Free Rumors of Salvation (System States Rebellion Book 3) by Dietmar Wehr Page A

said the Pilot. Murphy opened his eyes and
saw that the Pilot was right. He looked at the Pilot who looked back at him.
     
    “It
seems they want us to fly inside,” said Murphy in what he hoped was a calm
voice.
     
    “Sounds
like a good idea to me,” came the less panic-stricken reply.
     
    They’ve had plenty of time to burn us down by now if they
were going to do that. The fucking Empire has finally won. The
bitterness of that realization was hard to swallow. The Pilot was obviously
waiting for instructions. Murphy bowed his head and said in a low voice, “Might
as well fly us in, Lieutenant.”
     
    As
the air-bus flew slowly into the cavernous Hangar Bay, Murphy saw a row of
armed troopers and several unarmed individuals standing in front of them. The
landing area where the vehicle was to set down was lit up with landing lights.
Before Murphy could tell the Pilot to land there, the Pilot said, “I see it,
Commander.”
     
    As
the air-bus landed, Murphy went back into the passenger compartment and told
the others that they might as well accept the fact that they were now Empire
prisoners. The cabin door folded down to provide steps, and before Murphy had a
chance to exit the vehicle, a woman wearing a uniform with the rank insignia of
a Lt. Commander quickly entered the compartment. Her expression threw him off
guard. It seemed to be a mixture of friendliness and relief! The name tag on
her uniform read R. Molitor. She spoke first.
     
    “Commander…Murphy?
Rachel Molitor, Acting CO of the Tigershark. Don’t be alarmed, Commander. This
isn’t what you think, and I’m not going to demand your surrender. I’m here to
talk.” She paused for half a second and then said in a surprisingly desperate
voice, “I…we, need your help.”
     
    An
hour later Murphy was standing in Tigershark’s Sick Bay looking into a
quarantine room where the body of the ship’s former commanding officer was
strapped face down to a medical table. His upper torso was bare, and the
automated examination equipment was scanning the metal device at the back of
the patient’s neck. A screen was showing a computer enhanced image of the
interior of the man’s neck and brain. Red lines were leading from the device
into his brain.
     
    “Those
red lines are extremely thin wires that have been pushed into the sections of
the brain where speech and cognition originate,” said the Chief Medical Officer
standing next to Murphy. “The device is capable of sensing when the host is
doing or saying something it’s not supposed to be doing or saying, and then the
wires give enough of an electrical jolt to cause severe pain. It apparently can
also sense when someone is trying to remove it, and if that happens, it gives
the host a big enough jolt to induce death. We found that out the hard way.”
     
    “My
God, that’s monstrous,” said Murphy in a low voice. He turned to look at
Molitor. “No wonder you didn’t go back. I’d have done the same thing in your
boots.”
     
    Molitor
sighed and shook her head. “Frankly that endorsement doesn’t help much. I still
feel like I’m on the wrong side here. What that damned computer is doing to our
people doesn’t change the fact that Civilization is doomed to centuries of
chaos and anarchy unless there’s a strong central government that’s willing and
able to keep the peace.” She looked at Murphy’s face carefully. “You’re not
convinced of that, are you?” she asked.
     
    “No,
at least not completely. I consider myself a student of history. They taught us
the basics at the Academy, and I’ve continued studying history since
graduation. Empires work for a few generations, and then they break down just
like any other political system. Human Explored Space is just too big to be
controlled from one central point. Regardless of how well-meaning the Emperor
might be, eventually one of his Admirals or Governors will succumb to the
temptation to set up his or her own mini-empire, and