All That Glitters Ch. 33

"I can provide 4,500. The remaining 3,500 will have to be in new slaves. That means that you need to do a sweep of the lanes for transport ships in order to up our numbers of new slaves. We will need to bring in a minimum of 590 slaves per month over the next six months to meet the demands of the Adenomere Company. Any issues on this?" Armstrong asked.

"Yes, there are no large transport ships anymore," said one of the senior partners. "The transport companies have now gone to these new Sprawl Class Fast Transport ships that can jump amazing distances in comparison to our fleets. That means the likely jump areas that we normally cover for transports are no longer being used. We need to find where these ships jump to and lay in wait for them. Fortunately, they will jump into these areas regularly as they are doing fixed timing routes between planets.

"The downside is that they only hold a couple of hundred passengers versus the larger transports that might hold 700 or more. Hitting one or two of these ships will not do. We need to take several of them to meet our monthly quotas if we are to provide near 600 a month," he finished.

"How many jumps sites do we know of now?" Armstrong demanded of his partner.

"We have six located. That will allow us to capture potentially as many as 1,200 slaves at once. But that will not be enough," the man replied.

"Right, I will send him 1,400 slaves per month, however, that will only give us three months grace. By the fourth month, we will need to have plotted out the location of as many of these jump sites as possible so that we can hit them all at once," Armstrong said.

"We can do this once," the senior partner replied. "The Navy will come hunting us if we hit so many ships in such a tight timeline. Better to have the Adenomere partner reduce the requirement for his numbers as completing his request will require the Navy to respond to the private ship losses that will occur.

"It's one thing to lose one or two ships a month. That can be put down to accidents, the cost of doing business in space. However, to lose three or more transports in a month, over several months. The Union will have to respond as that many loses per month could not all be put down to accidents," the senior partner told him.

"Do what you must, but get me those slaves starting in four months," Armstrong stated firmly.

The partners nodded and left the estate. Most had already decided that it was time to retire. It was getting too risky to keep being a pirate.

Fucking pussies, Armstrong thought as he watched them leave. The fucking Union did nothing for years while we took their citizens as slaves. Even when they found out that Alliance planets had their citizens, they did nothing. These fucking dogs are farting in fear of nothing. Time to bring up new senior partners in the Alnitah Syndicate...

Pallanders-4, Hd-115153 (Punarjanm) System

NS Lucas Antonius snapped into existence in the inbound lane of Pallanders-4 and hailed Control.

"Control, this is NS Lucas Antonius, Lt. Sunni Lee commanding. I have FAdm. Holstern with me and am asking for berthing on the station, over," Lt. Sunni called.

"Pallanders Control, roger, you may use VIP Shuttle Bay One, position one for docking, over," came the immediate reply.

"Antonius, roger, VIP Bay One, slot one. We will be eighteen minutes to docking, out."

Twenty-two minutes later, FAdm. Holstern, Lt. Sunni Lee, and an unknown captain, came aboard the station and were met by Cmdre. Dostier, her aide Cdr. Schell, Capt. Davis, Cdr. Drake, Cdr. Verdin, Lt. Nyalla, and David Sprawl.

"Admiral," Dostier greeted her, giving a salute. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?"

"Good day, Liana," Holstern began. "This is Capt. Brenden Closs, Senior Intelligence Officer for Sector Twenty-Three. He is here to take charge of the computers from the Maderan's Reach, Liana."

"Under whose orders, ma'am?" Liana asked, suspicious.

"On orders from Navy Intelligence," Closs answered. "My orders come from Adm Rolland Heist himself, ma'am."

"Did Rolland send a message with the instructions, Capt. Closs?" Liana demanded.

"No, ma'am, the instructions were to take possession of the computers and to hold them until they can be recovered by someone that he would send out," Closs replied.

"Then these orders never came from Adm. Heist, Captain," Liana stated.

"I'm sure that Adm. Heist would not have sent a message to you, ma'am," Capt. Closs replied sceptically.

"Actually, he would have, Captain," Capt. Davis answered for Liana. "Adm. Ramison, Adm. Heist, and Adm. Hannison have been to Liramor-23 on numerous occasions. They all know Cmdre. Dostier quite well, captain. As this was the first capture of her command, you better believe that they would have sent a note to her personally.

