THE KOSTROMA SAGA by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 13 – SPACE BROTHEL

 

10:06 (Universal Time)

Thursday, July 12, 2317

Dock 10, ZERO-G HEAVEN space brothel

Asteroid owned by the Sverdlovsk Group

Main Asteroid Belt

Dana Durning, the chief navigator of the KOSTROMA, looked with some bewilderment and much indignation at the apparently mad traffic pattern around the 23-kilometer-wide asteroid to which their ship had just docked. Ships and craft of all sizes seemingly kept coming and going at an infernal rate, with some pilots being quite lax about safety rules concerning docking speeds and distances.

‘’My God! I heard that this place was wild, but this is like organized chaos. That last shuttlecraft simply ignored our safety zone and skimmed by our hull.’’ Tina, herself not pleased at all by this, nodded and looked at Minh Wa Hien, who was presently on duty as a bridge communications specialist.

‘’Hien, contact that shuttlecraft that just skimmed us and remind him about the size of our safety zone.’’

‘’Right away, Tina.’’

The young ethnic Vietnamese woman then spoke repeatedly in her microphone, but didn’t get any answer. What she and Tina got instead was the sight of the said shuttlecraft flashing its red navigation lights on continuous for three seconds, the unofficial space equivalent of giving the finger to someone. That made Dana Durning explode.

‘’The asshole! I’m going to report him to the Space Navigation Sector

Administration.’’

Some may have laughed at that incident, but not Tina. Any collision would have been fatal to the shuttlecraft and its occupants, while the damage to the KOSTROMA, while relatively light, could have caused a compartment to explosively decompress, possibly killing some crewmembers or passengers. She thus didn’t stop Dana from stomping away to file a formal incident report. Thankfully, the rest of their docking maneuver went

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on without further problems, her giant cargo ship coupling with a docking station situated at the end of a tall tower structure fixed to the asteroid’s surface. Small craft and ships, on their part, simply entered a wide tunnel dug through the asteroid, exiting at the other extremity once their loading/unloading was done. The asteroid’s mass was too small to have any noticeable gravity, so the KOSTROMA ended up floating above the surface of the irregularly-shaped asteroid, tethered to one of the twelve docking towers servicing the installation. Presently, ten of the other eleven docking towers were in use by passenger liners or mixed cargo/passenger ships. Frida Skarsgard, the redhead pilot of the KOSTROMA, shook her head in amusement while watching the level of space activity around the asteroid.

‘’I knew that this place was popular, but I didn’t expect so many ships here.’’

‘’Well, Frida, if you wanted to find the biggest nest of sins and immorality in the Solar System, then this is it. About anything goes here, as long as it is consensual and between adults. Think about what a bunch of hard-working Space miners on leave look like after six months toiling around bare pieces of space rocks while living aboard a cramped mining ship, then multiply that by a few thousands at a time and you will get the kind of crowd you will find here.’’

‘’And how the hell can the local authorities keep order in such a place, Tina?’’

‘’With a very firm hand, I am told. The Sverdlovsk Group, which owns this place and the rest of Hygiean space, was never known to be timid about applying needed measures to any problem. I am sure that there are plenty of Hygiean Security Forces personnel down there to keep order inside the ZERO-G NIRVANA. Well, since we are here to unload passengers and some of our surplus foodstuff, we might as well use the occasion to blow some steam before going on a year-long deep space mission.’’ Going to her command chair, Tina activated the ship-wide intercom system and spoke after thinking for a few seconds about her announcement.

‘’Attention all hands! Attention all hands! This is the Captain! We are now docked to the ZERO-G HEAVEN Docking Tower Number Ten. In view of our oncoming long deep space mission, I have decided to stay docked to this installation for the next 72 hours, so that each of our three working shifts can take turns to visit the place. We will be going at half-manning during our stay here, so the shift supervisors will have to plan the coming days’ work schedules accordingly. Shift ‘B’ will be the first to go off shift, then Shift ‘C’ and, finally, shift ‘A’. Have fun but follow all the local rules and try to return to the ship on your own power. That is all!’’

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Tina could have sworn that she heard happy screams through the bulkheads of her ship then as she smiled to her bridge crew.

‘’Frida, you take care of planning the shift schedules for the bridge crew for the next 72 hours. In the meantime, I will go supervise the unloading of our cargo and passengers and liaise with the local authorities. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do while on your visit here, guys and girls.’’

Leaving behind a happy bridge crew, Tina took an elevator down to the Main Promenade Deck, then to the KOSTROMA’s port access tunnel, which was now connected to the reception lounge of the docking tower. A small group of Hygiean officials, including a few security officers, was on its part about to arrive at the boarding station manned by Natalia Vasilyeva and one of her assistants when Tina showed up at the station. Her eyes lit up and a big grin appeared on her face when she recognized one of the Hygiean security officers in the group of visitors.

‘’MICHEL!’’

Michel Koniev saw her as well and waved happily at her, then accelerated his step, getting ahead of his group in time to receive Tina in his arms to hug and kiss her. The tall, handsome blond Hygiean Security Forces officer then looked at her with fondness.

‘’It has been a long time since we saw each other, Tina.’’

‘’Over fourteen months, to be precise, Michel. How long have you been stationed here?’’

‘’Two months now, and I can assure you that it has been quite a learning experience. This place is quite unique, believe me.’’

Michel Koniev then turned partly around to look at one of the other officials from the station, a small and somewhat overweight man in his early fifties who could be described as anything but handsome.

‘’Mister Gerhard, may I present you Fleet Captain Tina Forster, owner and master of the Armed Merchant Ship KOSTROMA?’’

The said Gerhard stepped forward and shook hands with Tina, a genuine smile on his face.

‘’It is indeed an honor to receive you here, Captain. Your exploits against those thugs from the Terran ISF forces are now legendary, as are your space victories around Mars. I am John Gacey Gerhard, owner and manager of the ZERO-G HEAVEN. Are you planning to stay here with your ship for more than a few hours?’’

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‘’I just told my crew that I was giving them 72 hours to blow steam off in your facilities, Mister Gerhard. They will soon start disembarking in three consecutive shifts.’’

‘’Excellent! Then let me express in an appropriate manner my admiration to your ship and crew.’’

Gerhard then turned his head to speak to a woman in civilian suit holding an electronic tablet and who was the image of the executive secretary.

