A Pale Light in the Black

by K. B. Wagers

  “Rosa already read me the riot act, thanks. So did Admiral Hoboins.”

  Nika leveled an impressive stare her direction and Max felt her cheeks heat. “I think it bears repeating, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay. So, we’ve got five dead smugglers, one stolen system jumper, three hundred and fifty-three missing bodies, links to LifeEx and to Trappist-1e. Did I sum that up right?”

  “And the dead body in the Thames,” Jenks chimed in.

  Max nodded. “But no motive or idea of why.”

  “I’d say send me the reports on the dirt sample and I could follow up here to see if we can pinpoint the area, but if your sister took them all—”

  Max pulled just the soil report and sent it off before Nika had finished his sentence and he raised an eyebrow at her.

  “I still have a copy—at least at the moment.”

  “Ah.” His eyes flicked to Jenks. “Did you give Jenks a copy?”

  “She knows about Sapphi’s storage,” Jenks said. “It’s taken care of.”

  “Okay, good. I’ll poke around here and see what I can find. The university isn’t far from base and I’m sure there are some geologists who can help me.”

  “Sounds good.” Max paused. “I’ll let you two catch up. I need to talk to my sister again.” She smiled and maneuvered herself off the bunk.

  “Use a tablet,” Nika said with a smile of his own.

  “Yes, Commander.” Max gave him a mock salute and then headed for her room.

  Jenks watched her brother watch Max slip away until she was off-screen and arched an eyebrow. He looked back at her, face impassive, and they stared at each other for several moments before Jenks finally relented and shook her head. “It’s your heart that’ll get broken, Nik, so I don’t really care, but it’s still a bad idea.”

  “I heard you call her LT, so don’t even start. Anyway, you think I want your advice, O Queen of Keep My Heart Locked Away from Everyone? How’s Luis?”

  “Hush,” Jenks said, smiling even though his words stung. She knew better than to open that particular box up with Nika. He was as likely to throw his heart gleefully into the shredder as she was to keep hers under lock and key. She hadn’t talked to him about what happened with Luis at the prelims and now didn’t quite seem like the time.

  Nika had never shamed her for her choices, but he’d seen straight through to why she only chose sex and never the risk of a relationship that would lead to heartbreak.

  “I do like her, it’s just—”

  “How are things?” Ever the diplomatic one, Nika changed the subject with only a smile and a nod. “Besides the strange mystery people trying to kill you, that is. Don’t think I’m going to forget you neglected to tell me about that. The prelims went well?”

  “They did. Would have been better if our lieutenant there had some sword-fighting skills, but she’s good enough with predicting people’s movements. She did amazingly with Ma in the navigation seat of his races. Her hand-to-hand skills aren’t bad, either.” Jenks shrugged a shoulder and looked up at the ceiling. “They’re not tournament quality, though. I don’t know if we’re going to swing this, and I still really want to punch whoever in Command thought this was a good idea.”

  Nika smiled. “Have a little faith, Jenks. I have a feeling everything will come together, and you’ve still got a decent amount of time to get to the Games.”

  “Maybe. Nothing else we can do about it besides bust our asses and hope that every competitor has a bad morning on the big day.”

  “True.” Nika stretched. “I’m up now, so I guess I should find someone to take a look at that sample you sent me before the day starts.”

  “I can see your ribs. Eat more,” Jenks said.

  “I love you, too, sis. Talk to you later.”

  Max closed the door of her room, shutting out the sounds of Jenks and Nika, and sank down onto the bed with a sigh of relief. “He’s not wrong. That probably was not the brightest thing you’ve done, Maxine Theodosia.”

  But she shoved the dizziness to the side and reached for her own tablet. Within moments she was connected with Ria’s private line again.

  “You look awful.”

  “Thanks, I just spent an hour getting my ass chewed by the commander of the station.”

  “What for?” Max gave her sister a flat look and Ria pursed her lips together for a moment. “Oh.”

