Yet another missive from CenCom. Rarely did good news come from that bureaucratic hole.
Reluctantly, he opened the message.
Admiral Stonefist,
Our office has concluded the investigation into the matter of information leaked to the Oryndrax ahead of the Ninth Fleet's invasion of their home system. After a thorough and impartial investigation, we have conclusively determined that all accusations of your Assistant's involvement are unsubstantiated.
As a result, effective immediately, your Assistant Kinnit has been reinstated to her prior rank and position, including all pay, benefits, rights, and privileges, and her exemplary service record remains intact. You may return her to your office at your earliest convenience.
Regards,
Acting Commander Connor Kopos, Central Command
Grimthorn sat back in shock. Already? It had only been a couple days since he'd spoken with the Cryptographers. He hardly dared believe in good news any more.
And why did the message come from Kopos instead of Ordren?
With a furrowed brow, he began running through the Navy's personnel changelog. It was a long, tedious list, updated daily, of all personnel changes in the Navy.
Sure enough, there she was on today's changes:
Personnel Name: Kinnit
Action: Reinstatement to role of Assistant
He let out a relieved little sigh. If it was in the Naval personnel changelog, it was a hard fact.
Out of curiosity, he hunted down a little further.
Personnel Name: Quom Ordren
Action: Placed on administrative leave pending investigation.
A small, self-satisfied smile crept onto Admiral Stonefist's face. On anyone else, one might have called it a smirk. But Admiral Stonefist did not smirk.
"Kinnit," he said, once he'd gotten his face back under control. "Come here."
She set aside her stack of slips and stood by he console.
"Sir?"
Grimthorn showed her the message from CenCom.
"How would you like a job?" he asked with a grin.
"Oh, sir!" She threw her arms around him. "Finally!"
Grimthorn cleared his throat and tilted his head toward Lieutenant Baric, who was sitting at his desk, working sulkily. Kinnit started, and released Grimthorn.
"Oh, right. But what wonderful news! Thank you, sir!" Kinnit stood up straight and saluted. Grimthorn stood and saluted her back.
"Welcome to my office, Assistant Kinnit," he said.
"A pleasure to be here, sir!" she crowed. She leaned over to look at Lieutenant Baric. "Sol, did you hear? I've been reinstated!"
Sol smiled, small but genuine.
"That's good, Kinnit. The Navy needs you." He appeared to struggle within himself for a moment. "You deserve good things," he finished awkwardly.
"Why don't you try logging back in to your console," Grimthorn said. "We'll see if we need to follow up with Administration to get your system access back."
Kinnit bounced to her desk and tapped at her console.
"I'm in, sir!"
Grimthorn let out another sigh of relief.
"Very good. Now go ahead and start analyzing the attacks of the pirates. See if you can find any patterns there."
Kinnit laughed out loud.
"I'll get right to work, sir!"
"Meanwhile," Grimthorn said, "I'm going to ask around. I want to find out what happened to Commander Ordren."
Dass Gunstar lay on the narrow bed in one of his safehouses on Techterra. He was in his Duroclade form, but barely recognizable. He was less than half his normal mass, leaving him looking thin, stringy. Runnels of flesh dripped off of him. His body pulsed unnaturally as he struggled to process oxygen. His body periodically made a miserable burping sound as he tried to hold his form.
He picked up his scanner from the nightstand. He pushed the contact to call Grimthorn.
The scanner beeped repeatedly, trying to connect. Then the call was dropped.
Dass scoffed. Grimthorn still wasn't accepting his calls. He certainly could hold a grudge. Especially when it was justified.
It was just as well. He didn't even know what he'd say to the man, at this point. He let out a burbling sigh, and some more of his mass dripped to the floor.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
He smiled a little sadly. He knew someone who would talk to him. Grimthorn wouldn't like it, but it would be his own fault for being so boneheaded stubborn.
After all, Dass had to tell somebody.
Sehren Senn stood in his luxurious apartment, staring through the broad window down at Techterra. The streets were peaceful and busy, filled with the bustle of traffic and daily life.
Fools. He despised them all. He aspired to a greater power than any of them could imagine. They could go on, living their meaningless little lives, chasing their tiny dreams. While he, Sehren Senn, would become greater than anything they could comprehend.
He sipped a little Beta Pelean tea from the custom-made vacuum flask and smiled thinly.
Koro had not been to work in a few days. Probably chasing personal goals again. Senn scoffed. He'd have to talk with him later, make sure he stayed focused on Senn's goals.
Then again, he had Koro to thank for his current course. Back when he'd only been a lowly managing editor, he'd discovered Koro's amazing talent for planting bugs. Senn never understood how, but the little creature had squirreled one away in the most unlikely place imaginable, and in so doing had set Senn's future.
Senn smiled. He supposed he could show Koro a little grace, after all.
Shocking, that so small a thing a thing had changed the course of his life, and ultimately, the Imperium.
He sipped his tea again.
Ten years ago, he'd received the message that had changed him completely. He'd spent every waking moment since then with it burning in his mind.
Prepare the way. We are coming.
"All right," Grimthorn said stiffly. "Let's go over everything. Kinnit, we'll catch you up on what's been going on, then we can all figure out what to do next.."
