Lieutenant Dor crept down the dimly lit aisles of the Data Archives. He was jumpy, peering around at each sound or perceived movement.
The Data Archives were the ship's memory, stored in long rows of monolithic data banks. They stored everything that happened on the ship, along with a copy of the Codex Imperium, a vast array of knowledge the Imperium had about species, planets, star charts, jumphole lanes, technical specs, every bit of data needed to run a modern starship.
Dol technically had clearance to be here in the Archives, but with what he was planning to do, he absolutely did not want anybody who could say they'd seen him there.
He arrived at one of the data banks he was looking for. It was a featureless gray monolith, eight feet tall and ominous. He opened the front of the cabinet, exposing a mess of ports, cables, and incomprehensible hardware. Nestled inside it was a glossy black square, a foot across.
He pulled out his scanner-- modified now, so that it didn't have his personnel identifier on it-- and plugged it into one of the ports in the data bank. The interface lit up as it scanned through the data in this unit.
With tight lips, he spun through the data. In this case, it was a series of security recordings. He rolled back a few weeks to the day he had let the Qhall assassin on board, and selected all the security footage from the entire ship that had him in it.
He poked a button on his scanner, and a soft green point of light appeared on the otherwise featureless square in the data bank.
From his pocket, he drew two small cylinders, looking almost like flashlights. He set one on the top of the cube, and one on the side. Tiny lasers shone from the cylinders, lighting the cube, glowing brightly where the two beams intersected.
Slowly and carefully, he slid the cylinders along the edges until the intersection of the lasers was directly over the green light on the square. He pushed a button on one of the cylinders, and suddenly his scanner filled with gibberish.
Now, instead of a list of security vids showing on his scanner, the interface was filled with errors: "Data corrupted", "Video not found", "Data stream interrupted."
The data was destroyed. And since it hadn't been done through the software, there would be no record of the deletion.
Lieutenant Dol let out a small breath of relief.
This was not part of what the dark figure had instructed him to do, but he was going to take care of himself first.
On the same day's security video recordings, he selected out all the recordings of Kinnit, as well.
Same process: a light on the square lit up, he aligned the cylinders, and pressed the button. Scrambled errors filled his scanner.
There. If worse came to worst, it would be easy enough to pin things on the SS. She probably deserved it, in any case.
He disconnected his scanner and closed up the unit. He hunted for the next data bank he needed.
The next one was deeper in the archives, in the long-term storage. He had to hunt for a while, but finally found the unit. He opened it up, hooked in, and began searching for data.
He found what he was looking for, and as before, destroyed it.
Lieutenant Dol didn't know why the dark figure wanted him to destroy the ship's data on the Oryndrax. They could just refresh it next time they hit a starport. But he couldn't question his orders.
He started searching for the last data bank he needed, over where the personnel records were stored. But the lights in the Data Archives came on. His heart shot into his throat, and he scuttled to a back area of the Archives. He could hear the footsteps of someone, probably one of the techs.
The steps drew closer to his position. He could hear the tech in the next row of data banks.
Dol's middle knotted with tension. He stepped as quietly as he could down his row of data banks, trying to judge where the tech was. The tech's footfalls stopped, and Dol heard the clattering sound of the tech pulling something off their toolbelt.
Biting his lip bloody, Lieutenant Dol crept backwards. His feet caught on each other, and he just barely managed to keep from falling. The clattering of tools stopped. Lieutenant Dol held his breath.
After a nail-biting minute of silence, activity picked back up on the other side of the data banks. Dol silently made his way to the end of the row, and slipped away, escaping the Data Archives, nearly weeping with relief.
Later. He'd finish his task later.
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Admiral Stonefist marched down the corridor of the ISS Pilum Magnus, Admiral Balia's ship, with Kinnit in tow. He was drinking his stasis mug of coffee and frowning.
Surely this Council would go more smoothly than the last?
He paused at the door to the Council chamber, and took a deep breath. He handed his mug to Kinnit and looked over at the other Assistants clustered nearby. He pursed his lips and walked into the Council chamber.
Kinnit smiled nervously at the other Assistants. They turned away and carried on their conversation.
"Hi," she said. She taken several classes on Naval etiquette, but unfortunately, none of them covered how to casually express "I'm sorry my boss punched you in the face."
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"I'm Kinnit," she said, holding out her hand to Lieutenant Voth.
Lieutenant Voth was not so rude as to refuse an outstretched hand, but his eyes slid over to the closed chamber door.
"I... don't know if I should be talking to you," he said.
She colored.
"I'm so sorry about what happened last time." she said. "Admiral Stonefist was under a lot of stress, and he reacted poorly. I apologize. Can we... start again?" she asked.
Her hand still hung out in the air, waiting. Voth gingerly reached out and shook her hand. She beamed at him.
"I'm Lieutenant Voth, Assistant to Admiral Cora Din. This," he said, pointing to a young man who was perhaps slightly rounder than was strictly within Navy fitness guidelines, "is Lieutenant Daos, Assistant to Admiral Balia. And this Lieutenant Solborne," he said, indicating the thin, pinch-faced female. "Assistant to Admiral Lander."
"Thank you," she said. "It's wonderful to meet you all. And I'm Assistant to Admiral Stonefist. Ah, but I guess you know that."
"I remember," Voth said, rubbing he face.
Kinnit blushed heavily.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"Voth, stop picking on her," Daos said. He stepped forward and shook her hand. "He's fine. He's gotten off worse in the taverns on Mirin. This time, at least, he got two days off and drinking money for the next weekend."
