Marshal Melinda McKee (Adventures of the League Space Patrol Book 7) Read online

  "I'm writing you up as well. Your idea to get help from the basili delegation was inspired."

  "Thank you, ma'am..." he stopped when Red walked off toward the town's saloon. He frowned. "Sheriff, you got this covered?"

  "Yeah. What's wrong with Red?"

  "Good question. I think I'm going to find out. Max, care to join me?"

  "Damn Skippy," she said as she fell in behind the necrue.

  ###

  Ariel and Max walked into the saloon and back in time over three-hundred years. The interior was decorated exactly like a saloon from nineteenth century New Mexico. "Mabel, where's Red," Ariel asked the Alturan barkeep.

  She nodded an eye stalk towards a table in the back corner.

  "Thanks," the necrue said. He and Max walked over and sat down with their boss. "Care if we join you?"

  "Not at all, seeing that you're already sitting."

  "Are you OK, Marshal?" Max asked.

  "Define Ok."

  Max looked at Ariel for help.

  "Red..."

  "Are you ever going to call me Marshal or Captain?"

  "When it suits me," he replied. "Maxine and I are worried about you."

  "Why?"

  "Because most people would be dealing with their boyfriend's death by now. You seem to be nonplussed by it."

  "The way I deal with loss is none of your business, Ariel."

  He made a buzzer sound. "Sorry, wrong answer. Max and I are your friends, your copilots, and now your deputy Marshals. You watch our backs, we watch yours, and the three of us watch everyone else's. That's how it works. Get used to it."

  "You could quit and leave me to my self-destructive devices."

  "Like that's going to happen," Max said. "Ariel's right, so get use to use putting our noses where they don't belong."

  "Sweetie, you don't have a nose," Red reminded her. "Luckily I like having you two getting underfoot." She finished her drink, then ordered dinner for the three of them.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Red leaned over the rail of her balcony and watched the sun rise over the distant mountains which marked the boundary of the area known as the badlands. She took a sip of coffee when she realized she was being watched. Slowly turning her head to the right, she saw Ariel perched on the railing of his balcony. "Good morning, Ariel. Trying out for the part of the raven in that E. A. Poe revival?"

  "Jealous. I have prehensile toes, and you don't. If you must know, I find this very relaxing."

  "You say that every morning." She looked at her wrist chrono. "Wait for it..." Max, wearing a bathrobe, her hair wrapped in a towel, popped into existence next to her. "Boss, can I borrow a hair brush..."

  Red reached down, took one from a box, and handed it to her Alue friend. "Knock yourself out."

  "Thanks!" the young deputy replied before returning to the network in the wink of an eye.

  "Red, does it bother you that since the bank robbery, we do the same thing day-in and day-out?" The necrue deputy asked. He looked at his wrist chrono. "Wait for it..."

  As if on cue, Samson leapt onto the balcony from the ground below. "Got any coffee?"

  Red pointed to the nearby table where a steaming quart-sized mug waited. Samson picked it up and ran it past his face. "Smells delish," he said as his lower face shield retracted to reveal a human looking set of silver, metal mouth, lips, and nose. He drank half the mug in one gulf. "Absolutely wonderful."

  She looked at the bot, then at the necrue. "Yep, but monotony is good. We have a routine, and routines are good, just like monotony."

  An agitated Max popped out of thin air. "Franny called up from the office. We've got a distress call from a salvager crew. They're a hundred miles past the rim mountains and they say they're under attack by person or persons unknown."

  "That's fifty miles past the outer markers," Samson said. "My guess is they're a rogue crew. It must be bad if they're calling for help."

  "Is the sheriff scrambling a team?" Red asked

  Max nodded. "A swat team is heading out in a battle shuttle with a medical team hot on their asses. ETA is one-hour."

  "Why so long?"

  "The salvagers couldn't give an exact location and a magnetic storm over the mountains is mucking up their sensors."

  Red finished her coffee. "How about we give them a hand. Anybody feel like a road trip?"

  Three hands were instantly raised.

  "Franny!" Red said to the ever-listening intercom system.

