by K. B. Wagers
Ma held up two fingers and started ticking them off. “What are they smuggling, and how did they find the system jumpers in the first place?”
“We figure out one and I suspect it will lead us to the other,” Max replied. “The report said the system jumper you all picked up had Trappist-1e in its routing computer as the last destination.”
“Yes.” Rosa nodded.
“Two questions.” Max mimicked Ma’s upheld fingers. “What were they doing on Trappist-1e in the first place? And how did a ship without wormhole tech or even a decent engine by today’s standards get from there to the belt?”
“They were waiting for something bigger to punch a hole for them,” Rosa said. “It would have had to be farther out or Jupiter’s sensor would have caught it.”
“It still doesn’t answer why they were in system.” Ma shook his head. “If they’d been carrying whatever it is they’re smuggling I’d be able to understand it better. But we went over that ship top to bottom and it was empty.”
“Did you look in the pods?” Ma pinned Max with a look and she raised her hands in surrender. “Just checking. Ugh. I don’t want to fly back to Earth, but I do kinda want to check out that ship.” She rubbed both hands over her eyes.
“When was the last time you slept, Lieutenant?”
“I—am not sure,” Max admitted, and then she yawned.
“You’re no good to anyone half-awake, Max. Go get some sleep,” Rosa ordered, pushing out of her chair. “I need to go catch Hoboins up on what’s happening anyway.”
Max woke from the nightmare with a gasp, eyes flying open in the pitch-black room. She blinked twice and muffled a groan as the 02:43 timestamp appeared in her vision.
There was no point in trying to get back to sleep. The dream would just pick up again as if she’d paused it. That was the annoying thing. Didn’t matter the subject: for Max, once a nightmare started it was determined to see itself through the second she closed her eyes again.
“You’ve never even seen a real bear,” she muttered as she slid out of bed and grabbed for the workout gear folded neatly on the end. Her shoes were by the door, and with the bundle cradled to her chest she tiptoed from her room.
“Where’re you going, LT?”
Max stifled the scream, but a squeak escaped out into the darkness. It was followed by Jenks’s low chuckle.
“I couldn’t sleep, thought I would go down to the gym,” Max whispered. “Why are you awake?”
“I don’t sleep much. You want company?”
The offer was so surprising Max stood in the dark for several heartbeats before she recovered. “Of course. Sure.”
There was a rustle as Jenks slid from her bed. “Doge, stay.” What could only be described as an electronic whimper issued up out of a corner of the room and Jenks sighed. “Fine, you can come. Quietly.”
Max patted Doge on his metal head after they’d slipped into the corridor. “Good dog.”
“Clingy mutt,” Jenks corrected, but she put a hand on Doge’s back with a smile as she said it.
The gym was mostly deserted, but Max recognized a face or two from her previous early-morning visits. Jenks seemed to know everyone, and exchanged fist bumps or one-armed hugs with several people as she passed.
“I was just going to run,” Max said, glancing down at Jenks’s bare feet.
“Knock yourself out. I’ll be at the weights.”
Max headed for the locker room, changing and slipping into her shoes. Then, with music playing on her Babel, she stepped onto the treadmill and started running.
Feet on the track, the steady rhythm of her breath and her footfalls syncing into an alternating pattern, Max let the movement and the music clear her head. Running had always been her haven, the way out from under her mother’s eagle eyes in the vastness of whatever Navy ship or station they’d been on. All the Carmichael children were encouraged to be active and so long as she was keeping fit, her constant runs were unsupervised.
However, what had started as an escape became something she enjoyed, something she was truly good at.
Pity there’s not a footrace in the Games, she thought, and laughed at herself. Not a surprise, I guess. Where are you going to run in space?
That stray thought hooked into her brain, echoes of Jenks’s report about the people they’d captured on the system jumper. One of the men had said the Neos couldn’t run far enough away from the trouble they’d stumbled into.
Figuring she could kill two birds with one stone, Max pulled the files from Admiral Hoboins on the accident in the brig and looked through them as she ran.
