Chapter XXV: Doppelganger

The attendant ignored her for a moment while he shut the door behind him and then turned to face her. "Commandant Gunn?" he asked.

"Yes," she repeated. "Can I help you?"

"Yes," he nodded. "You can die." With that, his arms shot out, turning into long tentacles, and wrapped themselves around her. To her horror, the young male face in front of her began to melt and shift, transforming into her own face!

Decades of combat instinct came into play. Molecular edge knives appeared in her hands, and with blinding speed, sliced through the tentacles binding her. The creature let out a brief squeak of surprise before it slumped to the floor, tentacle-less and quite dead.

Andrea stood in a ready position, the foot-long thin blade blades in her hands ready. However, the compartment remained quiet. No further assailants appeared to challenge her, however. She took a deep, centering breath, and the knives melted back into the cuffs of her uniform. Souvenirs of her career in the Justicar department of the Stellar Patrol. She had worn them for almost forty years now, and they were as much a part of her as her arms and legs.

She opened her bag, and removed a soft case. Opening it, she removed her personal M4MP blaster. She hadn't felt the need to wear a weapon, other than her wrist knives in almost twenty years, but with the attack on the Psi base, and now on herself, she felt that it was time.

Armed with her blaster, she opened the compartment door, and took a look around. It was empty. She closed it again, and holstering her weapon, took a closer look at her assailant. Her first thought that it had been a Cthulian, however, they did not have the ability to change shape. This one could.

Unlike a Cthulian, however, this creature was green and scaly, about seven feet tall she though, with four legs. It had two arms coming out of each side of its otherwise humanoid form, with a pair of tentacles, now lying motionless on the floor, that used to be connected to the shoulder blades. The head of the creature was large, sitting on top of a thick scaly neck. The eyes were red, and the pupils were lifeless yellow horizontal slits. The nose was just a fleshy slit in the center of the face, but the mouth was large, and huge curved fangs protruded beyond the lips, forcing them back, revealing the other teeth to be sharp. It also stank.

Andrea did not need to consult the galactic encyclopedia to realize this was an unknown race. She sat down, pondering her options, but they seemed few. It was an obvious guess that these entities were part of the new threat against the terran worlds, but if they could shape-change, who could she trust? She had to inform someone, and she knew who she wanted to contact, but would it be him, or one of these creatures? Finally she made up her mind. If Ryugen was replaced, there was nothing that could be done to stop the attack. If he was still him, then there was a chance.

She tapped a number on her wristcomm, one that she hadn't dialed in over twenty-two years, since the day she put her blaster away. The connection beeped once, then emitted a pair of quick beeps to indicate that the communications channel was encrypted.

An image of a dark-hark man with patrician features appeared on the wristcomm screen. "Well, well, well, Andrea Gunn. You are certainly the last person I was expecting to hear from over this circuit. What can I do for you?" Admiral Ryugen led the Justicar division of the Stellar Patrol. The Justicars were the division responsible for investigations and undercover work needed by the Stellar Patrol, and the agents that worked for Ryugen were among the most talented and gifted officers the SP had to offer. Justicars had the power to commandeer and command Stellar Patrol forces no matter where they were.

"Take a look at this." Andrea turned the wristcomm to face the dead alien. She let him stare at it for a few seconds before turning it back to face her.

"Ah. I see." Ryugen seemed unflustered as always. "As ever, you are right to the point. Consider your commission in the Justicar division reactivated effective immediately, with the rank of captain. All pay and benefits reinstated."

"But Admiral Weston…"

"Never mind him. He is about to find himself under investigation for interfering with a Justicar investigation."

Finally she allowed herself a smile. "Thanks Chief. Great to be back. Good to see you again."

"Likewise, Captain Gunn. Your talents have been sorely missed in this department." Ryugen allowed her a rare and brief smile.

"So, what can you tell me about my companion here?"

At this, Ryugen looked troubled. "Not much. It's a Ferlon. A shape-changing entity with psi abilities. That's all we know. We've encountered a couple others, usually found dead. What, how or why, we don't know. Tell me what happened." Andrea filled him in on the sudden attack. "I see," he continued. "No doubt your instincts saved you there. He obviously wasn't prepared to deal with a space combat veteran."

"Any idea why he would want to become me?" she asked.

