Back on board their ship, the administered were finally able to breathe, psychologically sheltered from the terrible world of Hogloos that surrounded the hull of their habitat.
“Great,” Libre whispered, “we finally have some valuable documents. With this base, we will be able to continue our investigation. As soon as we are back on board the administrative space, we will welcome Thuyskr on board, then we will leave the transport and go to Utela. The Hogloo will serve as our safe-conduct to the master geneticist.”
“Libre? I...”
The Hom gave her a worried look: Sava didn't seem well. As if something was bothering her... Unless she had a stomach ache... Stress maybe?
“Are you okay?”
“Yes... I'm... a little worried. These documents seem to indicate a completely legal operation by the Secret Service Sub-Institution. Maybe it was an operation that went wrong... Or maybe the corruption goes back much further than I thought... What if it was directly... our highest superiors who chose to sacrifice a galaxy for a few political maneuvers. Even if we managed to have them arrested, or just put them on trial, it would cause a lot of trouble that would weaken the Administration...”
“So, you're saying that peace is better than justice? That crimes should go unpunished in the name of stability?”
“No... But you, all you care about is finding a way to be pardoned, doesn’t it?”
Libre’s gaze turned stern and dejected:
“So, is that how you see me?”
“No, sorry, I didn’t mean that…”
“You’re right. If I were honest with myself, I should arrest all our leaders, no matter how important they are. Even when they don’t do anything illegal, they almost all transgress the ideal of justice. Right now, I have abandoned my own ideals to save my own skin.”
There was a certain weight in the Homtest’s words. Sava then remembered that he had once been part of a rebel movement calling itself “Liberty”: he must have had some somewhat extremist ideals left.
“The ship… The ship that Xini detected, not the Hogloo: the other one. Maybe it’s a secret service ship? That would explain why the Hogloos didn't detect it on their side...”
éThat's a possibility, Libre agreed, we'll have to manage to leave the Hogloos in a more discreet way... They must be able to use certain teleportation systems that could work... but it's going to cost me dearly... My finances are going to be badly damaged... We'll have to think about attacking a few civilian ships on the way to refloat ourselves... What? I'm a pirate now, right? Yarr! Yarr! Yarrrrrr!”
Sava put her hand to her mouth to hide her smile.
A few weeks later, the ship materialized in a small uninhabited system with a binary star. The four passengers were all in the control room, some watching the starry sky, others watching the data screens.
“It's been several jumps since I last detected our pursuers,” Xini announced. “It seems that the Hogloo ship has not followed us since we left their planet. No trace of the other ship passing through our last coordinates.”
“Perfect,” said Lhom, “let's set a course for Urus and finally solve this case!”
With one foot on his seat, the other on the ground, his finger pointing at the starry screens and his cape fluttering in the virtual wind, the Hom waited for a new jump that did not come.
Sava smiled at his theatrical gesture, then her smile froze when the wait began. Something was wrong.
“What's going on?” she asked. “‘Lost Truth’, why don't you launch the jump?”
As one Hom, the two presents turned their gaze to Xini. She returned it with an annoyed but still jaded air:
“I have done nothing likely to disrupt the functioning of your device. If I accessed your data in real time, I could check if we are victims of a jammer.”
Libre sat on his seat and turned on the holographic screens, scanning their data and activating the security measures. The AI did not respond, but the functioning of the ship proved that it was still active. It was certainly a jammer that was overloading certain functions of the ship.
The long-range radars suddenly detected the arrival of an entire group of warships, arriving in a dispersed order so that their jammers formed a trap surrounding the ‘Lost Truth’.
“It seems the Administration has us surrounded,” the Hogloo murmured, with the arrogant smile their warriors assume before a battle. “Maybe they don’t know who you are and have only managed to detect our exit from the transport ship.”
“That’s possible. Thuyskr, if they think we’re Hogloo spies, you’ll be the one to answer them, okay?”
The Hogloo nodded.
Several firing devices were already pointed on their position, proving that the enemy could see through their camouflage. Lhom deactivated stealth and redirected energy to the shields. If none of these ships were too far ahead, the three-grained core of his ship should make the fight fair… If negotiations failed, that is. The ship might also be able to evade the jammers through combat.
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Libre accepted a communication sent by one of the hostile ships and a large screen appeared in the air, revealing their commander. He was in an individual ship, or an isolated room on the main deck of his battleship. Dressed in an all-black uniform, he also had black skin. He was probably a male of a bipedal species, with large hairy ears that contrasted with a bald head. The Artificial Intelligence was unable to identify his species.
Xini let out an exclamation of surprise, attracting all the looks in the room and a heavy suspicion: with the exception of the skin color, and the fact that she had hair while her ears were hairless, the small creature looked a lot like this new character. Xini's pendulous ears perked up slightly with emotion and she tore her gaze from the screen to notice that she was the center of attention.
“Is he your kind?” Lhom asked. “You seem to recognize him.”
“He’s… his name is Azxaron. He’s a very intelligent person… Well, for a man he’s very intelligent, almost as intelligent as a woman… of our specie, of course: he’s smarter than all of you anyway… He’s… I worked with him once. His favorite specialty was creating interfaces between ‘T’ energy and computers. It was a nice time: the queen, Xerina herself, congratulated us on our work. She said that if we continued to do such good work, it would bode well for our people… It was a little before she was assassinated…”
Xini’s face showed emotions, both positive and negative, that they had never seen displayed in her. As she spoke, her gaze remained fixed on the screen where the other creature remained motionless, waiting to know if her communication was received.
