Once the war with the Chitoxan was over, humanity and other races once again began to expand outward. Star systems toward the galactic core were being explored and quickly settled. Most of the star systems are uninhabited, ripe for some human or non-human group to try to build a new life there. Some of the systems had, at one time, been inhabited. Prior to attacking Earth and the Earth-Alliance the Chitoxan had either driven out the inhabitants of the systems or had eliminated them. For those systems potential settlers are very cautious after they arrive, just in case the previous inhabitants or the Chitoxan had left some surprises behind.
To serve the rapidly expanding human and non-human settlements, space stations are quickly being built. The Achelous Station is one of those stations. Located equidistant from several star systems, it serves as not only a convenient primary hyperspace hub on the way to these systems but also hosts a joint security effort between Earth and several other like-minded races. Though only thirty percent of construction is complete and only forty percent of the necessary personnel have been posted, it is already receiving passengers and cargo. Commander Roque Mendoza, first officer of the station, quick walks down one of many corridors still under construction, dodging tools, materials, and debris. Fortunately, work has stopped for the day, otherwise he would be dodging workers and moving equipment as well. The commander feels like a hyperactive hummingbird as he flits from one construction problem to another.
A beeping from his wrist communicator interrupts his train of thought.
"Lieutenant Klausener to Commander Mendoza, you copy?"
The commander groans. "I wonder what she wants?" he mumbles. He has enough trouble dealing with the issues caused by all of the incompetent contractors trying to follow what the incompetent planners have ordered after reading the blueprints from the incompetent designers. Now someone from C&C needs him.
He raises his communicator to his mouth. "Mendoza here, What's up, Lieutenant?"
"Sorry to bother you, Sir, but since the captain is busy straightening out an inter-species policy issue I thought you'd want to be involved in this."
"What is this I should be involved in?"
"You familiar with the Phaethon?"
"The sleeper transport? The one carrying those Earth VIPs?"
"That's the one."
"Yeah, scheduled to arrive in five weeks, right?"
"Scheduled is the key word. They arrived two hours ago."
"Great, crappy ending to a crappy day," he thinks to himself.
He speaks into his communicator. "Seriously, they can't be here already. We don't have all of their quarters ready yet."
"I know. We're still processing them through customs and medical. However, I've got a rush on getting their quarters ready. We'll have to do some shuffling but I think we can get everything ready in a few hours."
"Great, thank you, Lieutenant. If you need any help with that let me know. I can give up my quarters if you need me to. You get this worked out I'll buy you a drink when we get off duty."
"Thanks, but that's not why I contacted you. I've got the captain of the Phaethon in meeting room three. I asked him why he got here so early, figuring that they must have left way ahead of schedule and the transportation authorities forgot to notify us via the hyperspace links again. When he told me how they got here so fast I figured I'd better get you to hear this. You ain't going to believe it."
"Okay, give me, uh, twenty minutes to put out the latest fire then I'll be there."
0
Commander Mendoza reaches the station's conference area and sees Lieutenant Klausener standing outside room three. When she sees him she waves and steps back inside the room. The commander walks in and sees her standing next to the small table. He assumes that the person sitting on the other side of the table is the captain of the Phaethon transport ship.
Mendoza closes the door and walks to the table. The Phaethon captain stands.
"Commander Mendoza, Captain Katsumi of the Phaethon."
After exchanging pleasantries the officers sit.
"Captain, please tell the commander what you told me. And please start from the beginning."
The commander can tell that the captain seems a little uncomfortable being here.
"Well, we left the Felicity terminal on the eleventh–"
The commander interrupts. "The eleventh? You mean day before yesterday?"
The Phaethon captain nods. The commander tries to process how this transport, which would take over two weeks of acceleration to almost reach the speed of light followed by three weeks of deceleration in order to reach this station, could arrive in only two days.
"Yes, I know, that's why I'm here, I guess. We were a day out, getting ready to begin the acceleration phase which would take about two weeks. All the passengers were tucked into their sleep pods and things were going as they should. Then I get a report that a ship has appeared on sensors, moving fast. We couldn't identify it until it assumed a parallel course five hundred meters from us. It was a shadow vessel.
