.”

“One of his friends at the academy?”

“Much better than that, his wife. There is a certain girl named Sif. She is on the run from the law after dealing with Califerm. My contacts signaled that if we provide her with transport of Pluribus and with a new identity she would be willing to tell us everything she knows about Eric Olafson. Even give us bait to a trap he will take for sure.”

“Then let us go to Pluribus, no better place to hide then right before their noses anyway.”

--””--

FREYA

We did not land on the Planet. Gwen simply took me by the hand and we stepped through a suddenly appearing field of a white glowing energy cloud.

For the briefest moment did I see images of fire and glowing rivers, but before I could really focus or think we stood on the surface of a small cobblestone plaza, a big gnarly looking tree in the center surrounded by a few dozen one story houses, not too different from the dwellings Low men and not clan associated freemen used to live on the outskirts of Freikstat. One of the houses was bigger and clearly some sort of official building. I was reminded of Uncle Hogun’s inn as I noticed a sign hanging from chains just above the door, made out of a plank of wood there was the cut-out of a cooking kettle or cauldron.

Gwen said. “It is a bit rustic and perhaps too much cliché, but most of us came to this Universe when much of Earths Europe looked this way and it is sort of homage to the roots of our human hosts. We have ceased to be really different entities, but you know how it is with old traditions. They die hard especially if there is no apparent need to change things.”

I sighed at the mention of traditions and nodded.” Indeed I do. When I grew up I cursed them and wanted to change them. I have somewhat changed my mind, some tradition is good and chance is not always a good thing.”

She raised one of her shapely eyebrows as the wind tugged at her hair.” You do have wisdom that seems beyond your age.”

“I don’t think common sense comes from age alone but also from exposure and by having my eyes opened by older and wiser mentors and teachers.”

“Well there is no sense of standing here outside and discuss those things, when the others already await you. But there is one more thing I would like you to ask, before I introduce you to the Circle.”

“I came this far and as it looks like I have strict orders to treat this like a First Contact mission. So what is it I have to do?”

“Let your female side come to the surface and join us in your female form. Males are not really welcome here.”

“I have brought nothing along, and whatever I had left was blown up with the Sturgeon. My body has changed and it is much more difficult to pass. I don’t like to appear like a Norse in drag, which is worse.”

“You talk to someone who knows the secret of shape shifting. We can do that to others too.”

Again she took me by the hand and dragged me with a soft but persistence to one of the one story buildings.

Inside it had only one room and a flight of stairs leading upward. There was a fire place that came to live with a crackling fire as we entered and the light came from warm yellowish glowing lanterns. She smiled apologetic.” I know it is too much of the rustic décor, but I haven’t been here in over two hundred years and frankly I don’t think I will be back much. I much more prefer my apartment on Lorman’s Starbase which I consider my real home.”

She pointed at a full length mirror mounted inside a wooden frame, I was not certain if it was there before and she said. It’s our version of an auto dresser and it does work just like that as well. The reflection you see is how you would look like and the mirror does the rest.”

“Is it magic?”

She sighed. “I think I wasted a lot of explanation. No it is not magic, there is no such thing as magic. Like the super exotic particle I told you about we exist on both sides simultaneous and with our side that rests in the nether world we are able to do some things that others cannot. Did you ever question the things your Friend Narth did? Believe me compared to the Narth we are childlike and impotent, with all our knowledge we don’t understand what Narth really is. When we came to this Universe the Narth did not like us being here, and considered us nothing more than perhaps annoying gnats, not that we believe we would still be here if we really annoyed them. A few millennia ago a Narth explained to our mother what we had to do to find peace and a place in the Universe, through their council and perhaps help we were able to form these bonds to human hosts that allows us to mirror is an advanced Saresii Auto Dresser. We do not oppose technology and it only looks that way to match the rest of the interior. Saresii Auto Dressers are just like magic to us as they manipulate matter, even skin and tissue on a molecular level.”

I had held my breath I think the entire time while she spoke and now took a deep breath. “I never liked Psionics, but since everyone knows about them and we get tested in school for the HPI I never really questioned them. In Science class they even explained to us how they work and all that.”

“If things go as I hope then perhaps pupils get tested for their Channel ability in a few decades from now.”

The mirror image of me began to change and first I saw Freya as she looked, as I looked when going out with the other girls at the Space port mall. Then there was Elena and an Image of my mother and they somehow swirled and melted together to a new image of a complete stranger, a woman I had never seen before and yet I knew exactly who she was. This was me. This was me how I might have looked like if I was born female from the start. She had my eyes and that is where I recognized her. The truly golden shimmering hair of my mother, somehow looking shinier and softer than the hair I was used to. My arms did not appear as thick or pronounced but rounder and smooth. In this reflection I wore the old maroon dress, the one with the golden seams. Without thinking my hands touched my chin and then slid down to the plunging neckline of the dress. This cleavage was not something artificial, it felt warm and I could feel my own touch. The reflection the image in the mirror had become me. I turned to Gwen. She had changed the drab boiler suit for a soft looking white blouse and a black skirt.” Sul be damned, you are stunningly beautiful and what a choice of dress.”

“It is your magic mirror that did all this. It’s not real.” I said trying to convince myself, in a losing argument. I felt elated and free and deep down wished that this was the end of my confusion and this was the way I was meant to be.

“There is no force we know of, this side or nether side that could read your mind if you don’t want to. What I see before me is what you want us to see. This, is you, Freya or should I call you Erica?”

--””--

I could not help it but feel beautiful. It was and I clearly recognized a distinct female emotion. Something that resonate in a completely different way with the very core of my being.

There was a validation in this as well, it somehow did not feel wrong or perverted but perfect and just as nature intended.

I had followed Gwen outside, and paid a little more attention to the details of this world, at least this region of it.

The sky was heavily clouded and if I would had to guess, I was certain it would rain very shortly. Due to heavy and dark cloud cover, a misty twilight was cast over the cobblestone streets and the one story stone buildings.

I did not see anyone else. The place had an eerie almost dead character. There were no advertisements, nothing really colorful.

She walked next to me and seemed to guess what I was thinking.