  “You could have told me what you were going to do!” Max threw her hands up in the air. “I could have made the request, then it would have been one branch to another instead of LifeEx coming in and throwing their weight around.”

  “I did no such thing.”

  “You served the Navy with a cease and desist order, Ria, and told the coroner if he didn’t hand over the samples and the documents you’d sue him for property theft. Then you called Admiral Hoboins and basically demanded the same thing.”

  “Max, you know as well as I do that the breakdown of maishkin can’t be available to the public. You know what could happen if it was. Do you really want that?”

  “Might be a good idea for this family to be knocked down a peg,” Max muttered, earning a sharp look from her sister.

  “While I don’t necessarily disagree with you on that point, that’s not for some criminal to do. You know how dangerous the risk of knockoffs is, what it could do to people. How dangerous and unstable this whole process was. It took Great-Granddaddy years to get it sorted, and you and I both know there was blood on his hands from it.”

  “Hence the reason for the will.” Max sighed. They’d all been told this from childhood. The sacrifices and salvation of Great-Grandfather Alexander as he grew up with nothing in the aftermath of the Collapse. Humanity struggled and clawed its way out from under the debris of the shattered world to save itself from extinction.

  And through it all their great-grandfather dreamed of longer lives for the survivors, a way for humanity to recover the numbers that had been lost in a more sustainable fashion.

  Max remembered the agonizing two weeks at school during the history lessons covering her family, the horror of her classmates and the sympathy from the teacher. Her great-grandfather had charged for his discovery.

  Unlike Pierrette Rouseaux, the pre-Collapse tech giant who’d saved millions of lives with her terraforming technology and then preserved the tech by crowdsourcing it out around the globe so that the CHN government had been able to use the information to terraform first Mars and then three of the worlds in Trappist-1.

  It made Max sick. Yet another thing to separate her from the rest of the family, who were all apparently fine with the legacy—Ria’s comment notwithstanding. And Max vaguely recalled a cousin who’d shunned the family altogether and was living on borrowed time, as the people who couldn’t afford LifeEx liked to say. But she hadn’t been brave enough to reach out to her—because she was probably just as much a hypocrite as anyone in their family.

  “Max?”

  Max blinked away the memories and refocused on her sister. “What?”

  “I said I’ll need those files from you, too.”

  “You can have the one back, even though you and I know I have every right to keep it and that you don’t have the rights to the others.”

  Ria raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

  “It is. You’re interfering with an investigation.”

  “I was told it was a closed case, just salvagers in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “Maybe. Or it might be worse. I think someone tried to kill my teammate over this, Ria, and I’ll be damned if I’m going to let that go. You need to let me look into it.”

  Ria stared at her for a long moment and Max forced herself to stare back even as the room did a slow whirl around her.

  “Fine, but you keep me in the loop. Or I’ll tell Mom and Dad you almost fried your brain calling me direct.”

  “You think I’m scared of them?”

  “You should be. Don’t think you’re safe just
because you got what you wanted.” Ria’s smile was grim and she disconnected, leaving Max staring at the NeoG emblem on her tablet.

  Letters

  Dai—

  I found something. My contact at the PeaceKeepers scoured the video footage for the handful of faces I passed on and found footage of not only one of your salvagers, but our dead guy from the Thames in the same frame. See the attached.

  I’m glad you’re okay. Com when you have a chance.

  —Luis

  Max—

  Check out what Luis sent me from his contact at the LPK. I recognize Shaw and the date’s from before we snagged him at the belt and his untimely demise. Does that third guy standing in the background look familiar?

  —J

  Max—

  I’ve gotten wind of a smuggling ring that’s operating out of a warehouse here on Trappist-1e that might be connected to this strange case. The Trappist PeaceKeepers have been watching this place for a while. We’re planning on checking it out as soon as I can get approval pushed through.

  There’s a freighter that left here this morning, though, and its manifest reported having picked up cargo from that warehouse. I don’t have to tell you how strange that is. Trappist isn’t self-sufficient, there’s very little in the way of product being sent back to Earth. They’re probably already through Jupiter Control and on their way to Earth, but if you can convince Hoboins to reopen the case you’ll be able to go after them.

