Author's Note: Here I am, back after a break. I hope that this chapter is up to stcratch.
A Place of Haven
"What do you mean, Warp breach? " roared Valorus, striding onto the bridge.
The husky tones of the Navigator rose behind him, filled with the voices of all the other Navigators from his family in a Warp Trance, "A breach, Lord Inquisitor, in the Warp."
"Don't sport with my intelligence," bellowed Valorus in reply, "answer me straight. How can there be a breach in the Warp?"
"You have heard of Null Fields?"
"Aye," answered Valorus.
"What we have before us is like a massive Null Field, the size of a system," stated the Navigator, as if talking to a child or idiot.
"Be advised that patronising me is unwise," growled Valorus in the back of his throat, "what precautions can be taken?"
"If we sail straight through the breach shockwaves will tear us apart," rasped the Navigator, "if we are nearing our destination I would advise exiting immediately from then Warp and traversing the area by sub Warp propulsion."
"You heard him, how far are we from our destination?" barked Valorus at the navigation Servitor.
"Estimates say that we are within the target system, initial schedules advise on a further ten minutes in the Warp," responded the man-machine blankly.
"Very well," began Valorus, "Take us out of the Warp. Navigator?"
"Yes sir," affirmed the Navigator.
"Begin scanning to discover the source of the Warp breach," ordered Valorus.
The crew of the ship, the Navigator and the complement of Servitors, moved frantically and Valorus prayed that they possessed skill enough to keep them all alive in this most difficult of operations.
The compulsory alarms blared as, with a marked shudder and a dimming of lights, the craft wrenched itself violently free of the daemon realm of the Empyrean and into normal space.
"Report to me when you have studied the situation," Valorus ordered the navigator, "I will talk with Commissar Vance."
He gestured to the man to follow. Suspicion mingled with fear was in the Commissar's eyes, Valorus knew how to notice things like that. It was half the skill of being an Inquisitor. The oldest and most experienced could read a man as simply as they might read a book.
"Commissar, are you aware of your duty on this mission?" asked Valorus.
"Of course," Vance replied, hesitation showing that he hadn't expected that question. He was, however, very definite in his answer.
"Tell me," ordered the Inquisitor.
"To represent and serve the interests of the Departmento Munitorum as I see to be best," rapped out the man in answer.
"Very well," said Valorus, giving the man his best unsettling smile, "I am altering your mission."
Vance frowned, at first in pure puzzlement, quickly though the confusion changed into anger. "You cannot do that!"
"I am afraid that I can," replied Valorus, "you are no longer under the command of the Departmento Munitorum, rather you are a requisitioned agent of the Inquisition and will obey my commands without hesitation. Do you understand?"
The Commissar didn't answer, his mouth was half open and his brain was searching frantically for some counter to the Inquisitor's statement. He closed his mouth, then opened again. Then, once again, he closed it. Finally he managed, "Yes sir."
Valorus swept away, smirking slightly, leaving the Commissar gawping like a fish against the harsh metal walls.
The Inquisitor hoped that the Commissar could be trusted know, Vance seemed to be a man who valued honour and loyalty and that sort of thing; it came of being attached to the Guard.
There were other threats to control, but Valorus was confident. With Matheson watching his back he could break the opposition in the course of the operation. That was another one of the skills that made a man an Inquisitor.
Later, the Navigator stood before Valorus' desk, a chart table beside him showing a projection of the system.
"As an Inquisitor you will of course be aware of Null Theory," he began. Valorus nodded. "You will know furthermore that a larger body of Null inducing material will create a larger Null field."
"Yes, yes, get to the point," said Valorus, not appreciating the dramatic style.
A scowl passed fleetingly across the Navigator's barely visible features, but he continued, "Because the Null field is shaped around our target planet I have surmised that that planet must contain a Null body of great size, perhaps the size of a planetary core."
"You are saying that the most obvious explanation is that the planet has Null material for a core," summarised Valorus.
"Yes, sir."
A thought struck Valorus and he rose moving to the corner of the compartment and the cage that housed his familiars.
At the bottom of the cage one of the little cyber-creatures twitched. All of the rest lay deathly still.
"Interesting," said Valorus.
He turned back to the navigator, ready to say something else, but then, for the second time within an hour the alarm blared and the voice of a servitor came over the vox system, "Ships incoming."