From The Ashes - Part 3

Friday Fiction! Escape Pod here.

From The Ashes - Part 3

"He shot an unarmed fleeing subject" Senator Yvesque hissed at Doctor Arneche . They were stood in the observation room above the main lab. Captain Hoyere was docked in the alcove as several technicians worked terminals around him.

"He acted within the law. Admittedly it doesn't look good but we have a good explanation."

"Lets hear it but it better be amazing or we are shutting this down now."

The doctor explained that the Special Investigations Group received a tip at 19:00 New Eden time that a high ranking officer of the Zonelle crime organisation had arrived at a deadspace outpost. An outpost with a nightclub known to be operated by the organisation. Boosters and women were the main sources of pleasure offered by this seedy club. At 23:00 the next evening remote monitoring of the security channel showed that the outpost's police force was informed of screams coming from a hired apartment. The decision was made by the local men not to investigate. The security services knew better than to touch one of Zonelle's men. That's when Captain Hoyere was disbatched. When he returned with Yvempont Jecenare in tow they reviewed his logs and video recordings. They saw the pause that allowed Yvempont to nearly escape. It was only when they reviewed the file that they realised he was one of the men who had help kill Hoyere's wife.

"So he remembers!" said the Senator in shock.

"No sir. There is no indication he does. It might have triggered a flash of a memory but the AI will have blocked it off quickly. Hopefully that is gone for good now, probably one missed when we wiped that timeframe from his brain."

Down in the lab the scientists were finishing off.

"I don't see anything. Whatever it was I think the AI buried it before he had total recall."

The Intaki woman looked at her own console and nodded. "Yeah, I don't see anything and it appears all his systems are green. Lets leave him offline tonight and reboot in the morning."

As the technicians left believing Captain Hoyere was unconscious they were unaware he was watching them. The AI was advanced, but the human brain adapts. He found he could override certain influences including the full sleep mode. Once the door closed he went back to accessing the file of Yvempont Jecenare. He scrolled through the list of warrants until he came to a period nine months before. There were three warrants issued at that time.

Suspect - Abduction of Captain Hoyere and spouse.
Suspect - False imprisonment, rape, grievous bodily harm and murder.
Suspect - Aiding and abetting in case of 'Hell Cell' of Captain Hoyere

He then went back to his recordings. His AI recorded everything he saw. He went back to the point where the door had opened and he'd seen his face. The memory flashed again. Yvempont in the abandoned factory. The wicked smile that filled his vision. Around Hoyere the monitoring equipment bleeped faster. His heart was racing and his blood pressure increasing. The image of the factory solidified in his mind. He saw another man smiling, watching and waiting his turn. A Caldari woman was standing near, she held bottles of something. Another Gallente man watched, perched on a bench. Someone else was leaving the factory with a case, his head was turned as he looked back at what was happening before exiting. Hoyere captured each face in the distant memory. As it faded the beeps slowed as he calmed down. The facial recognition took less than a minute. He reviewed the files. They were all there. They all did this to him. Within seconds he had every major database in the Federation accessed and started a series of complex searches.

-o0o-

Jullynes pulled on the stick and the Einherji class fighter barrel rolled between the two massive asteroids.

"Yeeeeeeee ha!" he yelled as he pulled the ship up skimming the surface of the grey spinning rock.

"Stallion One." the controller sighed at having to use the ridiculous callsign Jullynes had picked for himself when he took one of the Einherji fighters out for a spin "Please return to the hanger, we have an unscheduled incoming vessel."

Jullynes was about to tell the jumped up little shit what he thought of that order when a thought occurred to him.

"Is it a capsuleer?"

"Negative Stallion One, its too small, shuttle sized. However standard procedure when a unidentified contact is detected on approach that...."

"That's a FO control, a FO!" Jullynes interrupted.

"FO?" asked the control not recognising the code as a standard one.

"Yeah as in you can fu...... what in Divinities Edge is that?"

