Chapter 631

COMBAT SHUTTLE: function dictates design. Basically, an armed and armored box with powerful auxiliary boosters to subsidize the already over-sized impulse drives and teamed with powerful shields to hold off weapon fire and to withstand the screaming passage through atmosphere on the way to ground. It is designed to get twenty troops and their equipment on the ground in one piece, even through heavy enemy fire – and to do it in a hurry. There is some necessary streamlining, but most is left to the shields and its high-temp armor to punch through atmosphere without burning up. It has oversized compensators to assist the occupants in withstanding the changes of acceleration that can become quite severe on the way down. Each seat is also equipped with a harness that locks the trooper into the seat, plus a gravity assist that further restricts his/her movement as the craft dives to the surface of a planet while gunners and fighter aircraft strive to reduce the combat shuttle and its occupants to atoms. Typically, there is a pilot and copilot, in addition to a gunner. They are usually the troops that aren’t satisfied with the normal surge of adrenalin in combat, so they get an extra shot of it by crewing a combat shuttle. Life expectancy of the crew isn’t listed in the description of the craft.

Aboard the Shuttle as the First Officer and the Lieutenant Prepare to Leave.

...”I fully understand, Sir, and I would not expect any less. I have the coordinates laid in, if you are ready. Combat approach and landing to get their attention, perhaps?” the Marine Lieutenant asked.

The First Officer sat back with a grin. “Ah, a man who thinks the way I do. Agreed. Let them know we mean business, Lieutenant. Just do not take down any of their air traffic on the way.”

They disregarded Air Traffic Control, using the combat shuttle’s sensors to avoid other space-going and local aircraft as they screamed toward the Capital city. Halfway down, the First Officer was beginning to regret having given the Lieutenant permission for a hot landing. White knuckled despite being pinned in with his webbing and gravity-assisted seat, he held to the seat’s armrests as the shuttle bucked into an arcing high-g turn that would have smeared them across the bulkhead were it not for the compensators. A squadron of four fighters rose to meet them but must have been waved off because they turned aside. Seemingly seconds later, they powered almost straight down toward the building at a speed that seemed destined to co-mingle them and the people waiting on the roof, but just as their welcoming committee began to run, the Lieutenant broke from a full combat landing to settle feather-light precisely in the middle of the bright circle with the red “X” across it.

The waiting people moved back farther when they felt the heat radiating from the shuttle’s exterior.

As the ramp went down, the Lieutenant spoke, unnecessarily, over his shoulder to the First Officer, “Make certain you don’t touch the ramp or any exposed surface of the craft. She’s hot from the dive from orbit, Sir.”

No shit, the First thought while stepping down smartly behind the Lieutenant as he instructed the craft’s AI to open only for himself and the First Officer.

Someone detached himself from the group now gathering at a respectful distance from the hot craft. “Your escort’s weapon will not be necessary,” he pronounced in an officious sounding voice, which even carried through the translator on the First’s lapel.

In an equally officious voice, the First snapped back, “He and his weapon will accompany me wherever I go. This is not a matter for discussion. Now take me to the meeting and brief me on the way. Who am I to meet with?”

“Sir, the President of the Union of the Alliance and the Secretary of Defense for planet Villa 4, in addition to the committee, are waiting to brief you on your mission. I was instructed to tell you that the committee is not pleased...”

“Take me to them,” the First interrupted as the Lieutenant fought to keep his face straight.

The escort was obviously trying to delay, but the Lieutenant kept stepping on his heels every time he slowed down. “We are on a tight schedule,” he told the escort in a no-nonsense voice, “and it appears you are deliberately trying to delay. Now move it, and we had better not turn down that same corridor again.”

When they arrived at the meeting room, they interrupted several conversations going on among various groups. Some members jerked their heads up and glared at their escort, who discreetly shrugged his shoulders.

Two of the group looked at each other, then at another person who turned out to be the President of the Alliance. “Welcome, uh ... Commander,” one of his aides stammered out.

“First Officer will do. I am in charge of this mission because my Captain was seriously injured and remains unconscious as a result of an engagement with the pirates on the way here.”

“What?” several of the delegates exclaimed, and some asked if he were going to be all right.

“You have already encountered the pirates?” another asked, seemingly incredulous at the First’s statement.

The First Officer ignored them. “Who is in charge here, please? We need all the information you can give us about these pirates – what your responses have been, any ideas on where their base is located – anything you can tell us. And I am not interested in your internal policies or politics, but rather on information to get the job done in order to get my Captain back to the medical facility he needs.”

“We have medical facilities,” the Alliance President said as he offered a standard greeting.

“Thank you, but our doctor tells me that the equipment needed is at our base and there only. The Captain is in a stasis chamber, but I want him to be at the proper facility as quickly as possible. Now, let us get to the crux of this meeting,” he said as he slid into a seat without invitation.

“First Officer, your attitude...” one of the politicians began.

“ ... Is meant to get the pirates disposed of as quickly as possible,” he interrupted to say, hoping to keep everyone off balance while the Liedoc analyzed who was lying and who was not. “Now, surely it does not take twelve people to brief me with the information I need about the pirates.”

