“Yes, yes, we all signed it. But come now, we each knew, didn’t we? In our secret hearts? There was no one else on that station, all the below levels were off-limits, and Valentine… She was never quite right, was she? Always taking orders from someone else, someone we never saw. Our fleet protectors were all impostors, and the research we were doing never matched the stated mission brief.”
“I had no inkling—”
“She’s right,” another male scientist said, scooting closer to the group. Tomas didn’t dare look up to see who it was, and he didn’t yet know them all by voice. “Come on, Dal, you said so yourself about Valentine. She wasn’t comfortable with the science.”
“That didn’t mean our operation was illegal.”
“I don’t blame you for ignoring the signs,” Liao said. “We all wanted to believe it was real, didn’t we? And all the security made it feel real, but it was just hiding. Hiding because we were doing research that the Keepers would not allow civilians to touch, and that was exciting, wasn’t it? Some days, I felt like Prometheus. Stealing the secrets from our gods, getting a glimpse at how their technology works.
“Even now… Even now I desperately want to know what we were really doing there. Don’t you all? Weren’t you all hoping, even a little bit, that some secret of the gates would be revealed to us if we worked long and hard enough?”
“We just made receivers. Amplifiers.” Dal’s voice was scarcely a whisper.
“Nanoized, to work with the gates. Why would the Keepers even want that? And if they did, why not do it themselves? Face facts, Dal. We were working with technology protected by death statutes. The major isn’t going to drop us off at the nearest station and wish us well on our travels. This kind of thing must happen, they must have protocols in place, and I don’t believe those protocols involve releasing scientists who may have seen too much.
“Who among us hasn’t seen a fellow researcher disappear for skating too close to our gods? They do not intend to let us off this shuttle, because it’s our coffin.”
A scientist let out a soft sob.
“That’s ridiculous,” Tomas said. The last thing he wanted to do was make himself even more noticeable, but this was going too far. “Greeve wouldn’t do that. She’s the damn hero of Dralee, put her ship in the path of a railgun meant for one of her subordinates and ended up a POW. You really think someone like that would space a handful of civilians she went to mortal trouble to save?”
“You don’t know her,” Liao snapped. “None of us do. We only know what they said in the news. Patriotic bullshit to keep justifying their slow eradication of Icarion.”
Tomas’s head spun. He forced himself to listen.
“Why would she save us only to space us?” Dal asked.
“To make sure none of us made it out on our own.”
The texture of the silence that descended crawled against his skin. These people were frightened, reasonably so, and any attempt from Tomas to win them over to Sanda’s side would only oust him from the group and give them a lightning rod to strike.
“Even me?” Sarai asked, her voice soft from the strain of her wounds. “She could have left me for dead. I couldn’t have escaped on my own.”
“Doing so would have turned us against her. The major is no fool.”
“If she is this insidious tactician,” Dal said, and though his words dripped with irony, Tomas could tell he was beginning to believe Liao. He just needed a push, either way. “Then how do you hope to outsmart her?”
He already believed Liao; he wanted a plan. Tomas’s mouth went dry.
“Dal has a point,” a man said. “The fleet has excellent PR, but we all saw footage of her kill Lavaux, she’s crafty. I know they said it was a hoax but—”
“Don’t bring that conspiracy shit here,” Sarai said. “If she killed a Keeper, the High Protectorate would have fried her before she could sneeze.”
“I’m just saying, it took them a long time to ‘debunk’ that video. Long enough to make a convincing fake. She must have something on her superiors to get them to back her up like that, if you ask me.”
“No one’s asking you,” Sarai said.
“Whether or not she’s a murderer, we have no leverage here,” Dal said.
“We have some bargaining power.” Liao pulled a silver flask from her pocket. “I took a sample, in the cargo bay, of a fluid being pumped down into the lower levels—if it can be called a fluid. She will want it, or her masters will. Either way, I will not give it to her until our safety is assured.”
“A sample of what?” Tomas asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t know, maybe you do, Dal? It was silver and purple, running through clear tubing in the ceiling. The metallic appearance led me to believe it was more of your nanites suspended in some fluid matrix.”
“Hmm.” He tapped at his wristpad. “It’s difficult to be certain without seeing the fluid, but I suspect it was the growth matrix for the amplifiers we had some success with. Valentine wanted them reproducing so we’d have a larger data set to examine the behaviors of, so Sarai and I created a fluid rich in the molecules the nanites would need to self-replicate. It had a definite purple color, though I suspect the silver you saw was merely a sheen cast by a dense presence of nanites. They were growing rapidly.”
“Wait,” another scientist said, “there are laws against self-replicating nanites. Prime doesn’t even use them. Why would Valentine order such a thing?”
Dal shrugged and lifted his palms to the sky. “I am not one to rebuke a Keeper’s orders, even if it comes filtered through the mouth of their agent.”
Liao laughed roughly, turning the flask over in her hands. “So this is evidence of our crimes, as well as our only leverage to secure our safety.”
“I don’t know,” Sarai said. “Dal and I kept careful records. We could prove easily enough that we received orders to create what we did, and that we adhered to the parameters set to us. It might be evidence of our innocence.”
