Chapter 375: Cargos With Human Medical Equipment

Astercourt gave Aurelian a sideways look.

"We are handling more than he expected."

"I never said otherwise."

"You looked surprised when we finished the first vote."

"Because you held it within an hour."

Meriel almost smiled. "That is encouraging."

Before the conversation could go any further, Eirenne contacted Aurelian through his private command link.

Solenne’s patrol had reached the research convoy.

Aurelian kept his expression calm.

"Excuse me for a moment."

He stepped several meters away from the others and opened the tactical feed on a private display.

The fight had already started.

The two Compact light cruisers had refused Solenne’s order to surrender and opened fire first. That decision had gone badly for them almost immediately.

One cruiser had already lost its shields.

The second was trying to stay between Solenne’s ships and the research transport, probably hoping to give the transport enough time to escape.

It was not going to work.

Aurelian watched for less than a minute before the first cruiser lost engine power completely and began drifting off course.

The second kept fighting, but Solenne’s cruiser hit its weapons section first, then followed with another clean strike against the engines.

The Compact ship went dark soon after.

The research transport surrendered immediately.

"Casualties?" Aurelian asked.

"Unknown among the Compact escort crews," Eirenne replied. "No Human losses."

"And the transport?"

"Still intact."

That was what mattered most.

"Bring it to Sanctuary Ardent."

"Understood."

Aurelian closed the display and returned to the others before anyone had much time to wonder what had happened.

Rhoswen looked at him the moment he came back.

"Good news?"

"Probably."

Her eyes narrowed.

"You did something without me."

"Solenne did."

Rhoswen looked even less pleased. "That is worse."

Meriel glanced between them, clearly curious, but wisely decided not to ask.

The Alliance inspection began soon afterward.

Aurelian had expected arguments.

He got them.

The legal officer immediately questioned the emergency transfer of authority and whether Aurelian had the right to hold command over Sanctuary Ardent.

Astercourt answered with the original sanctuary records and the emergency succession rules.

The historians wanted access to sealed archive sections.

Eirenne refused.

The technical inspectors asked to examine the Continuity Vault.

Aurelian refused that too.

Meriel requested access to preservation population records, but Vaela only allowed anonymous totals and medical statistics. Individual files stayed sealed.

The discussion went on for nearly three hours.

It stayed polite.

Mostly.

There were several points where Aurelian thought someone might push too hard, but Meriel kept her people under control, and Astercourt somehow managed to answer every legal question without openly insulting anyone.

By the end of the inspection, however, something important had changed.

The Alliance delegation had seen enough to understand what Sanctuary Ardent really was.

This was not some abandoned ruin House Arcturus had discovered and claimed because nobody else was around.

Thousands of civilians were waking inside the mountain.

A working civil council had already been formed.

The sanctuary’s own records clearly recognized emergency Human command authority when the old leadership disappeared.

There was also clear evidence that the Compact had taken the facility by force and had tried to destroy parts of it before losing control.

Meriel could still argue about details.

She could question procedures.

She could request more records later.

But she could no longer easily argue that Sanctuary Ardent belonged to nobody.

Near the end of the inspection, Aurelian received another private message.

The captured research transport had been searched.

Its cargo included several pieces of Human medical equipment that had been removed from Sanctuary Ardent years earlier.

There were also copied research archives.

And prisoner records.

Aurelian’s expression changed when he reached the last part.

"How many?" he asked quietly.

Eirenne answered through the private link.

"Three hundred and twelve Human subjects were transferred from Sanctuary Ardent to Station Veyra Nine during the Compact occupation."

Aurelian stopped walking.

"Alive?"

"At the time of transfer, yes."

That was all the records confirmed.

There was nothing showing whether those people were still alive now.

Meriel noticed that he had stopped and turned toward him.

"Commander?"

Aurelian looked at her, but for the moment the inspection no longer felt important.

Drann was already preparing to abandon several outer positions.

Station Veyra Nine was one of them.

And now they had proof that more than three hundred people taken from Sanctuary Ardent had once been sent there.

That changed the situation from before.

Aurelian opened the local station map.

Rhoswen saw the marker appear and immediately understood from his face that something serious had happened.

"What is it?"

"We found prisoner records."

Her joking mood disappeared instantly.

