by T E Olivant
Biddy took a deep breath. And then another.
“What now ‘Tec?” said a voice from the doorway. Biddy turned to see Phil standing with a gun in his hand. It was pointing at the floor but she knew he would have been aiming at Hastings. Her bodyguard would not have hesitated in killing the Captain if he had tried anything.
“Take the Captain to an empty cell,” Biddy said, her voice only slightly shaking. “I’ll deal with him later.”
Hastings didn’t even react to this, just walked out with Phil’s hand firmly on his shoulder.
Biddy looked back towards the Augment who was leaning back against the wall, his face unreadable.
“You saved my life,” he said. He looked kind of surprised.
“I saved Hastings’ life,” Biddy replied. “Yours was incidental.”
“Even so. There’s something I should say to you.”
“Yes?”
“Go. To. Hell.”
Biddy stared at him for a second, then burst out laughing. “Perfect. Just perfect.”
Her bodyguard appeared in the doorway. “Hastings is in cell three.”
“Thanks. Phil, will you see that the prisoner is kept in his cell with no further visitors?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Good. I’m off to have a cup of tea.”
She didn’t even glance at the Augment as she walked out of the cell. Damnit, she had nearly lost the suspect and Hastings in one stupid moment. As it was, she would have to hand the Captain over to Scotclan. How the hell was she going to find a replacement?
Biddy made it inside the door of her office before her datapad started to buzz.
“Is it true about Hastings?” the Geek said.
“For the love of the Gods, how did you hear that fast?” She kicked the edge of her bed, but it didn’t make her feel any better. “It only just happened!”
“I heard you saved the God’s life.”
“Against my better judgement. Damnit, I need that Augment off my ship!”
Biddy paced from one side of the room to the other. The Geek tried to make a sympathetic face over the viewscreen, but given that interpersonal relations were not his strongpoint he just looked like he was having bowel issues.
“You could hand him over to Scotclan,” the Geek said.
“Ha! They’d like that wouldn’t they. I’ve already had to lock up Hastings in one of the cells. It would suit Campbell just fine if I gave up and let him have everything he wants.”
“Ummn, why don’t you?”
Biddy screwed up her mouth. “Because they are still lying to me! First of all, they sent me an Observer who turned out to be some sort of pyscho assassin. Then they tried to take the case off me just as I was arresting the Augment. So I’m not handing over the suspect until I’m damned well sure that he is guilty of the crimes they’ve accused him of.”
“You don’t think he did it?”
She stopped pacing. “I… haven’t entirely decided yet. But if there’s even the slightest chance that he is innocent then I’m not going to let Campbell get his claws into him. I’d quit Scotclan before then.”
“It might come to that.”
“I know.” Biddy rubbed her eyes. “What about you, Geek? What would you do if Scotclan kicked me out? I’d lose the ship for a start.”
The Geek looked down at the floor. “I would… Well, I guess I would go with you to another ship. If you’d take me?”
Biddy could see that the tips of his ears had turned red. Shit. The Geek hated being forced to make personal comments.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you that.”
“It’s okay. No one else in this sector was willing to give a teenager a chance on an interstellar ship. I owe you.”
“Well, thanks. But I don’t think the rest of the crew will feel the same. Even if they do, they still have bonds to fulfil to the Clan. I don’t think we can crew a new ship, just the two of us. We’ll probably end up bounty hunting for someone. Hired contractors. Not exactly my idea of a good time.”
“It could still work out okay.”
Biddy closed her eyes. She wished she could share the Geek’s optimism. But her Captain had just tried to shoot her main suspect. If anyone else onboard started playing up she was going to run out of cells.
“Okay, let’s work with the problem at hand and not worry about the future for the moment. We need to find out if the Augment was responsible for the Westward Ho!. Can you find me any of the datalogs, personal recordings, distress signals… Anything at all from the ship that might give us some idea of what happened?”
“Will do. What are you going to do?”
“The stupidest thing I can do right now. Land on the planet.”
“On Eritree? Where the woman from the Council hates you?”
“Yeah, and it’s where Campbell landed his ship too. But if I don’t get Tibo to a proper hospital then he’ll be dead by tomorrow. And I’m not going to let Macleod win that one.”
“Understood. Just one problem. Who is going to Captain the ship?”
“I really wished you hadn’t asked me that.”
Chapter 28
Lu Tang felt his pulse by placing his fingers gently on his wrist. Still elevated, more than two hours after the idiot human had tried to kill him. Something was definitely awry with his augmented systems. The interaction with the Captain who had waved the gun at him should have barely touched his nerves. After all, no one had actually died. And yet, here he was, sitting in the cell and trembling like a frightened human child.
It was unacceptable. As soon as he was off this pathetic excuse for a spaceship, he would get in touch with some specialist Doctors. No doubt there was a simple procedure that was needed to recalibrate his system. He despised the feeling of being afraid. It was almost enough to make him feel like a human.