"Shadow? That can't be! They're supposed to be gone!" exclaims the commander.
Before the captain can respond the lieutenant speaks. "We showed him pictures of various shadow vessels. He identified their guest as a Chitoxan fighter."
The commander shakes his head and wonders how they survived the encounter.
"So, what happened?" the commander asks.
"It hailed us. Which threw me ... I mean, I had gone through basic training, but hadn't qualified for anything before the war ended. But I read about the fights between us and the shadows. Never did I read of a shadow vessel hailing a ship before attacking. And it hailed us on a normal civilian frequency. I answered, asked what it wanted. Said it wanted supplies–"
"Supplies?" the commander interrupts.
The transport captain pauses. "You know, Commander, nothing personal, but it might be quicker for me to tell my story if you weren't interrupting me."
Instead of taking offense the commander says, "sorry. Been a very hectic day and ... I'll hold my questions until you are done."
Captain Katsumi smiles and nods. "The voice on the other end asked for any spare water, oxygen, and it would take all of the emergency rations we had. To be honest, I was happy to get rid of the rations. They'll keep you alive for a long time but taste like crap. I can get something better here. The voice said in return it would pull us into hyperspace and deliver us here well ahead of schedule.
The captain shakes his head, as if he doesn't believe what he just said. He waits for either the commander or the lieutenant to say something. When neither officer does he continues.
"I was surprised as hell. I mean, normally the shadows just fired at first contact. At least that's what I'd heard. But this one wanted to trade? Then I realized that it would save us five weeks in our journey. The cost savings would be astronomical, considering we wouldn't have to resupply here with the, uh, higher costs. Nothing personal. I asked how we could trust it, after all we had been at war. It stated that it had broken from the Chitoxan before the war was over so it wasn't at war with humanity. After discussing it with my crew we agreed. We sent over the O2 and water. It said it would wait until after it had brought us through hyperspace before accepting the rations. It pulled us in. And then dropped us back into normal space about a day away from here. We handed the rations over and it left."
Commander Mendoza is shocked. He thought after their defeat that the Chitoxan and all of their shadow vessels had left. He didn't realize that some of those damnable things were still around. He'll have to report this to Earth Gov and Earth Fleet.
"That's not all," the lieutenant says. "Tell him the rest."
"Well, while we were in hyperspace there wasn't much for us to do, since the shadow vessel was handling navigation and everything else. So I hailed it, to ask why it was doing this."
The captain pauses.
The commander wants to ask, "and", but he resists the temptation.
"Well, it said that it was a human, man by the name of Albech. Said at one time he had been a Psy Corps telepath who had just arrived on Mars and would have been shipped out in a few days. However, within a day or so he had been kidnapped. Eventually he was inserted into a shadow fighter, named Jayax, and served as its central controller. He cannot remember much after that, but he later found out that he and his ship had been assigned to the K'tan System."
"K'tan System?" the commander says. "I think that's not too far from Sol/Earth by hyperspace. He said that his shadow vessel was stationed there?"
"Yeah, apparently a lot of shadow vessels were assigned there. He said it was a secret Chitoxan base and it was going to be used as a staging area for an invasion of Earth."
"Holy crap," the commander says, but then he realizes that the invasion never occurred, so something must have happened. "But there was no invasion."
"True. Apparently his and several other ships were scrambled from the station when an unidentified ship approached. When they got closer to the unknown ship it was identified as, uh, pbbt, can't remember its name but it was a shadow battle crab that had apparently gone rogue. He and the others were ordered to destroy it."
The lieutenant had not heard this part so both she and commander are surprised.
"The battle crab destroyed the first wave of fighters. Albech said he was in the second wave but before they got close enough to attack something began to interfere in his communication with his Other.
"Other?" the lieutenant asks.
"Yeah. Albech said that the 'Other' was the ship. Apparently they are alive, and the human acts as the brain or a parasite, I didn't quite understand. Anyway, he said there was this voice telling him to free himself from shadow control. Turns out it was the controller of the battle crab. So he did and remembered who he used to be. Then he and another shadow vessel helped the rogue shadow destroy the base on the planet. He described how he and the other shadow vessel escaped after the attack. He thinks that the battle crab must have escaped because he heard rumors about that a battle crab attacking other shadow vessels and Chitoxan-controlled areas."
