Chapter 14: Richter Base

I doubt my eyes would have stayed dry, even in a sandstorm on Alvor’s Cove when I saw her. There she was, the USS Tigershark. Repaired, refurbished and upgraded.

Now I knew why the destroyer was shaped the way it was. It did not fit inside, but it docked right at the Tigershark’s belly.

The biggest visible changes were the docking clamps for the Destroyer and the changes to the landing gear.

Circuit had used mechanical arms and special tractor guide beams to dock the Apparition. To my pleasant surprise, the destroyer fit so well into the overall design that it was barely visible and blended in perfectly.

A top-down ramp gave us access to the Tigershark’s lowest deck, we called the basement.

I really had to restrain myself for not kissing the walls or the deck of my ship.

And there they stood, the rest of my crew. All of them!

Eight hundred individuals. In the first row were Har-Hif, Shea, Circuit, SHIP’s roaming body, Sodoby, and Warner and then there were rows and rows of crew, almost to where the big freight elevators were.

They all snapped into attention as Har-Hoi called and then with a crisp voice said.

“Welcome back aboard Captain Olafson.”

I returned the salute. Started to greet them just as the regulations required, but then I kicked those regulations into the wind.

“Screw that, this is for other ships.”

I started hugging and in Shea’s case kissing everyone and took the time to shake the hands of each and every one.

“Alice? I thought you would go to the PSI corps academy and stay with your father?”

“And miss my friends and all this? Captain, the Admiral agreed to let me serve my academy time aboard the Tigershark.”

It took a while to get to everyone. There were quite a few new beings too. A big Vvolti, a small green Urillua, two Black Klack, a Takkian, and a dozen others. The most memorable new crew member was a Morthim. A six-limbed four-legged creature, the size of a Fangsnapper. Someone described a Morthim once to look like a cross between Tiger, lionfish and weird spine creature. Not that I had seen a Lionfish before, I heard the Morthim could rip Petharians apart. They came from the Andromeda galaxy and some say they were engineered to go against Petharians.

The Morthim identified as male reached the rank of Ensign and was a Missile weapons expert. He listened to the name of Ras Sasmar. He had a surprisingly warm and very deep human voice.

“Thank you for welcoming me aboard. I am a Morthim.”

“Welcome aboard.”

After this quite emotional welcome, I had to leave my ship and report to Director Cherubim. She greeted me in her office at the top of the central base dome and came right to the point.

“Glad to have you back, Captain. Your ship is almost ready, just a few cosmetic details and your crew is all here as well.”

“I am glad to be back, Director.”

“So you decided to go all the way. Congratulations, it seems you are very comfortable in your new body.”

“Yes, it was an easy decision. My time as Black Velvet confirmed my desires and the final step was just a small adjustment.”

“Even on vacation, you appear to be in the center of things. The Dai affair at Thana Shoo and then you pop up, over 70,000 light years in the Spinward sector and at the center of a new mystery.”

She folded her hands and looked at a screen I could not see.

“The Old Highlander told me that you going to investigate the prisoner escape before you going to be at my beck and call again.”

“I spend over a year to round up pirates and when I think the book on those I caught is closed, they end up orchestrating one of the best-planned prisoner escapes in Union history. Damn, right I am going to investigate and make sure the book is closed for sure this time.”

Her smooth face was a Bioflex mask, I knew by now and it did not translate or reflect any emotions she might had.

“Yes, I am still going over the details myself, and you are quite correct. This was extremely well organized. The Assembly Security Council has given this a very high priority. I am going to put the Ypeherix issue on the back burner to use an old Earth expression and give you this Prison Escape matter as a priority mission.”

With a hand gesture, she conjured up a projection of Freespace and much of the Coreward sector.

“You are operating now under direct Assembly orders. Which include the identification of all involved parties and bringing them to justice. This time you can call for fleet back up if you need it, and I trust your abilities but if you can try to do it without starting a war.”

“This is not my goal, Ma’am.”

She pulled up another projection. This one showed an Assembly session.

“You might feel that this has personal undertones, I assure you the prisoner escape not only made federal news, the Assembly feels this was an insult and an attempt to embarrass the Union.

“She gestured towards the projection.

“While you were on your way to here, the Assembly has not stopped talking about this.

“She looked at it herself.

“To put it bluntly, the Union is pissed. It will take very little for the Assembly to call for war.”

“I have a few ideas. Lia is a Bassett, so I start at Bhrama port and see if I can pick up her trail. I also think an outfit called ‘Harlequin’s Jokers’ might be involved.”

“He and his merc outfit are slick as stainless steel, he is officially a lawful citizen with a very successful business. be careful, he is dangerous.”

“How can he and guys like Steen Tirkov be in business on Union side anyway?”

She got up.

“Care for a cup of coffee, while I educate you and transfer all we got on Nick Harlequin to your ship?”

“Yes why not, I am in a general hurry and really want to get back to my ship but I am not that pressed for time.”

Cherubim wore a black and gray bodycon dress with a skirt that ended above her knees. Her almost certainly fake blonde hair fell straight down her back with a crisp razor cut. She started to bet busy on a vintage looking Serv-Matic.

“This is a present from McElligott. It is a working replica of a pre astro coffeemaker. I made it a life rule nor to have too many habits. They can easily be exploited or be used to profile someone, but real coffee, brewed the old fashioned way is certainly a close candidate.”

The machine started to gargle and a puff of steam escaped a black plastic lid.

She turned halfway.

