Dead Drop (audio story)

Dwarfed by the burning star of the Hyspero system, two devastating battle fleets face each other across the stars. On one side, the Dyarid Primary Vanguard, commanded by Admiral Salaron aboard the starship Custodian. On the other, a Chtzin battle cluster.

Bounty hunter Vienna Salvatori's latest assignment brings her aboard the Custodian – but completing her mission and earning some poldaks is the easy bit. When all hell breaks loose with the Chtzin and the Custodian is left crippled and plunging towards the sun, a simple assignment turns into a battle for survival for the galaxy's deadliest assassin.

Plot

Lieutenant Paley gives the all clear for fleet perimeter regarding a reconnaissance mission. Ensign Roaig hails Admiral Salaron from the docking bay. Roaig is then told that Salaron is in conference with Supreme Commander Jamela K'lynn and is not to be disturbed. Roaig tells his colleague that there is a signal from transport frigit alpha nineteen, who has their new executive officer aboard. Roaig is feeling uneasy about their new arrival.

Jamela K'lynn states that Salaron has failed her for the last time, to which Salaron is highly apologetic. Salaron recalls to her that during a patrol of the Chtzin borderland, Captain Galazar ordered three fighter squadrons into enemy territory without authorisation from the Supreme Commander. This caused the Chtzin to retaliate, thus causing the fighter squadrons to be lost. K'lynn then turns to Galazar and uses her powers to explode his brain. She then orders Salaron to get the carcass cleared.

Salaron informs K'lynn that they are in shrouded orbit of Hyspero's star, in between Hyspero Major and Minor. K'lynn warns Salaron to never underestimate the Chtzin, stating that the Chtzin must not be allowed to enter the Dyarid Protectorate. K'lynn releases Salaron from conference to perform his other duties. Salaron receives Roaig's message and the frigit is allowed to descend,

A lady by the name of Commander Arcadia Corinth requests exits the frigit and requests permissing to board. She is welcomed aboard the Custodian by Salaron. To ensure Corinth is not a Chtzin spy, he performs a memory scan on her, which confirms her identity. He offers her a tour before showing her her quarters. He informs her that since the fall of the Wrath Empire, the Chtzin are approaching their territory in the remaining power vacuum. Salaron explains that the Dyriad Protectorate is a peaceful mission, whereas the Chtzin is a brutal, warrior race. He explains that Chtzin are an arachnid species with a hive mind, enabling them to get inside your head and influence you. Corinth is also warned to be weary of speaking about K'lynn so flippantly.

The Custodian finishes his sweep of the perimeter and heads for the far side of Hyspero Minor. Salaron and Corinth walk onto the bridge, making Corinth note that it makes her old ship, the Samaritan look like a museum piece. He points out the nodes arranged around the bulkhead, creating a data net, which itself meshes every battle computer in the fleet together. Paley informs Corinth that the Chtzin battle tactics are so random that it's mathematically impossible to guess what they'll do next. Salaron finishes the introduction and they arrange to meet at thirty-three hundred hours, leading Corinth to head back to her quarters.

Corinth speaks into her personal log, stating that she was hired by the Dyriad High Command, in the name of the Premier. She opens her bag and activates her memory box, remembering her real identity as Vienna Salvatori. She pulls out her assignment crystal, which informs her that her mission is to infiltrate the Custodian, gain access to and eliminate Jamela K'lynn, who is a Monk of the Inner Place, exhiled from the Isolationist Order on Straif after she murdered an entire order of novices. K'lynn has highly developed telekinetic powers. The crystal informs her that, if successful, she will receive nine million poldaks.

Custodian Command picks up a modulating energy signature from the Chtzin battle cluster. Salaron orders his crew to maintain shroud protocols and to hang fire. He orders Roaig to move all ships towards the asteroid field, where the Chtzin are sitting. As Salaron actives tertiary alert, Vienna uses this opportunity as a diversion, and begins her assignment. Luckily, Corinth is called to the Supreme Commander's Inner Sanction on Deck Seventeen.

The Chtzin fleet enter battle formation, giving them ten minutes before the Chtzin is within range of the Custodian. Salaron relays the information to the Inner Sanctum. Within the Inner Sanctum, "Commander Corinth" reports for duty. She is welcomed by K'lynn, who beckons her closer. Vienna takes no time to reveal her identity and points a weapon at K'lynn.

