Valkyrie Hunter

I woke lying in a bed the arms of a medical machine above my head in a well illuminated room. It wasn’t the cold and dank cell I’d been thrown into but a medbay, One on ship if my guess wasn’t off. Glancing around I saw two of those Confed Cell Stitchers on the far wall. Seated at a desk next to the Cell Stitchers was a pretty looking unfamiliar T’Arni in a white uniform. Her blonde hair in a multitude of braids, which were coiled around her pointed ears and were tied to the top of her head in an elaborate bun. It made her look like an upside down octopus. She hadn’t seen I was awake she was studying something on her holo screen.

“Where am I?” I asked her.

She jumped a little and stared at me. “Oh you’re awake.” She looked at her screen and frowned. “You shouldn’t have come out of the sedative this early?”

“Sedative?” I said with a snap. Immediately feeling guilty for snapping at her.

“Yes you were injected with a sedative when you attacked the extraction team.”

I saw her glance at her screen puzzled. “Standard procedure in dealing with Valkyrie. Which according to our records you are?” I heard doubt in her voice.

Kelli had done the same to me when I fought the two Valkyrie guards outside her medbay. “Extraction team?” I tried to remember what happened but the details were too hazy. I lay back in the bed trying to calm myself down.

“Oh you do have a habit of repeating things don’t you?”

“I’m trying to keep that to a minimum,” I replied automatically.

“Oh good.”

It seems that I wasn’t the only one with a word habit. I concentrated on where I was. “Ok, so where am I?”

“Medbay four aboard the ‘Iron Duke’.”

Which seemed highly odd a T’Arni on a human named ship. “That’s an Imperial name?” I said stating the obvious.

“Oh you mean Terran?”

“Please less of the ‘Oh’.”

She smiled. “I’m sorry.”

“I need to get hold of Captain Xenai.” I assumed this was an Alliance ship.

The T’Arni shook her head. “Not possible at the moment.”

A dreadful thought washed over me. We must be in hyperspace the last place I needed to be. I made as to get up.

The T’Arni stood a concerned expression on her face. “Careful!” she warned me. “You’ll be a bit dizzy you blood sugar levels were extremely low. Frankly I’m surprised you hadn’t broken your hand.”

“I’ll be fine?” I wasn’t sure about that but I had to stay firm. I glanced at my hand seeing a yellowing bruise but it didn’t hurt.

The T’Arni gave a sigh. “I can’t stop you.” She gestured to me. “Let me take that off your arm first.”

I hadn’t noticed the drip attached to my other arm. The T’Arni eased out the needle and wiped my arm with a swab.

“There better now?” she asked.

“Thanks,” I said and meant it. It was then I realised I’d been dressed in a white mesh top and pants. I had a moments panic about the coat but I calmed myself down before asking. “My clothes?”

“They’re in the locker under your bed,” I saw the strain on her face as she refrained from saying “Oh.” She covered it up by adding. “You’ve certainly healed faster than I thought possible, quicker that even a Cell Stitcher.” She waved her glove over me.

I ignored it Kelli had a habit of waving her medical glove in my direction. I got out of bed and opened the locker under the bed. It was all there from my scuffed boots to the coat. I dressed quickly breathing a sigh of relief. With the coat bundled over one arm I regarded the T’Arni who had made no move to stop me.

“I’m not going to find two guards waiting for me as I exit the medbay?” I remembered what Kelli had done that to me. I fought the guards giving Kelli time to sedate me. It had turned out ok in the end.

The T’Arni looked puzzled. “That a joke. By the Ancients I’d thought you Valkyrie beyond that?”

I took that as a no but I was alert as I walked out of the medbay. What I did find was a short human in the blue uniform of the Alliance. His head seemingly over large for his body. I feel tension drain away as I beheld him.

“Lieutenant Hunter?” The man asked.

I wasn’t sure who he was but he had lieutenant’s bars on the collar of his tunic.

I snapped a smart salute but spoiled by saying. “Yep.”

“Please come with me?”

“You’re not going to slam me in the brig?” I asked hastily. “Things could rapidly go south from here?”

The lieutenant actually smiled. “If I was I’d brought a whole brigade of guards. I’m merely your guide.”

“Where are we going?”

