Alien Cradle

14. Opal Listens

The pirates treated Rath a little like a prisoner and a little like a guest, as if they were concerned about insulting him but no so much so that they weren't going to keep a close eye on him. After landing on Semele, they brought him to some kind of administrative complex. Over half the structure appeared buried in the ground. When night fell, tight-lipped guards escorted him through empty halls, brought him to a nice-sized office with two chairs, a single desk, and stark white walls.

"Pirate headquarters," Rath thought to himself.

His escorts asked to sit and then simply left him alone with no further instructions. He had to wait less than a minute before the woman that boarded his ship entered and took a seat behind the lone marble-topped table.

Rath sighed uncomfortably.

"Something wrong Mr. Scampion?"

Rath looked down to the ground. "No, nothing at all. But I was hoping to

meet with Angelo."

"I'm Angelo's wife," she said almost bluntly. "My name is Opal

Stelbound. Angelo doesn't have a last name, at least he never told me about

it."

Rath blinked with mild shock. "Are you surprised that I'm his wife or that he never told me his last

name?"

"I don't know," the scout managed.

"Probably both," Opal offered, "But it doesn't matter. Are you at least

satisfied that you're talking with someone of importance? I may not be the

top man, so to speak, but I have my own pull within the organization.

Depending on what happens here, Angelo may be available later, but he is

rather busy. I'm sure you can understand."

"Yes, I can."

Opal's eyes narrowed, almost with malice. And the room seemed to close

upon him. The empty white walls melded with the woman's cold stare. "Can

you, Mr. Scampion? Can you understand why he's busy? We've received

the same reports that I'm sure you're aware of. The Authority has had enough

of us and they're coming to attack."

Her sudden shift in emotion caught Rath off guard. He professed his

innocence out of instinct. "I'm not with the Authority. They're after me." "Of course they are," she responded with obvious sarcasm. "I'm sure

that's why they gave you that nice scout ship. It's basically brand new. Or are

you going to tell me it's stolen?"

"It's not stolen. It's a long story."

"I don't have time for long stories. The Authority is coming, remember?" "I know. That's why I'm here. I'm trying to give you something that may

save you from them. And if you can, you'll end up saving me in the process.

Don't you remember what I said? Regency is trying to cover up the real story

on Fenrir, the aliens. If you check my logs you'll see that I was there, that I

had the scout bid. There was nothing on the planet."

"We did check your logs. We also scanned the accounts tied to your

wristband. You've been receiving payments from the Authority for quite

some time now, certainly long enough to train you as an Espial Op. Why

were they paying you?"

Rath groaned. It was all coming apart. They weren't going to believe him.

He was dead.

But Opal offered yet another surprise. "Did you know there's a beacon on

your ship?"

The question barely broke through his despair.

"Excuse me?"

"A beacon," Opal stressed, "a guidance mechanism which transmits a

signal that can be pinpointed by a simple tracking program."

Rath almost laughed. Of course. Where did the scout come from, where

did the extra parts come from? Did he really think the Authority would just

hand over a ship without an ulterior motive? He could almost sense the

coordinator's manipulative hand at work.

"Lasonelli." he groaned. He could visualize the scout in the Planning

Station hangar, see himself adding the modifications. "I probably installed it

myself without even knowing."

"Explain." Opal demanded.

Rath considered the request. Explain. Was that done so easily? Where

should he start? He decided to stick to the basics when describing the

coordinator.

"Lasonelli is the council coordinator that tried to prevail on me that I

missed the Fenrites on my initial scout. He's the man behind all the lies. He

convinced me to stay on the Authority Planning Station which observed

Fenrir. Some kind of crap about me being part of history, the first man on Fenrir. Just a bunch of more bull. In return, he paid me, gave me a new scout, and allowed me to install all the new equipment I wanted. I'm one

stupid man."

"You didn't know about the beacon?"