"The person who sent that message might have been at Navy Intel, however, he/she was not working on behalf of Adm. Heist, Capt. Closs," Davis explained.

"Shit," Closs said. "So what do we do now, ma'am?" Closs asked of his boss.

"David, do you by chance have a couple of old computers sitting around?" Liana asked.

"Hell yes," Sprawl answered with a laugh. "We had to strip a few of the older computers from this tub when we came in. The station has all new computers now but we still have the old ones sitting around."

"You take those back with you and see who comes to collect them, Brenden," Dostier ordered. "That person will be able to lead us to the leak at Navy Intel.

"Heist will love that," Beverley smirked.

"Where are the computers from the Reach?" Holstern asked.

"Right here on the station," Sprawl responded. "Thenton came back yesterday with the fellow he was taking about. He has already made headway on the wiped computers."

"Seriously?" Closs asked.

"Yep. Thenton was right, this guy is a savant at computers," Sprawl continued. "He had the first computer spitting information after only an hour of work. It took him three hours to get the second computer to spill its guts. He's now working on the last two computers."

"So what's on them?" Closs asked.

"Don't know," Sprawl said. "I'm retired from the Navy," he laughed.

"Let's go take a look and see what he has pulled," Liana said.

They all marched down to the secure room where Luc Branchette was working on the remaining computer.

"M. Branchette, this is FAdm. Wilhelmina Holstern, commanding Sector Twenty-Three and her Chief Intelligence Officer Capt. Brenden Closs," Liana introduced the group.

"I'm just waiting for the final computer to empty its information, but there is quite a lot that you will be interested in," Luc told them.

"The Maderan's Reach was once the flag ship of a Pirate Commodore. The shit that was on the computers includes names and dates of attacks for many of the ships in his fleet, instructions to the Commodore from the senior members of the Alnitah Pirate Syndicate.

"Apparently, the information was not wiped when the Commodore left the ship! The crew did a basic wipe of the computers but that is very easily circumnavigated.

"The information has already been copied to three encrypted memory storage units, one is for you Capt. Closs, one will remain here for Cmdre. Dostier to deal with and the third is going to go to Liramor-23 at FAdm. Thenton's insistence. He does not want the information to go back to Intel HQ."

"Thank-you, M. Branchette," Liana graciously said. "This information will be useful in the trials being conducted here under VAdm. Chaulker. I cannot say how useful it will be to Liramor-23, however, I am sure that pertinent information will get to the respective people."

"This is amazing work, M. Branchette," Sprawl stated. "I have never seen anyone recover information from a wiped computer so fast."

"It is what I do for a living, David," Luc replied. "Besides, my fee is being paid for by Cmdre. Dostier's budget, so she is respecting good results. From what I have seen, I think she has that and more."

One of the computers made a noise and Luc turned to it.

"So, the information from the final computer has been put on the new computer and I am now correlating the information to identify duplications. That should not take long, then I will make the three copies. I will need to certify these copies so I will need you, FAdm. Holstern, and you Cmdre. Dostier, and you Mr. Sprawl to confirm and sign that these are true copies identical on each of the memory units."

The machine did its survey and identified duplicate pieces, correlated those and finalized the output. Luc closed each of the original computers after locking their memories so they could not be accidentally, or purposely erased. He had the respective people identify themselves and certify the true copy then made three identical copies, marked them as such and delivered one to Liana, one to Capt. Closs, and held the third for himself. He then put tamper seals on the original computers.

"I will need transport to Liramor-23," he stated.

"No problem, I owe Charles Thenton a favour and will drop you off there after stopping off at Folden Naval Base," Holstern said.

"You won't have to, Wilhelmina," Liana said. "Charles said he would be at Liramor-23 for three days. You can pay a courtesy call on him there."

"Right, can you get Capt. Closs back to Clarren Naval Base? I will take M. Branchette to Liramor-23 and take in the sights while I am there," Holstern indicated.

"No problem, Adm. The Dixon is at your disposal Capt. Closs," Dostier said. "However, make sure you keep the information on that memory drive as secure as possible.

"Mr. Sprawl, if you can give us a few of the older computers, with their drives removed, I would appreciate that," she said turning to David.