“She wants to see you,” the lieutenant stated.

I wasn’t sure whom he was talking about so I just followed.

We swiftly moved through corridors. I knew we were on a different ship and wondered if they’d let me contact Xenai.

Finally we stopped outside a door in a corridor with a blue stripe on the walls at about waist height.

“In here ma’am.”

The door slid open and the first thing I saw was Admiral Komana seated behind a semi circular desk a number of holos floated around her head. In front of the desk were several chairs these fixed to the floor. Xenai’s had rose from the floor when she had wanted them. I was sure this was a mirror image of Xenai’s office on the Valorous Star. I briefly wondered which was the copy.

“Do come in Gwen, don’t hover about in the doorway.” Komana commented dismissing the holos with a wave of her hand. She looked more real in her flesh than as a holo.

I entered and marched up to her desk and saluted. “Ma’am?”

“Sit down Gwen we have a lot to go through,” She waved her hand at the nearest chair. I saw her glance at my coat. “In a hurry to be somewhere else?” I winced at her mild rebuke. I also noted that she was calling me Gwen. I was only in the Alliance because Xenai had wanted it so. Admiral Komana hadn’t approved but had gone through with the charade when Runa had come for me. It still hadn’t stopped her from taking me.

“I have information about the Prophet!” I stated.

“You mean the Prophetess? That is an Enari problem.”

“It’s also an Alliance problem.” I put my point forward.

“How is it ours?” Komana asked quietly.

“We’ve discovered the Prophet has Rhosani DNA?”

“If this is an Elder plan to get us to do what they want it’s going to fail.” Komana said flatly.

“This is nothing to do with the Elders. The information I have is for them as well.” I snapped back. I shouldn’t be getting angry with Komana but I wanted to stop the war.

“You have proof?” Komana said to me directly.

I clutched at the coat regretting I was despoiling Arva’s coat. “Do you have a sharp knife?” I asked her. “I’m about to ruin Arva’s coat.”

“Arva?”

“Walla’s niece she died in the fighting. Walla’s the one who had the info.”

“How did she get this information?”

I gave Komana a brief run down of my encounter with the Prophet.

Komana reached down and pulled a thin bladed knife from somewhere. She handed it to me. “I’m really going to regret getting stabbed with my own blade,” she said without malice.

I cut around a spot and handed both the knife and the data chip back to Komana. “It’s a DNA breakdown from the blood sample.”

I was hoping Komana was more clued in about this than Nidbjorga was. She put the chip into her terminal and a holo showing the data floated over her head. I pointed to the two relevant sections.

“That at the far end is a record of Rhosani DNA that the Valkyrie held in a database and that is the DNA of the Prophet.”

“I thought all traces of the Rhosani had been destroyed after the war of the Ancients.”

“It seems that not all was destroyed,” I admitted. “This also shows that the Prophet although looks female is actually a male.”

Komana leaned forward and studied the holo. “There seems to be a theme here.”

“Theme?”

I saw Komana glance at me then back to the holo. “The former captain of the Elafi was a human disguised as a T’Arni. We found he had a link to the Rhosani through a cube implanted in his body.” Komana sighed. “Had the Elafi had a tepe aboard we would have discovered the impostor earlier.” She sat back regarding me carefully. “Lieutenant Morgan couldn’t read your mind.” Komana stated.

“I am who I am,” I said without malice. I shivered when she mentioned a cube. Lieutenant Morgan must be one of her telepaths.

Komana laughed. “You are that and more Gwen. I was in no doubts about that. You are certainly one of a kind.”

“Whatever I do need to get my information to the Elders.”

Komana regarded me carefully. “If I told you no?”

“I’d find a way. I can’t let the Black Stripes win.”

“And there we are on the same page.” She leaned forward suddenly intense. She tapped her comms. “I need a shuttle prepped and an escort.”

“You’re letting me go?” I said surprised by her turnaround.

“Of course Gwen you didn’t think we’d let you go off on your own.” She looked me up and down. “In an appropriate uniform of course. I let the Elders know you are coming. It’s time they found out I’m the boss!” she said bluntly. “Dismissed Lieutenant Hunter.”

I took that as my cue to leave. I hurried out wondering if the Elders were prepared for the storm that had been unleashed.