‘’Miss Burns, advise all the service counters and sections of our installations that the crewmembers of the cargo ship KOSTROMA and their family members will benefit from a thirty percent rebate on all prices and service fees during their stay here, and this for the next three days.’’

He then looked back at Tina, who couldn’t believe her luck, and grinned to her.

‘’I couldn’t do less to thank those who rid us of the Zembelo goons, Captain Forster. Since you seem to know well the good Major Koniev, I am as of now placing him on a 24 hour leave period, so that he could guide you around my little establishment.’’

‘’You are too kind, Mister Gerhard. Since you are here, may I interest you in stocks of low-priced spices and other foodstuff produced aboard this ship. With all the visitors you get here constantly, your restaurants must be going through enormous quantities of supplies.’’

‘’That they certainly are, Captain. If you have a list of the foodstuff you are offering for sale, along with their prices, you may show it to my head of supplies, Mister Yamashita, to my left.’’

Tina nodded and took a data chip from her pocket, presenting it to the Asian man standing next to Gerhard. The man plugged the chip to his own electronic tablet and copied the file before returning the chip to Tina, then started reviewing the list of products and their prices as Tina and Gerhard presented in turn their people present. Yamashita quickly stiffened and made a quick calculation before bending over to whisper into the ear of his boss as Tina was being briefed by the head of security for the station on the various local rules and regulations.

‘’Sir, we are going to save over seven million credits just on the spices and vegetable oils she is offering, compared to the prices we normally pay for the same products. We also could save another two million credits on the stocks of liquors she is selling. All of her products are in fact listed at prices way below standard. If their quality proves adequate, we could end up saving in total tens of millions of credits.’’

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‘’Get your food inspectors here at once to check those products. Then, if these products prove to be of good quality, buy everything she is offering.’’ replied in whispers Gerhard, most happy. Such discounts on items which his facilities used in liberal quantities were going to more than compensate for the cut rates he had offered to the crew of the KOSTROMA for their visit. Called in by Yamashita, a team of food inspectors rushed in less than fifteen minutes later. Seeing how well things were going, Tina then invited Gerhard to tour the KOSTROMA while the food inspectors and Yamashita went to examine the stocks of foodstuff available for sale. That tour, with Michel Koniev and two other Hygiean officials in tow, went on for a good three hours. By the time John Gacey Gerhard was back on the Promenade Deck, his mind was boiling from all the things he had seen, which had given him ideas of his own.

‘’Captain Forster, your ship is truly a wonder. Your forested habitats in particular are without equal on spaceships, or even on most fixed space installations. You gave me a lot to think about.’’

‘’My hope is that more people will emulate my example, Mister Gerhard, so that the quality of life in space could be improved.’’

‘’A most commendable wish, Captain. So, where are you headed with your ship after this stop, if I may ask?’’

‘’You may, Mister Gerhard. After our stop here, I will head to Callisto, where we are soon due to leave for a year-long mission to go explore the dwarf planet Eris and install a scientific base there.’’

‘’One year in deep Space!’’ exclaimed the brothel’s owner. ‘’That is a very long time away from everything else, Captain.’’

‘’Indeed, Mister Gerhard, but the ultimate payoffs for Humanity could be huge, starting with the possible extra resources in hydrocarbons we are expecting to find on Eris. It will also give us an astronomical observatory further from the Sun than anything else we have. Overall, it will be a space expedition which history will remember.’’ Tina said the last sentence with passion, her eyes gleaming. Gerhard nodded at that, understanding her feelings about such a mission. His own dreams were however quite different from hers and mostly involved things not discussed in polite company.

‘’I hope that your mission to Eris will go well, Captain Forster. Well, I will now leave you in the good hands of Major Koniev, who will give you in turn a tour of my facilities. I hope that you will find something to your taste here.’’

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‘’I already have, Mister Gerhard.’’ replied Tina, smiling, while pressing Michel Koniev’s hand, attracting an approving nod from the brothel owner.

‘’Then, have fun, both of you.’’

‘’Thank you, sir.’’ said Koniev before Gerhard turned around and walked away with his aides, leaving Tina alone with the Hygiean security officer. Both smiled to each other, with Michel then speaking first.

‘’Do you wish to change out of your ship’s outfit before we start our tour?’’

‘’Naah! I just came on duty barely two hours ago. As for personal items, if I need any during the tour, I figure that I will be able to buy them in this place.’’

‘’Correct! This place is meant after all to make money, lots of money, as much by selling things as by offering all kinds of services. As long as you have money, you will not be short of anything here. Shall we start the tour, then?’’

‘’I’m now in your capable hands, Michel. Lead the way.’’

Walking hand in hand down the 250 meters of the Kostroma’s port access tunnel, which extended to just past the outer rim of the Bow Gravity Sail saucer and was lined up on both sides by small trees and bushes, the couple passed the opened armored doors of the outer airlock, to then enter the access tube of the docking tower, which was only a hundred meter long. Tina smiled on seeing the message on the giant display board fixed above the reception rotunda of the docking tower: it already announced a thirty percent discount on all products and services for the crewmembers of the KOSTROMA and their family members.

‘’Your boss was quick to implement his promise, Michel.’’

‘’Oh, you will find him to be a very efficient man. He also is very good at understanding the psychology of his fellow humans, especially when it concerns their fantasies and perversions.’’

Presenting themselves at one of the reception counters, Michel had Tina register as a visitor before leading her into a waiting elevator cabin, punching a level number and making the cabin accelerate downward. He use the fairly brief trip to give her a few tips.

‘’Since this place caters to the secret fantasies and perversions of its visitors and guests, the right to privacy and anonymity is actually taken very seriously here. No photographic, video or audio recording equipment or device is normally allowed inside the brothel, even wrist videophones with embedded cameras. You were allowed to keep your own wrist videophone only because I am escorting you around.’’

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‘’But, if someone needs to contact you, how do you get in touch without a wrist videophone?’’

‘’The reception desk we went through would normally have given you temporarily an audio only wrist phone in exchange for your videophone. The big fear of many customers of this space brothel is to be seen in, uh, embarrassing or incriminating situations or company and to have their pictures shown in the medias by reporters from scandal sheets. We also are concerned with individuals who would try to record spicy scenes in order to produce their own pornographic videos and then sell them. We have quite a long black list of banned reporters, cheats, preachers and other troublemakers, who are turned away as soon as they are identified at our reception points.’’

