Keeper Hunter

I couldn’t believe how fast the last eight weeks had passed. In a day or so I’d be arriving on Paranova to begin the next part of my journey sneaking back into the Confederacy. Today would be my last training session with the few friends I’d made in the last few weeks, Claire and Silivia being amongst my favourites. I would regret not seeing them again but I had to get to the Confederacy. Not for the reason Lady Broaden wanted, but to put my ghosts to rest and find why the Keepers weren’t talking to me. Despite what they had done to me in remaking themselves. I still wanted to hear their voices, wanted to make sure they were ok. I shook myself out of the way my melancholy thoughts were going and concentrated on the good. Dressed in a pair of dark green shorts and matching top, I opened the door of my quarters and stepped through. Something, a sense of danger alerted me to the fact I wasn’t alone. I took a step backwards as a fist sailed past where my face would have been. I went into auto mode my body reacting to the attack. Grabbing my attacker’s arm I slammed him into the wall beside the door, whirling to face a second lunging towards me. I kicked him in the crouch and he dropped like he had been stunned. I glanced around to see a third attacker waiting in the periphery of my vision waiting for his chance. Malcolm and his cronies they’d been silent for so long. I hadn’t seen them in any of the training sessions since the incident of the first attack. It appeared they were back for blood, my blood for humiliating them.

The first attacker wobbled to his feet slightly disorientated blood pouring from his broken nose. Malcolm lunged at me a knife in his hand clearly he was risking court martial in his actions or worse. I was certain I wouldn’t be leaving the ship alive. It would be so easy to hide my body in the hours before the jump to normal space. And then I wouldn’t be missed until the ship had disgorged the Marines and the ship was under way. I danced around the blade as he thrust it at me. I struck out punching him in his throat, he grasped dropping his knife. As he staggered back I grabbed hold of his body and slammed him into the wall. My go to move in tight spaces. There was a squeal of pain as I heard the crunch of bone. He slid down the wall leaving a streak of blood behind. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the first attacker scrabbling for the knife. I kicked him in the face before he could get his hands on it.

“Enough!” a voice yelled out.

I looked up to see Claire and Silivia staring in shock at the scene. They weren’t alone. I could see a tall woman with captain’s bars on the tunic of her dress uniform and a pistol belted to her hip. What made her stand out was she had an eye patch on one eye with scar that crossed underneath the patch. In the Confederacy she’d have had that fixed but we weren’t in the Confederacy. With her were a handful of Marines in combat armour.

“Get these morons into the brig!” she jerked her hand backwards. “I don’t want to see them again.”

The Marines dragged off the three injured men but not gently. I couldn’t see their faces but I was sure that they were enjoying what they were doing.

The captain turned to Claire and Silivia. “Go back to the barracks I want a full report from both of you about the prequel to this incident.” She turned to me. “I apologise for the actions of loose element under my command. It’s far time this was dealt with.”

“They tried to kill me.” I gestured to the knife lying on the floor undisturbed.

I saw her glance at the knife then at me. “That’s a serious accusation, Malcolm’s family cannot ignore or buy their way out of. It will be a full court martial. He thought he was untouchable but he’s taken it too far this time.” She frowned.

“Untouchable?” I winced at that I was falling back into bad habits repeating other’s words.

“His family have money, power and influence to buy his way out of trouble. The amount of times I thought I had him he’s slipped out of my grasp. I so wanted him on the front line against the Orsini but I couldn’t even do that.”

“The Valkyrie don’t care about that they’ll hunt him down where ever he went,” I told the captain directly.

“So those rumours about you are true, you have been Valkyrie trained?” she said. “I thought them boasts but you’ve proved me wrong.”

I showed her my bracelet. “The Valkyrie Elders gave me this. I can ask aid from any Valkyrie no matter where or who they are.”

“Valkyrie yes I’ve heard the stories.” The captain actually shivered. “I’ve enough to worry about having to fight Separatists on Paranova.”

I felt cold burn through me. It sounded too much like Alfheimir and the Prophet. “Separatists?”

The captain gave me a look. “Isn’t that why we were taking you to Paranova?”

I hated the feeling but I had to be truthful. “My mission is beyond Paranova. I haven’t heard anything on the news feeds about trouble on Paranova.”

