Chapter 3

Okay, I'm posting the rest of my story here. I've also started labeling all my story posts as "The Story that shall remain nameless". If you haven't read the first two chapters, I suggest clicking on the label in the menu to the right there, and reading them before you read this. But beware, they can be pretty lenghty.

So without further ado, here's chapter 3.

Chapter 3

The tall Conar general walked quietly back towards his bunker. It was only 100 feet from the landing pad, but he knew from experience that it would be at least another 30 minutes before he could even reach the door. He was constantly being hounded by his subordinates, asking for his signature, relaying messages, briefing him on various happenings around the base during his absence. It was all rather boring. He desperately wanted to get to his quarters, shut the door and sleep. After what seemed to be days, he finally found himself standing in his quiet quarters. “28 minutes,” He said surprisingly, “That has to be some kind of record.” He walked over to his footlocker and placed his dress uniform away. He was in the process of pouring himself a drink when a soft knock on the door broke the silence. “Come in,” the general didn’t even turn to look at the visitor. He didn’t have to. He knew exactly who it was, and he knew why they were coming to visit him.

The visitor quietly shut the door behind him. The general turned to face his guest. “Ah, Tran, to what do I bestow this honor?” Tran Nortrax was a small Nareskan. The general thought Tran’s orange-yellow skin made him look sick. The fact that the Nareskan was a nervous, paranoid wreck only solidified his suspicions. “You know why I’m here, Jarro. Did you get it?” Hissed the Nareskan. The general winced at the high pitched voice. “Tran, where are your manners? I have risked my life for you and your only thought is of what you might gain?” The general didn’t care about manners, but he knew that the prolonging would drive the Nareskan mad. “I don’t give a damn about your life, Jarro. I’ve paid you very handsomely for your services. Now don’t waste my time and give me what I paid for.” The general could see that he was skating on thin ice. Although he towered over the Nareskan, he had learned that Tran Nortrax was someone you didn’t cross. “Very well. Tran Nortrax, I give you the blueprints to the Koje space station.” He pulled a large cylinder from the footlocker and handed it to the Nareskan. Nortrax swept the small table that stood in the middle of the room clean of its various items and spread the blueprints out.

The two of them spent over an hour going over the plans before the Nareskan finally rolled up the plans, placed them in their protective tubing and left the general’s quarters. Five minutes later the general was asleep. Ten minutes later, a small, dark figure crawled out from under the general’s bed and stood looking down at the sleeping Conar. Slowly, in the dark silence the figure drew a small blaster pistol from a holster, slowly and silently attached a silencer, and then shot the general twice in the head from point blank range. Putting the pistol back in its holster, the figure went to the door. He listened quietly for a few moments, and then silently opened the door and stepped into the dimly lit corridor.

Tran Nortrax stood quietly at the docking ramp of his small shuttle watching the ground crew scramble frantically to get everything ready for his departure. He watched as his small crew loaded the shuttle’s bay with various objects that he had purchased from the general. He watched intently as the ground crew refueled his ship. Despite what everyone thought of Tran Nortrax, he was completely calm and confident. He saw everything that happened to his ship. He was aware that the Captain in charge of the base’s ground crew had told his men to short change him on fuel. He was aware that even though he was here on “friendly” terms, there were five snipers placed about the base, keeping an eye on him. And he was aware of the shadowy figure that had crawled unnoticed by the Conar into one of his crates that was even now being loaded into his ship. He said nothing about the mysterious figure. He said nothing about the fuel shortage. He simply nodded to the Captain when he was told everything was ready, and then quietly walked aboard his ship, closing the ramp behind him.

Fifteen minutes later, when Tran was certain that his ship was headed on a safe course to its destination, he gathered his three personal guards, three Conar who had been with him through some very interesting circumstances and headed down to the bay. It took Tran and his guards ten minutes to uncover the crate that the shadowy figure had crawled into. “Open it, let’s get him out of there.” The order came not from Tran Nortrax, but from the Captain of his personal guards. Tran assisted the other two guards and pried the crate open. The shadowy figure tumbled out onto the floor of the bay, the guards helping him to his feet. “What is your report?” asked the Captain.
“Mission accomplished, target was terminated.”
“Collateral damage?”
“It was clean and undetected.” The mysterious figure began to take off his equipment, walking quickly toward the door. “Where are you going?” Asked the Captain, “We’re not done with the debriefing!”
“Dannis, I’ve been under a bed for three days. Can I at least go to the bathroom?” Dannis Preim smiled to himself as he watched Atrius hurry quickly out of the bay.

