judicator

This is the second part of Chapter 4, most of it was written recently. It ends with a bit of a cliffhanger, so be patient with me.

* * *

The massive shape of the Redstorm leaped out of the black void of FTL space and arrived within two thousand kilometers of Ubrecht, the most habitable world in this system. Here, the Khan could tap the comm relay on Ubrecht for any further messages from the Core or otherwise. While in FTL space, no communications were possible, and it was good to establish contact whenever the opportunity came up.

The sub-light ion drives powered up, and the Redstorm headed for the next jump point. Data relays crackled as gigabytes of information flashed between the ship and the planet’s comm satellite.

Khan Sandoval’s personal terminal lit up as messages came in flagged for his personal attention. He sat in his quarters and flipped through them. Then one message caught his eye. It was addressed from Khan Taggert, marked Priority One. Not secret, but important enough to be acted upon immediately. The message was only one paragraph.

The Khan’s eyes narrowed as he read the orders again. And then he read them again. This didn’t make sense at all. He was being directed to head for a small system fairly close by, to investigate problems a local governor was having with pirates.

No mention was made of whether a local fleet would be available for emergency support if he needed it. No intel reports on the strength of the pirate forces was provided. Simply chart a course for the Koresh system, and establish contact with the local governor. Eradicate the threat.

The Khan frowned, then rapidly typed a brief request to his navigator, sending it through the intra-ship comm network. He then typed a simple acknowledgment that he had received the orders and sent it back through the comm relay to be transmitted back to the Core.

The Judicator would have to sit tight and be patient. It might be awhile before this matter was resolved. Still, the message was a good sign. They wouldn’t be sending him out of his way if the Khagan knew the Judicator was on board his ship. So far, nobody had leaked the information.

Khan Sandoval typed an inquiry into the Core intelligence network. He wanted all the information available about the recent history of the system he was being ordered to pacify. He didn’t like the feel of this mission, but he most certainly was not going in blind.
He sat back and watched as data began to fill the screen.

* * *

As the Redstorm’s crew prepared to change course, it’s unwilling passenger made her own destination plans. In the brig, Judicator Talia methodically processed recent events and planned the best action to take.

So much depended upon her actions, one way or another. The long-term view must be taken, no matter the personal cost. Ultimately, Talia had to consider the fate of her people. The Judicators, as a whole, would survive no matter what. They must survive. They were the future.

Humanity had accidentally started the chain of events which led to their existence, and they had surpassed humanity in every way. There was no going back. Most Judicators held to the belief that it was their right to eventually dominate the Ungifted. Perhaps one day they will.

Talia’s training took hold, and she mentally set aside everything except the issue at hand. She must escape this ship. All else would resolve itself in time. Right now, this problem must be solved, and quickly.

She lay on the small bunk in her cell, reaching out with her mind. While prowling the ship, she had memorized every hallway, every door sign, every lift shaft. There must be something on board she could use, and the time and space to work with it. She began to formulate a plan.

* * *

The last communications packet had been transmitted through the Ubrecht satellite. Final preparations were being made for the FTL jump to the Koresh system. The Khan had ordered all starfighter crews to drill for a scramble, and all picket ships and assault transports to drill for an emergency launch. In the event of a nasty surprise, he would provide one himself.

Twenty minutes away from the jump point and a guaranteed six hours of uninterrupted rest, the klaxons began to blare. The Khan was seated in his command chair on the bridge, his personal holo-display lit up with data.

The general alarm had been triggered from the brig.

“Report!” he barked into the comm mic.

“Sir,” the ensign in the brig replied. “I was just going to the brig to talk with Guard Telbon, we were going to a card game later…but,”

“Enough! Tell me what happened to them!” the Khan barked.

“Sir, they…their, their throats have been cut…there’s blood all over.”

“What about the cell’s force field? Is it still active?”

“Negative, sir. It’s off, and the cell’s empty.”

“What about the guard’s weapons?”

“Gone, sir. Their access bars have been torn off, as well.”

The Khan snarled and killed the connection. He jumped out of the chair and stalked toward the door to the turbolift.

“Find Specialist Samuel Krey, and advise him of the developments.” He ordered the ensign standing by the lift doors. “Tell him to meet me in the gymnasium immediately.”
“Yes, sir.”

The Khan stepped into the lift and called for deck twelve. Talia might get her rematch after all, but this time it would not be a fair fight.

* * *

On deck 15, storage bay four, Talia was hard at work. The storage bays contained many types of spare parts, obsolete SEA infantry suits, and surplus weapons. It also gave her space and time in which to work. Tools stolen from other storage bays littered the floor around her.

Her plan was simple, but it would not be easy. So far, she had found all the components needed, and it was only a matter of assembling them. Time was against her, though she had a good head start. The alarms had not gone off until five hours after she had escaped the cell block.

She stood in the center of her hastily built device. Four SEA suits were facing her with their arms extended. Each suit had it’s own power generator and arm-mounted plasma cannon built into it’s armored shell.

Talia had modified the suits slightly, disconnecting the plasma chargers, but leaving intact the magnetic bubble projectors that contained the plasma energy until it hit the target. Then, she had very carefully tweaked the projectors until they were all in sync with each other.

In the center, but slightly behind her, sat a small warp sled. It was intended to be a scout ship, with an impressive array of sensors and comm antennas sprouting from all sides. Only recently had Coalition technology managed to miniaturize FTL drives until they could be used by small ships.