“Low key at the moment but the Empress wants us ready in case it escalates. They’ve only started getting serious about a few months ago.”

I shivered a few months ago the Prophet escaped from Alfheimir he’d blasted through the cordon around the planet and that’s as far as my knowledge went. Admiral Komana had exiled me to Earth I didn’t know what happened after. “About the time the Prophet escaped from Alfheimir?” I said to myself, I must have said it out loud because the captain responded.

“Prophet?”

“Fake Prophet but being Valkyrie a man disguised as a woman.” I would have sworn blind that it was a woman had it not been for the blood sample I’d gathered after I shot him. I had a thought. “Do the Separatists have charismatic leader?” I was starting to see a pattern a pattern I didn’t like. I suspected that Lady Broaden knew all this, which explained why she was so keen to get me on this ship. “One, that’s been impossible to get an agent close to?”

The captain stared at me in shock. “How do you know?” She frowned. “Oh you’re working for the M.I.”

I knew what M.I was, Military Intelligence. “No I’m an investigator. If it’s connected to the Prophet incident on Alfheimir be very careful he is a telepath.”

The captain’s face went white. “Telepath, that explains much?” she said carefully.

“He’s working with the Rhosani or is even one of them?” I had to warn Alfheimir, warn Lady Broaden and warn the Alliance even if it meant speaking to Admiral Komana. The last one I wasn’t looking forward to doing. “The aliens that want to enslave us all.”

“Rhosani that’s a tale the Confeds tell,” the captain said without any conviction.

“It isn’t ask the T’Arni, ask the TCA ships that fought one?” A sudden thought caught me. “Do these Separatists had a symbol the consists of three black lines?”

The captain looked puzzled. “Now you mention it can’t say but it looks like a Roman numeral XI?”

“Black Stripes,” I hissed. It was the fact I contained three bars albeit not in the way the early Black Stripes I had encountered had it. The false Prophet symbol looked like a stylised eye of three black lines. It seemed the Black Stripes lacked imagination. There was the connection to the Confederacy the Black Stripes were working both sides of the border. Lady Broaden can’t have not known. I felt as if I was being used. I couldn’t see how they had missed the connection. I had spent enough time explaining it to the Elders, to the Alliance and there would be enough evidence of their botched attack on Saros. “You need to contact Earth the moment you come out of hyperspace. It will have to be an urgent message for Lady Broaden.” So the story about the arms shipment had been a ruse. I was sure that they had known and I had been suckered in. “This info will be vital to the survival of the Empire?”

“You really are serious about this?” the captain said.

“Damn right I am.”

The captain nodded thoughtfully. “Best we introduce ourselves before we take this to Captain Clements.” She gestured to herself. “Jean Gardner.”

“Glenda Hampton,” I replied keeping my alias.

“Come on Glenda I’ll take you to the captain we need to get this sorted soon as.”

“I’m not so sure, Captain Clements wasn’t happy I was on board.”

“I don’t care The Empire comes first,” Jean said.

Captain Clements was in his quarters a room lacking a personal touch but similar in design to Xenai’s. As predicted he wasn’t happy to see me.

“What is it this time?” he said to me.

“The Separatists threat, I’ve got new info that Central Command needs straight way,” Jean told him directly answering for me.

Clements glared at Jean. “We’ve sixteen hours to exit I’m not dropping out of hyperspace for that no matter how vital you think it is!”

I heard Jean growl in anger. “I didn’t say that. I want the message sent as soon we are out of hyperspace. It’s a priority message.”

“Damn it,” Clements snarled back. “You’ve had eight weeks to get this sorted out?”

I think he was trying to implicate that it was my fault.

“It’s only just came to light,” I said to him.

Clements glanced at Jean. “Is this to do with the three men I’ve got sitting in my brig?”

“Partly their actions precipitated it or would you like it if I added attempted murder to the mix,” Jean told Clements.

“I didn’t do anything,” he complained.

“Exactly what I meant,” she said. “You never supported me when I asked you to put them in the brig after the first attack on Glenda Hampton. But you ignored me and now we have this mess.”

“I can’t do anything until we exit!” Clements stated. It appeared he wasn’t going to move from that stance.

“Oh don’t worry it’s all going into my report to Central,” Jean said sarcastically.

“I’ll inform you when we’re ready until then get out!”

I took that as our cue to leave.