"Me?"
"You understand this stuff faster than I do," Minh-Chu said. "When it comes to most things, you're the brains."
"Aw, no, Minh," Ashley said. "I forget drink orders between our table and the bar when it's my round. I'm not the genius type."
"Okay, next time we have a navigation calculation contest in the squad room, you join in. I bet you beat everyone here."
"That's just math," Ashley said. "Everything just snaps together in my head the way it should. I mean, sometimes it gets hard, but most things have a solution."
"Oh, there are thousands of pilots who wish they had your brain," Minh-Chu said. "Then there's the other side of things; social smarts. If it were you, what would you do to make sure Alice had the quickest recovery possible? She's an empath who just had a big negativity shock, that's what the report says."
"You're testing my intelligence, I don't think I like that, mister."
"Okay, maybe, and I'm sorry. Still, the Capt… the Commodore wants our opinion on his daughter and her crew. What would you do if her recovery were up to you?"
"Fine, not that it matters, I don't know empaths, telepaths, or any of that." Minh-Chu watched as she took a better look at the report. It was a simple side-by-side comparison of the whole Clever Dream crew at a glance, and she touched a few of the profiles to get more details as she scrolled through them. "First I'd wish Steph was here. She had a way of solving nonsense, stopping the boys from fighting without the Captain catching wind of it most of the time."
Patience was a virtue, and Minh-Chu enjoyed watching her think. After looking through the profiles she leaned back, looking at Alice, Yawen and Iruuk's profiles side by side as she lightly chewed her bottom lip. "I'd keep her away from everyone but these two. Everyone else would get to work on a different crew for a while, but these two and her would be on the Clever Dream with her somewhere else. Somewhere relaxing."
"Why Yawen?" Minh-Chu asked.
"She loves Alice. Maybe platonically but look at the attachment stats in her last backup scan, that's probably what you'd see if you compared me and Steph back in the day, maybe even now. Iruuk's stats make it look like he's adopted her. He loves her too, and they want to protect her, she'd be surrounded by positive emotions with those two. If you look at someone like Woone, she likes Alice a lot too, but I bet there are big expectations there, and maybe Alice could feel that."
"What about Noah?" Minh-Chu said.
Ashley shook her head. "She might want Noah around, and who knows? Maybe it could do her a lot of good to have an adoring boy around, but maybe it gets weird, maybe he can't handle her being a telepath…"
"Empath."
"Oh, right. Anyway, he's too much of a wild card. Better let her heal first. None of this matters, though. We're all looking at this really intimate data and wondering what we can do for her, but the moment she wakes up, it should be up to her. I know it's Jake's job to give her orders, but after that, everything's gotta be her decision. All anyone can do is give her advice. It's Alice, no matter what we tell her, she'll go her own way."
"See? I've been looking at this stuff for an hour and that didn't even occur to me."
"No way, you probably came up with that before you even looked."
"No, actually, I dug in without thinking about it first. I didn't have time to look anything over until now, I've been too busy boning up on the space we'll be emerging in."
"It's not too interesting," Ashley replied.
"I'm just an old man trying to keep up," Minh-Chu replied in a creaky voice. "I bet you had the nav data memorized in an hour, it took me all morning, and I'll still be looking at notes when we get there."
"I'll be looking at notes too," Ashley giggled softly. "But I did finish in about an hour and a half."
"See? You're one smart lady, and I'm one lucky old man," he replied.
"Okay, grandpa," Ashley teased, standing up and kissing him on the forehead. "I'm going back up to the bridge, my shift starts in fifteen. You should come, hang out in the ready lounge so you can see the discoveries as they come in."
"Oh yes, the scientific data, lead the way, pretty chickie," Minh-Chu said, standing with a groan then miming a limp and cane.
"You stopped aging at the same time I did," she snickered at his performance. "You don't look a day over thirty."
"Oh, good, then this cradle robber can still chase you little fillies around," he said with a grin and a pinch, which she narrowly avoided.
As Ashley shrieked and laughed, Panner, one of the pilots who just finished qualifying on the new Uriel fighter, entered the squad room. He boggled at the sight, grinning as he was stuck to the spot.
Minh-Chu and Ashley both straightened up instantly. "Going to the command level to see new sensor data," Minh-Chu said officially. "If you aren't headed for your rack for some sleep, you should come along."
"Sure thing, I'm just going to change my com-con unit out. The left one is, uh,"
Minh-Chu cocked an eyebrow. "It's?"
"The model we don't use as much anymore," Panner said sheepishly.
"He was going to say; 'it's an older model,'" Ashley said with a lopsided smile.
Minh-Chu couldn't resist the urge to make Panner even more uncomfortable. "Well, if you've got to put the old thing down, then there's no helping it. Just make sure the recycler processes it nice and quick. No need for your old Command and Control Unit to suffer, aye?"
"Aye, Sir," Panner replied.
As soon as they were through the door and out of sight from the poor pilot, Minh-Chu started chasing Ashley with pinching fingers. She outran him, but barely, and when they met at the transit car doors, she held her hands up. "Truce!"
