Alien Honor (A Fenris Novel) (14 page)

NAGASAKI:
We have a precognitive dream as a warning. That’s it. We need better proof. Some of our Specials have malfunctioned on the approach to New Eden. We have to learn why.

ARGON:
Not at the expense of losing
Discovery
and thereby denying Sol the knowledge of these aliens.

NAGASAKI:
I’m not suggesting such a thing. We’re a warship, are we not?

ARGON:
No. We are not a warship. We are an exploratory and colonizing vessel with armaments. Now if aliens already inhabit New Eden—

NAGASAKI:
That’s just it. No aliens can inhabit the system. Look at the telescopes. Study the star system. We’re eight light years away. It’s conceivable a technological civilization leaped into existence two hundred and thirty years ago, but not eight years ago.

ARGON:
You believe that’s why the astronomers saw no evidence of high technology, because their evidence was two hundred and thirty years old, the speed at which light left New Eden and traveled to Pluto?

NAGASAKI:
It would fit the facts—but only if we could see something now. We don’t. Ergo, there is no civilization at AS 412, or New Eden if you prefer.

ARGON:
What do you think is there?

NAGASAKI:
A ship, perhaps or a colony, as we built a lone habitat at Epsilon Eridani.

ARGON:
Can you be more specific?

NAGASAKI:
Commanding Officer, I would like to speak to you in private.

ARGON:
I would need a reason first.

NAGASAKI:
System-wide security.

ARGON:
At New Eden?

NAGASAKI:
No. Sol’s future security.

ARGON:
(Rises from his seat.) We will take a short recess as Captain Nagasaki tells me his urgent and apparently secret information.

End of Transcript #12

12

Captain Nagasaki floated after Argon.

The chief monitor gracefully practiced zero G maneuvers down the narrow passageway. The seven-foot giant used the hand rungs, pulling or swimming his way along.

Nagasaki did it even better from endless years of practice. Twenty-six years ago, the sleeper ship
Argonaut
had accelerated out of Sol at one G as it built up to near light speed. That had been the easiest part of the journey. The long coast had been much more tedious, the years of weightlessness.

That had been nothing, however, compared to the growing fear of cyborgs as they approached Epsilon Eridani.

During the Great War of the solar system, the cyborgs had destroyed the supreme philosophical and political arrangement known to man. The cyborgs had sent an armada and eradicated Jovian life from the moons and habitats. Circe had taken the survivors of that awful time and repopulated the two moons of Neptune. The cyborgs of that era had slaughtered or converted all Neptunians, leaving the gas giant’s gravity system bare of human life.

In the beautiful Jovian system, the wisest had ruled, the most spirited fought, and the brutes labored. It had brought about the highest of artistic achievement and human thought. Then the cyborgs had destroyed it all like an evil virus, murdering love, art, beauty, and political harmony.

Nagasaki ground his teeth together as he floated into the chamber with Chief Monitor Argon. He sensed the truth. The cyborgs must have indeed built at least one more proto-Teleship. They had escaped far from Sol, to rebuild in the stars, forging an invincible empire of machine-man melds. What else could be waiting for them at AS 412?

“Well?” Argon asked. “What is this secret information? Are you going to warn me about cyborgs?”

Nagasaki approved of the Spartan nature of the quarters. Nothing adorned the walls. There was a cot, a clean desk and these two chairs. Of clothes, shoes, or personal items, there was no sign.

The captain withdrew a capsule from a hidden pocket. It was the size of his thumb, with a flat end with hundreds of microscopic holes. He moved toward the bigger man and slapped the flat end of the capsule against the fabric of the chief monitor’s right thigh. In a powerful jet of air—and a soft sigh of sound—tranks injected past the fabric and into Argon’s skin.

The chief monitor moved with startling speed, backhanding Nagasaki. The small captain catapulted from his spot and sailed against a wall, thudding against it with his shoulders.

“What have you—?” Argon said.

Nagasaki was far from finished. As the chief monitor spoke, Nagasaki corrected his position and thrust with his thighs, propelling himself at Argon’s head. The captain was a black belt in zero G karate, something he’d perfected during the round trip from Sol to Epsilon Eridani and back.

