June 4th, 2263. 17:45 CNS Fargo – Interrogation Room 1
John walked into the room and lazily tossed five data slates onto the table. They made a loud noise, surprising Dr. George Patel, who looked pale as a ghost and generally terrified of what was happening. He quickly glanced at the mountain of a man, in comparison to him at least, before returning to stare at the desk.
“Alright George, out with it,” John said as he leaned back in his seat.
“I did not know…”
John interrupted him, “Apologies, I suppose I should start with some simple guidelines. If you are honest with me and tell me information that leads to the convictions of others and you weren’t involved in any sketchy bullshit, I can work with you. Lie about anything and I may just space you to speed up your due process.”
George’s eyes widened in shock, “I… how… but…” he stammered, “How does that speed up my due process?”
“It means the guilty get their just punishment for their crimes. In this case, crimes against humanity.”
“Look, I am not a geneticist. I was sent here to oversee the rollout of this lab. It wasn’t until we were running for four months that I found out most of the scientists here are amoral and unethical,” George sighed and stared at the table, “I didn’t have the power to do anything. I even told my bosses, and they didn’t seem to care. Doctor Weller went over, or around me, to get his ‘studies’ green lit.”
“Talk to me about NIfTA,” John asked quietly.
“We develop arms and technology for the military and citizens of the Mercantilist Union.”
John nodded, “Did you ever bother to think or ask why there’d be labs in Confederate space?”
George looked back down at the table once more in shame, “I did but I didn’t…”
“I presume you’ve heard of the rather unsavory rumors surrounding NIfTA’s leader?”
“Dr. Norman is brilliant, truly brilliant. But with that brilliance comes some dark eccentricities and attitudes towards the civilian leaders. If what I’ve heard is true, then human life means nothing to him, everyone and thing is a legitimate target for studying.”
“George, I’ll level set with you since you haven’t tried to blow smoke up my ass yet. We’ve already reviewed every single conversation you’ve had on that base that was recorded. Which is basically everyone since there were a plethora of security cameras. All those electronic letters you sent, video conferences, and hell, you name it we reviewed it,” John paused to take a drink of water, “You are one of six partially innocent people on that base. Out of eighty-four. Well, innocent of any genetic crimes, you are guilty by association with those people and certainly guilty of overseeing a foreign powers research lab that was conducting illegal research here.”
George sighed as he ran his hands through his hair as he stared at the ceiling, “My initial remit was to oversee a lab that conducts theoretical research on the human genome. That is not illegal.”
John shook his head, “According to Confederate laws, which supersede the local lack of laws here, you are dead ass wrong. The theoretical research you were doing did in fact violate our laws. Just because your Mercantilist Union believes it’s legal means jack shit here. Whoever your lawyers did a shit job,” John held up a data slate and handed it to George, “Justifying how they could do this work and not get into any trouble.”
George was about to speak as he skimmed the data slate before John continued speaking.
“And let’s ignore the fact that a foreign power was footing the bill and had forged documents to prove the base’s legitimacy,” John pushed another data slate to George, “You do realize that because of NIfTA’s close ties to the government I could, rather articulately too I might add, argue that this was an act of war.”
George set both data slates down on the table and sighed, “I was told to report back monthly for six months and then I’d be home. My focus and area of specialty are plasma cannons and railguns. I don’t know a damn thing about genetic manipulation. I can’t go back home anymore anyways, if I do, I’m a dead man.”
John raised an eyebrow, “Why is that?”
“Dr. Norman doesn’t tolerate failure. This is a proper fuck up, which I’ll be set up to take responsibility for. I’ve heard of peers disappearing for less egregious offenses.”
“Can you remotely access NIfTA’s servers from that base?”
George nodded, “Not everything but I do have read access to all my projects.”
A data slate was slid across the table. John simply pointed at it. George understood the non-verbal cues clearly and entered his access credentials. He then slid it back to John. An email was sent to Jerad who was working in the hangar bay on the enemy server.
John stood up after Jerad responded and walked to the double-sided mirror. He whispered something that George couldn’t hear. A tense, and very awkward, five minutes of silence started. John stared at George while he himself stared at the table in shame.