‘’Preachers? As in damnation in Hell and penance from sin? Such fossils still exist?’’

‘’Oh yes, Tina! Some of them are also first class hypocrites. One such preacher was recognized and caught a few months ago, after he had tried to entice an apparent minor to his cabin.’’

Tina rolled her eyes before she caught on the choice of words by Michel.

‘’Wait! An apparent minor? What do you mean by that?’’ A devilish smile appeared on Michel’s face at that question.

‘’It actually is one of the more brilliant ideas from Mister Gerhard himself. Despite all that happens here, there are limits to what is allowed, like no sex with minors or coercive or truly violent sex. In order to catch pedophiles, Mister Gerhard had the idea of using young security officers who look seriously underage as baits. The pedophile preacher concerned here had brought a female undercover officer to his cabin, even though she had told him she was only fourteen. The old bastard was 62 years old, by the way.’’

‘’The old fart! What did you do with him afterwards?’’

‘’We kicked him out and put him on the first ship headed back to Earth…after advising his wife, who was still on Earth.’’

Tina shook her head, partly amused and partly incensed.

‘’You must have some interesting times around here, then?’’

‘’Oh yes! However, all security officers serving in this space brothel are sworn to confidentiality about what they see and encounter here. You break the confidentiality of the customers and you end up in very serious shit.’’

‘’So, what kind of perversion are you going to show me, Michel?’’

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Michel looked at her with a big grin.

‘’All of them! I am going to give you the same tour our security agents do to check on possible illegal or prohibited activities inside the various sex rooms.’’

Their cabin soon stopped, with its doors sliding open and revealing a large rotunda with multiple service desks, each positioned besides an adjacent door. Michel led an intrigued Tina to one of the service desks and smiled to the attractive young woman manning the desk.

‘’High, Michelle! I am showing the place to Fleet Captain Forster, of the KOSTROMA.’’

‘’The Victor of Mars? Captain Forster, it is a true honor to meet you.’’ Tina shook hands with the receptionist, not a little flattered.

‘’Thank you! Decidedly, I am better known around than I suspected.’’

‘’But, you deserve to be known, along with your ship, Captain Forster. So, what would you like to see or experiment?’’

‘’Uh, I’m only touring the facility for the moment. Michel is guiding me.’’

‘’We are going to use the security walkway.’’ said Koniev, making the receptionist nod in understanding before punching a button on her control board. Tina then saw a screen facing her and Michel and fixed to the front of the desk at an angle light up, showing numerous color rectangles with words in them. Those words in turn described about every sexual fantasy, orientation or perversion one could think of. A small baffle built around the display prevented other persons from seeing what rectangle Michel touched and activated. A door adjacent to the desk then opened, revealing an elevator cabin in which Michel led Tina by the hand. He explained what was happening as the door of the cabin closed.

‘’To ensure total confidentiality and to prevent others from knowing what part of the facilities you visit, these service desks offer you a discreet choice of sexual services or experiences, then you take an elevator that goes down to the level of the chosen service or activity type. This way, you meet the absolute minimum of other guests while enjoying the facilities of this space brothel. Normally, you would have to pay in advance at the service desk for what you choose but, since I am escorting you around as a visitor, you get the tour for free. If you see something that you like, just tell me.’’

‘’Why, thank you! That’s quite generous from your boss.’’

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After a very short trip, the cabin stopped and opened, letting them step in a long, curved corridor that extended out of sight in both directions.

‘’We are now in the security walkway loop, which runs just above the corridors and rooms used by the customers and other employees of the brothel. From the loop, my guards can watch for any unauthorized activity in the various sex rooms and, if need be, get to them quickly. If you will follow me, Tina.’’

Going left along the curved corridor, Michel led Tina to a sort of small viewing cabin opening on the inside wall of the walkway loop. The angled windows of the cabin gave an excellent overhead view of a large padded room with chains, manacles, torture racks and other sinister instruments. A bit taken aback at once by that, Tina then saw a masked matron busy flogging a man attached to an ‘X’ frame. The matron wore a leather outfit that let her big breasts exposed and hanging out, while the man wore a leather mask and steel-spiked collar…and nothing else. Tina quickly noticed that the whip used by the matron, who was targeting the erect penis of the man with obvious relish, was a rather inoffensive one made of a light and flexible material. Michel then explained to her what they were looking at.

‘’This is one of our S&M play rooms. A female customer is playing out a personal fantasy with one of our employees. Don’t worry about him: that whip won’t harm him one bit, even though he is faking pain for the benefit of the customer’s enjoyment. When she will have aroused herself enough, that customer will then use our employee to satisfy herself. Believe it or not, but those kind of tastes are quite a lot more common than you would think.’’

‘’I see! I must say that your male employee is quite well endowed in terms of, uh, personal equipment.’’

That remark made Michel smile before he looked at Tina.

‘’Our sex workers are chosen for both their physical attributes and for their open mindedness. They are however not forced to do things that they don’t want to do: we have enough sex workers to cover about any customer taste imaginable. Apart from S&M, customers can choose straight sex, bisexual sex, lesbian or homosexual sex, erotic massages, group orgies, mechanical sex, sex in zero-gravity and many more types of activities and experiences.’’

Starting to warm up to his game, Tina smiled to the tall and handsome Michel.

‘’And what kind of sexual fantasy would you like to experiment with me, Michel?’’ Michel grinned in turn at that question.

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‘’I thought that you would never ask.’’

Much later, Tina blew air out as she stepped out of an elevator cabin with Michel and entered the lobby of a large restaurant.

‘’Wow! That erotic massage session with you and three naked masseuses was something to remember. I understand now why asteroid miners are ready to blow away six months of pay in visits to this space brothel. Your boss must make a fortune with this place. How many people do you get here on average?’’

‘’We receive on average over 3,000 visitors per day at the ZERO-G HEAVEN. Mister Gerhard is very proud of this place: it is truly unique in the Solar System. Apart from offering sexual services, it also has a collection of top quality restaurants, hotels and boutiques of all kinds. The spices you just sold us won’t take long before being used in our various restaurants. If you’re not really hungry yet, we always could go have a few drinks at the…’’

An urgent tonality from his radio earpiece then interrupted him, making Michel stop in the middle of the lobby.

