Kaevan’s Pursuit
“Son of a…” Kaevan shouted as he slammed an angry fist down on the console in front of him sending it into alarm. He slammed his other hand down to stop it. “Tell me you got a lock on their coordinates, Terrell.”
“I didn’t,” Terrell replied with a stern shake of his head. He was a young black man in his early thirties. He had high cheekbones and his black curly hair was cut close to his scalp. “And stop beating on my console.”
“Right there! Right effing there!” Kaevan yelled. “We could have ended this whole thing. How in the hell did they manage to open a gate?” He paused for half a breath and then through gritted teeth he grumbled, “Stoddard!”
“Maybe we should go talk to the instructors, see if they know anything.”
“What? On Planet Hell? Are you nuts?”
“Make them come up to the space station.”
“They won’t talk to us. I guarantee it.”
“Why not? Those ships got out of the way when we told them to. Maybe they’ll be more compliant than you think.”
“Those ships got out of the way because they’re freighters delivering supplies. They aren’t government ships. And think about it, they were here training. It’s obvious the people down there were in on it to some degree, and that means a cover-up. They won’t tell us anything important,” Kaevan told the man. “Let me process this for a minute,” he concluded before ducking into a moment of silence.
Kaevan rapped his finger on the console rapidly while he thought about his next move. There was no way he’d be able to find that Jack Crew, let alone Stoddard or Roper.
“You can’t trust anyone these days,” Kaevan complained. “Nothing about this situation bodes well for us.”
“Well, you need to come up with something quick. The president is getting anxious. This treaty’s been in the making for a long time. It’ll all fall apart if Stoddard hits Sanchu. Maybe we should go to Crucis One and look for him ourselves?”
“I don’t know. Our sources in the Alliance told us he’s dead,” Kaevan replied. “Stoddard knows this is a dangerous game he’s playing – but why the kid? I still can’t wrap my head around it. I get the value of sending Kara as a cover, and of course hiring a Jack Crew is perfectly logical. And yeah, he’s an orphan, and he’s expendable, but it still doesn’t make any sense. There’s no value to adding him to the mission.”
“I agree,” Terrell said. “I checked his DNA while researching the fake adoption papers Stoddard added to the data-lines, and what…”
“Let me guess,” Kaevan interrupted, “you discovered that he doesn’t have any extended family in the Federation.”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“Mmhmm. Let’s head back to Earth. I think it’s time to chat with Silkwood face-to-face, because we’re going to end up having some serious problems if my suspicions are correct.” “You’re the boss.”