The main viewscreen soon filled with a dark, gloomy, forbidding swirling green storm. The stars were barely visible—as stars, that is—at this speed. That's alien technology alright! Energy readings are fluctuating! Aaen noted, making the necessary adjustments to the Translight drive on his computer screens. He started to ask himself how fast they were catching up to their. . .guest. The bridge was filled with the subtle, pronounced rumbling growl of the Translight drive, and a flurry of activity from one bridge officer to the next, exchanging reports. .gathering signatures, completing any given number of high-priority tasks pertaining to getting the Station back to 100%! Aaen found his thoughts shifting between adjusting the Translight power levels, to the security investigation about the data leak, to finding that intruder, and personally firing the shot that would land the intruder in-the-BRIG! He clenched his fists, so hard that he felt his short fingernails almost digging into his palms. He relaxed his hands. . . We'll find the intruder, he told himself. The Orion Syndicate's clever, but they—like anyone else—are just as capable of making tactical and strategic mistakes. . . They are tactically formidable, and cunning—to say the least!—but there's always another side to the coin, and sometimes that coin toss gets caught by the victim! And when the victim is coming to your DOORSTEP in a freakin' fully-armed and operational SPACE STATION!. . . Intelligence would be responsible for the. .interrogation. . . Yeah, that was something he decided at that moment that he didn't want to be anywhere near. Not that the interrogation process would be at all hard to watch. .well, depending on whether or not on how well lunch was sitting with oneself. Well, maybe she's not fully operational just yet. .but I'd be willing to bet she will be before we reach the Orion Triangle. . . He grinned. Even if the Orions are in-fact responsible for what happened to the Station earlier, Magellan can take on a fleet! Even in her current operational condition! He thought defiantly. He started wondering just how good of a shot Strategic Operations was. Otherwise, Aaen recalled, Magellan has a few—surprises—on board. Actually—about a-hundred-fifty of 'em!. Commandos. Has the Admiral taken them into account? The Syndicate is a bunch of loosely-allied pirates with a common agenda, which is why they would undoubtedly maintain a sense of camaraderie, so they would have coordinated their efforts as closely as possible—or as far as they are willing to—to ensure they all get what they want. . . Maybe Translight might not be such a good idea? If they knew about Translight , they would know a Rundown with only Warp capability wouldn't get far before it was caught. . . Could they have laid a trap for us? He looked down and left at the Executive Officer.
"Exec, any eyes on the Rundown, yet?"
"I'm still scanning, Commander. So far, nothing yet. We may be traveling too fast for the short and long-range sensors to get any exact readings,"
"Are you serious?" the captain asked.
"Yeah! We're traveling so fast right now sensor readings at really any distance are sketchy at best,"
The Admiral looked at Aaen, "Commander, how long until we reach the border of the Orion Triangle?"
Aaen did a navigational scan, "—E-T-A. .approximately ten minutes, Admiral,"
"Okay, so if we're ten minutes away using Translight, what kind of lead would that give the Rundown at maximum warp?"
Aaen turned his head, "Well, given the Rundown's technical specifications. . ." he tilted his head right and left a few times in thought, and then said, "Even if all its power was diverted to its warp drive, live support, sensors, and communications. . .not long. There's no way a Rundown's going to out-run anything with or using Translight. The Orion Syndicate would want to ensure that they get what they took from us, Admiral. They'll want to keep in touch with their operative if they were the ones that hired it,"
"So would the Rotelans," said Intelligence Officer. What do you know, Intelligence? Something you want to tell us? Did you get an encrypted message of some kind?
"So where would that put us in the pursuit?" the captain asked Aaen.
Wide-eyed, Aaen replied, "Should put us right behind them, any time now!"
"Exec?" the Admiral asked.
"Still no clear readings, Admiral. But if the Commander's right, we might want to slow down,"
Aaen's center screen flashed thrice. He scanned the navigational information, and then said, "We're eight minutes away from our destination!"
"—Confirmed!" said Executive Officer.
"Okay, what do we know about the space ahead?" the Admiral asked.
