Chapter Thirty Nine - Pilot of the Invictus

The new paradigm.

I am supposed to be the pilot of the Invictus. It is the most impressive defensive ship in space. The official duties of the ship is to protect a mile long cargo ship.

That is not what is happening, really.

This is what is happening;

There's a hail, followed by code words. We make no response, just open the portal to Hangar 12.

And another Sagir flyer pulls in.

Another Sag ship enters our hangar. The Invictus continues on its mission as if nothing has happened.

Ian told me, from the first slide, that the Sags had so tricked the eyes in Hangar 12
it would glom the flyer, but the portal was out of range.

That meant there was no way to know who or how many Sagir were on the flyer or came off the flyer. All eyes and ears that led from the hangar to the rooms the Gennies occupied were knocked.

That means we can't know who was on the Ship or how many of them.

The best that could be done was a heat scan to tell if there were five or three or ten Gennies aboard.

Because I'm curious, because Ian is the definition of curiosity, we had recorded a few of the connects for our own amusement.

We'd watch. We'd count, sometimes it would be off the grid. We could be transporting ten, twenty even fifty Sagir.

More of them, then the Crew of the Invictus.

We knew better than tell Donnie, the Captain. I don't think he wanted to know. I don't think his DNA lets him define himself and what he was being asked to do.

On some occasions we'd connect the Invictus to some Space Port to officially log out one set of Sagir and log on another.

As all of these Superboys were of the Gye clone batch they were identical. It was beyond human comprehension to see them, so many of exactly the same person.

I don't know why the Sagir wanted to do this shuffle. It was out of my mind range, and we marked it to Superboy Stupor.

What annoyed is that we'd be motherducking a cargo ship. A huge cargo ship for which we had responsibility. For which the Invictus was security.

Yet.

Yet, we'd get a request to go to a Space Port and pick up or drop off and it was either leave the Milelong Cargo ship alone for forty minutes, or drag it with us for four days.

Donnie decided leaving the Milelong unguarded to drop off some Gennie we didn't officially have on board was the best choice.

This was crazy.

Then, I finally figured we weren't really security for Milelong Cargo Ships, we were a Gennie taxi service.

Sure, let us all dance and sing about security, but that was the beard. What the 'Vic did was provide a moving garrison for the Sags.

Ian and I played a lot of what if and why if and supposition games, but hardcore we
knew Rhyse was playing us.

She'd played us to take Gye aboard the Presidium that first time so we'd be attacked by Dalmar.

She'd wanted an excuse for Hawking's Corporation to boycott Dalmar.

She might even have had one of her flunkies tell the Dalmar where Gye was, so the Presidium and cargo ship we'd been motherducking could claim 'attack'.

Wasn't an attack.
One Gennie wanted another Gennie.
She invented the attack.

It was no different than the Cops on Savorn stopping a ship to request a wanted man who'd joined the crew to escape the mudball be turned over.

Gye was Wanted.

But Rhyse pretended it was an attack by Dalmar on a Hawking Ship because she wanted to trade with Sagir and boycott Dalmar.

Why?

She got to dump obsolete space wasters on Sagir, pick up their craftsy crud and dump that on Savorn while playing some phylum of politics with the Sags.

Nice of her to give us the 'Vic for safety, but it wasn't us or the Milelong she was
concerned about...it was the Sags.

It was coming to the crunch I was ready to end my contract and leave the Invictus
for a bathtub.