"No, I didn't." Rath's tone was defeated, and he didn't expect to be

believed. To his surprise, he was.

Opal tapped a laser pen against the marble tabletop. "Do you realize that

it was that beacon that saved your life?"

"Excuse me?"

"Your story is too far-fetched to believe. It's exactly the kind of confusing

tale which would make me expect you're buying time. The problem is that

simple beacon. If you were a forward scout for the Authority, why would

they want to put a tracking signal on your ship?"

Rath didn't know how to leave well enough alone. Unthinkingly, he

offered his own theory for the beacon.

"What if they just wanted to follow me to you, to make sure they found

you? What if I was supposed to lead them to you, wouldn't that be possible?" "They wouldn't need to follow you to find us. We're not hiding. We've

made no secret of where we are. You knew how to get to us and so does the

Authority. Angelo wants it that way. He doesn't want to worry about which

pirates and mercenaries are authentic and which were Espial agents planted

to discover our headquarters. It's bold, but it makes sense."

Rath didn't see it that way. It was almost too unbelievable. "You think it

makes sense to publicize your base? You're pirates!"

Opal scoffed at the remark. "Be that as it may, the Authority has been

very busy, and we weren't as big as a concern as you might think. The rebel

planets, that's what the Authority wanted to control. Those were the ones that caused a real headache for the generals and for Regency Govern. Semele was never a colonized world; we were never part of Regency. We made no contributions, paid no taxes. We were never on their books. So we never really caused them any true loss. Sure, we made our share of hits on freighters, but nothing that would interfere with the Authority's budget. But when one of these colonized worlds goes independent, the military uses a huge chunk of funding. That's where they concentrated their forces, until

now."

"So you believe I'm not working for the Authority?"

"I believe there's more to your story than might first appear," Opal

responded. "I believe the Authority is worried about you for some reason,

worried enough to keep tabs on you. Besides the beacon, there is further

proof in the news reports and in your logs. There is apparently a power

struggle going on between Regency Govern and Authority Command. There

is also a Station General that is being pacified. Someone is giving him this

duty to make up for some kind of contrived insult which occurred on an

outer planet. We believe the general came from the Fenrite system. We also

believe the power struggle between Govern and the military stems from a

problem on Fenrir. You did indeed receive the scout bid for that planet, so it

is reasonable to expect you have something to offer."

"So you want to use what I know?" Rath asked hopefully.

"For now, I'd just like to know more." Opal sat back. "I must admit

something. I lied before. I do have time for a long story. In fact, there's not

much I can do right now but wait for the Authority or for Angelo. I don't

know which will come first. But perhaps I can find something useful in what

you have to say."

Rath sat forward with a new sense of urgency. "Wait for the Authority?

You don't plan to stay here and fight them, do you?"

"I don't know what we plan to do," Opal revealed. "Angelo has at least

three contingency plans. We'll either fight, run, or a combination of the two.

He keeps his decisions to himself. He has to. He's dealing with pirates,

remember."

"What about you? Doesn't he trust you?"

"I think he does, but I'm a mercenary and he knows that. That will

probably always cause a strain in our relationship. It's nothing I can, or care

to do anything about. I do, however, want to hear more of what you have to

say. Why don't you tell me the full story?"

#

In a high orbit around Semele, continuously avoiding pirate fighters and orbital space control scanners, the SH-4 concentrated its highly advanced sensory equipment on the surface of the planet. Semele remained almost entirely deserted, and the pirate encampments stood out like black spots on the sun. The SH-4 contained the power to locate and follow a single individual on a planet with a population in the millions. Semele's total inhabitants numbered far less than a hundred thousand, and the few structures built to house them were easy to scan.

In less than an hour standard, Taranson reported a confirmed location of Rath Scampion.