Ships as powerful as the Redstorm rarely needed to exercise caution, and so the small automated scout ship had been relegated to storage bay four. It was light enough to be moved by robotic lift, and Talia had no trouble getting it into position. She only hoped everything still worked, as she had no time to test the function of the components.

Now, she lay on her back under the warp sled, disconnecting the engines from the FTL booster. She was also making small adjustments to the sled’s warp field, which protected the ship from the chaotic energies of FTL space. The mathematic calculations needed were fairly simple, but the execution would be crude and imprecise. No guarantees of success were possible.

* * *

In the gymnasium, Khan Sandoval stood with Specialist Krey, facing a squad of twelve handpicked troops. The Khan could not afford a larger search party, as it would increase the risk of someone talking to the wrong person and leaking the information back to the Core.

The squad members were outfitted with standard body armor and sidearms, but their primary weapons consisted of Coalition standard issue riot guns. These large bore weapons fired a cluster of small steel balls connected to each other by thin, strong wires.
When they hit a person, they would wrap around him and release a powerful shock. It was quite painful, and usually rendered him unconscious. The gun could fire nine times without reloading. It was not accurate, as it was meant for crowd control, but it worked well in starship corridors.

The Khan and Krey were both armed with particle beam rifles. They carried katanas as backup weapons. Every man carried four stun grenades which had been modified with short fuses. The Judicator was fast, and they could not afford to have her throwing the grenades back at them.

“Your orders are to take the prisoner alive,” the Khan said. “Do not attempt to subdue her hand-to-hand. If she puts up resistance, hit her again with your riot gun. Be extremely cautious. If you take her down, do not, I repeat, do not attempt to secure her yourself. Call the rest of us to your location, and keep her covered.”

“Sir?” one of the soldiers said. “Who exactly is this prisoner? What makes this woman so dangerous?”

“That’s a good question, but I’m afraid the answer is classified. This is a strictly need-to-know situation. Now, we have narrowed down the area in which she may be hiding to the storage bays on decks 14 and 15. We will split up in teams of seven, Specialist Krey will lead one, and I will take the other. Use stealth, as your best chance is to take her by surprise.”

Another soldier raised his hand. “Sir, what about collateral damage? Using these grenades in storage could cause serious problems.”

“Your only concern is recapturing the prisoner. All else is secondary at this point. Do not hesitate to engage her with extreme prejudice. Let’s move out, we can’t afford to give her any more time.”

They split up and headed for the turbolifts.

* * *

Judicator Talia stood before the hastily assembled device with a grim smile of satisfaction. She would either escape the Coalition’s most powerful starship, or die very quickly in terrible agony. Either way, she was determined to cheat her captors from whatever fate they had planned for her.

Talia closed her eyes, once more reaching out with finely tuned senses. Security forces were drawing closer, but there was still a few minutes left. She darted from one jury-rigged device to the other, checking connections and verifying that all settings were correct.

Finally satisfied, she closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, clearing her mind and calming her racing pulse. Whatever happened, she would be ready. Yes, one last detail still remained.

Talia walked over to the warp sled and studied the instrument panel. Then, she detached a small panel and quickly wired one of the guard’s communicators into the energizer system. The other communicator was already linked to this one, and she lifted it from her belt.

Stepping back, she made sure both devices were ready. It was time. No more delays. She was a Judicator, and she would not cower in the face of mortal danger. Feeling the Omni energy stirring in her bones, she walked to the center of the four modified SEA suits, with her back to the warp sled.

As she raised the communicator, she noticed that the door leading to the corridor was open, and a man dressed in full body armor was standing less than twenty feet away. It hardly seemed real that anyone could sneak up on her, but here he was.
“Talia, wait, don’t do anything rash,” Samuel Krey said. “I can assure you, this is not the best course of action.”

“Then you don’t know me at all,” Talia said. “I’ve already weighed the options, and this is the only way. I will not be someone’s pawn.”

He lifted his hands slowly. “Just hear me out. We were forced to leave the Paldar system because the Khagan did not trust Khan Sandoval to bring you back to the Core. Currently, a sector fleet is scouring Paldar to find you. Why do you think we haven’t reported that we have you?”

“I don’t know if you have or not, and it doesn’t matter. I will not be a prisoner of the Ungifted, whether they have the blessing of the Khagan or not. Your Khan plans to use me for his own benefit, one way or another.”

She held the small device out between them. Her blood turned to ice as she fully realized what she was about to do.

“A Judicator never negotiates and never surrenders.”

Her thumb stabbed down on the transmit button. She felt the deck tremble as the warp sled powered up. The four SEA suits also activated, the magnetic bubble projectors charging rapidly with a high-pitched whine. An incredible amount of power surged through the confined space, and she felt her hair starting to stand on end.
“No!” Specialist Krey shouldered his rifle and took aim at her leg. “Shut it down or I’ll shoot!” He flicked the safety off.

She couldn’t have responded if she had wanted to. The noise was growing, and already the process was beyond stopping. She felt a gentle tug, and a nimbus of energy surrounded her as the magnetic bubble formed.

Then the warp sled’s FTL drive activated, and the modified projector surged the warp field forward. For an instant, she felt more than heard a crackling of energy as the two fields met. At that instant, she reached out with the Omni energy and pushed with everything she had.

Krey was almost blinded from the brilliant flash of light. When his vision cleared, Talia had vanished.