Free Dangerous Evolution by Gregg Vann Page A

reasoned that Woz
might make a revealing move.”
    “Oh Woz revealed itself alright,” I said.
    Del paused, choosing its words carefully again. “Yes. Woz went to
Harrakan Station to remove any witnesses and destroy the evidence; fortunately
we got there first.”
    “Or we would have found a bunch of dead bodies, a burned out
hangar, and no clue as to what really happened.”
    “Indeed,” Del said.
    “How important is this cure, Del? Has the virus infected many Sentients?”
    A long, uncomfortable silence filled the room. So long, in fact, that
I feared Del’s body might have seized up again. Finally, its head turned to the
side to look at me, its powerful metal eyes meeting my fragile organic ones,
“All of us, Commander. We are all infected.”
    I realized then that Del had resigned itself to offering up its deepest
secret.
    “ Every Sentient has the virus, Commander. We are facing
extinction.”
    The implications were staggering, not just for the Sentients who
would disappear from the galaxy, but also for humanity. Many people, some very well
informed at the highest levels of government, believed that the danger posed by
the Sentients was the only thing that kept humanity from going to war again. We
Special Inquisitors agreed.
    If the Sentients were gone, and that entire area of space was suddenly
opened up to humanity, what Sector would claim it? All of them probably. Could
it be equally and equitably divided through consent and cooperation, or would
it be fought over in a conflict that would make the Diaspora War seem like a
minor skirmish?
    No question. It would be war.
    The Sentients needed Val Evans to save them from extinction, and I
needed her to cure them; to stop a devastating war that was certain to occur
after they were gone.   
    I’d been using my pad to record the interrogation, placing it on a
countertop in silent mode so there would be no interruptions. Through the confusion
of thoughts prompted by Del’s startling revelation, I heard the device buzz
across the hard surface—the vibrations causing it to slowly inch toward the
edge of the counter.
    Tearing my shocked face away from Del, I walked over and picked up
the pad before it made its way to the floor. A new message had come in from
Sector headquarters. Using Marie’s DNA, they had cracked the encryption and
forwarded the access code to the tracking device.
    Finally, some good news.
    “I wouldn’t give up just yet, Del,” I said, trying to reassure
both of us at this point. “I think we are about to find out exactly where Val
Evans has been taken.”
    Calling Mendoza back into the room, I directed her to release the
Sentient; an order I had to repeat twice to finally squelch her protests. I
also ordered the doctor to treat Del’s wounds—if he could devise how—and with
Del’s consent of course.   
    As I stepped through the hatch, headed back to the bridge, I heard
Mendoza utter some choice invectives under her breath; I decided to send a
couple more of Stinson’s security guys to the infirmary to make sure things stayed
civil.
    *****
    I brought Stinson up to speed in a quick briefing, describing
Del’s admission about the virus, and Sector’s discovery of the tracker key,
then I directed the pilot to tie the ship’s directional array into my pad. That
would speed up the location results greatly—opposed to my small device trying
to process all the navigational data.
    Once the two systems were synced, I entered the code to Evan’s
personal data-net and logged on. Calling up the main menu, I located the
tracker program—fittingly placed under the security settings—then opened up the
submenu and searched the directory until I found the enable command. I
triggered it and a password box opened.
    I carefully input the string of seemingly random letters and
numbers sent by Sector Security and held my breath. I hit the enter key far
harder than necessary and the display went green immediately.
    Yes !
    Shuffling back to the