Chapter 42

Hyperspace.

En route to the Narval system.

Sarah looked at the bulkhead, and sighed.

"Open it up."

Elteria's hologram nodded, and the bulkhead started folding onto itself. Sarah once more looked around, but the missile magazine was completely empty, and every door was sealed, with the security system on maximum alert, including automated turrets on stand-by.

There were a lot of things she trusted her crew with.

This wasn't one of them.

The false bulkhead finished moving out of the way, revealing a black container, whose only feature was a smaller black box on top of it.

Sarah stepped inside the tiny room, and stood still as the black box chirped, and scanned her.

That box was a system even the Alterian Directorate's most brilliant scientists refused to try to mess with. They were rare, expensive beyond belief, and she'd literally removed it from her ship's secured communications array to put it here. The kind used by special operations ships to report in on the deepest, darkest operations the Directorate had. It was a psionic identification system.

No one truly understood psionics. Even the Infinite Systems Federation had only a surface level understanding of it, at least so she'd been told.

At least what was known was that psionics weren't mind over matter. Despite countless charlatans trying to convince the gullible that they had some sort of magical power, no true instance of psionic powers had been discovered.

Rather, it was the opposite, matter over mind. Certain technologies could interact with a sort of unique identifiers, which most people called 'souls'. Every sapient had one, no exception. It was utterly impossible to fake, and unique for every individual. Further research in the subject was...difficult, if not outright impossible. Every experiment she knew of had ended in disaster, with millions to trillions dead. There was a reason the Gold Silver Concordat almost completely banned psionic research. Even those who pursued peaceful purposes with their research were too likely to end up creating a weapon, whether they wished it or not.

The box beeped as it finished scanning her, and a green light flashed briefly, before the container opened slowly, revealing a missile pod.

Without a single word, Sarah knelt in front of the pod, and gazed at the twelve cylinders within it.

They looked rather inconspicuous. Nearly featureless, just a plain black cylinder the size of a standard missile. Most people wouldn't give them a second look.

If they did however, they might see the symbol inlaid into the missile's hull. An infinity symbol, overlaid a crossed warship and a sword. The sigil of the Infinite Systems Federation Navy.

She'd found the container with the pod when undergoing her campaign of vengeance, the one that had lead to her exile. She hadn't even realized what she'd gotten her hands on at the time, she had simply been too busy, and only when they had left Alterian space had she remembered about the strange sealed container, missing from every file except the most secure of manifests, one who did not bear signatures, just encrypted identification codes.

It had taken Elteria half a decade of delicate hacking to break through the container's security system. The AI's tools and intrusion programs were the best the Directorate had to offer, but even they'd proven completely ineffective against whatever the hell was protecting the container's computers.

Once they got through however, Sarah had almost thrown up when she'd seen the contents.

The Federation was generally extremely generous and rather unconcerned when its technology was found in the hands of lesser powers. They were so far beyond everyone else reverse engineering anything they possessed was virtually impossible after all. But there was one exception, and that was their military hardware. To this end they offered an extremely generous bounty, but only if you turned in the gear immediately after discovering it.

Her first reflex had been to simply dump it into a star, but Elteria had convinced her to keep them as some form of trump card. She was sure they could use them, if she had enough time to work on them.

"...You're not planning to use them, are you?"

Sarah shook her head.

"You said it yourself. They'd launch...and attack everyone in the area, including us."

Elteria nodded grimly. Over 50 years of careful prodding and hacking, and that was the best she'd been able to do. The security system on the container had frustrated her. The one on the missiles terrified her. There had been 16 missiles in that pod originally after all. 3 of them had one of their security protocols tripped during one of her extremely careful hacking sessions, and unleashed cybernetic kill codes and software the likes of which she'd never seen. Every time she had to replace the entirety of the air gaped computer system she'd used to perform the hacks, as they were just...wiped clean. No trace of anything, not even a shred of data. And the missiles whose safety protocols had activated straight up fused, their power systems overloading and destroying every single technological component in them, turning them into just a slug of metal.

The 4th...the 4th was when she'd succeeded. She'd found the protocol that enabled missiles to be dumped out of the magazine of a dying ship, for one last defiant volley, and managed to activate it.

