Red Glow - Chapter 3 (05.11.2005)

[KiwiNZ]

Ra t’Knk stood in the huge hall, which was rumoured to be a straight copy of the throne room on Nif-Nakh, which had been occupied by Rhonkar eighteen jazuras ago. Ever since the old patriarch Chin had been overthrown, the new leader of the Split had taken his people to new heights. The loyalty of his men was strong. However, he too was not without enemies. The patriarch’s possibly fiercest enemy was the man that sat on the throne, looking down at Ra t’Knk.

Only by a miracle had he survived the attempted assassination by Uchan t’Scct and Ghinn t’Whht, his former wife. Saving his leader’s life saw Ra t’Knk promoted to second in command. Many times Ra had regretted not leaving the mortally wounded Chin t’Thhg at the mercy of Rhonkar. The opportunity had been unique. But then, he’d probably be doing the dirty work for some pathetic officer. Whereas now it was he who issued commands.

However, with a higher rank came greater responsibility and that was why he was now facing Chin. The former patriarch’s voice echoed from the high walls of the hall, making Ra duck instinctively.

“How is this possible? I send out my best men and plenty of them to capture one fat human? Is he trying to tell me that he was overwhelmed by a human or were the lizards involved?”

“Lord, somebody with access to systems control of the station locked all but one door. And the room with that door had been decompressed so our guard became unconscious. When all systems returned to normal the Argon had left the station in a Jaguar. We believe he had an accomplice.”

“I command him to order three squads of fighters to follow them. I want the Argon alive and the Jaguar including pilot turned to space dust. He may contact our allies in Thuruk’s Beard for assistance. We need to get hold of the old man at all cost.”

With a low bow Ra t’Knk backed out of the room. His lord was a wise man and valued his men high enough not to kill them in the light of their failure. But he also knew this generosity would not last.

After dispatching all necessary orders Ra t’Knk sat back in his chair. He could not find any reason why his lord was so determined to get his hands on that human. For many jazuras now they have been researching his whereabouts without success. Now he had surfaced and instead of being a dangerous young warrior he was an old fat man. Was it just personal interest or did he possess valuable information? There was only one way to find out.

Another question mark was the black scout ship and its pilot. He would have to ask some questions. Ra tabbed some buttons on the control panel in front of him.


*


“Where has he gone? Is there nobody who knows? I can’t believe it, one of the highest ranked persons in the service disappears and nobody knows a thing! Have you searched his office, his home, his … everywhere?”

Commander Corand was on the brink of losing his temper. Since the disappearance of Brennan three mazuras ago the universe had begun to move again. All of a sudden small-scale wars started between races and various pirate clans, the Xenon made more frequent incursions into Black Hole Sun and Getsu Fune. This had to mean something. And now he was looking for the only man in the confederation that could possibly have explanations of one kind or another and that person had vanished, too!

The Admiral’s office was clean and tidy. No old notes on the huge desk or in the receptacle unit. He had searched the room now for 45 mizuras and there was no lead whatsoever as to where his superior had gone. Just now Corand received confirmation that he had also not gone for a ride on the Argon One. The only thing missing was a ransom or suicide message.

He opened a comms channel to Ned Silad, his link to the Argon Secret Service: “Ned, can you please pop over to Terracorp HQ and see if you can get any information out of them in regard to Brennan and D. This is almost too coincidental. Somebody must know more.”

“Consider it done, Commander.”

Corand closed the link and scanned through the news of the past tazuras.

The pirate base in Company Pride was the first, then the one in Rhonkar’s Clouds. Only a few mizuras ago he had received notice that the Teladi had now also commenced an attack on the base in New Income. With the extermination of the Blue Cloud clan the narcotics market was open again. The destruction of the Dragon clan had also produced an opening in regards to smuggling high tech goods. Should the Teladi take out the Viking clan it would leave the Mohawk clan in Brennan’s Triumph the biggest group of pirates in the universe. There were rumours of another faction acting from Cho’s defeat which nobody knew details about. It appeared they were only one of the small groups that functioned as outposts of the big clans. However, it was unknown who their leader was.

It all looked like the governments of the various races had finally begun to rid the universe of the scum. Though, this was all too coincidental for the fact that nobody had approached Argon, Boron or Paranid to organise a sweep with combined forces. Somebody else had to be pulling the strings and Corand failed to see who that person was. The list of curious events was growing at an alarming rate.

[Mastermue]

“Where is he gone? Is there nobody who knows? .

Just one thing, from the quote, should it be "where's he gone?" or "Where has he gone?

Nice read kiwinz! This is building up really nicely!
I'm really looking forward to the next part!

[KiwiNZ]

And fixed.

Thanks for that one

[The Zig]

Hey,
Story's broadning out really well. Likin' it!
So the old Split patriarch's involved?

Curiouser and curiouser!

(an Alice in Wonderland quote btw, and not any kind of swipe at your English, which is better than that of most native speakers!)

[champgm]

Looking good, Kiwi

And I have to agree, your English is better than most native-speakers.