‘’Major Koniev?’’

The voice of the shift supervisor at the space traffic control center of the asteroid then came on line, sounding clearly worried.

‘’Major Koniev, this is Captain Semianov, at space traffic control. We have an unidentified ship boring on our asteroid at high speed. Its radio and radar beacons are off and it is refusing to answer us. Instead of decelerating to dock with us, it has just started accelerating under fusion rocket power and is heading straight for us.’’

‘’Is he nuts? He will be vaporized if he impacts this asteroid. How big is that ship?’’

‘’From its radar signature, it appears to be a heavy ore carrier, Major. If it indeed collides with us, the whole asteroid will probably fracture and may even fly into pieces.’’ Michel fell silent for a second as he mentally pictured the results of such a collision, while Tina looked at him with worry showing on her face.

‘’What is happening, Michel?’’

‘’A large, unidentified ship is accelerating directly towards this asteroid and is not answering calls to slow down.’’ answered Michel before activating his microphone again. ‘’Continue trying to hail him, Semianov. In the meantime, sound the general alert and have everybody go don emergency spacesuits. I’m on my way!’’

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When he was finished speaking and turned around to face Tina, he found her speaking in her wrist videophone.

‘’…and effect an emergency breakaway procedure. Intercept that incoming ship and, if it still refuses to change course, destroy its engines with laser beams and then tow it off course with our tractor beams… Don’t wait for me, Dana: time is short. Good luck!’’

‘’You are sending your KOSTROMA after that ship?’’ asked Michel when Tina was finished, making her nod her head.

‘’Yes! If that ship is as big as I think it is, then only a multi-megaton ship like my KOSTROMA will have the mass and power to drag it off course in time to avoid a collision with this asteroid. Let’s go to your space traffic control center.’’ As they ran back into the elevator cabin they had just exited, a sinister alarm horn started sounding off, accompanied by a verbal message delivered in a firm, urgent tone.

‘’ATTENTION, ATTENTION! EVERYONE IS TO IMMEDIATELY DON AN EMERGENCY SPACESUIT AND ASSEMBLE AT THE NEAREST EVACUATION STATION. I SAY AGAIN, EVERYONE IS TO IMMEDIATELY DON AN EMERGENCY SPACESUIT AND ASSEMBLE AT THE NEAREST EVACUATION STATION. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.’’

15:43 (Universal Time)

Bridge of the A.M.S. KOSTROMA

‘’All our airlock doors are now closed and secured, Dana. The docking tower’s airlocks are also closed and secured.’’

‘’Then release our docking clamps! Frida, fly us out on gravity sails and head on an intercept course for that unidentified ship.’’

Dana Durning, the ship’s chief navigator and unofficial first officer, now sitting in the command chair on the bridge, next punched the ship’s intercom button.

‘’BATTLE STATIONS! BATTLE STATIONS! All support personnel and passengers are to don emergency spacesuits and wait in their quarters. Engineering, be ready to light up our main fusion drive.’’

Dana then looked at Anwar Duharto, one of the bridge sensors specialists.

‘’Anwar, do you have that ship on our sensors?’’

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‘’It just entered the edge of our long range sensors’ coverage, but I am receiving as well the picture from the asteroid’s sensors, which have a much longer range than ours. We have enough data to plot an intercept course.’’

‘’Excellent! Do we have yet a tentative identification on that approaching ship?’’

‘’From the fusion drive flare signature and apparent size of the ship, I would say that it is probably a KLONDIKE-Class ore carrier, with a maximum loaded mass of about three million tons. Let me just check with the local space traffic logs to see if I can identify it further.’’

After about a minute, and as Frida Skarsgard was backing the KOSTROMA away from the asteroid, Duharto spoke again to Dana.

‘’According to the most recent traffic logs, the only KLONDIKE-Class ore carrier present in this sector is the M.S.S. YUKON, a North American Union registered ship that was supposed to be on its way to the Jovian System, coming from the Earth.’’

‘’The Jovian System? That ship is way off course! This can’t be a simple navigation error or a computer malfunction, especially since they are now accelerating instead of decelerating.’’

The first pilot of the KOSTROMA, Frida Skarsgard, gave a concerned look to Dana.

‘’Maybe the crew doesn’t have control of its ship anymore, Dana?’’

‘’What do you mean, Frida?’’

‘’That it may have been hijacked. Since it is accelerating towards the ZERO-G HEAVEN, my bet is that whoever is in control of the YUKON wants to ram the asteroid and destroy it. We may be looking at a terrorist attack, and a possible suicide attack at that.’’

‘’Damn! Anwar, advise the ZERO-G HEAVEN of our suspicions. In the meantime, I will calculate an optimum intercept course.’’

‘’I’m on it, Dana!’’

In the space traffic control center of the asteroid, Michel Koniev, who had just arrived with Tina Forster, heard the message from the KOSTROMA and paled.

‘’My God! If that ship does collide with us, this asteroid will burst into pieces. We presently have over 5,000 persons in our facilities. Tina, do you think that your ship will be in time to deviate that ship from its collision course?’’

‘’I believe so, but then someone will still have to board that ship, to make sure that it doesn’t attack again.’’

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Michel nodded his head, his mind quickly formulating a plan of action. He then spoke on the radio frequency used by the security forces of the asteroid.

‘’First Intervention Squad, this is Major Koniev. Prepare at once for a Space assault mission and meet me at the interceptors’ hangar. I want the crew of Interceptor Number Four to prepare as well for a space mission. Time is short, so make it fast!’’

‘’Can I come with you, Michel?’’ asked Tina as Michel started running towards the nearest elevator. Michel simply twisted his head while continuing to run.

‘’No! You will be more useful here. Monitor the situation from here and keep liaison with your ship.’’

He then ran into an elevator cabin, leaving Tina alone with the four technicians manning the space traffic control center. A short elevator ride to two levels below brought him to the security division of the space brothel, where he exited the elevator and ran to the male locker room, where his spacesuit and weapons were stored. On entering the locker room, he found the leader of the First Intervention Squad, Sergeant Stefans Kaltigins, already suiting up for space, along with Troopers Karl Suomin and Gregor Warchawski. Kaltigins, whose locker was in the same row as that of Michel Koniev, gave him a questioning look while slipping in his inner spacesuit garment.