Sol and Kinnit sat upright at their desks, alert.
"There's a lot. Let's start with the pirates." He took a deep breath. "The conspiracy has been paying pirates to raid outposts and attack shipping lanes. They've done a lot of damage, and soaked up the resources of the Imperial Navy for weeks now. The local fleets and garrisons have been overwhelmed, and so have our major fleets. However, that activity seems to be slowing down, finally.
He pulled up some data on his console.
"We've had every ship of the fleet out there, shooting down pirates. Thanks to the Navy's efforts, and with Lieutenant Baric's help on fleet logistics, we're slowly getting on top of the problem." He nodded at Sol, who looked embarrassed at the recognition. "This confirms my theory that if you kill enough pirates, you end up with fewer pirates. Kinnit, have you found any patterns in the attacks?"
"Nothing firm, sir. There seem to be more attacks close to the Ceon system, but that could be a fluke. It's a major shipping lane, so it would be a natural target."
"Thank you, Kinnit. It could be a fluke, or it could be because whoever's paying them is located in Techterra, on Ceon 12. Which brings us to our next topic." He frowned. "I've maintained contact with the Cryptographers, and recently they were able to get a name out of Denth, the traitor. Rax Daggoth."
Grimthorn tapped his console and new data came up.
"He's CEO of VoidTech, a major manufacturing corporation. VoidTech creates a lot of consumer goods, but they also manufacture some heavy equipment. They have Navy contracts for military equipment, as well. It's entirely possible that he is part of the conspiracy, and is helping to fund these pirates. I've had the Infographers going through VoidTech's public finances with a fine-toothed comb, but they haven't found anything conclusive. That said, there's a lot of money flowing in many directions in that company, so it's not outside the realm of possibility that they're hiding payments to pirates somehow."
"Couldn't we just arrest him, sir?" Lieutenant Baric piped up. "See if the pirates dry up?"
"I appreciate your thinking," Grimthorn said, "but we'd need something to arrest him for. Until we have some evidence to the contrary, he's just another Imperial citizen, deserving of the same protection as all citizens."
"Oh," said Sol, a little disappointed.
"Rest assured, though, that if we find anything at all tying him to the conspiracy, I'll immediately have a squad of marines up his shorts." Grimthorn leaned forward over his desk. "I'm going to ask you both to be very careful when dealing with this information. Don't mention Daggoth's name, nor VoidTech, outside this room. Kinnit's already seen this in action. The conspiracy will not hesitate even slightly to kill one of their own to protect their secrets. If he is part of the conspiracy, and anybody finds out we're investigating him, our best lead will end up dead."
They both nodded soberly. Grimthorn sat back.
"For now, we're going to keep an eye on him, see if we can find a link to the conspiracy. His office is based on Cradus, a planet in the fourth spinward spiral arm, but he spends a lot of time in Techterra. Which, again, could be legitimate. It's a major shipping hub."
Admiral Stonefist tapped his console again.
"Next topic. Commander Ordren." His brow furrowed. "He's been placed on administrative leave from his post. Deputy Commander Kopos is administering CenCom, until they can come up with a replacement. I approve. He's a good man. Hopefully they'll find someone less political than Ordren to fill that post long-term."
He sat back and rubbed his eyes.
"As for Ordren, I've been in contact with the Cryptographers that have been interrogating him, and there's no evidence tying him to the conspiracy. I have to confess to you two, I-- I thought he was part of the conspiracy. I nearly-- well, never mind. The Cryptographers set me straight on all that. But I still don't like the man. He's a self-serving weasel and he does not deserve a career in the Navy, as far as I'm concerned. With such a major leak coming from his office, he won't have a career any more."
"But sir," Kinnit said slowly. "Is it really his fault? He didn't know his office had a wire."
"According to Navy protocol, his office-- the entire CenCom facility, really-- should have been swept for listening devices and electronic intrusions every two weeks, just like we do here on the Swordheart. Apparently the sweep hadn't been done in years. Ordren depended on their perimeter security to keep out listening devices. Which was foolish. And the Ninth Fleet paid the price."
Kinnit frowned and nodded.
"The reason I bring him up is that the Cryptographers have taken the highly unusual step of arresting him directly."
Both Kinnit and Sol started.
"They sent a Cryptographer downplanet?" Kinnit gasped.
"I thought the Cryptographers weren't supposed to land on planets," Sol said. "Actually, I thought they couldn't. Don't their bones crumble in gravity?"
"That's an old wive's tale," Grimthorn said. "There are a few planets they're cleared land on. Olympus, mostly, so they can be close to the Emperor. There are some others, mostly unpopulated planets. Techterra is not one of the planets they're cleared to land on. Furthermore, on the rare occasions when they've had to land on a populated planet, they give lots of warning, clear timelines, lanes of travel, all that proper business. This time, a Cryptographer just... showed up. Nearly caused riots across the city. They took Ordren away, thankfully, but they didn't let anybody know they were coming, didn't follow up, and didn't let anybody know what they were doing with him. CenCom had to scramble to get Kopos in place."
"Why would they do that?" Kinnit asked.
"I don't know," Grimthorn said, frowning. "But no matter how obtuse the Cryptographers get, I intend to find out."