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Chapter 10  

Alternity - Chapter 11

A visit to Mr. Howard's part 1

"Well don't just stand there Andromeda," exclaimed Beka. "Who is he?"

There was a self-satisfied look on the hologram's face as she paused for a suspenseful moment. "He is Jacob Jarvets, currently living on Sinti IV," she announced in a dramatic tone of voice.

"No way!" exclaimed Harper. He and Trance had come up to the command deck to check some readings before resuming their repair work.

"Are you sure about that, Andromeda?" asked Beka.

"Certain," came the reply from the main viewscreen as Andromeda's core personality entered the conversation, and earned a dirty look from her holographic counterpart whom she had just cut off.

Giving a glance at each of his ship's selves, Dylan stepped to one side. As he did so he heard Harper singing soto voce. "Lord help the mister that comes between me and my sister and Lord help the sister than comes between me and my man."

Deciding it would be best to ignore the implied comment on sibling rivalry, Dylan soldiered on. "Would one of you mind telling a stranger to these parts just who Jacob Jarvets is?" he asked one he was clear of both.

"He owns Racine Communications and Computers," explained Beka, swiveling the pilots chair around so she could see the rest of the crew. "He's the biggest success story in the three galaxies. He came out of nowhere to become the owner one of the biggest manufacturing companies in this galaxy."

"Boss, the man is a gazillionaire!" exclaimed Harper, outrage in his voice. "Why would he want to run a pirate organization?"

"Maybe," said Trance thoughtfully, as she picked Aurora up out of her playpen "It's because he is so rich. Maybe he's just bored."

"I know I would never get bored with a gazillion thrones," said her husband. "First I would buy..."

His fantasy of unlimited wealth was interrupted by Dylan. "Thank you, Andromeda. I want you to organize the information you have collected so that we can present it to the Sinti police force so that they can arrest our Mr. Howard and turn him over to the Free Trade Alliance."

"No," said Beka and Tyr simultaneously.

Dylan raised an eyebrow quizzically. He looked at them, waiting for their explanation.

"My employer is not interested in having Mr. Howard arrested. He wants him eliminated."

"Mr. Anasazi, we're not going to take the law into our own hands," stated Dylan emphatically.

"He's more right than wrong Dylan," said Beka. "You don't understand just how rich Mr. Jarvets is. Probably half the government on Sinti is in his pocket and a fair number of politicians on other planets as well. If we turn whatever information Andromeda has over to the police, the information will just quietly disappear. Even if we turned it over to the Free Trade Alliance, he would just pay them off. The only way we're going to stop him is if we go after him ourselves."

Dylan took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. His mind was absorbing the information Beka had just given him, and looking for an alternative solution. He couldn't find any. "OK, we do it the hard way. We'll have to move fast, I expect that the asteroid had a regular communication schedule with your Mr Jarvets and it won't be too long before someone starts to wonder why the asteroid base has gone silent and Mr Jarvets and company head out for parts unknown. We'll meet in the wardroom in one hour to discuss our strategy." Then more to himself than the others he added, "It's never easy, is it?"

An hour later the crew, including Aurora who was busy with a set of miniature tools Harper had built for her, were in the main conference room planning how they were going to bring Mr Howard to justice. Using the data recovered from the freighter, Andromeda had determined the location of Mr. Howard's home. He lived in on an estate in the exclusive section of the non Peresid enclave in Zamora, the Sinti IV capital. While the crew had been unwinding from their battle with the asteroid pirates Andromeda had been gathering information. Thirty minutes ago a passenger flier traveling from Zamora to the spaceport had passed within sight of the mansion that was Jarvets' home. Flying at the same speed just below the flier was an AES-111A Odin atmospheric sensor drones that Harper had acquired for Andromeda during her stay at the Mobius shipyards. Andromeda's crew was now studying a detailed scan of the building as she pointed out features of interest.

"I combined the drones data with computer records from the companies that constructed the estate," explained Andromeda from one of the axillary viewscreens. "The Sinti Prime Director's estate is not as well fortified as Mr Jarvets'. Microwave motion sensors," ten red dots were displayed on the viewscreen, overlaid on the aerial photo of the building and grounds. "Remote cameras with infrared heat sensors," eight blue dots showed up in other locations. "Remotely-controlled gun emplacements," four areas were highlighted in green. "And this structure," said Andromeda, highlighting a gazebo in orange, "is an armored bunker with gun ports, accessed from the main building through an underground tunnel."

"Is this is a ground car parking area?" asked Beka, pointing at one part of the aerial image that showed several vehicles parked in an open space. "If so there are probably automatic entry gates here," she pointed to a spot on the image, "and a reinforced vehicle entry door here," pointing to another spot. This looks like a swimming pool, right next to the autogun. What are these green things? They're all over."

"They are organic," said Andromeda, "tall plants of some type, with spiky fronds. If you want, I can ascertain the exact species for you."

"They're palm trees," interjected Harper. "Plain old Earth-style palm trees. And if I'm not mistaken, this thing close to the swimming pool is a maple tree. Which doesn't make sense, because the two types of trees never grow in the same part of the world, so..."

"The entry..." began Tyr slowly, looking pointedly at Harper, "...is recessed into the side of the building. It looks like it's protected by gun ports on either side and from two autogun turrets and the armored bunker. Plus, it's observed by three camera positions, and anyone entering would have to pass between microwave motion sensors."

"Yes, there are gun ports on either side of the entrance," said Andromeda, "and on either side of the approach. The building's walls are three feet thick ferrocrete. The original floor plan is as shown." The image on the screen changed to show the floor plan of the mansion. "However I have no way of determining if the design has been modified since the original construction."

"Andromeda, what's the most vulnerable area here?" asked Dylan, studying the viewscreen.

"The tunnel from the building to the bunker," said Andromeda highlighting the tunnel on the viewscreen. "It's buried only two meters underground, and made of ferrocrete only a half meter thick. It will be vulnerable to the weaponry carried by our Phoenix atmospheric attack craft."

"Okay," said Dylan. "So we can enter the building, but we won't know what's inside until we're in there."

"You are aware," said Andromeda holographic image, joining the conversation for the first time., "that this assault will undoubtedly have us answering some awkward questions later. You're not going to be able to simply bypass the security systems and let you walk into the complex. You are going to have to shoot your way in."

"Sounds like fun," said Tyr with a predatory grin.

Chapter 10