It had been six months since Sentano had taken the Preims off the Golden Fang. It seemed like years to the Preims. Sentano had placed them under a very strict and accelerated training program, and the results were even better than what Sentano could have hoped for. This was their third black op, and they had performed it perfectly. Dannis had emerged as the natural leader of the group. He’d always been the one everybody listened to, but more importantly in the beginning he was the only one Atrius would follow. That was different now. They were a team and they worked remarkably well together. While Dannis was the official leader, it was more a ruler by committee approach than anything, and in the Preim’s case, it wouldn’t work any other way.

They had all gathered in the small conference room on the shuttle for the official debriefing and report. They had arrived at the rendezvous point and were waiting for Sentano to contact them via a secure trans-comm link. When the screen crackled to life, it was not Sentano. A large Conar appeared on the screen. He wasn’t as big as Sentano, but he was an ugly brute. He was smiling, but it was obvious to every one that he was not happy to see the Preims.
“I am Grand Admiral Hooblabah. It is my uncomfortable duty to inform you that Grand Admiral Sentano is no longer your commander. The Council has appointed me to take his place in this project. Therefore, I give you your first order. You are to report to Planet H1E3, Galaxy 16. There you will await further orders. I expect you there in two weeks. You are dismissed.”
“But Admiral Sir, what about our report?” Dannis asked.
“I have no interest in any wild goose chase that Admiral Sentano may have had you running around on. So your report is of no consequence to me.”
“Yes sir.” Dannis responded tight lipped. Atrius could see the anger in his brother’s face. Admiral Hooblabah gave a stiff salute and then the trans-comm ended just as quickly as it had started.
“What in Osidus’s name is going on?” Asked Xar. “Where’s Sentano? And who was that?” Everyone turned to Dannis, who sat quietly in the corner. He stood after what seemed an eternity, walked to the door without looking back. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we have two weeks to find out. Xar, Shyla, set the coordinates and prepare the ship for jump, Garrick, see what you can find about this Admiral. Atrius, you come with me.” The crew quickly and quietly went to work.

It took 1 day to prep the ship for the jump to hyper-space, and then the jump itself was estimated to take 10 days, giving them 2 to 3 days to find some answers to their questions.
Garrick and Dannis spent the 10 days pouring over the computer database for anything regarding Admiral Hooblabah. Aside from having an obvious dislike towards Sentano, they could find nothing of much use about him. They would have to wait until they came out of hyper-space to make some discreet inquiries to the Conar fleet, and to some other less respected contacts that they had established during their reconnaissance work.

