Blood Impulse

Part 18.2 - UNARMED SHIPS

Archer Sector, Centaur System, Battleship Gargantia

The Battleship Gargantia had already been in orbit around the laboring planet of Sagittarion for over a week when the bulletin came in. Commander Gregory Fairlocke could only stare at the data pad he held in his shaking hands.

His XO had a look of deep concern on her elegant face. "What happened?"

"Admiral Gives separated from Command after being court martialed. In absentia, he was tried and found guilty on all charges." In the span of hours, he'd gone from one of the most feared officers in the fleet to being the most wanted criminal in the worlds. "He managed to invoke Article Seven and Strike Zero aboard the Singularity."

"Strike Zero?" the Colonel asked, "Can he do that?" Rumor had it the attempt to do so would activate fail safes built into the newer ships, killing everyone involved.

"Apparently," Fairlocke said, "They've put a bounty out, too." He handed over the data pad, and saw her eyes widen.

"Stars, Gives alone is worth a fortune, with an extra million for any other member of the crew and a fortune for sinking or capturing the ship herself." It was more money that anyone could spend in a lifetime, more than enough to warrant the personal funding of an army. "But why do they want him alive?"

"Admiral Gives knows secrets that could bring nations to their knees." It wasn't unreasonable to assume that Admiral Reeter might desire that knowledge.

"You should volunteer to go after him," the Colonel said. "You trained under him. You know how he thinks."

Fairlocke held back a laugh. "Believe me, XO, I never understood him the slightest." The man was a genuine oddity. "But if we want to live, we'll stay the hell out of his way." Wiping out a ship like the Gargantia was child's play for the Singularity. "Still..."

The XO brushed a strand of hair back behind her ear. "You think he may be right."

Fairlocke glanced around to the computers, headsets and holographic displays that made up the Gargantia's bridge controls and lowered his voice, "Can't you feel it?" Every one of those integrated and advanced controls was an eye, ear or recording device for Command... And something was very wrong with Command.

The XO halfway inclined her head, similarly wary of the cameras and equipment. "We XOs talk." They traded information and favors for their respective commanding officers. "But lately, some of them have changed." One day they would be their usual selves, the next, an eerie twin with a foreign personality. "Something's not right, but those who ask questions, they don't come back the same." These days, it was best to follow directions without asking for an explanation.

"Stars," Fairlocke rubbed at his evenly trimmed beard, "What the hell are we even doing here?" Along with the rest of their squadron, they had been dispatched to Sagittarion, then ordered to maintain absolute radio silence. Another squadron of Keeper-class ships had arrived just two days later, but they too, had been ordered not to communicate.

Six of Command's battleships idled around Sagittarion in perfect silence. They studied each other, studied the planet, but nothing had changed in over a week. Sagittarion made no call to surrender, and the allied forces were not ordered to open negotiations.

It had been oddly quiet and marginally peaceful as far as they could tell from orbit, but it impossible to know the real conditions on Sagittarion's surface. Pollution clouded the atmosphere too thickly for sensor or visual data to be viable.