V3 Chapter 30: Ghost Signal
"Duvette, are you really not going to play a round with me?"
Admiral Villent stood beside the command deck. Everything around him was proceeding in good order and no longer required his direct attention.
"Ask me again when we are back on Macragge," Duvette said.
"You say next time every time."
Villent smiled and did not press further. Through the wide viewport at the front of the bridge, Castalor had already been left behind by the fleet, and the light of the distant star was moving slowly across the ship's hull.
The Resolute and its escort fleet were on course for the Mandeville point.
Once they reached safe distance, the Navigator would guide the fleet into the Warp. The transit back to Macragge would not be long, at least on the star chart it required only a single stable Warp jump.
Duvette had been about to leave the command deck and return to his cabin to rest.
But the moment he turned, he stopped.
Villent noticed.
"Something wrong?"
Duvette did not answer immediately.
He was looking at the strategic map in his field of vision, and his brow was slowly coming together. There, within the internal structure of the Resolute, a yellow unit marker had appeared and was blinking with a low, irregular rhythm.
Yellow.
It meant neutral, unknown, non-friendly, or something whose allegiance had not yet been determined.
The problem was that this was inside the Resolute.
Duvette looked back at Villent.
"Did you carry out a post-combat inspection of the ship?"
Villent blinked.
"Of course," he said. "It is part of the post-combat procedure. Hull damage, compartment integrity, contamination residue, and any record of xenos contact are all logged. The Mechanicus and the ship's security officer both signed off on it. So why the sudden question?"
Duvette's expression did not ease.
"If you trust me, hold the fleet at the Mandeville point for a while."
Villent looked at him.
He did not press for a reason. He simply turned toward the central command podium, and his voice became formal.
"All hands."
The officers on the bridge looked up immediately.
Villent continued. "Fleet reduces speed. Hold position near the Mandeville point. All ships maintain Gellar Field warm-up. No vessel is to break formation without authorisation."
"Aye, Admiral."
The order was relayed quickly.
The mechanical instruments and transit projection on the bridge began to change. The fleet, which had been gradually entering the transit sequence, was compelled to slow. A query signal came from the Navigator section; Villent replied only with "await further orders."
Duvette was still standing where he was.
He examined the yellow unit marker in the strategic map carefully and confirmed its position. The marker was small, its blink rate low, like an anomalous target that had only just woken.
He did not yet know what it was.
But an unconfirmed non-friendly unit appearing inside the ship before a Warp transit was dangerous enough in itself.
If the thing moved during the jump, it could cause positional anomalies in the ship's bearing or interfere with certain safety systems. In a worse case, if it affected the stability of the Gellar Field, the entire fleet could be dragged into serious trouble.
Duvette had no interest in another Warp transit incident.
"I have detected an anomaly. I am going to take a squad of Storm Troopers to investigate," he said.
Villent gave a nod. He did not ask how Duvette had detected it. At this point, the number of things this man did that exceeded ordinary expectation was too large to keep questioning.
"I will have armed ratings seal off the relevant decks. Do you need me to come with you?"
"No," Duvette said. "The fleet still needs you here."
Villent did not push it.
One minute later, a squad of Storm Troopers assembled outside the bridge. Duvette led them down through the main lift shaft and toward the position indicated on the strategic map.
This time, the Salamanders were not with him.
Vakur and his warriors were still in Macragge orbit, and Entropy's Song was with them. The working plan had been to wait for word from Nocturne, after which Guilliman would decide whether to make a detour to the Salamanders' home world before or after the Terra visit.
So on this occasion, Duvette had only the Storm Troopers and the ship's armed ratings.
They moved through several maintenance corridors and past two munitions transfer bays. As the distance closed, the sense of familiarity in Duvette's mind grew heavier.
He had walked this route before.
When the deck designation appeared on the bulkhead ahead, he remembered.
He stopped in front of a heavy hatch.
This was an armoury.
More precisely, this was the place he had specifically used to draw Trazyn out the last time. That acquisitive individual had been caught here and compelled to have a very unpleasant conversation with him.
Duvette looked at the hatch, his expression thoughtful.
"Go and notify the ship's Mechanicus priest. Have him come here."
A Storm Trooper acknowledged and left at once.