  Good luck, you and Jenks be careful.

  —N

  T-minus Seventeen Weeks until the Boarding Games

  “We got it.” Max set her tablet down in front of Rosa with a smile.

  “What am I looking at?” Rosa tilted her head at the image. “Or rather, who am I looking at?”

  “Sebastian Cane, Wilson Shaw, and my admirer from the preliminaries.” Max pointed at each of the men in turn. “Mr. Cane boarded An Ordinary Star on June 17, 2330, and was reported missing with the rest of the passengers and crew until his body appeared in the Thames a few months ago. Mr. Shaw, as you know, was arrested by Nika and then died aboard the naval transport ship en route to Earth from what we all assumed was an ill-timed accident. This photo was taken off surveillance footage from before you arrested him. We still don’t have a name for this man.” She tapped the third face.

  Max was practically bouncing where she stood and Rosa smiled. “Where’d you get this?”

  “Luis. He passed the faces we had on to his friend at LPK. They did a search through the archives around the time Mr. Cane was found in the river. This picture was taken the week before Shaw was arrested by the NeoG.”

  Rosa studied the image, biting back her second smile when Max shifted into parade rest in an expected display of patience she was becoming rather famous for. Jenks would have been peppering her with a thousand questions. Max thought she had something, she was just waiting for Rosa to give the go-ahead.

  The problem was, they still didn’t have anything that would justify NeoG reopening a case. Rosa opened her mouth to tell Max sorry, but then she frowned. “What did you mean ‘we all assumed was an ill-timed accident’?”

  Max leaned down and tapped the tablet, changing the image from the trio of men to a mangled ruin of wires. “Fire suppression system on board the transport.” She tapped again. “Jenks’s EMU.”

  “Okay?”

  “I had D’Arcy look at the images. He can’t be certain without seeing them in person, and unfortunately the suppression system’s already been disposed of, but he was pretty certain they were both wired by the same professional.”

  “He used the word ‘professional’?”

  Max nodded once.

  “How did you know to ask him?”

  There was the hesitation. Rosa hadn’t seen it on Max’s face for this entire conversation until now. “Being a Carmichael is a pain in the ass a great deal of the time, but there are some . . . perks to it—like access to more sensitive information. I like to know who I’m working with. Especially if that someone used to be an explosives expert for a terrorist organization.”

  “I have a feeling I don’t need to tell you it’s not common knowledge D’Arcy used to be a Mars separatist.”

  “You don’t,” Max replied. “I understand, even if I don’t agree, and his past is his to share. But I didn’t want to take this to someone I didn’t trust. I trust him.”

  “Did you tell him that?” Rosa fought to hold in her grin when Max nodded, and she was a little sad she’d missed the shock that had likely raced over D’Arcy’s face. “So we have something to link the death of our criminals with the attempt on Jenks’s life. Good. I’ll go talk to Hoboins.”

  “I’ve got something else, Commander,” Max said as Rosa stood. “Nika sent me the manifest for a freighter—Bandit’s Bane—that picked up cargo from a warehouse suspected of being involved with a smuggling ring on Trappist-1e. They passed through Jupiter Control at about oh-seven-hundred this morning.”

  “Did they—” Rosa broke off with a laugh when Max tapped the tablet a final time to reveal an official request from the TPK for the NeoG to board the Bandit’s Bane and verify that the items on the manifest from Trappist-1e were the only items collected from the warehouse. “Go get everyone moving, and call D’Arcy. Hoboins might want more teams, but I want Dread with us at the very least.”

  “Bandit’s Bane, I repeat. This is the NeoG Interceptor Zuma’s Ghost. You are ordered to heave to and prepare to be boarded under the authority of the CHN.”

  “I’m a duly registered freighter operating from Trappist-1e. You don’t have the right to board me.”

  Jenks snorted and Max shot Rosa a sympathetic smile as the captain of the freighter continued to argue.

