I spent a few weeks wandering around Sirius, looking for answers (and, truth be told, a fight). But they never came, and after a while, the urgency died. I found myself wandering back to the only place I have ever felt truly at home and at peace, and that's where I've spent the last few months.
In that peaceful place, the burning for answers had died down to just an itch. I had come to terms with the idea that answers might never come. But a few days ago, some unexpected news arrived. The news networks in Liberty are oblivious to a lot of things, but even they noticed that something was up a few months back when Denver Hospital was mysteriously attacked and dozens of people working for the DoD simply ceased to exist. They've been bugging the government for answers, the government has been denying everything... the usual. This article intrigued me though... it was the first time I'd heard the press directly accuse the government of hiding a conspiracy. Apparently someone in the Liberty press had been digging, and successfully. I smiled when my name was mentioned... my disappearance was one of the unanswered questions the press had.
The last paragraph of the blurb surprised me:
Further muddying the waters, an inside source informed us that the aforementioned Tannik Seldon, previously captain of a Liberty Navy fighter squadron, has been quietly granted an official pardon and an honorable discharge from Liberty's armed forces, despite having been mysteriously missing since the attack on Denver Hospital. When questioned, Government officials denied all comment on the matter.
A pardon and honorable discharge? Well, that was unexpected. Good, though. It meant that it would be safe for me to travel through Liberty space again. More importantly to me, it meant that someone had officially acknowledged that the whole affair wasn't my fault, and that I'd simply been dragged into it somehow.
Or was it a trap?
A couple days later, I entered Liberty space through the California jumpgate. I'd left the Aedos in a safe place... if this was a trap, I wasn't going to make it too easy. But I had to know, and coming back to Liberty was the only way I could find out. The cramped cockpit of the starflyer was torture after the cabin of the Aedos, and I was relieved to see planet Manhattan coming up ahead of me. I exited the trade lane, and before I could do anything else, a police patrol was alongside me.
"Mr. Seldon?" one of the pilots asked briskly.
"That's me," I replied, all my limbs tense in case I needed to make a quick getaway.
"Welcome back to Liberty, sir. There is a man who would like to talk to you. He told me to inform you that you would want to see him...and that if you didn't, you would be allowed to leave unmolested."
I relaxed, but I was still a bit suspicious. On the other hand, I had been offered the freedom to leave. And I'd already come all this way...
"Take me down, officer."
A short time later, I found myself in a government office. The man behind the desk stood up to shake my hand, saying "Tannik Seldon! It's good to see you. My name is Henry Dartmouth. Please, have a seat. I know you have a lot of questions. Unfortunately, I only have some of the answers." I nodded, but didn't say anything. He continued.
"I'll start with what we know. We know that a group managed to infiltrate heavily into the Liberty Department of Defense and cause all sorts of havoc. We know who they are, and we have got them. Yes, Seldon, we have the parties directly responsible in custody."
"Directly responsible?" I asked.
"These people were well trained, well equipped, and well informed. They must have been working for somebody. Unfortunately, we don't know who for sure. Liberty has her share of enemies. Whoever got the infiltrators into the DoD knew what they were doing. The bad news, Seldon, is that they are still at large. And they want their men back. They've already tried three times... fortunately, they haven't succeeded. Not yet.
"We'll come back to that. You've probably figured out that the reason the infiltrators worked so hard to get you and to make you look insane is that they saw you as a threat. You knew something about them, and had just enough disrespect for authority and recklessness to make them uneasy."
I grinned broadly. "Thanks!"
"Actually, we wanted to thank you. You caused enough of a disturbance to bring our attention to the matter before things got too out of hand. Unfortunately, we weren't fast enough to prevent them from locking you in the Denver Hospital."
"So it was you who rescued me?" I asked, excited. It made sense!
"Actually... no." Dartmouth said. "We're still not sure who rescued you or why. It's one of the answers that I'm afraid I can't provide for you."
Blast. I knew a bit more, but still not as much as I would have liked. Well, you can't have everything... and I'd never expected to get this much. Dartmouth suddenly looked pensive, then spoke.
"At any rate, Seldon, we owe you. We've already granted you a full pardon, and an honorable discharge from the Navy. I'm afraid we can't accept you back into official service. There's a medal, too, but it's one that will have to be kept quiet. We'll make it public someday after this whole mess is over. And there's a something I've been ordered to ask of you, but I can't do it! At least not without telling you everything first."
I nodded. His candor went a long way with me. My faith in Liberty had been greatly restored by the knowledge that good guys were still ultimately running the show. "Go on," I said.
"The infiltrators are still here, but here isn't safe. We need to move them far away, preferably without whoever sent them knowing about it. We can't let them be recovered by our unknown enemy: they know too much and are too dangerous. On the other hand, we can't just kill them. Something strange has been done to them biologically, and we need time to investigate. As it is, they'll die anyway in a few weeks: I doubt they were ever meant to survive long. But we have neither the facilities or the security we need here, and the enemy has fantastic resources.
Our plan is to move them, of course. We're planning a shell game. We'll have a several high-security prison liners and armored transports with full escort, all moving in different directions. Our enemy will expect the prisoners to be aboard one of them, but won't know which. Here's where you come in: you'll be taking the prisoners yourself. The ship you brought is perfect: a small, nondescript civilian craft that only a madman would transport prisoners in. So while they're trying to figure out the shell game, you sneak out the back with the marble."
I nodded, then grinned. "I'll do it." The idea of personally removing these scumbags behind the backs of their masters was the best news I'd heard all day.
Dartmouth breathed a sigh of relief.
That night, my starflyer quietly left Manhattan, just like thousands of others. A couple of pirates took potshots at me, but they were easily evaded. The journey was smooth, and the prisoners were safely delivered to a high-security prison in a neighboring house. I'm currently on my way back to Liberty space, deuterium in my hold and satisfaction in my gut. There are still bad guys out there, but the good guys have won this battle.
I think I'll stick around Liberty for a while. The Aedos can wait a bit... I want to enjoy being in my first home for now.
![[Image: aedos_mini.jpg]](http://students.cs.byu.edu/~sushi/aedos_mini.jpg)