Week 6 - No Cure for the Quall

Peshareen adjusted his Blackheart Security Uniform. The frigid air inside the Arcturus made even the thick uniform feel like a light jacket. Pesh was still jump-lagged, but it was worth it if the advert was right.
As the door slid open he was greeted by a man dressed as a stereotypical desert Bedouin in while robes The man said, “Assalamu Alaikum”
Pesh replied, “Alaikum Salaam”
They shook and walked inside the office.
Pesh said, “Sheikh Ragay? I presume.”
“Correst my friend,” replied the Sheikh, “I have a sample right here. Enough for your factories to produce so many kiloliters of the chemical that you could air drop it on an entire continent of Quall.”

“So how did you create this stuff?” asked Pesh.
“I have a great many scientists in a great many places, and investors to keep them all paid and happily working away,” Ragay replied as he offered Pesh, some tea and a fine Nykosian cigar.

They sat and exchanged pleasantries when suddenly the door opened and their meeting was interrupted by an aide. The aide was a young cyborg who said, “ Sir we have been surrounded by a fleet of Quall Starships. Some bear the markings of the Hive Queen Le-a, and the larger one bears no markings and supports hers. However Sir it was the flagship of the unmarked Quall Vessels that hailed us.”

“And what did they say?” asked Ragay.

The aide pressed a button and the hail was replayed.

“"Sheikh Ragay, you supposedly hold 500 Quall N'Drone in stasis, you are to release them immediately. We do not care about you or any crimes you have committed, we only want those individuals returned. If you agree we shall withdraw without violence, you are to identify which ship contains the Quall and may either send them over to us or we can board the ship and take them back. If we board the ship as long as no violence is committed then no harm shall come to your crews. We don't care if you trust us or not, as this fleet is easily large enough to destroy your forces. The very fact that we are talking to you shows that we are being honest with you."

The Sheikh held up a small receiver and began to speak.

“With Respect Unknown Fleet we do not know what you are talking about?” said the Sheikh Ragay, “But we are in the Free Systems and you hold no authority here!”

The Quall Destroyer with Le-a’s markings charged in striking the Arcturus Starship. The Shiek’s aide said, “Sir we have multiple breeches, there are Quall using Shadow Leyas making their way through the breech from the Quall Destroyer.
Teams of Brethren are boarding from the far side, but we can’t pick up what they are boarding from.”
“Fools, Don’t they know where we are? Do they know this space is controlled by the Temporal Empire ” said Ragay, “Does Le-a realize she risks an international incident.”

Pesh answered, “Sheikh I think she doesn’t care. The threat of what you are offering for sale is enough of a concern. Im shocked more Queens didn’t come in.”

“I will sell you the formula for my life,” whispered Ragay with such panic, as Peshareen had never seen. And he’d seen some terrible battlefields.

Pesh and his team raced Sheikh Ragay through the halls of the Arcturus.
Ragay asked his aide, “How fares our defenders?”

“Disabled sir, by the Quall Interceptors,” said the aide.

Just as they reached the hall that led to the Blackheart Security Starfreighter, the aide was pulled through a shadow by chains of obsidian.
When the chains came for Ragay, Pesh’s team grabbed him. Flames began to spread down the chain cooking Ragay. It burned away the robes and flesh, and the team fell backwards.

The Sheikh disappeared into a shadow.

Pesh turned to his squad and said, “Its time to bug out. At least we got the sample. Lets get the hell out of here.”

Pesh got on the Blackheart StarFreighter and they set off quickly. Just in time as the Quall Destroyers and Light Frigates began their bombardment of the ships accompanying the Sheikh’s Arcturus. The Warship however was captured with its 500 patients.

In the distance, their scanners picked up a fleet of 100 Pirate Stilleto Starfighters.
Pesh picked up his comm., yelling to his own pilot, “I want full evasive actions. They may be here for the Quall ships, or they may be here for us!”

“Beginning Evasive Actions, sir,” murmured the pilot.

They dived past the Stilletos, who tagged them with trackers unbeknownst to Pesh’s crew.
As Pesh’s ship dived through an open Energy Bridge, the Stilletos made a hit and run on the unmarked Quall Vessels only. They ignored all of Le-a’s ships. On their single pass they attacked the Quall Mothership and Quall Destroyers. They disabled weapon emplacements and engines but left life support and other necessary ship systems functioning. The damage was focused and extensive, but none of the Quall ships were actually destroyed by the hit and run attack by Stilletos.

Meanwhile on the plane of Awareness, Pesh’s ship was sitting in front of what looked like a Uloh Free Confederacy blockade. He quickly ordered his ships to a halt. Luckily Blackheart Security had a good relationship with the UFC. It took and hour and a half to get through their blockade but not a single ship was harmed. And actually the UFC Manslayers were incredibly polite.

Hours later in the highest security laboratory owned by Blackheart Security Solutions, both Director Childeen stood next to Pesh and a team of scientists.
“So Pesh, we have two bits of bad news.”

“Which one first, boss?” asked Pesh, he hated surprises.
Childeen grabbed the single tube with the sample of the Sheikh’s serum and downed it.

“What? Do you know how many people died on those ships?” asked Pesh.

“Its freaking soda,” muttered one of the scientists.

“It’s a fake?” asked Pesh.

“And that takes us into the second bit of news,” said Childeen wiping his lips, “There is now a half disabled Quall fleet, stuck in Free Systems space. And an interdimensional incident brewing.”

Back on the Arcturus deep in Free Systems space, Le-a’s ship was still lodged in the side, and her crew was still gathering the last few crew from the ship. Outside half of Ar’yay’s Capital Ships involved in the attack were disabled and floating around the Arcturus Warship. On its floors they didn’t find Quall. Instead they found Earther Immutables who were in comas and nurse meks. These 500 Patients suffering from a rare disorder known as Rhind’s Disease. It started with memory loss, and after years would end in a coma. Even cloning only resulted in a few years and then another coma.
Every floor had of the Arcturus below the command level was on camera and being broadcast as the Free Systems Network reality show “The Sleeping Sickness.”
Each episode of the Sleeping Sickness is broadcast from an unknown location according to the intro scroll.

From what the Quall technicians recovered from the ship’s computers, the vessel and its contents were leased to a company for use. The actual owners of the ship, were lead to believe Sheikh Ragay would be holding an auction of some sort, but it really was a candid camera show.

The people who were captured all admit they worked for the reality show. Only the man masquerading as Sheikh Ragay and his aide had any more information than that. They said they were hired by a man who called himself Rey Verboso.
They were paid in gemstones, the type usually used by the Quall to pay their debts.

The Quall attack along with IR Brethren was caught by the cameras on the Sleeping Sickness and broadcast across the universe.