How he hated them all. Even the young detective who had saved his life. In fact, he hated her more than any of the others. There was nothing a God liked less than someone he owed a favor. If the girl thought he would help her just because she had stopped that idiot from killing him, she was sorely mistaken.
Biddy Mackay. That was her name. If he’d still had access to his datapad he would have done some snooping about her. There was more to the girl than he had first assumed. Who was she working for? Scotclan had to be a front for someone, but who?
Thump.
There was someone at the door. Lu Tang waited for it to open, but nothing happened.
Thump.
He walked over to the door of the cell. There was a crack underneath and he scooted down to see if he could see a pair of boots, but there was nothing there.
Thump.
It wasn’t coming from the door, it was coming from the wall. The right-hand wall, to be exact. He pressed his hands against it.
Thump.
He could feel the vibration. Then he heard something. It was so subtle he would have missed it, if it hadn’t been for the fact that his ears had long since been augmented. He closed his eyes and focused on tuning in his augmented hearing.
“ – you bastard, you better answer me. Just one more time. If you can hear this through your super Godly hearing thump back. And if you can hear me and you’re not replying then so help me I will torture you for the next hundred years.”
The voice was not familiar, but he didn’t have much choice. He thumped back.
“You took your time. Now, listen up because we’ll need to be quick. I’m sure they’ve got someone keeping an eye on the video feeds so if they see us against the walls it’s going to be pretty obvious what’s going on. I can’t hear you, by the way, seeing as my ears are one hundred percent human, so you’ll just have to thump once for yes, twice for no. Clear?”
Thump.
“Good. My name is Macleod. I’m a member of Scotclan. We should be in charge of this ship, but we seem to have got ourselves a rogue ‘tec. You’ve met Mackay?”
Thump.
“Little witch. Well, like I said, I
was brought on board to take over from Mackay. She’s been behaving erratically for a while, but the Clan needed proof. Well, I certainly got that. You heard that she shot your friend Tibo?”
Pause. Thump.
“That’s right. I saw her do it. Shot him, then stunned me and put the gun in my hand. Well, her little fairytale won’t stand up in court, but it’s got me stuck in these cells for the moment. Just like you. And it seems to me we could help each other out.”
Long pause. Thump.
“Now, I just need out of this cell and I can take control of the ship. But I don’t have any weapons on me. I know that Augments are pretty good at fighting their way out of things. Super strength and all that. So my suggestion is that next time someone comes to get you out of your cell you grab the weapon, knock them out and come and get me. Got it?”
Pause. Thump thump.
“Let me guess: you don’t trust me? Well, what if I told you something. I know that you had nothing to do with the Westward Ho!. If you come with me then I’ll make sure that the murder charges are dropped and you can go on with your miserable little life. Sound good?”
Loud thump.
“There we are then. I look forward to working with you.”
Lu Tang took his hands away from the wall. He shuffled over to his bench and sat down on the hard, plastic surface. Well, that had been interesting. Macleod. Had he heard that name before? It seemed familiar, but then those Celtic Alliance names were always ‘Mac’ something. And she seemed to genuinely want to help him, at least if it meant saving her own ass. No doubt she would turn against him in the end, but at least it would get him out of his cell. Yes, a very interesting proposition.
He closed his eyes and waited for the door to open.
Chapter 29
Biddy wished she could wipe the smug grin from Elvis’s face. “It’s only acting Captain,” she said for the third time. “And it’s not official or anything, given that we’re not exactly acting on Scotclan’s orders.”
“Still,” Elvis said, straightening his shoulders. “I’ll be in command, right?”
“Of the ship. I’m still the ‘tec.”
“Of course.”
Biddy watched him smooth down his hair and bit back a sigh. There was no one else qualified to be the Captain, but she knew she was asking for trouble putting Elvis in charge. He was a reliable guy, if a little too handsome for his own good, but power always went to his head.
“I’ll need you to land us at the secondary space port on Eritree. I don’t want to go to Moscov, but we need a hospital for Tibo. There’s a medical facility at Retrusk a hundred miles to the West. That’s where I want you to take the ship.”
“No problem. Just one thing though, there’s something I need to talk to you about first.”
“What?”
“You know the box that the Augment was holding when we found him?”
Biddy had forgotten all about it. “Yes?”
Elvis shuffled his feet. It was weird seeing someone normally so cocky look so nervous. “There was something inside it. Something really strange.”
“All right, can you explain?”
“It’s part of an engine. At least, I think it is. But it’s something totally different from anything I’ve ever seen.”
Biddy realized she was grinding her teeth in frustration. “Listen Elvis, I know you think you know everything, but there must be engines that you’ve never seen before.”
“That’s not it. This thing shouldn’t even exist.”
“Okay.” Biddy looked into Elvis’s dark eyes. The man was genuinely afraid. “If it’s that important, then let’s find out what it is.”
“How are we going to do that?”
“When you have a question that no one else can answer, what do you do?”
Elvis smiled so that a dimple appeared on his right cheek. “You ask a God.”
They left Francesca at the helm and walked toward the cells. The corridor was narrow in places and sometimes their shoulders or hips would brush against each other. Biddy pretended not to notice.
