Chaos Cipher (56 page)

‘
Well, what
have you heard about it recently?’

‘
Not much,
I’m afraid,’ Anton sighed, ‘The news is quite new to this system
but I understand the
Kyklos
disaster occurred some twelve or thirteen years
ago now. Something about a rescue attempt. The local system they
chose to inhabit was going through a supernova, I think. The
civilisation was wiped out. There’s not much more I
know.’

‘
Good,’ Alker
nodded. ‘Sounds like you’re more up to speed on that than I
am.’

‘
I very much
doubt that,’ Anton said levelly.

‘
Well,
perhaps I know a few specifics. But you see it’s my duty to deal
with a more internal situation. Any tragedy to befall a drifter
colony stands outside my jurisdiction. I can’t do much for them so
I do what I can for the S.S.A.’

‘
The Solar
System Alliance,’ O’Three’s voice travelled on an echo from the
distance of the room.

‘
And is the
nature of our meeting, Mr Regallio.’ Kintz added
earnestly.

‘
I run an
astro-union on the solar system’s main resource hub.’ Anton said
over to the guard. ‘I’m well aware of the S.S.A, now please go
on.’

‘
Gladly,’
Alker ebulliently remarked, ‘The
Omicron
is our main port, and
dispatches deep space missions, as well as receives material from
other areas...’

‘
Look! There
is literally nothing you can tell me about this station that I
don’t already know, please get to the point.’

‘
The S.S.A
cooperating body are expecting a dreadful threat to Earth.’ Alker
said darkly. ‘It has become apparent that the
Kyklos
’ host star was
sabotaged.’

‘
The Sun-tau
star was somehow sent over the Chandrasekhar limit, essentially
causing a fatal singularity.’ said the Lawyer.

‘
I.O.W, a
black hole.’

Anton took
pains to absorb the conversation, confused by the way the Lawyer
and politician complemented each other’s sentences.

‘
Yes,’ said
Mr Kintz, ‘a manufactured one using an already dense star. The
process is called quanti-mangus.’

‘
So there’s
now a rogue black hole in the Milky Way?’ Anton asked, waiting for
some hidden punch-line.

‘
Fortunately
not,’ Alker chuckled amiably, ‘the Sun-Tau is far on the galaxy’s
arm, it’s incredible the
Kyklos
colony made it out as far as they did with such
obsolete technology. The black hole hasn’t the power to drag in
anything outside the system, and it’s radiating Hawking
counterparts rapidly or so the research reveals.’

‘
We’re told
she’ll dissolve before any damage can be done.’ Added the Lawyer,
‘admittedly in two thousand earth years but. Considering cosmic
events, that really isn’t a big deal.’

‘
What does
this have to do with me?’ asked Anton impatiently.

‘
The person
or persons responsible for this are terrorists of a new breed. They
are ruthless creatures. I want to see your logs for
Kyklos
refugees and
immigrants returning to Sol.’

‘
Well, that’s
a no-brainer,’ said Anton, ‘the answer’s no, Mr Alker. I am not at
liberty to divulge confidential and personal information of any
individual coming into or leaving this station.’

‘
Not even to
save the world?’ Alker challenged. ‘F.Y.I Mr Regallio, destroying
stars is a very serious matter.’

‘
Well, excuse
me for not biting my tongue here but don’t you guys make a living
from it? I don’t know much about it, but it is common knowledge
that Obsiduranium is harvested from black holes for massive profit?
Without it, we can’t run our high energy pyro-catalyst cores for
deep space starnavis. Correct me, if I got that wrong.’

‘
No,’ Alker
said tartly, sitting back into the chair. ‘You’re perfectly correct
in what you say. We selectively identify suitable stars for
harvesting on a safe and legitimate basis. But they are not random
stars, sir. They are closely analysed and they are to have no
inhabitable planets in the system, the stars also have to be very
dense already, like a neutron star for instance.’ Alker spoke
slowly and carefully, offering his words with hand gestures that
made him seem he was pinching the syllables right out of the air
before him, a morsel of control suited to his sensibilities.
‘What’s more is these quanti-magnus events are, as my lawyer has
already made clear, uneconomical. It takes a lot of energy to
create condensed Obsiduranium. Simply unaffordable and not a viable
solution, hence only produced in an emergency. That’s our policy,
now you accept that, do you?’ Alker waited for Anton’s response,
but he never gave it. Alker went on.

‘
This
situation has been responsible for the loss of two starnavis rescue
ships, three global ecologies and countless lives. This really is a
no-brainer, Mr Regallio only the answer is yes.’

‘
I’m afraid
this will have to go through confidential requests first. I’ll also
have to speak to my union, make sure everything I do is above board
here. I don’t wish to step on any toes. Of course, if you had an
official warrant this would be a lot easier. You understand our
loyalty to earthly castaways must be respected. This station has a
long history of providing sanctuary for the oppressed.’

‘
That’s
confirmed,’ said Kintz, dipping into his case and fetching a fibre
optic polymer pad onto the table. Digital information began to spin
and trickle over the material as the room’s table interacted with
the transparent polymer and projected a hologram for them to
visualise.

‘
I have your
warrant from the Solar System Alliance.’ The picayune Lawyer
continued, ‘this is the very rare situation in which we have to
by-pass confidentiality. We’re not looking for anything other than
the perpetrators. This is a legitimate order supported by a Nexus
consensus decision, and state enforced.’

Of course it
is, Anton Regallio thought, you control the minds of billions,
doubtless they’ll support the cause through a Nexus
consensus.

‘
Right…’
Regallio stated ‘you realise that some of the customers I work with
here on my station operate outside of what you consider
lawful.’