Unfortunately they did not have a Federation IFF system, and the missile had immediately targeted them as soon as it had gotten outside the ship. The only reason they'd survived was that the missile had literally punched it's way out of the secret compartment, passing through the armor plating that could absorb nukes liked it was paper, and flung itself straight into the path of the cloud of hypervelocity debris they had been hiding from. Without the asteroid the Eternal Seeker had been hiding behind to shelter it, the missile had been shredded. Travelling through shattered systems could be incredibly dangerous, but Sarah and Elteria had never expected the lethal, high velocity debris from the Terran Empire's fall to save them one day.

What had terrified them both was that before the missile's reactor containment failed, and it disappeared into a flash of energy, it had absorbed the equivalent of a direct hit from the battle laser in energy, and had been surrounded in the bubble of a shield, one more powerful than the Eternal Seeker's own. And that was before taking into account the damage from literally punching its way out through the ship's armor. Falsifying the sensor readings so that no one onboard knew something had happened had also been interesting, to say the least. Although thankfully they'd been able to explain the hole in the ship's armor, blaming it to a stray piece of debris on a different vector, coming from stars knew where. They'd had to bring in Turral on the missiles to uphold it, but it had worked, and the crew had believed them.

"So I'm not planning to use them." Continued Sarah. "Unless we are beyond fucked. At that point." She shrugged. "We might as well take as many of these bastards with us as we can."

"Right." Elteria sighed. "Let's hope we don't need them."

"Agreed." Sarah looked at the missile pod one more time, and then stepped back, closing down the container, and gesturing for Elteria to put the false bulkhead back into place. "But it pays to be prepared. Those 'TRF' people have surprised us before. I just want to make sure we have surprises of our own ready. Speaking of which, the hyperspace missiles?"

Elteria shrugged, and gestured at the missile racks filling the room.

"As functional as they're going to get. It would take me months to rewrite their entire guidance software, but I've managed to tweak it to a point where it's somewhat acceptable. It still won't accept our long range input, but anything within 60 million kilometers will feel the pain."

Sarah smiled.

"That's good. That's very good. Very well then, let's see if we can find ourselves a transport before we worry ourselves sick about fighting it."

"Aye aye ma'am!" Elteria chuckled. "Besides, I doubt the transport is going to be the problem."

Sarah rose her eyebrow.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I know you. You haven't decided to just sell the information to the Dominion. You're planning to go to the source."

"I..." Sarah sighed. "Yes. But not alone."

"Thought not, otherwise I'd be sending you to the medbay. Why?"

Sarah looked around once more. It was as much a paranoid tick as a delaying tactic to get her thoughts in order.

"Because the Dominion will be desperate. Let's be real here, if the TRF is even half as paranoid as the SLF was, they'll go to high alert as soon as one of their transports fails to report in. I doubt they'll have many defenses around their divinium sites -they can't have that many ships-, but they'll reinforce them as hard as they can. And that means the Dominion will want to get a fleet together and attack them ASAP. And guess who has the most powerful ship, ton for ton, in the entire damned sector?"

"Are you sure that's wise?" Elteria shrugged. "If the Dominion is stretched as thing as it seems, they might lose this fight. Hell, this entire war!"

"They might...and that's why they'll be ready to pay us anything to get us to help."

Elteria's eyes narrowed.

"What are you trying to get from them?"

"Oh nothing, just a simple, ah, percentage."

The AI opened her mouth...and closed it.

"A percentage of the divinium produced?" Sarah smiled, and Elteria shook her head. "You're nuts! They'll never agree to that!"

"They will. If we're their only chance at getting their hands on it before the TRF just blows it all to hell...They will."

"You think they'll just destroy it all?"

"If the choice is between that or letting it fuel the economy and strength of their arch nemesis? Absolutely. We'll just have to hope they aren't paranoid enough to have such charges set up already. But I don't think they would." Her gaze darkened. "Even an organization like these bastards have to be feeling the pinch supporting and arming an uprising throughout the Protectorate."

"If they don't have planet killers."

Sarah laughed.

"If they'd had planet killers, they would have blown up the Core Worlds. It's not like they're very squeamish about killing countless innocents after all."