"Probably because of your son. As you know, Rick was assigned to an investigation at the recommendation of the Psi Corps. It was the Ferlon investigation he was assigned to. His mission is to discover the location of their homeworld."

It took a moment for his words to sink in. "You mean YOU assigned him to that mission?"

The image nodded. "I accept that responsibility, Andrea. I'm sorry. We're operating in the dark here, and the probability bookies gave him the best chances of giving us the chances we need to find out what we are up against. He has done very well, so far. You may be very proud of him."

The unexpected personal comments from her past and current boss stunned her. He never apologized or explained himself to her before. And he was keeping track of him. A tremendous sense of relief flooded her, and she felt moisture collecting at the corners of her eyes, making her vision a bit blurry. "Has he been reporting in? How is he doing?"

"He is doing very well. The bookies, as I'm sure you heard, were expecting him to be dead within a week." Andrea smiled to herself. Bookies were the term that Ryugen liked to call the precogs, equating them with odds-makers rather than oracles. "However, I have learned that he has managed to ensconce himself into the crew of Red Howard. He isn't reporting in directly, but I have agents watching him. The murder and piracy charges helped a great deal there."

"You don't mean that he actually…"

"No, he didn't. There were Stellar Patrol officers killed, but not by him. Their deaths are still a mystery, and under investigation. However, to aid Rick in his cover, it seemed appropriate to assign the blame to him." Andrea nodded. "At any rate," continued Ryugen, "While your son is making progress, my guess is that your reputation for getting involved in investigations, and perhaps fueled by a maternal need, has worried someone, and that someone wanted to get you out of the picture. Find out whatever you can. Agents will be standing by to recover the corpse and secure the passenger car upon its arrival on Earth."

Andrea nodded. "Thank you, I'll get right on it. Speaking of Psis, what happened on Omega base?"

Ryugen almost gave her a scowl. "Not good. The base was destroyed. Completely. Somehow, someone smuggled a ceetee bomb on board. Three hundred and fifty four Psis and support staff dead. The heart of the Psi Corps has been killed, and most of their precogs."

Andrea gaped at him. "How could anyone possible smuggle a ceetee device onto a base full of mind-readers?"

Ryugen shook his head. "Unknown. But my first guess would be a ferlonian imposter like your friend there. The ferlonians are known to have psi talents, the extent of which is unknown. Obviously, it was enough to slip past the precautions around the base. We're at war, Gunn. Here at the heart of the Terran worlds. Be on your guard always."

Andrea nodded. "So we're completely blind then?"

"Not completely. We have a few bookies here and there. We'll be putting extra precautions in place, of course. Not much else we can do. Our best lead to date is at your feet."

"Aye, sir. I'll get right on it."

"Good luck, Captain Gunn." With that, the image blinked off, and the communications channel closed.

Andrea stared at the blank screen for a moment, then looked out the window. The edges of Earth were starting to glow with the dawn of a new day. She felt alive. She was in action again and it felt really good. She would never regret the last twenty-two years that she took off to raise Rick, but it was really nice to be back in the saddle, so to speak. Her worries about Rick were still there, but Ryugen was watching out for him, and he never threw away resources unless there was no other choice. If anyone could arrange to see Rick though his ordeal, it was him. She would be able to put all her energy into the mystery that was now facing her.

She opened the case that held her blaster, and took out a set of captain's bars. She replaced the commandant cluster with the bars, and checked herself in the mirror. They looked right, and while the overall change to her uniform was minimal, it meant everything to her.

Now she turned back to the hulk that took up most of the floor in her compartment. It wasn't smelling any better, even though the air conditioning system was working hard. It had originally appeared as one of the attendants that worked on the rail car. Accessing the data terminal, it revealed that there were generally two attendants assigned to cars. Therefore, unless Starrail made budget cuts, she could expect to find another attendant. Questioning that person about the behavior of their coworker seemed a logical next step.

She stepped over the body to reach the door and pulled it open. Stepping out into the corridor, she made sure the blind covering the small window in the door was down, then shut the door, locking it with the combination embedded in her ticket.

She turned to head down the corridor, and froze. Filling the view in the corridor window was the bulk of a Stellar Patrol ship. Her first thought was that Ryugen worked really fast, but suddenly a team of SP marines, in full battlesuit armor, appeared at the end of the corridor, pointing their blasters at her and shouting "Freeze Commandant Gunn!"

To Be Continued...