by T E Olivant
“Would it make a difference if I said no?”
“Nope.” The engineer gave her a perfect white smile. “Listen, what happens if against all the odds we do manage to find this Augment. What happens then? How exactly are we going to capture a God?”
“Can we just shoot him?” Hastings muttered. Biddy didn’t meet his eyes. She knew he was thinking about his brother.
“Apart from the fact that we don’t shoot people unless we really, really have to, we definitely can’t shoot an Augment.”
“It’s because of the murder clause, right?” Francesca said.
Biddy grimaced. “That’s one of the problems.”
“What’s the murder clause?” Kenzie asked.
Francesca paused, waiting for the nod from Biddy. When she gave it the Navigator turned to the young girl. “The murder clause applies to all Augments, not just this guy. You see, no one is allowed to kill an Augment. No matter what they do. They are just too valuable. That’s why they put that thing in their heads so they can’t commit suicide.”
“The God chip.”
“Yeah, that’s what people call it. And if any of us mere mortals were to kill an Augment it would be… well, a million times worse than murder. Because it would be killing a God.”
“So what happens if you did kill him?” Hastings asked. “Hypothetically, obviously.”
“The murder clause,” Biddy explained. “Your life and the lives of everyone involved in the Augment’s death would be instantly forfeit. It’s the only crime for which the death penalty is automatic.”
“Right. Don’t kill the Augment. Got it.”
Biddy stood up to leave. “Let me worry about the Augment. I want you to worry about Scotclan. This cruiser needs to be in perfect shape when we let them onboard. Now get to work.”
The Geek had made his nest in a small room just off the engine cooling system. As such it was always slightly too warm for Biddy who unzipped the front of her spacesuit to let some air cool her clammy skin.
“You’ve looked at the log of the mission?” Biddy said as she walked in. The Geek wasn’t much interested in small talk and that suited her just fine.
“Sure.” The small figure was wrapped in a jumper two sizes too big for him. “I’m working on the intel already. An interesting case.”
“That’s an understatement. This Augment…”
“I’m on it already. I’ve taken all the info that your robofreak provided us with. I’m running it through the cloud right now, but a lot of the systems are dodgy this far out in the solar system. Local servers are fine, but lots of the archives are difficult to access.”
“You’ll get there,” Biddy said, although it wasn’t exactly what she wanted to hear. Her job relied on good quality intel, and if that was lacking it was just one other thing to worry about.
“Sure. But it might take a while.”
“Start with the Westward Ho!. That should still be on the news cloud. Cross reference with any Augment activity nearby.”
Geek sniffed. “I know what I’m doing.”
Biddy managed to avoid rolling her eyes. Geek was off the scale smart, but he was touchy about his inexperience. As if many other fifteen year-olds could have held down a role on a ‘tec ship.
“Of course you do,” Biddy said. “But the problem is that at the moment the net is pretty wide. I need everything on the Augments and the locations you’ve already taken down. We’ll sift through it later. Oh, and I’ve got another job for you.” Biddy tapped the screen and brought up a picture of the plastic man. “Find out about this guy. Whoever is controlling this avatar is our client. Or someone who works for them. I want to know exactly who they are.”
“Because?”
“Because they know a hell of a lot about us, not least how to get me to do their job for them. So I need to know just as much about them.”
“You think this job’s going to go bad?”
Biddy stared at Geek. His Adam’s apple was trembling. Underneath it all he was still just a teenager a long way from home. “No, I don’t. But I need to be prepared just in case it does.”
Geek grunted in a not-entirely-convinced way, then turned back to his screens. Biddy slunk out of the room.
Chapter 8
Lu Tang had abandoned the starfreighter at the refueling station. He had learned not to stay onboard any ship for too long. It wouldn’t take much time before people started asking questions. Humans were obsessed with anyone who seemed a little bit different. And, let’s face it, being a God made you a hell of a lot different from everyone else.
His next craft was not exactly his first choice. A small trading ship that seemed likely to be owned by interstellar pirates. But a quick transaction conducted over the cloud and it was now owned by a new company called Olympus Supplies.
Mr. Tang, owner and sole employee of Olympus Supplies took stock of his crew. Half a dozen men who looked like they’d spent the last week in the bar rather than the Temple. Still, it was a tiny craft, less than fifty feet: he could almost have flown it alone.
“Which of you is the pilot?”
A skinny man who looked barely old enough to pass the flight tests stepped forward. “I’m Captain Eckhart. You’re the bloke who bought the ship?”
“You can call me Mr. Tang. I only need you for a short trip to the third sector of the Fuller quadrant. Shouldn’t take more than a few days even for this old thing. I’ve paid off your debt to the refueling station, after that it’s up to you to find another job.”
The man shrugged. Lu Tang knew that the crew wouldn’t argue. It was a better offer than any other they would get. Otherwise they would be stuck on this floating piece of space junk forever.
The ship didn’t have anything as fancy as private cabins but Lu Tang managed to find a section of the hold that was isolated from the rest of the crew. He set up what he thought of as his war room. An old phrase from a dead planet. A rusty storage container formed his desk, placed on top of which were his datapad, the peculiar box that he had received from the Goddess and a few other choice items, mainly purloined from the crew of the starfreighter.