That terrible feeling was temporarily broken when Jerad contacted John via the internship coms, “Lieutenant, his access was rescinded while we were in, but we have a copy of everything he had access to. The copying of the file likely triggered the removal of access.”
John nodded, “So they know about this lab. And now they know we have everything he had access to. No matter, transfer that to Titan, I’m sure they’ll be curious about the state of the Union’s weapons technology compared to us.”
George looked even more nervous than he had before.
John took a seat again, “Alright George, give me everything you know about Dr. Norman.”
The conversation continued for nearly an hour longer. John was convinced that he was being truthful, though utterly reluctant to part with most of the information he had given up. He was upgraded to some nicer quarters, though he would still be under watch at all times and wouldn’t be allowed to leave the room unless his captures wished him to.
June 6th, 2263. 04:35 Brig Interview Room
John watched as the latest scientist was chained and then led out of the room. He let out a deep sigh and rubbed his eyes. Exhaustion had set in, the hours since the operation had just flown by. He looked down at his watch to catch the time when Lieutenant Erickson walked in.
John raised his hands, as if to stop the fellow lieutenant from speaking, and spoke, “Look, I know.”
“You’ve been up sixty-eight hours straight. Twenty-two interviews deep too. I have to shut you down until tomorrow morning at 08:00. You need food and sleep badly.”
John nodded, “Agreed.”
Darryl laughed as he sat down in the questionee’s chair, “Shit, that was easy.”
“Dude, I am fucking exhausted.”
“Do we have enough to go to war?”
John shook his head, “Oh we have enough for a diplomatic incident, but I don’t think we have enough to convince the naysayers on their cabinet.”
“Even with their experiments?”
John handed Darryl a data slate, “Take a look at the roster on that base. Notice the citizenship?”
“Jesus. How in the hell are there that many?”
The names on the data slate were split into three groups. Two were from the Mercantilist Union, though one of them had been attempting to gain Confederate citizenship for four years. Eight were from the Alliance, and all of them were highly wanted criminals there. The remainder, seventy-five, were fellow citizens to the pair of Naval officers.
“This is a joke, right?” Darryl asked.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
John shook his head, “Where in the hell are these people being radicalized? It makes no sense. Thanks to their attaché to this base, we got the goods on six other bases. Three of them were raided hours after we hit this one. His access wasn’t canceled either,” John laughed, “Fucking rank amateurs. We think there was a VI that was doing maintenance and bounced him from the server. Oh, and three more bases are being hit today.”
“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something. Have you noticed how there’s progress now that Commander Murphy isn’t…” Darryl let the sentence hang.
“Fucking up everything by existing?” John said directly, “Her work hasn’t improved that much for the record. at least from the reports, she puts together that I have the misfortune of reviewing. I thought there was something untoward about her, but I think she just sucks at her job.”
“That isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement.”
John laughed, “It is definitely not. How long is the trip back to Manchester?”
“Faster than expected. Tides have shifted dramatically. Should be there in six to eight days' travel. Maybe five but you know how accurate long-term forecasts are.”
“Yeah, not accurate in the least,” John slid the chair back and stood up, “Well, I’m heading to the mess for some food or leftovers, then I’m off to bed per your orders.”
“Technically the doctor gave them. Oh, also bad news. Doctor Kipling wants a word with you before you go back on duty.”
“The shrink? Why the fuck…”
“You’d be wise to meet with the shrink. Those come from Admiral Nelson, I’m not fucking around with his orders.”
John sighed as he looked down, “Fine after I get to rest, I’ll reach out to him.”
June 7th, 2263. 07:45 Medbay – Doctor Kipling’s Office
John stepped into the office, which was full of goofy crap. Movie posters, models, and even miniature figures for wargames were strewn everywhere in the mess that was an office. John grinned as he picked up a Warhammer model and inspected the paint job before sitting down.
“Good morning, Lieutenant. How are you feeling?”
“Rested with a full stomach,” John answered in a harsh tone.
