Insurrection (Athena Lee Chronicles Book 5) (10 page)

The rest of McCoy’s people slowly filed out of the shuttle, down the ramp. Many of the clan members were still bleeding from gun and knife wounds. Others had third degree burns on their arms and exposed skin. Some had to be carried off the ships.

Station security took one look at the burned and battered people and immediately called for medical assistance.

McCoy was led to a small holding area and a large woman with the oak leaves of a Major sat down in front of him. She asked him some basic questions to begin with. Who he was, what were they doing on the Paney, and why was the ship off course. He answered all of their questions carefully. They were trying to trip him up. More questions were asked. Then they started over. On the third time around he demanded to speak to Governor Norton. “The Governor is a friend of my family.” He would not allow this interrogation to go on. He had a business deal with the Governor and was here to negotiate with him. The ‘major’ in front of him had stopped her questions at the first mention of Governor Norton. Finally, if they could just put me in touch with the Governor he could clear everything up.

McCoy asked himself a question. “Why had everyone in the room gotten so quiet?” He studied the woman in front of him. She was dressed in the same uniform as the troops who had arrested him. The ‘something strange’ that his mind had been struggling with finally rang a bell in his brain. No Empire symbols. On the outside of the station they had all been removed. The womans uniform and that of the others in the hanger bay had been Militia. Uh, oh.

____

Minerva could not believe her ears. Norton! This supposed ‘refugee’ was associated with Norton. This sheds a new light on what this ‘Commander’ had said, interesting. She decided to keep this Commander McCoy locked up along with his crew members in the hanger bay. The wounded would be placed under guard. It was time for Yannos and his team to solve this mystery for them.

Her prisoner was put in chains and dragged out. He was yelling at her to listen to him. She turned, cocked her head to one side and said, “OK I’m listening. What do you want?”

“Connect me with Governor Norton. He is a close friend of my family.”

Min nodded her head at him. “That is very interesting ‘commander’.” She smiled. “About a month ago your ‘friend’ killed about 10 thousand of our people, when he had the ESS security force open fire on a peaceful demonstration. Among the dead were my bother and sister-in-law. This callous murder of our friends and neighbors resulted in a planetary revolution. Your friend lost. This station is now under the control of the Militia! What is really funny, is that I was starting to believe your story about a mutiny and false orders. That is until you mentioned Norton. If you had kept your mouth shut, you may have survived what is to come.” Waving the guards back in she said, “take him away and lock him up.”

“Is the special forces group here yet?” Her aide informed her that they had arrived on station and were waiting for her.

“Excellent! Lets go solve a mystery.” With her aide and bodyguards in tow, the Major strode off toward her ready room.

Sergeant Yannos could not be more excited. A ship assault and boarding. Just getting a shot at more of that bastard Norton’s friends was a bonus. These kinds of things is what he and his team lived for. The Major had given him the recap of the information that they already had.

“Yannos, so far it is like this. This commander and his people all claim that the ship had a mutiny, they claim to have fought off the mutineers and escaped. This McCoy got very descriptive about false orders and plots against the Empire. Very believable until he mentioned Norton’s name. Most of his people are sticking to that story. However, we have about a half dozen of them in the hospital. Under drugs and careful questioning we now have at least part of the story.” She paused.

“There was a mutiny. These people were the mutineers. They are really members of the Bad Penny clan of mercenaries and pirates. Our former Governor Norton put them on board as replacements with the goal of taking the ship. For what purpose only he knows. There was some sort of battle on the ship where a phosphorus grenade was involved.” Yannos and his team all winced at that. Someone actually used that on a ship? Idiots.

“These people are fleeing that disaster. Most of them are pretty incoherent so we still have zero idea of the real status of that ship and those still on it. Your job is to find out what in the HELL is going on! Either get control of that ship or get the loyal crew off. You have about six hours before it impacts on the moon.” She looked Yannos in the eye. “I see a question in those eyes of yours. I have sent my best interrogation specialists to go and have a little chat with the former Governor and his aide, my husband. We should have some answers soon about his ‘need’ for a Navy destroyer. Now, get moving soldier!”

___

I was working on the upper level lift system when the station had gone to red alert and lock down. Wilson my ever present AI had informed me of the situation. I had him working with the computer tech ‘twins’ trying to rebuild the lift electronics. During the troubles last month this system has been fried during the assault. Even though it had been repaired it still kept stopping between floors, not going to the correct floor, or in one case the doors opened but no lift was present. So I, as ‘Chief Engineer’, decided use an old Engineering adage. “When in doubt, rip it out!” Full replacement for the system. I could hear Wilson talking to the two computer techs through one of their tablets. Even though the little maniac contests my accusations, I think that he may be behind the wild ride they both took. Talking to them will be penance for him.

My link dinged so I stopped trying to fit the lift motors into place. It was hard work. OK I will admit that I am supervising, but just watching is hard work. I told the maintenance techs to take five. “Sergeant Yannos, what can I do for you today?”

“Lieutenant Lee, are you available to help my team and I with a mission?”

“I would need to check with Major Lee since she controls the station now, but I think can do that, What is going on?”

The good sergeant explained the situation, telling me of the out of control ship. “Let me check something.” I put the conversation with him on hold. “Wilson I need you.”

“What’s up Athena? Those two girls are really funny. I like, should have talked to them more when we went on, Oops. Uh, I meant to say that I just met them and like how funny they are.”

“When we get back we will have a conversation about wild rides and other strange happenings on this station, OK? For now I need you to focus. Dig up everything you have on the EOM Paney. Class, schematics, crew, orders, whatever it is I want it.”