Argon twisted toward him as Nagasaki flew at his head. The NKV officer blocked, and the two men traded swift, zero G blows.

“This is treason against Premier Lang!” Argon shouted. “You won’t live long enough to enjoy it, I assure you.”

Nagasaki breathed heavily as sweat floated off him. He’d never faced anyone with such strength and speed. The man was phenomenal. Weightlessness helped him against the NKV officer, as did the fast-acting drug in the chief monitor’s bloodstream. Colonel Konev had assured him the drug would efficiently knock out Argon. Now Nagasaki was beginning to doubt if it would happen quickly enough.

“You’re the one being treasonous,” Nagasaki panted, trying to buy time. “I am the captain of the Teleship. With your so-called sealed orders—an obvious
forgery—you have declared mutiny against me. How do you think I handled these matters aboard
Argonaut
? I didn’t wait for others to do my dirty work. I, personally, put an end to sedition.”

Argon showed his teeth, but his efforts had noticeably slowed and his speech was beginning to slur. “You have no idea why you’re doing this?”

“I’m perfectly aware of my actions.”

“Jasper must have tricked me. He uses you.”

“The telepath has nothing to do with this,” Nagasaki said.

“The telepath has delusions of godhood, you fool. I’ve read his secret profile. His inhibitor must be faulty.”

“You’re wrong.”

Argon roared and launched himself at Nagasaki. The captain kicked, and then his ankle was caught in a bone-crushing grip as the chief monitor wrapped his thick fingers around it.

“You’ll never use this foot again,” Argon snarled.

Nagasaki shouted in pain, and with his other foot, he repeatedly kicked Argon in the face, bruising the broad cheeks.

Finally, Nagasaki wrenched his ankle free. The chief monitor glared at him helplessly as blood pumped into the air from his nostrils. The blood floated in globular shapes, with little droplets breaking off to orbit the main mass.

“Give… me… antidote,” Argon slurred.

From the corner of the ceiling, Nagasaki panted. He’d known ahead of time that it was going to be a hard fight, but he hadn’t expected this. Had the chief monitor crippled him?

“… fool…” Argon whispered, with his eyelids fluttering.

Nagasaki watched the chief monitor pass into unconsciousness. The telepath could be a problem. But Colonel Konev already had an answer for that. Now, it was time to search and find the illegal needler, the one Argon had used to kill Venice. They were going to need the weapon in order to subdue the other monitors.

13

Cyrus waited in the officer’s lounge with the others. It was a spacious room as such things went aboard
Discovery
.

There was a long table in the center of the chamber, with various consoles embedded in the plastic top. Screens lined the walls, each showing a bright, recorded day on Earth. Cyrus focused on a rolling plain. A flock of crows flew in the sky toward a lone tree.

Two monitors in the chamber flanked the closed hatch. Like giant sentinels, they stood at each side, alert and waiting for orders.

Jasper sat across the table from Cyrus. The telepath wore a shiny suit, fiddling with an oblong object, twisting colored pieces on it. The thing was a game of some sort. Something clicked on it.

The sound or something about the object drew Cyrus’s gaze from the rolling plain to it. He crunched his brows together, wondering what Jasper was trying to achieve with the toy.

“They’ve been gone too long,” Colonel Konev announced.

The marine wasn’t in his seat, but floated near the head of the table. He wore his dress uniform, with one of his big hands in a pocket.

Cyrus noticed because whatever Konev held in his pocket he rolled around nervously. That was odd. Why would Konev be nervous?

Frowning, Cyrus glanced at Jasper. The man was absorbed with his toy, clicking a colored piece, clicking another…

Cyrus noticed the telepath’s eyes, the giveaway. They’d turned a faint metallic color. Was he wrong to do nothing?

Doctor Wexx stood up. She wore Velcro-soled shoes. Making a
rip-rip
sound, she approached the portal and the two monitors.

Both NKV officers were big, towering at six-ten and six-eleven. They wore the black uniform, with stunner-rods holstered at their sides. The wide faces, the intense eyes: These two had Highborn blood like the chief monitor.

“I need to use the restroom,” Wexx said.