"Do you know what this other controller's name was?" the lieutenant asks.
"He said it was Dave Walker, if I remember–"
"Walker?" the commander exclaims. The lieutenant turns to see the commander sitting there with a strange look on his face.
The lieutenant asks, "what's wrong, Commander?"
He shakes his head. "Later. Go ahead, continue, Captain Katsumi."
"Well, that's kind of it. Like I said he dropped us off a day's distance from here, he said that way no one could mistake his intent."
"When do you head back?" the commander asks.
"A few days. Since we are so early our scheduled passengers aren't ready to return, if they are even here. But there's almost always more than enough who are on standby. We'll work everything out with our schedulers."
Captain Katsumi neglects to mention that two days out on their return trip the shadow vessel will pull them into hyperspace. The captain had convinced the human controller to do it so he could talk with him some more and see if there is anything he can do to help. Katsumi told Albech that he was willing to track down the ex-controller, to see if he did make it back alive.
"Okay, Captain, I guess we're through here. If you think of anything else please don't hesitate to contact Lieutenant Klausener. However, please make yourself available just in case we need to talk further with you."
"Of course, Commander." Captain Katsumi stands, gives a quick bow, and walks out of the briefing room.
The commander just sits there. Lieutenant Klausener says, "it's pretty hard to believe, though if they left when they said they ...."
She notices that the commander is not listening. "Commander, what's wrong?"
He starts shaking his head. "That name, Dave Walker."
The lieutenant looks at the commander. She can tell that the name has brought back some disturbing memories.
"What about him?" she asks.
"You know I served aboard the Intrepid, right? And you heard of the Battle of Cirellius 6?"
The lieutenant nods. She remembers that it was a well-documented disaster in the war with the Chitoxan. Though a bigger reason for it being so well-known was that the Intrepid had made it home with a large number of survivors.
"You probably heard the official, cleaned up version since it was during the time when we were losing most of our encounters with the Chitoxan. It was more like the Massacre at Cirellius 6. We had one battleship, two heavy cruisers, and six frigates. I was on the Intrepid, commanded by Captain Taylor. We surprised a small group of Chitoxan vessels inside the Cirellius system. I'd never seen them up close before. I quickly learned why there were called shadows. Black as black, evil looking. We heard screams as they attacked, as they fired on us, and whenever we hit one. I still have nightmares about that."
The lieutenant realizes how much what the transport captain said has bothered the commander.
"Hey, you don't need to–"
"Nah, it's okay. I've never really talked about it to anyone before. Anyway, by the time it was over we had one heavy cruiser, the Intrepid, left. Though we had them outnumbered we didn't stand a chance. We were taking such a beating that all but three of their vessels jumped to hyperspace like they weren't needed anymore. The Intrepid and the Shockwave, before she was knocked out of the fight, took out two of the three remaining ships, but ... well, anyway, before the Intrepid was knocked out we got a lucky hit on one of the battle crabs. We sliced off one of those arm things that make it look like a crab or a deformed lobster. The scream we heard in our minds was horrifying, louder than anything we'd heard before. But ... normally when we got a hit on one of the vessels they'd fire back almost immediately. But this one didn't do that. It just stopped moving and firing. It hung in space for several minutes."
"I was in engineering by then, trying to help get the engines back online, so this is what I was told later, by the captain and some others who were on the bridge. While the shadow vessel remained motionless, the Intrepid started receiving calls from all over for help. There were life pods, lifeboats, sections of fuselage where the emergency bulkheads had sealed the survivors in, all floating around and all of them were radioing for help. Captain Taylor was tearing his hair out in frustration because he couldn't do anything."
"Then, the shadow vessel began to move. The captain said it circled around one of the life pods. The captain could hear their transmission, they were screaming for help, their hatch had been damaged and air was leaking out. The captain could only watch the shadow vessel fire on the pod."
"Jeeez, the bastard."
