by M. D. Cooper
“Sure.” The man ground out the single word like its utterance had cost him dearly. “What are you here for?”
Petra didn’t respond until Mains had finished securing George, and Danielle had pronounced the room secure. Once their signals were given, she walked to a chair opposite Fiona’s and settled into it.
“Prelate Fiona. I need your help.”
To her credit, the other woman nodded calmly. “I surmised as much by the fact that I’m still drawing breath, with a brain still connected to my body.”
“We don’t bodysnatch,” Petra replied. “That’s Orion’s style.”
“And yet you do many other illegal things, such as breaking in here.”
The prelate’s tone had not softened at all, and Petra wondered if they would get anywhere with the woman.
“I’ll set aside whether or not you have any moral high ground to stand on, Prelate,” she replied. “But I’d like to suggest that there is a marked difference between illegal and unethical. It is both illegal and unethical to steal another person’s mind, while breaking in here to enlist your aid in exonerating myself is not unethical.”
Fiona only shrugged. “You’re right. I have no high ground here. I cede the argument to you.”
“Good,” Petra said to the prelate. “Because sparring with you on who has more red in their ledger is not what I’m here for. I need to get to Diana, and you’re going to help.”
“Me?” Fiona squeaked out a laugh. “What makes you think I can get you to Diana?”
“Easy,” Petra said. “You can reach out to her on privileged channels and tell her you know where I am, but that she has to come to you here.”
“And you’ll just tell her you’re sorry?” Fiona asked. “Last I heard, she’s pretty pissed.”
Petra shrugged. “I can handle her pissed. But I want to avoid having to kill half her guard just so we can engage in a private conversation.”
“Killing—” Fiona’s eyes widened, and she glanced at George. “Her guard has been turned. They’re working against her.”
“That’s my thought,” Petra nodded. “She’ll meet with you with a minimal level of protection, and we can subdue them.”
“Forget it.” Fiona’s eyes were hard. “I have no interest in being caught in the crossfire when this all falls apart.”
Mains chuckled. “You’re smarter than I took you for, Prelate.”
“Uh…thanks, I guess.”
Petra regarded the other woman for several long seconds, considering what she might want.
The Hand director resisted snorting in response, and decided to run with Alastar’s advice.
“OK, Prelate. If you help me, I’ll get you out of Scipio.”
The woman’s pupils expanded. “How did you…?”
Petra shrugged. “Apparently my AI is a really good judge of character.”
The prelate’s gaze turned to her chief of security, searching his face before turning back to Petra. “How would you get us out?”
“Us?”
“Us.”
“Well, pretty easy,” Petra said. “You just have to go up to Kapalicarsi Station and board a TSF shuttle. You get on one of our ships, and then we jump you out. We’ll set you up with enough money to go wherever you want in the Transcend.”
“Sagittarius,” came the prelate’s hasty reply. She swallowed and regained a modicum of composure. “Somewhere quiet in the Sagittarius Arm.”
Petra ignored her AI and nodded. “I know just the place.”
“OK, so how will this go down?” Fiona’s security chief asked. “Where do we go on Kapalicarsi?”
“Easy now,” Petra held up a hand. “First we get Diana here to talk. Then when things settle down…say, after a day or so, I give you a berth.”
Fiona and George stared at one another for nearly a minute, and then the prelate nodded.
“You have a deal. Anything in particular you want me to tell Diana?”
“Just that you have a contact who has seen me and has a lead. You’ll only give it to her in person, and she needs to come here. If she pushes for more information—and she will—don’t invent anything. The curiosity will pull her in, trust me.”
“OK,” Fiona said with a small smirk. “You’re right, that would work best with her. Reaching out.”
For a moment, the prelate’s calm expression held, and then her brows knit. “That’s odd, I’m being shunted away to a queue.”
“Try to reach Tenna,” Petra suggested.
“Already doing that…”
A few moments of silence passed.
“Dammit,” Fiona muttered. “I can’t reach the AI at all.”