“You all know, don't you: Xerina was the president of the universe before the current president. It was almost a decade ago that terrorists assassinated her and annihilated the presidential palace. I haven’t seen Azxaron since that moment: I heard he joined the Black Guards… that’s the name of our army, because their uniform is black and there are mostly men, so gray or black skins… I… I left, alone, to try to discover the truth about Xerina’s assassination… I had told him my suspicions before, but he didn’t agree… I… regret some of the things I said that day…”
Xini’s green skin paled as her brow furrowed in deep worry:
“His presence here can’t be a coincidence. I don’t know how he’s tracking us, but he’s here for me, that’s for sure. Maybe it’s Xzéonia… it’s not enough for her to have banished me: she wants to send me back to prison… I’m sure of it…”
Libre looked away from the Xerinean: he had seen enough and knew she was sincere. Her species refused to lie and he doubted she would use the only lie allowed by her code during her life to deceive them.
“Well,” he said, “let's see what he wants before speculating.”
He pressed the communication button, but did not authorize the transmission of his image. It was better to wait for the adverse reaction to know how to appear. The long-eared character gave them an annoyed look then spoke:
“Ah. You finally deign to answer my communication. I am Azxaron of the Xerbat clan, an alpha+ administrative agent and in charge of a special mission. On behalf of the Administration, you are ordered to deactivate your weapons and engines. An assault troop will be sent to search your ship and you will be arrested.”
Lhom turned to his acolytes and smiled:
“Well, at least he is direct. I think I'll allow the image: any suggestions while there's still time?”
The Hogloo blinked his reptilian eyes. Xini looked away, unsure for once of what to do. Sava shrugged and stood next to the command chair. Lhom sneered and activated the image then pressed to communicate:
“I am Libre Lhom, an alpha+ administrative agent on a secret mission.”
“You're lying. I am in direct contact with the Security Institution, War Sub-Institution, Intelligence Department.”
“Of course, my mission is rather through the Diplomacy Institution, Secret Service Sub-Institution...”
“Mr. Lhom, please stop lying: you're not fooling anyone. You currently have three extremely dangerous prisoners on board whom you broke out of... Oh! Xini...”
The little woman had just appeared in the frame of the visual projection. She crossed her arms over her chest in a sort of salute that her counterpart did not return, then said something in a language no one understood. The automatic translator informed Lhom that there was no translation available and that the algorithms designed to decipher unknown languages found no logic in it. The two Xerineans conversed quickly, without anyone knowing what they were saying to each other.
The fact that Xini looked away in annoyance at the end seemed to indicate an argument or a reprimand. Azxaron then turned his attention to the captain of the “Lost Truth” and demanded to know if they were going to surrender or get shot before surrendering. Lhom paused the image and sound.
“So? What did he say?”
“That... that doesn't concern you!”
“So, he didn't say anything that could concern us?”
“Not really... But he seems determined to do his job... He didn't even specify what my fate would be...”
She grumbled something unflattering in a mixture of the administered and her own language, implying that this guy had always had an excessive tendency to follow orders.
Taking a pensive pose, Lhom remained motionless. Sava put a hand on his arm, and though his face seemed calm, she felt that his body was tense.
“Libre,” she said, “maybe we should surrender.”
“That's a bad idea.”
“You're right... But then, what do we do?”
Suddenly, the ship leapt forward, machine-gunning the enemy ships with all its weapons. Sava and Libre looked at Xini in horror, then followed her own worried gaze toward Thuyskr. The Hogloo's arm seemed to have mutated into a horrible living thread that crawled inside the room and penetrated the control posts, covering them like a horrible reddish spiderweb.
“Let's speed up the movement,” said the Hogloo, “this story has made us lose enough time: I have a mission to accomplish.”
The ship shook under the effect of the enemy fire which, although stopped by the shields, put a strain on the artificial gravity. Lhom had the horrible feeling of reliving a past scene. The enemy ships were just more resistant this time and easily took the projectiles of his armament.
“Thuyskr? What are you doing?”
The Hogloo gave a bad smile as his body seemed to melt and reshape itself, by those monstrous methods that the greatest Hogloo warriors used.
“Really Lhom, I thought you were smarter than that.”
Turning pale, Libre gripped the armrests of his chair so tightly that his hands turned white as well. His voice had lost all pomp, all assurance, giving way to total terror:
“You’re Khajraz! How? Since when?”
The Hogloo’s appearance had completely changed and he got rid of the pieces of his old skin, his body then absorbing them as if it were made of some kind of solid liquid…
“Ah. So, you recognize me? I have been with you since your passage in Hogloo space. I found a way to kill Thuyskr and I hid inside his corpse. Even those stupid servants of the outdated ideal did not see a thing. This time, we will go straight to the point. You will serve my mission, if you want to live a little longer.”
The ship then made a series of jumps, dropping expansive minefields at each stop, following the schedule Xini had designed but Libre had refused to authorize.
“We have a little more time now… Let’s expand the crew and finally get to work, shall we?”
With a heavy heart, Lhom led the Hogloo toward the hold. Sava and Xini followed, pursued by the threat of the strange veins that spread throughout the ship. The terror Libre felt was beyond anything his Homtest training could bear: this Hogloo was not normal. None of them would kill one of their own to take on their identity. Few possessed abilities monstrous enough to parasitize a ship… in fact, he had never heard of anything like it…
What terrible deed would this sinister monster accomplish, with their help?