"I know, but the pod wasn't destroyed. The son of a gun had hit the hatch and fused it, sealing the leak. I won't bore you with the rest. One night, once we are off-duty and I've had a drink ... or four, ask me about it. The shadow vessel ended up pushing all of the survivors over to the Intrepid. Then it helped us get back home. There were about thirty-four hundred officers and crew in our battle group. Thanks to that ... whatever ... over twenty-five hundred of us got back. The captain said that the 'controller' of the shadow vessel had explained what had happened to him. Once they got back they tried to get the human out but he was too physically tied with the shadow vessel. We couldn't do anything to help him so he left. You can guess his name."
"Walker?"
The commander nods. "Captain Taylor said that he was going to Earth Fleet and let them know what he had learned. The Intrepid was decommissioned and I was assigned to the Bulwark. I heard later that Captain Taylor was killed in an accident. I tried to find out what happened but it was classified for some stupid reason. I don't know if he told his superiors what he knew before he died or not."
Mendoza sits quitely for a few moments. Finally, he says, "we'll need to talk to the captain about this. Then we'll have to report it to command. Not sure I want to, but if they find out about this outside of normal channels there'll be hell to pay."
The commander sits there, shaking his head and thinking about the friends he had lost that day.
0
"But what can you do?" Albech asks.
Several days after revealing his interaction with the shadow vessel Jayax, Captain Katsumi had taken the Phaethon from the Achelous station to begin its journey home. Two days into the trip, just before they were to begin the acceleration phase of the journey, they were hailed by Jayax. After being pulled into hyperspace Captain Katsumi had hailed Albech and asked him to telepathically contact him. Though he trusted his crew, he knew that word of their meeting with the shadow vessel would get out. He wanted to have a private conversation with the controller of the shadow vessel to be sure that any discussions they had would remain private.
"I'm not sure," the captain says. "Maybe I can put out some feelers, try to find out if this Dave Walker did make it back and where he might be."
"But what could he do? I'm a prisoner in this ship, nothing personal Jayax, just like he is. With the war being over he would have to go into hiding like me."
"I don't know. Maybe he got lucky, found someone he could trust and work with. That person might be able to set up a meeting with him. It wouldn't hurt to try."
There is a long pause. Finally, Albech says, "I would be very grateful for that. Though, you might be in danger. Dave told us how many telepaths had been kidnapped and taken to serve the Chitoxan, including him. Those responsible might want to hide their identities and would do anything to avoid exposure. Maybe ... maybe I can teach you how to close off your mind to prevent telepaths from extracting this information. That would help protect you. Then once you learn how to do that we can think of a way for us to meet if you do find Dave."
0
Lieutenant Željko Živanović, 'Z' to his friends, patrols the concourse on Victorious station. He's not necessarily looking for trouble, but that is why he is there, to make sure trouble doesn't start. With the Chitoxan war being over the problems that had been pushed aside because of the war are now back. And while Victorious is far removed from the sources of many of the problems, like colonial independence, mining conflicts, and inter-species issues, they always seem to find their way to his station. While deep in thought he walks past the Silver Tongue bar. Realizing he just missed one of the gathering points for many of the station's troublemakers he comes to a stop. He hasn't had a chance to check out the bar for several days. Often times just by walking in he can cause those who have something to hide to do something to raise his suspicions. Though he would not have probable cause to arrest them he can definitely keep an eye on them, even setting up the station's security AI to monitor them whenever they are in public areas. He's prevented several small issues from festering into large problems by doing this.
He turns around and walks to the entrance. He takes several steps into the bar and then stops. He quickly scans the bar. Over the years he has developed the ability of turning his head in one direction while turning his eyes in the opposite direction. Sometimes, when a guilty person thinks 'Z' isn't looking in their direction she or he will do something stupid. Unfortunately, it seems that no one in the bar has a guilty conscience. 'Z' does notice that the back corner of the bar is darker than normal, like someone had deactivated the overhead light. He sees someone sitting in that very dark corner. Wondering why that person wants to sit in the dark the lieutenant decides to walk over and ask.
He stops in front of the booth. "Hello."
The person nods in response. A baseball-type cap helps hide the stranger's face.
"Like sitting in the dark? Makes one think you might be trying to hide."
The person takes a drink from the mug. The lieutenant catches a whiff of root beer. The mysterious person puts the mug down and lets out a satisfied sigh.