  “This is not a discussion, Bandit’s Bane,” Rosa said, cutting off the oration. “I have authority to board and inspect via section eighty-nine of CHNC fourteen. You have one more chance to power down your engines.”

  The captain’s reply was garbled and Jenks’s snort turned into laughter.

  “Oh, this is gonna be a shit show,” she said, cracking her neck.

  Rosa sighed. “Captain Dale, did you copy all that?”

  “Roger, Commander. We’ll hit them with the pulse, should put everything down.” The captain of the Karman Patrol Cutter was responsible for the pulse weapon that could take ships’ engines off-line. The tech was similar to an electromagnetic pulse, but wouldn’t cause the containment on the engines to fail, nor would it shut down life support.

  “D’Arcy, you ready?”

  “As we’ll ever be.”

  “Captain Dale, you have clearance to fire. Hit the airlock, you three. Ma and I will be behind you.”

  Max nodded and headed off the bridge, Jenks and Tamago at her back.

  “Doge, you know the drill,” Jenks said, and Max swore the ROVER gave the same grumbling whine he always did.

  “I never asked why he can’t come on boardings.”

  Tamago giggled, cutting off when Jenks shot them a glare. “He shot a guy,” they said to Max.

  “Nearly got melted down for scrap,” Jenks muttered as she pulled her sword out of the rack and shoved it onto her back. “I had to promise Hoboins no more boardings, and I had to study for the promotion test, and stay out of trouble for six months. Damn dog. The guy deserved it, though, he was gonna stab me.”

  Max swallowed down the laugh. “Crew of thirty-seven.”

  “Assume armed,” Jenks said, fastening her helmet. “If they’re not completely suicidal it’ll only be shotguns.”

  “I’ll never understand that,” Max replied. “It could still mess up their ship.”

  “Better protection against pirates,” Sapphi chimed in over the com.

  “Why do pirates carry swords?” Jenks singsonged.

  “Because swords can’t walk!”

  Max choked as the other three burst into peals of laughter.

  “All right, focus time,” Rosa said over the com. “Sapphi, what have we
got?”

  “We’re docking in three, on the lower port side of cargo bay three. Dread is coming in on the starboard side, same cargo bay. I’ve got control of their airlocks and the doors on either side, so you don’t have to fight your way on board, but they’ve got someone who knows her shit. It’s going to take Garcia and me a minute to box her in.”

  Zuma’s Ghost shuddered as she docked with the freighter and the doors cycled with a hiss.

  “Roger that,” Max said.

  “I do not have visual, so you’re going in blind.”

  “Coming out of the airlock on the far side, Max,” D’Arcy said over the com.

  “Noted.” Max pulled her sword free as she stepped into the cargo bay.

  The members of Dread Treasure, except for Spacer Lupe Garcia, who was still on the ship, appeared across the cargo bay and Max met them in the middle.

  “Three levels,” Rosa said, joining them with Ma at her side. “Huang, you and Murphy stay here and hold the cargo bay.” She pointed at Dread’s warrant officer and PO. “Jenks, take Tamago and Akane to the bottom and sweep through.” PO Ito Akane nodded and tapped Tamago on the shoulder as she passed.

  “Max, Locke, and Ma, sweep the middle. D’Arcy and I are going up to have a chat with the captain.”

  “Do we have to take helmets with, Commander?” Jenks asked.

  “Sapphi?”

  “We’ve gotten into engineering and life support,” Sapphi replied. “Good to leave helmets behind. Commander, I could just shut everything down.”

  There was a moment of silence. Max straightened from setting her helmet on the floor and caught Rosa’s look, shaking her head once. Shutting off life support was risky and NeoG didn’t need the bad press that could come if they accidentally killed someone—even if the captain of Bandit’s Bane was resisting a boarding.

  “No, Sapphi, we’ll handle it. There’s—”

  A noise echoed in the cargo bay and everyone froze. Max tapped Jenks on the shoulder, gesturing with both hands that they circle around the pallets where the noise had originated. Jenks nodded, pointing at Rosa and mouthing Keep talking.