Or Die Alone

The officer's expression darkened as he mulled over what he had been told.

"Then the situation is indeed urgent, I will give you full access to our facilities, Agent. You may use our communications equipment to send a message to FleetCom. In the meantime, what do you want us to do about the civilian freighter?"

"The pilot is to be fully compensated, fill up his tank and reimburse him for any delays or contract violations he incurs as a result of going off-course. Just put my badge number on any of the documents you have to fill out and it will be taken care of by the agency."

"Understood, and your...friend here?" He gestured to Lorza who had stood silently during the conversation, unused to being in this kind of environment perhaps. "Was she deployed along with you, or did you pick her up on the way?"

"She's a civilian, she stays with me for the time being."

"Very well," the officer said, standing and gesturing for Boyd to follow him. "If you'll come this way, I'll accompany you to the communications room and ensure that our operator gives you immediate access to the quantum relay. If the situation is as dire as you believe it to be, we have no time to waste on protocol and clearance."

"I appreciate it, I'll make sure to mention your name when I give my report, Officer..."

"Richards," the officer replied, obviously thrilled at the prospect of being involved in the proceedings and doing a poor job of concealing his enthusiasm. "Please, this way Agent."

"Better wait here Lorza," Boyd said as they walked over to the door, "you're not UNN so stay here for the time being, I'll be back to fetch you shortly."

She nodded, crossing her furry arms and leaning against the wall as the two humans left through the automatic door, closing it behind them. Boyd felt a little bad leaving her alone in the office, but UNN policy strictly prohibited having civilians running around their naval installations.

"Chief, we have an urgent message coming through on the quantum relay from the fueling station at Mu Arae, they're requesting a direct line to the Admiralty. It's an encrypted package."

Chief of Security Moralez pulled up a star chart on his computer display, scrutinizing the data as he scratched his stubbly chin with his prosthetic hand. He was the head of security on the Pinwheel space station, the largest drydock and naval base in human space outside of Sol system itself. He was sat in his office, surrounded by computer terminals and monitors scrolling with data readouts, the station's massive torus from which the station got its nickname rotating beyond his windows. Officially it was known as Fort Hamilton, and anything that happened on the station was under Moralez's supervision. He tapped the intercom button on his desk with his polymer finger, he had lost two arms and a leg in the line of duty, his limbs replaced with advanced robotics. What remained of the grizzled veteran's original organic body was mostly scar tissue and the unwavering determination of an old Marine.

"Mu Arae? There's nothing out there, it's a glorified gas station, what could they possibly want?"

"I don't know, Sir," the woman on the other end of the line said, "I just received the request and thought that it was odd, so I thought I should relay it to you. I wouldn't trouble you with it at all, if it wasn't for the fact that it appears to contain a UNNI badge number."

"You did the right thing. I'll get to the bottom of this, resume your usual work and let me worry about it now."

"Yes Chief, thank you Sir."

An urgent communication requesting a direct line to the Admirals who were stationed on the Pinwheel, with no further elaboration, and coming from a backwater that he had needed to reference a star chart to even find? Encrypted at that, someone only wanted this to be read by the Admirals. Something was amiss, this was either some kind of massive error, or there was something very serious going on. He stood up, the electric motors that drove his robotic limbs whirring, and walked over to a videophone mounted on the wall of his office. He typed in a number on the keypad, then waited for a moment as his call was forwarded, a man wearing a yellow engineer's uniform appeared on the display.

"Chief Moralez, to what do I owe the pleasure? Is there something I can do for you?"

"Hey Henry, yeah, something weird came up and I wanted to know if you could help me out."

"Sure thing Chief, what do you need?"

"Just had one of the girls down in the comms room forward a weird communication request to me. It came in from Mu Arae, all we have out there is a fueling station and it's about as close to the borders of UNN space as you can get before you drop off the map. Thing is, they used their quantum relay to make the request, and they want a direct line to the Admirals."

"Sounds serious, what's the problem?"

