Andromeda's Gates: The story of Yseult Brenneaux

Chapter 32: A plan within a plan within a plan

Riddaeon gasped for air, Big Sal having taken longer than he had hoped to convince Yseult to let him go. He fell on his hands and knees, save for one hand trying to loosen the collar of his suit and ease his breathing. Yseult stood staring at Big Sal, breath heavy, heart pounding, it would take even longer to come down from the rush. She liked these moments... After the fight, adrenaline and stillness - they weren't supposed to happen together... Maybe that's why she liked it. Ellie's hand was still over her mouth, where she had put it the moment Big Sal turned around. Slowly, eventually, it lowered although the look of surprise remained. They both said nothing as Big Sal moved to the guards lying on the floor, giving each a micro-injection of some unknown experimental liquid and locating the encoder on one of them for the shackles. As he released the cuffs, Yseult and Ellie allowed them to fall to the floor, Ellie cradling her wrists, trying to sooth the soreness of the harsh devices. Yseult just looked at hers. The fight had strained and pulled her wrists whilst bound and in addition to the soreness were marks and grazes where they had dug in as her whole weight had leant on them... It hadn't hurt at the time but as the adrenaline started to dissipate, the pain came, a stinging pain that became like burning on the skin and an ache in the bone that spiked with the slightest movement.

"Do you need an analgesic?" Big Sal asked, noticing their condition. Yes. She thought... "No." She said. The pain was comforting, though she didn't know why. "Come through to the forward cabin." Big Sal said. "You can rest while I contact Long and let her know my plan has succeeded."

"Your plan?" Ellie asked. Big Sal smiled a excitable and self-satisfied smile.

The forward cabin was far more amenable to passengers with seats and supplies. Riddaeon got Yseult and Ellie food and something to drink while Big Sal contacted Long from the cockpit. Out of a side viewport, Ellie saw a haze of light resolve into a black owl-like ship along-side them. A few minutes later, using the aft cabin as an airlock, Long was aboard and Big Sal had the look of someone who'd been keeping a secret for too long.

"Well..." He began. "You've figured out that for several months, Riddaeon has been communicating with my clone. Fortunately, when he uploaded the program to find me into the Octan sensor network using the cypher you stole, he also included a 'ladybird'."

"Lady... Bird?" Yseult looked puzzled at the term.

"It's a dummy program that wonders around the system." Ellie explained. "But it doesn't do anything so it doesn't trip firewalls or security systems."

"To anyone who sees it." Big Sal continued. "It's just 'some program' that someone else must be using... Unless you recognise it and know how to use it."

"The program requires knowledge that only Big Sal and I share." Riddaeon added. "If I received a response through the ladybird, I would know it could only be Big Sal."

"We have been working on a plan to eliminate my clone ever since." Big Sal explained. "We established that he was using you all to find me for him and set a trap." Big Sal's eyes were glistening. He was going to enjoy telling this part. "We knew that he would expect Riddaeon to tell him when you located what you thought was Upsilon and that he would turn up prepared for a firefight. Our only chance was to get him to drop his guard... By believing he had succeeded."

"Clone Sal had been slowly trying to recruit me to SPIDER." Riddaeon said, picking up the story. "I took the bait and pretended to join his cause. It was me who suggested to him that if we found Big Sal, he would be prepared for a firefight so we had to catch him with his guard down by making him think he had succeeded."

"Wait, that's the same plan." Ellie pointed out. Big Sal was grinning even wider.

"Riddaeon's plan with my clone was to play along pretending he didn't know who the clone was. and let him trick you into finding me. Then, at the right moment, he would betray and kill me right in front of that despicable clone's eyes." Big Sal explained with growing enthusiasm.

"Both my weapon and Big Sal's suit were modified to absorb a shot as long as I hit him in just the right place. That's why I had to do it." Riddaeon explained.

"Risky, non?" Yseult asked.

"The 'game' is risky." Riddaeon answered. "And we choose to play, do we not?" The question hung in the air a moment until Big Sal grew impatient with not getting on with explaining his plan.

"We've been hiding in Octan space using a cloaking device on our ship." Long explained. "After a couple of near misses, we developed a smaller device for cloaking an individual. It's not very efficient and it doesn't work very well..." Ellie and Riddaeon exchanged a look, not failing to notice the device's commonalities with its inventor. "But it's passable." Long concluded.

"When Long and I arrived at the facility." Sal continued. "We construed a long access route to our location that, while you were returning to the transport with the guards, would give me time to activate the cloak and take a shortcut allowing me to get there before you. I boarded the transport unseen and waited."

Yseult's face turned sour. "You mean you were in there armed with a pistol while I fought the guards?" She said, getting irate.

"I couldn't reveal myself until I had a clear and safe shot at my clone." Big Sal explained. "Until he was disarmed, it was too risky."

Yseult pondered his answer, a calm came over her, her next question sullen. "How did you know I would fight the guards?" She asked.... A moment of quiet came before a reluctant answer.

"I didn't." The hairy scientist admitted. "I relied on you to do something... Unpredictable."

"Unpredictable." Yseult repeated, her tone scornful.

"It created the perfect opportunity." Riddaeon said. "Even though when I came into the back to help you, that's not how I intended it to play out."

"My clone exposed his weapon and had no idea I was right there in front of him ready to slap it away." Said Big Sal. Long raised an eyebrow. Where's Pombe when when you need him? she thought. "Then all I had to do..." Big Sal concluded. "Was de-cloak and enact my justice for all the trouble he has caused."

A moment of calm surrounded the group... Then Yseult thought of something. "So, what about this Upsilon?" She asked. Everyone turned to Big Sal, who slowly grinned once more.

"My calculations were not finished when my clone took my place." He explained. "He thought Upsilon was an object, and that I brought you on board to find it... He was wrong. I had to finish my work whilst on the run but I was eventually able to prove what I believed would be the case. I did not recruit you to find Upsilon Yseult... I recruited you to become it." Ellie and Riddaeon both turned to look at Yseult as if waiting for her to say something.

"Don't look at me." She said to them. "I am just a pilot."

"You're unpredictable... Erratic." Big Sal said with a reassuring tone. "Abnormal resource output." He continued. "Strange readings form the Galactic core, a cross corporation general order to leave Andromeda. Something, or someone is behind this... A mind, an architect... And I think you can find them. You can bring them out into the open. The rest of us are too busy following the rules Yseult... You are the unknown quantity, the unpredictable outcome. You... are Upsilon."