“Good,” President Soloney said, “My sentiments exactly.” Quickly, he called out three names while pointing to them. “The rest of you, please wait in the anteroom. I will call you in for a briefing after we have given the First Officer the information he needs.”

“Mr. President, I must protest,” one of the heavyset delegates interrupted. “My sector has been hit harder than any other, and I also have information that might help.”

The President stared at the individual identified as Representative Kaylorm from the star system Vox. “I doubt your sector has been hit any harder than another, but all right. You may join us.”

The First Officer and the Marine Lieutenant passed a glance.

After drinks were provided and everyone was again seated, President Soloney conducted the meeting in a no-nonsense manner. He quickly recapped what had been going on to the First Officer, adding details to what had been sent with the original request while the Lieutenant stood with his back to a wall and his weapon at port arms.

“They have captured and in many cases spaced the owners of the richest yachts in several systems,” the Alliance President said. “In addition to looting, they have fired upon other merchant and passenger vessels for no apparent reason other than to destroy and cause fear and disruption to our shipping.”

The three original delegates from various star systems added their stories of woe, but the one who had insisted on being part, added little and basically repeated that luxury yachts had been destroyed or hijacked with their owners spaced or made to disappear. He had dropped names as if they would mean something to the First Officer. Sometimes, the ship’s remains were found; other times, there was no sign of what had occurred – ships and crews had simply disappeared without a trace.

The First Officer’s Liedoc had tingled almost every time the obnoxious official spoke, but other than what the First and the Liedoc thought might be an exaggeration from time to time, the others seem to be telling the truth.

One thing the First noticed was there were a disproportionate number of high-level politicians or businessmen and women identified as among those who mysteriously disappeared without a trace during the raids. The more he heard, the more he suspected this was far beyond what they had been told, or perhaps even what the Alliance suspected.

“I see that you have begun to suspect what I and others have also suspected is a possibility,” the President quietly commented to the First.

“A grab for power, perhaps?” the First offered.

“Yes,” the President said, obviously pleased that the First had come to the same conclusion he had. “I did not put that suspicion into my dispatch – for obvious reasons,” the President said, “but this could be the first steps of a power grab which would remove the Alliance from power. With control of the twenty star systems we represent...”

“Preposterous,” the Vox official broke in to snarl, obviously overhearing. “They are just pirates out for personal gain. There is no reason to suspect anything more involved, and this kind of thinking will only delay justice. They have killed because they wanted to and for personal gain. The ones who are missing were probably destroyed in the attacks. There is no deeper reasoning behind this,” he insisted.

“Then why are some of the ships missing while others have been destroyed or left with their crews and passengers spaced, or dead inside the ships? If you read the reports carefully – incomplete as they are – you will still see that many high-level executives and ultra-rich, and even some minor royalty, are not accounted for – their bodies were never recovered. Could they be prisoners somewhere? There is more to this than just pirates seeking credits,” the President insisted. “We do not even know how many are missing.”

“Oh, shit,” the First thought. We need to do a detailed search of that asteroid mountain chain, but then again, would they keep their political prisoners nearby? I doubt it. Certainly not if they want a coup to be a surprise.

After making up his mind, the First Officer stood. “I will need to speak with the President of the Alliance in private.”

“Preposterous,” the Vox official snarled out again as he came to his feet. “Whatever is decided, we all need to be a part of it.”

“I would suggest that you detain this person,” the First said. “And while you are at it, I would also suggest keeping him away from any type of communication device as well. I know for an absolute fact that he has barely opened his mouth when he was not lying.”

“You are using a lie detector? Under our laws, the use of lie detectors is a crime,” the Vox politician screamed out.

“Well, they are not under Federation law, and I certainly do not operate under your laws. The Federation sent me here to end a pirate menace, and I intend to do just that.” Turning to the other man, “President Soloney, I suggest you interview this person under a lie detector field. If you are unable to do that under your laws, or you do not have the technology, I will take him to my ship where we will conduct a detailed interview.”

The President sighed. “I am bound under the laws of our planet and the Alliance, and therefore, I cannot release him to you, either. Although, I would like to,” he ground out while glaring at the Representative.

“And if I seized him, anyway?”

“I would, regretfully, be compelled to prevent you from doing that,” the President of the Alliance returned.

Fuck. Politics again. Why do they make stupid laws that are designed to hide the truth? No wonder they cannot rid themselves of the pirates.

“Very well. Mr. President, please give me a copy of all your files on the pirates: where and how they have struck as well as the list of names of the people who were killed or disappeared, and their positions in their companies, your government or the government of the Alliance stars.”

“That is a lot of information...”

“It will not be for my AI. It will easily sort through everything and find any patterns.”

The Vox delegate turned to the President. “You cannot do this. It is against our Alliance bylaws,” he protested. “I will not allow some petty official from the Federation to become privy to our internal workings. It is none of their business, and it is preposterous even to consider releasing the details to this ... this...” he hissed out, unable to come up with a sufficient expression to express his disdain. “He... is not even the Captain of this Federation vessel, yet he came into our space issuing orders as if we are his subjects.”