“You don’t much care for my profession, do you?”
“I don’t really, no,” John laughed, “Of course, I married one so there’s that. But she doesn’t try to psychoanalyze me.”
“Then you think this is a waste of time?”
John nodded, “I do. I have work to do.”
“Discussing the frustrations and problems you feel can reduce the amount of stress you feel and deal with.”
“Doctor, with all due respect here. I am only present because I have been ordered to do so. I would appreciate it if you cut to the meat of the conversation and skip the appetizer. I have a lot of work to do.”
Doctor Kipling looked down at his notes, “You feel nothing about what you saw in there?”
“Oh, I felt plenty, sir. But I’ve successfully compartmentalized my emotions.”
“Even when you threatened to flay or space those we captured?”
“The threat wasn’t legitimate, but it needed to sound as it were. Besides, I doubt very much I’d be able to space anyone successfully. Now if I were the captain of this vessel…” John let the sentence hang.
“You are aware that threats like that are not lawful. We aren’t allowed to do that because the individual may tell us lies in order to save their skin.”
“I’m aware of that Doctor,” John said dismissively, “Most of these scientists aren’t career criminals, as such they aren’t aware of what we can or are willing to do. Also, extra-judicial justice is acceptable in a case like this, as detestable as that may be to you.”
Doctor Kipling frowned and looked at John worriedly, “Murdering someone in cold blood is never acceptable.”
“Murdering someone that injected poison into the veins of individuals which changed their genetic structure, then starving them over the next thirty days while they are strapped to a lab table isn’t just for that?” John asked as he shook his head, “Doctor, there will be no trials for these people.”
“What makes you so sure?”
“Do you really think Naval Command will let the civilian government know that illegal genetic testing was done within our territory? What do you think our neighbor’s response would be?” John stared at the doctor defiantly, “No. Killing these despicable people would be a mercy. Most will rot away in jail; the lucky few will get the death penalty. In either case, none will come face to face with a judge or jury.”
John took a deep breath and spoke again just before the doctor was about to say something, “Killing them would end their suffering and save the Confederacy an incredible amount of money. While I wish I could end these despicable people’s lives, it is not my place to do so. Are we done here, sir?”
Doctor Kipling took his glasses off and leaned back in his chair, “Nothing seems to faze you, does it?”
“Many things do, sir. My life has been full of conflict. This is no different.”
“Aside from some questionable language around our prisoners, I see nothing in your action to suggest you are a danger to the crew. You have cleared once again for active-duty Lieutenant.”
John nodded and stood up. He gave a bad salute to the doctor and left the office. His duty was done but he did not appreciate the second-guessing of them. They weren’t on the frontlines, and they absolutely didn’t understand how evil the enemy really was.
June 10th, 2263. 14:45 Boardroom
The CNS Fargo’s boardroom was the finest room on the ship. Its table was rich mahogany with gold trim. That combination was fairly common throughout the fleet. John sat at the center of the table across from the largest viewscreen in the room. An agent from Titan was regurgitating information John already knew.
John was reading a data slate that summarized the data that was recovered from the enemy server. Access codes from four other individuals on that base were uncovered which unlocked additional information. Though not it led them to the central location of Dr. Norman’s organization.
The lack of that information rubbed John wrong. If he knew where the base was, he was of the mind to commandeer a stealth shuttle and end the organization in one fell swoop. There was talk of apprehending this asshole, but John had other ideas. Brutal ones that not even God himself would be able to prevent him from following through on them.
“Lieutenant Lief, do you agree with these conclusions?”
John looked up and apologized, “I am sorry, my focus was elsewhere. What was the conclusion?”
Agent Destiny Becklund sighed, “We believe this is enough to discuss with our contacts within the Mercantilist Union’s government.”
“I firmly disagree. We’ve got them outsourcing this work to largely Confederate sources. It’d result in more eggs on our faces than theirs. The Alliance will flip the fuck out if they find out this shit is happening.”
Admiral Nelson leaned forward and interjected himself into the conversation, “What is your next step?”
