Anarchate Vigilante (Vigilante Series 4) (27 page)

Mindstorm of the Nik-nik thot species rested in his water bowl, floating in Nullgrav before the fifteen other members of the Council of Sixteen. Several datapads and holo emitters floated
next to him. The saltiness of his basin water was perfect. But the agenda of this council meeting was focused on the Human biped who had brought disaster and chaos to his Sector 14 domain. The last time he’d met the council they had shown patience with him. He had kept them advised as he appointed a new Sector Captain for the much diminished battleglobes of the sector fleet, and a High Commander for the new Intel Base in Sagittarius Arm. Both Running Leader and Sytoon had provided him with regular reports which he had passed on. But Council Chief Sooteen of the Loglan, a fellow amphibian like him, now fixed all four eyestalks on him.

“Mindstorm, your renegade
biped has grown beyond an annoyance,” she clicked to him in formal, antique Belizel. “Other components of his T’Chak fleet have destroyed 31 Combat Command bases, twelve naval shipyards, 221 Nova-class battleglobes and 297,321 trained personnel. In nine of our fifteen sectors. Not including your recent losses in Sector 14. Explain your failure to capture or kill this . . . enemy of Trade.”

So it began.
“This biped of the Newcomer species Human has proven extremely difficult to locate, let alone destroy,” Mindstorm said with careful use of his mouth palps. “Observe the track of his appearances,” he said, activating a holo with his ingestion cilia. The attack spots pulsed in multiple spectrums suitable to the species of each council member. “The encouraging news is that my new fleet captain, one Running Leader of the Dolmat species, has developed additional weapons for use against attacks by the Human’s nearly invulnerable warships. A Nova Blast weapon and a Black Hole Ejector of artificial black holes! Both are capable of overloading the Alcubierre space-time shields which the T’Chak ships use to block our antimatter and other beams.”

Noktoren of the Solink avians, his neighbor in Sector 13, flapped
leather wings from its roost and pointed its yellow beak his way. “Your good news, Leader of Sector 14, involves the explosion of a star in order to incinerate your base. That seems rather extreme to me.” The red-crested avian’s gaze left him to include the rest of the council. “The most recent attack in my sector was the raiding of a genome harvester rest and repair base at the Ring Nebula M57. The asteroid base was turned to stellar plasma by one of these T’Chak weapons.”

Mindstorm wished his exoskeleton shell could change colors like the softer shell of Sooteen. He held his four eyestalks at the angle of Intent Focus. “My friends on the council
, that is true. But the Nova Blast that destroyed star CC3214 in the Dumbbell M27 nebula was a tactical surprise to this Dragoneaux biped! His eight ships were nearly incinerated. They barely escaped.” He paused, then activated another holo with his cilia. “This portrays the normal space-time locale of the stars Antares A and Antares B. While the Human managed to recover his progenitor from her Mican owner on the planet Working, his eight ship fleet fled to Antares B. The battleglobe fleet of Sector Captain Running Leader pursued and severely wounded one of the T’Chak ships by use of this new black hole weapon. The Human fled the battle scene!”

Dooshesh mik-mal, the black furred Meligun biped who was leader of Sector 9, and a member of the Melikark Conglomerate, grunted loudly. “Small battles. Small victories, Leader Mindstorm.
” The land dweller, who possessed just two pink eyes locked within its cranium, folded both arm pairs over its broad upper body. “However, the Human defeated all Anarchate forces in his home star system of Pi-3 Orion. Somehow, the Human learned that his female sibling, name sigil Charlotte Dragoneaux, had escaped the control of her Meligun owner while visiting the planet Module of 51 Pegasi. She committed identity theft of a Human student at the IT Academy, traveled to the orbital station and fled in a commerce starship captained by a Hootnai carnivore. She was taken into hiding by planet Thuringia’s Human governor. Two Corvettes and a Nova battleglobe tried to capture her but were vaporized. Leader, how is it that this wing-less biped possesses better intelligence than the Anarchate?”

