The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #4, Retribution (22 page)

“
Because, Sergean
t
… treating her injuries represents the best chance we have of restoring her mind and gaining an intelligence bonanza. She is currently the highest-ranking enemy officer in theatre
.
”

The sergeant pointed with his trunk to the young human soldier who was shackled next to the woman
.“
What about him? His mind seems just fine
.
”

Quick-Kick snorted
.“
H
e’
s a mud guppy. H
e’
ll gladly share his name, but tha
t’
s the extent of his knowledge. Mud guppies go where the rains lead them and no farther. At best he is leverage for our admiral friend here
.
”

There was the sound of metal hitting metal, and a slight bump shook the shuttle.

“
I believe we have finally landed
,
” Quick-Kick said
.“
Take her to sickbay; take him to holding.
I’
m going to report to the captain
.
”

***

Admiral Faragon stared at the holographic images seated around the conference table.

“
We may need to adjust our plans
,
” he said, finally. The meeting had been called hastily, when word had come via a trans-dimensional FTL link that Admiral Cat Kimbridge had been captured. Sitting around the table were representatives of all the major parties involved on their side of the current conflict. This included holographic representations of Captain Running Stream, Elder Farin of the Suhtii, Commodore Jason Ruck, the newly promoted Captain Kirkland of the
Yorktown,
as well as a Naan professor by the name of Debbu. A handful of others were physically present. These included the admira
l’
s XO, Commander Sherry Melbourne, as well as diplomatic liaisons from the Ashkelons, Hupenstanii, and
D’
lralu.  

“
Sh
e’
s one woman
,
” Dishkin, the second of the third from the
D’
lralu delegation, said
.“
Surely her loss, while tragic, is not that serious
.
”

Admiral Faragon shook his head
.“
If we were talking about anybody else I would agree, but this is Catherine Kimbridge. She does
n’
t just know our plan
s
… she was the principle architect of many of them. We have no idea what has happened to her. Her Heshe tech has been fried and she is in the hands of a force that has access to Uruk technology. We have no idea what they may have been able to extract from her mind
.
”

The familiar voice of WhimPy-101 filled the conference room
.“
That may not be entirely accurate, Admiral
.
”

“
Go on
,
” the admiral prompted.

“
Admiral Kimbridge began to suspect the presence of a superior technology at work. Logic dictated that it was the Uruk, or at very least another malevolent entity. She knew that at some point her Heshe technology might become compromised. She therefore had me construct a small and heavily shielded fire-safe data store within her encounter unit. That data store is programed to periodically send out a limited number of reconnaissance nanites into her blood stream. I started receiving FTL telemetry from them ten minutes ago
.
”

Admiral Faragon noticed Jason Ruck perk up. The Commander was the first to speak after 10
1’
s bombshell.

“
Does this mean we can communicate with her
?
” Jason asked quickly
.“
Can she tell us where she is
?
”

“
I’
m afraid not, Commodore. The nanites are constructed to be broadcast-only units for security reasons. As predicted, the Admira
l’
s Heshe technology has been obliterated. As part of a preplanned defense strategy, the Admiral instructed her nanites to attempt to erase her memory in the event her systems should be compromised. I
t’
s impossible to tell with complete certainty, but it would seem the effort was at least partially successful. We are receiving basic telemetry, including live feeds from her eyes and ears, but we have no way of interacting with her
.
”

“
So she is defenseless and very likely suffering from self-induced amnesia
,
” Jason said.

“
This is good news and bad news
,
” Second of the Third muttered
.“
She probably ca
n’
t tell the enemy anything useful; at the same time, she is pretty much useless to us as well
.
”

Admiral Faragon shook his head
.“
If there is one thing
I’
ve learned over the year
s
… i
t’s‘
Do
n’
t under estimate Cat Kimbridge
.
’”

“
Her strength was never in her Heshe tech
,
” Jason said
.“
It is and will forever remain her force of will. Trust m
e
… she will find a way to help us
,
” he continued, with confidence.

***

The medical bay on the
Retribution
could have been transplanted from virtually any medical center Cat had ever seen. The doctors demonstrated a sense of compassion that was at odds with her other captors. The physicians had given her an analgesic that reduced the shock-induced swelling in her brain. The result was she was slowly regaining some of her memories. She knew her name was Catherine but people called her Cat. Her captors insisted she was something called an admiral, which she assumed was some type of rank.

She remembered also that the planet they were orbiting was called Naanac, and that the ship she was a prisoner on was part of a task force that wanted to enslave or destroy the planet. She no longer knew how to save the planet, but perhaps she could stop this one ship.

Chief Physician Whitefin leaned over her and looked in her eyes with a lighted instrument.

“
Well, now, as far as I can tell this is promising
,
” the doctor said.