Astra stepped closer.

"Where?"

Aurelian placed a marker over the station.

"Veyra Nine."

Astercourt stared at the name for a moment before looking at him.

"People from the sanctuary?"

"Three hundred and twelve."

The hall became quiet.

Even the Alliance delegation stopped talking.

Meriel looked from the record to Aurelian.

"You are considering an operation."

Aurelian did not answer right away.

A few hours earlier, he had been willing to watch Drann pull back and wait for a better opening.

There had been no reason to rush.

The outer Compact stations were already weakening.

His forces were busy protecting Sanctuary Ardent.

The smart choice had been to observe and prepare.

But that had changed now.

Equipment could wait.

Research could wait.

Territory could wait.

People could not.

He looked at the old transfer record again.

Three hundred and twelve people.

Some might be dead.

Some might have been moved elsewhere.

Some might still be sitting inside Veyra Nine while Drann prepared to abandon the station and strip it of anything useful.

Aurelian was not going to assume the worst without checking.

"First," he said, "we find out whether they are still there."

Rhoswen looked at the station marker, completely serious now.

"And if they are?"

Aurelian already knew the answer.

There was nothing to think about.

No argument to make.

No reason to wait once they knew.

"Then we bring them home."

The discovery of the prisoner records changed the mood inside Sanctuary Ardent almost immediately.

Aurelian did not announce the information across the whole sanctuary, but there was no reason to hide it from the civilian council.

Vaela, Astercourt, Mirelle Dain, and the other representatives were called back to the command level while Eirenne continued searching the captured research transport for anything connected to Station Veyra Nine.

The Alliance delegation remained nearby.

Meriel Voss did not interfere, though the claims officer clearly understood that the inspection had become less important for the moment.

Aurelian stood beside the main display as Eirenne reconstructed the old transfer records.

Three hundred and twelve Humans had been removed from Sanctuary Ardent over a period of almost six years.

They had not all been taken at once.

The Compact had selected people in small groups, usually between twelve and thirty at a time. Most were technicians, preservation specialists, medical workers, or people whose old records showed knowledge that Compact researchers considered useful.

There were also several engineers.

And seventeen children.

Vaela went completely still when that number appeared.

"They took children?"

"According to the transfer records, yes," Eirenne replied.

"Why?"

"The Compact classified them as long-term biological observation subjects."

Nobody spoke for several seconds.

Rhoswen’s expression had become hard enough that Aurelian was glad she was not standing anywhere near a Compact prisoner.

Astra remained calm, but Aurelian knew her well enough to notice the change in her posture.

Meriel looked toward her own legal officer.

"This information needs to be preserved separately," she said. "Full chain of custody, original Compact files, and verified copies."

Eirenne answered before Aurelian needed to.

"Already done."

Meriel glanced toward the projection.

"I am beginning to understand why Commander Arcturus trusts you."

Eirenne gave her a polite smile.

"That took longer than expected."

Aurelian ignored that.

"Do we know whether Veyra Nine is still occupied?"

Solenne answered through the fleet channel.

"One of my scouts has a distant sensor picture. The station is active, but traffic is already leaving."

That was exactly what Aurelian had expected after seeing Drann’s withdrawal preparations.

"How many ships?"

"At least five transports have departed in the last four hours. Two escort groups remain near the station, along with local defense craft."

"Any large warships?"

"Nothing heavier than a cruiser."

Rhoswen looked toward Aurelian.

"That sounds very manageable."

"It sounds incomplete."

"It can be both."

Aurelian enlarged the station map.

Veyra Nine was far enough from Sanctuary Ardent that any operation would take time. He could not simply launch the whole fleet and leave the sanctuary exposed, especially with its main batteries still offline.

At the same time, waiting too long might mean arriving after the prisoners had been moved or killed.

"Can we confirm whether the three hundred and twelve are still there?" he asked.

Eirenne opened another part of the captured transport’s files.

"I found medical supply orders linked to the prisoner section. They continued until eleven days ago."

Vaela looked toward her.

"So at least some were alive eleven days ago."

"Yes."

"Anything newer?"

"Not yet."

That was enough to justify further action.

Aurelian looked toward Solenne’s image.

"How much force can you spare without weakening Sanctuary Ardent?"