Regan's Reach 4: Avarice (28 page)

So, what is the
treasure you ask? Somewhere on ship is hidden a mystery object. It is small
enough to hide in the palm of a man's hand, smooth rather than sharp, longer
than it is wide, light not heavy. It could be anywhere, but it will not be
everywhere and when you find it you will know it is special. Bring your suspect
finds to the recreation deck by the pool and they will be assessed; happy
hunting." The message then began to repeat.

A thought
occurred to Regan as she listened and she looked at Charlotte. "We have
checked Leith's cabin I presume?"

"Thoroughly
Regan, it was the first place we went to; in fact we've combed the entire route
that Leith took following that sighting of him back in the corridor. We don't
have visuals of him everywhere but we know where he went. Lucas is embarrassed
because he should be aware of a foreign object in contact with any part of the
ship . . . should have, but as we know . . ." her voice trailed off, the
explanation unnecessary.

Regan turned to
Hilary who had come out of the collar and presented now in familiar avatar form,
the gracious lady. She was staring wistfully, Regan noted, at the now vacant
android, Lucas being back in the system. "Would you like to make use of it
Hilary?"

"Oh, heavens
no," she replied quickly, "who knows where it's been?" And then
suddenly realizing the implications of her words she blushed deeply and
blundered on. "Not that it matters Regan - I'm sorry - I know that you and
he - it's probably been . . ." and as she hesitated she couldn't help
looking down at Regan's midriff.

Regan chuckled
at her discomfort, but in a friendly way. "Hilary darling I understand, and
you know, I haven't updated you since I got back from Dahlia. We must do that
now, and then we must talk about androids for you; why haven't you indulged
might I ask?"

Hilary
hesitated a moment. "Regan, I have done some experimentation, but I'm
saving myself shall we say; let's do the update and then we can talk, while the
hunt is on."

It took only a
moment and Charlotte could tell they were off in their own world. What they
were now doing was a mystery to add to her list. It was becoming extensive but
she had the feeling all questions would eventually be answered. She looked over
at Jared and nodded toward the door. He nodded agreement and they stood
together. Both knew where they wanted to go; to the recreation deck, to wait
for treasure.

* * *

Planet Regis, orbiting the Star Regil in the Orion Nebula

Maynard
followed the progress of the triennial delegation via delayed transmission and
as Senate leader in the absence of Darius it was a simple matter to declare a
public holiday on the first day of the meeting. Already his decision was being
declared widely as a generous and thoughtful act, the act of a true caring
leader. He deflected the praise half heartedly, claiming it was the sort of
thing any leader would have done, knowing full well that such an extravagance
would never have been permitted by the conservative Darius. Watching the news
feeds he could see from the corner of his eye the look of concern on his wife's
face. He chose to ignore it until she spoke.

"Maynard,
there is a cruelty about this that troubles me greatly."

"And what
cruelty is that, my dear?"

"You know
what I mean. You have announced the holiday deliberately so that everyone will
be following the news feeds, and all will hear of the tragedy. They will see it
as an act of war; it will be a terrible shock to the collective psyche."

He turned with
excitement, delighted at her insight. "Yes my dear, just the environment
we need to cement our leadership and prepare them for the sacrifices to come.
You know this is true - it is time for change and all change involves pain. Out
of the pain will come growth and progress, progress that we need as a people; you
and I my dear, we will lead Regis forward."

Her stern look
brought him up short; it was one of concern, not delight. "At what cost
though Maynard - and what of poor Perin. Even if he succeeds in his quest he
will be alone on Rexis until help comes. The genovirus may well deal with the
technology, but what of the people there? He will never be able to hide from
justice."

Maynard stood
and walked to her, taking her hands in his. "My dear, the people of Rexis
are old and our nephew is resourceful. When we get there we will find him
thriving I'm sure, and if not, he will have made the ultimate sacrifice for our
people. He will die a hero."

She looked far
from convinced and turned angrily. "Maynard, I'm not sure this wasn't your
plan all along. It seems that whether Perin is successful or not in this quest,
you will still become regent here, that was the plan - wasn't it?" She
waited for his response, staring him down, and when it came it did so with a
slow considered turn to meet her eyes coldly.

"And you
will be my queen."

His tone was
clear. There would be no choice in the matter.

* * *

Perin shuffled
nervously around the control room of the ship. It no longer worried him whether
he would be missed at the delegates’ table; they didn't like the young upstart
anyway. Instead he was in countdown mode and it dominated his thinking to such
an extent he had no desire to dine with the condemned looking him in the eye.
Why get to know those who would be dead in hours anyway? And already he felt tremendous
guilt over the young intern who had worked so hard to make him comfortable.
Briefly he had considered taking the young man into his confidence only to
wisely banish the idea from his thoughts. He couldn't risk the whole mission,
not for anything, not even for a totally innocent life. And at just that
thought he broke again into a guilty sweat, after all, weren't all those on the
vessel largely innocents?

Pretending
disinterest he tried to catch every conversation, listening for whatever
tidbits of information about the rendezvous he could catch. There was precious
little to go on and as up until now he had avoided all direct questions he
decided to take the risk today. Sidling across to the Commander he took on his
most confident calm manner.

"How is
our progress Commander, will we be there soon?"

The Commander
turned to him with obvious distaste. "Young Perin, I can understand how
eager you must be for the entertainment." He turned back to his screen
dismissively. "We will be there soon enough - and no sooner."

