The Outcast

Chapter 3

The knock came to the door. Victor called out,

"Come in Colonel."

The portal slide open, and Cato Pompei stepped in.

"Your call said it was urgent Vic, so...."

The Colonel froze. Victor Drake sat at the far end of the officers conference table. His left hand was held up, fitted with his Sensor Glove, palms out,
and facing the Colonel. Laying on the table in front of him was his Torpedo Blaster. To his side was Dr. Rhodes, the Archaen's Dream-Medic. His field kit
was strapped across his chest. The Traqian's eyes narrowed.

"What's this all about, Victor?" he said calmly. His right arm hung casually by his holster.

"Colonel. I'm afraid I need you to step closer into the room," answered the 'Sin-Guardian in a serious tone. He pushed his glove slightly forward.

"And if I refuse?" Their eyes met. The Traqian's arm moved a millimeter closer to his weapon.

"Then I'll have to shoot you, Colonel," said Victor flatly. Their eyes remained locked for several moments. The Joint-Commanders studied each other.

"I trust there's a good explanation for this?" said the Colonel.

"A good one," answered Victor.

Cato nodded, and slowly walked in five steps closer. The 'Sin-Guardian extended his Sensor Glove to full arms length and scanned the Colonel from
head to toe. He glanced towards the doctor.

"Normal"

The True-Dreamer nodded. "I'm convinced it's him, sir," said the Dream-Medic.

"I'd still like a second opinion." said Victor, his eyes never leaving Cato.

The doctor understood. Taking a device out of his kit, he walked over to the Traqian officer, and stopped well out of arms reach. The Colonel
recognized the device as a Synaptic Spectrometer. It was used to measure the electro-chemical discharges between nerve cells in the brain and
nervous system. In essence, the energy field unique to him.

"Please close your eyes sir."

Pompei did so, and was met with an intense white light perceived even through his closed lids.

"You may open them."

The world was full of floating blue spots. The doctor examined the data. Like all True-Dreamers, his expression was unreadable. He looked back to Victor.

"It's him, sir. He's Human."

"Damn right I am. Now what the hell is this all about, Drake?" said Cato, his fist on his hips, and the first real expression of anger on his face.

Victor stood up, placed his blaster back in his holster and came to the doctor's side. Together both men crossed their arms in front of their chest,
like a fisted 'X' and deeply bowed.

"We seek your pardon, Honor-Traqian," they said in unison.

The Colonel held his thoughts. He realized that the Archaens had a strict set of protocols and social forms of behavior they all lived by. He crossed
his arms in a similar fashion, and bowed as well.

"All is forgiven, Honor-Archaens."

The Colonel stood up. "But bloody hell to the social graces, I'd feel better if someone told me what's going on!"

"We had to make sure it was you, sir," said the doctor.

"Any reason why I shouldn't be?"

Victor nodded twice. "The assassin on board ...she's a Dakka."

The Colonel's expression wasn't pleasant. Victor gestured towards the table.

"Have a seat, I'll bring you up to speed."

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Fifteen minutes later.

"It's madness ...pure madness!"

Cato pushed aside his steaming mug of Tur'kesh coffee.

"This woman hired an assassin to kill herself?"

"To kill Caressa, Colonel" said Drake.

The Traqian shrugged. "Same difference."

"Not to a Dreamer," said the Doctor. He explained.

"Marka's consciousness is nested in Caressa's mind. From her point of view she's trapped ...disembodied, a prisoner
if you will. Caressa said she was close to finding a spell to remove Marka from her consciousness. From what she's
told us about her, Marka doesn't like to lose. She'd rather die than be returned to the Empire in some immaterial state.
It would be...humiliating."

"The clincher is the deathblow would be delivered to Caressa. She'd see it coming, and know it was from Marka.
In essence, its a duel between split personalities." said Victor.

It sounded odd to the Colonel, but it made sense. He tighten his jaw in light of the new situation.

"You realize what a security risk this poses? It could blow our operation sky high," said the Traqian.

"That remains to be seen, Cato. We have to find the Dakka." said Victor.

The Colonel nodded and took another sip from his coffee. He was deep in thought.

"Sir, you said that you had finished questioning about half the troops?" asked the doctor.

"That's right ...oh, I see what you mean."

A slight tremor went through the Colonel as he wondered if he had looked right into the face of the Dakka and thought it was one of his own men.

"We should started again, this time using the Syn-spect," said Dr. Rhodes.

The Colonel thought about it good and long, then abruptly shook his head.

"No."

"Colonel?" said Victor.

"No, that'd be playing right into the Dakka's hand. She lives by deceit and deception and is probable counting on
us following some line of detective investigation."