"Well it's just so unusual, why would a gas station need to contact the Admiralty, and why have they refused to give us more information? The data package they sent was encrypted far beyond what that station should have the clearance for. They've not used any of the proper channels and they seem to have tried to bypass as much red tape as they could get away with. I checked the authorization they used and it was a UNNI badge number. There's no agency branch on the Pinwheel, and there's nothing for spooks to spy on in that system, I can't imagine what an agent would be doing all the way out there."

"So what do you need from me?"

"Well you're the head of engineering, I wanted to make sure that there's no way such a signal could be faked or redirected."

The man on the other end of the phone considered for a moment.

"No, it wouldn't be possible. If the message was sent via quantum relay then there would be no way to intercept or fake the message, those devices are twinned and they can only communicate with their counterpart, wherever in the galaxy it might be. Someone could maybe get their hands on a UNNI badge number, but that would surely draw more attention than someone trying to fake a legitimate communication would want."

"That's what I thought, I just wanted to be sure before I bothered the Admirals with it, thanks Henry."

"No problem Chief," the man said, and Moralez shut off the phone. In that case, the communication might well be legitimate, a stranded UNNI spook trying to phone home perhaps? He was out of reasonable doubts, better put the message through to the Admirals and see what they had to say about it. He returned to his seat and typed in his authorization, connecting to the control computer in the central hub of the station and transferring the data to the Admiralty. There were always two or three Admirals stationed on the Pinwheel at any time, while they cycled in and out fairly frequently, the base was important enough that they were never far away.

He returned to his usual business, but before long his videophone began to blink with an incoming call. He walked over to the phone and hit the 'accept' button, the face of one of the Admirals appearing on the monitor.

"Admiral! What can I do for you?"

"I've just received a very...worrying communication from your office, Chief Moralez. I wanted to verify its authenticity."

"Yes Sir, I've been assured that it's genuine. We received it via quantum relay from Mu Arae. I have to admit that I was a little hesitant to send it your way, but I had no valid reason not to."

"It contains a report from one of our undercover agents, he has recovered information pertaining to an ongoing coup on a colony planet. How many Jump Carriers are currently docked with the station?"

"Two Sir, the UNN Ironclad is undergoing a refit and won't be spaceworthy for a few more weeks, and the UNN Thermopylae just returned from the front. She's unloading wounded and resupplying."

"The Thermopylae...Captain Stavros' vessel if I'm correct."

"I believe so Sir."

"Get in touch with Captain Stavros and tell him that he has twenty four hours to make his ship and her crew ready for a potential planetary invasion. This is priority one, give him access to the armory and any auxiliaries that he needs. We can replace wounded crew with our own Marines, send out an alert to all active combat personnel on the station to be ready for redeployment."

"Yes Admiral, I'll see that it gets done."

"Send a Courser to pick up our stranded agent too, we'll bring him back here for debriefing."

"Very good Admiral."

Boyd stared out of the window of the fueling station, Lorza leaning on her elbow from the bed as she watched him, the two of them cooped up in the cramped quarters they had been assigned temporarily while they awaited pickup.

"You can't do anything about it right now," she complained, "come back to bed."

"It's been days," Boyd replied, his eyes still fixed on the starry backdrop. "Still no word about the situation on Hades besides the response from the Admiralty."

"They said they would handle it, didn't they? What are you going to do, flap your arms and fly back to Hades?"

"I'm just used to having all of this information at my fingertips, being in the loop, I usually have up to date reports on everything that's happening on a mission."

"Well you're not on a mission anymore, you've completed your assignment, you found out what was going on and you got that information into the right hands. That's your job, not taking the planet back single-handedly." She snaked her furry tail around his waist and began to drag him away from the porthole, catching him in her arms and pulling him into the bed. "Come on, we're safe for the first time in days, just enjoy the downtime while you can."

He lay back into her plush body and let her reach her head down to mouthe at his neck, maybe she was right, it was a welcome distraction and there wasn't anything he could do as long as they were stranded on this station.

Just as he was starting to relax, there was a burst of rainbow colors beyond the window, as if someone had thrown a balloon full of paint at a black canvass. A ship had just left superlight, and Lorza huffed in disapproval, releasing him from her grasp as he climbed off the bed and walked back towards the window.

"It's a Courser!"

"What's that?"

"Fastest class of ship in the fleet, it has to be here for us!"