Petra felt her brow lower as well. “What do you mean?”
Fiona shrugged. “I can’t make a direct Link. She’s not connected to any network I can route over.”
Petra felt a sense of unease permeate the room as another silence stretched after Alastar’s words.
Finally, he said,
“Mains,” Petra turned to the man. “Tap all your contacts. I want the last sighting of Diana. The Scipian empress doesn’t just disappear.”
“Already working them,” he said, walking across the room to a chair, where he settled heavily.
“Fiona,” Petra turned back to the prelate. “You may not have been using your taps of late, but you used to watch Diana like a hawk. I want whatever you have.”
“I don’t know,” she said quietly. “This could all blow—”
“You’ve been set up,” Petra hissed. “You’ve backed down and you’re weak, but Ryse’s narrative has painted you as an aggressor. Whoever this is wants me dead, but they need someone to take the fall. Who do you think that will be, you or Bella? Who’s coveted the throne for years?”
“Fuck,” Fiona whispered. “I’m so fucked.”
“Not if we find Diana fast,” Petra replied. “I’m going to hunt down Chimellia…. Either she suspects something, or she’s behind this. Either way I’ll get a lead from her.”
“Ambassador,” George spoke up in the silence that followed Petra’s vehement utterance. “There was a man. He came upon us four days ago in the park, called himself ‘Shadow’. His tech was good, we didn’t see him till he was on top of us.”
“What did he want?”
“Allies against the empress,” Fiona said. “He was circumspect, of course, but that’s what he was hinting at. He insinuated that I’d be helping eventually…dammit, I guess now I know how.”
“I have a lead on Chimellia,” Danielle said a second later. “She’s not far from here.”
Petra was on her feet in an instant. “Mains, stay here, work your contacts. Fiona, funnel anything you come up with through Mains.”
“And our deal?” the prelate asked.
“Diana lives, and I’ll get you on a transport to Sagittarius. She dies…well, I’ll get you on the first evac ship. Stars know where it’ll end up, though.”
ABDUCTED
STELLAR DATE: 10.08.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Maglev train near the Imperial Palace
REGION: Alexandria, Bosporus System, Scipio Empire
“Who is pulling your strings, General?” Diana asked, leaning forward in her seat, elbows on the table between them.
“No one, Empress. I’m doing this to protect you. It’s clear that the Transcend placed that AI in your head to control you—otherwise they wouldn’t have ch
osen one of their own. We’ll remove it, and then you’ll think much more clearly.”
“You’ll do no such thing, General Corpus.” Diana spoke the words with a venomous hiss. “And you’re not acting on your own, that much is for certain. Who is behind this? Is it Fiona? Ryse? Orion?”
The man shook his head. “It’s none of those. Your Impera Protego are doing this to protect you. We’re doing our duty.”
Diana glanced at the guards at the end of the car, the ones she suspected were not who their idents claimed. “I suppose you are. I’m curious, though. Do you know why I insisted on the loyalty program for my guards?”
“Of course, Empress. You wanted to ensure we followed your orders without question and would give our lives to keep you safe.”
She nodded. “To a degree, yes. But I studied history. Lots and lots of history. All the way back to the time of the Roman caesars. I looked at how they protected Rome and themselves. Do you know what I learned about them?”
“No, My Empress.”
“I learned that the Praetorian Guard, the men tasked with keeping the caesars safe, killed more of the Roman emperors than anyone else. That it was the guards who were the most serious threat.”
“I was not aware of that, My Empress.”
“No, I suppose not. Bellicose.”
Tenna asked as General Corpus and the other guards continued to regard Diana with impassive gazes.
Diana groaned.
“I was wondering how long you’d take to say that.”
The voice came from behind Diana, and she turned to see a nondescript man walking down the aisle.
Diana wasn’t sure what the AI meant by that, but if the end result was not being easily abducted, she’d be all in.
“Glad to have given you some entertainment,” she said to the newcomer as he stopped next to the table. “Pretty sure you’re on the wrong car, though.”
