The Ripple in Space-Time: Free City Book 1 (The Free City Series) (7 page)

As Ryo slogged back between the two
Science buildings, he mentally manipulated the scraps of information that the
Lieutenant had supplied to him. Why would either of the Warlords that Zmuda
mentioned be connected to the destruction of the Ultra Energy Lab that was
funded by the Warlord Syndicate of which they were both members?

Still deep in thought, Ryo pushed
open the door to the dim Physics Department workroom where he had left his
cohorts. In the stark light of the desktop display, he spotted Keira hastily
pull her hand away from Lev
’
s.

The two dallying detectives turned
in unison towards him, a monochrome lunar image stood frozen on the desktop
screen.

“
What did you two find?
”

Keira sheepishly shifted her chair
away from Lev
’
s and gestured for Ryo to join them.

The old Investigator examined the
still photo of a colossal smooth charcoal-gray crater depressed in the center
of mottled slate and silver-colored highlands. Dozens of smaller dimples
pockmarked the surrounding surface.

Lev
’
s finger traced
the huge lunar basin;
“
This is the Sea of Crisis about
27 minutes before the explosion.
”
He pointed to an incongruous
beige rectangle on one side of the depression,
“
Here
’
s the Ultra Energy Lab, or at least the part that
’
s above the surface.
”

Ryo frowned at the image,
“
That
’
s not much help.
”

“
From this high up, you can
’
t pick out any
details,
”
Keira noted,
“
but the picture quality is good
enough that we can zoom in to a resolution of about ten square centimeters.
”

Lev brushed the toolbar and the
beige rectangle grew to fill most of the screen. A strangely out of place black
speck was perched on one corner of the massive structure.

“What’s that thing?” Ryo wondered.

Lev manipulated the controls until
the dark anomaly occupied the entire display.

“
We were looking at this earlier,
”
Keira tilted her head to the side,
“
it
’
s some sort of unusual spacecraft.
”

Ryo nodded slowly,
“
I think that
’
s an Ore Runner, although it doesn
’
t look anything like the Lunar variant.
”
He pondered it
for nearly a minute.
“
I
’
ve got an idea
that might pan out for us. Lev, send this image off for me.
”

The young man slid his fingers
over the toolbar,
“
Where to?
”

The older man leaned forward and
entered the address of the Vessel Registry Bureau,
“
Inspector Ryo Trop, ID 783682. Identify craft and detail current status
and location.”

Several seconds later the stark
lunar image was replaced by a crisp registration photo of the spacecraft in
dry-dock. A long scrolling description filled the bottom of the screen:
Vessel identified as the Butin Belle. Special Midget Ore Runner Class 37a.
Construction completed on 13th of November 2429 at the Vesta Ship Works.
Currently registered to Celestial Delivery Systems, Mariner Station, Mars.
Hijacked by unknown individuals on 12th of February, 2445. Present location
unknown.

“
Pirates again,
”
Ryo muttered.

Keira looked up at him,
“
What does
Butin Belle
mean?
”

Ryo shook his head,
“
I don
’
t know; it
’
s French, I think.
”

“
Beautiful loot,
”
Lev chuckled.

13. Titan Palace
Saturn was slowly rising above the
horizon.

Dimitri Verhovnyi stared through
one of the many thick plate glass windows of the palace at the shimmering
sliver of the monstrous gas giant as it grew ever-larger. Soon the stupendous
rings would edge into view and the majestic planet would gradually shift from a
glowering red to a more pleasing pinkish-orange as it climbed higher to
dominate the hazy sky of Titan.

At around nine and a half times
further from the Sun than the Earth, Saturn was a far brighter and more
imposing presence on the huge moon than the distant and unremarkable yellow
star over 1.4 billion kilometers away at the center of the Solar System.

Somewhere out there in the
vastness were the imbeciles that he had engaged to carry out his schemes.

Pirates, Dimitri scornfully noted,
were not known for following instructions and his two bands of marauders were
no exception.

After weeks of trying, the Kuiper
Belt Shipjacks had finally managed to commandeer an unarmed and unmanned space
tanker that he intended to use as a base for his secret operations. To avoid
detection, it was now creeping slowly towards the Asteroid Belt. Gristle
’
s Raiders had acquired the materials and skilled laborers that he would
need from the Moon but not without using far too much force and explosives for
what should have been a stealthy undertaking.

Now the Free City Inquisitor's
Office was snooping about for the cause of the blast.

“
Idiots!
”

The great ringed planet took up
most of the eastern sky now. A jagged bluish electrical storm swirled
sinisterly around the southern pole.

A knock at the door interrupted
his fretting. His eleven-year-old parlormaid peered leerily into the suite.

The girl was one of his many
household scrubs; in a year or two, he
’
d profit nicely by selling her
off to the Sex Slavers.

“
Excuse me Master,
”
she bowed nervously,
“
I have your breakfast, if it pleases you now.
”

“
Yes,
”
he growled tersely,
“
bring it in.
”

The little wretch set the tray of
food on his dining table and hurried off.