Malfunction of several key systems. Too complicated for her to look at in depth while running. Max dismissed them in favor of the forensic report, scanning through it until her eyes skidded to a halt—along with her feet—and she grabbed for the safety bar on the treadmill to keep herself from falling on her face.
“Shitshitshit.”
The molecular structure hung in her vision as she bolted for the showers, hoping that they were empty. They were, and she barely spared a second checking the time on Earth before she put the call in to Coms.
“Coms here, Tobin Hudson.” The man on the other end had a polite smile that vanished with Max’s next words.
“Hi, Lieutenant Carmichael. I need to put a priority call in to Earth, please.”
“Through your DD? The signal’s going to be crap and it’s going to give you a headache at best, or make your brains liquefy at worst.”
“It’s fine. My tech is good and I only need a minute.” She tried not to bounce impatiently on her toes. Her DD tech was better than good—it was the best money could buy—but she didn’t want to bother with that discussion.
“Okay, you’ve been warned. Putting the call through. Good luck.”
Max dropped onto a bench as the vertigo washed over her. A moment later, Ria appeared in her vision, and Max had to blink several times to get her sister’s face to resolve.
“Hey, Max, I’m about to head into a meeting, what’s up?”
“I need a minute, that’s all.”
Ria frowned. “Your signal is shit and I can’t see your face, what’s going on?”
“I’m calling straight from my head.” Max waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it. I need you to look into something for me. I’m sending you a file on a guy who was picked up a while back with a stolen system jumper coming from Trappist. Can you tell me if he ever worked for LifeEx?”
“Ryback Hobbs?” Ria tilted her head at the photo that appeared on her side and then shook it a moment later. “No, I don’t see any record of him. Why?”
Max muffled the curse that wanted to burst free. “He had traces of maishkin in his clothes. The naval forensics specialist obviously didn’t know what it was, but I—” She rubbed at her eyes. Any Carmichael or someone who’d worked directly with the labs knew the distinctive molecular structure of LifeEx’s essential component.
Ria’s brown eyes narrowed. “Where was this? Is this why you wanted those trial lists a few months back? Never mind, send it to me via text. I’m hanging up before you burst a blood vessel.”
“I’ll call you later,” Max said. She pushed to her feet and stumbled to the toilet, making it just before she threw up.
“I thought I was reckless,” Jenks said, and Max glanced over her shoulder to find the petty officer leaning against the stall opening. “That would have been super messy if your chip had overheated.”
“It was fine.”
Jenks rolled her eyes at the protest and stuck her hand out, helping Max to her feet. “It was stupid, and I don’t use that word lightly. What was so important that you rushed out of the gym and tried to have a convo with Earth through your DD?”
“I needed to talk to my sister. One of those men you arrested had traces of maishkin in his clothes,” Max said, and received a blank look from Jenks in return. “The main compound in LifeEx.”
“Huh. Is that bad?”
“He didn�
��t work for the company. That’s the only place he could have come into contact with it.” Max made her way to the sink to rinse her mouth out. “It’s highly controlled, Jenks. My family, the company, has kept the design of maishkin a secret for hundreds of years.”
“Could he have come into contact with someone who does work for LifeEx?”
Max shook her head. “At the concentrations noted on the forensic report? No. Besides, the labs are locked-down clean rooms, no one would have tracked or brought it out with them. He would have had to be in the room with it.”
Jenks stared at the wall for several minutes. “He wasn’t anywhere near Earth when we picked him up, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have been there previously.”
“There was—” Ignoring the pounding in her skull, Max scrolled through the report again. “There was also dirt in his boots, but not from Earth. From Trappist-1e—and other dirt they couldn’t pinpoint.”
“We should call Nika.” Jenks grabbed for Max. “Actually, first I’m taking you to medical, Lieutenant. Then we’ll call him like normal human beings do—with a tablet.”
Jenks stood at attention. That was rare for her, but so was the kind of shouting that Admiral Hoboins was engaging in right this moment. None of it was directed her way, thankfully, but holy shit did the lieutenant look like she was going to cry.