"All right, you're on your way to the bridge, we can pick this up later," Minh-Chu said, stealing a kiss from her before settling down and straightening his jacket.
"Just never take the old man thing seriously," she told him. "I never saw that in you."
"Well, I guess with meds like this, age is all mental anyway, so you have a deal. I like the old man schtick sometimes though."
"It's a little creepy," Ashley objected.
"Well, he's a little creep," Minh-Chu croaked.
"Stop."
"Okay, serious face." He snapped up straight and looked at the elevator doors steadily.
"Okay," Ashley said, joining him with a snicker.
In the seconds they had to wait as the transit car descended, Minh-Chu turned his thoughts back to the Clever Dream crew. There was something no one was considering about them, and what might have brought them so close to the breaking point. They had just finished a murder campaign, sneaking behind enemy lines then launching invisible bombs that killed thousands of people - even if they were soldiers, they were still people - who never saw it coming. After performing so well in real combat, losing crew mates and having their home taken from them, perhaps that and seeing their leader fall were enough to push them too far. The thought wouldn't earn him friends in Intelligence, but it was worth sharing with Jake. It was the kind of thing he might already be thinking. "Thank you for helping me get a better perspective. I'm still amazed you're my girlfriend," Minh-Chu said.
Ashley blushed, something that happened almost every time he told her how luck he felt even though it definitely happened often enough. Slipping into his arms, she gave him a soft kiss. "I love you too, Minh-Chu."
Eighteen
Secret Meetings
* * *
Dark rooms, dim corners, forgotten places and hidden corridors. Peter found himself spending more and more time in such places. The room was made to feel as comfortable as possible, with chairs, a table, and a small drink dispenser with clean cups. The lighting was dim, emanating from a little portable broad emitter above, whether by intention or because it's all they had on hand at the moment, they'd made it another dingy back room perfect for conspiracy and treasonous talk. It only took that one light to throw the comfort of the place off for him.
The thick
metal door was locked, and Peter knew that if he opened it, he'd see the rush of people packing, getting ready to break the base they'd established in the old tourist spot they'd taken. The Inverted Gardens would be an abandoned husk again in hours. Sonny looked at him from his right side, a question on his face.
The resistance cell leaders were talking about the problems they were facing as the first groups of evacuees were making their way off world. Peter was half following the conversation, it sounded like minutiae that didn't really matter to the big picture, and he decided it wasn't worth the little time he had left to speak to the biggest leaders in the resistance. "So, the word has already gotten out that resistance leaders are moving their families off world. The ports are filling up with people who want to get off the planet, and every seat is booked," Peter said, repeating what he was hearing back at the leaders, hoping to cut their complaining short.
"And there are people buying blocks of tickets and charging up to ten times as much for seats," one of the leaders, a gentleman in old armour that left his sun worn face open to the light. He was Senal, the leader of one of the most aggressive cells. "I've had one of them taken and strangled to death, but I wanted to talk to you before we took things further."
"Let it happen," Peter said with a shrug.
"What?" Senal asked, surprised.
"Are the transports full?"
"They are, but some of those passengers had to pay with everything they…"
"So they left, they're gone, they're away from here. They're better off, even without their money. What did you do with the tickets that you took from the man you killed?"
Senal hesitated for a moment, he wasn't proud of the answer. "They were for Dulo, so we used them for family."
Dulo was a neutral solar system within range of most of the civilian transports. They hadn't taken sides in the war with the Order yet, it was a rare thing, but they were profiting from the conflict. "I'm glad they saw good use. If you need batches of tickets, then take them from these scalpers if you want. This mass exodus won't last long, though. The government will notice it soon because the media will pick it up and broadcast the phenomenon wide, and then the Order will have it stopped. If you want to turn coward and get off world before our new allies arrive, then go. Go soon."
"We're securing the safety of our families," said Malli. She was one of the easiest leaders to work with, normally reasonable, and highly dedicated. Once she chose a course of action, there was no stopping her or her people. "I sent my husband and daughter to Dulo the moment I discovered the Edxi were coming. This is the tragedy of our time, I don't want them to see it, let alone be one of the victims. I'll be standing beside you when Haven Fleet gets here, but I won't have them get drawn into the fighting. They'll be long gone."
"I understand your point, I'm only saying that our friend Senal has run before, backing out of an operation with his people when we needed him most."
"I can't believe you're bringing that up," Senal said. "You're not one to talk. I remember you directed that raid from a safe distance and eventually argued that we abandon it."
"After I watched you and over forty fighters run," Peter sighed. "I wasn't going to let Malli and her people be captured or murdered because of your cowardice."
Senal stood but was yanked back down into his seat by Franklin. He was a normally verbose man who was more of a story teller than any of them. That, his dedication to the cause, and an unshakable habit of speaking plain sense were at the core of his leadership. "Everyone knows about that raid," he said calmly. "We all have a moment in our time as leaders that could be used to question our dedication or our common sense. We could sit here, comparing failures, or move on. I think Peter is trying to ask you a simple question; can you and your people be trusted to follow through?"