“
What is
?
” Cat asked.

“
The pupils in your eyes are finally reacting evenly to light stimulation. Tell m
e
… how is the headache
?
”

“
Much improved
,
” Cat admitted.

“
I must say, there is a lot of inorganic material floating around in your system. Your species uses filtration organs that utilize an osmotic differential to filter out undesirable factors from your blood. Whatever happened to you has interfered with this process. These organs are becoming clogged and shutting down
.
”

“
What happens if they do
?
” Cat asked.

“
Hard to say
,
” Doctor Whitefin admitte
d“
but my guess is it will be unpleasant and involve your early death
.
”

“
Options
?
”

The doctor rolled her over on her side and began to palpate her lower back on either side of her spine
.“
Well, the easiest and fastest thing to do would be to hook you up to an external filter and remove this foreign material and hope your internal filter
s
…”

“
Kidneys
,
” Cat said.

“
Ye
s
… Kidneys
,
” the doctor continued
,
“ can recover on their own
.
”

***

Private Anthony Stone shivered in his meager cell. His uniform had been confiscated and replaced with a simple one-piece pair of overalls. He wondered how the fit had been made so perfectly, but then he remembered the bioscan they had done to detect if he had any embedded cybernetics. He supposed that scan would have given their automated fabricators all the information they needed to make a custom uniform for a prisoner.

He did
n’
t know for a fact, but he suspected the simple pair of overalls were anything but. The level of technology on this ship put the best of the GCP to shame. At the same time there were obvious gaps. It was like the tech belonged to someone else and they only doled out the pieces they wanted the Modos to have. He supposed it was similar to what the Heshe had done with humanity, but humanity had worked with lightning speed to fill in the gaps and even extend the technology. There was no evidence that his Modos captors were doing the same thing.

The result was a strange mishmash. The lighting in his cell was completely uniform and coming from every surface. Because it was so uniform, there were no visual cues as to where a floor or ceiling or for that matter wall began and ended. The result was highly disorientin
g
… which he supposed was probably the point. On the other hand, where the GCP would have used a force field or energy barrier for the door, this ship had some type of transparent material with small ventilation holes in it. If he had to guess, he would say it was some type of transparent aluminum or sapphire glass.

The floor was slightly warm to the touch, but the
room itself was cold. On the whole, the room was uncomfortable without being excessively so. Again, he suspected this was deliberate.

His thoughts were interrupted by a noise outside of his field of vision. It sounded like something was being wheeled down the hall toward his cell. The use of wheels rather than a grav-sled was another of ever-present oddities on this ship.

He stood up just as the cart he had heard made its way down the hall to stop in front of his cell. A white sheet covered whatever was on the long cart. One of the two Bearephants that had been pushing it pulled the sheet off. There, laying on the stretcher was Admiral Kimbridge. Apparently alive, but unconscious.

Chapter Ninetee
n–
Deception...

Snatch-Bait was fuming. The trip back to Prime space, what the humans called the Betaverse, was half over. The fact that it was taking place at all was a source of immeasurable fury. How had the Intelligence Corps Acquisition Department so bungled their assessment of the GC
P’
s available assets? ICAD had a pristine record when it came to such assessment
s
… and yet clearly the GCP had far more ships available than their battle plan had been designed to handle.

Even worse was the need now to secure existing holdings in Prime space. This, fortunately, could be easily laid at the feet of his predecessor. Had he not been so lax, the latent insurgencies that festered in all client worlds would not have been allowed develop into the pox that now threatened the Syndicate.

The Board would not be happy with what was happening. Fortunately, Snatch-Bait was an astute observer. He knew the key to surviving this hiccup in his plans was to quickly redefine what constituted victory. True, the war with the GCP could be cast as a failure, but properly managed it could be seen as a victory. He pressed a button on his desk.

Immediately his personal assistant, an attractive young female who was just entering her peak nesting age, came into his office. He had secured her services because he knew the combination of her youth, attractiveness, and ambition would serve him well. His office was just off the Bridge of the MS Typhoon. He could hear the Captain bellowing orders as the door opened to admit her. Undoubtedly tensions were riding high in the fleet.
That could be useful
, he thought to himself.

“
Sir
?
”

Snatch-Bait considered her for a moment. She really was quite attractive.

“
Take a letter. I want it circulated to the entire Board
.
”

“
Yes, sir
.
”

“
Per my intention and plan, insurgent factions on numerous prime worlds have been lured into revealing themselves. My office has a zero-tolerance policy toward these groups. For this reason you were not notified in advance of this operation. Now that the presence of these groups has been unequivocally confirmed, my office will spare no effort to eradicate them. The policies of the previous chairman that allowed such groups to flourish will no longer be tolerated
.
”