"Right. Well..." Elteria shook her head and sighed. "I suppose it makes sense. Still, this is a bit..."

"Risky? Indubitably. But it will set us up for life. And, it might even be enough to provide the funds to finish what we started."

Elteria's nod was firmer. After all, one person had escaped their revenge, and even after 6 decades they still hadn't forgotten.

"Of course. Well, the next check on the missiles will take place in half an hour. Should we move to your office?"

"Let's. I'm done here anyway."

While she could have simply asked Elteria about the missiles, she simply had to see them with her own eyes. Even after all this time, they still awed her. And if she was going to use them, and doom her crew to certain death, the least she could do was at least personally check in on instruments that would seal their doom, and simultaneously avenge them.

*****

"Ah! Moonlight! And Eclipse!" Said the man as he rose from behind his desk. "I had heard your ship had arrived, but I was unfortunately detained. I trust your trip was safe?"

Allira nodded as she entered the room, her twin in tow.

"It was, Liberator. " Even here and now, they stuck to code names. They might be in the single most secure location the TRF had, but Liberator's paranoia was legendary. His real identity was mystery to all but his closest confidants, although the twins had gotten a fairly good idea of who he truly was, notably thanks to their mother's intelligence and connections. "Although our mission was unsuccessful, unfortunately."

Liberator winced.

"I noticed. Ah, where are my manners? Please, take a seat." He gestured at the handful of utilitarian, yet comfortable seats in front of his desks, and the twins sat down. Liberator sat down himself, and pulled a simple bottle of liquor out of his desk, with three shot glass. He quickly poured the clear liquid with practiced ease, and slid the glasses to the twins. He grabbed his and held it up. "To absent comrades!"

"To absent comrades!"

They drank, and then Liberator shook his head.

"It is most unfortunate that the operation in Sepia failed. Still, it is not catastrophic. Not yet anyway." He sighed, combing through his hair with his hand. "As long as the Dominion stays distracted, and keeps running around trying to quell the fires, it shouldn't matter. There won't be enough ships to even make use of that base, if they are even able to send them there."

"If the shipyards carry through." Said Annalisa, and Liberator nodded at the black haired twin.

"If they do. But I have received progress reports, and despite a few exceptions, they're excellent. I'm having more trouble restraining the ones who have done their first batch of starships in advance from doing something stupid with them than I am getting the slow ones back on schedule!"

The twins smiled.

"That's very good then." Said Allira.

"Well, not all is rainbows and unicorns of course." He gave them a meaningful gaze, and they nodded, answering in unison.

"Arion."

"Precisely. Overall, the loss of the shipyard isn't extremely painful. But the Dominion now has to suspect what we are planning. And this could make things vastly more painful."

Annalisa shrugged.

"They would have learned about it eventually. They may be corrupt tyrants, but they didn't get to ruling an intergalactic empire by being terminally stupid."

"True. But we had hoped for more time before they started taking pre-emptive measures. Which reminds me, you do know that the Eternal Seeker was responsible for that fiasco, correct?"

The twins nodded.

"We do." Said Allira. "Although they are just mercenaries, they have proven incredibly effective."

"And highly dangerous." Completed her twin.

"So it would seem. Tell me, has your mother learned anything about them?" He held up his hand. "You need not betray her confidence, if you are unsure about any piece of information, feel free to hold it back, or ask for confirmation. After all, we have time." And he had enough spies in their mother's organization to find out eventually anyway. Still, this is what Eterna would expect him to do, and it would deflect suspicion nicely from his own men.

"Thank you Liberator." Said Allira, sincerity plain on her face, and Liberator felt a faint twinge of guilt, quashed in an instant. He had sacrificed too much to let anything get in his way, even though he knew what would most likely happen to the twins, and their mother, once this was over. His friends had made it quite clear. He would have Thaumor, as promised for his service and loyalty, but no traces must remain of certain...arrangements. No matter the cost. "Well, the first thing is-"

Liberator leaned forward, and began listening intently. He might end up having to kill them, but right now the twins were his allies, and his friends. Besides, those mercenaries...something troubled him about them. The same instincts that had gotten him to lead a revolution and survive the sometimes literally cut throat politics of countless rebel groups were trying to tell him something, although what exactly, he hadn't ascertained yet.