Tomas forced himself not to mention the governors, but couldn’t help stealing a look at Dal, who had been so frightened when Tomas had asked him about them. The man had paled and was tugging down one side of his mustache sharply. He met Tomas’s eye, and understanding passed between them. Dal wouldn’t reveal he suspected the governors were wrong. Tomas inclined his head, pretending to agree.
“We will have to see,” Dal said. “But I suspect that, if we keep what we know to ourselves for now, you will find the sample an effective bargaining chip.”
“Are we all agreed?” Liao asked the huddled group. “None of us will reveal to her what this is until our safety is assured?”
Wary nods all around. Tomas wondered why he never felt guilty when he lied to his marks, but he nodded with a clean conscience. They were unlikely to discover he planned to tell Sanda everything the second he got her alone. She would ensure their safety with or without the flask.
He needed her to know the contents of that flask, because while Tomas knew what he was supposed to do as a Nazca, he didn’t know what was right. His masters would want him to grab the sample and hightail it back to base. Possibly, that was the correct course of action.
Prime Director Okonkwo had ordered this mission, and while he had so far failed to discover the truth of what Rainier was, surely a self-replicating nanite swarm that could spin down the gates was a more pressing matter.
But he couldn’t be sure. His time with Sanda had shown him that some vital part of his emotional core had eroded, or never existed at all. He felt no guilt when he nodded lies along with his marks, no shame when he pretended secret confidences with Dal. The last time he’d even felt real fear had been during his debriefing, when the Nazca had danced too close to finding out the secret of the chip in Sanda’s head.
And if Sanda was the star by which he’d set his course, then he needed her to know who he really was. No matter the danger.
CHAPTER 37
PRIME STANDARD YEAR 3543
<
br /> ANY PORT IN A WAR
Liao brought Novak with her, the choice Sanda had hoped she would make. Something didn’t sit right with Sanda about that man, and she wanted the others to get eyes on him to make their own assessments.
She wanted General Anford to see him, too, but for different reasons. Sanda needed to see if Anford reacted to him—if he was her plant—because Sanda was pretty sure he was somebody’s spy, and Anford couldn’t be discounted.
“Doctor,” she said, when Liao and Novak had clunked through the door onto the command deck. Sanda stayed strapped in her captain’s seat and glanced down at her missing prosthetic. “Forgive me for not getting up to greet you.”
“There is nothing to forgive. I hope your injuries are healing well.”
Liao thumped around to the front of the deck to stand in front of Sanda, picking up her feet like a cat that’d stepped in something sticky. She was not comfortable in space, let alone low-g, but her words were smooth enough. The doctor thought she had an ace up her sleeve, then.
“They’re superficial at worst,” Sanda said, brushing the concern aside. “Novak, I trust your charge is healing well?”
“Sarai’s much better, thank you.” He ducked his head down, watching his boots as much as he watched the floor, hands shoved deep in his pockets.
“Good. I am about to call this incident in to my commander, and I thought you would like to be present to give your account, Liao.”
The woman stiffened all over. “Your commander?”
“General Anford. Are you well enough to speak?”
“I… yes, but I’d like some time to prepare…”
“Prepare?” Sanda scoffed. “I’ll be honest with you, Liao, and trust you won’t foment panic on the shuttle. The air filters on the Thorn desperately need replacement and are losing efficiency every minute. We are working on the problem, but at the moment you and your people represent an extreme drain on our resources. My general may ask me to scuttle you.”
Liao took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, preparing an argument.
Sanda spoke before she could. “I will not do that under any circumstances, save you or your people become an active, violent danger to my crew. With that in mind, be honest with my superior. That is the only way I can protect you.”
Sanda tapped the call button she’d been hesitating over, and Anford immediately flickered into life on the screen. She heard Liao gasp, softly, and her clothes rustle as she tried to shuffle backward but came up against the resistance of the mag boots.
That was all background, though. Sanda was watching Anford, having ambushed her with these two suspect faces, and was… disappointed. Anford flicked her gaze over them, not showing any signs of recognition, then back to Sanda.
“I believe I instructed you not to become another press incident.”
“Unavoidable. Janus Station initiated a self-destruct sequence.”
“Under whose orders?”
“One Juliella Vicenza, alias Jules Valentine. She’s wanted in the death of Keeper Nakata.”
Anford’s brows furrowed. “Nakata?”
“Atrux local.” Now that was deeply strange. Anford, of all people, should know about the murder of a Keeper, even if it was two years ago in another system. “She escaped with one accomplice. I was too busy pulling the scientists out of the station to get the details.”
“You know for certain she escaped?”
Sanda shrugged. “Our ship tagged a shuttle leaving from the lower levels where she had been headed. That’s all I can say for certain. Meanwhile, I’ve got eight civilian scientists in a shuttle attached to the back of my ship like a barnacle. And, wouldn’t you know it, rapidly strained air recyclers.”
Anford arched a brow. They both waited a beat to let understanding sink in.
Sanda moved on. “I’ve got safe passage and harbor assured for them at Monte Station, a local civ under the protection of SecureSite.”