“Waking me up for emergencies is one thing, but when I get com calls at zero dark thirty just to have my ass chewed by a superior officer because she got her ass chewed by someone from the Navy protesting that Ria Carmichael came in and took all the evidence for a closed case—and then I get a call from Carmichael herself demanding all the files containing the information on LifeEx? It makes me a little grumpy.”
“To be fair, Admiral, you said the case was closed. Why did the Navy get their shorts in a twist?”
Jenks bit the inside of her cheek and kept her eyes locked on the window behind Hoboins, even though she wanted to stare at Rosa in shock.
“Because it’s the Navy, Commander. They get their shorts twisted over everything!” Hoboins stopped and dragged in a breath.
“With respect, Admiral—” Jenks cleared her throat as those fierce brown eyes turned her way and her interior voice screamed at her to keep her own damn mouth shut. “The lieutenant couldn’t have known her sister would pull rank like that—she was just trying to solve the puzzle and that was the only place to go for answers.”
“The point is, Lieutenant Carmichael should have come to Commander Martín first, not called her sister about it, and certainly not put her soft brain in danger doing so!”
“I agree with you, Admiral.”
“Well, thank God for that, Petty Officer Khan.” Hoboins looked back at Max. “Make a choice, Lieutenant: either the NeoG is your first and last or you find somewhere else to finish your stretch. I don’t need split loyalties in my crews or on my station, am I clear?”
“Perfectly, Admiral.”
“Fine, you’re all dismissed. Get the hell out of my office.”
Max walked out, Rosa and Jenks on her heels. Her head was down and Jenks watched her swipe at her face before she disappeared into the corridor. She caught Rosa’s eye, and the commander jerked her head toward the door.
Jenks shook her head. Not my job, she mouthed.
Rosa’s mouth tightened. Mine?
You’re the commander, Commander.
Rosa gave Jenks a narrow-eyed glare and headed out the door.
“You’re gonna pay for that one,” Lou said, and Jenks grinned.
“Probably. You know me, I’m shit for comforting people, unless it’s in bed.”
“Get out of my office,” Lou said, laughing and waving a hand. “Boss is going to be grumpy all day because of this. Hudson, get your ass in there for a chewing.”
“I’ll order him a fruit basket.” Jenks bolted out the door before Lou could throw something at her, shooting a sympathetic smile toward the coms tech who’d put Max’s call through.
Poor bastard.
“Lieutenant, hold up.”
Max stopped at the sound of Rosa’s voice, and wiped the remainder of the tears off her face before she straightened her shoulders. “Commander, I know I screwed up, but—I don’t want to go. NeoG is the best thing that’s happened to me and I—” She broke off when Rosa lifted a hand.
“Hoboins makes big dramatic statements when he’s mad because he doesn’t get mad very often.” The smile on Rosa’s face was surprisingly kind. “You’re not going anywhere, not unless you really want to.”
“I don’t.” Max hated how small her voice sounded under the pounding of her head.
“It was a shit decision, but I agree with what Jenks said in there. I understand what you were after and you thought your sister—” Rosa stopped and smiled again. “You didn’t think your sister would compartmentalize things like that, but that’s her job and she knew it. You need to start thinking like that, too. That’s what Hoboins’s point was.”
“I’m sorry, Commander.”
“Don’t apologize,” Rosa said as Jenks came down the corridor toward them. “Get our files back.”
Max smiled slowly. “I still have my copy.”
Rosa grinned. “Excellent.” Then she sobered. “Now, about the contacting Earth directly: I don’t care how fancy your gear is, Lieutenant, don’t ever do that again. That’s an order. Am I understood?”
Max swallowed as Jenks mouthed Told you so from behind Rosa. “Perfectly, Commander.”
Rosa nodded. “All right. I’ve got practice with D’Arcy in half an hour.” She pointed at Max. “You go lie down like Dr. Blun told you. And you stay out of trouble.”