The small silver ship dropped out of warp. Jullynes immediately scanned it and it didn't register on any of the ship databases. He zoomed in on it and saw the Federation logo and police badge. A blinking light indicated he had an incoming comm request. He opened the channel but there was no visual being broadcast.

"Jullynes Duwalle this is the Federal Police. Power down your weapons and return to the outpost. You are under arrest." the synthesised voice spoke.

"I could do that." he replied casually "Or I could blow you out of the sky!" he said changing his tone and powering his fighter forward whilst making an obscene gesture to the camera.

Captain Hoyere saw his sneering face over the comm link. He'd seen that face before. The vision flashed again. The old factory, Yvempont was now stood to one side and Jullynes  grabbed the crying woman by the hair. He slapped her across the face and pulled her up by her hair. He spat in her face and punched in the stomach, letting her fall to the floor wheezing. The Caldari woman was there. "You only have 10 minutes, you'd better make it count". The woman on the floor looked up at Hoyere, her pleading eyes crying for help. That woman, she was....

The sound of autocannon rounds peppering his shields snapped Hoyere back to the present. He increased to full thrust cursing himself he got distracted in such a situation. The Einherji was a fast and maneuverable fighter, but it was no match for his ship especially piloted by an experienced capsuleer using implant technology. Jullynes  himself was a good pilot, but he was only a human flying a relatively old fighter craft. Hoyere was soon on the tail of the fighter, his own dual railguns wearing down the crafts shields. A well placed shot hit the engine which burst in flame. The short battle was over.

"Well that's game over for me!" Jullynes muttered over comms. Those words bring another flashback to Hoyere. The same words as he climbed off the woman when the Caldari woman informed him his time was up. The woman on the floor.... it was his......

"So you going to take me in filth? Can we hurry up, I need to process bail so I can catch the Mind Clash game tonight." he laughed.

Jullynes looked out the cockpit as the small ship circled. He wasn't worried. He would be processed at one of the local forces where the cops were on their payroll and the judges were too scared to act. A strange light engulfed his ship from the small vessel. At first he thought it was a tractor beam but discounted that was the small vessel wouldn't be able to tow the fighter. He was wondering what it was when he felt a pain in his ear. Instinctively he pinched his nose and blew. The pain subsided as he equalized the pressure in his sinuses. He checked the life support. Air pressure was at 1.5 atmospheres. Then the readout flicked up to 1.7. He tried to adjust it but the controls didn't respond. As it hit 4 he equalised again.

"I surrender! I give up!" he replied as the pressure reached 5 bar "There is something wrong with my ship man! You gotta help me!". There was no response. As it hit 10 he felt ill. Oxygen was poisonous at these pressures and he could have a fit at any moment. When it hit 20 he watched in horror as his shields suddenly went offline and the damage control deactivated.

"I remember you. I remember what you did. I remember who she was." the synthesised voice said slowly and clearly.

"Who are you?" Jullynes  screamed.

"My name is Hoyere."

Jullynes  made the connection. Before he could speak again the small ship fired a single round. Without shields or the DCU online, the round burst through the back of the cockpit, passing through the fighter and back into space. The clear plasteel cockpit canopy instantly turned red as the massive drop in pressure effectively made Jullynes' pressurised body burst.

-o0o-

Doctor Arneche was stood next to the fighter in the hanger. Senator Yvesque approached from behind. The Doctor didn't turn.

"Welcome back Senator. You were nearly away for 24 hours this time!" the Doctor sighed.

The Senator just looked up at the two technicians in white crime-scene suits leaning into the cockpit.

"Just tell me what happened." he replied wrinkling his nose as he saw one of the techs pick up a length of flesh with silver tongues and drop it in an evidence bag.

"Captain Hoyere was sent back out. We'd given him intel of a local booster production site he needed to shut down. As soon as he was clear he went in the opposite direction. We tried to recall him but he wouldn't listen. We sent the override codes to the supplementary AI but they didn't have any effect. That should have worked. Some how he's overcome the AI and is full control."