  "Yes, Marshal?"

  "Hold down the fort. We're heading out for a while."

  "Yes, Marshal."

  Computer! Prep Valkyrie and Storm Chaser for immediate launch. Ariel, you and Samson take Storm while Max and I take Valkyrie. Max, use your charm and wit to cajole the sensors into giving us a target location. Let's show the perps that no one messes with a planet protected by Space Patrol. Now, move your asses while I get dressed."

  A chorus of affirmatives filled the air as everyone got very busy.

  ###

  With Valkyrie in the lead and Storm Chaser taking up the wing position, the two ships flew toward the rim mountains at max sub-sonic velocity while Max worked on convincing the sensors to ignore the magnetic storm so they could find the salvagers. "Got them," she said as she punched a set of coordinates into the navigation computer--NAVComp for short.

  "Transmit them to Storm, then the sheriff and her SWAT team," Red ordered.

  "Roger that. The sheriff acknowledges receipt," she said as she listened to the comm system via her earcomm.

  "This is Storm Chaser. We copy new coordinates and are ready to transition to supersonic."

  "Roger that. Transition in three... Two... One... Mark!" Red pushed the real-space throttles to their stops. The mighty ship went to Mach 1 almost instantly.

  "Seven minutes to sub-sonic transition," Max said. "Shields holding. Engines purring like overfed Katalans."

  "I'll tell Ranell that you said that when I see him next," Red noted.

  "Who do you think I got it from?" Max replied with a smirk.

  "What are the scans picking up?"

  "Energy discharges. Some are from League-standard blasters, but some have signatures not in the database. Two minutes."

  "Storm, did you get that?"

  "Aye, Mon Capitan. Matching shield frequencies to non-standard. Standing by."

  "Roger that," Red replied. "Battle stations, no drill. Max, activate all weapon and defensive systems, then try to contact the salvagers. Let them know well be there momentarily."

  "Aye, Marshal. Five seconds... Four... Three... Two... One... Mark!"

  "Braking thrusters. Activate heads-up display. Aft weapons emplacement on automatic. People, we're going in."

  The two ships dropped in speed and circled the coordinates. Below, they could see dozens of energy bolts being exchanged. "Captain, I'm seeing at least a dozen bots attacking a group of salvage ships. The bots are northwest of the ships and moving in quickly," Ariel reported.

  "Samson, do those bots have comm capability?"

  "Don't know. I never tried to talk to them while I ripped their power packs out," the bot replied.

  "Computer, broadcast the following on all channels: This is Marshal Melinda McKee to the robots advancing on a group of salvagers. You will stand-down or we will fire upon you."

  "No response, Marshall," Max reported.

  "Have it your way. Storm Chaser! We're going to strafe them with high-energy plasma bolts in a sweep from southwest to northeast. You follow behind and take care of any stragglers."

  "Roger-dodger, Marshal. We'll be right behind you."

  "Max, warn the salvagers. Tell them to duck."

  "Aye, Marshal."

  Red pushed the nose of the Valkyrie over so that it was lined up with a spot about a half-mile southwest of the advancing line of bots. She pulled up at one-hundred feet and flew level while strafing the bots with plasma bolts. At the end of the line, she pulled up, gaining altitude while Storm Chaser took care of
stragglers.

  "Report!" Red ordered.

  "No more weapons fire from the bots. No mobile bots detected within ten miles. Salvagers report we got them all."

  "Confirmed, Marshal," Ariel replied over the radio.

  Just in case they missed one, Red launched two picket probes to watch the area while she landed the Valkyrie with Ariel landing the Storm Chaser nearby. She and her team were met by the salvage team leader as they ran out of the two ships carrying several medical kits. "Thank God you arrived in time," the leader said as members of his group took the medical kits and used them to assist the wounded and injured. "I don't know how much longer we could have held them off."

  "Jessie, are you all right?" Samson asked as he walked past carrying a crate of med kits.

  "Hey, Samson. I'm fine, but some of my people aren't. Thanks for the assist."

