by M. D. Cooper
I blinked in surprise as Reginald removed the two moons from my uniform and replaced them with the new rank insignia. He nodded in satisfaction and took a step back, saluting me with a proud smile.
“Thank you, sir,” I stammered as I returned the gesture. “I…I really wasn’t expecting this.”
“It’s a bit early,” he said in agreement while lowering his hand. “But well earned.”
“What about Rear Admiral Bensen?” I asked, still stunned by the unanticipated honor.
Reginald returned to his seat and gestured for me to do the same. “I never intended for him to lead the task force. He’s an organizer, no one can shuffle materiel around like he can, but—and he freely admits this—taking a force into the field isn’t his forte. But it’s perfect for an officer like you, Sinclair. You’ve got the right instincts for the job. That’s why I’m giving it to you.”
I nodded, wondering what was next. “So, what is Iron Lance’s true purpose in Chal?”
“Clever.” Reginald smiled. “Which is why I selected you to command the mission. On paper, we’re escorting merchants who wouldn’t make the trip otherwise due to the occlusion However, the real purpose is to establish a permanent military presence in Chal.”
My mouth fell open, and I listened intently as he outlined the full scope of the mission. When the vice admiral was done, I sat in stunned silence for a minute.
“So, Major Commander. Are you still eager for this task?”
“Eager?” I almost gasped the word. “That hardly does it justice.”
“Excellent. Coordinate with Bensen from here on out. You depart in a week.”
17
THE UN-HEIST
“Each courier is coming here?” Fledge asked, a rather joyous smile gracing his lips. “This is even better than I thought. Seven separate ones?”
I nodded, glad that some of the buyers had purchased two cores. I’d be able to mix and match, ensuring that one of Fledge’s trackable cores would go out with each buyer. It was entirely possible that sending those out would come back to bite me in the ass later, but I hoped that if the DSA took down everyone who received a core, it would all come out in the wash.
And if not, I’d be far away from Delphi when the DSA realized that there were four cores on the Kerrigan they’d never found.
The problem, of course, was moving those four out with Fledge being none the wiser.
“I’ll set them up in the hold, each in its own case,” he said, and strode off the bridge.
“Dude sure is eager,” Kallie said, arms crossed beneath her breasts, with something between a frown and a pout on her face.
Finn nodded. “Yeah. I bet he is. His career is set. The guy who saved all these cores from getting into the wrong hands and took down Korinth? He’s gonna get medals, a plaque, maybe even a pat on the back, and a round of ‘attaboy’s from the brassiest of the brass.”
“A regular hero,” I muttered.
Truth be told, I didn’t really mind Fledge that much. He was a bit of a smug ass, but we’d bonded over a mutual dislike of Sinclair, and that was worth a lot in my books.
“Hey, Captain, didn’t you have something for us?” Finn asked right on cue.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small white square.
“What’s that, boss?” Tammy asked.
“A bonus for each of you,” I replied while giving her ‘shut up’ eyes.
The square was a stack of paper. Old tree-mulch stuff—or so I was told. Each sheet had instructions on it, tasks that needed to be done at a specific time and place over the course of the next few hours.
I gave one to Tammy, Finn, Oln—after we woke him up in the galley—and Kallie.
The final instruction was ‘eat me’. I got a few looks for that, but each of them did as they were told, careful to make sure they weren’t in sight of any optics when doing so.
It was possible that Fledge had seen me hand out the sheets if he’d been monitoring optics, but Finn had introduced a bug in the bridge’s feeds that reduced the resolution enough that it would be impossible to read the message on the papers.
It was the best I could do on short notice, and I hoped it would work.
Because if it doesn’t, we’re all going to be in prison by this time tomorrow.
I stood in front of my chair as the crew dispersed to carry out their tasks. The first courier was coming for just one core. Because of that, we had to swap one of Fledge’s neutered cores for a functional one. I had a strong suspicion that Korinth was going to have it examined before it and the subsequent ones made it to their final destinations. I was relatively certain that Fledge’s alterations wouldn’t be detectable—the DSA had almost as much riding on his skill as I did—but I wasn’t so sure that I’d let the first out of the gate be one of his.
I knocked once and then opened the door to Fledge’s cabin. The man was sitting on his bed, surrounded by holographic displays.
“Hey,” I began with mock hesitancy. “I know I don’t have to say this, but don’t leave your cabin, OK? If any of Korinth’s people see you, we’re all dead.”
The Intel man gave me a sour look and nodded. “You’re right, you don’t have to say it. I’m not going to fuck this up, just be sure you don’t either. Your pardon depends on it.”
“Trust me, I have a lot more at stake than you.”
He grunted in response, and I closed the door.
Time to get this show on the road.
I took a left at the T junction after the galley and slid down the ladder to the cargo deck. From there, it was a short walk through several of the special climate-controlled holds to the main forward hold where Kallie was set up.