"He's in the largest complex located on the planet, on the smallest of the three continents. He's sitting in a centrally located room with one other person. Infrared shows no other personnel in or near the room. That means no guards. They obviously trust him enough to leave him alone with an interrogator. Our operatives in the back are establishing sound wave enhancement and recording. They're sending the feedback to my terminal. I got him. Yep, that's our man." The pilot paused to listen to the conversation. "Not good news. He's telling everything."

The coordinator folded his long, thin arms across his narrow chest. "That's really not a surprise. That's why he's here. He wants them to spread what he knows. Damn fool."

Jack shook his head as he considered the full merit of the situation. With few alternatives, he made a snap decision.

"There's only one other person in the room, right? I want that person tracked now, too. Same priority as Scampion. I don't want you to lose either one."

Taranson just nodded. "It's a woman. They're already beyond introductions. I'll have to wait a while before I can get any formal name ID."

"Just keep track of her, as well as anyone else she gives details to. How long do you think it will take before the Authority gets our message?"

"It's going to take about at least a day standard more for the message to get to the nearest base, but that doesn't mean the Authority is going to be able to get here right away. They'll have to assemble a proper force to take out this base. I know they're planning it anyway, but they may have their own schedule."

"If they care about security, they won't take too much time. Let's just hope all of our targets stay in the same fishbowl until then. As for you, your job is simple; track every individual that gains knowledge of Fenrir. My bet is they'll keep it quiet, maintain the knowledge between just a few. And they'll probably remain in that base station. When the Authority does finally get here, I want you to signal them. That building is ground zero."

Taranson saw no problem with that order. "That's got to be Angelo's planning headquarters. It'd be a main target anyway."

Jack waved a hand in acceptance. "Just as long as it gets done."

#

Opal recorded the discussion, but made no transmission. All information was kept within her personal portable. When Rath finished his story by explaining why he came to Semele, she looked at him with more questions.

"So you think this alien colonized Fenrir and that's what Regency wants to keep hidden?"

Rath didn't know how else to put it. "I guess. I just know that Fenrir was as barren as any other planet I've explored. When I went back, suddenly everyone involved is talking about an alien life form. In that time frame, it's hard to believe that a microbe or something evolved to what I saw as a Fenrite. That means they had to come from somewhere else. They colonized Fenrir just like we colonized a whole bunch of barren worlds."

Opal shook her head. "But from your description of them, it hardly seems possible that these Fenrites are capable of space flight, let alone interstellar travel. To colonize, the Fenrites must have reached a certain state of advancement. From everything you can tell me about them, they were not close to that level of ability. Maybe they would be ready for satellites, or space exploration within their own system, but not colonization of other solar systems. You yourself said they were living in huts of grass and mud, highly a sign of advanced technology."

"Yeah, but they were also able to shoot down a transport. They had missile capability which means they had rocket science."

"But for colonization you need more than that."

Rath remembered what he was told, how it was explained to him. "I don't know if that makes a difference. Apparently, that was a mistake made by the research techs on the Planning Station. They tried to put Fenrite progress on the same path as our own. They missed things because they thought the Fenrites advanced just like us. They couldn't believe the Fenrites could accomplish missile capability, but they did. I was in the transport that was shot down, so I know that for a fact. The Fenrites are militaristic so they were able to advance more quickly in some areas than others. At least, that's what I was told anyway."

"Who told you that?"

"The coordinator, Jack Lasonelli."

Opal asked the obvious. "The same person that lied to you. You think you can believe him about that?"

The question resounded with clear meaning, and Rath answered with a resolve of his own.

"No, I can't believe anything he said, but I'm not basing it on just that. I remember the research techs. They were surprised about a lot of things. They were confused and everybody was nervous on that Planning Station."

