The Admiral and the Assistant

"All hands, prepare for combat," Admiral Stonefist said. "Warm up the blasters. Once we verify that the Aberrant is on board, we'll shatter the whole ship. Cryptographers may be tough, but we'll see if they're tough enough to eat a torpedo."

"Ah, Admiral..." Minius said hesitantly.

"What?" Admiral Stonefist's annoyance was clear.

"Ah... the stories I did hear... they say the Oracle does keep prisoners on its ship."

"There are the assistants, as well," Kinnit said. "Remember that Brollan, Elias? They're not necessarily bad."

Grimthorn frowned.

"We may have to board them, then. But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Let's get in the sector and take a look. We'll figure out a plan of attack from there. Lieutenant Renning, prepare to deep-scan as soon as we're out of jumpspace. Lieutenant Phet, take us in."

The Swordheart arced to the nearby jumphole and tipped in, closely followed by the Ocher Dawn.

They popped out into the Lantern Field sector. A dim, reddish star squatted nearby, shedding its faint light on a long, red vessel. Lieutenant Renning almost immediately piped up.

"Modified long-hauler in this sector, Admiral!"

"All guns, target that ship. Keep scanning, and get me comms with them."

Long seconds ticked by. The Ocher Dawn emerged from jumpspace and huddled behind the Swordheart.

"No other data of interest from scans," Lieutenant Renning called. "I've verified that the long-hauler has life-forms on board. Seems like a typical ship. No unusual readings."

"No response to our comms from the ship, Admiral," said the comms officer.

"Give me visual. And comms to Captain Minius."

Minius' face popped up on the main bridge screen.

"Flander do say that this are the ship, Admiral," Minius said breathlessly. "It are where the Oracle are."

The visual of the ship appeared. It was long and heavy, a wallower like all long-haulers. It had been painted bright red.

"Attention, unidentified vessel in this sector," Grimthorn said into his comms panel, "This is Admiral Stonefist of the Ninth Fleet. Identify yourself, or you will be boarded."

A minute ticked by. Admiral Stonefist snorted.

"All right. No response. Contact Sergeant Mentel, have him get his men and a few shuttles ready.

"What's the plan, sir?" asked Kinnit.

"Board the ship, arrest everyone. We'll sort out who's who later. I want the whole thing cleared out. Then we'll deal with the Aberrant."

"Sir, what if the Aberrant is hiding?" Kinnit asked.

Grimthorn sighed.

"We'll deal with that when we get to that point. If we get to that point. Besides, it's a seven-foot tall Cryptographer. Where's it going to hide, in the silverware drawer?"

"Should we send Flander along with the Marines?" Kinnit asked.

Grimthorn recoiled a little.

"Put a killing machine like that on a boarding shuttle? That's a recipe for disaster. We won't need scanning once we board. If this is the Aberrant's ship, whatever it is the robot's tracking won't help us any."

"Yes, sir." Kinnit said uncertainly.

The minutes unfolded with agonizing slowness. Finally Sergeant Mentel commed in.

"Admiral, we are ready to depart. What's the mission?"

"Clean the ship out. Arrests only, unless they initiate hostilities. Minimize casualties. If you run across something that looks like a Cryptographer, pull back and report."

"Acknowledged, sir."

"Sergeant... be careful. Keep your guard up. There could be some mighty strange things going on in there."

"Understood, Admiral. We will be watchful."

The captain's console beeped, showing three marine shuttles leaving the Swordheart. They looked like tiny specks against the vast carpet of stars on the bridge monitor.

The shuttles spread out, the faint light of the red star reflecting dully off their matte green surfaces. They carefully maneuvered themselves to attach to the long hauler, securing themselves to various standard weak points of the vessel. From experience, Grimthorn knew that the marine shuttles would grip the surface and cut through the hull of the long-hauler, allowing the Marines to storm in.

If they were wrong about this being the Aberrant's ship, it would result in a formal apology, and require the Navy to cover a nasty repair bill. But the ugly premonition Grimthorn got as he looked at the ship made him certain they weren't wrong.

Sergeant Mentel's voice came in over the comms, filling the bridge.

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"Contact, Admiral!" His comms stayed open, playing the sound of his heavy breathing as his Marines swept the ship. "You!" he cried. "On the ground! Down! Good. Private Rhys, zip him up. Squad, eyes right! More tangos! Get 'em down. Down!"

There was the sound of a scuffle and more shouted commands. After a few minutes of crowded comms chatter, Sergeant Mentel addressed the Swordheart.

"Admiral, we're going to start sending captives back to you now."

"How's the resistance?"

"Not very resistant, sir. They're mostly compliant. Very quiet. They look spooked."

"Any sign of the Aberrant?" Admiral Stonefist asked. "Anything like the oppressive feel of a Cryptographer?"

"No, sir." A pause. "Not exactly. It... something doesn't feel right, for sure. And I'm getting a mother of a headache. But scanners show the air's clear of toxins and pollutants."

Grimthorn frowned with concern.

"Very well. Carry on. Report any findings immediately."

The shuttles began a rotation, carrying prisoners back to the Swordheart.

"Ah, sir?" Mentel's voice came back on the line.

"Go ahead, Sergeant."

"We, uh, found the Aberrant's prisoners, sir." Eerie moaning could be heard in the background. "These will need special handling, sir. They're, uh... not okay."

"What resources do you need?"

"Full-body restraints, Admiral. At least two dozen. I don't want to hurt them, but I think they'll hurt themselves, if we let them."

"Acknowledged. Lieutenant Renning, contact med, get those restraints to the docking bay. We'll send them out with the next shuttle rotation. And have med on standby. Depending on how rowdy they get, we may have to treat them in the prison block."