She stood in front of a table positioned in the center of the hold. On the table was a case containing one of Fledge’s neutered cores. Along one wall, tucked into the rack that held spare parts, were three more cases. One held a single unaltered core, and we had to swap that for the one on the table.
Without looking directly at Kallie, I walked to the rack and grabbed a second case and brought it to the table.
Kallie had been staring at the airlock, which was currently guarded by Finn, but when I set the second core on the table, she turned and gave me a sharp look.
“What are you doing?”
“I figured we’d make the ‘luck of the draw’ thing legit. The courier can pick whichever they want.” I grabbed both cases and moved them around the table like I was playing a shell game.
“Captain…” she used her extra-exasperated tone, which wasn’t too different from her regular way of speaking to me. “We don’t need them to realize that they could make a grab for more and try something stupid.”
“No one’s going to do that. They’d get smushed by Korinth. Figuratively and literally. It’s a bad look.”
“Yeah, well, you’re not the one standing here next to the cores, having to deal with grabby-grabby hands. Please put it back.”
“Fiiiiine.” I picked up the case containing Fledge’s modified core and carried it back to the rack, leaving the other core in place.
Kallie gave me a satisfied look that I took to mean she was pleased with my performance. I responded with a sour glance and walked to the rear of the hold, where I climbed onto a meter-high crate and sat with my legs dangling over the side, pistol drawn and resting on my lap.
I tapped the airlock feed and watched people pass by through the outer door’s window. After a minute, a woman approached and flashed a hand signal in front of the clear plas.
“Checks out,” Finn said, opening the outer door.
The ship’s pressure had been equalized to match Myka Station’s, so there was no need to cycle the lock, but it functioned as a useful way to limit access to the ship, and so the courier was required to wait while the chamber went through a quick pressure check before the inner door opened and admitted her into the bay.
The woman was tall, well over two meters, and rail thin. Dark hair framed a pale face th
at was drawn into a scowl that didn’t change as she approached Kallie.
“This it?” she asked.
“No.” Kallie jerked her thumb at the crate I was sitting on. “It’s the one under the captain’s ass. Yes, this is it. Do you have the hard-toke?”
The woman slapped a small datacube onto the table, and Kallie slotted it into a network-isolated reader. A wise decision. I wouldn’t trust any cube a person handed me in a deal like this either.
“Just a second,” the engineer said, waiting for the reader to update with the information she needed.
The courier just nodded and looked around the hold. “Lovely ship you have here.”
“The best,” Kallie muttered. “OK, looks good. Credits transferred. Here you go.”
She pushed the case toward the courier, who grabbed it and stalked back to the airlock.
I dropped a coded message on a feed speculating about the length of the dark matter occlusion; Korinth would be watching and know that the first courier had made their pickup.
Once the woman exited the airlock, Kallie turned, gave me no small amount of side-eye, and then walked to the rack to grab the next core.
The following two pickups also went smoothly, and with only one more core on the rack, I slipped off the crate and nodded to Kallie. “I’m gonna get the other four.”
“Sure,” she nodded amicably. “Ten minutes till the next one arrives.”
Fledge’s single word didn’t instill a lot of confidence, and I hoped it was just him being surly and not a harbinger of future complications.
I climbed the ladder to the crew deck and walked toward the galley, where the other cores had been stored. The sound of popcorn kernels exploding inside a bag came to my ears, and I suppressed a smile as I walked into the room.
“Hungry, Oln?”
“Always,” he grunted in response. “Did a lot of reps this morning, gotta carb up.”
I just shook my head as I walked to the cabinet under the coffee maker and opened the doors to reveal the three remaining cases, each one holding one of Fledge’s neutered cores.
At that moment, Oln opened the microwave, smoke pouring out, followed by a burst of flame.
“Fuck!” the big man exclaimed and took a step back, tripping over a chair and falling next to me.
“What the hell! Oln, get that fire out before the suppression systems kick in.”
Small galley fires were more common than one would hope on less disciplined ships—such as mine. It wasn’t uncommon to have fire suppression dialed down to avoid dousing meals in water and foam just because someone burned something.
Oln stood and pulled open another cabinet, yanking out the fire extinguisher as smoke continued to fill the galley. Inside that cabinet were three more of the unaltered cores. I popped open the cases—each had room for four cores—and placed an extra, unaltered core in each while Oln fumbled with the fire extinguisher.
I was closing the third case when Fledge burst into the galley. “What the fuck!”
“I’m good,” I said, picking up the three cases and moving toward the door while the Intel man wrenched the extinguisher from Oln’s hands and sprayed foam into the microwave.
“Fuck, dude!” Oln shouted. “Now how am I gonna eat that?”
Fledge ignored him and caught up with me at the galley’s exit. The air was already clearing as the smoke was sucked into the vents.
“Are they OK?” he asked.
“Yeah, I just dropped one and gave it a once-over.”
I stepped into the passageway, and he joined me, placing a hand on my shoulder. “You sure?”