‘
We’re privy
to that,’ said Kintz, ‘Mr Alker and the Northern-Syridan
Ameritropolis have no interest with implying any foreign policy
here. We only wish to seek our terrorist. Consider this our
guarantee.’

‘
I can’t take
a verbal guarantee,’ said Anton strictly. ‘I want it written. Just
the terrorists, anything else you consider unlawful is not your
business on this station. I want it in writing.’

‘
Agree,’
Alker said. ‘I’ll conquer with the S.S.A.’

‘
Can you
provide me with a description of your terrorist?’ Anton
requested.

Alker turned
to the Lawyer, who opened up his small portmanteaux once more. He
removed another polymer pad from a pouch inside the case. He looked
through the transparent disk at the holographic display animating
ghostly images within it, and set it on the table top. The table’s
surface recognised the thin material, and its oak wood semblance
fell away into a pool of light that filled the centre. The table
projected two profile images. One of them was a huge man, his pale
skinned face twisted with rage, his hair draped in thick damp
threads down to his back. The image was frozen, as though it may
have been the last image the photographer saw before experiencing
the wrath of this Olympian monster.

‘
This is
Raven Protos,’ Alker introduced. ‘We believe he is responsible for
the Sun-tau system’s untimely destruction.’ Alker intentionally
omitted that Raven was an Olympian Nephilim-grade warrior. ‘He’s
unusually tall, over six feet. This Olympian warrior is deadly to
the most extreme.’

Anton leaned
in, angling his elbows on the table and resting his mouth on his
knuckles. The hologram image changed to a small girl. She was
crouched holding a silvery talisman, her eyes wide and liquid, her
skin equally as pale as Raven’s. The child’s hair was tied back in
large locks running to her hip. She was wearing a blue jumpsuit and
green pressure boots. Anton noticed her unusual eyes.

‘
We don’t
know her name,’ Alker said, ‘but the S.S.A are getting used to
calling her Cassandra.’

‘
The same
Cassandra,’ Kintz chuckled, ‘from Trojan Greek mythology.
Apparently she’s able to forecast the future.’

‘
We have many
of our own so called clairvoyants here,’ said Anton, ‘I don’t see
how a child can pose much of a threat. But this Raven you speak of
is a more striking menace, I feel. I’ll see what I can do. Let me
run this through my people. In the meantime, feel free to look
around. You’ll be staying in the penthouse suite on the northern
tower.’

‘
Splendid,’
Alker said.

‘
I can’t
promise I’ll find them, but a seven foot man can’t be hard to find
can he?’

Alker stood
and the Lawyer began putting away the hydrogel disks to their plate
holsters and locking them up in his portmanteaux. ‘You’re right
about that,’ said Alker in closing. ‘I’ve been told by reliable
sources that it’s not the finding them that has been a problem in
the past, but their capture. Do not approach this man. He makes
himself palpable to attack teams. You can’t really miss a man as
tall as this and he knows it. But he is lethal in unarmed combat
and more than efficient on a surprisingly wide range of weapons.
Most weapons use DNA biometrics to access, but he has hidden
nanotech hacking abilities. He is considered by our most
professional soldiers to be elite. Discretion is
advised.’

There was a
long silence before Anton finally asked if he was an Olympian
genetic.

‘
No.’ Alker
flatly lied.

‘
Are you
certain? I have ways of finding out for myself if he is or not, and
you know where my alliances stand on this matter.’

‘
You are to
inform Mr Alker directly of their presence,’ said Major JD O’ Three
from the back of the room, his voice carrying on a slight echo.
‘From then on, I’ll be in charge of the incarceration. My team will
take him down fast with respect to your property.’

Anton nodded,
‘I’ll keep it in mind.’

-40-

T
he C.A.L.C station
Luminite
hovered in the
Lagrange point four zone near Telesto. The particle atomic clock
operated automatically, and serviced as a refuel station for
Zero-Point-Energy drives. A carrier vessel heading for
Omicron
had recently
entered the system and docked with the C.A.L.C station. The
SC Pontiac
stopped to
harness quantum energy in the local area and the crew boarded
the
Luminite
. The
C.A.L.C station
Luminite
was only two hundred cubic square meters in size,
a large bulk of which was taken up by hardware and maintenance
drones.

The
SC Pontiac
began
signalling radar disturbances to the crew as they boarded the
station, and a strange phenomenon registered through space. The
Captain hurried to his command seat, pulling his weight through the
micro-gravity to float above the displays and he positioned himself
to glare out of the window. Only the eternal blackness was out
there, forever silent.

‘
Captain?’
one of his crew members spoke across the terminal. ‘Disturbances on
the
Luminite
station, getting some strange readings. Gravitational
shifts.’

‘
It’s the
same on the Pontiac,’ he reported, occupied with what was outside.
‘Angels, can you identify?’

‘
Negative
identity, Captain,’ said the Pontiac’s AI systems. ‘Whatever the
source is though, it’s fluctuating, altering speed and
course.’

‘
I can’t get
a visual.’

He moved
around to another window panel, his breath fogging the glass as he
kept his nose to the cold surface, kicking around in his large
padded grey space suit. The helmet collar clinked against the glass
as he changed his position, moving his forehead to the
window.

‘
Captain…’
one of his crew reported. ‘I’ve got a visual from the station
Captain.’

‘
What can you
see?’

‘
Oh my
Christ…’

His crew
would never relay what was heading toward them. Through the dead of
space a fire as bright as a star momentarily flashed on everything
reflective as a chunk of the Hephaestus One slammed into the
station, releasing antimatter from its containment and swallowing a
thousand miles of space in light. Falling out of the expansive
blast, which shone now through the silent cosmos, were three
metallic cones. Wheeling in synchronicity, the assailant Xenotech
closed in on their next target,
Station
Omicron
.