Assets. With less than these he had conquered planets. Of course, that had been many centuries ago. But nothing really changed in this galaxy.
He looked around to check that none of the crew were spying on him. He had hinted to the men that he was carrying some sort of precious mineral that he would be trading in the Fuller system. Something illegal, but valuable. Better if the men thought he was involved in the slightly dodgy practice of piracy than the very dodgy area of escaping from prison and being a fugitive.
He pulled the metal box towards him and opened the lid. It screeched out a complaint and Lu Tang frowned. The Goddess could at least have oiled the hinges in the last decade or so. It should have opened to cherubs playing trumpets or brilliant flashes of heavenly fire. Instead it squeaked and a dim glow leaked out like the last rays of a dying star.
Lu Tang carefully eased the metal contraption out of the molded box. The pale-yellow light that came from within it pulsed gently, like a heartbeat. It truly was amazing. He could still remember the thrill when he had first seen it, the prickling sensation in his spine when he knew that the galaxy would never be the same again. He ran his fingers over the smooth metal. Seventy years later and it still seemed to be in perfect condition. Not that he could exactly give it a test run. He replaced it in the box and shut the lid. He would have to find some way of concealing it. The idiots he was currently flying with wouldn’t have any idea what it was, but still, better not to take the chance.
Had it all been worth it? The Augment closed his eyes, just for a moment. Something felt wrong. He should be pleased but instead he felt… empty. Were his hormones out of balance again? He checked, but they seemed fine, if a little on the depressive end of the scale. Well, these were worrying times.
He put his hand on the lid of the box, feeling the slight warmth that the device emitted. He remembered the meeting where
he had argued against its destruction. So long ago now that he couldn’t remember any of the reasons that he wanted to keep the thing intact. He should hurl it out of the nearest airlock. And yet...
And yet there was always temptation. And no one faced greater temptation than the Gods.
“Mr. Tang?” A small, nervous voice came from the door to the hold.
“What is it?”
“We have a little problem in the control room.”
How long had it been since he’d piloted a spaceship? A while, that was for sure. Luckily the heap of space junk he had just bought and paid for was about fifty years old, so his experience matched the task. Captain Eckhart, it turned out, had been going through some serious narcotic withdrawal. When Lu Tang turned up and found him shaking at the console with his eyes rolled back in their sockets, he had felt it prudent to take over control.
“We’ve been trying to get rid of him for months,” the Navigator had whispered once Lu Tang had deposited the quivering wreck in his cabin. “He’s either stoned or drunk or both. But we are all in debt to the silver miners on Riker colony and he threatened to send us back there.”
Lu Tang understood. Riker colony in Alpha Centauri had always had a pretty terrible reputation, and for good reason. The mines were staffed by criminal gangs and anyone who had the misfortune to end up there would be worked until their bodies gave up. Then they would be fed into the giant smelting furnaces. Waste not want not.
“You’re on your own when we get to the Fuller system,” Lu Tang replied, loud enough that the rest of the crew could hear. The last thing he needed was a bunch of dependents.
“Understood,” the Navigator said. He seemed happy just to be under the command of someone who knew what they were doing.
Lu Tang realized he was smiling. It was good to be respected once more. Not as he should be, of course, but at least he was recognized as being a leader. That was something he could use.
“I’ve plotted the course to the Fuller system and put the vessel on full auto. Think you can handle that until we reach the outer planets?”
A sulky-looking engineer nodded assent. “Of course.”
“Then I don’t expect to hear from any of you for forty-eight hours,” Lu Tang said.
“There will be food in the canteen downstairs,” a short man with bad teeth called out from the back of the room.
Lu Tang felt his stomach complain. “That would be good.”
As an Augment he could go much longer without food than any natural human. But his body still needed fuel, and it would be foolish to pass up any that might be available. That was what Lu Tang told himself five minutes later when he spooned bright orange goo onto his plate.
“What is it?”
“Curry,” a nervous young woman replied.
Lu Tang scowled. There had been a brief period of, oh, a century or two ago when people had rediscovered old Earth cooking. They had attempted to recreate the spices and scents of foods that had existed on the surface of the now frozen planet. Lu Tang had never particularly enjoyed the trend. With Augmented tastebuds any mismatch in flavors was almost painful. Thankfully, the fashion had eventually changed and people went back to plain algae-based cooking.
Every so often though he still encountered someone who wanted to make something like ‘curry’. He took a cautious mouthful. Yes, completely dire. But still, it was fuel. He shoveled it in, trying to swallow before his mouth could process the taste.
“Hey, that was my beer ration!” A man with a scar across his nose grabbed at another man’s bottle.
“No it’s not!” An older man pushed the aggressor in the chest.
“Guys, we have company,” the woman serving hissed, gesturing towards Lu Tang. But the men were either too drunk or didn’t care that their new boss was in the room.
The two men seemed to be determined to start a fight over nothing. They were now standing chest to chest and trading insults. How tiresome, Lu Tang thought. Testosterone really was one of the most difficult hormones to control.
