Pegasus in Chains (RF VI), Chapter 9

Spoiler Alert: This is a new entry into the Reckless Faith series. The prologue may be found here: https://devonai.wordpress.com/2021/10/26/reckless-faith-vi-prologue/

It was midnight, and Fomal Feras couldn’t sleep.  In the ten days since the arrival of the Rakhar, his role had reverted to president of Ossekey, for all practical purposes.  General Monterrach had put himself in charge of planetary affairs, but when it came to running Ossekey, Feras was mostly being left alone.  The notable exception was that of the export of goods produced there, for which Monterrach and his underlings demanded a constant oversight.  This being the same for all countries on Eniph, interstate trade had slowed to a crawl.  All of this might not bother him that much, for the new Rakhar chains rested lightly on his shoulders, except that he was still, technically, president of the planet, and had a responsibility to see that through.

Unfortunately for his sense of duty, the Rakhar invaders made that impossible, resulting in a constant gnawing feeling in his gut and many almost sleepless nights.  There was also the constant fear of being arrested and possibly tortured for his knowledge of what happened to the Solar Defense Force, since he had never revealed to Monterrach where he’d sent them.  As it was, the general had asked, been rebuffed, and then declared the information to be irrelevant.  It made sense; the SDF was vastly outnumbered anyway.

Feras got out of bed, taking care not to disturb his pets, and crossed to the nearest window.  The city-state of Ossekey glittered below him.  By mere appearances, no one would know anything changed.  He was at least glad to be home, the same home he’d occupied for six years.  Though living in the presidential palace was optional, he had decided to do so, not for its opulence, but for its history.  During the planetary election debates, two of his opponents had derided him for not living like a common man, a notion that was easily countered when Feras pointed out that they were obscenely wealthy compared to the rest of the planet’s population, while his salary was slightly below what was considered middle class.  Also, unlike them, he had not spent a single penny on campaigning, nor was he wealthy at any point in his life.

Someone knocked on his door, then opened it without waiting for a reply.  Feras was initially irritated, since one of Monterrach’s guards had done this a few days ago to ask permission to grab some food out of the kitchen.  Though the door had been locked, the guards insisted on knowing the entry code.  He was surprised to see three humanoid figures enter, clearly not Rakhar.  He turned on the nearest lamp, and saw that it was one man and two women.  The man put his hands out in front of him.

“Sorry for the intrusion, sir, but we couldn’t risk being discovered.”

Feras sighed.  “I’ve been stripped of most of my power, why should I expect to get a good night’s sleep in my own bedroom?”

“My name is John Scherer.  This is Ari Ferro, and Christie Tolliver.  Our ship is the Reckless Faith.”

“If that’s true, you’ve earned quite a reputation for yourself.”

“Mostly good, I would hope.”

“The liberation of Umber?  That’s just a rumor.  As is your involvement in the Battle of Freedmen Colony.  Your incursion into Cygnian affairs has been confirmed by reliable intelligence sources, however.  Overall, your reputation being good or bad depends entirely on one’s perspective.”

“Then if we were to offer to help kick the Rakhar out of your system, how would you feel?”

“One ship won’t make a difference, though I have heard your ship has powerful weapons.”

“Our intention here is to forge an alliance with neighboring systems.  I don’t know how many ships you have in your defense force, but since you didn’t fight back immediately I’m guessing it’s not enough.”

The two pets on the bed jumped down to investigate the new arrivals, and sniffed at their boots.

“Oh my god,” began Christie, “these animals are adorable!  Are they fully grown?”

Feras nodded.  “Yes.  They are unrelated to Rakhar or Kau’Rii.  Well, maybe if you go far back enough in their lineage, I don’t know.”

“We would call them munchkin cats on our planet,” said Ari.  “Ours have fur, though.”

“They are very popular on Eniph.  Anyway, Mister Scherer, I’m not going to reveal our fleet strength to you.”  He pointed to his ear, and then the ceiling.  “I also cannot condone any action against the Rakhar; as president I cannot unilaterally declare war against anyone.  Such a declaration would have to be approved by a supermajority of member states.”