"I anticipated that, Liana," he replied. "They are ready to go."

"I want the name of the person who comes for those computers, and I want you to check his/her orders before giving them over, including verifying the orders against the Signals records," Holstern told Closs. "This person is either the leak or is going to lead us to the leak. If their orders are real, then they are just the courier, if their orders are false, they are the leak.

"Either way, do not arrest the person or arouse suspicion with them. Verify their ID and let them go. If you can, plant a repeater in one of the computers that will show when and where the computer is activated. We suspect that these computers will go to Terra, but they may not." Holstern finished.

"If they come in anything but a Navy vessel, I would suggest that you hold them and the vessel, ma'am," Dostier put forward. "It is not likely going back to Terra and the leak."

"That makes sense," Holstern agreed. "Use your judgement, Captain, but make sure that you have the means to find the locations of these computers once they are handed over. They may be older, blank computers, but they are still government property," she finished with a smile.

Orders passed, everyone split up to do their thing.

Gordon Family Estate, Guerille Continent, New Hadria

Aurelia Elizabeth Gordon, was the only daughter of Armstrong Ignatius Armstrong, the patriarch of the Gordon Family. She was the last child that he fathered with a mother who died not long after from complications of childbirth, things that still happened on Alliance planets, whose medical capabilities were not on par with the Union.

Aurelia was in a quandary. Her father wanted to take her favourite slave, Ria, from her. Ria had been given to Aurelia when she was five years old. Ria had been the same age and her father had decided that Aurelia needed to understand the complications of caring for a slave, so he had given her Ria and told her to take care of all of her needs.

Aurelia had done a magnificent job with the girl. She had nurtured her, educated her, taught her how to do things that needed to be done and turned her into the perfect handmaid for a girl of Aurelia's stature. Her father had been impressed.

Now, however, he needed to take the girl from her in order to make up a deficit in an order he had for the Adenomere Trading Company.

For the first time in her life, Aurelia was being confronted by the ugly side of slavery. Her Ria, her precious childhood friend, was a slave. Not just any slave, she was a household slave and thus was her father's property, not Aurelia's.

"As if one slave would make a difference," Aurelia had agued with her father.

"Ria would make a difference," her father had told her. "She is being offered as breeding stock."

An unbred late teen slave was a rarity among slaves, most having lost their virginities and often given children before they had reached Ria's age. Rteenia was only two months younger than Aurelia, who would turn eigh in a couple of days.

Ria would be sent away as breeding stock, but Aurelia wasn't a fool. She would not go to slaves for breeding. No, Ria would be bred by her new owners, someone in the Adenomere household.

Aurelia had met them and wanted nothing to do with them. They had little understanding for the lives of their slaves.

The Adenomere were famous for working slaves to death, which is why they had such a frequent need for new slaves. It was rumoured that the Adenomere's gave their slaves Wort Weed.

Wort Weed was a class A drug in any world of the Union. It was also restricted on Alliance of Planet worlds. Wort Weed was an insidious drug. It had the ability to cause addiction from a single dose. There was no known cure. Once addicted, a person would do anything for their next hit of the drug. Slaves would work themselves to death trying to attain their next high. The Adenomere's didn't care. They could buy new slaves.

On average, field labourers, the term for farm slaves, would last roughly three months before arriving at a point that they could no longer work. The Adenomere's would then put them into a barn were they would be left to die. The barn would then be burnt down, cremating the dead and sometimes a few of the living. All Adenomere slaves knew that the turn 'Being sent to the barn' meant death.

Few people, anymore, would deal slaves to the Adenomere, but Aurelia's father was one of them. Unfortunately for Aurelia, her father had taken on a rather large order for the Adenomere Company. Aurelia had heard that he had agreed to provide 8,000 slaves, enough for two years labour for the Adenomere. However, Aurelia knew that their family only had 4,500 slaves available for sale. Father would not sell 'core' slaves, those who dealt with the Gordon properties, so more would have to be brought in.

Father would sell non-core slaves to the Adenomere, meaning that many of their experienced hands would now be sent to Planet Adenomere and certain death as Field Labourers for the Adenomere Companies. Aurelia knew many of these slaves, the ones who would soon be sent away. She would never see them again, alive, or dead.