  "Not a problem. Hey, why the hell are you out this far?" the bot asked while placing the crate down on the ground. "This is beyond the outer markers. Hell, I don't even come out this far."

  Before Jessie could answer, the SWAT team and medical shuttle arrived. "I need to..." he started to say.

  "They're in good hands. Now, answer the question. Why are you out this far?"

  "We tapped into one of the weather satellites and used it to survey new territories. Most of this planet is a ranch, except for the badlands. There are hundreds of wrecks out here, perhaps thousands, but the government is moving the markers too slowly."

  "I see. What did you find that brought you out so far?"

  "One scan showed hundreds of energy signatures clustered in this area, yet the visual scans showed nothing out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, the signatures disappeared on the following scans."

  "So, you thought you'd check it out on the QT?" Red asked.

  "Ummm, yeah, that's about it."

  Samson touched the marshal's shoulder and whispered in her ear. "Red, could I talk to for a moment?"

  "Sure. You, stay," she said to Jessie as she walked over to where Samson was standing. "What's up, Big Guy?"

  He nodded toward Jessie. "Could you cut Jessie some slack this time. He and I go way back."

  She looked up at his big, red, optical inputs. "This one time. He can keep what he found, but he is to get a permit and pay the appropriate fees.”

  "Thanks, Red. You're the best."

  "Go tell him. Find me when you're done. Oh, and get a copy of that scan data. I want to see these signatures he was talking about."

  "Aye, aye, Marshall McKee."

  CHAPTER SIX

  The salvagers had moved their operation to someplace Samson suggested was safer. Meanwhile, Red and her four companions had reconvened aboard the Valkyrie to discuss their next steps. They stood around the holotable, all except for Maxine who sat on the tabletop, and stared at the data from the weather satellite. "That's a lot of signatures," Max noted.

  "Where are we with relation to the signals?"

  A blue dot appeared at the center of the screen.

  Red glanced out the window and saw nothing but rocks, sand, and a few desert plants. "I wonder where they went? According to Jessie, he and his crew were scouting the area when a dozen robots attacked from the northwest. Only a dozen, not hundreds. If we assume those signatures are from bots, then where are the rest of them?" She tapped a stylus on her chin. "Big guy, what do you know about these bots?"

  "They're energy packs are the same as mine, so I assume my body and theirs were manufactured by the same people. Their configuration would suggest a maintenance or security function, possibly both."

  She looked at the big bot, or whatever he was. "What was your function?"

  "I have asked myself that same question hundreds of times since I awoke. Since only one of me has ever been found, I can only conclude I was eye candy, or maybe a romance book cover model." Max nearly fell off the table while Ariel rolled his mantis-like eyes.

  "Let's go with that, for now at least," Red said with a smirk. "Here's a question: Do these things have enough CPU power to be autonomous?"

  Max switched the display to a diagram of one of the multi-limbed bots. "According to computer analysis of the bot's structure, the brain contains a high-speed Wi-Fi network and this." She zoomed in on a something that looked like a metal walnut.

  "What is that?" Ariel asked.

  "I don't have a clue."

  "Maxine asked if I had one," Samson said. "I didn't know, so we scanned my brain."

  "What did you find?" Red asked.

  "The walnut, the comm system, and enough computing power to run a small city," Max replied.

  "Is your walnut using power?"

  "No, it's quiescent. We checked the bots' walnuts and found that all of them had a small section which had burned out. This section is undamaged in my walnut."

  "Burned out?"

  "Twelve robots with twelve identical metal walnuts, each with the same small area damaged." She stopped and looked over at the Alue. "What do we know about the bot that was involved with Niall's death?"

  "Boss?" Ariel asked.

  "What do we know about the bot that got Niall killed?"

  Ariel looked at Max.

  Max nodded.

  "Not much," the necrue replied. It arrived at the Cube only a few hours before an alien artifact exploded and took out a nearby module. The antiquities staff was performing a coarse scan when the shit hit the fan. Something activated the bot. When he arrived, Niall found it trying to tap into the Cube's power grid."