He watched the vessel as it turned towards the station, engines flaring as the pencil-shaped ship closed at alarming speed, decelerating as it came into range. There was a hiss of static as the intercom turned on, Officer Richards' voice coming through.

"Agent Boyd, please report to the hangar bay, a Courser is hailing us. They want to take you to Fort Hamilton. Repeat, Agent Boyd to the hangar bay please."

"That means you too," Boyd said to Lorza, and she flopped out of the bed and stretched, her head brushing the ceiling.

"You know what I'd like? To stay in one place for more than a couple of days."

"Don't worry about it," he said, throwing her overalls to her. "They probably want to debrief me and get a full mission report, that'll take a while. Besides, I think I've earned the right to request a couple of weeks of paid leave. I take it you've never been to Fort Hamilton?" She shook her head as she stepped into her clothes. "Well, most people know it as the Pinwheel, it's a huge space station and naval base. They have everything there. Hotels for civilians, a shopping district, the whole place is made up to look and feel like a terrestrial planet."

"They aren't going to sweep you away and send me back home to Siberia?"

"I wouldn't let them," Boyd replied, trying to sound reassuring. "You're my key witness." That seemed to assuage some of her concerns, and she smiled at him. "If you're worried that we'll be separated, don't be, you don't have to feel like we're on a timer. I'm not going anywhere without you."

Once dressed, they made their way to the hangar bay, open to the darkness of space save for a nanometer-thin force field that would contain the atmosphere but allow solid objects to pass unhindered. A modern UNN shuttle was waiting on the deck for them, the pilot standing to attention as they neared. He looked up at Lorza, his expression confused.

"Agent Boyd? I've been sent to collect you, I am to take you to Fort Hamilton for debriefing."

"Very good pilot, I have a plus one, she's a key witness."

"All due respect Sir, but I was only ordered to-"

"She goes where I go, pilot, that's all you need to know right now." He could pull rank if the pilot gave him any trouble, but he seemed to be considering it, Boyd could almost see the gears turning in his head beneath his transparent visor.

"Yes Sir, please, this way."

They mounted the landing ramp and buckled in, although the UNN had not known that Lorza would be joining him, this shuttle was a more recent model and was outfitted to carry Borealans and Krell as well as human passengers. Lorza was pleased to find a seat that she fit in, strapping the harness across her chest as they prepared to launch, obviously designed for Equatorials as the straps sank into the meat of her oversized bust. The pilot gunned the thrusters, the landing gear stowing in the belly of the craft with a clunk as it slipped out of the bay and left the station's AG field.

The Courser grew in the cockpit window as they drew closer, not dissimilar from a civilian jump freighter in appearance, a bulbous mass of engines and power plants at the rear and a bridge with a habitation module towards the front. A skeletal frame linked them, but unlike a freighter there were no cargo containers anchored to it, these ships were built to be as low-mass as possible while still being able to house and power the most efficient superlight drives that the UNN could produce. A Courser could cross immense distances far faster than a freighter or a carrier, but due to their small size and low mass they could only carry a few passengers. They were mostly used to deliver important messages where quantum communications relays were not available, or to ship VIPs across human space at breakneck speed. If they had sent a Courser, then they wanted Boyd in a debriefing room urgently, that implied that an invasion of Hades was either on the drawing board or had already been set in motion.

The craft ferried them quickly towards the Courser, landing in its tiny hangar bay as the vessel's AG field gripped it and secured it to the deck. The pilot was skilled, the hangar was almost too small to fit the shuttle, it looked as if there had been only inches of wing clearance to spare. They descended the landing ramp and made their way towards the crew quarters, even more spartan and cramped than those on the freighter had been.

"I'm sorry I can't offer you a more comfortable cabin Sir," the pilot said as he hurried to the cockpit at the far end of the hall. "I have orders to get you back as soon as possible, we'll be jumping shortly so please take the necessary precautions and get fastened in."

Boyd looked up at Lorza as she waited beside him, ducking slightly in the minimalist habitation module. She grumbled to him under her breath as she walked off to choose a cabin.

"When I said that I wanted to see the galaxy, this wasn't really what I had in mind."