John said, “We already scanned for listening devices, the room is clean.”

“Oh?  One can’t be too careful.  And here I’ve been telling my pets long, boring stories just to annoy whoever might be listening.  Nevertheless, my answer is the same.  Even if I wanted to cooperate, I have no way of communicating with anyone without the Rakhar knowing.  This room may not be monitored, but every other aspect of my life is.”

“It we were to give you a portable SRC transceiver, would you be able to conceal it somewhere around here without it being discovered?”

“Maybe.  Even if it was encrypted, wouldn’t the Rakhar be able to detect and triangulate it?”

“Good question.  Do you have access to a wireless communication device in this building, that you only use while here?”

“Yes, my console in my home office.”

“Here’s what I propose.  The transceiver we’re offering you has a piggyback mode…”

“Sorry?”

“It’s a mode which will allow you to send us a text message at the same time you make a voice call to someone else, using the same carrier frequency.  Using encryption level five, it would seem to anyone listening to be background noise.  Is there room under your console to conceal something about yea big?”

John gestured with his hands, indicating a cube of about a quarter of a square meter.

“Yes, I could put it there.  How would I receive an incoming message?”

“Once set up, you would send us a test transmission at your first opportunity.  Then, when we know the frequency, we can send you a reply, or at any other time.”

“I understand.”

“If you accept, then we can make the same offer to the leaders of the other member states.  How many would have to agree to reach a supermajority?”

“Thirteen.  How many of these transceivers do you have?”

“Our ship has cutting-edge replication technology.  Transceivers on demand.”

“That sounds convenient.”

“It has been, yes.  So what do you think?”

Feras grabbed an ottoman nearby and sat down.  “I’m tired of feeling useless here.  I still need time to consider it.  Where was the transceiver originally manufactured?”

“It’s a modified design, but of distinctly Umberian origin.”

“Then I take a chance of it being discovered, and without the plausible deniability of it being there prior to my arrival.  Based on the level of scrutiny the Rakhar have given my residence, I think I have a decent chance of getting away with it.  I mean, it doesn’t surprise me too much that you were able to get in here undetected.  I’ll tell you what.  Give me the transceiver and help me set it up.  If I decide to collaborate with you, then I’ll send you a message.  What are your intentions in the meantime?”

“The same as when we first arrived here.  Monitor the situation, and wait for communication from our sources about a potential alliance.  Hopefully you will decide to be part of it.”

“Why do you want to get involved?  If you’re mercenaries, who hired you?”

John smiled.  “No, not mercenaries.  But our home planet would rather not get caught up in the expansion of a new Rakhar empire, if that’s what this whole effort really is.  Call it being proactive.”

“Then why send only one ship?”

“As I said, we’re still in the reconnaissance phase of the mission.”

“Fair enough.  Where’s your ship?”

“Hovering right next to the balcony outside your office.”

“Perfect, let’s go get the transceiver.  Stay quiet in the hallway, there’s always a chance one of the guards might wander by out of boredom.”

Feras donned his robe and slippers, then the group crept out into the hallway and down to the office.  It was an impressive chamber, outfitted with bookshelves and dark hardwood furnishings.  Though he had the prerogative, he hadn’t changed a thing upon his election, nor had his predecessors going back a hundred years.  As nice as it was, he didn’t spend much time there, preferring to use his other office in the parliament building two blocks away.  The large double-windows behind his desk were open, admitting a pleasant breeze.  John and Christie crossed to it, while Ari stayed out in the hall.

“We’re back,” said John, “and the answer is yes.  Open the airlock doors.”

A portal to nowhere appeared just over the balcony railing, revealing the interior of a ship.  A taller man with darker skin than the others was there, and picked up a device about the size that John had described.  He brought it inside, not without some effort, though the woman named Christie offered to help.

“Mister President, Ray Bailey,” he said.

“Hello,” replied Feras.