Despite being cloaked, the Chtzin are moving on an intercept course. Salaron refuses to fire, accepting that it could simply be a lucky guess from the Chtzin. At this, squadron forty is lost. K'lynn reveals that a memory box is useless against her. K'lynn enquires for her next move, using her name. At this, Vienna beings to shoot, causing K'lynn to laugh as the gun does nothing.

Meanwhile, Chtzin missiles are heading straight for the Custodian and its fleet. In the Inner Sanctum, K'lynn grows tired of Vienna and beings to choke her. K'lynn tells her that she can use the array around her to speak to the tiniest insect. She uses her powers to see the pain and suffering within Vienna's soul and wishes to 'release' her. Suddenly, K'lynn is set back and Vienna points out that she's blinded her with firecrackers. What she's actually done is hidden a defence mechanism inside her mind, that when probed with feedback into the telekinesist and work like a 'psychic bomb'. K'lynn mind suddenly explodes.

Salaron orders Paley to return fire, full power. He places Paley in command, orders someone to look for "Corinth" and heads to the Inner Sanctum. There, Vienna surveys the mess before confirming the termination of Jamela K'lynn. However, she fails to transmit the confirmation the Hyperspatial Data Network. Salaron enters and is surprised to Vienna. He heads towards where he expects to find K'lynn but is shocked to find her murdered. He blames Chtzin spies. Escaping the blame, the two of them head back to the bridge.

Salaron and Vienna enter the bridge and reveals the death of K'lynn to the troops. He then takes temporary command of the Primary Vanguard. Vienna is shown to a weapons console. Roaig manages to take back control of the Custodian, and Vienna hits a direct hit, leaving fifteen enemy ships. Two cruisers break formation and block the line of fire. Salaron orders them back in formation. With a failed shield, the Custodian is finally hit by the Chtzin.

When Salaron is stumped, Vienna gives the order to withdraw, to which Salaron agrees. Paley gives the order to the other ships to meet at their rendezvous point. As they prepare to warp jump, one of their fleet veers off into their path. Depite this, they enter warp, impacting with the other ship. While all hell breaks loose around her, Vienna is desperately trying to get her ship to meet with her, enabling her to escape the ship. The ship explains that due to her inability to prove the termination of K'lynn, the extraction protocols cannot be enacted, which are Vienna's own orders.

Vienna returns to her duties to avoid detection. Chtzin are now on-board, and the Custodian is in the gravitational pull of the sun without engines. Roaig estimates that they have roughly an hour before impact. Vienna gives the orders to pass thirty decks down, through the Chtzin filled corridors and get the warp drives working again, much to Roaig's horror. Vienna asks for a schematic and decides to go herself. She notes a vertical ventilation shaft, straight to engineering and asks for zip lines. Salaron pairs Paley with Vienna, making her directly responsible for her safety.

Preparing to enter the ventilation shaft, Vienna and Paley note a group of Chtzin and prepare to fight their way through. As they find an opportunity to run for the shaft, Paley temporarily zones out. Vienna snaps her back into the room and points out the nodes surrounding the place, all of which are part of the data net. Vienna notes their strange configuration. They kick their way into the shaft and begin their long descent.

On the bridge, Roaig and Salaron note that engineering is full of Chtzin. Salaron reckons that the Chtzin are waiting for them. As Vienna and Paley arrive on the right deck, they have only two sections between them and engineering. Paley notes that normally placid Chief Belkin and another member of the crew are brawling to the death. When Paley attempts to call him, he turns around and makes a run for her, before assaulting her. Vienna whips out her gun and kills him. She explains to Paley that the Chtzin indeed get inside people's heads and make them act dangerously.

On the bridge, Roaig is failing to get in touch with Vienna or Paley. He assumes them to be dead. Salaron calmly orders him to continue trying. With an estimated thirty-one minutes before disintegration, Salaron suggests Roaig begins to find a Deity to pray to. Down below, Vienna and Paley make a run for engineering before getting raided by Chtzin. As Vienna shoots at them, Paley is failing to get the doors open. Vienna gets Paley's gun and provides Paley with enough time to unlock the doors.

Vienna notes that her physical approach isn't making much headway and thus allows the Chtzin to enter her mind. She guides them to the 'psychic bomb' inside her mind but realises that it doesn't work on Chtzin. Time for Plan B, she realises, and orders Paley to hold onto something. Vienna momentarily disables the gravity in the area, sending the Chtzin flying. As the gravity re-establishes itself, the Chtzin are sent hurtling to the floor, and to their deaths. Paley manages to open the doors.