“How should we play it? You want me to be good cop or bad cop?”
“Elvis, you’ve been watching too many Earthen movies. Besides, there is only one ‘cop’, and that’s me. So you will just follow my lead, okay?”
“Fine. Just out of interest, when did you last get any sleep?”
“Can’t remember. Why?”
“Oh, no reason. Just wondering about your sunny disposition, that’s all.”
They had arrived at the cells. There were only six and now half of them were occupied. Hastings, Macleod and the Augment. It had been a busy couple of days.
“Do you want me to go in first?” Elvis said, raising his weapon.
“No. I just saved the guy’s life. I don’t think he’s going to attack me. And I’ve got my stungun if he suddenly loses his mind.”
Elvis looked about to complain, but he let her step forward anyway.
When Biddy opened the door the Augment was standing just on the other side, staring straight at her without blinking like some horrible statue.
“What is it?” She said, unnerved.
The Augment flexed his arms and for one moment she thought he was going to grab her throat, but then he let out a sigh.
“I was waiting for you.”
“Oh yes? Have you decided to tell me all about the Westward Ho!?”
“Confess to murder, you mean? Not yet.”
Biddy clicked her back teeth together. “Enough wasting my time. I’m going to hand you over to Scotclan within the hour unless you tell me something that makes keeping you worthwhile.”
“I’m not sure I can do that.”
Biddy looked at Elvis who took the box out of the bag he was carrying. When the Augment caught sight of it he sucked in his cheeks.
“I thought you might want to know about that,” he said softly.
“What the hell is it?” Biddy asked.
While the Augment watched, Elvis removed the metal cylinder from the box. It was glowing with some sort of energy. Elvis was staring at the thing like it was about to start speaking to him. “It’s a Fast Light engine. Only…”
“Only it’s not,” the Augment said. He seemed drained now, as if he was giving up. He turned away so that he didn’t have to look at the box.
“I don’t understand,” Biddy said. “Fast light engines are huge, aren’t they?”
Elvis looked at her like she was a toddler trying to understand the alphabet. “They are massive because of the fuel and the cooling systems. But the mechanics of it, the heart of the engine is actually quite small.”
“Like this?”
“Yes. But the design of this is… weird. Like, seriously weird. I don’t understand what I’m looking at.”
Biddy stared at the Augment who was looking into the middle distance, chewing on the inside of his cheek.
“Well?” She said finally. “We’re not going anywhere. Why don’t you tell us what the hell we’re looking at?”
She expected him to keep silent, but instead the Augment spoke. “It’s the next advance in interstellar travel.” Lu Tang’s voice had lost all of its usual arrogance. “No, that’s not right. It’s not really travel at all.” The Augment paused, then shrugged. “It feels strange to tell someone after all this time, but I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s a portal drive.”
“Woah.” Elvis looked like he was going to throw up. Or faint. Something dramatic anyway.
Biddy hated looking stupid, but she still didn’t get what the two men were so impressed by. “And what is a portal drive?”
“It creates portals in space,” the Augment explained. “All travel up until now, even including Fast Light, has been a way of getting from A to B along a certain path. A portal drive takes away the need for a path. A becomes B, instantaneously.”
“But that’s…” Biddy’s head swum. “That’s like something out of a movie. I mean, it’s not really possible is it?”
“There were rumors,” Elvis whispered. He couldn’t take his eyes off the object now, like it was some sort of religious relic. “When I was in training, every so often someone would mention the idea that someone had perfected a way of teleporting. But it was just a myth.”
“If something happens long enough ago it becomes a myth,” Lu Tang said. “Trust me on this one.”
“Long ago? Surely if this technology has been around for a while someone would be using it.”
“The Augments invented the portal drive seventy years ago.”
Elvis shook his head. “Not possible.”
“Don’t be a dumb human. We invented it, and then we realized what a disaster it would be if human beings ever got to use it. So we deleted any mention of the blasted thing and hid the only prototype away.”
“Why?”
“I told you. To keep it out of the grubby hands of humanity.”
“But why would it matter if we had the portal drive. I mean, Fast Light was a good thing, wasn’t it? Why wouldn’t a portal drive be just as good?”
The Augment leaned back against the wall of the cell. “Because it’s not just an engine. The portal drive is also the most terrible weapon ever invented.”
Chapter 30
He had expected the Detective to be more impressed.
“The most terrible weapon ever made?” She shrugged. “Why?”
“Indeed. That is why it was never put into production. If mere humans ever got their hands on it, the entire galaxy would be in danger. You see, the technology that opens a portal in space could, when aimed at a planet, completely annihilate it.”
“Huh.” Mackay took the portal drive away from the tall man and placed it back in the box. At least she did it gently. “So why are you wandering about with this deadly weapon?”
“I needed it to make a trade.”
“All right, let’s see if I follow. This terrible weapon that should never be in the hands of humanity, you brought it with you to trade?”
“Yes.”
“With those miners that we met on the surface?”