“ So the Krenarans propose peace, and then knife us in the back when we are not looking,” Ericsson gave Dalvosh a look of disgust.
The two Krenaran aides rose up from the table, “we will tear your puny head off Terran!”
“ Quiet!” shouted Dalvosh, “sit down all of you!”
The angry parties did as instructed, all looking towards the Krenaran commander, the human contingent with a look of barely concealed rage and betrayal, yet they listened anyway.
“ I know of the agent known as Lathiel, he was our secret weapon, trained to be the perfect assassin, he is equipped with a biomechanical gland that secretes a specially formulated combat drug only recently discovered, the drug is called morphos x. It is what allows him to physically alter his appearance to match any humanoid upon contact. He is one of the most vicious and deranged of all Krenarans.”
“ Did you send him Dalvosh!” Vargev shouted, “because if you did, I swear your brain will coat the walls of this room!”
“ How dare you accuse me of this!” Dalvosh shouted back, the two Krenarans made ready to charge Vargev and the humans present in the room, who all readied their weapons in response.
“ Where is this assassin now!” Michael shouted over the din of angry raised voices. The Krenaran war threatened to re-ignite again at any moment.
“ Last known location places him on Orion, reports suggest he is heading for Terra,” Televis replied.
“ There would be only one reason why Lathiel would be given an assignment on Terra,” Dalvosh said. “He plans to kill your president.”
“ Orion is one weeks travel away from Earth,” Ericsson said.
“ Hell of a good time to activate your assassin Dalvosh, most of the E.D. F fleet is here, the main intelligence facilities at Sigma XI you destroyed eight months ago. No one to track him and no one to catch him,” Vargev said accusingly.
“ I swear on my honour as a Krenaran, I never activated Lathiel!” Dalvosh shot back.
“ Then who did!” Ericsson shouted.
“ Alax must have activated him before hostilities ended, he is the only one who would have had the authority.”
“ And we killed Alax over a week ago,” Vargev said.
“ So effectively we have a rogue agent, who doesn’t know the war is over, on a mission to kill the President of E.O.C.A.” Ericsson pointed out.
“ That’s about the size of it,” Vargev replied.
“ If this Lathiel succeeds in his mission, it could destabilise the entire peace process, war could break out all over again,” Lataf announced.
“ Is the Faeriath ready?” Ericsson asked.
“ Negative, my ship is badly damaged from the battle, as is the remainder of the Solarian fleet. The rest of the Solarian warhost is at Agemman, Aurelias, and Eidolon, too far away to catch him in time.”
“ Which leaves…” Vargev said.
“ The Liberty; we can catch him,” Michael filled in for him.
“ The Liberty’s too badly damaged, it won’t make it.” Ericsson argued.
“ Captain, I believe in the Liberty, and her crew. She’ll make it,” Michael countered.
“ I hope she does captain, for all our sakes,” Lataf said.
“ I’m coming with you,” Vargev said looking at Michael.
“ As am I,” Dalvosh also announced.
“ What about your men here?” Briax said.
Vargev swung his Armschlager menacingly, its deadly barrel pointed directly at the Krenarans reptilian face. “I insist.”
With that, the three of them dashed out of the makeshift headquarters towards the grounded Liberty.
Michael was first to touch his wrist comm. “Alexander to Kinraid, I want the Liberty prepped and ready to go, right now.”
“ The repairs aren’t even complete cap’n, the new main engine isn’t even tested yet.”
“ Too late commander we’ve run out of time, it’s an emergency, Alexander out.”
Vargev touched his wrist comm. too, “all commandoes in the area, I want a full squad, prepped and ready to ship out in five minutes, form up at the Liberty, Vargev out.”
The three of them continued running, along broken tarmac roads and muddy wild grassland to where the Liberty rested.
Michael touched his wrist comm. once again, “Michael to Liberty, prepare to lift off as soon as we are aboard.”
“ Understood cap’n,” the reply came.
The three of them reached the Liberty a few minutes later, where they found a full ten man squad of E.D. F commandoes stood to attention and a bewildered Logameier. “What is going on? Kinraid’s just told me that the Liberty is taking off, repairs are nowhere near complete.”
“ Sorry Lieutenant, it’s an emergency, we have to take off immediately.”
“ Then where are we going?”
“ Earth, to stop an assassination plot against the president of E.O.C. A himself,” Michael replied.
General Kalidis caught up with them, out of breath, he wheezed. “You’re going to need me with you, to make sure this bucket of bolts holds together.”
“ You’re welcome to come along,” Michael replied as he climbed inside the port access hatch.
“ Think your man enough for it Kalidis?” Vargev asked, then followed it up by simply saying, “click, click.”
Kalidis frowned at the Russian and climbed onboard, followed by Dalvosh.
“ Commandoes on me!” Vargev barked out his order.
The colonel and the remainder of the commandoes climbed onboard also.
Michael was soon on the bridge, in his somewhat muddied naval uniform. The bridge itself was still damaged in places and still bore many of the scars of the damage the ship had sustained.
“ Status report,” Michael asked as he took his seat.
“ We have main power at seventy percent, ninety percent emergency power; all stations report ready,” Kinraid replied.
Michael noticed that Eldathar was seated in the pilots chair again, “good to have you back ensign,” he said as he placed a reassuring arm on the Solarian’s slender shoulder. “Now let’s get this show on the road!”
“ Gravitic engines to maximum,” Kinraid said.
Outside of the ship the grass swirled, whipped up by the force generated by the Liberties powerful gravitic engines propelling the ship skywards, a loud whine became audible as the anti-gravity motors struggled to keep the Liberty airborne.
“ Retract landing legs,” Michael said.
Eldathar responded, and the landing legs slowly retracted into their horizontal positions, matt black panels slit into position over them with a gentle creak.
“ Main engines at one half power, we don’t want to tax them too much just yet.”
“ Understood captain,” Eldathar replied.
As the Liberty continued to ascend skyward, Televis, Ericsson and Lataf silently watched from the doors of the tank factory.
“ Godspeed,” they said in unison as the Liberty flew out of sight.
“ Status of main engines,” Michael said as the Liberty continued to climb through the atmosphere.
Kinraid constantly kept his eye on an engineering systems console at the rear of the bridge. “Main engines are okay so far, but at this speed we won’t break orbit.”
“ Increase power to eighty percent,” Michael said growing tense, the Liberty had to break free from the gravitational pull of Gamma IV, if not they were all doomed, and so was the E.O.C. A president.
“ Increasing power,” Eldathar replied.
The ship began to shudder as the gravitational forces and atmospheric pressures of the planet began to take their effect, Kinraid made his way over towards his usual seat and strapped himself in, this was proving to be a rather bumpy ride.
“ We are approaching the upper atmosphere; main engine at seventy percent power and rising,” Eldathar informed the bridge crew.
Down in engineering Kalidis and Logameier were working furiously. “Secure that panel” Logameier barked out over the noise. “Keep an eye on the status of the main engine in case it heats up too fast or gets too hot.”