"Daos--" Voth began warningly, but Daos waved him off.
"It's fine. He was just trying to suck up to Admiral Stonefist, and he did it badly."
Lieutenant Solborne snorted loudly.
"I'll say," she said in a nasally voice. She came over and shook Kinnit's hand. "I'm Solborne. If you like doing something besides drinking and getting in fights, I'm the only one here worth talking to. These idiots don't know what a good time is."
Kinnit giggled.
"Solborne, your idea of a good time is reading ship specs, I don't want to hear it," Voth said.
"At least my technical manuals don't beat me up for hitting on them."
"Hey, that girl was very nice. Until the violence."
"Voth," Daos interjected, "as your friend, I have to tell you, even after the beating you looked better than her."
Kinnit put both hands over her mouth to stifle another giggle.
Voth stepped forward.
"Kinnit, I accept your apology, and I apologize for what I-- what I said about you."
"It's... okay. It's nothing worse than was the Admiral's said to me."
They shared a moment of awkward silence. Voth finally broke it.
"What's... what's it like working for him? I've got to admit, I was surprised he had an SS as his Assistant."
"Oh, it's wonderful," she said, her eyes lighting up. The rest of the Assistants looked at her dubiously, but she carried on, all unaware. "He has incredible focus, and such a creative mind. He thinks fast on his feet in a crisis. He's almost exactly like the hero I imagined him to be from the stories."
She rubbed the back of her head and chuckled nervously.
"When he's in action, that is. On a day-to-day basis, he can be a little rough around the edges," she admitted.
"I bet," Voth said.
"And sometimes, especially in a situation, he has a solution in mind, but he doesn't always take the time to make sure everyone understands it. He just expects people to do what he says."
"Sounds rough."
"But he cares so much about the citizens of the Imperium! He's honorable and strong. He's the very ideal of the Imperium!"
Daos laughed.
"You sound like Voth," he said. "Voth has been worshipping Admiral Stonefist from afar for years."
"Don't be stupid," Voth said. "It's not like that. But she's right. He is the true ideal of the Imperium. Who wouldn't be awed by the hero of Arcturus?"
"Oooh, maybe don't mention Arcturus to him," Kinnit said. "It makes him grumpy."
Voth's eyebrows popped up.
"Really? Why? If I saved a planet full of people, I'd want everyone to know about it."
Kinnit shrugged.
"I don't know. He just gets upset about it."
"Weird," Voth said. A sudden thought occurred to him. "Kinnit, when he gets upset, does he... hurt you?"
"What? No! Oh, no, not ever! Nothing like that at all!"
Voth nodded.
"Okay. That's good to know."
"Yeah," Solborne interjected. "Voth would hate to have to take down his shrine to Admiral Stonefist."
"What?! It is not a shrine! It's one picture, one! And it's on my wall of all the great Admirals of history!"
"Sure, but only Admiral Stonefist's has smooch marks on it."
"See, Kinnit, this is the kind of nonsense these idiots spout. This is why drink."
They shared a good laugh and carried on, getting to know one another.
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Admiral Stonefist sat in the Council chamber, stiff but not furious. Today's meeting had actually gone rather smoothly. Especially compared to the last one.
Cora Din and Lander had been less nit picky than usual. After discussion of the assassination attempt and the imprisonment of former Captain Caltrel, they'd been almost magnanimous. Even Admiral Balia had been more alert than usual, though he still didn't contribute much.
They wrapped up their Council business, and Admirals Cora Din and Lander packed up and left. Grimthorn stayed behind, sorting out his notes on his scanner for a minute. He paused and stared off into the distance.
"How goes it, young Grimthorn?"
Admiral Stonefist started at Balia's creaky interjection. Balia rarely even responded to a conversation any more, let alone started one.
His voice was hoarse and thin, but behind it, Grimthorn could still hear the steel that it had once held, many years ago. And Balia was probably the only person in the Navy who would dare call him "young Grimthorn." But it technically still fit, since Balia was at least forty years older than him.
"Huh?" Grimthorn responded. "Oh, just, you know, juggling a lot."
Admiral Balia nodded sagely.
"Mmm. Bad things afoot. Conspiracies. Plots. War."
Grimthorn frowned.
"Yes," he replied. "Something's going on out there. Lots of incidents have been cropping up lately, and I can't help but feel that they're all connected somehow. But I don't know enough to know who's involved, or to figure out what they're even after. If I could get anything, even just a fingernail's grip on what's actually happening..."
Balia nodded.
"You wish it were simple again, don't you, young Grimthorn? You wish everyone shared your principles. Protect the weak. Save those in distress. Bring honor to the Imperium. But it's all gotten too big. Too much money. People don't join the Navy to help others any more, they want an easy path to a fat retirement."
Admiral Stonefist's mouth hung open. That was the longest speech he'd heard from Admiral Balia in years.
"I'm in full agreement with you, sir. What we do, it used to mean something. We used to really help people. But now I'm relegated to shuffling data and slips around all day. Just another bureaucrat."
Admiral Balia smiled.
"But you haven't been acting like a bureaucrat lately, have you? That's why things have gotten so fierce. You've remembered that you are a warrior. And you've been acting like it."
Admiral Stonefist paused, turning Balia's words over in his mind. Admiral Balia chortled.
"I wonder what's changed to make you act like this?" he said.
Grimthorn, stunned, could not think of anything to say.