Star Law: A Marshal Cole Series

Chapter 28 (a)

Captain Cutler sat at the head of his bridge. A full bridge crew of 20 was on duty. With only a number of days left before they arrived at the outer limits of Recedo Boötis. From Arcturus, the system was just under 8light years away and under normal space conditions using the star drive, the Niagara would have arrived in a few days. The Black Adder cloud meant you couldn't just drop out of FTL outside the system. The journey had to happen through normal space and a somewhat circuitous route winding around the cloud which took time. This generally wasn't a concern though. It harkened back to old days when a ship on the sea took a while to reach its destination and was often out of communication for periods during the route. He smiled at that thought but it was brief. This is what the Arcturus to Hawks run had been like but now with the death and destruction and so far away from anything, out of range of communication... it was awful.

Commander Chung was due to takeover shortly with the shift change. As captain, he still had to regularly be seen and dine with the passengers. He had led a memorial to all those who died. Then he spoke to their loved ones or friends remaining aboard the ship attending smaller gatherings. Unlike the gala events prior, at every turn he was briefing passengers on events and foremost on their safety.

The same story was being told and that was the ship was out further from the Black Adder Cloud and was running with shields up. Strange electro-magnetic forces were responsible for the phenomena and that the Niagara would be pulling further and further away from the danger as they neared the star system. This tale would suffice so long as there was no re-occurrence of what happened in the Central Plaza. And of that, he was not confident it wouldn't happen again.

His helm and navigation officers were going over a braking procedure that was to take place just outside the planetary system. The ship would slow down but not stop between the inner and outer planets. At that time, several cargo containers just inside the hull walls would be ejected from the bottom of the ship. The containers bound together and controlled with thruster units would park themselves right outside the asteroid belt. From there they'd be picked up by the mining teams. At some point, a suitable asteroid would be towed to the planet Hawks and a space elevator would be nanufactured and connected to the space station. A line would be dropped to an equatorial position on the planet and it would become the main transit point for cargo and passengers on the surface.

The Niagara would slow, the outer doors would open and at the same time the cargo was jettisoned, the ship would rise up and wait for the containers to clear and resume course to Hawks.

Normally Cutler was not in the least concerned about the procedure but nothing was normal on this voyage. A makeshift morgue full of bodies certainly put things in sharp focus. As far as the investigation went, he realized that the presence of psi made it unlike anything anyone had encountered before. Still, he was led to believe that some breaks in the case were pending. It was why he awaited on the bridge for his security chief Volks.

It wasn't long before the man entered as he always did: silently like a shark.

"Lieutenant Karlsson, you have the conn," called out Cutler.

Cutler motioned Volks to the bridge conference room and they both strode to the back. Karlsson took the captain's chair.

Volks waited for the door to close before speaking. "I can't stay long. We're closing in on a person of interest."

"To make an arrest?" questioned the captain.

"That remains to be seen," said Volks. "My impression is that the Marshal is laying the groundwork for a trap which may come into play later on.

"Cutler kept his lip buttoned. He knew more about Cole's plan but only in a basic geographic way and no one had described it as a trap. The less information, the better. "You know how vulnerable we are, chief. I don't like it any better than you do, but I've been keeping things arms length so you all can do your job."

"Understood, captain," replied Volks, nodding. "Suffice to say that I'm tracking someone and this may all end up in the same place at some point."

"And you think we might be able to capture those responsible?" asked Cutler.

"I don't know," replied Volks. "I do know that we do need to keep the ship safe and it might require decisive action."

"In what way?"

Volks paused before speaking. "It is my preference to hold any suspect but if the ship is in danger, I'd like you to blow the hatch. Eject anyone in that section into space. Even if I'm in it."

Cutler blanched. "I'd rather not kill my security chief if you don't mind."Volks smiled a thin smile. "Me either. I have a plan for that. Still, if I'm asking it for you'll know that we've run out of options. Lives will be at stake."

"How will I know where and when this will happen?" Cutler asked. His face was grim.

"You'll know," said Volks. "There will be likely no mistaking it when it happens."