Aurelia couldn't save them all, she knew, but maybe she could save one. She just had to figure out how.

* * * * *

A dark clad figure slipped over the wall and into the gardens of the Gordon Estate. The figure was wearing an outfit that 'discouraged' video devices from seeing it. Nonetheless, the figure kept to the shadows whenever possible.

The figure stealthily approached an area of the gardens that would conceal it's activities and stopped. It planted a device in the ground and aimed it at a certain window, then activated a penetrating anchor.

Once the anchor was properly set, the figure pressed a button and the device fired a special spear that penetrated the stone beside the window it was aimed at, the cable it was trailing tightening to the correct tension automatically.

The figure looked around carefully, waiting for any response to the small noise that had been made, then placed a specialized zipline trolley on the cable. The trolley consisted of two wheels, one above the other, that clamped tightly to the line.

The figure slipped wrists into straps hanging from the trolley and pressed a button. The trolley swiftly brought the figure up the line to the window, slowly abruptly just before contact with the window was made.

The figure slipped one hand from the trolley and worked a thin blade between the two windows, opening the pair. This fifth floor window had been chosen for three reasons; it was in darkness from the lights that normally lit the side of the house, its proximity to Armstrong Gordon's study, and the fact that it was a fifth floor window and thus unlikely to have a sensor on it. When no alarm sounded, the figure quietly slipped inside.

* * * * *

It was late, or perhaps early in the morning the day before her eighteenth birthday, but Aurelia was restless. She got up, disturbing Ria, who was instantly awake.

"Mistress Aurelia, is there something you need?" she asked.

"No, Ria," Aurelia told her. "I just want to go for a walk. Go back to bed," she ordered.

But, as Aurelia headed to the door, Ria brought her dressing gown and helped her into it, then opened the door for her. Aurelia said nothing more, knowing that Ria would follow her, and she did, after quickly finding her own dressing gown.

They paced the dimly lit corridors of the grand house until they ran into one of the guards.

"Good morning, Mistress Aurelia," the guard said, bowing. "Restless tonight?" he asked.

"Hello, Thomas," Aurelia returned, recognizing the guard. "Yes, a little, this is Ria's last night with me and I find myself a little disturbed."

"I understand," the guard replied. "I would request that you stay in the house tonight, Mistress Aurelia, there are things going on around the estate that you father is worried about."

"Thank-you, Thomas, we shall remain indoors then," Aurelia assured him, knowing that other slaves were restless.

The pair continued their early morning walk through the halls. Aurelia was contemplating the fate of her friend when something caught her eye. She looked but saw nothing, but she was sure that something had been there.

She turned her eyes away, looking with her peripheral vision as she had been taught. She saw it then, dark on dark. She stopped and looked into the shadows where she had seen the shape.

"Who are you?" she demanded. "Why do you prowl my fathers house?"

"You would be Aurelia then?" came a decidedly female voice.

A dark image moved toward her, clad in black, and wearing two swords.

"And what if I am?" Aurelia asked with much more confidence than she felt.

"I am sorry that you saw me, little one," said the woman. "However, I must continue my mission and that leaves me with only two choices, knock you out, or kill you."

Ria gasped behind her, but Aurelia raised a finger for silence.

"Once again I ask you why are you prowling my father's house?" she demanded of the figure.

"I am looking for information," the figure replied.

"A corporate spy then?" Aurelia asked. "You would do well to leave here before the guards see you on the cameras."

"But the guards do not see these cameras do they, Aurelia," the figure stated simply.

"So, you know the layout of this house," Aurelia guessed. "It will not help you. Father has many securities on his computers. You will not get into them."

"I see. Then I guess I will have to leave then," the figure said. "Sorry to have interrupted your night."

"Wait!" Aurelia said a little too loudly. "I can help you."

"Help me what?" the figure asked.

"Help you get into the computers," Aurelia said. "I know all of father's passwords."

"Why," this time the figure was not asking.

"Tomorrow, no today, I turn eighteen. I will be betrothed to someone today and I do not even know who it is to be.

"Almost my entire life, I have had Ria as a companion. She is my confidant, my helper, my dressing maid. She takes care of me when I am sick, and I her when she is sick.