‘’What’s up, Major?’’

‘’We have an ore carrier that is rushing at our asteroid and is not answering calls. This is to be treated as a terrorist ship hijacking and, possibly, as a suicide ramming attack. The KOSTROMA is already on its way to intercept that ship and will do its best to deviate it from its collision course. Our job will be to board that ship once it is captured by the KOSTROMA and to either capture or kill the hijackers.’’ Kaltigins, a veteran of the fighting on Mars and Earth during the war against the now-defunct Terran Federation, nodded his head and continued to hurriedly don his spacesuit as Michel opened his own locker and started to undress. Once completely naked, save for his socks and T-shirt, Michel first fitted a urinary tube to his penis, then put on an adult diaper, carefully routing the urinary tube so that its end stuck out of the top edge of the diaper. That procedure, while a bit embarrassing for many, was still essential if one didn’t want to swim in his own urine and excrement inside his spacesuit after a few hours. The procedure was actually a bit more delicate for females and necessitated a different type of urethra adapter. Next on was his inner spacesuit garment, a skin hugging two-piece coverall to which were incorporated thermal body sensors, heating electrical resistances and water circulation tubes meant to warm or cool

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various parts of the body as needed. Michel then put on the soft helmet that was to keep his head to the correct temperature and that also incorporated a pair of radio earpieces, a throat microphone and a remote vision visor linked to miniature multi-spectral cameras. Taking one step to the right, Michel faced his pressurized spacesuit shell, covered by a layer of tough, rip and puncture-resistant fabric that provided the suit with thermal and anti-radiation protection. The spacesuit was stored inside a large separate locker, its back facing the door and bent over support bars. Opening the large back access hatch of the suit, which supported the life support systems backpack, Michel grabbed an overhead bar inside the locker and, bending his knees, slipped feet first inside the spacesuit. Still keeping his torso and head out of the spacesuit shell, he quickly connected his urinary tube and inner garment electrical and water tube connectors to the appropriate ports inside the pressurized shell, then slipped his arms inside the suit’s sleeves and entered his torso and head in the hard shell of the suit. The transparent helmet of the suit was large and of the fixed type, leaving his head free to twist inside to look around. The last step to putting on his spacesuit was to walk out of the suit locker and lean back against a wall, closing the rear access hatch with an audible click. While the whole procedure sounded involved and complicated, it actually took less than three minutes to complete it for experienced spacers, a huge improvement over the first bulky spacesuits of the 20th Century. The hard shell allowed the suit to function with standard air at normal atmospheric pressure, eliminating the need for long pressurization and depressurization periods meant to prevent air embolisms in suits using reduced atmospheric pressure. After double-checking that his back hatch was secured and his suit systems were functioning, Michel opened the valve that allowed him to use the ambient air in the room, then quickly armed himself with a 6mm recoilless rifle, a recoilless pistol and a stun pistol, plus extra ammunition and an assortment of grenades. His recoilless rifle, like his recoilless pistol, used bullets which were in essence small rockets, with the hot gas from their solid rocket motors venting out through a fork-like shoulder butt. The felt recoil was nearly nil, allowing firing in zero gravity conditions without the shooter ending spinning wildly after each shot. The problem of aiming while inside a suit with a large helmet was solved by using an electro-optical sight attached to the rifle and connecting that sight via a wire to the remote vision visor of the spacesuit’s inner soft helmet. A laser dot sight fixed to the rifle also helped in quickly aiming it in close combat situations.

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Now ready for his space mission, Michel eyed how his intervention squad fared in equipping themselves. The fourteen male members of the squad were now all inside their spacesuits and were also armed or in the process of arming themselves. Corporal Masha Goriunov, the combat paramedic attached to the squad, was also present and fully ready, having come from the female locker room.

‘’Is Trooper Litvyak about to be ready, Corporal Goriunov?’’

‘’Yes, Major! She is in her suit and is doing a final check on her electronic equipment.’’

Just then, the attractive blonde computer hacker specialist came in the male locker room, carrying an electronic equipment bag on top of her weapons.

‘’Trooper Litvyak present and ready, sir!’’

‘’Excellent! Let’s go to the interceptors’ hangars, then.’’

Followed by the sixteen members of the intervention squad, Michel went through one of the doors of the locker room and crossed a hallway, opening a large door and entering a small room that contained two large sleds, each sitting on a set of magnetic levitation rails. The sleds were reserved for the sole use of security personnel, while the rails entered a tunnel that led to the craft and interceptors’ hangars complex. Using both of the sleds, Michel and his squad got within seconds to the interceptors’ hangar, where they found the five crewmembers of Interceptor Number Four already inside their armed craft. Michel gave an order by radio as he was boarding the interceptor.

‘’Okay, people, let’s get this show on the road: time is short!’’

On the bridge of the KOSTROMA, now rushing in space on gravity sail power, Dana Durning glanced nervously at the large sensors display sphere situated on the lower platform of the bridge complex. They were going to be able to intercept the M.S.S. YUKON in time, but there would be no room for errors.

‘’Mister Duharto, have our laser battery ready to fire on my command. Patricia, I want our tractor beams slapped on that ore carrier the moment that we are alongside, so that we can start pulling it off course without delay. Ingrid, are we getting any response from the YUKON?’’

‘’Nothing, Dana! These guys are as silent as a fish.’’

‘’There is however somebody at the helm of that ship, Dana.’’ said Patricia O’Neil. ‘’The YUKON just did a slight trajectory correction in order to line up precisely on the ZERO-G HEAVEN. If left on autopilot, the ship’s computer would have automatically

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forced the ship away from the asteroid. I wouldn’t be surprised actually if the YUKON’s main computer has been switched off, in order to prevent it from foiling this ramming attack. My bet is that we are dealing here with terrorists on a suicide mission.’’

‘’I think that you are right about that, Patricia. Advise the ZERO-G HEAVEN’s space control center of this and also download to them the basic schematics of the KLONDIKE-Class ore carriers, so that the Hygiean boarding team can find its way inside that big sucker.’’