"As far as sensors can tell, looks like it's empty!"
"We're following the Rundown's course, exactly!" Aaen said, noticing Lieutenant Mars, the Intelligence Officer, was rushing to the front of the bridge to collect a document that had been generated from a small port next to the Engineer's station.
"What is that, Lieutenant?" the Admiral asked.
"I don't know, yet. I have to decode it,"
"Okay. Hurry,"
"Coded messages are usually high-priority, Admiral," Aaen mumbled.
"How are you doing, Commander?" the Doctor asked with a concerning tone, pulling out a scanner and scanning him.
"I'm fine. Why?"
"You look a little stressed to me. Are you experiencing dizziness, fatigue. .?" the Doctor didn't display any look of concern about the readings coming from the scanner.
Aaen actually found himself thinking about how to respond! He started wondering if the Doctor was trying to be funny, or find an excuse to tell him to take a break. This is a military space station, on high alert. I'm staying at my post! "Nope! I'm feeling just fine. Thanks, Doc," Doc—?
"Okay, well, take two of these, these will help make sure your stress levels are lower," Aaen was handed two round chewables, one blue, one red, marked with a white "M". He popped them in his mouth, nodded thanks, and then chewed and then swallowed—Mm! Chocolate!
"Commander," Aaen looked left to find the Admiral standing next to him.
"Admiral," he acknowledged.
"How is it we haven't caught up to the Rundown yet?"
Aaen shrugged his shoulders and displayed a befuddled look, "No idea, I thought we would have caught up to it by now,"
"Why would we not have seen it by now?"
"Either the intruder is really good at masking the Rundown warp trail—or even its warp signature, it rendezvoused with another ship that was much faster than it and then took off, it could be hiding somewhere, it may have been destroyed"
"Destroyed?"
"Yeah. The intruder could have beamed aboard another ship and then destroyed the Rundown. I don't think that's very likely, though. There would have been debris, and we would have detected it long by now,"
"So what's most likely to have happened?"
"I'd be willing to bet that—regardless of whoever hired the intruder—they've got a plan, and it didn't involve making the intruder easy to find," But it may have overlooked the Rundown transponder!
"Captain! The chief of security's trying to contact the bridge!"
"Connect the line. On speakers!"
"—You're on!"
"Chief? What do you have for us?"
"Captain. So, we've been investigating the computer core hack. . It looks as though whoever did this bypassed the primary security grid using a replicator, which masked the intruder's break-in. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. They used some kind of ID scrambler to confuse the main computer into thinking the intruder was just another computer terminal. That's why the main computer didn't alert the bridge sooner. The data download wasn't authorized, that's where they went wrong,"
"Can you tell me what data was lost?"
He relayed the question—and then he replied, "They took the data about the Vortex!"
"Those Intelligence-gathering tactics are consistent with the Orions, Admiral!" Aaen declared. "But they don't use ID scramblers!" Could the Orions be working with another government?
"Who uses those scramblers?" Lieutenant Malcolm asked.
"The only aliens I know that use them are the Rotelans,"
The Admiral gasped and then said, "Okay. Chief, report to the bridge," Aaen sensed a sharp change in the emotional atmosphere on the bridge; the bridge suddenly felt like the temperature became cooler, and he sensed heightened anxiety.
"Copy that. On my way,"
"Admiral!" Lieutenant Mars called.
The Admiral walked to her and looked at something on her desk that she was pointing to. The Admiral combed her fingers through her hair and then returned to her chair with the document. The captain looked at her and was gestured to approach her. They both examined the document—then the looks on each of their faces nearly completely matched. Uh-oh. Something's not right, Aaen carefully observed.
"Commander, Strategic Operations, Intelligence, Counter-Intelligence and Chief of Operations, come here!"
A small crowd gathered around the Admiral.
"Intelligence just sent this encrypted message. Apparently, this is a lot worse than we thought,"
*****
Steve H. told Jordan Foutin, "You are the next Tom Clancy. You really are a gifted writer."
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