Vienna tells Salaron that they've reached engineering. She reports that all engineering crew are dead at the hands of the Chtzin and that Paley is working on the warpdrive. Roaig tells her that they have seventeen minutes before they enter the sun but also that the engines will need ten minutes to warm up. They seal themselves into the room and away from Chtzin. Meanwhile, Paley is working on the service elevators for a quick way up to the top deck.

Meanwhile, the Chtzin are trying to blast their way through the doors. Suddenly Paley gets taken over by the Chtzin and attempts to open the doors and let them in. Vienna instructs her to fight them, threatening to shoot her. As a compromise, Vienna punches her, bringing her around just as the engines and elevator begin to warm up. They ride the elevator to the top.

As they prepare for warp-jump on the bridge, the elevator opens and out step Vienna and Paley. Just as they go to enter warp, Vienna's datapad announces the transfer of poldaks aloud, much to the shock of Salaron. Salaron questions the 'assignment completion received'. At that, a memory box unlocks in Salaron's mind, not to the surprise of Vienna. Vienna dramatically reveals to everyone that Salaron hired an assassin to murder K'lynn, and that she is said assassin. He explains that a syndicate of like-minded individuals raised the bounty in the hope that once K'lynn was assassinated, they would be offered asylum by the Premier.

Within no time to spare, Roaig asks Salaron for his codes to enter warp-jump. Salaron no longer remembers them. Vienna concludes that it's the Chtzin messing with his mind, forcing them to die. With four minutes remaining, Vienna works out that the Chtzin aren't the only race with a hive mind. When K'lynn was alive, she used the nodes and the data web to meld the minds of the crew together and make them work better. With this, Vienna grabs Paley and takes her to the Inner Sanctum.

Vienna moves K'lynn's body and takes her seat, plugging herself into the interface. Inside the data net, she can hear all the voices of the crew and the Chtzin. She then finds Salaron's mind and goes deeper inside. There, she finds a familiar and terrifying voice. Without the time to focus on that, she instead finds the codes and places them back inside his head, allowing them to warp jump and escape.

Leaving the chair, she notes that Paley has been mortally wounded. Vienna leaves Paley to rest and runs back to the bridge where the warp jump is failing. Threatening them at gunpoint, Vienna influences them to read the warp codes line-by-line to find the corruption. Roaig realises that its his error, not to the surprise of Vienna, who points out that he's a Chtzin spy and doesn't even know it. Roaig is devastated by this news and they realise that the Chtzin have won.

The ships falls out of warp, ripping the ship in half. Salaron calls to abandon ship. Before leaving Salaron to go 'down with his ship', Vienna punches him and demands she tell him to explain who the white haired man with burning, silver eyes is. With his dying breath, Salaron tells her that the man's name is Crevo Finn. When her extraction protocols fail once again, she boards an escape capsule and launches.

Stuck in an overheating capsule, Vienna begins to hallucinate about Crevo Finn. She is then awoken by the voice of her ship. She refuses any new assignments. After sending her funds to Miracle 3, she creates a coded message telling the recipient that she's found Crevo Finn.

Cast

Vienna Salvatori - Chase Masterson
Ensign Roaig - James Hayward
Admiral Salaron - Alisdair Simpson
Lt. Paley / Jamela K'lynn - Alison Thea-Skot

References

Individuals

Under the guise of Corinth, Vienna states that she is from Webster's World, formally of the Samaritan.
Jamela K'lynn is the Supreme Commander of the Primary Vanguard, installed at the behest of the Premier.

Technology

The Custodian is a hyperdreadnought, is thirty clics end-to-end, has thirty decks and warp propulsion.
Salaron places the Custodian on tertiary alert.
Vienna attempts to transmit the termination confirmation to the Hyperspatial Data Network.
Vienna has programmed her ship with 'extraction protocols', which state that her ship can only retrieve her from her location when she has proven that her assignment is complete. The ship cannot override these instructions.

Species

The Chtzin are arachnids with a hive mind.

Notes

The Hyperspatial Data Network appears to be a futuristic replacement for the Internet.

Continuity

The Wrath Empire has since fallen, leaving a power vacuum, which the Chtzin and Dyriad Protectorate both wish to fill. (AUDIO: The Acheron Pulse et al)
Vienna uses a memory box to hide her true identity and pass a memory scan. (AUDIO: The Memory Box)
Vienna's mission is recorded on an assignment crystal. (AUDIO: The Memory Box)
Vienna once again sends her fee to Miracle 3. (AUDIO: The Memory Box)

External links

Official Dead Drop page at bigfinish.com