“Where do you want it?”

Feras retrieved a key from a lanyard around his neck, unlocked and opened a lower drawer in his desk, and compared the interior to the size of the transceiver.

“Will this work, or were you planning on doing a wired connection?  Also does it have its own power source?”

“Yes, it looks like it will fit,” said John.  “We can do a wireless connection, and it has a battery that should last for months with normal use.  Christie?”

“I’ll need access to your console, sir,” she said.

Feras removed several files and a pistol from the drawer.  Ray hefted the transceiver inside with a grunt.  John gestured at the pistol.

“Did the Rakhar even bother to search your quarters?”

“No,” Feras replied, and sat at the desk.

The console was set into the surface of the desk.  He activated it and entered his access code, then stood up, and gestured at Christie.  She sat down and began working.

“I’m not sure how long this will take,” she said.

“No problem with the interface?  Where did you learn our language?”

“I’m an android.  I just had to download it.”

Feras raised his eyebrows, and leaned in a little closer.  “Damn.  Verisimilitude Android Designs?

“The one and only.”

“You’re lucky, then.  Eniphite characters are usually very difficult for outsiders to learn.”

“It’s the same for Chinese on my planet, which these symbols resemble.”

“I wish we were meeting under better circumstances.  Rumors of the existence of the Stymphalian Raptors have been passed on for centuries.  It would be fascinating to hear about your time there.”

“There was a lot of shooting,” said John.  “Expanding on that would take several hours.”

“That was easier than I thought it would be,” said Christie.  “Are you sure you wouldn’t like to try to send a test message now?”

Feras shrugged.  “You said I’d have to call someone I normally would, right?  Nobody I know is up at this hour, except of course for my presidential security detail and the Rakhar guards.  The former isn’t even guarding me or my home at the moment, having been dismissed by the latter.  I’d be more comfortable waiting until morning.”

“Fine,” said John.  “I hope you’ll decide to help.  Until then, we’ll let you return to bed.  Ari, we’re ready to go.”

Ari came into the office, and the three strangers boarded their ship.  Feras waved half-heartedly at them, and watched as the airlock door slid closed, returning the view to nothing but night sky.  There was a slight rush of wind, and he had to assume they were gone.

Feras returned to his room, flopped into bed, and slept like a stone.

__________

It was 3am, local time, and Reveki Kitsune couldn’t sleep.  The specter of the Kira’To filled her being like a toxic gas, adding to the discomfort of trying to sleep in an EVA suit.  It did provide protection from the elements, obviating the need for erecting shelters, and other than being in the way of basic hygiene concerns, there was no reason they couldn’t spend the rest of the night in them.  Vecky had to guess that it took some getting used to, since her companions from the Fox and the Bellatrix seemed to be as restless as her.  Marcon and his contingent, when they weren’t on watch, slept just fine.

Jim was the exception, having no need for sleep, and when he wasn’t pulling watch, he was trying to restore access to the recovered tablet.  Giving up on rest for the moment, Vecky rose from her spot in the dirt, and sat down next to him.  He had turned down the brightness on the device to levels useless to humanoids, and as such his expression was inscrutable.

“Any luck?” she asked.

“Yes.  As you can see, I’ve restored power to it, and got the OS to boot up as well.  Right now I’ve got an algorithm running to repair the corrupted files, which was most of them.  I might be able to find something useful by dawn.”

“I wish I could help.  Other than send a magazine of rounds at those weirdos that tried to ambush us, I’ve felt kind of useless on this trip.”

Jim put the tablet face-down on his knee, and looked at her.  “You’re more than capable of being an asset to this mission.  Captain Tomoyasu spoke very well of how you handled yourself during our collaboration.  Just focus on doing your job as a member of the team, and I’m sure you won’t feel wasted.”

“I guess I want to redeem myself after what happened on the Eagle.”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“In the last moments before Aquila escaped, and spirited me away to Earth, I was combat ineffective.  Eva almost died because I was too terrified to fight as well as I could have.”

