Unraveling Conspiracy (Forgotten Fodder Book 3) Read online

  Unraveling Conspiracy

  Forgotten Fodder

  Book Three

  MJ Blehart

  Unraveling Conspiracy

  Forgotten Fodder - Book Three

  Copyright © 2021 MJ Blehart.

  ISBN: 9798454741716

  ASIN: B09B8XLMBS

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Published 2021 by MJ Blehart and Argent Hedgehog Press

  Published in the United States of America

  mjblehart.com

  Cover art by Starla Huchton

  This book is dedicated to my fellow writers. This is not the easiest career to pursue – but keep on keeping on!

  1

  Everyone kept their eyes on the hatch and the blip on the holographic screen that represented Jace.

  Onima glanced at a nearby chronometer: one minute and fifteen seconds since Jace had entered the damaged compartment. Ulysses, one of the Aquila’s engineers, had said it should only take a minute for Jace to reach the physical switch that would restore the computer.

  The explosion that had destroyed the Alcubierre-Natario Warp Drive had been bad enough, but in his escape, former Special Agent Feroz Jones had disabled the ship’s computers. Further, he’d also damaged the radiation suits in a way no inspection would expose, but usage would reveal.

  The explosion had driven the Aquila closer to the planet Aarde, which they had been orbiting. If the computer could not be restored, the ship was in danger of being dragged down into the planet’s atmosphere by its gravity.

  Furthering his sabotage of the starship, Feroz had disabled the escape pods and access to the shuttle bays too. It was a worst-case scenario.

  Now one minute and thirty seconds had passed. Jace would be coping with extreme cold, radiation, and no gravity. Additionally, the starship shook occasionally as it was pulled toward the planet.

  An unmistakable ka-chunk noise emitted from the other side of the hatch. A few seconds later, it was followed by another.

  A screen to Onima’s right lit up. Followed by another, and then another.

  “He did it,” said Elyas, the chief engineer. “The computer is coming back online.” He activated his comm. “Captain Barr? Computers coming back online. Engines should be reset and ready for reactivation momentarily.”

  “Very good,” Barr replied. “Well done, Chief.”

  “It was the clone,” Elyas said, a mix of incredulity and respect in his tone.

  “Jace,” Onima communicated via comm, “are you on your way back?”

  He didn’t reply. She saw the blip on the screen in motion, but was unable to tell if he was returning. However, it was entirely possible he was not speaking to save his quickly escaping oxygen.

  A new sound reached Onima’s ears, and the deck shuddered. The engines were restarting.

  “Get a decontamination spray hooked up to the airlock,” Elyas ordered. Ulysses and Petrov jumped up and began snaking a wide hose to a connection point on the temporary plastic airlock.

  Onima looked at the chronometer. Two minutes, twenty seconds.

  Checking a screen nearby, Elyas looked to Onima. “Marshal Gwok, the engines are back online. Captain Barr is moving us away from the planet.”

  Onima’s comm beeped, and she noted who it was. “Go ahead, Kara.”

  “We didn’t get started cutting our way into the bay before the computers reset,” Deputy Marshal Kara Martinez reported. “How is Jace?”

  “Still awaiting his return,” Onima said. It was now three minutes and eighteen seconds. “Access to the bay restored?”

  “Yes,” Kara replied. “Yael is checking on the shuttles now.”

  “Thank you,” Onima said. “I’ll keep you apprised of Jace. Gwok out.”

  “Radiation readings are still uncertain,” Ulysses reported. “Seems to be occasional waves of dark radiation, but I haven’t any clue whether Jace got exposed, or how badly.”

  There was a knock at the hatch, and Onima saw the helmet of Jace’s radiation suit through the portal window.

  Elyas moved fast, and the hatch opened to the plastic airlock. Jace stumbled in and dropped to his knees. The hatch was sealed a moment later.

  Ulysses held the wide hose to the airlock as Petrov tapped a nearby control. A decontamination mist covered Jace, obscuring him.

  Onima could do nothing but watch. Engineering was not her habitat, nor her area of expertise.

  Another crewmember was observing something on a screen nearby as the mist stopped spraying from the hose. “Reading negligible dark radiation in the airlock. Venting decon.”

  The same hose now sucked the decontamination mist back out of the temporary airlock. After a moment, it was silent.

  Shivering, Jace removed his helm. He looked unusually pale.

  “Grab a blanket,” someone called as Ulysses opened the airlock. She was the first to Jace, followed closely by Onima.

  “You okay?” Ulysses knelt beside Jace.

  “Y-y-yeah,” Jace replied, teeth chattering. “F-f-feel l-like...crap. S-s-s-so cold.”

  Another of the engineering crew entered in the airlock and wrapped a blanket around Jace. He nodded gratefully.

