Jihad - Part 2

Ungrateful little Amarr princess.' Alira cursed over the channel she shared with Sandrielle. 'How many times have we saved her now? How many times have I saved her now?!' her face twitched slightly inside her capsule, subtly reflecting the Sebiestor woman's anger.

The conversation had started with Sandrielle telling about her last interaction with Sylera, and Alira felt offended by the Amarrian's dismissal of her efforts.

'She has suffered a lot.' Sandrielle replied from across the solar system they were scouting. 'Not everyone has the luxury of choosing to live this life out here.' A subtle jab at the Minmatar whose questing spirit naturally lead her into wormhole space.

If this were a conversation person-to-person rather than between two capsuleers cradled in their protective shells, Alira would have scoffed. The neural interface only translated the impulse into random noise. 'So what would her chosen life have been?' Alira retorted. 'Killing and enslaving my people as a good Crusader capsuleer would.'

'She is one of us now.' Sandrielle reminded her.

'Holefire!' Alira announced as the portal she watched oscillated with the passage of mass.

Inwardly she was thankful for the diversion. She hated arguments with Sandrielle. The Gallente woman always had the last word, and yet, Alira found herself drawn into such confrontations time and again by her impulses. Now, her senses focused on what could be an actual threat. The link she had with her ship responded by zooming in on the spatial rift.

The ship which appeared shortly after was an exploration frigate of Matari design. The wide hull and dorsal solar panels almost made it look like a flat-bottomed sailing barge of old. 'It's a Probe class vessel.' Alira reported. 'The markings identify it as a ship of Eifyr & Co.' her synthesized voice carried a hint of surprise across the thought translator. 'What are they doing here. All alone without a cloak?'

'I am aligning to your position.' Sandrielle responded from inside her own Arazu cruiser, that was hidden, like Alira's ship, behind the powerful distortion field of a cloaking device.

'No. Stay.' Alira stopped her. 'They are launching probes and preparing to warp. She ordered her mind to focus the ship's sensors when the small exploration vessel accelerated to warp speed.

'They headed to the closest planet from the sun.' the Matari capsuleer informed her companion. 'I will follow them, warp to me on my signal.'

By her will alone, she set her ship, the Sei'r, in motion. Her concealed Loki cruiser followed the unwitting reconnaissance craft to it's destination.

Alira's nervous system tingled with the feedback from the forces catapulting her ship across the interplanetary chasm. Inside it's pod, her body lurched slightly when the ship slowed down close to it's potential quarry.

'They are just sitting there in orbit.' Alira informed the other woman. 'I am at optimal range.' with a thought she transmitted her current position to Sandrielle. 'How long do you think it will take you to warp here?' she asked.

'If I decloak in mid-warp they will not be able to get out before I have their warpdrive locked down.' Sandrielle answered the implied question.

'Do it.' Alira replied. 'I will decloak as soon as you appear.' the voice synthesizer almost did justice to the excitement she felt for the hunt.

***

'We have replenished our supplies. Our stations have enough fuel thanks to our friend Arrakh.' Shisei concluded after looking over the inventory displayed on his portable neocom. ' We are certainly prepared for a protracted siege.' he added with an unreadable look on his inscrutable visage.

Cedrien leaned back in his chair and looked at the smooth ceiling of the conference room they occupied inside the Gallente-designed science station. At times of uncertainty, being in a place that was characterized by a design he was familiar with, put him at ease.

He tilted his chair forward after a few moments of reflection and looked directly at the Achura scientist sitting across from him. 'For the time being I consider it equally likely that Arrakh just came up with something to make us join forces with Arclight as I would count on an actual threat.

He leaned forward and intertwined his fingers. 'Our successful fight against the Janissaries has become known among well-informed circles, so has the fact that we now have our own carrier.' he leaned back again and sighed softly 'Larger alliances are becoming interested in us.'

Shisei's narrow eyes focused on his Gallente commander. 'What would be so wrong about joining a larger aliance?' he wondered pragmatically.

Before Cedrien could answer the neocom embedded in his desk chimed with an incoming message. He hit the accept.

'Captain Roucellis, our forward scouts are returning with a captured ship.' the communications officer informed him.

'Captured?' he inquired and raised an eyebrow. It did not sound like Sandrielle and Alira to capture, rather than destroy, a ship they'd encounter.

'Yes sir.' the officer replied 'According to Madame Jaunes it's a civilian vessel of the Arek Jalaan initiative.'

'That project of some Empire corporation to explore wormholes?' Cedrien asked rhetorically. 'Interesting. Prepare to receive them under full security, but remain courteous about it.' he ordered.

Shisei subtly raised his eyebrows with piqued curiosity.

***

Sandrielle had conducted many interrogations over the years and she could usually tell from the beginning what the predisposition of her subject was. There were those who are defiant because of loyalty or idealistic principles. Some would not give up their secrets because it would cost them in a material sense. Finally there are the ones who are ruled by fear. That last category is comprised of two distinct types. The first would resist because they fear the repercussions they would face for any betrayal. The second type fears, that giving up their secrets could harm others who they consider more important than themselves.

Such people usually want to tell what an interrogator wants to know, but they feel that they can not. No threat or intimidation would work on them. Not even torture, because they will endure anything to protect the lives of others.

The elderly Minmatar captain Sandrielle faced across the small room's spartan table showed every indication that he belonged to the latter category. She carefully inflected her voice and adjusted her body language to induce a feeling of safety in the man with his close-cropped graying curls and round pudgy face, gleaming with beads of sweat.

'A small crew.' Sandrielle stated calmly after looking over the security report on a small portable neocom she had brought. 'How did you manage with so few on a scientific exploration mission?'

The dark skinned man swallowed and wiped sweat off his brow. 'We lost some when we got close to a magnetar.' he explained 'We had a radiation leak.'

Sandrielle looked up from her portable with an expression reflecting compassionate empathy. 'A shame that you had to give them a space burial.' she referred to the fact that there were no corpses on the ship. 'I'd reckon as Minmatar they would have wished for a grave in their tribal homeland?' she added.

'We were not sure whether we would ever make it back, so we took a decision.' the captain explained.

Sandrielle nodded. 'It must have been strong radiation indeed to penetrate your fully active shield.' she concluded from the captain's statement and the analysis of the technicians.

The heavyset Minmatar captain swallowed hard. 'Please, you made a mistake by bringing us here.' he suddenly sounded pleading. 'Your pilots should have killed us, it would have been better for all of us.'

'Why is that?' Sandrielle inclined her head with bewilderment.

'Because they …' the man swallowed again and began panting. 'They are inside our heads.' he was sweating profusely now. 'They forced us to do it.' a rivulet of blood began to creep from his nose. 'I don't have much time.' the Matari breathlessly stated and heaved with a convulsion that ended with him vomiting blood onto the table's surface. 'They are in our brains.' he forced the words out of his blood-filled mouth before he collapsed.

Sandrielle jumped from her seat and was at the door in mere seconds. She hit the intercom there while the security door slid open. 'Erect a containment field around this room!' she shouted on an emergency channel.

The last thing she saw, before the room was sealed from her view, was the old Brutor captain exploding in a shower of blood and lacerated flesh.

Sandrielle cursed under her breath. She knew from experience who used destructive nanites like that.