Chapter 633

Ship’s Training Mission for the Miadax Crew

...”Suggestions, Sir?”

“Yeah. You need a haircut,” the Captain said before turning and walking away.

“Uh, Sir,” the First called after him. “Please do not answer any communications from the Alliance. They think you are in stasis.”

The Captain just waved his hand a little and continued on his way.

“Do I have any messages from the planet?” the First Officer asked the ship’s AI.

“Yes, First. A dispatch came in addressed to you with a lengthy attachment. Shall I forward it to your console?”

“Hmmm. This will probably take a while, so send it to the Captain’s Ready Room.” If I’m going to play Captain, I might as well use his Ready Room.

When the First Officer opened the file, he grimaced. I forgot that the President of the Alliance was a politician. Crap, look at the size of this thing.

After summoning the AI again, he explained the situation, even putting in his suspicions. I would like for you to search these files for trends or things that jump out at you... Crap. The AI will not understand that. “Uh, things that do not seem logical, or perhaps things that form a pattern, maybe seem to bond together. Uh, anything that might lead us to where the pirates are, and what the ultimate motive for all this is. We suspect that the attacks are the cover for a coup.”

“A coup by what individual or individuals?” it asked.

“I do not know. Look, we have destroyed two pirate craft so far, but we still do not know who is in charge of them – who their boss or bosses are, even why they are doing this. One would, at first, think that they (whoever they are) are doing this for material gain – credits – but they have made no demands for ransom that the President of the Alliance is aware of. There is such a volume of missing individuals that no one seems to know who the missing are, or who the dead are. It is further complicated by lists entitled ‘Missing and Presumed Dead.’ The President of the Alliance said he would send everything he had, so all that information should be in these files, somewhere. Let’s start with a list of the known dead – their star system, home planet and position – if possible. If you can manage it, their ranking on whatever hierarchy they have on their homeworld. Is he/she a king/queen, President, high-level politician or large company head, etc., and if he/she is a politician, maybe some background about his/her current views in any ongoing disputed policies.”

The AI hesitated, which was impressive in itself. “That ... if possible at all, will take time, and I will need to tie in with this world’s data system.”

“Oh, shit. I did not think to obtain the information on how to do that. I will contact...”

“I only needed your permission; I am already searching the data. I suggest you take the opportunity to rest. I suspect that at least a portion of this data will be... secured and not readily available. Consequently, I will have to ... improvise before it will be released. This may take time to compile enough preliminary data even to begin to approach your desired outcome.”

After a few hours, the First Officer tried scanning over some of the names on the multi-page documents the Alliance President’s staff had sent. The problem was that there were twenty star systems involved with ships that ranged from a dozen crew or so to a small passenger liner with a hundred passengers and crew. Sometimes, the ship, crew and passengers were missing without a trace. Other times, the ship was attacked and destroyed with a total loss of life. Yet at still other times, the ship, crew and passengers just did not arrive where and when they were supposed to – without a trace. Was the ship destroyed, its passengers and crew killed, taken hostage, or were they merely a statistic of the dangers of space?

Logically, most of these ships listed as missing were probably destroyed. Surely, the pirates do not have the personnel to hold a great many people hostage. Why were so many ships openly destroyed while others simply disappeared? Granted, space is big – well, I suppose that is an understatement of gross proportions – but still, it seems that more of the missing ships would have been found, unless...

“AI!”

“Yes, First.”

“Add another criterion to your searches. Yes, I know it is vague, but I will try to obtain additional information. In the meantime, I need to know if there are close relatives to world or high-level organization leaders in the missing.”

There was a delay before the AI came back. “Indeed, that will further complicate the search. You do remember that this information encompasses twenty star systems, light-years apart, but I can only address information that has been sent to Vilia 4, the planet we orbit, correct?”

“I know, but since Vilia 4 is the Capital of the Alliance, I assumed that most of the information could be found here.”

“That is true, at least to some extent. Some of the reporting agencies or companies have freely given out information, even formatted it into a logical pattern, while others seemed extremely reluctant to give out any information of any kind, citing privacy issues.”

A call to the Axis President, which was quickly returned – to the First’s amazement – explained some of the reluctance to give out information, at least for some of those involved. Some of the missing were minor royalty and/or the ultra-rich, and the line of succession became important when more than one of the royal family or the head of a dictatorship went missing. The ultra-rich seemed to be even more determined to keep the information to themselves. For some of the systems, when a man died, everything went to his wife – if she survived – but sometimes it went to the oldest male child, or in one case, the lineage was matriarchal. Finding out who had died and who survived sometimes became problematic because the families would not release the information. When this problem was multiplied by the distance across twenty star systems, some of which were quite removed, just a list of missing or presumed dead became beyond problematic. Did they bother to send a list to the Axis? Or was their star system even raided by the pirates?

The more the AI and the First searched, the more he began to think that the search was useless.

A day later, the Captain brought the First Officer a cup of stim and put it beside him without the First having even noticed. “Things going smoothly?” the Captain asked with a chuckle as the First, jarred from his concentration, jerked, then grinned sheepishly.