Mindstorm had been wondering that exact point. He’d been told by Intel High Commander Sytoon of the visit by Medun seeking assistance in recovery of the sibling female, but had heard nothing from his Spelidon chief assistant.
Even his tachlink nodule had been unable to connect with the similar nodule embedded in the hairy biped’s cranium. Failure to link only happened due to two reasons—when close to a supernova explosion, or the death of the lifeform implanted with the tachlink nodule.

He stood up on his six pincer feet, showing his earnestness by removing his gills from the luxury of salt water. His four eyestalks fixed on the representative of the outcast Melikark
Conglomerate. “Sector 9 leader, my new Intel High Commander is exploring exactly that matter. My chief assistant, one Medun of the Spelidon ancients, was present on the world Thuringia when Anarchate forces attempted to capture this sibling of the renegade Human. I have not heard from him. If he was lost to the Trade insanity of this Human, I will rename the survivor of one of my egg-sacks in his honor!”

Sooteen’s soft shell flared brightly with colors green, yellow, red and black, an expression of astonishment. “Leader Mindstorm! That is a most astonishing compliment to pay to any employee of the council!”

Mindstorm knew that. Which is why he had made up that response on the spot. “Thank you, council chief. Your appreciation of how unique this is to us amphibians, who lack the progenitor allegiance of dryland species, is highly valued.”

Sooteen’s
colorful chromatophore display quieted down to a dull brown and yellow mix. “Quite so, Mindstorm. But if this dangerous Human now controls his last two living biorelations, what means do you propose for trapping or destroying him? Since this renegade began his assault on tradition, our battleglobe strength has dropped below 11,000. The last time that happened was 43,271 cycles ago.”

Mindstorm tightened his mouth palps.
“My Intel High Commander Sytoon is convinced this biped is receiving help from one of the 27 worlds colonized by this Human species,” he said. “Once we locate the colony world supporting him, we can either put it into quarantine from Trade, or set a trap for this dryland biped.”

Noktoren flapped his leathery wings with an emphasis specific to its culture. “If you set a trap, inform me
, my sector ally. I wish to be present to share in the strike from above!”

Mindstorm gave thanks for the new chain of red rubies he had added to his jewel encrusted shell. Clearly the classical adornment style unique to his
Nik-nik thot species had won him proper respect. “Your presence at the capture or killing of this ground-bound renegade is welcome, my ally Noktoren!”

The other members of the council turned their perceptor stalks, podeyes, sonar horns and acoustic patches to other business. While any disturbance to Trade bothered them all, the first imperative of the Anarchate was to find ways to increase the assets of every species in the galaxy. With, of course, an emphasis on first rewarding members of Ancient species. Which included every member of the Council of Sixteen.

Airmed O’Davoren stood before the glass wall of her skyrise office on Morrigan. It gave her a high view of the giant meadow, small lake and enclosing trees of Lisdoonvarna’s central park. A place of field games, picnics, romantic couples and the arrival site of Matthew Dragoneaux’s giant warship
Mata Hari
. The four gouges in the green grass left by the ship’s Colossus Mode legs had healed. But the arrival of Matt, Eliana, Mata Hari and Gatekeeper the emotional AIs, the 152 Omega Casino refugees and the 15 genome slaver captives from the town of Rathfriland, that arrival had led to this visit from the Anarchate. The visit she had been dreading. She turned to face the giant black bear who called himself Rak alk-thorn.

“Emissary of the Anarchate, our world is pleased to host your visit,” she said lightly, with a smile on her face since it was clear a solo emissary was some kind of spy interrogator. And such would have studied human behaviors, expressions and body reactions. “We had been wondering when the Anarchate would establish an official office
on our world. Do you have word of such an event?”

The elfin ears of the Meligun flared back
ward. Its two pink eyes, arranged just like hers, stared intently at her even as its shoulder and waist arm pairs folded themselves over its leather strapped chest. “Your greeting is appreciated, Governor Airmed O’Davoren. I am sure the Trade officials of Sector 14 will soon establish a commerce embassy on your . . . attractive world. However, I am here in pursuit of information about a renegade Human who, your civil archive database reports, visited your world nearly a year ago.”