"You've got something else in mind? asked Victor. Cato inclined his head.

"We need to narrow our field of suspects; find a quicker way to locate, fix and capture her." The Colonel stroked his chin and said his thoughts out loud.

"Doctor, you believe Dreamers are impervious to the Dakka's powers, and that's probably how Marka was able to
find her in the first place on New Asgard, she could see her true form, or why Caressa wasn't directly assaulted."

The doctor nodded. Cato looked to Victor.

"They also have unusually high body temperatures, that's why you scanned me with your Sensor Glove". The 'Sin-Guardian grinned and nodded as well.

"An infra-red scan of the ship could do the trick," said the Dream-Medic. The Colonel agreed.

"I'd like you to do that, doctor," said Cato.

"Aye sir, but I'd assume the Dakka would be aware of such a measure and has done something to
compensate. Drugs, a coolant suit, or hiding near a high heat source like the engine room, or
power-plant."

"Let's count on it then. Nevertheless, scan for anything unusual. If nothing shows up, then begin the
Syn-spec test on the troops. Do Lieutenant Grasius and Commander Jordan first. If they're normal,
appraise them of the situation and have Julius accompany you on the rest of the exams. Jordan will
guard Caressa's chamber."

"Aye, sir," said the doctor. The Colonel faced his Joint-Commander. "Victor, this is where we come in."

The 'Sin-Guardian smiled to himself. He liked the Colonel's methods.

"I'm listening."

"We're going to take a more round about lead. What can you tell me about the device used in the explosion?"

"Julie's report described it as looking similar to one of our Archaen puck charges. Round, and as about as wide
as your hand," said Victor.

"Similar, but she couldn't confirm it."

"I'm afraid she didn't get a good look."

Cato understood. "What are the chances of the assassin bringing it on board then?" he asked. The 'Sin-Guardian shook his head.

"Pretty slim. One of the first things I did was to set up our internal sensors to scan for elements found in most
chemical and energy base weapons. If she brought it aboard, it was dissembled, or she stole it from our armory.
It's what I'd do if I were her."

"Sounds like you're putting yourself inside her head, Vic. I like that, keep thinking that way. All right, let's start
with the armory and see where that leads us."

The three men rose from their feet. The Colonel pulled his blaster from his holster and checked his charge. It was full. He placed it back.

"Doctor, I think it goes without saying that under no circumstances are you to reveal the reason for your scans to the
troops, or the fact that Caressa is still alive."

"Understood sir, but they will suspect something."

"Let them for now." The Colonel faced his fellow officers.

"Gentlemen, we have an assassin to catch, let's get to it."

______________________________________________________________________


The two men rode in silence in the lift down to the Beta Deck.

"You're pretty quite Vic, something on your mind?"

"Just thinking..." He turned to the Colonel.

"Let's say you're the Dakka. You believe you've successfully assassinated your target.
You're on board a starship filled with highly trained Special Operatives. What's the next
thing you'd do?"

"Get the hell off!" exclaimed the Colonel. The 'Sin-Guardian inclined his head twice.

"Exactly. So, how would you go about doing that?"

The Colonel thought for a moment, then looked back to his Joint-Commander.

"Wait for the ship to dock."

"No telling when that could happen. Could be a long wait."

Pompei agreed. "All right, Then I'd create a diversion to mask my escape."

Victor smiled. "And it's been pretty quite around here. All our troops are confined to their quarters.
Our sensor logs are on full alert. If a door so much as opens without our approval, we'd jump on it."

Cato rubbed his chin.

"Damn, I see what you mean. You think she's waiting for something? Some moment to make her move?"

Victor nodded. "I feel like there's a time bomb's counting down, but I don't knowing 'where' it is."

The lift stopped and the door opened. Both men pulled their guns and checked their side flanks.

"All clear here," said the Colonel.

"Likewise," followed Victor.

The 'Sin-Guardian went first; left arm extended, Sensor Glove palm out, Torpedo Blaster held ready in the other. Pompei followed, protecting
their blind flank. The two continued down the dark steel corridor in this fashion for twenty meters, then stopped in front of a large double door
with a temporary placard on it. It read:

[ARMORY]

Victor activated the entry panel. A screen went from black to a series of encoded ciphers. He read the readout and cursed in surprise.

"What is it?" called the Colonel over his shoulder.

"According to the entry log, the last person to enter the Armory was ...you."

"What?!..." the Colonel nearly dropped his guard. Backing up in a defensive stance he glanced up at the readout. The last access code
was indeed his.