"I can't imagine why I might be trying to hide. I just have Psy Corps, a bunch of space pirates, and maybe half of Earth Gov after me. Nope, no reason to hide that I can think of."
The lieutenant takes a step forward. He can barely see the thin and pale man sitting in the dark booth. The man looks up at the lieutenant. The lieutenant smiles.
"Well, maybe if you gained a little weight and spent some time under a tanning lamp they might not be able to recognize you."
"I'll take those ideas under consideration. How you doing, Z?"
"I'm okay. How about you, Dave? It's nice seeing you, but I'm a little surprised you're here."
"I'm fine. I'm incognito. That's why I'm wearing the hat." Dave touches the brim of his cap.
"It's not working very well."
Dave laughs. "Obviously."
Z laughs also. "Well, I think you might be okay. I'm not aware of any Psy Corps cops lurking around. Though, I hear they've started using a lot of informants to keep them up-to-date on what happens out in the far reaches of the galaxy. Though ...."
"Though? Though what?" Dave asks.
"Well, I've heard that someone has been looking for you. Been a little too open about it from what I've heard."
"I'm not surprised, there are a lot of people looking for me."
"Nah, it's not what you think. It's some captain of a long range civilian transport. He won't say why but he's been asking around about you. He was even here, oh, a month or so ago. He had taken a co-pilot gig on a transport that brought a load of Earth muckity mucks to the station. Dropped hints that he was looking for you or anyone who might know you. He definitely got the word out. Though I think he might have attracted some unwanted attention."
"What is his name?"
"A Captain Katsumi. He normally captains a sleeper transport that does a five-week trip that ends at Achelous Station."
"Achelous?"
"A newer station, closer to the Galactic core."
"The name isn't familiar. Can't imagine why he'd want to talk with me. I'll keep him in mind, but I don't know when I'll get over to, what station was it?"
"Achelous."
0
Captain Katsumi sits at a small table in one of only two bars on the partially completed Achelous station. As he sips on his cocktail he wonders why, when this station is basically the hub for several star systems that see a great deal of interstellar travel, there are only two bars here, and the one he is in has the weird name of 'The Raucous Rocketeer'. He looks around the bar at the really kitschy-looking decorations. He shakes his head and takes another sip.
He also wonders why an attractive woman at the bar keeps looking at him. Not staring, but he seems to catch her looking at him every time he glances in her direction. He's not interested in her, he just wants to watch the basketball games on the wall-mounted monitors behind her. Of course, he doesn't mind too much that she seems interested in him, since she is nice-looking and looks very fit. If he weren't married he might be tempted. But since he is he's not. It also probably wouldn't be a good idea anyway, since he is way out on the edge of human civilization. No telling what kind of trouble he could get into, He goes back to sipping his drink. As he finishes it a shadow appears on his table.
Thinking it might be one of the waitresses he says, "I'll have another."
"Maybe you'd like to buy me one too?" he hears a woman say a little too loudly.
Looking up he sees that it is the woman who has been giving him the eye. Instead of having her hair up in a pony tail it is now flowing about her head. The new look almost causes Tsutsui to have an impure thought. He quickly shunts that to the side.
"Oh, well ...." he starts to say.
"For starters you could ask me to have a seat."
"Uh, sure." He motions for her to take a seat. She sits and looks at Tsutsui closely. He can tell she is looking at his uniform.
"So, are you a captain on one of those big Earth Fleet battleships?" she says sweetly.
He laughs. "Not hardly. I'm captain of the Phaethon, a sleeper shuttle. It's not nearly as exciting as commanding a battleship."
The captain thinks that the woman will get up and walk away once she finds out he just captains a transport ship. Instead she leans forward.
"Well, that sounds just as interesting. I mean, they don't just make any ole person a captain, right?"
Captain Katsumi is beginning to get suspicious. He knows he's not the most dashing man in uniform, and being the commanding officer of a sleeper shuttle is definitely not very glamorous nor very financially rewarding. The fact that this woman is acting like he is dashing and his job is glamorous makes him think that she is looking to conduct some sort of business transaction involving money and a certain unsavory activity.
"Look, ma'am. I'm flattered that an attractive woman like you is talking with me, but I'm happily married and I'm very tired from my trip here. Nothing personal, mind you."