“Do you mind?” I gave his hand a sour look before meeting his gaze. “The next courier is going to be here any moment. I’d like to have these in the rack before they arrive.”
Fledge pulled his hand back and nodded. “OK, just make sure your crewmembers don’t blow the ship up before we’re done.”
I pushed past and walked to the lift. I stopped at the intersection and glanced over my shoulder. “So far, so good.”
The Intel man shook his head and returned to his cabin. Five minutes later, I was back on my perch in the cargo bay, the last of the cases stowed on the parts rack, and my heart still pounding in my chest.
The next two exchanges went off without a hitch, and then there were only two cases left. One on the table in front of Kallie, one on the rack. Both contained two cores, one of Fledge’s and one unaltered one.
I hopped off the crate and sauntered to Kallie’s side. “Numbnuts says this tracker’s not working and we have to swap it out.” I slapped the case as I spoke, and the engineer rolled her eyes. “I bet it’s fine. He probably just didn’t send the right init token.”
She turned the case around and popped the latches. I reached her side and leant over, my jacket obscuring the bay’s optics.
“What do you think?”
“I think you’d better get out of my light,” Kallie muttered and gave me a shove.
A moment later, Fledge burst into the bay, muttering a string of unintelligible curses as he reached Kallie’s side and pushed her next to me. He looked down at the case which held one cube and then glared at us both. “Just stay out of my way and let me do this,” He slipped a probe into the latching mechanism. “These things were damn hard to place, if you two—”
“Just re-init it,” Kallie interrupted. “But hurry, our next courier is almost here.”
“Yeah, yeah,” the Intel man muttered. “OK, it’s good. Don’t mess with it.”
Fledge closed the case and stormed out of the bay. Tammy was on return-intercept duty; it was her job to distract Fledge somehow so we could get the other cube back in. None of us doubted that he had the bay-feeds up on his visual HUD at all times.
I followed the ship’s internal feeds, watching as Fledge walked down the passage and climbed the ladder.
Any day now, Tammy…
Fledge walked down the passage to the T junction and turned toward the crew cabins. He was walking with his gaze downcast, and ran into Tammy as she walked out of the galley.
Buck naked.
“Whoa!” she exclaimed as she fell back and grabbed Fledge’s shoulder for stability.
“Hey…” his tone was filled with annoyance until his eyes swung upward, stopping on her breasts before darting to her face. “Shit, sorry!”
He took a step back, but Tammy crossed her arms and scowled at him, delivering a biting diatribe about watching where he was going and not feeling her up.
Luckily, Kallie had the presence of mind to pop the case open, and I put the second core back in a moment later, laughing under my breath as I settled it into place.
“Now that’s our Tammy,” I said, forcing myself to calm down as Kallie cast me a dirty look.
Finn wore a sour expression, and I gave him a wink before returning to my seat. “Not like we haven’t seen that before.”
“Shut it,” Finn shot back, then turned to the airlock. “He’s here.”
“He?” Kallie frowned. “Penny’s info said this courier is a she.”
Finn peered through the window as the outer lock opened and then shook his head. “Aw crap…there’s two of them.”
I checked and saw that Fledge had finally extricated himself
from Tammy and was back in his cabin. I considered our options and hopped off my perch again and strode to the airlock where a man and a woman stood inside.
Flipping the voice channel on, I announced, “You, Blue-eyes. Out of the airlock. We’ve only got Blondie here on our list.”
The blue-eyed man peered at me through the window. “This isn’t going down unless I’m inside and see the merch.”
“What are you talking about?” I shook my head in disbelief. “There’s no payment being made here. That’s all between you and Korinth. Your courier gets the merch, and you pay him however you have decided to. We’re not involved in that part.”
“I don’t care, I’m—”
“Buddy,” interrupted him. “You get the merch before you pay. What the hell is your problem?”
The blonde woman was giving him an exasperated look, and finally he turned and walked out of the airlock. “They better both be there.”
Oh shit…did Fledge hear that?
I pulled the upper passage feed onto my HUD, waiting for the Intel man to come storming out of his room.
“You’ll get what you get,” I muttered, hoping that would be enough to mollify Fledge should he have heard the comment.
The lock cycled, and a minute later, the woman came in. She was as nondescript as the other couriers, an aesthetic that people in her position endeavored to maintain. I kept an eye on her, but the exchange was as quick as the prior five.
“He going to give you any trouble?” I asked as she picked up the case.
“Phil?” she barked a laugh and shook her head. “Stars, if I can’t handle the likes of him, I need a new career.”
She left without incident, and fifteen minutes later, the final courier came and left. And with that, the exchange was done. Half the terrible situations I’d imagined—and written out contingencies for in my notes—hadn’t happened.
The only thing looming over us was the parting statement Phil had made.
I remained on my perch, brooding over that complication, while Finn aided Kallie in folding up the table and moving it to a storage rack. Just as they were slotting it into place, Fledge strode into the bay and made a beeline for me.