"Of course he can trust us," Senal said, yanking his arm free from Franklin's grip as he settled back in his seat. "What do you need us to do?"
"Your people have a large presence in the major ports," Peter said. "I need them to take control of them when its time. We're going to need the ground defence cannons, any ships that are on the ground, and to get people…" Peter was interrupted by a priority message from the Order of Eden. The green logo occupied his right optical display and wouldn't be dismissed. He pushed through to finish his point. "Get people aboard the ships and off world when Haven Fleet comes. If they don't, we'll need your people even more."
"My people will have to leave on ships too. Once they take control of the major ports they'll be exposed."
"Then you'll do it?" Peter asked, annoyed by the private message obscuring his view.
"Absolutely."
"Good. I need every other cell that we can trust to fall behind Malli and Franklin. They're going to create a distraction for the military and the rest of law enforcement. I have some ideas, and some of them involve us stealing armoured transports, but you know your territories better than I do. Discuss what kind of distractions you think would be best while I attend to this. There's an urgent message on my comm." He left the table and slipped off to the corner. Sonny started to get up and he motioned him to remain there, telling him; "It's probably just propaganda."
He braced himself and played the message. Location details along with an animated map showing him how to get to the Order of Eden Intake Centre started playing as an upbeat voice spoke to him through his dermal audio system. "Congratulations! You have been summoned to the service of the illustrious Admiral Scanlon's staff. Once you report for indoctrination, your amazing career can begin. Since you have medical considerations, you will be tested for the Framework Augmentation Program and all your ailments will be cured. This is the opportunity to attain eternal life through superior technology, and to place well in the Admiral's service. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though. Indoctrination will take three months, during which time you will receive special training, be asked to perform important tasks, and over twenty percent of your debt will be worked off by the time you're finished. That's just for taking the mandatory training, imagine the earnings you could accrue afterwards. You are to report in twenty hours to the location we're showing you. Use that time to get your affairs in order, and to invite others to go with you to the Order of Eden Intake Centre, so your friends and family can make their debt disappear and engage in a brilliant future. As a reward for recruiting, you will be entitled to five percent of their earnings. Remember; immortality is within reach, it's our right, it's our predetermined fate. Serve, earn rewards, and rise eternally."
It was difficult not to react as the message faded. The directions were in the bottom right of his view, the animation of a small sky car flying to the Intake Centre playing over and over again. He couldn't dismiss it or the timer that started counting down from twenty hours. The Admiral was calling him to her side. She didn't know him, probably didn't know that he was the leader of a vast rebellion, or that he was aware of the Edxi who were about to colonize the world he loved. People who ran at the sight of similar messages were caught or killed. There would be Order of Eden soldiers on their way to take them in half an hour or more before the timer counted down to zero. He'd seen it happen, heard of it happening, and no one could stop it.
"Peter," Malli said. "I'm getting a Wave Comm from my people saying that recruitment messages are going out."
"Wait, you're getting messages too?" Sonny asked, alarmed. "This room isn't as secure as we thought. If Wave Comm signals can pass, anything can."
"It's probably the electronics in the room or a crack in the door," Peter said, dismissing his partner's worry. "We checked for listening devices, we're still safe."
"Back to the point, I have a dozen or so people saying that they have twenty hours to report," Malli said.
"I just got one," Franklin said. "My people are getting them too. About half."
"Then that proves it," Peter said, feeling his heart sink, his palms sweat. "The Edxi are coming sooner than expected. The Order are taking all the people they want from our
world so they can close the ports and trap everyone else on the planet."
"What do we do?" Franklin asked, as close to worried as anyone had seen him.
"I have an idea, it'll defeat the Edxi and provide the distraction we need to tget as many people off world as possible. This will have to happen fast." He looked to Malli. "Do you still have people who can program nanobots?"
"Yes, one of them is being called up by the Order," she replied.
Peter took a command and control unit that he found in the Haven Fleet equipment boxes the crew of the Clever Dream left behind from his pocket and put it on the table. "This has a tiny fabrication system in it that can make high grade nanobots. By tinkering with it I can tell the nanos to self-replicate. I need your people to repurpose them for something."
"No problem," Malli said.
"What do you need them reprogrammed for?" Franklin asked.
"You don't need to know," Peter replied. It was standard, his leaders knew that information was always compartmentalized. "Your concern is taking over as the lead commander for the distraction we'll make while Senal's people take control of the ports and get as many people off world as they can. We only have one standard day. This will be the biggest act of defiance the Order has seen, and if we do this right, most of us will escape."
"What about Haven Fleet? Can we expect help from them?" Malli asked.
"They haven't responded to our calls since their leader collapsed on stage," Peter said. "It's up to us now."
Nineteen
The Resistance Strikes
* * *
Arguments with Sonny were never pretty. He wasn't an unreasonable partner, but once he decided on a course of action, it was difficult to change his mind. The words echoed in Peter's head still; "You need to be in the middle of everything at Ridge Port, I don't trust Senal's conviction. I know you'll make sure his people follow through, the cells know your face as well as mine."
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 13 Page 15