Starship Engineer

Chapter 60 Lazarus Decker

Aston was surprised to still be alive. The space elf city ship had taken considerable damage so he wasn’t surprised that all pirates were rounded up and placed in a large holding cell together. To his crew's credit, they defended him from the other pirates’ anger at being suckered into raiding the planetoid. Those with any intellect knew it was the foolhardy pirates that attacked the elves that caused their predicament.

The mock trials of each of the pirates were broadcast in succession with their summary execution. Now just four of them remained with the trials seemingly over. The Sylvan blood lust finally satiated. Two were captains from other ships and the third was his ship’s engineer, Braddock. Three days later a Sylvan woman introduced herself as Sha’Lua. She told them she had great news for them. They would be spared but would have to serve the First Citizen for the remainder of their lives.

One of the captains spit at the woman and Aston mentally shook his head at his stupidity. It only took two breaths before the man found a hole burned in his skull. Aston sighed and kneeled before Sha’Lua. The elf smirked and said no need to kneel. Aston rose and looked the elf in the eye. She had a tired look in her eyes like she had faced her own tribulations recently. Braddock and the other remaining pirate stood as Sha’Lua told them they would be implanted with biosynth and released to spy on the human kingdoms. Their first mission was to find the whereabouts of the ship Void Phoenix.

All three of them perked up at this. A chance to get some vengeance against the Void Phoenix and its captain engineer. The name Void Phoenix was growing on Aston and he had thoughts of slipping his elven leash and taking that ship for his own.

The three of them were led to what appeared to be an elven medical facility. His engineer Braddock was the first to go. He was placed on a bed and completely restrained face down. Two Sylvan scientists brought out a jar with what looked like a spool of thread in it…then the spool unwound and moved around the container in the blue liquid. The other scientist placed a collar around Braddock’s neck. Braddock voiced his objections but they didn’t listen, it was too late to reconsider.

The collar had an attachment at the base of the neck, right at the spine. The jar with the blue liquid clicked into the collar and Braddock screamed as the liquid slowly drained, forcing its way into his body. What the fuck? When the liquid was gone so was the spool of moving thread. Aston was next. Aston resisted a little just to show he wasn’t happy about this, a token resistance for sure. When the fluid drained Aston could see why Braddock had screamed. It was like his skull was being inflated with no room to expand.

Soon the pain receded and Aston could think again. He felt a burning in his spine and at the base of his skull. Sha’Lua entered as the three new Sylvan agents adapted to the biosynth. Sha’Lua explained the biosynth they had just been joined with could kill them at any time. It was the insurance policy that they remained loyal to the Sylvan cause. But the biosynth could also identify others that had been implanted. While they were spying for the First Citizen they could call on anyone who they found also had a biosyth. Braddock asked the question that Aston had. Could they ever be removed?

Sa’Lua looked at the three of them and told them bluntly ‘no’. The biosynth resided in their spinal cord and brain, removing it would kill them. They could however earn their freedom. She had known a few spies that were released from duty to live out their lives. But they performed exceptional acts to aid the Sylvans. Aston laughed in his head. That was probably an elf lie to give hope to the enslaved humans.

Six days later the three of them were given an old human courier ship to travel to the Lithmas system. That was the best guess as to where the Void Phoenix had fled based on the vector it was on when it entered subspace. During the trip, the other pirate captain had an unfortunate accident with the help of Braddock and Aston. No point in having any unknowns during their attempt to find the Void Phoenix or sharing in the spoils.

They arrived in the Lithmas system and were headed toward the habitable moon when the Sylvan transmitter came alive. A short message was displayed, Void Phoenix spotted in the Gunther system. He looked at Braddock who was already doing fuel calculations. He confirmed that they had enough fuel to reach the Gunther system so they were soon back in subspace, chasing a lead.

When they arrived in the Gunther system it took three days to find out the Void Phoenix had left a day before they had arrived but they knew the destination of the ship, the Arana system. Aston laughed at the irony. He was born in the Arana system. He would be going home. Unfortunately, it took nearly a week to find another human in the Gunther system with a biosynth implant. The elves for all their power hadn’t given their spies any local currency. They told them to just find other spies and they would be provided with whatever they needed.

Finding other agents was much harder than he had assumed it would be. It was four days before he struck pay dirt. Braddock and Aston had searched the station first before heading to the planet and finally found a professor at a college. The professor was in a restaurant and as the pair entered to eat they just ‘knew’ he was also implanted. The professor was very helpful. He knew of three others on the planet with biosynths and told them after a few months with the implanted creature they would be able to sense others at a much greater range, up to 200 meters. He also told them it wasn’t all bad. The biosynths extended human life significantly. How much was a guess but he met a man before who was 200 years old and just looked to be in his fifties.

After they got funds from the other agents it took a week for repairs to their little courier ship. There were no passenger liners headed to the Arana system at that time so it was their best course of action. Acton hired three crew members, a pilot, an FTL engineer, and a first officer. They had no idea he was working for the elves but he wanted to start rebuilding his crew. His next step would be getting a bigger ship. Braddock had used the transmitter on the ship to keep the elves updated on their progress.

The trip to Arana met with minimal problems. He gradually asserted his dominion over his new crew. He had a certain charisma that people liked, a cocky arrogance. When they finally emerged from subspace Aston sent out inquiries to contacts from his past life. It took five hours before he got his first intel. The Void Phoenix was here and not scheduled to depart for another six days. He told Bradock to send out the news to the elves. There was a small pulse FTL transmitter secreted on his ship.

Now, what was Aston going to do? He had obtained new credentials in the Gunther system. His new name was Lazarus Decker. He would get close to the engineer and make sure the man knew it was him who brought him down and seized his ship.