"How the hell could you lose the papers?" the Captain nearly yelled in exasperation. "And why the hell did you not put them on something more secure than ... paper?"


Gustinius Drevel had been expecting this but his fellow technical archtect Lexor was more surprised. "Captain, we are in the middle of nowhere. Everyone's been checked and double-checked. Perhaps a cleaning droid came in and sniffed it out.."

"Leaving the other papers undisturbed?" the Captain shot back destorying Gustinius' line of reasoning.

"The calculations would be meaningless to someone else. Especially if they do not know what we are doing. The figures would not make sense."

"Then can you recreated those calculations?"

"Not from here. We'd need to contact.." but the Captain waived him off. "Out of the question." he stated firmly.

"I will not disturb Command about this."


"Hey!" Lexor suddenly exploded from his reverie, "Don't we have an Intel Agent aboard? Why not get him to investigate?"

Gustinius and the Captain stopped in their growing tirade and looked at each other.

"That's not a bad idea, Luxor.." Drevel started.

"Not bad at all.." the Captain finished. As befitting his station, he used the intership (shipwide) comm unit.


"Would Agent Franklin please report to the bridge? Agent Franklin to the bridge."


Still, Gustinius felt wary about bringing an unknown person into the confidence circle.

Especially not when we are this close!

In a deep, fearful sulk, Tim arrived at the bridge. The captain looked up as he entered.

"Ah, Mr. Franklin. There is something we'd like to talk to you about."

This is it thought Tim.

"It has recently come to my attention that certain... sensitive documents have been removed from a private area of the ship." had the captain looked at Tims' face at that time he'd see the very picture of terror. "And what with you being an agent of Imperial Intelligence, we were hoping you could... help us with our inquiries."

There was an unusual silence. Eventually, Tim spoke up "Er... You mean you need help finding these documents?"

"...Yes, Mr. Franklin." There was a perhaps record-breaking sigh of relief.

"Oh, I can do that. But first, could I perhaps go back to my ship and get a few... tools and such?"

Cautiously, the captain nodded. Tim waited until the door closed and he had walked out of earshot before bolting.

*Cough cough*

The captain nodded cautiously and turned around as the agent coughed. He really had more important things to do than worry about the missing paper. If necessary, he could always send a probe to obtain them again. If anything, the blame for losing the papers in the first place would be the Colonel's or the Scientist's.

Still, bothering Command at this point could be viewed as unnecessary. It depended on agent's investigation.

He opened a shipwide comm again, "Secure ship. Prepare for a bit of a bumpy ride."

The Interdictor began to set a course that would take it further into the region that spewed forth gravitational anomalies like so much splittle in space.

Gravitational anomalies, though, that were artificially created.

Still, the warship would shake as if it were a natural phenomena.


*


Gustinius Drevel stared at the retreating agent with narrowed eyes. He did not trust the lanky agent but he was the only professional resource they had at the moment.

Lexor turned to him. "We have 10 hours before the initial testing of Raptor begins. We do need to find those numbers."

Drevel turned to the Scientist. "Let's go to the room and recheck our papers."

Tim made sure the plunder of his acts had been safely hidden away before setting off to start an "investigation". It occured to him that this might be a great chance to secretly discover what it was that was on that sheet, and really have something to report when he got back to II. Of course, that relies on the optimistic belief that he will make it back in the first place, but still, its' a thought.

He shuffled through the corridors to the captain's lounge. It was where it was on every ship, next to the best bathroom. If anyone was going to know about the stolen documents, it'd be people in the upper echelons of command.

It was about then that the prophecised bumpy ride kicked in. Tim shot into the air, as a mix of gravitational anomaly and an artifical gravity system straining to keep things balanced kept arguing over which way was up. He finally came down to the ground he'd been walking on a moment ago, although unfortunately upside down.

Not a good start.

He got up, dusted off his coat, and looked straight into the eyes of a towering, intimidating captain.

Tim gulped. The captain growled.

"What do you want, you greasy spot of nothing?" Bellowed the officer, but the narrow sliver that was Tim's spine convinced his back to stand straight and offer up his rank insignia. Spotting the distinct II markings, the captain's tone changed immeadietly "Oh, I didn't know we were entertaining an agent of the most illustrous Imperial Intelligence, come right in."

The captain's lounge was luxurious, but not too luxurious, and a distasteful array of what people like Tim were expected to reffer to as the "upper classes" lounged around, in that special way Imperial Officers are trained to so that they are incredibly comfy, and yet militiristically efficient.

Tim nodded weakly, and took out a datapad. "I'm afraid I'm running a small investigation, you see, and so I'm required to have a little chat with you all as to the location of certain... things. I hope you don't mind?"

The captain of the starship's commanding officer's guard shifted uneasily wondering what Imperial Intelligence would want with him.

Location of certain things?

Were they missing?


The cleared his throat.


"Ahem... of..of course, Sir! What would you like to know?"

The Intelligence Officer had come up empty during the next day and the Captain could wait no more.

"We'll let Command figure this one out," he mentioned to Gustinius, the Engineer. "We've orders to go back."

Gustinius merely nodded. The creation of the secret hyperroute had taken alot out of the structural engineer. Working along side other specialists and astral cartographers, the secret hyperroute system was Kaine's latest brainchild.

But to carry out such a secret operation, a mobile command location to coordinate the effort would be needed.

And so a secret shipyard was set up in the region. A shipyard dedicated to the massive refit of a warship.



As the Interdictor navigated the location, using encrypted coordinates, the Imperial Intelligence operator waited on the bridge to find out what was going on.


As the ship exited hyperspace on the last jump of many, he saw a comsic metroplex in space. A hub of activity that looked much like a shipyard.


Gustinius nodded at his question.


And within the complex rested the RSD Galactus.



"I... I thought it was being refitted at Imperial Center?" Tim asked confused.

"Officially yes. But really, the vessel in Corsucant's yards is the Serapis."


And before the agent was render unconscious from behind, the Captain had walked over addressing him. "You've uncovered the secret, sir. But you've only uncovered part it. The tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, we must erase your memory of being here..."


Sleep claimed Tim instantly.






END