Page 17 of Wrath
“Well then, if you have nothing to hide, you should have no problem submitting to a confirmation from our Scelk outside,” I replied with a daring smile.
Her face immediately closed off while the others gasped in outrage. “I have committed no crime that obligates me to subject myself to this invasion of my privacy,” Marcelle replied. “As per the law, you may not coerce me into such a course of action.”
“Then you will be escorted to the brig until this investigation is over,” I deadpanned.
“As you will,” Marcelle said with a shrug.
“Please, leave your weapons here,” I ordered. “Dread will escort you back to the ship.”
Marcelle pinched her lips together, removed her weapons, and dropped them on top of the containers on the hovering platform before heading towards the lift.
“Hold on,” I said, raising my left arm to launch the proximity scanner on my arm band. I moved it slightly in front of her.
“I have a cybernetic arm,” Marcelle volunteered, guessing what I was investigating. “And, as you’ve certainly noticed, an electronic eye. I got injured during a mission, and the Coalition fixed me. My arm is civilian grade.”
I didn’t comment, while the computer in my armband scanned the Coalition database to confirm the ID of her cybernetic arm model was indeed a civilian prosthetic, devoid of any of the military upgrades that could present a security issue. I performed the same with her eyes, the results for both deeming them inoffensive.
“You may proceed,” I said, gesturing with my head for them to get in the lift.
“I don’t trust them,”Dread mind spoke to me.“I’m not usually one to encourage breaking the rules, but I think Varnog should read them all regardless, especially her.”
“I concur. Tell Varnog to proceed and to be discreet about it. I would rather not have to face the Coalition Council for violating their members’ personal rights,”I replied, feeling somewhat remorseful at breaking the rules.
Respecting other people’s privacy was the foundation of the trust within the Vanguard. However, these people had already absconded with multiple Jadozor eggs. If we failed to recover them before they hatched, this could bring about the apocalypse on whichever planet or moon they ended up on.
“Understood,”Dread said, following the four crewmates into the lift.
As soon as the door closed, I turned around to look at the massive underground base and began exploring.
Chapter 6
Kwan
Ilanded our frigate Defiance next to the Nomad. With some reluctance, I pulled away from the camera feeds to disembark the ship alongside Myriam and Nathalie. At least, the Coalition crewmembers had not turned violent, except for that one idiot. Still, a terrible sense of unease kept knotting my insides. Something smelled fishy.
We disembarked at the same time that Varnog stepped out of the Nomad, having already secured the first crewmates in the brig.
“Perfect timing, ladies,” Varnog said as we approached. “Nathalie and Kwan, I think you both need to go check all the loot they have hauled in their cargo hold. We need to be certain it is safe to transport them back to our own ship.”
“On it,” I replied, while Nathalie nodded.
“I’m going to check their computers and com system to see if I can track down any of the people they’ve been talking to, or where that chaser has gone to,” Myriam said.
“Excellent. I’ll bring these goods to our ship,” Varnog said, gesturing with his chin at the hovering platform laden with bio samples and technological devices that the crew they had apprehended had brought out of the lift.
We split up, everyone heading towards their respective tasks. I hated not knowing how Wrath and Dread were faring below. I had landed our ship when he was still in the middle of his conversation with the two humans and the Lenusian.
Forcing myself to focus on my duty, I took in the Nomad with a mix of awe and disbelief. While our own vessel, Defiance, was the epitome of high tech and class, the Nomad was no cheap knock off. The top-of-the-line transport vessel was of recent make with all the best upgrades a non-military vessel could hope for. If the crew were indeed defectors or ex-Coalition staff turned rogue, they would have pulled the most amazing heist by snagging this multi-billion-dollar vessel, on top of the loot recovered in the base.
Under normal circumstances, I would have wanted to take a tour of this gem. Even though I wasn’t crazy about flying large vessels, exploring their insides was always a great treat. Instead, I made a beeline for the cargo hold with Nathalie tagging along. Several biohazard containers, equipment that I couldn’t even begin to imagine what purpose they served, as well as Coalition supplies and weapons that I was pretty certain shouldn’t have been aboard this ship, already filled the hold. This evidence erased any doubt that still lingered in my mind that the crew had gone rogue.
Thankfully, they had handled everything with care and properly secured them within the hold. Nevertheless, Nathalie and I proceeded to transfer it all back onto an empty hover platform. Halfway through our task, Linette strutted past the entrance of the hold, probably on her way to the ship hangar, to disable their shuttles and chasers.
We came out of the Nomad just as Dread was exiting the lift with the four remaining coalition crew members walking in front of him. It troubled me that Wrath was not with him. Although the Warrior was a big boy who could perfectly handle himself, I couldn’t help worrying that he was down there all by his lonesome.
The Coalition crew immediately tensed upon seeing Varnog standing by. The Scelk looked at each of them in turn, a taunting expression I had grown familiar with plastered all over his face.
“Stay out of our minds, Scelk,” said a tall female with a French accent. “The Vanguard may have welcomed you, but the Coalition does not recognize you as an ally. It also doesn’t grant you any right over us unless we’ve shown open aggression.”