CHAPTER 12: COUNTER OPERATIONS

The Thermopylae left superlight, emerging in a cloud of technicolor gas in high orbit around Hades, the bridge crew coming to as the autopilot activated the ship's point defense systems in order to protect the human occupants during the brief minutes that they were incapacitated.

Captain Stavros stood with his hands clasped firmly behind his back, the only indication of discomfort or disorientation a twitching in his right eye, he had completed so many jumps that the wracking energies barely phased him anymore. He stared intently at the red planet before them, waiting for his crew to recover. He wore a white captain's hat and dress uniform that contrasted with his olive skin and dark beard, his chest emblazoned with badges and medals that denoted a slew of successful battles and campaigns.

An officer sitting at the pilot's console cradled his head, examining his instrument panel.

"Successful superlight jump captain, we've emerged in high orbit above Hades. No sign of planetary defenses or interceptors on long range scans." Around the man the other bridge crew members were stirring to life, shaking off their cramped muscles and splitting headaches, tending to their duties as a ship-wide alert blared. Stavros put a gloved hand to his ear, activating his microphone.

"Crew of the Thermopylae, this is your captain speaking. All hands prepare for combat. Repeat, this a ship-wide combat alert, man your stations and be ready for battle." He turned his attention to the man sitting at the pilot's console towards the front of the bridge, the wide window before them illuminating the expansive room in an orange glow from the desert planet. "Helmsman, bring us about. I want the railguns on our belly ready to strike ground targets, we've had reports that the enemy may have established SAM sites in order to bring down our landing craft."

"Aye aye, Captain, bringing her about."

"Hail from the ground, Captain," a woman manning the communications console said. "Shall I put it through?"

"Put it on the intercom," Stavros said, the comms officer hitting a button and a voice coming through on speakers embedded in the walls. It was a man's voice, a little distorted by the planet's atmosphere but clear enough to be understood.

"You are invading sovereign territory. Hades and the outlying system are under the authority of the Syndicate now, in accordance with the will of its people."

Stavros' eyes narrowed, he suspected that whoever was sending this transmission was also broadcasting to his men, this was an attempt to legitimize their seizure of the planet as some kind of revolution rather than the economic coup that it was.

"Attention criminal organizations currently in control of Hades, this is the captain of the UNN Thermopylae. I have a fully crewed Jump Carrier with a contingent of Marines in orbit around your planet. You have broken interstellar law and have taken control of a colony that does not belong to you. Under the UN's declaration of frontier law I have full authority to restore order by force if necessary. I am fully prepared to do so, unless you surrender immediately and turn yourselves in. You will be treated fairly, but you cannot be allowed to go free. This situation has escalated too far."

The man on the other end of the transmission hesitated for a moment, perhaps not the reply he had expected?

"Thermopylae, the UNN has no authority here, nor do the corporate investors who have exploited the people of Hades for their own profit. This is now a sovereign colony, beholden to no one, least of all to those who intrude on our territory and levy threats of violence against us for exercising our God-given right to self-determination."

Stavros had to admit, it was well rehearsed, they had been given ample time to prepare and get their story straight due to the delay that traversing such distances incurred. It was all a lie though, the intelligence that had been gathered had made it clear that those who had wrested control of the colony from ExoCorp had done so out of greed, not revolutionary spirit. The crime bosses wanted control over the planet's minerals and nothing was going to change for the miners living there besides who signed their paychecks. Assuming they were given any pay at all and not simply used as disposable slave labor, pirates and mobsters weren't exactly renowned for their compassion.

"To those of you no doubt listening to this broadcast, citizens of Hades and UNN personnel alike, heed my words. Intelligence that was recently gathered by an undercover UNNI operative posing as a miner on Hades has provided evidence that the takeover of the planet was not for the purpose of liberating the population, but to take control of ExoCorp's mineral rights and redirect that lucrative revenue stream into the bank accounts of criminals. These people are not your saviors. They intend to bleed this colony for every penny it's worth. By siding with them you are only ensuring that they will line their pockets at your expense. We will give you one last opportunity to surrender, if you do so you have my word that nobody will be harmed. If you continue to revolt we will subdue any resistance with extreme prejudice."