“Kick his ass, Commander,” Jenks said with a grin, taking Max by the elbow. “I’ll make sure she gets back to quarters.”
Max let her pull them in the opposite direction, waiting until Rosa was out of sight before she looked down at Jenks. “What are you doing?”
“Taking you back to quarters.” She grinned again. “We’ve got a com scheduled with Nika and I want to make copies of those files before your sister orders you to give them up. Sapphi’s got some, uh, secret storage where we can stash them. Just in case.”
Max let Jenks lead her back to quarters and shove her onto Nika’s still vacant bunk. It was probably just as well, she thought as she lay down. Her head was throbbing and she took several deep breaths to stave off the sudden wave of nausea.
“Hey, wake up. Doc said no sleeping for another five hours,” Jenks said, kicking the bunk frame hard enough to make the whole thing rattle. Max opened an eye to glare at her.
“I was just resting my eyes. Sapphi.”
Sapphi looked unhappy. “LT, don’t tell the commander about my spot, please.” She slanted a look at Jenks. “She wasn’t supposed to be telling anyone.”
“Hey, it’s important.” Jenks plopped onto the bunk, a tablet in hand. “Send her those files, Lieutenant.”
“Done.” Max looked up at Sapphi. “Don’t worry, I won’t say anything. Just promise me you won’t go spreading that around?”
“It stays here.” Sapphi tapped at her temple. “Promise.”
“I trust you.” Max mustered up a smile, then closed her eyes again, resulting in a poke from Jenks.
“Hey, Sully,” Jenks said. “Can you put a call through to Trappist for me?”
“Yup, give me a second.”
Max struggled back into a sitting position, her side pressed against Jenks’s as the tablet screen blacked out and then Nika appeared.
His hair was disheveled, and he covered up a yawn with the back of a hand, revealing a line of text tattooed on his wrist that Max wasn’t able to make out before he dropped his arm. “Sorry. Late night. Hey, Max.”
“What am I? Chopped liver?”
Nika blew a kiss in his sister’s direction. “What’s so hopping important you’re messaging me to actually schedule a call?”
“We found something,” Max said. “After the thing with Je
nks’s EMU we started digging again. I just had a—”
“Wait, what happened to Jenks?”
“Did you not tell him?” Max leaned forward. “Someone sabotaged Jenks’s EMU while we were on Earth and it went haywire during a rescue. We think it was whoever killed those salvagers you picked up.”
“Jenks, what the fuck?” Nika sat up, all sleepiness vanishing at the news. “How are you just telling me this now?”
“In her defense, we’ve been a little busy around here. That’s not the most interesting part of this,” Max said, lifting a hand when Nik glared. “I just got around to looking at the forensics report for those deaths on board the Navy ship. The report noted several interesting compounds on the bodies and clothing. Namely dirt from Trappist-1e and maishkin.”
“The LifeEx compound?” Nika’s blue eyes went wide in surprise. “How did they even know they’d found it? I heard its makeup is a closely guarded secret.”
“They didn’t know what they had,” Max replied. “I’d have heard about it a lot sooner if they did. I recognized the molecular breakdown in the report.” She took a deep breath. “Then I called my sister to see if the man they found it on had been an employee at any point, but he hadn’t. Then Ria went off the rails and may have pulled all the evidence from the Navy and from us.”
“Oh.” Nika whistled. “Oops.”
“Little bit.” Jenks grinned. “LT got her ass chewed just half an hour ago. Though a chunk of it was for making a direct call to Earth from her DD and nearly frying her brain.”
“You did what?”
Max buried her face in her hand while Jenks chuckled beside her. “I’m fine. It was a quick call and as you can see I am still alive and coherent.”
“She puked and I had to take her to med bay.” Jenks’s voice was gleeful. “Dr. Blun said off duty for at least fifteen hours and then come back to see them.”
“Okay, hang on, we’re getting off track,” Nika said. Max lifted her head just in time to catch a stern look from him. “Don’t do that again.”