Chapter 3. Valkyrie
Lucian sat with Galba in his private quarters considering the schematics
of a ship laid out in front of him. "It doesn''t look like any of our fleet vessels."
Galba poured himself a drink. "It''s not, she''s the Valkyrie. Her home port was Hades."
"Then she burned like all the other ships in the first wave of our attack."
"The Valkyrie wasn''t at Hades."
"I thought the entire fleet was accounted for."
"So did I." said Galba
Lucian swirled the ice cubes in his glass. "Is this conversation going somewhere?"
"Perhaps...maybe all the way to the Senate putting me forward as Caesar."
"Caesar?" Lucian said. "Your ambition really doesn''t know any bounds does it."
"One shouldn''t deny the movement of the stars." Galba said. ".....Helena."
The ship answered. "Yes Senator Galba."If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.
"Can you ask Ithaniel to join us?"
"Ithaniel?" Lucian said. "Legate August''s son, I haven''t seen him since was boy."
Galba nodded. "Try not to say how much he looks like August."
"Why''s that?"
"He didn''t find out he was a clone, until his Father died."
*
Lucian couldn''t help smiling when Ithaniel entered. He was the spitting
image of August but much lighter framed and clear skinned.
"Your Father and I served in the Praetorian guard, we campaigned
on Mars together.... and I have to say...."
Ithaniel stifled a groan.
"He was one of the hardest bastard''s I ever met."
Ithaniel smiled. "I heard him say that about you Tribune Lucian."
Galba patted Ithaniel on the shoulder. "Ithaniel here is somewhat of a
telemetry and code specialist. He uncovered the signals coming from Hades."
"Only by accident Senator Galba"
"Maybe so," Galba said. "but you''ve taken the lead in decoding them"
Ithaniel gave a small nod. "I was confirming distance measurements between
Hades and Mars, when I came across them. The signals were weak, and at
first I thought they were coming from Hades - but they weren''t."
"Where were they coming from?" Lucian asked.
"That''s the interesting part." Galba said.
"The signals were being broadcast at regular intervals. So I went back
through the data until I found a sequence string, and it gave me some
clues to plot a possible course. That''s how I found her."
"The Valkyrie." Galba said. "Helena can you bring up a schematic."
A three dimensional model appeared before them.
"Why wasn''t she sighted or detected before now?" Lucian asked.
"Because no-one was looking for her for," Galba said. "but more importantly,
because she''s cloaked."
"Cloaked? I though we were the only ones with that technology."
"The technology was Martian to begin with." Galba said. "It was just one
of the treasures we uncovered on Hades."
Ithaniel walked around the hologram. "She first appeared in an elliptical orbit
around Hades about five years ago, so it''s reasonable to assume the crew
is either dead, or there was no crew to begin with."
"Five years ago?" said Lucian. "Where was she before that."
Galba smiled. "Let''s find out."
*