  "It activated, then went looking for power. You said there was a coarse scan. Was any data salvaged from that scan?"

  "Let me check... Yeah. The scan was working on the head when the explosion occurred. This is all the data that was captured and stored." A three-dimensional ghost view of the bot's skull appeared above the table. It was identical to the twelve bot's that attacked the salvagers except for the walnut. It was glowing white.

  "Computer! Tie into holotable. Question: meaning of white glow assigned to walnut-shaped item?"

  "Working... White glow signifies a micro-portal is present. This micro-portal is like one produced by an Erdexi bridge generator."

  "What is an Erdexi bridge generator?" Samson asked.

  A device which facilitates instantaneous travel from the transmitter sphere to the receiver regardless of the distance separating the two. We use them to get to the Large Magellanic Cloud."

  "But those things are huge," Ariel noted. "Even the ship-mounted ones are big."

  "But those are transporting ships. I think the walnuts are transporting data. Is it possible something on this planet was controlling the bot on the Cube?"

  They all looked at Samson. "Don't look at me," he said. "I may have a walnut in my head, but that doesn't mean I know what it is or how to use it."

  Red thought for a moment. "Max, get on the hypercomm and send a message to the Cube, high-priority. Address it to the Cybernetics Division and attach the log data and a copy of our logs. Question: Could those walnuts be long-distance communications devices. Question: could the bot involved with the death of Captain Thorvald have been controlled from Maeve. Regards, Marshal Melinda McKee."

  "On it, Marshall," she said before heading to the cockpit.

  While they waited for Max to return, they took a break and got some coffee. Ariel walked over and leaned against the counter next to Red. "How are you feeling, Marshal?"

  "Shocked."

  "Excuse me?"

  "You called me Marshal. I feel fine. Why do you ask?"

  "This is the first time you've brought up Niall since we arrived. I just want to make sure you're OK."

  She looked at him. "You really are worried about me, aren't you?"

  "So is Max," he replied. "Did you know she still hasn't gotten over his death? Remember, she was there."

  "I'll talk to her when we get back to the office. I promise." She sipped her coffee. "You do understand that I need to do this."

  "You mean not chalk Niall's death up
to random happenstance? That you must find someone to punish? Yeah, I do understand. Just try to remember the people around you who are also suffering."

  She gave him a weak smile, then nodded. She stopped when the emergency message alert went off. "What the hell?"

  Max ran out of the cockpit. "Computer! Silence alarm. Reroute call to holotable." She waved everyone over to the table. "You have to hear this. Cube Command, you are go for Marshal McKee."

  "Red, this is General Spent. We received your communique, and we confirm your hypothesis that something can control those bots from a distance. Stryker Teams One and Two have just fought a pitched battle with the ones Maeve sent us for analysis. During the battle, we monitored communication between the bots and a controlling entity via several portals like the Erdexi trans-galactic portal system."

  "Was anyone hurt, ma'am?"

  "No, but it was entertaining to watch DCI Adon tear a bot in half. That man dislikes being shot at."

  "Orders, ma'am?" she asked since she, her deputies, and the security force were all part of Space Patrol.

  "We're in contact with the sheriff and have instructed her to place all known bots in stasis, except for Samson, of course."

  "Thank you, General," the big bot said.

  "When they're finished cleaning up the town, the sheriff and her team will join you. Until then, I want you to find out where those signals are coming from. We have one prowling an unused tomb. It's playing hide and seek with one of Dr. Aymar's ratbots."

  "Roger that, General. We're on it."

  "Good luck. Cube Command standing by."

  "I don't know about anyone else, but I think the day is looking up," Ariel said.

  Max threw a wad of paper at him.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Red and her team had been joined by the sheriff, her SWAT team, and medical staff. Nearby, SWAT team members kept an eye on the perimeter while Red and Joslyn discussed their next moves.

  "Max, do we have a fix on the bot controller signal?" Red asked.

  "Yes, Marshal. Two miles on a bearing of 315 degrees magnetic. The signal is coming from a large debris field at the base of a dormant volcano."

  "What about bot signatures?" Joslyn inquired.