“OK, Athena you got it.”

I reconnected with Yannos and his conversation. “I have someone checking into information on that ship. What I do know is that it’s an old one. From the design it looks pre-war. Without knowing the modifications that have been made to it I can’t be sure I can get control. But I would be willing to try. Do we have a way in or do I need to find us a hatch we can open. That number I gave you last time should work on that ship too.”

Yannos chuckled, “we still need to have a talk about that number. I had forgotten. The security concerns alone boggle my mind. Does the Navy fleet commanders even know about the all the backdoors into their ships and stations? Don’t answer that yet. We can talk about it later. Your sister the Major, has given approval if you wish to come along. We could really use your help.”

“OK sergeant let me go get my things, where can I meet you?”

“We are in hanger bay one. See you in thirty.”

___

Back on the Paney, Lieutenant Mutai was helpless. Between he and his Marines they could perform basic command functions on the bridge. That had been part of their training. Of course that training was on a functional ship. Not one with burnt out bridge controls. The fire alarms had gone off a short while ago, all the air tight doors had slammed down. It was either a hull breach or something more serious like a ship fire. None of them had their ship suits anymore so either would be very bad. The readouts on the bridge had stopped working so he and his team were trapped. All they knew was what they could see out the view ports, which was not much. His hope was that Captain Pigot had been successful and had retaken the rest of the ship.

Captain Pigot was at a loss to understand what had happened to his ship. The attack on the pirates had been going so well. The CIC had been recaptured and a new temporary defensive wall had been built. The increase in gunfire has shown that the diversion worked. More pirates had been pulled away to help fight his men. Hopefully the Marine attack went well. The smoke and fire alarms had gone off after an explosion toward the bow. His men had reported white smoke boiling down the corridor just before the air tight doors had slammed down sealing the ship. CIC was a mess. The pirates had ripped out systems to deny control of the ship to the crew. Commander Kościuszko’s techs were unable to repair it. Monitors set up in Engineering could tell that the ship was no longer jumping, but not its location or what had caused the fire. It was all very maddening for the captain. He missed his readouts and computer controls, without them he felt lost.

___

Admiral Emily Kane, the new fleet commander, was hard at work in her office. Pirate attacks were on the rise all across the Empire. The recent destruction of the O’Malley clan and its leaders had helped to stem the tide but it was like a raging forest fire. Put out one spot and another pops up behind you. It almost seemed organized. She made a personal note to put the Intelligence service on that thought. Maybe an outside force was influencing things.

As she studied her monitors, making notations here and there, her screens went red and an unusual symbol began flashing on the screen. She sat up straight and quickly typed in a very long access code. She was receiving a report on a little used, mostly unknown communication system. This system was supposed to only be used in cases of dire emergency or potential invasion.

Reading the message here eyes widened. She pulled up all communications and orders that had been sent to the EOM ship Paney in the Hong Kong system. There was nothing in official Navy communications that ordered the replacement of half a ship’s complement of crew! What was going on in that sector? She pressed a control on her console. “Margaret? Get me Commander Nelson in Intelligence as soon as possible. Tell him I want everything he has about the Hong Kong system and Sector Governor Norton. I want him in my office no later than an hour from now.”

“Yes, Ma’am. Right away.” Her aide was very efficient.

If what this message from Captain Pigot says is true, they may have a fully armed Navy destroyer in the hands of pirates. She needed to respond to this threat.

Commander Barry Nelson was in her office in thirty minutes. Smart man. “Admiral, I got here as fast as I could.” Holding up a tablet he stated, “this is everything that we have on Governor Norton and the Hong Kong system. We actually have been tracking him for some time. The recent corruption accusations against many of the sector governors have allowed us to investigate them. He is living beyond his means. Corporate sponsors have been using him to gain control of the local government and its people. The primary planet in the system is an important agrarian world. They supply about 10% of the food we use to make ship rations. The Norton has raised taxes and has been building casino’s and red light districts on the planet. We in intelligence, think that his goal is to bring in the corporate mechanized farming guilds and push out the locals. He is raking in a lot of credits fleecing money from visiting navy ships in his casinos and strip clubs.”

Admiral Kane showed the Commander the message she had received. “What do you make of this? If the orders came from the Governor, why does he need one of our ships? As a Sector Governor he can just order them to do something, that is his right.”

“Admiral he may be working with the pirates in that sector. We have reports” he stopped and searched his tablet. “We have reports of several pirate clans working openly in that area. What if he is keeping us off of them for some secret agenda? I am just speculating here.”

“Put more people on it Commander. Start looking deeper at those other Governors with similar accusations. I think we need to send a fleet response to this threat. That will be all, for now. Dismissed.”

The Admiral considered her options for a few minutes. “Margaret? Can you get Admiral Darlan on the phone for me?”

Within moments Margaret had him on the ‘phone’ for her. “François I need for you to send a task force to the Hong Kong system. Pirates may have taken over one of our ships. We need to figure out what is going on and stop it.” She nodded her head as he argued not sending a fleet and just sending one ship. “No, NO. Damn it, Follow my God Dammed orders! You will send Task Force 25 to that system or I will bust you so far that you will be the oldest damn ensign in the whole frigging fleet! Do you understand me, Admiral! Fine, good, tell Commodore Vakulinchuk that he is to investigate the pirate threat and to stop it if possible. Any other issues he it to refer to higher upon. We do not need another incident with a sector government. We have already had two more than we should have had in recent months.”