Dana didn’t have to speculate much in order to figure out who could launch such a murderous, senseless attack. The Southern Federation, and particularly the African Union, was still bitter at having lost the war against the Northern Alliance and the Spacers League, a war that the Southern Federation itself had started following the military coup by Zembelo and his ISF goons against the Terran government of Chief Administrator Lee, who had been killed in his own home by ISF troopers. The Spacers League’s asteroid strike that had destroyed the city of Lagos, along with the secret ISF laboratory producing chemical weapons meant to poison the Spacers’ space habitats, had created intense resentment against the Spacers among the populations of Africa, which was still run, or rather mismanaged, by ex-associates of Zembelo. While the war had been over for nearly two years now, the reality was more like a tense armistice than a real peace, with extremist groups in Africa and South Asia vowing revenge on the Spacers League and the Northern Alliance. That de-facto continued hostility from the South had forced the Northern Alliance into placing strict limitations on commerce and people traffic from Africa and South Asia, while the Spacers League had effectively blockaded any spaceships from landing or taking off from those two regions. As a result, the economies of Africa and South Asia were in a death spiral, while their still unrestrained population growth was causing increasingly severe food shortages and mass misery. Unfortunately, the political leaders of those two regions used that misery and famine to build up popular hatred against the Northern Alliance and the Spacers League, blaming them for the population’s hardships while hiding their own mismanagement and corruption. At the present rate, something was liable to blow out of control in the coming years. An announcement from Ingrid Holtz then took Dana out of her dark thoughts.

‘’Dana, I have one interceptor craft with an assault boarding party on approach to the YUKON.’’

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‘’Good! Anwar, are we close enough for precision laser shots against the fusion drive of the YUKON?’’

‘’Yes, we are, Dana.’’

‘’Then, fire when ready. Target only the fusion exhaust nozzle section.’’

‘’Firing now!’’

A blue-green, forty-centimeter-thick 240 megawatt laser beam stabbed through the void of space, hitting the fusion exhaust nozzle of the M.S.S. YUKON in an explosion of sparks. Its magnetic plasma containment field compromised, the integrated computer controlling the fusion engine drive of the ore carrier automatically shut off the fusion process before the super-hot plasma could melt critical parts. The sudden loss of propulsion power was like a cold shower for the five men and women occupying the bridge of the ore carrier. The thin black man sitting in the captain’s chair swore loudly before looking at the woman, also an African, who was sitting at the sensors station.

‘’Zamina, go active on the sensors: find out who shot at us.’’ The ex-ISF sensors specialist’s fingers danced on her station’s controls as she switched from passive to active sensors mode. What her instruments told her made her swear loudly after a few seconds.

‘’A huge ship is approaching us from our port flank, Sese. SHIT, THAT’S THE KOSTROMA! A small craft is also approaching from the same sector.’’

‘’THE KOSTROMA, HERE?’’ Raged the terrorist leader, feeling instant hate and bitterness fill him on hearing that cursed name. The KOSTROMA had been rightly considered as the nemesis of the defunct Earth Federation and the chief culprit in the fall of the Zembelo regime. It had cut to pieces the Terran fleets sent to both Mars and Callisto, in the Jovian system, then had destroyed the main ISF bases and headquarters on Earth. To encounter it here, where they had expected no serious opposition to their suicide mission, was a huge blow to their plans.

‘’Nelson, can we still get to the asteroid on gravity sail power before the KOSTROMA gets close enough to us to use its tractor beams?’’

‘’Not a chance, Sese!’’ answered at once the black man occupying the engineering control station. ‘’This ore carrier’s gravity sails are meant only for orbital maneuvering and docking, not for true space propulsion.’’ The head terrorist chewed on that answer for a few seconds. With their ship’s main drive knocked out and with the weakness of their gravity sail propulsion, the

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KOSTROMA would easily be able to pull them off course from their collision trajectory once it got close enough to slap tractor beams on the ore carrier, thus turning their mission into a failure. However, there was no way that he would ever surrender to those Spacers.

‘’Very well. Abandon your work stations and grab your rifles, all of you! Let’s make those bastards pay when they will board this ship.’’

‘’Major, the KOSTROMA has now grabbed the YUKON with its tractor beams and has started to pull it off its collision course.’’

Michel Koniev blew air in relief at that announcement from the sensors operator of their interceptor: whatever happened next, at least the ZERO-G HEAVEN was not in danger anymore of being pulverized, along with its 5,000 occupants. The job was however far from finished.

‘’Good! Lieutenant Yuvchenko, get us close to the aft emergency personnel airlock of the YUKON, so that we could jump to the ore carrier.’’

‘’Understood, Major!’’

Michel next looked at his sixteen security troopers, all still in their space suits and firmly strapped in their seats in the troop compartment of the interceptor.

‘’Listen up, people! We will soon jump and set foot on the target near its aft emergency airlock, which can be opened manually from the outside. Hopefully, the bastards who seized that ship didn’t jam or block the doors of that airlock. Once inside, we will make our way cautiously to the bridge and the engine room, but keep your eyes peeled for booby traps and demolition charges. You all have now in the memory of your tactical viewers the schematics of this ship’s class. Study them during the time it will take to close in on the target, with particular attention to the path between the aft emergency airlock and the bridge and engine room. Once inside, Corporal Terlecki will lead Fire Team Bravo and Trooper Litvyak, our computer hacker, towards the engine room, where he will power down the YUKON’s gravity sails propulsion. Me and Sergeant Kaltigins will make our way with Fire Team Alpha and our remaining support specialists towards the bridge. If we can capture alive one or more hijackers for interrogation, the better, but don’t risk any of us for that. Since they were on a suicide mission, I am not expecting anyway for any of those hijackers to surrender. Questions?’’

‘’Sir, what about the original crew of that ship?’’ asked Trooper Kardayev, a wiry, tough young man. Michel made a disillusioned expression at that.

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‘’As much as I hate to say this, I don’t expect to find any of the original crewmembers to be still alive. They were probably murdered after the hijackers seized their ship. Let us concentrate on taking back control of that ship. Once that is done, we will do a detailed search of the ship. Now, do a last check of your equipment and suits.’’

Fourteen minutes later, as the ore carrier’s bulk filled the external viewer’s screen in the troop compartment, Michel heard the voice of the pilot, Lieutenant Yuri Yuvchenko, in his radio headset.

‘’We are now stationary along the hull of the M.S.S. YUKON, less than fifteen meters from the aft emergency airlock, Major. You may jump ship now.’’