  Jace looked at Onima. “T-t-told you...we s-s-still g-got a...c-c-conspiracy to...t-take...apart.”

  Onima smirked. “Yes, we do.”

  “We can get a stretcher down here from medical,” Petrov was saying.

  “N-no,” Jace said, rising unsteadily to his feet. “W-we…can w-walk there.”

  Ulysses ran a scan via datacard over Jace. “You sure? You did get a heavy dose of dark radiation and are suffering from hypothermia.”

  “N-need to w-walk,” Jace said. “Thank you.”

  “No, Jace,” Elyas said, “thank you. Your actions saved the ship.”

  Jace grinned weakly. “Cool.”

  Onima shook her head. “We really should get you at least a hoverchair, Jace.”

  “J-just help me,” he said to Onima.

  She appreciated his stubbornness. Carefully, Onima helped Jace get out of the rest of the radiation suit.

  “Nobody walks out of the airlock without a decon spray,” Elyas ordered.

  “Yes, Chief,” Ulysses said.

  Onima helped Jace get an arm around her shoulder. As they stepped out of the plastic bubble, they were blasted by a different decontamination spray. Onima had endured that before. For just an instant, she felt as if she had stepped into an open flame. But it soon passed.

  “Ahhh,” Jace sighed. Given how cold he was, the decontamination spray might have actually felt good.

  They reached the lift, which a crewmember had already called to engineering.

  As Onima helped Jace get in, the engineering crew looked at him with a respect Onima had never seen for a clone before.

  The lift took them up to the mid deck.

  Jace seemed a bit steadier as they left the lift. “I would really not recommend that,” he said.

  “You’re crazy, you realize,” Onima said as they headed for the medical bay.

  “Probably,” he agreed.

  Dr. Patel, Yael, and Kara greeted the pair as soon as they reached the medical bay. Jace was helped onto an exam table, and numerous devices immediately activated as Dr. Patel started to check him over.

  “How is he?” Kara asked.

  “Well enough that he insisted on walking here with me,” Onima said.

  “He’s tough,” Yael remarked. Then she changed topics. “Shuttles are fine. Looks
like Feroz only disabled our ability to get to them. He didn’t do anything disabling or damaging to them in the process.”

  “And the escape pods?” Onima questioned.

  “Back online,” Yael replied. “The computer reset brought it all back to normal.”

  “Fortunately, we don’t need the shuttles or the escape pods,” Kara said. “The ship is free of Aarde’s gravity.”

  “Jace saved the ship,” Onima said.

  “All I did was flip a switch,” Jace said.

  Onima, Yael, and Kara turned and joined Dr. Patel at the examination table.

  “You are a very fortunate man,” Dr. Patel told Jace. “Despite the radiation suit, you received a heavy dose of dark radiation and suffered from exposure.” Dr. Patel looked at the others. “I think a normal human being would be lying here dying right now. Jace is probably going to feel like garbage for a few days, but as far as I can tell, he should make a full recovery.”

  “Look at that—an upside to being a clone,” Jace said.

  “How do you feel?” Onima asked.

  “Like Dr. Patel said—like garbage. My head hurts, my skin is all tingly, and I feel like I got beaten by someone in full body armor while I wasn’t wearing any.”

  “There should be no lasting effects,” Dr. Patel said. “It appears Jace’s system is already healing.”

  “They built us tough,” he remarked.

  “That may be an understatement.” Dr. Patel looked at Onima. “I really am surprised he’s not doing worse.”

  Jace chuckled weakly. “When they decided to use clones to fight the war, both sides determined that they wanted to prevent some of the uglier weapons from being used. That was part of why our cells were designed to handle much more radiation exposure than a normal human. Also, we were built to adapt better to temperature extremes. Given that we were deployed on numerous worlds featuring every imaginable terrain, during every season, nobody wanted us to be slowed by deserts or icecaps.”

  “Do you mean to say that you are immune to radiation?” asked Kara.

  “No,” Jace said. “Just a higher tolerance—the ability to withstand a greater dosage. Same goes for heat and cold. Eventually they will impact me. For example, a vacuum would kill me just like it would kill anyone.”

  “It was fortunate for us all that you were here,” Dr. Patel said. “I do want to keep you in the medical bay for a day or so under observation. Better safe than sorry.”

  “I’m okay with that,” Jace said.

  Someone cleared their throat: Captain Martin Barr had entered the medical bay.

  “Captain,” one of the crew acknowledged.

  The Aquila’s medical bay was staffed both by Dr. Patel, a couple of assistants, and some CBI-trained medical techs, as well as by corpsmen and nurses under the ship’s mandate and Captain Barr. Still, a visit from the captain was unusual.

  “How is Mr. Rojas?” Captain Barr asked.

  “He’ll make a full recovery in a few days,” Dr. Patel said.