The woman doesn't say anything, instead she reaches across the table and takes his hands into hers. She squeezes them and gives him a very attractive smile.
Before he can extricate his hands from her surprisingly strong grip she says in a soft voice, "Ah, that's sweet of you. I'm sure your wife would be very happy to have heard you say that. However, you're way off. Just keep smiling and nodding your head. I understand you have been asking around for a Dave Walker. That true?"
His eyes narrow a bit. But he nods his head and smiles. "So? It's no secret."
"True. The secret is why you would be asking. You don't know him, right? He doesn't owe you money, right? You're not seeking his autograph are you?"
The captain shakes his head and laughs. "No. I'm kind of asking for a friend."
"And this friend is ...?"
"...wanting to stay anonymous."
"I see. But if your friend wants to stay anonymous how will this Dave Walker guy know if you are being sincere or have a more dubious intent?"
Tsutsui hasn't really thought about that. It is kind of a catch-22. As he considers the strange woman's question the woman can see he is trying to come up with an answer.
"I tell you what. I may be able to help you, no guarantees though. But of course, you'll have to trust me. I'm going to get up and leave. If you trust me wait a few minutes then get up and leave the bar. Turn to port and just start walking. If I see you I'll come over and we can continue our discussion. If I don't see you then you continue your search on your own."
She stands. A little too loudly she says, "well, okay, if you aren't interested you aren't interested. Your loss."
She turns and walks out of the bar in a huff. Every male in the bar, human and some non, watch her walk out. Many have impure thoughts as they watch the beautiful woman exit the bar. A few have thoughts that have nothing to do with her physical attractiveness.
The captain sits there, wondering about what just happened. He thinks he should ignore her.
"Got to be a set up," he thinks to himself. "Though, since when do prostitutes tell someone to 'turn to port'? Oh well, in for a penny ...."
He waits a few minutes and then waves the server over. He fakes a yawn before she stops next to his table. "I'd like to pay my tab."
Presented with the electronic pad showing his bill he quickly enters his id, using his station account to pay the bill. He finishes the cocktail and stands. He stretches his neck and then slowly walks to the entrance. He stops and removes his cap. Scratching his head he looks left and then right. Putting his cap on he turns to the left and starts walking.
He hasn't gone more than a few steps when he senses someone stepping next to him.
"So," a soft voice says. "You trust me after all. How nice."
The captain and the strange lady continue walking. They leave the bar and restaurant section and head toward the elevators. Before they reach the elevator lobby Katsumi sees that two other corridors, one on the left and one on the right, run into the same area. Suddenly the woman lets out a strong curse. He sees her looking at the corridor to the right. He sees two rough-looking men standing there. The woman and the captain come to a stop. He takes a quick glance down the corridor on the left. Three more menacing-looking men stand there. He turns to walk back the way they came, at least he does until he sees four dangerous-looking men walking toward them.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" one of the four men walking up behind them says. He and the other three stop when they are about a dozen feet from the captain and the woman.
"What do you want?" the woman says. "I'm trying to work here."
"Don't worry, bitch, it's not you we want to talk to."
"Me?" the captain says. "What did I do?"
Though worried and not wanting any trouble the captain still starts to ball up his fists.
"You've been asking a lot of questions about some guy named Dave Walker. The people who pay us want to know why."
"None of your business–"
The woman interrupts the captain. "Look, I was about to score big, why don't you look him up after we're done."
The men snicker. Their leader says, "would you be quiet. Maybe if you're nice to us we'll just carve him up a bit ...."
The woman takes a step forward. As she does she uses one arm to smoothly move the captain behind her. She then flexes her shoulders and takes up a defensive position.
"How about turning around and walking away, while you still are able to."
The surprised captain waits for the men to either laugh or to rush them. They do neither. Instead, they stand there, unmoving.
The woman relaxes. "About time," she says to apparently no one. "I was about to demonstrate why it's never a good idea to pick on an innocent and helpless woman."
The captain hears a hearty laugh. A tall, slightly thin and pale-looking man walks toward them down the right-hand corridor. He ignores the two men as he steps past them. Captain Katsumi looks back and forth at the nine unmoving men. He can't understand what is wrong with them.