"Any memory of coming to the Armory lately?" asked the 'Sin-Guardian. The Colonel's voice was distant.

"No...none at all. I'm sure of it."

Victor's face tightened. "I'm sorry, Cato, she must have gotten to you. The Pressure sensor logs say two people entered the Armory.
One weighing two hundred and ten..."

"...My weight."

"...and the other ...three hundred and ninety."

"Son of a ...she's big!"

"There was no weight change in the room after they left, meaning nothing was taken," said Victor.

"Or...she could have replaced things with an item of equal weight. Part of that three hundred pounds
could have been something she was carrying," said the Colonel.

His eyes scanned the hallway for the slightest of movements. The Archaen agreed. He enter his own access code and depressed the 'OPEN' stud,

"Let's find out then."

The steel door soundlessly slid apart. The two men turned to enter, took a step in, then abruptly stopped. There was no confusion as to who should
go first, each man was simply frozen by their instincts.

"You feel it too?" said the Colonel

"Yeah, something's wrong here ....something really wrong."

The two backed out, and the door closed. The Colonel turned to his Joint-Commander and voiced the new thought entering his head.

"Julie's report said that the explosive charge 'clicked' before going off. If I remember correctly,
Archaen puck charges don't make any sound before activation. Your people use motion sensors
or time detonators."

"That's true. But if the bomb's not ours, then why'd she come to the Armory?"

The Colonel's face was grim. "Can you think of a better diversion than having the Armory explode?"

"Ishtar..." The Archaen paled

"I think we found our time bomb, Victor," said the Colonel. Drake frowned.

"We still need to know what we're dealing with here." The 'Sin-Guardian thought for a second, then looked down the hallway.

"Hold on."

He sprinted down the corridor in the direction that they came, passed the lift, and stopped at another set of steel doors marked

[SURVEILLANCE]

Entering his access code he threw the Colonel one last look and entered. Nothing happened. He returned thirty seconds later carrying two plastic
cases about half a meter long and a few centimeters wide. Sprinting back he placed them on the floor near the Colonel, and dropping to one knee,
opened the top case of one.
Inside was a visor/headset unit with a thin stemmed micro-phone mouthpiece. In the center was a flat steel plate surrounded by LED readouts.
Above that was a rectangular compartment with a thin glass cover. The 'Sin-Guardian put on the visor unit and adjusted the micro-phone stem in
front of his mouth. Next he pressed the palm of his Sensor Glove to the steel plate. The LED lights lit up. His hand executed a series of hand-signals
and the glass cover in the above compartment slide open.

There was nothing inside.

Until the Colonel looked closer and spotted what appeared to be half a dozen black spherical dots about three times the size of a grain of sand.
Victor turned his gloved hand so that it was flat and palms up. He raised his hand and one of the dots began to rise.

"This is an Archaen Fly-Eye. Essentially it's a nano-camera with a turbo-fan prop.
What it sees, I see." and he pointed to his visor with his free hand. He then turned
his sensor glove and the 'Eye' hovered towards the Armory doors.

"If there's an explosive rigged with a motion detonator inside, I should be able to slip
by with this."

"And if you're wrong?" asked the Colonel with a little concern in his voice. Victor shrugged.

"I guess they'll find big pieces of us here, little pieces there and lots and lots of our teeth."

"Cute. Since you put it that way, anything I can do to help?"

"Praying wouldn't hurt?" said the Archaen with undisguised worry.

Victor entered his code, and once again the double steel doors of the Armory opened. He pushed his gloved palm forward and the 'Fly-Eye' eased in.

______________________________________________________________________


"To make a long story short, Sister, I found the bomb. The Dakka had attached one of our own puck charges
to a wall with another note attached. Two words were written on it: 'HA-HA!."

The Istata Sister said nothing.

"Sister? ...are you there?"

"...Yes, go on."

"I'm sorry. This is taking long, perhaps I should get to the point."

"No!..Please, I want to hear the rest."

I nodded, even though I knew she couldn't see it.

"The Dakka had set a timer on the device as well as a motion sensor primed to a
two meter radius. Getting close to defuse it would be tricky."

"But you succeeded."

"At the time It didn't look that way. According to the timer's readout I had less then ten minutes
to do the job. The additional nano-probes I had in the other case would help, but it would be
slow work."

"I'm sure that had your Joint-Commander worried."

"Beyond worried. There were over one hundred men and women on board. If I had failed,
the causalities would be...horrendous. Cato was faced with a decision all ship captains hate..."

"...To abandon ship." said the voice from the other side of the screen.

"'fraid so. The only problem was...things didn't exactly go according to plan."

______________________________________________________________________