  “Good,” Captain Barr replied. He joined them at the examination table. “Jace Rojas, I wanted to come down here and personally thank you for saving my ship and its crew. Without your willingness to endanger yourself for the greater good, we would not have survived.”

  Jace looked away in embarrassment. “Captain, I just did what needed to be done.”

  “You may see it that way,” Barr said, “but I don’t. We owe you a debt, Jace. Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  Onima knew she was witnessing something that might never have happened before—a clone being appreciated in the same manner any person might be.

  Barr looked at Onima now. “I’m sorry to say that we’re unable to trace the pod Special Agent Jones used to escape. Long-range comms and sensors are back online, but Feroz deactivated any locator we could use on that pod.”

  “He probably altered the engine signature on the pod, too,” Kara said.

  “That’s a safe bet,” Barr agreed.

  “How bad off is the Aquila?” asked Onima.

  “She’s in a bad way,” Barr replied. “The A-N Warp Drive was obliterated, the bubble generators are completely fried, and we have minimal shields and a hull breach to boot. Fortunately, nobody was killed. She’ll need massive repairs, probably drydock for a couple months at least. I’ll be reaching out to the Office of Confederation Defense to get us a new ship.”

  “Thank you, Captain,” Onima said.

  “There is, unfortunately, one more thing,” Barr said. “Now that the computers are back online, we can see the other damage Mr. Jones inflicted on the Aquila. Specifically, on the infodrives.”

  Onima’s heart sank. “And?”

  “Feroz erased all CBI data from them.”

  2

  Onima had reached out to Deputy Director Samarin. While he usually replied quickly, this time it was almost a day before he established a secure connection.

  The Mobile Bureau Command Center (MBCC) was more chaotic than normal. Feroz had erased everyone’s data—at least, anything on the ship’s infodrives. Fortunately, the crew still had datacards and datapads with information they could work from.

  Onima sat in her office at her terminal as Samarin’s image appeared on the screen. “Deputy Director,” she addressed him.

  “Marshal,” he replied. “I hear things haven’t gone so well of late.”

  “We’re on a secure comm, I presume?” Onima asked.

  “As secure as can be without being in line-of-sight range or face to face,” Samarin assured her.

  Onima sighed. “How much do you know?”

  “Only that the Aquila was severely damaged and will need to be replaced until it can be repaired. I presume you are going to tell me the specifics?”

  “Sir,” Onima began, “our concerns about a mole on the inside were well-founded. He was, in fact, a trusted member of my team: Special Agent Feroz Jones.”

  Now Samarin sighed. “Damn. He’s one of our finest cryptanalysts. He helped our best write many of our security protocols. In that case, we’ll need to discuss taking new security measures on nearly all of our systems.”

  “Given what he did here, that’s an excellent idea,” Onima said. “You knew about his past, I suppose?”

  “Of course,” Samarin said. “All of us did. You must know, Onima, that the best cryptanalysts in the Bureau got here the same way Agent Jones did, with a few exceptions. What happened?”

  “Feroz destroyed the Alcubierre-Natario Warp Drive and stranded the ship here,” Onima began. She explained at length all that had transpired, including Jace’s assistance in restarting the ship’s computers and preventing the Aquila from being dragged into Aarde’s atmosphere.

  Onima reached the conclusion of her story. “Feroz wiped all of the Aquila’s infodrives. My agents are doing what they can to pull data from personal drives, cards, and pads. Once Captain Barr got sensors and comms back online, there was no trace of Feroz and his escape, save the missing pod.”

  Samarin shook his head. “I doubt Agent Jones intended to drop the ship into the planet’s gravity well. Just bad luck, that. But he will pay the price for what he’s done.” His tone changed. “I have to admit, Marshal Gwok, it seems more and more that you were right to keep your clone on the team. Captain Barr made it quite clear he considers Rojas’ actions heroic.”

  “Jace sees it as nothing more than doing his part,” Onima said.

  Samarin took a deep breath and let it out. “I think you should know that Director Rand has not changed any of what he has been doing. Nor has he shown any signs of knowing more about your investigation. It’s clear to me that Deputy Marshal Martinez has been a disappointment, though, as he’s dropped some hints and made some other rumblings about that.”

  “You thought he might give something away?”

  “Between your discoveries about Bettani and Agent Jones’ actions, I figured it might be a thing,” Samarin said. “He also hasn’t increased his push to di
scredit and sow discontent regarding the executive director, but he’s not backed that off at all either.”

  “He’s being cautious,” Onima said.

  “That’s how it looks,” Samarin agreed. “I am still keeping an eye on him, of course...but I have to be careful with that. What’s your next move?”

  Onima sighed. “I don’t know. We were working with a lot of different data, but now much of it is gone. On top of that, there is some question about how reliable our data was, and whether Feroz was feeding us false leads and other lah shi.”