“It was during the Y’All war, things didn’t go too well. Colonies pressed the Assembly for help. It was then decided in 3585 that colonies and private companies could hire defense forces. It was a desperate time. This is the foundation of these Mercenary businesses and then we have the Freedom of Business act of 2299 OTT. There are no restrictions whatsoever what kind of service or product the company wants to offer, however certain services and products may be federally or locally limited or restricted. It is the businesses responsibility to obtain all necessary licenses, permits and dispense products and services according to the laws of the Union.”

She held out a ceramic mug.

“Sugar? Milk?”

“I have it black.”

I took the beverage and said.

“So these Merc outfits operate on ancient laws and loopholes?”

“Because you are of a very small group of individuals with a Blue-Blue-Red clearance, your background was checked in great detail. Did you know that your uncle Hogun Olafson was part of a very famous Mercenary outfit?”

I almost dropped the mug.

“Uncle Hogun?” But as I said it, I know and in retrospect had to admit there were telltale signs that he hadn’t been on dirt side all his life. There was Richard the Outcast, he was not a Neo Viking and Hogun treated him like a war buddy.

She seemed to read my thoughts in my face.

“The Rhatuurs Brigants was the outfit he flew with. Some of these Mercenary outfits go after slavers and pirates to liberate colonists or affect revenge. Most of them operate outside of Union space and thus outside of Union law.”

“I guess I need to learn a whole lot more about this.”

She sat down with her cup.

“NAVINT and other intelligence groups sometimes use Mercenaries, often without them knowing who their real employer is or what their actual goals are. Keep that in mind when you unravel your mystery.”

I took a long sip of the invigorating brew, it was excellent coffee indeed.

“And there I am, back in the clandestine business.”

“The Tigershark was never meant to be a ship of the line, and neither is your crew. Better get used to it, Captain Olafson.”

Admiral McElligott stood by the boarding ramp of a D40 shuttle and looked towards the hangar access doors. A tall man in a simple black uniform, very short marine corps style hair cut had appeared. In the three thousand something years he knew this man, he had never changed. Even to the old Admiral, this man was a constant like no other.

True he wasn’t exactly best friends with the Eternal Warrior, but there was no one he respected more. With a smirk on his lips, he watched the two marines guarding the door act as if they had seen God. Well to be truthful to the Marines he was pretty much the very next thing to god.

He did not disappoint them and found a few words.

The Petharian and the Thauran marine guards were on the verge to actually explode with pride.

Stahl then made his way to the Old Highlander, his face unreadable. Well unreadable to most, after three millennia McElligott had learned to read the most subtle facial expressions.

“Sorry, old warhorse, but that is what Admirals do. Inspect things. They did that even back on Earth when both of us had no idea we would once hold that rank ourselves.”

“And are as useless as tits on a boar. Inspections are a waste of time. Either they are ready or they are not, and they better be ready when I show up. Inspection or not.”

“Inspections have their purpose and are an older tradition than we old farts. Besides the USS Baghdad has won the Ship Shape award many times, so the affair will be a short one.”

“I just came from reprimanding two marines for extreme unprofessional conduct. I don’t like seeing this kind of behavior from any member of the armed forces, but Marines?”

“Oh good lord, those poor bastards are going to commit seppuku or something.”

“Suicide is a coward’s way out. My Marines are not cowards, however, they volunteered for a year duty at Lee’s Academy.”

McElligott shrugged.

“Lee’s Academy isn’t that some sort of Union Army Academy?”

“Exactly, Marine corporals on security detail at an Army academy, pure hell.”

“Sorry old mate, there isn’t any war going on to improve your mood.”

“I do not long for war, but now that the Golden and the Nul are on our side it won’t be long and the Kermac will make a move. I bet that prisoner caper has Kermac roots, and I don’t have to remind you that Erica has just left for her second mission and only God knows who she picks a fight with or convinces to join.”

“She just left two days ago, and I just received a message this morning, she is on her way to Bhrama Port pursuing Nick Harlequin.”

“She is supposed to investigate Lia Bassett. The Harlequins are very large and dangerous Merc outfit, suspected to have a source of serious Union Mil-Tech and a long history of suspected atrocities. If the last reports are any indications, taking that outfit down would take a Marine regiment with a battleship for support.

“As Stahl said that, he grinned.

McElligott nodded.

“I know, but all respect to your Marines, Nick Harlequin stands no chance, we are talking Erica Olafson and her gang.”

Stahl chuckled.

“Yes that girl turned boy and her crew will tear that vicious clown a new one, and he won’t know what hit him.”

Stahl sighed and stomped past McElligott and up the landing ramp.

“Then inspect the Baghdad. It is the last one right?”

“Yes, and afterward maybe you have time to share a round of golf with me. We are on Patrick Green, after all.”

McElligott followed Stahl inside the shuttle and gave the pilot a hand sign. While McElligott and Stahl were the highest officers, there was no big entourage, Stahl had no adjutants at all and if McElligott had insisted on the official military pomp, Stahl would not have come.

Richard sat down and grinned, “I remember the last time we went, I wonder if that golf course is open again...”

“Well, it was your idea to ask the members of the Olafson gang after they returned from Para-Para to represent the Navy against the Army.”

“And you wager against General McKenzie, who kept beating you. He has recovered, right?”

“He has, but it was his fault to steal one of Har-Hi’s balls. Those Dai proximity mines look very much like golf balls after all. Of course, only a Dai would bring proximity mines to a game of golf.”

“It was fortunate no one was near the fifth hole at the time of impact.”

“It gave a whole new meaning to ‘hole in one’. That crater was big enough to hide a destroyer.”

Richter IV became smaller by the second. Moments ago we had lifted off and now made a Threshold run with a direct course to Bhrama Port.