Perin fumed at
the impertinence. "Perhaps I didn't make myself clear Commander. When will
we rendezvous?"

The Commander
spun his chair quickly, shocking Perin and he stumbled back. The man then
smiled mockingly and deliberately hesitated, an obvious act to make clear he
was choosing his own moment to reply. "Seventeen hours young Perin,"
and then he consulted his screen, "a shade over in fact - plenty of time
for you to choose your outfit." He laughed and again spun away.

Perin felt a
flash of panic shoot down his arms and had the sense his heart stopped for a
second before starting to pound. He steadied himself with one hand on the Commander's
chair before pulling himself together and walking quickly from the room.

By the time
Perin reached the cabin he was drenched in sweat. Stumbling through the door,
sudden and unexpected palpitations drove him to the bunk where he collapsed
face down to bury his head in the pillow. There he bellowed - a muffled sound
that continued in one long wail until he was out of breath. He lay there a few
seconds longer then pulled himself up and stripped, before walking zombie like
to the small bathroom. Standing under the shower flow with his head leant
against the wall he gathered his thoughts, imagining the stress draining away
and enjoying the distraction of the pounding water. By the time he finished he
felt ready, adjusted, prepared and with fresh purpose he dressed in a fresh
suit, tidied his hair and then checked the time. With a groan he slumped back
on the bunk - sixteen hours to go.

* * *

The Fair Passage

Regan,
Charlotte, Jared and Ham looked over the mass of objects scattered over the
pool deck. They already knew without examining each piece they had not found
what they were looking for. With the ability to scan each individual piece in
fractions of a second the collective team of Ham, Hilary and Lucas had
determined the efforts of the thousands on board had come up dry.

"What do
we say to them Charlie?" Regan asked.

Charlotte
shrugged and looked out to the hundreds gathered excitedly on deck and knowing
there were many more following the action onscreen throughout the ship. Looking
down again at the assembled pieces she spied a small cylindrical tube that did
indeed look likely, even though she knew it was just a small torch.
"Hilary," she whispered, "that torch I'm focusing on, who found
it, a passenger I hope?"

The response
was swift. "Felicity Warren, twenty two, single engineer from Surrey in
the United Kingdom, she was one of the first applicants."

Stepping
forward she picked up the piece and held it aloft. "We have a
winner!" She announced loudly and the deck immediately roared with shouts
and clapping. "Felicity Warren - you have first choice on Rexis;
congratulations!"

A high scream
from the back drew all eyes and people quickly surged toward the excited woman
to congratulate the winner. In the excitement Charlotte turned back to a
smiling Regan and shrugged again. "I guess it's back to the drawing board.
Anybody got any other ideas?"

As the action
among the crowd shifted back toward the bars the small team sat on the deck in
a small circle. Hilary and Lucas appeared and joined them, making it a circle
of gloom. They were focused on Regan, waiting for the call.

"This
means we will have to wait, we have no choice." Regan sighed long and
hard.

"What do
you mean Mom?" Jared asked.

"We can't
let this vessel disembark people or connect in any way with Rexis until we know
where the stowaway is; we simply can't without knowing their intentions."
She paused considering what she had just said. "Yes, that's it; we'll have
to quarantine this ship."

"Regan,
can we leave an announcement until the last minute?" Charlotte was
thinking things through. "The colonists don't know exactly when we're meant
to arrive anyway; perhaps our friend is monitoring things and when they realize
the other ships are disembarking maybe it will flush them out."

Ham perked up.
"We could create a false data stream indicating just that; maybe even
suggest we're going to transfer key files or something to the other
ships."

Regan looked
thoughtful. "It might work I guess, and anything is worth a try; do it
Ham, and Charlie, yes, we'll keep this to ourselves. Lucas, make sure no one gets
information about the other ship’s movements."

"It will
be so."

There was a
flash, enough to cause a blink, and suddenly the avatar form of the dandy man
stood in their midst, he seemed lost for a second and then found Regan, walking
to her without any explanation a look of desperate concern on his face.

[Bob?] She
stood. [What's wrong, what are you doing here?]

[Regan, there's
been a development, just now, an explosion in space. A vessel carrying a Regis
delegation for the Triennial discussions has just exploded.]

[How did it
explode?]

[We don't know,
and our vessel has cleared the area for safety. The explosion was massive and
came without warning. There would have been no survivors and our Commander took
our delegation away from the danger area quickly. He did the right thing, all
our leadership was aboard however we need to get ships there quickly. Regan,
this is a game changer. On Regis they will assume we have attacked their
leadership. We will get word to them immediately but . . . whether they will
believe us . . . I don't know, particularly after the android incident.] He
looked apologetically at Ham. [I had to let you know, it may change
everything.]

As Charlotte
watched she had the sense she was the only one left out, something was
happening but unable to sub, she had no idea. It was only a second but it
seemed as if the eyes of all the others, including Jared, had glazed for just a
moment, and then they were back.

"Right,
that's decided then." Regan declared, as if something had been discussed
and voted on. "Ham, you will get Brian's team on board the STIEN Traveler
and leave for Regis immediately. You and I will also take the Interceptor from
the STEIN and make for the explosion zone, just in case there is something to
discover. Charlie - you, Jared, Hilary and Lucas will continue with the plan to
flush out the visitor. We will get back as soon as we can." She looked
around the group. "Any questions?"