Helium3 Box Set

  Chapter 16

  Tarun stared at the spybot, ‘Maybe, but De Monsero exiled Tarak for embezzling funds from his accounts, so he could work for anyone now.’

  Mervyn frowned in disappointment, ‘That doesn’t help a lot.’

  ‘Cracking the password methodically will take hours,’ Loren said. ‘Anyone like to hazard a guess?’

  ‘Halival Tarak?’

  ‘Tarak Halival?’

  ‘Halival?’

  ‘Tarak?’

  ‘Revlon?’

  ‘Starlight?’

  ‘Starlight Raid?’

  ‘Raid?’ Soon they lapsed into silence as every suggestion came up negative.

  ‘This is useless,’ Tarun said. ‘We don’t know anything about this guy.

  ‘Try, Destroyer,’ Mervyn suggested. Loren gave him a sideways glance but tapped in the word anyway.

  ‘It’s thinking about it,’ Loren said and they waited with baited breath. ‘Quarks, Mervyn, we’re in. How did you guess that.’

  Mervyn shrugged, ‘De Monsero’s nickname in the sledding league, remember.’

  ‘That doesn’t prove it’s De Monsero’s probe though,’ Loren said carefully. ‘You just got lucky. Perhaps they knew each other at the Academy or something.’

  Loren selected the playback mode and they watched the big screen as the spybot approached Starlight. A light flashed and Starlight’s dome burst outwards. The spybot shot forward past debris from the asteroid and dived into central control. It recorded the fire fight between Starlight’s defenders and the raiders. Mervyn watched in silence as his father surrendered his weapons. Grey suited invaders crept warily into central control, collected the fallen weapons, and herding the defenders out of the room.

  The spybot focused on the invaders and Loren froze the recording, ‘Look, the shorter ones are definitely human, but who are the tall ones -- I can’t see their faces?

  ‘Whoever they are they must be in league with the Naga,’ Tarun said.

  Loren restarted the recording. One tall and one short space suited figure came together. They started to point and gesture as they discussed some aspect of the invasion. The more they discussed the more vigorous their gestures became. The human glanced up briefly.

  ‘Hey, that’s the human leader -- Guthrik, I remember seeing him beside the Naga when they waylaid the Silvin Trader,’ Loren said, ‘I think they’re arguing.’ Without warning both sides drew their blasters and a stand-off ensued. The taller figure finally lowered its blaster and stalked out of view followed by the rest of the tall invaders. ‘What was all that about?’ Tarun asked.

  The humans pocked round central control for a while then left. The spybot drifted into the emergency room and hibernated.

  It sprang back to life as four orange figures passed the door.

  ‘That’s us,’ Loren said. The spybot shot out into central control crashing into Loren’s helmet as it went. The screen fizzed and cut to a black star-field. A sled sat in the centre of the screen.

  ‘That’s why it’s in for service,’ Loren said. ‘They can’t access the middle section.’

  ‘You mean they want to see who we are,’ Tarun said.

  ‘Quarks, look at that,’ Mervyn cried. ‘De Monsero actually swerved to avoid hitting it.’ The spybot flew so close to De Monsero’s sled they could see him grinning. Mervyn paced back and forth to work off the anger now coursing through him. ‘De Monsero had lied through his teeth -- not only did he see the spybot, it nearly killed him.’

  ‘What’s that,’ Tarun said holding up a hand. They all paused and listened.

  ‘It’s the back door,’ Loren hissed and frantically pulled leads out of the spybot.

  Mervyn dived for the door, ‘Quick, I’ll get the lights. Tarun, kill the screen.’ They scrambled to remove evidence of their occupation as Loren snapped shut the spybot and replaced it carefully on the rack.

  The trio settled themselves behind a wall of crates as the lights flicked back on and two sets of feet entered the room. Mervyn found a crack between two crates through which he could spy on the table. He wanted to shift position to see the newcomers, but dare not in case he gave himself away.

  ‘Is this your spybot, Mr Tarak?’ Mervyn glanced to where the others peered through their own vantage points. Loren’s hand hovered in front of her mouth.

  Two Ethrigians stood by the table: one male, one female. They opened the spybot and plugged it into the screen. The playback skipped to the collision with Loren’s head.

  ‘There is your problem,’ the female said. ‘Spybots are quite delicate really.’

  ‘Can you fix it?’ Halival Tarak asked.

  ‘Probably,’ the female said tapping away on a virtual keyboard. Tarak paced up and down while the female worked.

  ‘Well?’ Tarak asked.

  ‘I have fragments. N