Sam held up the small disk, showing it to Snotface. “This,” she spoke slowly, in a deliberate manner, “will make you invisible. Do you understand what that means?”
{No one see me? Like on mission to catch bad guys!}
Micah saw Sam’s lips twitch as her hands fiddled with the unit.
“Mm-hmm,” she said, “just like when the teams go out on a mission.”
What she didn’t bother to explain was the disk used refraction to bend incident light waves. It tied directly into the simple evanescent device implanted into the ferret’s brain.
Snotface’s communications chip was different from human wire implants. Identical to the ones inside the big cats’ heads, it had no data partition or memory cache, no lattice of SmartCarbyne nanofloss threaded throughout the body for it to control.
The comm implant did, however, include a small cluster of short fibers that led to specific spots in the ferret’s brain. These fibers monitored neural data, translating thought into rudimentary speech. That data also happened to register certain other neural activity—neurons that controlled the ferret’s motor functions.
When these neurons fired, sending messages to Snotface’s limbs, the implant’s feed allowed the device in Sam’s hand to predict which way the small mammal was going to move and where he would place his limbs. It would then direct a magnetically controlled cloud of light-bending chaff to cloak the animal’s movements.
It wasn’t perfect. In strong light, a wave-like ripple would outline Snotface’s form whenever he moved, giving away his location. But in the fairgrounds’ shadows and the minimal lighting of the tents, Snotface would blend in with ease.
Sam sat back. “There. That should do it.”
Micah returned his attention to the shuttle’s flight controls, their destination looming large in the forward holo. Disengaging the vessel’s SI, he took full manual control, setting the shuttle down at the mission’s landing zone. Sheltered as it was in the lee of a hill, and with its own passive stealth activated, the ship should remain undetected.
{We’re here,} he sent over the ship’s net to Major Reid and the team, seated aft of Sam and Harper.
His words were met by a chorus of mental voices as he placed the vessel in standby mode.
Unwebbing from his pilot’s cradle, he rotated to face the cabin. He nodded to Major Reid as she made her way to the front, and then met Sam’s eyes. “You ready?”
She nodded.
“Is he?”
She nodded again.
He looked down at the small animal. “Snotface?”
The ferret jerked around at the sound of his name, the motion accompanied by an inquisitive noise. He squirmed in Sam’s arms and, when she released him, pattered over to where Micah sat, swarming up into his lap.
Despite the fact that they’d been enhanced by the same crazed scientist who had brought him to life, Micah knew the ferrets still didn’t have a comprehension level—or attention span—greater than that of a young child.
He also knew this bothered Major Reid. It concerned him, too, truth be told. But he’d seen Snotface’s performance in the Hawking Habitat, up close and personal. He knew the ferret could do it, if they could just impart the seriousness of the situation to the animal.
Micah lifted Snotface up and stared into his eyes as Reid stopped beside the first row of seats. “You got this, little guy? You understand what you need to do?”
Snotface’s whiskers twitched, and he reached one paw up to swipe at his muzzle in a washing motion. After a moment’s contemplation, he replied.
{Put little shiny piece on big shiny ship.}
Micah resisted the urge to sigh as he settled the ferret in his lap.
He looked over at Harper and made a motion with his hand. She dropped the tracker into his open palm.
“That’s right. Put little shiny piece onto big shiny ship.”
He held the small tracker between thumb and forefinger.
“This thing is your small shiny. All you have to do is place it on the ship, just like we practiced, remember?”
He mimed placing the tracker against the shuttle’s bulkhead.
“You get it up there, and we’ll do the rest. Place little shiny on big shiny.”
{Then I get to keep?}
“No… no.” He exhaled a short, frustrated breath, his fist closing on the tracker. “Little shiny has to stay where you put it.”
Snotface’s nose crinkled, and he reached a small paw toward the device.
Reid’s voice cut in. “This isn’t going to work.”
“Yes, it will,” Harper protested, pushing to her feet.
“Wait.” Micah shot his hand out in front of him as an idea struck him.
