The
station had received word of the boarding. Sirens blared and lights flashed all
over the large meeting room that Neil, Nassu and the others stood in. Soldiers
and personnel were running franticly back and fourth through the connecting halls
and corridors. Admiral Silo reached out abd caught a passing officer by the
arm.
“What
happened? What’s going on,” yelled the admiral over the blaring alarms.
“I don’t
know sir, he replied. “There seems to be something wrong with Fearless!”
“The Fearless?”
exclaimed Nassu.
“The Fearless?”
echoed Admiral Rovek.
Suddenly the station gave a terrific jolt and Nassu, Rovek, and everyone else was thrown to the floor. Immediately jumping to his feet again, Nassu dashed to one of the windows and looked out side just in time to see the Fearless come in two. He stared in disbelief as his grand idol was falling into ruins. The others ran over to join him.
“I’ve just received word,” said a senior security guard approaching the group from behind. “It’s the rebels! They’ve destroyed the fearless and are escaping in a transport craft.”
“Then pursue it,” hissed Captain Kirzza, angrily.
“Already on it, sir!”
Just
then, two Corin destroyers rose from the planet’s atmosphere and began to
pursue the renegade transport. As the two vessels approached the small craft,
it released a capsule towards its pursuers. Suddenly the capsule detonated and
a massive subspace shock wave was released. The destroyers banked sharply to
avoid the shockwave but to no avail. The shockwave hit them, taking their
sensors off-line and sending them careening out of control. With a flash the
transport entered hyperspace and was gone. Nassu watched the whole scene in
utter silence.
“Stand
down red alert,” ordered the guard through his communicator to the station’s
computer.
Rovek
whirled around and seized the guard by the neck. “How could you let this
happen,” he bellowed in Coranese. Stunned, the guard struggled for words.
“I—I,” he
stammered. Rovek’s pupils changed from oblong ovals to mere slits. The guard
began to tremble with fear.
“Admiral,
please—,” began Kirzza on the guard’s behalf. “SILENCE, captain,” bellowed
Rovek. He tightened his claws around the guard’s neck.
“What say you,” he demanded turning his attention back to the hapless guard. “T—They were w—wearing stealth suits and their c—craft was cloaked, Admiral. I—if we had known what t—to l—look for, we could have recalibrated our s—sensors. B—but it was so sudden I—We…
“ADMIRAL”, Silo cut in. “If you kill this man you will be
court-martialed fair and simple! The Coalition will not stand for it and
I don’t think your people will either! This may be a corin station and
it may have been a corin battle cruiser that was destroyed, but you are still a
Coalition officer so I suggest you act like one!”
Rovek
paused for a moment and then released his grip. The guard crumpled to the
floor, gasping for air. Rovek sat down and put his head in his hands in despair.
“Who are
the rebels,” inquired Neil.
“They are renegade corins who have broken off from our government,” replied Kirzza. “They have been conducting terrorist activities against us ever since we signed the peace treaty with the Rowans a little over a year ago. This is the worst attack they’ve ever carried out.”
“But what’s wrong with a peace treaty with the Rowans? The Rowans are an honorable people.”
“They
haven’t always been that way. Two centuries ago. They invaded and occupied our
planet where they committed many atrocities against us and used us as slaves to
mine their sacred, green, Spark Gems on their desert home world.
About
fifty years later there was a massive revolt and we eventually drove them all
the way back to Row. Destroying over half their grand fleet in the process. But
we didn’t stop there. We proceeded to release a biological weapon into their
atmosphere, which killed millions of rowans.
We’ve
been at each other’s throats ever since; that is, as you know, up until King
O-d’omarokan came to power on Row and helped us defeat the Subian Empire’s
conquest of Romaan.”
“Oh yes.
Our coalition was almost destroyed in that conflict. The Rowans arrived and
saved us at the last minute. I always knew that the Rowans refused to join us
at first because they didn’t like the Corin but I had no idea it was so
serious. Well, didn’t both you and the Rowans exchange formal apologies and
billions of credits worth of reparations?”
“Yes, we
did, but some still can't forget the past. And it looks like they don’t want
to forget it either.”
By this
time Nassu had broken from his trance and after Neil and Kirzza had finished
talking, spoke up. “Did you see that shockwave? That looked like a Tussarian
weapon,” he said. Suddenly Rovek jumped up from his seat with renewed fury.
“The
Tussarians,” he hissed. “I knew it! They’ve never respected our laws or our
sovereignty! And they have never had any qualms about helping our enemies. Some
of our senators have always suspected the cowards from the very beginning, but
the prime minister refuses to take action because of lack of “evidence”. Well,
I say this is evidence enough!”
“Now
Rovek,” Silo cut in. “There are several other species in this sector with
similar weaponry one or two of whom may also have reasons for helping your
rebels. The Vrikili are always looking for more ways to fill their fat coffers.
And the Kana love to pick fights with other species. But you can be assured
that this event will be thoroughly investigated by and official Coalition
inquiry.”
“The
Coalition council looked into the matter before; when they were still limiting
their targets to lone ships and civilian facilities and the council said there
is not enough evidence,” Rovek grumbled. “Just like our prime minister.”
“It seems
this time though that we may have more to go on. First we should look at any
sensor readings on that shock wave.”
“Didn’t
you see? The destroyers’ sensors were knocked out.”
“Yes, but the wave was still in range of the station’s sensors. Since the shock wave didn’t quite reach far enough to knock them out, they most likely retain the complete readouts. The rebels made a mistake by attacking a military facility with such extensive sensors. We may yet turn this tragedy in our favor.
"This tragedy is in no one's favor," Rovek said gloomily.
"Yes, I understand, Admiral. Forgive my wording. I should say we may yet get to the bottom of this."..........................................................................
(That’s I’ll I’ve
written so far)