Anford’s gaze flicked to the side as she tracked the Thorn’s position on an out-of-view screen. “There’s a fleet station within range. Go there.”
Sanda took a breath. “No.”
“Excuse me?”
“There are a lot of reasons I can give you, and they’d be close enough to the truth to make you feel you got something toothy to put on your reports, but I’m not going to bother with the bullshit. These people”—she inclined her head to Novak and Liao—“were doing research under the assumption they had a charter from Prime. They did not. That pretense was further reinforced by security on the station dressed up in fleet uniforms, but they weren’t real fleet. I don’t know what’s going on out here, Commander, but I’m not putting these people in fleet hands until I know there aren’t more impostors flying under the radar on our bases.”
“They could easily be lying to you about their knowledge of the station’s charter.”
“They could be, but I don’t believe so. What I saw on that station inclines me to believe them.”
“And what did you see?”
“Absurdly tight security directed at the resident scientists to keep them from delving too deep into the station. These people were not meant to know what their research was for.”
Anford looked pointedly at Liao. “You must have grown curious, Doctor…?”
“Liao. And yes, we were curious, but we believed ourselves under a Prime Inventive charter, and your people have taught us not to ask questions, General.”
“There is one more thing you need to know,” Sanda said, steeling herself. “I have evidence that links Rainier Lavaux with that station, though the extent of her involvement is yet unclear.”
“A vendetta against the widow of the man who tried to kill you, Greeve? Petty. The guardcore cleared her of all involvement.”
“If the fleet is compromised, the guardcore might be, too.”
A flicker of doubt passed over Anford. “I could mark you rogue and force you to come into dock. I should. If the Protectorate were here with me now, they would order me to do so. Your brother being the sole dissenting voice, no doubt.”
“They’re not there with you.”
“No, they’re not. And truth be told, the lines of power get muddied out here on Ada, where the Protectorate that oversees me is not the one that elected me to my post. If I were back in Ordinal, and this system hadn’t dragged me here with the throes of war, then you and I might be having a very different conversation.”
“And what conversation are we having?”
“One in which I allow myself to indulge my instincts, instead of my protocols. Take them to Monte, get them in secure hands. I cannot promise you what will happen once they’re placed. More than likely the Protectorate of Ordinal will send their own forces to take over their handling, but it gives you some time.”
Sanda kept her expression neutral. “Time to do what, exactly?”
“Get to those coordinates. If one Lavaux is tangled up in that station, with impersonating fleet personnel, then it’s more important than ever you discover what Keeper Lavaux was running for. Go. Get me evidence I can use, not suppositions.”
“You are giving me freedom to proceed as I seem fit?”
“I gave you a gunship, Greeve. I expect you to use it. You have your orders. Anford out.”
The screen blanked.
“Do you really believe we are in danger, Commander?” Liao said in a small voice.
Sanda scratched the back of her neck. “Yes. Once Valentine orients herself, people will come for you, and we don’t yet know who those people are. As you heard, we believe Valentine was in contact with a Keeper associate.”
“You mean there was a charter?”
“No, I do not.”
She licked her lips. “That is… that is dangerous information, if true.”
“It’s a dangerous universe,” she said, feeling the echo of Bero’s words. “And I am telling you that much because it is true, and because I am going to ask you to do something you do not want to do
, and I need you to understand the importance of what I’m asking. You heard the general. I need evidence of what really happened on Janus Station. I can’t get that without you, Doctor.”
“You want my help? I don’t know anything, I was hired through a headhunter. Ask Novak, he’s the one who came waltzing in claiming Keeper Lavaux had hired him. Personally.”
“You spoke with Lavaux?”
Novak shifted his weight and did everything he could to avoid eye contact. “Not really, ma’am. Just got the job request and relocation orders from him. All digital, never even had a conversation.”
She arched an eyebrow. “So you dropped everything and ran to join a team on a space station you knew nothing about?”
“Don’t got a lot of choice when a Keeper asks, do you? And anyway, there was information in the request. Said they needed someone more engineering-minded to help them troubleshoot some details about a communications system, that’s all.”
“When did you receive this summons?”
“A few days ago…”
“Keeper Lavaux was not alive at that time.”
Novak hunched and rubbed the back of his neck. “It was a lot of money, Commander, I didn’t think too much about it, you get my meaning.”
She eyed Novak, scraped the shifting, squirming man from head to toe. A suspected spy with a communications background was just… too close. Alarm bells in her head were ringing, but she didn’t know how to answer them.
This man wasn’t Tomas. Even if he’d changed his hair color and slapped some colored contacts in, he wouldn’t have had the time to do the plastic surgery required to restructure his nose, chin, and cheeks, let alone recover from the procedure. Plastic was pretty good these days, and recovery drugs could get you half of the way there, but the human body didn’t like being mucked around with.
He wasn’t Tomas, no matter how much she wanted him to be. But he still might be Nazca.
“Liao,” she said, redirecting her attention. “Have you and your colleagues conferred regarding the sample taken from the station?”
She licked her lips. “Yes. We believe we know what it is.”
Chaos Vector Page 25