He reached into the pocket of his flight suit and pulled out the challenge coin he’d been given when he’d first achieved his captaincy within Shadow Recon.
Focusing once more on the ferret, he held up the coin in one hand, and the tracker in the other. “You put the tracker on the ship like we discussed, and when you get back, I’ll give you this shiny instead. Deal?”
The ferret reached for the challenge coin with both tiny paws. {Gimme, gimme, want to see.}
“Nope.” Micah palmed the coin, wagging his finger at the inquisitive ferret. “You don’t get the new shiny until you put the little shiny on the big shiny.”
Reid groaned.
{Is this giving anyone else a headache?} one of the operatives on Team Two said over the net.
Micah ignored the voice, his attention fully on the creature in his lap.
The ferret’s eyes turned calculating, and Micah could practically see the thoughts whirling inside his little brain.
{Okay. Deal.}
Micah’s eyes slid shut and he released another soundless breath as he set the small animal down onto the deck. “He’s all yours,” he told Harper, feeling as if he’d just won a hard-fought battle.
He ignored the laughing look the analyst shot his way as she pulled Snotface into her arms.
She reached up to activate the cloak that would hide the ferret from the view of the guards monitoring the fairgrounds, and in a blink, Snotface disappeared.
Harper stood, nodding to Reid. “We’re ready, Major.”
Reid’s lips compressed, but she refrained from further comment. Pivoting on her heel, she led the way aft to the open hatch, then flicked her finger at the hunting cat.
Pascal chuffed quietly and rose from his haunches, padding behind her.
As he passed one of the operatives from Team One, the man bent down to activate the cloaking disk attached to the cat’s working vest. The material was made from the same camouflage material used to create the teams’ drakeskin suits, which would afford the animal protection against stray gunshots.
Like Snotface, Pascal’s disk was tied to the team’s combat net, so when the cat disappeared from view right before Micah’s eyes, the feline’s location popped up on his HUD, the blip generated by IFF code embedded inside identifying him as a ‘friendly.’
A slight ripple gave away his movement under the shuttle’s harsh interior lighting as Pascal slipped into the darkness.
Harper handed Snotface over to one of the team members who was suited up and ready to depart. “You’ll take him all the way to the outside of the tent?”
The man nodded briefly in response.
Harper stepped back with her own nod, and then melted into the background while Major Reid gave the team their final instructions.
Micah saw each member of the fireteam doing last-minute weapons checks, then heard them sound off over the combat net before activating their own drakeskin suits and disappearing from view.
{ETA, ten minutes,} one reported.
Micah exchanged a glance with Sam, turning back to the shuttle’s cockpit. He pulled up the various feeds coming from the drakeskin suits of the team advancing toward the tent, and tossed them up onto the ship’s forward screen.
As he cycled through them, he paused on
the feed of the operative carrying the ferret as the man stopped at the edge of the tent. He saw the figure crouch, setting Snotface on the ground. Then the man pulled out a knife and went to work digging at the hard-packed dirt beside the tent, careful not to touch its canvas sides.
Sensors woven into the material would alert those guarding the tent if it was disturbed. By gaining entrance this way, it would look like the ferret had burrowed his way in, which would explain to anyone who might catch sight of the creature how he could have evaded detection.
{In you go, little one,} they heard the operative say as he stepped back.
The device cloaking the ferret disappeared in a blip when Snotface crossed through into the heavily firewalled area.
Over the combat net, Micah heard, {Asset is in.}
Reid turned and looked at him. “Okay, Case. You’re up.”
Micah swiveled his chair to face Sneaky Pete, held in Harper’s arms. Forearms braced on knees, the captain clasped his hands loosely and leaned toward the little animal.
“Okay, buddy, tell me what’s going on. Talk to Snotface. Tell us what he’s seeing.”
The ferret stared up at him with bright eyes. {Smells like Chief Katie,} he sent after a moment.
Micah chuckled. “That’s right, Katie was there. Smells like grease, doesn’t it?”
