you may recall
this short piece of fiction which I posted a while back... Now its (not-imidiate) sequel:
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Shadow Pact
- A "Workings Of The Warp"-related fiction -
They came for him in the night, two vasudan soldiers who had obscured their faces. They dragged him from his cell into a small room where he was roughly seated on a single chair. The chair stood in the center of a cone of light that was created by a single illumination globe on the room's ceiling.
When his captors had retreated into the shadows a voice spoke from the darkness:
"Admiral Ahmose, what pleasure to meet you. I'm terribly sorry that I cannot meet you face to face but subspace communication will have to do."
The voice was oddly familiar to Ahmose despite the distortion through a translation program. But he could not tell when or where or even if he had met the Terran it belonged to.
"What do you want? Taunt me from the shadows? Mock me because I was the only one who courage to do had to be done?"
Like most commanding officers of his rank Ahmose had been informed of the position of the rebel flagship, the NTF Iceni. When had come to his attention that he had chance to prevent the Iceni from escaping again Ahmose had not hesitated and asked GTVA Command for the clearance to engage. The order to attack never came, instead he and his fleet were order stand aside while Iceni and butcher who commanded it would walk away from judgement again.
That had been too much to bear. Ahmose had conspired with his most trusted captains and send them to intercept the Iceni despite Command's orders.
When GTVA officials had learned about the Ahmose's mutiny he had been placed under arrest and his fleet recalled from the front lines. Word somehow already had gotten to the enemy and now the Neo-Terran Front was speculating about the method behind this madness.
"Taunt you? Oh no, quite the opposite, Admiral. I've arranged for this meeting so we could bargain."
"What?!" The Vasudan was shocked. He would have expected all but this. "Who are you?" he asked the darkness.
"I am Vice Admiral Richter and I am Galactic Terran Vasudan Intelligence, Admiral. I stand between every citizen of the GTVA and the abyss. And of this moment we have common goals."
Ahmose remembered the name Richter from many briefings, but he had never actually met him. He was the head the Alliance's intelligence service and commander of units of Special Operations Command. In his position Richter acted solely on the behalf the Security Counsel and had a card blancé to do whatever was necessary.
Such power was dangerous in hands of any single man but from what Ahmose knew, Richter was as devoted to the Alliance as Ahmose himself.
"Very well, Richter. What makes you think we pursue a common objective?"
"You want Bosch, I want the Iceni and all technology aboard.
I arrange for you to be released and I can give you back your command over the Serqet. Once you have both all you have to do in return is wait for my call and I will give you the NTF Iceni. Bosch's final gambit will end between your destroyer and the Colossus."
The proposal was tempting: Freedom, one of the most powerful ships of his fleet and opportunity to end the rebellion. But as the Terrans loved to say, some things are just too good to be true.
On the other hand, Ahmose though, what choice did he have? A trail for a failure or a trail because he succeeded? - Whether it was foolish or not he made his decision:
"I deliver justice to Bosch and you will have the Iceni. Such is my oath as man of honour."