There was a crashing sound as a table upended. Lu Tang kept eating his disgusting stew. As long as they didn’t interfere with his plans Lu Tang didn’t care if the men slit each other’s throats.
Lu Tang watched them without really seeing. He let his eyes wander the room while his mind was laser focused. For the past week he had thought of nothing other than how to get himself into the Fuller system. Now that he was nearly there, it was time to formulate the next stage of his plan. The problem was, this part depended on human beings. That made it unpredictable. So every possible combination of circumstances had to be calculated and factored into his plans. Lu Tang used his brain like a high-powered calculator, working out odds and ratios in the background while another part of his cortex dealt with more mundane matters. Like how to deal with the man who had just knocked him out of his chair.
The men had barely noticed that they had knocked over their fellow diner. They certainly noticed when Lu Tang got in between them. There was a loud crack and then another. Then there were howls of pain.
“I have broken each of your left arms. The radius bone, to be exact. It is a clean break and will mend soon enough. I suggest you visit the medical facility onboard and set up the Aidkit for bone repair.”
“We don’t have an Aidkit,” the female cook yelled, rushing over to help her crewmates.
Lu Tang blinked. “An Aidkit is standard on a vessel this size.”
“Eckhart sold it!” The man with the scarred nose cradled his injured arm and looked up the Augment in pain and fear.
“Ah. That is unfortunate. Well, you can use your good arms to make splints. Still, I expect you back at your posts within the hour. That is why I broke the non-dominant arm.”
“Well thank you, asshole,” one of the men spat at him.
Lu Tang grinned. “You’re welcome.”
Chapter 9
Biddy spooned some extra chili sauce onto her curry. Food when you were travelling on an interstellar flight was always pretty grim. Bland and more bland. She had seen men come to physical blows over the last of the chili sauce. That was why she kept her own stash in her office. The cruiser had enough rations to keep them going for months, and she had the feeling that the mining planets wouldn’t be the most exciting places to eat either.
The Fuller system. A carbuncle on the edge of the galaxy. Well, she had seen worse. Now she just had to make sure she was ready for whatever the miserable rocks were going to throw at her. Biddy had four viewscreens turned on in her office, along with a couple of datapads. She had a freshly brewed cup of tea clasped in her hands and the curry on her desk. Information surrounded her everywhere she looked.
She grinned. This was the best part of the job. The case laid out around her, pieces of a puzzle that had yet to be assembled.
All she needed was someone to bounce her ideas off. She had tried the Geek but he was fast asleep, exhausted by his forty-eight hour straight trawl through the archives. Elvis was always a good person to challenge her thinking, but he was down in the engine rooms recalibrating something.
Maybe she needed a fresh young mind.
“Kenzie, could you come into my office please?”
It took the young woman five minutes to arrive from the control room. She entered looking nervous, her arms clutched across her chest.
“You’re not in trouble,” Biddy said with a reassuring smile. “I just wanted you to help me walk through the case.”
Kenzie’s eyebrows shot up. “Of course. Although I’m not sure I can be much help.”
Biddy bit back a tut of irritation. “You’ve been onboard this ship for six months now. You’ve shown yourself to be an adaptable crew member. Remember when you worked out why we were listing during launch last month?”
Kenzie actually blushed. “Well, I went through the original engine schematics to find the faulty valve. But that was engineering. This is... ‘tec work.”
“It’s the same thing. Why do you think E
lvis is so good at it? If you can look at a starship engine, analyze the problem and come up with a solution you are halfway to making a good detective.”
“All right, I guess I might be able to help.”
“I’m sure you will. And don’t tell Elvis I said he was good at this. He doesn’t need any more reasons to be big headed.”
“He likes you,” Kenzie said, then blushed again.
Biddy’s jaw dropped open. “And I’ll let that sort of unprofessional comment go once, okay? Just don’t say anything like that again.”
“Sure,” the kid said, although Biddy saw a twinkle of humor in her eye. Biddy was glad the girl was becoming less shy with her, even if this wasn’t exactly how she had wanted it to happen.
“Now, come and have a look at this with me.”
Kenzie looked intently at the screens. “What am I supposed to get from this?”
“We’re starting with the basics. Who is this Augment? What do we know about him?”
“What does the cloud say about him?” Kenzie asked.
“Well, that’s where we hit our first problem. We have no idea what this guy’s real name is. There is no definitive list of Augments.”
“Blessed be,” Kenzie said, then looked a little embarrassed. Biddy pretended she hadn’t spoken.
“As you might imagine, there are plenty of resources collected by the Faithful. And also by the opposition.”
Kenzie wrinkled her nose. “The Knights? I can’t believe you would believe anything they would say.”
Biddy shrugged. “I don’t like them much either, but they did challenge the Augments for power in this sector. And they won. So it would be foolish to ignore them.”
“Okay, but aren’t the Knight’s archives protected somehow?”
“Sure, but we have the Geek. And there’s no system he can’t access. Or so he tells me. And the Knights have a list of active Augments. There’s only three males on the list.”
Biddy clicked the screen and three faces replaced the lines of text on one monitor.