{And lots of shinies. Oooooh, round shiny, I keep?}
“No,” said Micah hastily. Pulling his challenge coin from his pocket, he knelt on the shuttle’s deck in front of Sneaky Pete. Holding the coin up, he said, “Remind Snotface we have an agreement.”
Sneaky Pete stared at him, whiskers arching, and then he tilted his head to one side, as if listening. {Snotface at ship. Put little shiny up inside?}
“Tell him to hurry. We want him out of there as fast as possible,” said Harper.
{Hokay. Little shiny on big shiny. Snotface bring me round ball with Katie smell on them.}
“No!” Micah instinctively lurched forward, but then caught himself. “Tell him he needs to leave before the bad guys find him.”
{Uh-oh, too late.}
An alert sounded, and Micah swung his attention to the shuttle’s forward screens. There, he saw several figures converging on the tent.
Reid stiffened. “Something must have tipped them off.”
Micah’s lips thinned as he looked up at the major with a brief nod. “We knew that was a possibility, the way they have that tent locked down. If they find him, the worst that can happen is—"
“The worst that can happen is they kill him!” Harper interrupted. Her hands tightened around Sneaky Pete. “Tell him to run, Pete!”
At her sharp words, the ferret in her arms began to shiver, eyes wide and ears flattening. {They hurt Snotface?}
Micah grasped Harper’s arm and gave her a warning headshake.
Leaning forward, he brushed a hand over Sneaky Pete’s head. “We won’t let that happen,” he reassured him. “But to protect him, we need to get him out of that tent. Do you understand?”
The tension from the humans was bleeding over to the creature, who was now vibrating with fear.
“Come on, buddy,” Micah urged. “You can do this. Tell Snotface to get back to the tunnel they dug—”
Pete chittered nervously. {Bad men chase! Bad men in tent! Snotface scared! Hurt—}
Harper gasped. “They’re firing at him?”
{Pascal!} Micah interrupted. {I need that diversion!}
The ripping snarl of a Ceriban hunting cat in full tracking mode ripped through the open plains.
A jumble of voices sounded over the combat net, the sound eliciting startled exclamations from the teams’ operatives, despite being forewarned.
A quick glance up at the shuttle’s forward screen told Micah it had done the same to the opposition. Icons moved erratically, agents jolted into action by the hunting cat’s savage cry.
{Pascal,} Micah barked. {Again!}
Another feral roar sliced through the night, the sound chilling in the dark. Micah could almost taste the confusion and terror the panther-like animal evoked as the icons on the feed began to scatter.
He turned back to the ferret. “Sneaky Pete?”
The ferret reached up and patted Micah on the chin. {Snotface back outside now.}
Micah exhaled and glanced back up at the major. Her eyes were defocused; he could tell she was speaking privately on Team One’s combat channel.
After a moment, she looked down at him, jerking her chin in a brief nod. “Asset has been contained, cloaking device reinitialized. The team is en route to the LZ.”
Reid shifted and crossed her arms, a look of grudging admiration playing across her face. The expression was subtle, easily missed. “I have to admit, I didn’t think that would work.”
“It almost didn’t.” Micah rocked back on his heels and pushed to his feet. “It’s not a success if they find it. We have to hope that they don’t do another sweep before the race. If they do…” He sighed and gestured vaguely about. “I’m out of ideas.”
GATE TRANSIT
GNS Mirage
Inside Invictus’s hold
En Route, Calabi-Yau Gate
Jonathan’s morning began with Micah’s recount of the night’s escapades.
Dude. That’s two ferret ops you’ve completed. You’re now the designated Ferret Handler, he declared.
Micah mentally flipped him off, and then groaned, exhaustion clear in his mental tone.
I gotta grab a few hours’ sleep before I meet Garza. Go bug someone else.
His words caused Jonathan to chuckle aloud. He rose from his temporary billet on the cruiser, after a quick glance at his chrono. He had just enough time to grab a shower and some grub before reporting back to Mirage.