Airmed gestured the black-furred bear to join her on a
cushioned half-circle bench. She sat and it sat also, the black claws on its bare feet digging into her nice Persian carpet. “Would that be Mr. Matthew Raven’s-Wing Dragoneaux? We saw the recent tachnet broadcast from the Crab Nebula and from our human colony on Thuringia. Sad to see such a nice man causing such problems for Trade.”

“Exactly,” said the emissary, agreeing to some part of what she had just stated. “This male Human is a declared enemy of the Anarchate for violations of Rules One and Four. We need your cooperation in learning every detail of his visit to your star system and this world
.”

“Of course,” she said in a light tone, making sure to avoid any hint of sarcasm. “Our world appreciates the galactic benefits that are ensured by Anarchate forces and officials. We had hoped to have an Anarchate embassy earlier. Perhaps that would have discouraged the genome harvester starship from raiding our village Rathfriland and taking captive fifteen humans for sale to a cloneslave market.”

The pink eyes of Rak alk-thorn blinked slowly, in a reaction indicating bemusement, according to the Compendium of Species. “It is the duty of every colony world of any species to discourage such visits. Cloneslavery is a legal commerce within the Anarchate. However, each planet has the right to stop such an infringement on its planetary affairs.” The solo emissary glanced aside at her wall window, clearly paying attention to the distant park. “However, your world did not do so even with two Corvettes in orbit about your planet. Perhaps due to an error by your defense forces?”

“Perhaps,” Airmed said, showing a slight frown that would be normal for any sapient who worked as a planetary executive. “However, as you know from our civil archive, this man Dragoneaux was coming to our world for food and fuel supplies. His ship arrived at the heliopause and headed into our system.
That ship detected the audiovisual microwave broadcasts of myself and my militia leader telling our populace of the slaver attack and our Corvette’s effort to intercept the slaver ship. It was too fast for us. Mr. Dragoneaux’s ship intercepted the slaver ship, entered it, defeated its crew, rescued our fifteen captive citizens, and returned them to our world.”

The giant bear inclined its blocky head in imitation of the human gesture of acknowledgment. A gesture alien to its species, she had read in the Compendium. “Those facts are clearly recorded in your civil archive.
The harvester ship was destroyed. Your citizens were returned to this planet. However, the arrival of this human’s starship within your capital, to hover above the park habitat outside that window, well, that is most unusual in my experience.”

Airmed wondered just what kind of experiences this black bear had
been exposed to in its work for the Anarchate. “Oh? Were you at the Sector 14 Intelligence Base when it was attacked by someone?”

The short black fur of the Meligun stiffened into a full body alert mode that her studies said carried the meaning of Suspicion Confirmed. “Yes. But how did you know that base was attacked? It is remote and lies in Perseus Arm. Surely your people do not trade with human colonies in Perseus?”

Airmed sighed. This emissary for certain was a spy, a trained interrogator and someone who had come here with advance suspicions about her world and her people. Time to go on the offense she had worked on for the last year.

“You are mistaken, emissary. I knew nothing about the Intel Base attack until it was reported over the galactic ta
chnet by a researcher working at the IT Academy on Module,” she said in sharp, decisive tones calculated to send this creature the signal that her statement was factual. “As for our Trade relations, we are still colonizing this planet. We have only two million people on this green and blue world. The oceans are untapped, the forests hardly visited, and its mineral deposits are barely known.” She tapped her datapad. “I am ordering a pitcher of water for myself. May I order you some
gysin
to drink? Talking makes thirsty most bipeds.”

Rak alk-thorn’s pink eyes blinked rapidly, a sign of
surprise for his species. “
Gysin
? You have
gysin
here?”

Airmed smiled in a friendly mode. “Of course we do! We brew
twelve varieties of beer, two types of whiskey and our vineyard estates produce two dozen types of wine.” She laughed. “Our people, we call ourselves the
Tuatha De Danaan
, we are much focused on making merry, drinking good drinks, dancing over meadows and making welcome all visitors.”