“No one could have expected any more of you.  You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself.  Besides, does your inexperience in ground combat mean you shouldn’t be captain of a starship?  That you can’t do that job, either?  I have an eidetic memory, I know exactly how you performed during our time together.  And to hear Eva talk about the Cygnus affair, you did well there, too.”

“I suppose.  I just wish I could have the same kind of confidence as Eva, Tomo, Marcon, or even Cane and Talyn.”

“That comes with experience.  Focus on keeping your friends safe, and the rest will follow.”

The tablet chimed, and Jim looked at it.

“Progress?”

“One file is available so far.  Might as well look at it.  Let’s see… this is an email archive, the kind the program makes as an automatic backup.  Since it’s a local file, it could only belong to the person who used this device.”

“When is the most recent entry?”

“Ten years ago.  Shall I read it?”

“Go ahead.”

“Okay.  ‘Dearest love, life continues as I’ve described often, not much changes from day to day here.  There have been no major breakthroughs in any of our departments, save for my own.  That’s why it’s been so long since I last wrote to you, if you forgive me for it.  As I’ve told you, we’ve been bombarding element 93244 with neutrons in the hope of creating that ‘magic’ stable isotope that our models have predicted, and while we weren’t making any progress there, the element 92 team gave us several kilograms of 93 that they inadvertently created.  I suggested that experimenting on an amount just short of critical mass for 93 might yield different results.  And it has.

Earlier today, my team and I succeeded in transforming the entire sample to 93244, then bombarded it with neutrons of a particular energy.  Our electromagnetic containment field fluctuated, and all of a sudden the material itself generated a massive amount of power.  The reaction only lasted a nanosecond, which is fortunate, because we might have obliterated ourselves and the building.  However, all of this is very encouraging.

I’m sure you noticed that this message was encrypted.  That’s because I wanted to share with you something else that happened that defies explanation, to the point that no one present in the lab wanted to put it into an official report.  You remember the time that you and I were at that party in university, and we were offered psychotropic drugs?  During that brief fluctuation, we all felt like our sense of self had expanded, like we were outside our bodies, or ‘above’ reality itself.  There was also a strong sense for all of us that someone, or something, was watching us, like that odd feeling you get when someone is looking over your shoulder and hasn’t yet announced themselves.  It was very unnerving, but too indistinct to try to put in a report.  More importantly, none of us want to be removed from this project for a suspected psychotic break, unless it reoccurs, at which point we may have no choice but to say something.

I’m telling you all of this because I’m scared, and considering resigning.  You have always supported my professional goals, and stood by me during both failure and success.  If I do return home unexpectedly, I wanted you to at least have an idea ahead of time what was going on.  I promise you I won’t be reckless with our research, and the rest of the team feels the same.  Tomorrow we aim to replicate the power surge, though perhaps not to the degree as before.  I love you, miss you, and will write you again tomorrow’.”

Vecky let out a long breath.  “If there were no more messages after that, then I think we can pretty easily guess what caused this disaster.”

“They touched the realm of the Kira’To.”

“Yes.  That would explain the peculiar feeling that Eva and I recognized inside.  The crew of the Reckless Faith believes that their stardrive draws its power from this dimension; I think they called it zero-point energy, or at least that was one of their theories.  It seems the researchers here not only drew too much power from it at once, but opened a rift that continues to contaminate the area.  It would also explain why scavengers or thieves created a cult around it, if a Kira’To communicated with them while in proximity to the phenomenon.”

“That all makes sense to me.  It might also mean that there’s still element 93 present there, if we could find a way to access it.  Perhaps a robot could retrieve it for us.  Like the kind they use to clean up industrial accidents.”

“Maybe.  We’ll have to discuss it with the others in the morning.”  Vecky yawned.  “I’m going to try to get some more sleep, Jim.  I hope you’re able to find more useful information on the tablet.”

“I’ll try.  Sweet dreams, Reveki.”

“Not fucking likely, but thanks.”