Twenty minutes later, he strode into the ship’s dining facility, where a table of Shadow Recon pilots waved him over. He grabbed a pile of food and some coffee, and joined them, sliding into an empty chair between Yuki and Daz.
He was midway through his meal when Valenti’s voice sounded over the task force’s mission combat net.
{You have one hour to report to your respective ships. We arrive at the gate in two hours.}
He checked his chrono again. It had just rolled over to 0800.
Beside him, Daz chased the last bite of egg on her plate with the piece of toast in her hand. Popping it into her mouth, she mumbled, “Gotta run.”
Jonathan buried his grin behind his mug as he took a sip of coffee, but a jab in his side from Yuki’s elbow told him she’d caught it anyway.
“Stop it. You were the same way when you captained your first ship. Cut her some slack. She’s doing great.”
“She is,” he agreed, “and she deserves Wraith. She’s an outstanding pilot.”
He felt a tug of loss over the ship he’d spent the past few tours captaining, but shrugged it off; they had Mirage now, and she was a damn fine vessel.
Yuki pushed away from the table. “Just enough time for me to get in a quick run down at the gym.”
She scooped up her tray and ambled over to the corner recycler.
Jonathan crooked a brow at Will, seated across from him. “You’re not joining her?”
The man who was both Mirage’s flight engineer and its crew chief looked mildly surprised. “She didn’t tell you? The gym’s in Marine country.”
Jonathan groaned. “She challenged one of them, didn’t she?”
Will ran a hand over the top of his blond crew cut, tilting his head back as he studied the D-FAC’s ceiling. “Maybe.”
Jonathan resisted the urge to grind his teeth. “Do I need to go bail her out?”
The normally mild-mannered man grinned suddenly. “Nope. I pinged Thad. He’s on his way to intercept her.”
Jonathan shook his head. “She’s going to kick your ass when she finds out you snitched.”
Will just shrugged. “I figure she’ll be too busy flying to do that. If all else fails, I’ll tell her you sent Thad after her, not me.
”
Jonathan wadded up his napkin and fired it across the table. “Bastard.”
* * *
Within half an hour, everyone was back on board their assigned Shadow Recon vessel. Joule was in her crate, and the flight crews were at their stations and webbed into their seats.
Will patched the feed from Invictus’s sensors onto Mirage’s forward screens. From his seat beside Ell in Mirage’s cabin, Thad had a front-row view.
He found himself unable to look away from the Calabi-Yau gate’s otherworldly glow as the cruiser approached the front of the queue. A flash heralded a fresh cycle as another ship readied itself to transit.
Thad sat mesmerized as the vessel crept forward until it was seized by the wildly coruscating extra-dimensional light given off by the compactified branes in the center of its maw. It disappeared in a blink, collapsing into blackness, as the next ship advanced slowly into position.
“Third in the queue,” announced Will.
Yuki, seated to his left, seemed deeply immersed in her connection with the ship and did not respond.
Thad saw Jonathan give the specialist a thumbs-up in silent reply just as a secondary display showed Invictus side-slipping into position—and then they were number two.
A wave from Jonathan’s hand shifted the secondary feed from space traffic control onto the main screens. Thad saw icons marching forward toward the gate, each separated by a fifty-kilometer distance, STC’s indicators highlighting the ones in the queue as red. The vessel transiting was limned in green, and the one next up had a yellow tag.
A grouping of six tiny triangles on the screen represented their small task group. Three ships floated in the black ahead of Mirage, two were on their six.
“Awfully tight there, hoss.”
Thad could hear the smile in Jonathan’s voice as he replied, “Once we get to the other side, they’ll spread out a bit.”
As the countdown clock neared zero, the formation moved into position. When it was time, the destroyers in front of Mirage eased forward… and disappeared. Between one instant and the next, Mirage left the Procyon star system and entered Alpha Centauri.
Chiral Justice: A Hard Science Fiction Technothriller (The Biogenesis War Book 3) Page 15