"Innocent woman, maybe. I've never considered a Space Marine to be helpless, especially a female one, Captain Ryan."
Captain Katsumi's eyes open wide. "Captain Ryan? I've heard of– wait, so you're not a hooker?"
Now it is Captain Ryan's turn to laugh. "Hmm, I'm not sure if I should be flattered or not."
"Ah, leave the poor guy alone. Let's take a walk, this way," the pale man says as waves his arm down the corridor.
He pauses for a moment while he sends a few suggestions to the men who had confronted Captains Ryan and Katsumi. He then starts down the corridor, continuing to ignore the two unmoving men that he passes. Captains Katsumi and Ryan walk after him. As they disappear down the corridor the nine men slowly turn and move against the wall. Once against the wall they slide to the floor and close their eyes.
After moving down the corridor and turning this way and that until Captain Katsumi becomes totally lost, Katsumi, Captain Ryan, and the stranger find themselves in a part of the station still under construction. Since it is late in the 'day' the area is empty of workers.
"Captain Tsutsui Katsumi? I hear you have been asking about me. My name is Dave Walker."
"Really? Oh, wow, I've been trying to find you for some time."
"I have heard that as well. I'm curious as to why."
Dave quickly tries to peak into Tsutsui's mind. He finds his initial probe blocked. Dave's suspicions about this captain increase.
"Ah, it seems you've been dealing with a telepath. Or perhaps you are a telepath, like from Psy Corps?"
"Oh no, I'm not a telepath. The one I dealt with did do something, I'm not sure what, and said that it should prevent most telepaths from finding out why I've been looking for Dave, uh, looking for you."
Before Dave can ask again the captain says, "oh, by the way, Albech says hi."
Dave's eyes open wide. "Oh my God, you've talked with ... is he okay?... he must be if he ... where is he?"
Before, Captain Katsumi wasn't sure this really was Dave Walker. However, this person's reaction to the shadow controller's name shows that he could be no one else.
"Yes, he and Domash are fine."
Dave almost faints as he is overcome by emotion. He wobbles a bit before he can control himself. It takes a moment before he can compose himself.
"I'm sorry, it's just that I didn't know what happened to them. I was afraid they had been killed or were retaken by the shadows. So Albech was the reason you are looking for me?"
The captain nods.
Dave steps forward and puts his hands on the captain's shoulders. "Let's go to Kyrilles. We can talk freely there. You have to tell me everything."
0
"So he traded hyperspace passage for basic supplies. That's definitely different."
"Yes. We couldn't believe it ourselves. Even now, it's hard for me to believe that it actually happened."
Dave Walker, Captain Ryan, and Captain Katsumi sit in Kyrilles' command center. Katsumi has just finished telling the same story he told to the officers on the Achelous station plus what happened on his return trip. Claudia Scoggins walks in, carrying a tray of mugs from the small galley.
Katsumi catches a whiff of the mugs' content. "Root beer?" Katsumi says.
"Some of the best," Dave says. "I have a confidential contact on Victorious station. He orders an extra keg every so often. One of my few vices."
After a few sips of the root beer Dave puts his mug down.
"Did Albech or Domash tell you if they know of any more shadow vessels who broke free? There were quite a few who helped force the Chitoxan out, but I lost track of them."
"No, but I have a feeling they weren't telling me everything. They did say that my ship wasn't the first they traded supplies for hyperspace passage with. Though, if they are trading with other vessels I haven't heard about it."
"I can't imagine two small shadow vessels can go through supplies that fast. There must be others. Of course, the question would be where are they. The Chitoxan had bases and depots all over the place, and I doubt that Earth Fleet or the other races have found them all."
"Well, they told me they are using the old K'tan system as their home base for now. Once Earth Fleet finished their investigation and salvaged what they could they've pretty much left it alone. Earth Fleet did leave behind a few warning beacons due to the high level of radiation left behind by the reactor overloads. They figure that most civilian salvage operators would stay away, at least until the levels drop a bit. They did tell me that they aren't always there, so it might be a hit or miss thing."
"Well," Dave says, "if everyone is okay about this we can take a trip there to see if we get lucky."