Duvette looked toward the armed ratings officer on the other side.
"Seal this corridor. No one approaches without my order."
"Yes, General."
The armed ratings spread out quickly. Metal boots struck the deck in quick succession. Within moments both ends of the corridor had weapons covering them, and the hatch access codes had been temporarily locked.
Duvette stood where he was and continued watching the yellow marker on the strategic map.
It was on the other side of the hatch.
After Trazyn had been drawn here the last time, the Mechanicus should have cleared the site.
Had that individual left something else behind?
Duvette's eyes narrowed.
If it truly was Trazyn, he would not be surprised in the least. The Solemnace collector had never been the kind to put all his pieces on the table at once. Being caught the previous time had very possibly been part of some kind of assessment on his part.
The Mechanicus priest arrived shortly after.
He came with two servitors and a hovering scanning device, several data cables trailing beneath his robes. Before he had reached Duvette, his vox-synthesised voice had already started.
"This vessel's armoury, Seventh Isolation Zone, has undergone multiple scanning procedures, purification rites, and xenos contamination reviews following the previous incident. All records have been submitted to the ship's data repository and the Mechanicus shipboard shrine. Repeated inspection constitutes unnecessary resource consumption."
Duvette looked at him.
"Were all xenos constructs inside disposed of?"
"Disposed of," the Mechanicus priest said.
"Open the hatch."
The priest's optical lenses flickered.
"I am required to note that your instruction is based on a non-mechanical detection result, and its reliability is therefore in question."
"Open the hatch."
The priest paused for one second.
"Complying."
The hatch opened slowly.
A squad of Storm Troopers entered first, their weapons sweeping across the interior of the armoury. Several seconds later, the lead officer turned back and indicated it was clear.
Duvette and the Mechanicus priest walked in together.
The armoury was still dim.
Most of the weapon racks had been cleared out, leaving only the locking chains and empty munitions crates. The space had clearly been reorganised after the previous incident, but the air still carried the residual smell of cold metal and disinfectant.
Duvette did not pause at the entrance.
He followed the yellow marker on the strategic map toward a section of floor near the back of the armoury that appeared entirely ordinary. There was nothing there except a cleared section of deck plating. No weapon racks, no obvious debris.
"Here," Duvette said.
The Mechanicus priest walked over.
"No anomaly visible to standard optics," he said. "Deck planarity within normal parameters. Radiation residue within normal parameters. Heat distribution within normal parameters. Your assessment may be the product of psychological pressure, sustained consecutive combat operations, adversarial memory associated with the xenos thief, or an unregistered personal perceptual deviation."
Duvette pressed his lips together.
"Scan it."
The priest extended a mechadendrite, and the scanning device began to float above the deck surface.
"Scanning," the priest said. "Primary augur readings stable. Magnetic field disturbance below threshold. Material density within normal parameters. Reiterating: this location has previously passed purification standards. Repeated questioning of established procedure risks creating misapprehension of required rites among shipboard technical personnel."
Duvette said nothing.
He had begun to adjust to this priest's manner of speech. The man's voice was steady and fast, like an old-pattern typewriter in continuous operation. The mechanised complaints issuing from the synthetic larynx kept coming, until the Storm Troopers nearby had quietly looked away.
The priest continued scanning.
"Second-pass deep inspection commencing. Data sampling in progress. Subsurface conduits within normal parameters. No heat source. No life sign. No unregistered mechanical activity. Your concern currently lacks verifiable basis. Recommend classifying this event as a post-combat fatigue response exhibiting heightened caution."
He stopped.
The continuous stream of mechanical speech cut off abruptly.
Duvette looked at him.
The priest's optical lenses were blinking rapidly in sequence, and the scanning device had issued a short alert tone. Several data cables extended from beneath his robes and plugged directly into the ports on the rear of the scanning device.
The armoury went quiet.
After a moment, the Mechanicus priest turned his head slowly.
"Retracting prior assessment," he said.
Duvette's hand closed around the hilt of his power sword.
"Report."
The priest's voice remained even, but his rate of speech had slowed noticeably.
"I am detecting a pulse ghost signal transmitting toward an unknown destination."
Duvette looked at the empty section of deck at his feet.
On the strategic map, the yellow unit marker blinked once more.
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