‘’Acknowledged!’’ said Michel before getting up from his seat, his recoilless rifle in hand. ‘’EVERYBODY UP! GET READY TO JUMP TO THE YUKON!’’ Taking the lead, Michel got close to the control pad of the airlock. He then

depressurized both the airlock and the troop compartment, which was designed to allow that without compromising the whole interceptor’s atmosphere, so that mass assaults could be launched quickly. Opening the armored external door, Michel saw the outer hull surface of the YUKON facing him, with the target airlock door in direct sight of him. Activating his suit’s gravity propulsion unit, he flew out towards the ore carrier’s airlock door, his rifle at the ready.

‘’FOLLOW ME!’’

The seventeen Hygiean Security Force men and women emerged one by one in quick succession from the hovering interceptor and flew quickly to the hull of the ore carrier, where their magnetic boots allowed them to stand on its surface around the emergency airlock door. Tense as a loaded spring, Michel examined briefly the manual opening mechanism and saw no apparent trap. If there were any, they were probably inside, out of his sight. Praying that nothing would blow in his face, Michel firmly pushed on the manual opening handle, engaging its gear mechanism, then started turning the wheel. To his relief, the outer airlock door started sliding open at once. Once the door was opened wide enough for him to have a look inside, Sergeant Stefans Kaltigins stuck his head inside to quickly inspect the airlock.

‘’I see nothing suspect, Major.’’

‘’Good! Get in once the door is opened enough, then initiate the normal electronic command sequence to cycle through the airlock and get inside the ship. If no

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booby trap blows in our face by then, we will then cycle through the rest of the squad by groups of five.’’

‘’Understood, Major.’’ replied Kaltigins in a calm voice, despite the fact that he was basically going to serve as the guinea pig for the rest of the squad, to find out if the airlock had been rigged with explosives or not. The NCO soon was able to enter the airlock, at which time Michel disengaged the manual opening handle to let Kaltigins use the normal controls inside. The outer door slid back closed and there were a few tense seconds of waiting for Michel and his troopers before the voice of Kaltigins came on the radio.

‘’I’m now inside, Major. There are no visible booby traps in or near the airlock: it is safe to use the controls of the airlock in my opinion.’’

‘’I copy that!’’ said Michel on the radio. ‘’Dikstra, Morosov, Titov and Litvyak, follow me!’’

His heart beating at an accelerated pace, Michel pushed the ‘open’ button of the outer door, making the steel panel slide out of the way, and jumped inside, followed closely by four troopers. He then closed again the outer door and hit the ‘pressurize’ button. The hiss of air filling the airlock went on for maybe six seconds before the indicator light of the airlock turned to green, showing that it was now safe to open the inner door. Activating that door, Michel found Kaltigins crouched with his back to him, covering the corridor beyond the airlock with his recoilless rifle. Entering the ship quickly, he then hugged one wall to let the four troopers behind deploy out of the airlock. Calling next a second group inside, Michel made his whole squad enter in less than two minutes. He got a radio message from the interceptor as he was about to move further inside.

‘’Interceptor to assault team: the KOSTROMA has safely pulled the YUKON away from the asteroid. You can now proceed at your own leisure.’’

‘’Excellent! Stay vigilant, in case the hijackers try to flee in a shuttle. Out for the moment! Corporal Terlecki, make your way to the engine room with your team. The rest, follow me towards the bridge. We will avoid using the elevators for the moment.’’

Letting Terlecki and his five troopers go towards the nearby engine room, Michel went to the nearest staircase tube, entering it and then using his gravity drive unit to fly up towards the bridge level, more than 700 meters above. He had to negotiate in succession six partition airlocks, which were designed to avoid a single air leak from compromising the whole communications tube. Michel however became increasingly

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cautious as he approached the last partition airlock before the bridge level: if the hijackers had prepared booby traps, this was one obvious place to put one.

‘’Corporal Dikstra, check that partition door for booby traps or alarms.’’

‘’Yes sir!’’ answered the demolitions specialist before moving past Michel to examine the partition door. Dikstra used a multispectral scanner before touching anything, soon getting a picture in the Gamma spectrum that made him swear quietly.

‘’Tchiort3! I can see wires connected to the door handle on the other side, with the wires leading to what seems to be a couple of blocks of plastic explosives. I can’t do a thing from this side, Major.’’

‘’Damn! Then, let’s go back to the previous level and see if that way is safe.’’

Leading his ten troopers, Michel backtracked one level down, leaving the communication tube and stepping in what was the crew’s mess deck, according to his digital plan of the YUKON. Advancing cautiously towards the entrance to the staircase leading to the bridge level, he again had Corporal Dikstra check it first for booby traps and alarms. He swore quietly when Dikstra again found an explosive charge rigged on the opposite side of the airtight door at the top of the staircase.

‘’Damn! Those bastards must have booby-trapped every access point to the bridge level. Even if we remotely trigger this charge from a safe distance, the collateral damage may open this deck to space and decompress a sizeable portion of the ship. If the original ship’s crew is still alive somewhere, that could kill them.’’ Sergeant Kaltigins gave him a sober look at those words.

‘’I don’t want to be a pessimist, sir, but I doubt that those bastards kept the crew alive after capturing the ship, unless they intended to use them as human shields.’’

‘’You may be right, Sergeant, but I still am not ready to cause significant damage to this ship until we know for sure what happened to the crew. Have your troopers search this deck for any secondary access point to the bridge deck, but tell them to let Corporal Dikstra first check anything they will find for booby traps.’’

‘’Understood, sir.’’

 

3 Tchiort: The Devil in Russian.

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Dispersing his squad in pairs, Kaltigins then left Michel near the entrance to the staircase. The latter had to wait only four minutes before he got a radio report from the veteran NCO.

‘’Sir, we found the ship’s crew in the cold storage room of the galley: they are all dead.’’

Controlling his sudden surge of anger, Michel acknowledged the call and quickly walked to the galley, joining Kaltigins at the opened door of the cold storage room. His first look inside made him swear again.

‘’The fucking bastards!’’

Piled three-deep on the floor of the storage room were dozens of bodies soaked with blood. Michel then noticed in the pile the little bodies of two young children, a toddler girl and a preteen boy, who had also been shot dead. As he fought to control his mounting rage, he also noticed that a few of the dead, all of them young women, were either naked or half undressed, lying on top of the other crewmembers. Sergeant Kaltigins spoke up, disgust in his voice.