“Continue what we’re doing. We need to make it so horrifically expensive that their talent pool, which is far larger than it ought to be, dries up and they move these operations into Alliance territory.”
Dexter Watanabe then spoke, “Naval Intelligence seems to be split into two camps. Act or continue the status quo. I lean towards the status quo.”
“We need to do a thorough review of Ph.D. holders, or those in graduate or doctorate programs as soon as possible. The main thing is to look for sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies and monitor them like hawks. We don’t yet understand how they are recruiting all of these assholes.”
Commander Benjamin sarcastically said, “That’s rich coming from you.”
John grinned as he looked at her on the screen, “The difference between their sociopathy and mine, is I direct mine at our enemies, not our citizens. In any case, we do need to both find out where these scientists are and ensure Dr. Norman’s organization doesn’t get its hands on them.”
“Agreed,” General Mizrahi said, “We have active leads on another dozen sites with teams either engaging them in hours or within a couple of days. How many sites were they running?”
“It’s hard to tell but they were operating twenty-six at one time recently. If that number is consistent then there are eight that we are unaware of,” Commander Murphy said.
“How have our efforts in gaining access to our colonies' official request?” Admiral Nelson asked.
Director LeCroix then appeared on the screen, “The civilian government is unwilling to give us access to that information. They worry that once that door is open it will never close.”
The meeting grew silent until John spoke up, “What if we did an end around them?”
“Lieutenant, the last thing we, and especially you, need to do is make enemies of the civvies,” Director LeCroix rubbed his forehead.
“Consider that idea scrapped,” John said.
He was tapping away at his data slate. Then he transferred what he was working on to the terminal in front of him. Eve then scanned the run time that he pulled from his server and offered several suggestions for it. John was determined to modify his text analytics program to monitor the incoming official colony messages to the civilian government.
They would only review those messages that involved problems with a group or unexplained abductions. The VI would only pass on what colonies were submitting such requests. All other requests would be ignored and scrubbed permanently from his server. He grinned when he came up with a plan to leak that information to the task force, he still didn’t trust Naval Intelligence with handling this intel correctly.
“If that is all then everyone is dismissed,” Admiral Nelson said.
John could see people drop from the meeting or walk out of the meeting room. It didn’t take long until Admiral Nelson, General Mizrahi and he was alone. The meeting room was then secured and recording devices were turned off and blocked from activating.
“We have confirmation that there is a mole in the task force,” General Mizrahi said, “We are not convinced it is NI, but it could be the most likely outcome.”
“How do we know that sir?” John asked curiously.
“A message was sent three hours ago. The connection to the server was then cut, for all users that we were aware of,” Admiral Nelson said.
“I couldn’t get a copy of Eve uploaded to the server; all the IDs I had compromised were read-only unless physically onsite. By the way, still have no clue where their headquarters are. The official documented ones are not it.”
“John, I read your plan of attack. We aren’t risking you or any of our assets on that at this time,” Admiral Nelson said, “Your case was persuasive though.”
“Sirs, I think we may need to do this to kill two birds with one stone,” John smiled as he leaned back, “But I will need to redo my plan. I think we also need to plan on heavier resistance going forward. At least until we break their will in running these labs in our space.”
“I agree and we will await the revised plan,” General Mizrahi said, “Now a bit of bad news, for you anyways, Commander Murphy has demanded to have her team accompany Marine Platoon Three on their next mission.”
“You obviously told her to fuck off, right?” John snapped forward and spat out.
“We’re not in a position to deny Naval Intelligence requests. Even one as low as her,” Admiral Nelson said, “Director LeCroix and Chief Watanabe were very, very clear with her over who is in charge of the operations and what her limited roles would be on the ship.”
“Understood sir. I will attempt to play nice.”
“Do more than attempt, Lieutenant,” General Mizrahi said, “But for today, good work out there, son. The last two months have more than justified this operation.”
The meeting then ended. John leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. As he did, he smiled and took a deep breath. They finally had momentum. The tide was turning, but they needed it to turn into a massive wave to achieve their end goal. John opened his eyes and grinned, it was time to get back to work.