Warp War: Chapter 21: The Enforcer
She knew that something was moving against her but it wasn't until she got the whispered warning that Battonica realised that she had to act before it was too late.
She was feeding at the communal Nutrition Pool when she spotted a com-cube floating at the entrance to her berth, glowing faintly green. She looked around. None of her immediate neighbours seemed to have spotted it. Battoniac was curious. Quick as a flash her tongue flicked out and she swallowed the cube as unobtrusively as she could. She heard the voice whisper in her brain. "Beware, Dr Battonica. You are being watched closely ."
That was all it said
Back in her chamber Battonica thought hard, then opened a secure communication channel to her contact in the warp factory. He owed her his life several times over and it was time to call in the favour.
She explained to him carefully what she needed to divest the debt. There was a long pause at the end of the line. "You want WHAT?" was the ultimate, incredulous response. But it was an honour debt and he eventually agreed.
Over a period of time Battonica kept her head down, working at her practice during the Light-time, trying to cure the sick, comfort the insane and ease the passage of the dying, just like any physician anywhere.
In the Dark-time she started to construct the Cabinet, taking delivery of goods from a variety of sources for the sake of security. It wasn't her specialty, engineering, but she did her best and also had help from a few unsuspecting friends who thought she was merely building her own cold-box.
Then, after what seemed an age, her contact from the warp factory called at Battonica's chambers at a late hour and delivered the final component in a tiny grey metal box.
She nodded her head as she took the box in her foreclaw. "Your debt is repaid." she said.
"You must be mad, "he said, before scuttling fearfully away.
At the Nutrient Pool the following cycle she had a second warning. There was another com-cube. Battonica glanced nervously around before striking at it with her tongue and swallowing. She heard the same voice as before, in her brain. "Whatever it is you are doing, do it quickly. Your arrest warrant is being drawn up."
After her practice closed she hurried back to her chamber. There was no time for fancy simulations or tests. She was going to have to do it now.
After locking and barring the external doors Battonica slipped a blank data-disc into the recording slot. She spoke quickly into the microphone. As she did so she could hear a faint clattering of claws in the passage outside.
They were coming for her.
She downloaded her Book onto the disc, which seemed to take forever. Then she punched in some coordinates which were downloaded in an instant.
There was a single, heavy blow on the doors. "In the name of the Triumvirate, Open!"
Battonica ignored the command, hoping that the locked doors would give her the momentary grace she needed.
She fed in another set of coordinates, this time to the Cabinet irself. These were the ones provided by Captain Jack. The military amongst her people would give their hind legs for this information. After she finished she swallowed the parchment containing those vital numbers.
A terrific blow bent her door inwards. It was now or never.
Battonica threw the power switch and an intense beam of blue light, Warp energy, flooded the Cabinet on the other side of her chamber. Its door slid open to reveal the intensity of the naked Warp stream. She snatched up the completed data-disc just as her external chamber-door burst asunder.
Four members of the dreaded security cadre leaped into the room. They were led by Enforcer Maquidd himself. The Triumvirate's hatchet man.
"Make no sudden movements, Dr Battonica, " hissed Maquidd, dangerously. "I have your arrest warrant here. On pain of death."
Battonica sighed and sulked, a pretense of defeat. Suddenly she whipped around and skimmed the data-disc across the room. It travelled like a bullet at the glowing cabinet. It entered the crackling blue warp stream and vanished.
There was a moment's stunned hesitation then one of Maquidd's troops jumped at Battonica. She responded with a blow from her tail that crushed her attacker's carapace. As he rolled massively away Maquidd, seeing an opening, slipped forward with a partial de-phasing blur and neatly decapitated Battonica with a snip of his augmented massive foreclaw.
Thus it was that Battonica was already mercifully dead when the three remaining attackers fell on her and dismembered her in a frenzy of slashing teeth and claws.
When it was all over Maquidd glanced briefly at his fallen comrade and grunted. He was dead. He then went over to the now silent Cabinet and sniffed at it.
"What is it, Enforcer?" asked one of the squad, at his side, his maw still rancid with Battonica's blood.
"Get a scientific team here. Urgently. If I didn't know better I could swear I can smell Warp energy." He looked around the chamber at the blood and gore that was all that was left of Battonica. "What were you up to, my lovely?" he murmured. Then, to the third squad member. "Get a message to the Triumvirate. Priority channel. Tell them what we found here. And tell them that the traitorous bitch is dead now."
*
In the Mind-Hive The Triumvirate digested the report of Maquidd's raid on the chamber of Battonica and the subsequent forensic examination of the place, in stupefied silence. Then the Magsister exploded in a paroxysm of rage. It went on for a very long time. The other two had never seen him in this state. Such was his anger that his third and fourth eyes both bled at the height of his rant.
At long last he gained some sort of control. "There will be a full investigation." His voice was a croaking hiss.
"Indeed, Magister."
"Of course, Magister."
"For that bitch to obtain Warp energy...it is beyond belief! She must have confederates. Still at large. They must be found and destroyed as enemies of the state. Spies for Humankind."
The others chorused their agreement.
"But first we must accelerate the deployment of the Residue."
The Magister ascended to his perch abruptly, without requesting the formality of agreement.
As the third and most junior of the Triumvirate reached his own perch he pondered. They would find him in the end, of course. Trace his misdirection of the accounting reports from the warp factory. His warnings to Battonica.
He gave the equivalent of a sigh. Many decca-cycles ago he and Battonica had been spawn-partners. It had been a defining, joyous moment in his life. She had been an intellectual stimulation to him and he had never forgotten her.
By some freak of fortune he had been elected to the Triumvirate but he had still placed his trust in Battonica. He hoped that whatever she had done with the stolen Warp technology, it had been worth all this.
*
The data disc flew out of the Schism and vanished with a burst of blue fire into Warp space. It reappeared instantaneously in the atmosphere of the little blue-green planet far across the galactic plane. It was undetected by humanity. That was the benefit of Captain Jack's coordinates. It allowed direct access to the Earth.
The little disc arched down on the final leg of its incredible journey – towards the place Captain Jack had named.
It had been known to Battonica as KarDyff.
(End of Chapter 21)