"Where did he go?"

"It was a known Zonelle Syndicate outpost. However it wasn't a priority. From the outposts logs we were able to ascertain Captain Hoyere arrived, took out this fighter and left. As you can tell the Techs are still investigating but it looks like the cockpit was over-pressurised and then breached."

The Senator looked up at the raised canopy that was completely red.

"Do we know who was in there?"

"There were five people involved in Captain Hoyere's Hell Cell and murder of his wife. Zonelle himself, two of his thugs, his 2nd in command and Hoyere's ex-partner. I'll be my next six months salary its one of those."

"Shit!" muttered the Senator "He's gone rogue. Anything we can do to stop him?"

"I doubt it. Our methods of control are no longer effective. He's going to hunt down and kill everyone involved in his wife's murder. The first guy was lucky he hadn't got full recall when he arrested him otherwise...."

Both men stopped, realising the significance and fumbled for their datapads to alert the transport.

-o0o-

"Prisoner Transport Tau, Kilo, four, two, five. Please respond. This is Command. Please acknowledge."

The voice echoed through the bridge. The five officers were slumped at their consoles. One started to stir at the sound of the voice crackling over the speakers.

"Prisoner Transport Tau, Kilo, four, two, five, this is a priority one emergency. Respond now!"

The waking officer groaned. He hit the comms button.

"Command, this is Prisoner Transport Tau, Kilo, four, two, five. We have had an incident. Please hold."

He looked around. His fellow bridge officers were coming around slowly. His lungs burnt. Checking the life support systems he confirmed what he suspected. Oxygen was only at 15% but rising. There had been a problem and they had passed out.

"Prisoner Transport Tau, Kilo, four, two, five. Please report. We believe you may come under attack at any moment."

Lieutenant Laulbrent perked up at that.

"Command. We have experienced a life support malfunction. Low oxygen incapacitated the crew but it appears to have self fixed. Setting course for nearest starbase."

"Prisoner Transport Tau, Kilo, four, two, five. Affirmative. Ensure that prisoner 856789 is secure."

The Lieutenant set the autopilot quickly and then roused his fellow officers. He and another went immediately to the holding cells after he explained what was happening, not that he knew much. They passed other crew members on their way laying on the deck in the corridors who were starting to regain consciousness. When they reached holding they could see Yvempont Jecenare's  cell was empty.

"Oh shit. He's escaped!" Laulbrent muttered. The comm link suddenly bursting into life made both of them jump.

"Bridge, this is Chief Engineer Essinan. Somebody better get down here."

The two officers looked at each other and ran to the weapons locker. After a retinal scan opened the cabinet they both grabbed a pistol and ran to the lift. Within a minute they were in main engineering. They were expecting a hostage situation but found glum engineers.

"Over here sirs." the Chief Engineer called from the middle of the room. As they approached he moved away from the domed reactor housing, nodding at the small viewport. Laulbrent looked in, paused for a second and then span around, vomiting on the deck plate. Flight Officer Orthe took a glance inside. She saw a body in the exposed reactor room. A twitching mass of red, bubbling flesh that wore a prisoner jump suit. A second later she lost her breakfast too.

"Logs show life support knocked down the O2 content so we passed out. Something docked with us and the ships AI simply allowed it. We were then boarded." Essinan explained as the two officers recovered. "The logs show that someone went to holding, grabbed that man and threw him in there. It would not have been pleasent. He's been in there 30 minutes and is technically still alive, but the rad-lock is flooded. Whoever did it left the inner door of the two open. We cannot open the main door without flooding main engineering. There is no point anyway, 20 seconds of exposure is fatal in there. We need to dock to get him out."

Lieutenant Laulbrent finally righted himself, slightly embarrassed.

"This is going to require a lot of paperwork." he sighed.

To be continued.....