The taller monitor shook his head. “You will await the chief monitor’s return.”

Wexx laughed. “But I need to go.”

Go?
Cyrus wondered. Doctor Wexx was much too formal to say it like that. He turned to Jasper. The telepath had his head down, and he no longer fingered his oblong toy or game.

“Doctor,” Cyrus said.

Doctor Wexx wasn’t listening. She charged the door. “I insist you let me pass!” she shouted, grappling with the nearest monitor.

The monitor frowned as he easily held her off. “You will remain here until the—”

The portal opened. The second monitor glanced outside into the passageway, and he moved fast toward the hatch.

The soft sound of a firing needler froze Cyrus, as everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The taller monitor reversed his grip on Dr. Wexx, spinning her around and immobilizing her—but it also immobilized him for the moment. The other monitor continued to twist toward the portal, but now he contorted sharply as if in pain. Deadly needles exited his back, stitching through his garment. Squirts of blood followed.

“Don’t move!” Colonel Konev roared, aiming his words at the remaining monitor.

The NKV officer kept hold of Wexx and turned his head toward the hatch.

Cyrus saw the same thing the monitor must have seen. Captain Nagasaki stood in the portal, holding the needler, pointing it at the monitor’s face.

The live monitor relaxed his muscles, releasing Dr. Wexx. She jerked loose and hurried back against a wall, staring at the scene in shock and rearranging her disheveled clothes.

“If you move,” Konev crisply told the monitor, “the captain will kill you.”

“Where is Argon?” the giant asked.

“That is no concern of yours,” Konev said. “You must ask yourself: Do I want to live?”

The giant regarded the colonel. “This—all this—is your doing?”

“It is,” Konev admitted. With his large sideburns and stance, the marine seemed like a lion.

Cyrus glanced at Jasper. The telepath had put away his oblong object and sat there with a half smile on his chubby face. Cyrus wanted to charge him and put his knife under his throat. He was certain the captain would shoot him if he tried. So Cyrus did the next best thing. He waited for his chance.

“What are your plans?” the monitor asked Konev.

“That isn’t your concern either,” the marine said. “Do you want to live or should we kill you and eliminate any future problems?”

The monitor seemed to calculate swiftly.

He’s like a beast
, Cyrus realized.
The captain is mad if he thinks he’s safe holding a needler so near the monitor
. Cyrus knew some monitors had taken mind shield training. Is that why Premier Lang had put Highborn echoes aboard the Teleship? Highborn would have potent mind shields. Were they another of Lang’s endless redundancies regarding Specials?

“Captain,” Konev said, “if you would make your way to me, please. But be careful. The monitor is deadly and can strike like a whiplash.”

The monitor glanced at Jasper. A moment later, the monitor said, “I will submit to you.” He put his back to Nagasaki and slowly moved to the nearest wall, putting his hands and body against it in the arrest position.

“Should I kill him?” Nagasaki asked Jasper.

“No!” Konev said. “We need the monitors. They know many important things about the ship the rest of us don’t. There are only twelve of them. We can keep them in the brig.”

Cyrus finally saw what Konev had kept in his pocket: binding ties.

The monitor saw the same thing and put his hands behind his back. Konev attached the ties to the wrists and others to the ankles, binding the giant. Once finished, he turned to Nagasaki.

“Give me the weapon,” he said.

Nagasaki scowled.

“I need the weapon so I can insure the freeing and arming of my marines,” Konev said. “Once we’re combat armed, there’s nothing the monitors can do even if they were all free.”

Nagasaki cocked his head.

Cyrus noticed Jasper with his head bent. Sweat appeared on the telepath’s face.

A moment later, Nagasaki reversed his grip and handed the needler to Konev.

The colonel checked the gleaming weapon. “Hmm,” he muttered. “The magazine is almost spent. How many did you fire into the monitor?”

Nagasaki shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter,” Konev said. “Cyrus you’ll push the monitor for me.”

Cyrus rubbed his jaw. Jasper wanted him out of here for a reason. So one way or another, he’d better go. “Sure,” he said.

14

“Why hadn’t the other monitors in their stations gassed us?” Cyrus asked Konev.