“Dannis, we should be coming out of hyper-space in about 15 minutes.” Shyla’s voice crackled over his com unit. “Thanks, I’m on my way to the bridge.” When he arrived, he found Garrick and Shyla hunched over the navigational display, while Xar was at the helm, in the final stages of prepping the ship for dump.
“What do we have?” Dannis asked as he joined Garrick and Shyla. “Alpha Octus is here, in the milky way galaxy, third planet from the sun. It looks like a pretty backwater place, but we could be in luck” said Garrick.
“How so?”
“Well, according to the database, this system has only been under Conar control for about a year, so we should have at least some sort of military presence here, and that means someone to ask questions.”
“How much of a presence can we expect?” Dannis asked.
“There should be 10 cruisers stationed in the system” Shyla replied, “but the details are a little sketchy. Plus this might interest you Dannis; the fleet’s being very tight-lipped about what they have here.” Shyla was right, it did interest Dannis. Something was going on here and they were flying into it blind. Not exactly the best way to make an entrance.
“Guys, we’re dumping in five minutes, I suggest you get yourselves strapped in.” Xar said from the helm. They quickly took their places. “Anybody seen Atrius?” asked Dannis.
“He’s in his quarters at the moment”, replied Garrick. “Should we tell him we’re about to dump?” Dannis couldn’t hold back his smile, “Now why would we do that?” Garrick gave a quick chuckle and turned toward the business at hand.
“Shyla, I want a quick scan the moment we get in. Garrick, start monitoring com traffic, let’s see if we can hear anything interesting. Xar, let’s go black as soon as possible.” Going black was a risky procedure. It required a ship to basically come in from hyper-space dump, get its initial quick system scan, just long enough to find some cover, and then power down to just minimal operating power. Most Conar ships didn’t use the practice, but that was because being Conar ships, they were armed to the teeth. But the Priems used the procedure quite regularly, seeing as their ship was a modified Cluut class scout frigate with little armor and far less weaponry. The risk wasn’t that going black was difficult or affected the hyper-space dump, that was all straight forward. The biggest risk was that powering down so quick, and with the minimal scan allowed to successfully go black, could leave the ship in a very compromising situation. There was no way in telling what was in the system, and no way in telling if what was in the system knew that there was something else in the system, until you found yourself staring down 5 Klisk battle cruisers demanding to board. That is if they don’t shoot first.
“Beginning dump in fifteen seconds” said Xar. The crew braced themselves in their chairs. Xar began the countdown. “Ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one.”
The hyperspace dump was a physically taxing undertaking. Not because of any massive amount of force, or the deceleration, it was space after all and there was no gravity to affect the body. But a hyperspace dump seemed to have some ill effects on the body. Various side effects were Nausea, dizziness, and headaches among other minor maladies. There were a few recorded instances of heart attacks, but that was ruled more to age and lifestyle than the dump itself. No one really knew for sure why this happened. If the Gargonan knew, they weren’t telling anyone, and the only thing the Conar cared about was that you weren’t dead after a jump.
The only cure for the effects of a dump was repetition. It seemed the more someone experienced a hyperspace dump, the more they got used to it. In this matter, the Preims were experts. They were all starting to move, trying to get everything done as soon as physically possible before the ship went black. Xar and Shyla were both starting to move around in their seats, punching in various commands at their computers. Garrick was moving too, but judging from the smell, his lunch didn’t stay down like he had planned. Dannis began to make the final adjustments necessary for shutting down the ship. “Garrick, how’s our passive scan coming?” he asked over his shoulder.
“Just getting in the finishing touches now… okay she’s all done. Shutting down all active communication equipment.” Garrick replied.
“Good. Xar, have we found a good place to park?” This was one of the tricky parts of running black. A ship can’t just jump anywhere it wants to. When hyper-space first began commercial use, there where horrible accidents almost every day as ships kept jumping into each other. To safeguard the shipping lanes and those traveling through space, the United Galactic Council established set rules for ships to follow when entering a system. While that solved the problem of ships jumping into each other, it didn’t help Dannis and the rest of the Preims. They wanted to run black, but couldn’t just stop the ship in the middle of the receiving lanes, where they had jumped to and where other ships might be jumping to. So once they got into the system, they had to quickly navigate out of the jump lanes and find some sort of hiding space, which was always a crap shoot because there really isn’t too many places to hide in space.
“I’ve got something that might work, putting in the coordinates now.” Xar replied.
“Prepare for the burst,” Dannis said. A burst was simply a burst of acceleration using the hyper-drive in a ship. Dannis had stolen the idea from some Nareskan pirates they were following on one of their first assignments. The idea was that as soon as a ship finished its dump from hyper-space, it used the little reserves the hyper-drive had accumulated, which was not much, to burst the ship away from the receiving lanes.
“Hit it Xar.” And with that the ship lurched off towards the outer rim of the galaxy.
At about this time Atrius came stumbling into the room. He didn’t take the dump as well as the others. His shirt was soaked with water and blood, which came from a very obviously broken nose.
“Thanks for the warning, brother. I was in the shower when we started the dump. Got dizzy and fell straight into the wall.”
“Thought you needed a wake up call.” Dannis deadpanned.
“Next time, try something that will keep me conscious.” Atrius replied.