Dimitri watched the girl leave,
she was obviously afraid of him, he had a well-deserved reputation that he had
cultivated over many years for brawling fits of rage. But he had always treated
his servants and slaves with cool detachment, especially the half dozen or so
girls that made up the domestic staff.

He sat and consumed the meal.

His long dead mother, after all,
had been forced into sex slavery. She’d been one of the many wives of Jonathan
Kufuzu until she displeased the third Warlord of EurAfrica and was sold off as
carnal fodder to Dimitri
’
s despicable father, Lord Pavel
Verhovnyi. At forty-two years old, she unintentionally produced Pavel
’
s only child before killing herself on the lethal surface of Titan.

Unwelcome from birth, Dimitri was
sent away as a baby to be raised by the subjugated drudges in the barely habitable
selenium mines kilometers below the frozen surface of the massive moon of
Saturn. As he grew up amongst the despondent and miscreant miners in the cold
and dark labyrinths, Dimitri vowed vengeance against his father who had
pompously declared himself the first Imperial Warlord of the Outer Reaches.

After years of plotting and
planning, he
’
d snuck into the newly constructed Titan Palace as a
teenager and stabbed his father to death.

Two days later, after murdering
most of the old man’s advisors, Dimitri enthroned himself as the Supreme
Warlord and took over the now vast fiefdom.

His father
’
s frozen and mutilated corpse still dangled from a tall picket in front
of the palace as a grisly reminder of Dimitri
’
s ruthlessness.

But he had other scores to settle.

Even though he was a reluctant
member of the Warlord Syndicate and continued to pay the onerous dues to the
trade organization, he felt no sympathy towards the six other squabbling
autocrats that made up the group. The Asteroid Belt and Jupiter Colonies
Fiefdom was merely a weak and unorganized collection of a few widely spread
outposts led by an oblivious figurehead Warlord on Vesta. The Fiefdoms of Mars
and the Moon were both pleasant paradises compared to the difficult and
isolated hell of the Outer Reaches.

Dimitri had nothing in common with
the three pampered sovereigns of Earth; with large and compliant populations,
copious resources and an agreeable atmosphere, they had no understanding of the
adversities that Off-Worlders constantly faced.

He had an especially strong hatred
for his stepbrother, Daniel Kufuzu. The EurAfrican Warlord had taken over for
his vile father years ago and had refused to acknowledge Dimitri as a blood
relative.

Dimitri sneered with contempt;
soon he would inflect a horrible revenge on the Kufuzu family.

His own fiefdom had grown
wealthier and more formidable in recent years and would soon surpass the status
of Mars and rival that of IndoPacifica on the Earth.

Nearly twenty different mines and
the huge new Kuiper Gas Refinement Facility produced vast riches for him. He
had an army of
“
tax
”
and bribe collectors in his
employ but his tireless slavers generated far more profits than his other
endeavors. Dimitri
’
s methodical thugs would
“
arrest
”
hapless squatters in the far-flung outposts and drag them off to the
Warlord
’
s forced labor facilities to work off trumped up debits
that could seemingly never be satisfied.

Dimitri pushed his nearly empty
plate aside; the last scraps would undoubtedly be consumed by his skinny little
parlormaid. He chuckled to himself, she would be worth more with some meat on
her bones.

He swaggered back to the window
and listened to the latest message from the
Butin Belle,
“
This is bluebird calling big boy. We are in sight of the winter house but
the lightning has not arrived. Your package is ready to Air Mail but we need
the address.
”

Excellent, he thought, perhaps
Gristle and his brain-dead First Mate could actually get things right.

Dimitri began his reply,
“
Use the smallest midget to deliver the package to my brother for arrival
in one month. Half a klick makes the biggest noise. Have the guests work on the
new products when the lightning appears.
”

Saturn had nearly reached its
zenith in the Titan sky.

He smiled fleetingly at the
immense ringed planet before sending off the dispatch; soon his palace would be
filled with fawning half-wits.

14. News Item: Lunar Lab investigation
continues

Dateline: 20th of June, 2445; Free City Inquisitor's
Office, Free City, Earth

Chief Inspector Helga Bennet of
the Inquisitor
’
s Office offered an update this morning on the ongoing
investigation into last month
’
s unexplained destruction of the
Lunar Ultra Energy Research Laboratory.

Citing unnamed sources in the
Mining Guild, Bennet dispelled the widely held notion that the disaster which
claimed 287 lives was caused by illegal mining operations below the Sea of
Crises. She also put to rest a rival theory regarding careless handling of the
unstable antimatter that had been produced in great quantities at the facility
in recent years. Inspector Bennet spent many minutes detailing the elaborate
safety measures used by the staff of the doomed research station.

“
The Inquisitor
’
s Office is now quite certain
that the destruction of the Lab was not an accident,
”
the Chief Inspector said.

“
We have discovered some detailed lunar surveillance images
from the day of the incident and our best people are studying them very
carefully for clues,
”
Bennet assured reporters.

When asked about possible
suspects, the Chief indicated that the Inquisitor
’
s Office is
currently seeking two persons of interest for questioning.

Bennet concluded the interview by
emphasizing her confidence in the detective work being carried out by the
Office.