‘’Those pieces of shit apparently took the time to rape the prettiest women onboard before killing them, sir. What are your orders, sir?’’

‘’We still look for an unguarded access point to the bridge, Sergeant. I want as much as possible to take alive at least one of these bastards, so that we can later make him say who sent them on this suicide mission. Have half of your troopers ready their stun guns when we break into the bridge.’’

‘’Got it, sir.’’

The searching then resumed. Ten minutes later, a call from Kaltigins made Michel join him near the access grill of a ventilation shaft running up and down the long axis of the ship. The grill had already been unscrewed by Kaltigins and was lying on the deck.

‘’Sir, this ventilation shaft runs up through the bridge deck, with most probably one or more ventilation openings there. I am ready to go explore it to see if we could use it to infiltrate the bridge section.’’

‘’Go for it, but be careful: it could also be booby-trapped.’’ Kaltigins smiled at that remark.

‘’Don’t worry about me, Major. My wife Mara is expecting me for supper: she would kill me if I missed her beef stroganoff.’’

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Michel briefly laughed at that, then patted the shoulder of the NCO’s spacesuit.

‘’Then good luck, Sergeant. I will have the squad ready to follow you if you find a clear way to the bridge.’’

Kaltigins nodded his head, then activated his suit’s anti-gravity drive and entered the ventilation shaft before floating upwards. The shaft was quite large, with a section area of at least two square meters, allowing the sergeant to move quite quickly. He still kept vigilant, looking for any trip wire or infrared detection beam with the help of his helmet’s thermal and light intensification cameras, whose images were relayed to his goggles. He was arriving close to a ventilation grill that must be opening at bridge level when his eyes caught a very thin, nearly invisible wire strung across the ventilation shaft. Slowing down at once, he grabbed a wall stiffener and pulled himself to a stop just short of the trip wire to examine it, his heart accelerating: one false move here and he would probably be blown to bits. Checking both ends of the wire, he effectively found a grenade that had been taped to the shaft’s inner wall, at the corner of two stiffeners, with the trip wire attached to the safety pin. If he would have caught the trip wire, that would have pulled away the safety pin, priming the grenade and making the arming handle fly off. In the confines of the ventilation shaft, he would have had no chance to survive the subsequent explosion. Carefully examining the grenade for any anti-lifting device or second booby trap, Kaltigins found none and let out a breath of relief. It was child’s play then to simply cut the trip wire while holding the safety pin in place. Once secured, he pocketed the grenade and cautiously looked through the holes of the ventilation grill. His heart jumped in his chest when he saw that he now had a direct view inside the bridge itself. After a good look inside the bridge, he lowered himself and activated his helmet radio.

‘’Major, this is Kaltigins. I have found a ventilation trap that gives directly into the bridge proper. I had to disarm a booby-trapped grenade first but the way is now safe. I could count five terrorists inside the bridge: four men and one woman. They are all presently watching the two access doors of the bridge and are armed with assault rifles, over.’’

‘’Great job, Sergeant! We are on our way to join you.’’

Less than two minutes later, the bulky shape of Michel Koniev in his spacesuit joined him just below the ventilation trap. Michel took the time to sneak a peek through the trap first, then looked at his troopers, all lined up single file down the shaft.

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‘’Okay, this is the plan: Sergeant Kaltigins will go first and crash through the ventilation grill, his stun gun at the ready. He will then take down at least one of the terrorists for later interrogation while we cover him from the opening with our rifles. Troopers Rizkin and Suomin, you float up past me and take position above me, ready to fire. Troopers Kardayev and Dobrinin, you pull up to each side of the opening and fire at an angle, using buzz saw shooting. Once the targets are all down, we will all jump inside one by one. Move now, but be silent about it!’’

Two minutes of cautious shuffling around inside the ventilation shaft followed as the troopers floated past each other in the restricted space, careful not to make any noise. Michel finally decided that his troopers were now all in proper position and patted Kaltigins’ shoulder.

‘’You can go in when ready, Sergeant.’’

Taking a deep breath first to calm down, the NCO, bent into a crouch against the wall opposite the grill, rammed it with both feet, making it fly off while he jumped inside, his stun pistol at the ready. By sheer luck, the flying ventilation grill struck the nearest terrorist, a black woman, on the side of her head, knocking her to the ground. Kaltigins then chose her as his target, as she was likely to be less resistant to the impact and electrical discharge of his stun projectile compared to the four male terrorist, who were all much bigger than her. The rubber head of the 30mm projectile hit the woman’s ribs at a velocity of sixty meters per second, expanding to a diameter of eighty millimeters on impact while delivering at the same time a 90,000 volt jolt. The assault rifle of the woman flew out of her hands as she was projected to the deck, convulsing from the electrical discharge. At the same time, Koniev’s four troopers opened fire with their recoilless rifles, downing the other four terrorists in a hail of automatic fire before they could reply. The Hygiean troopers then jumped one after the other inside the bridge, led by Koniev, and checked at once the downed terrorists.

‘’Sir, this one is wounded seriously but alive!’’ Shouted Trooper Suomin to Michel.

‘’Make sure that he is fully disarmed, then tie him up before providing first aid. If we could keep him alive for interrogation, the better. Sergeant Kaltigins, how is your prisoner?’’

‘’Stunned and in pain but otherwise intact, Major. I have already handcuffed and disarmed her.’’

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‘’Excellent! Corporal Dikstra, start disarming the booby traps placed at the access doors.’’

‘’Right away, sir!’’

As Dikstra went to the main access door to disarm the explosives placed against it, Michel called by radio the interceptor and the ZERO-G HEAVEN operations center via radio.

‘’This is Koniev! We have control of the bridge of the YUKON and have killed three terrorists and captured two others. We will need urgent medical treatment for bullet wounds to one of the prisoners. We found the crew murdered and piled inside the cold storage room of the galley. My troopers will soon start a detailed search of the ship to make sure that no terrorist is still on the run, over.’’

‘’Nice job, Major!’’ replied the voice of John Gacey Gerhard on the radio. ‘’I will send you a second squad to help you search the ship, out.’’ His adrenaline levels starting to come down, Michel gave a quick look at the female terrorist, who was now looking at the troopers with a mix of fear and hatred. The interrogators were not going to play nice with her, but Michel just couldn’t summon even a gram of pity for her right now.