“Oh, everything is going just great,” he said with over-emphasis as he leaned back and picked up the cup for a sip while nodding his thanks. “I have spent many hours developing lists of the missing, only to find that half of it is wrong. For instance, almost all of one very large extended family through three generations was scheduled for a trip to some ‘garden’ planet for the ultra-rich. They were all supposedly on the same ship, and it has gone missing. But then I found that several members of the family recently checked into a hotel – well, their version of a hotel – here at Vilia 4 – without three of their wives and some of their more distant relatives. What the fuck does that mean? Were they even on the missing ship to begin with? I keep running into crap like this – over and over.”

The First took another sip of stim before saying, “I know with this many people, some of this is going to happen, but with the lineage thing, I am beginning to suspect there are other influences involved as well. There seems to be a group that is trying to prevent me, or anyone, from figuring out what is actually happening... Shit! My only hope may well be the ship’s AI.”

“Gut feeling?” the Captain asked as he leaned back, crossed his legs and propped his feet on the table.

“Gut? Hmmm. Well, that politician – that Representative Kaylorm from the Vox star system – is knee deep in this. Incompetence can only go so far. It’s almost as if someone has deliberately screwed with the data. If I had the asshole under the truth fields for just one hour, I think I could have all the answers to this mess.”

“What about the locator patch the Lieutenant tagged him with?”

“According to the Lieutenant, the official is still in the quarters routinely assigned to him when he is here on Alliance business.”

The Captain raised an eyebrow, prompting the First to go quickly on. “Yeah, he has probably detected the patch and left it behind, or else bypassed it somehow.”

The First sighed. “Looks as if I will have to wait for the AI to come up with something.”

“And the asteroid field?”

The First hesitated before, “I now do not think there are any more pirates in the belt, but there must be another ship and a base somewhere. I also agree that the second ship we destroyed did not contain command personnel. Remember the junk narcotics and the slovenly appearance of the big room where they were living? Surely there were no command personnel of any kind in that hole. The Alliance initially told us there were at least three ships, and after looking at the timing of the raids, I believe there are that many and maybe more. When we find the other ship or ships, I think there will be some higher-level person or persons in charge of their little armada. That does not mean that this person or persons will be the ultimate authority, though. This whole thing smells of politics. At least, that is my opinion. I fully expect that he or they will be the ultimate boss or bosses of the pirates, though. It would not amaze me to find that I have already spoken with at least one of the people in authority.

“Somebody knows who is behind this, and there is a reason all those ships were destroyed or have disappeared. When we find out why, we will know who is behind it. But ... if we could just find that other ship...”

The Captain was absently drumming his fingers on the seat arm as he thought. “Last shift, the Chief Engineer asked if he might discuss a project with me, and he needed to do it before we were in combat again. I put him off, but I think you should speak with him.”

“Uh, are you sure? Do you have any idea what he needs?”

“Not a clue, but he obviously thinks it is important. He has been a friend for years, but I suspect this has something to do with the pirates, so I told him he should speak with you about whatever he has. He said he would be ready whenever you are, but he wants to meet you in the port side amidships missile battery.”

“Missile battery? What would he...”

“I think it would be better if the two of you iron this out together. Give him a call, First.”

“Uh, sure,” the First returned. Did I piss the Chief off about the impulse engines? Shit, I thought I ended that on a good note. Oh, well, I might as well call him and get this over with.

After a brief conversation, the Engineer got around to what he wanted. “Look, First, please meet me in the port amidships missile battery. I have something I want to show you.”

“Uh, sure. Ten minutes?”

“Sounds good. Meet you there.”

The First glanced at the Captain, who just shrugged. “I have no idea, and...”

“And if you did, you would not tell me.”

“Yep.”

The First stopped by a dispenser to get a cup of stim and got one for the Chief Engineer as well. After arriving, the First Officer stood looking around at the area and the racks of various missiles there. The missiles were divided by type and explosive strength, ranging from the size of a large person’s fist to the big DELTAS that were slightly more than two meters long and a half meter in width. Each missile would pass through a mechanism that would automatically program the missile to the specifications sent from the Weapons Officer’s console or other designated console. Once on its way, the missile could be aborted, or its destination changed if there was time. Guidance and systems designed to override another ship’s defenses were the best the Federation and its scientists could devise.

Although the First Officer had inspected everything about the ship over a span of years, he was again impressed with the upkeep of all the equipment. We have a good crew and a good ship. I am fortunate to serve on the Hunter with the best skipper who ever walked a deck.

The design engineers had done a superb job of utilizing every centimeter of space for the missile batteries, and his crews had kept all the equipment working splendidly throughout his stay aboard the Hunter. Something always breaks, but there had only been minor equipment failures since the Captain had taken command several years ago. He increased their stock of replacement parts, and if something wasn’t delivered when it should be, he would go higher and higher in the command chain until his ship received what was needed. The crew liked and respected their Captain (and First Officer, although he gave the Captain all the credit) and obviously went the extra distance to make the missile battery, as well as the other areas of the ship, all they could make them. There were no tools or any type of equipment left out of place, and the deck of the battery looked clean enough to eat on. Although everything was automatic – theoretically – there was always a need for trained personnel who intimately understood every aspect of the systems and could step in when needed. If something jammed or was rendered inoperative in combat, human ingenuity often got things working again. Any delay in launching a missile in a combat situation could spell death to the Hunter and her crew.