"It doesn't matter. I won't argue what you observed on the station, but there are other inconsistencies with the theory. If the Fenrites were able to colonize, they would also have been seen in more systems. There would have been reports by freighters and other scouts. Fenrir's not right next door to this system, but it's not all that far, either. There has never been a reported sighting of an alien space ship in this sector. And what about the orbital scanners being pressed into service all over the galaxy? The exploratory councils are struggling to find signs of other life forms. Regency has the power to search a good deal farther than Fenrir. I have seen reports of scanner scopes with the ability to observe planets outside of this galaxy. If the Fenrites were colonizing, why aren't they being discovered on another planet? Why just Fenrir?"

Rath rubbed his eyes with fatigue. "I don't understand where this is going. Are you saying you don't believe me?"

Opal smiled. It held only a small degree of warmth, perhaps as much as she was truly able to give, but she offered what she could to the scout pilot.

"Again, I accept your observations, but not your conclusions. I believe there was nothing on Fenrir when you made your first scout. The maintenance reports, your personal logs, the fact that you came back with minerals; all of these things attest to the fact that your scout was able to scan the planet. There was nothing there, and there is something there now. But I don't think the Fenrites colonized that planet."

Rath threw up his hands in near frustration. "If they weren't there to start, and they didn't colonize, then how'd they get there? They certainly didn't just appear out of thin air."

Opal shrugged "I don't know if I'd go that far."

"What are you talking about?"

Opal threw out her own theory. "There has been speculation about dimensional deviation, a curvature in space which might allow for someone or something to step through a portal and appear on the other side of the universe. The possibility of such a distortion arose when techs began to experiment with wave transportation, you know, a way to allow scanner readings for ships in Boscon Push. They were marginally successful in forwarding wave patterns through these dimensional deviations. It may be possible that that's how the Fenrites ended up on Fenrir. Some kind of portal may have opened on their home planet and swallowed a few hundred thousand."

"You think that's how they got there?"

"It's only another theory. It would explain Regency's interest as well as the Authority's. A portal allowing long distance transportation for life forms could open up endless possibilities. Unfortunately, just with your idea, this explanation has its own inconsistencies. My main problem with this is that I seriously doubt the portal would allow for planet to planet transportation. Dimensional deviations in space may be possible, but I can't imagine how they would work within the atmosphere of a planet. I just can't see how the Fenrites could have crossed over if they weren't in space faring vessels. Second, I can't even guess how they were able to move so many to this new planet. You said there were many villages on Fenrir, even a large colony that you saw destroyed by nuclear weapons. How all of that could be transported through a portal is rather confusing."

Opal examined the notes on her portable. She spoke more to herself then to Rath. "An interesting mystery. A barren planet, then an alien. But an alien with limited technology, an alien that lived in huts, hardly a sign of advanced means. The Authority closed off the system, but that was all. If Fenrites were on other planets, they would have to secure an entire quadrant. Fenrir was within scanning range for some time. Why did it take Regency so long to find them? Because they weren't there. That's what your scout proves. But how'd they get there if they didn't colonize?"

The questions did little to invigorate Rath. If anything, the words began to buzz in his ear like the lecture of an uninspired speaker. He didn't care about the Fenrites, or how they ended up on the planet. He just wanted to tell his story to these pirates and move on. Within his fatigued state, he could not fight back a yawn.

Opal smiled again, this time with a little less warmth. She handed back his wristband and his portable. "Here, you can have these back. I see you're getting tired, so I won't bore you with anymore considerations."

At a possible point of conclusion, Rath perked up in his seat. "So what are you going to do? Are you going to issue the information on the coms, threaten Regency, what?

"That's not up to me."

Rath almost slumped in defeat. "You're going to have to talk it over with Angelo."

"Of course. The important point is that the events on Fenrir are being covered up. It's a weakness for Regency and that can be exploited. He'll know what to do. As for you, I'm going to ask that you stay with us, for a while longer anyway. There may be more questions. Angelo may wish to speak with you directly. I'll have someone take you to a private room where you can rest. I'm afraid I can't tell you how long this may take. You understand we have to be very careful in what we do next."

"Yeah, I understand." Rath sighed. He didn't even watch her as she left the room.