“Oh, I think not.” The man glanced at the general, and the man slumped over. Around the car, the guards’ eyes took on vacant stares. “There, now we can discuss things without harming their carefully constructed psyches.”
Tenna commented.
“Talking to your AI, I assume,” the man said as he settled across from Diana. “Enjoy it while it lasts.”
“There’s no way you can pull this off,” Diana said.
“Oh? I’m pretty sure there is. Elena made the wrong play when she took over Fiona’s mind. If she’d gone after you, we could have redirected this whole alliance to our ends. Not just kill Sera…though I suppose Elena was blinded by other circumstances.”
“You think I’m more influential than the Transcend’s president?” Diana asked. “I’m flattered.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be possible to control Sera, and if we’d killed her, she’d just be replaced—and not by anyone we’d rather have in power. You, however…. We can use you to break apart this alliance before it even gets underway. Then we’ll attack the ASN and throw the entire region into chaos.”
Diana stared at the man for a moment, then shook her head and turned to look out the window at the dark tunnel outside the maglev car.
“Don’t let my silence stop you from telling me more of your plans.”
The man snorted. “You’ll have to learn them all eventually. I mean…you won’t really be in control of yourself, but you’ll still know them.”
“What about Tenna?” Diana asked.
A cruel smile formed on the man’s lips. “Oh, well, I’m sure I’ll quite enjoy interrogating her. The AI who was selected to be paired with the Scipian empress would be deep in the enemy’s council.”
Something about the way Tenna spoke caused a wave of fear to wash through Diana’s mind. Until now, she’d expected someone to arrive and rescue her, but it seemed that the AI considered things to be much worse.
At that moment, Diana resolved to do whatever she could to ensure that Tenna did not have to make that sacrifice. She just had to wait for the right moment.
“No response?” he asked after a few more seconds of silence had passed.
“I look forward to adding your bones to the hall of heroes,” Diana whispered.
A toothy grin spread across the man’s face. “Fiery! I like it.”
ALLIES
STELLAR DATE: 10.08.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Imperial Palace
REGION: Alexandria, Bosporus System, Scipio Empire
“Who watches the watchmen,” Petra muttered to herself, as she and Danielle navigated the warren of tunnels in the lower levels of the palace’s medical wing.
They were in full stealth armor—the ISF’s Mark X FlowArmor, to be exact. Like the name implied, it flowed on like a second skin, had amazing protective abilities, and provided near-perfect invisibility.
A soft laugh escaped Petra’s lips.
Though Danielle was in stealth, Petra got the distinct impression that the other woman had glanced over her shoulder.
Petra sighed.
Petra sized up the two guards, noting that they were backed by automated turrets and very likely some drone defenses as well.
Danielle said as she approached the pair.
Petra’s words cut off as the door slid open and none other th
an Chimellia stepped out into the dark passageway.
Petra was interrupted again by one of the guards placing his hand on Chimellia’s shoulder.
“Ma’am, we have instructions that you’re to remain here.”
“Excuse me?” If the sum adjut’s voice had been a weapon, it would have killed everyone in the passage. “Leave your hand on me for a moment longer, and we’ll see if you still have it tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry. I’m under orders. You need to go back in the lab.”
“Whose orders?” Chimellia demanded.
“General Corpus, Sum Adjut.”
The guard palmed the door control while Chimellia muttered, “We’ll see about that. I’ll have his balls on a plate if he thinks he can—aahhh.”
The woman’s utterance turned into a pained gasp as the soldier propelled her toward the entrance. In a heartbeat, Petra and Danielle were on the two guards, each delivering a dose of nano to the armor’s hard-Link ports.
Petra noted that the door led into another long passage—which was thankfully empty—and she slapped a breach kit on the access panel to close the portal, which slid shut a centimeter from Petra’s nose as the sum adjut furiously struggled to get free.
A strong urge to slap the sum adjut came over Petra, but she forced it down.