"Yes, sir," Lieutenant Renning said.

The steady traffic between the Swordheart and the red ship continued. Long minutes ticked by.

At long last Sergeant Mentel's voice came back over the comms.

"All clear, sir. We're doing a final sweep of the ship, but I'm pretty sure we got everybody."

"No Aberrant?"

"Not that we found, Admiral."

"Hm. Any intel? Is there any evidence that this was the Aberrant's ship?"

There was a pause.

"I don't know exactly what a rogue Cryptographer's ship should look like, sir, but if I had to guess, it would have extremely creepy weirdness all over. This ship definitely fits the bill."

"Acknowledged. Pull the black box and all data from the ship's Data Archive, we'll get the infographers working on it."

Grimthorn was distracted by another part of the bridge monitor. Captain Minius was waving to get his attention.

Ah, right. He'd muted comms with Minius during the operation. He turned the audio back on.

"What is it Captain?" he said.

"I apologize, Admiral, I did not mean to eavesdrop, but I did hear that your Marines have not found the Oracle."

"Correct. It probably fled the ship when they detected us on their trail."

Minius looked uncomfortably off-screen. Faint taps could be heard.

"Ah, well, Flander does say that the Oracle are definitely on board that vessel. Right now."

"Captain, I understand your concern, but I assure you that the Marines are exceptionally thorough. They could not possibly miss a seven-foot-tall rogue Cryptographer."

"Ah... it are not a concern, Admiral." He looked extremely uncomfortable. "I do not mean it to be an offense to your Marines. It are not a concern, as such. It are a fact. Flander do say so."

Admiral Stonefist raised an eyebrow.

"Your robot says so."

"I have not ever known him to be wrong. When it mattered, I mean."

"We'll have them thoroughly sweep the ship again, just to be sure."

Captain Minius nodded uncertainly.

"Thank you, Admiral," Minius said.

The Emperor wandered into the vestibule. It was the time of the day they'd left it open for him. He could put anything there he wanted taken away.

He looked around the room. It had a small table and two ornate chairs. The small stand in the corner, where one of the Ministers would sometimes leave little notes. He ran his hand along the intricate wainscoting. He looked up at the corner of the room. The lens of the little video camera glinted at him. He smiled at it.

He came in here to read sometimes, just for a change of scenery. His bedroom was dreadfully dull. As small and tedious as the vestibule was, it was at least something different to look at. He'd experimented with simply staying in the vestibule when they normally brought the meals. As it turned out, they simply wouldn't enter until they could see that he'd left. Since his little discussion with Sarden, they wouldn't even enter if he were in his bedroom with the door open.

Someone clearly didn't want anybody to hear what he had to say.

From a prison standpoint, it all made sense. Emperor exits the vestibule, then they switch the shielding from the outer door to the inner door. Ministers could enter from outside, leave food and notes, and take away any garbage the Emperor had left. Ministers exit the vestibule, they'd switch the shielding from the inner door back to the outer, then the Emperor could enter the vestibule again.

The Emperor grinned. It was an effective little airlock system, except that it was designed for the Emperor. An Emperor-lock? He shrugged.

He sat in on of the chairs, across the room from the camera. He looked up at it.

"I've decided that it's time to make your jobs more difficult," he said. From his robes he drew the slim blaster. He carefully aimed at the camera. "Now you get to decide: do you let your Emperor starve to death, or do you risk entering his chambers?"

He fired. The little camera vaporized.

The Emperor sat back, a satisfied smile on his face.

The Ministers weren't very bright, but he hoped they were at least smart enough to make his plan work.

Admiral Stonefist seethed at yet more delay. They'd brought the Swordheart alongside the red ship, to facilitate transfer between the two vessels.

"Nothing at all?" Admiral Stonefist asked for the third time.

"No, sir," said Sergeant Mentel. He saluted, not out of duty, but out of a desire to deflect the Admiral's wrath. "We've swept the entire ship, stem to stern. There's no sign of anyone else on board."

"Acknowledged." Grimthorn shook his head. "Leave a contingent onboard to maintain course and velocity, and get yourself and your men back here, Sergeant."

"Yes, sir." Mentel signed off.

Admiral Stonefist snapped off the comms and glowered at the ship on the main bridge display.

"Marines," he sneered. "Have to keep it simple for them. Don't send them to play something complicated like hide and seek." His lip curled. "I'm tempted to just hit that stupid thing with a couple torpedoes," he said.

"Sir," Kinnit said, "technically, we don't have any proof that they've done anything wrong yet. And there might still be evidence on board, some record of who else the Aberrant has--"

"I know!" he barked. Kinnit recoiled, and her expression stiffened.

"I'm glad you're so wise, then, Admiral," she said acidly.

"Maybe the bridge would be better off without such a smart mouth," Grimthorn said.

"Maybe my mouth is the only smart thing on this bridge," she shot back.

"Maybe you should--" Grimthorn halted himself suddenly, his brow furrowed. "Stop. Wait. This isn't right. This isn't normal. Why are we sniping like this?" He looked down at his hands, which were clenched into fists. He forced them open. "Why am I so angry?"

Kinnit opened her mouth to retort sharply, but she paused as well. "I... I don't know," she said. "Something's wrong."

Their eyes traveled to the main bridge screen, where the image of the bright red ship hung against a backdrop of stars, almost close enough to touch. They looked back at each other and nodded. Grimthorn keyed his comms.

"Sergeant Mentel, prep another shuttle. Lieutenant Kinnit and I will make one more pass through that ship ourselves."