A Pale Light in the Black

by K. B. Wagers

  “Lot more people than I thought. Is this a working facility?” Jenks said.

  “Looks like it. Tamago, give me a rundown on security,” Rosa replied.

  “I’m seeing four in what looks like a security booth on the north end. Three more in a room sixteen meters from our current location. And three sets of two on patrol throughout the facility. One group headed toward Max, the other two groups are in the east and west corridors. They’re all armed, swords and what I really hope are stun guns rather than real ones because that would not be smart.”

  “Confirmed,” Ma said.

  “Here’s a map of the facility—I can update locations on it but they won’t be in real time so you’re going to have to pay close attention to those patrolling goons,” Sapphi said. “I’m cycling the airlock now, Commander. Be prepared; if my ruse didn’t work you’re going to have about thirty seconds to get in and get to stomping heads.”

  “Sapphi, what’s the closest room to the airlock?”

  “To your right, first door you hit on the right. There’s . . . one occupant. Scientist, I’m assuming from the lab coat. Unarmed. I’m starting a loop for the security feed now.”

  “Is the door locked?”

  Sapphi whistled. “No, but I’ll open it for you when you get there. I’m trying to get control of the whole system. It’s just going to take me a little bit to do it without being noticed.”

  “Jenks, once we’re in the airlock give Max’s suit to Ma. You take point. I want you to subdue that person in the room before I clear the doorway.”

  Jenks blew out a breath as the answers came across the channel and rolled her shoulders, preparing herself for what was coming. “Am I killing, Commander?”

  “Not unless you have no other choice.”

  Rosa’s voice was reassuring. Jenks didn’t like the thought of it, but she’d do it if necessary. As much as she loved to fight, people so often assumed she didn’t mind the killing, and she had killed people already in the name of the NeoG and the CHN.

  But it took a little piece of her to do it, and she wondered sometimes if she’d end up empty at the end of it all.

  The outside door opened and they moved inside, Jenks shrugging out of the pack that held Max’s suit and passing it over to Ma. The water level started to drop as Sapphi cycled the lock again.

  “We are still clear as far as I can tell,” she said.

  “No movement from the goons?” Tamago asked.

  “Just normal.”

  “We’re keeping helmets open but on, everyone. I want to be able to grab Max and bolt if necessary. We’re outnumbered and in unfamiliar terrain here.”

  Jenks shifted past Rosa, pulling her sword free and moving into the corridor. The hallways were quiet and empty. She reached the door on the right and it slid silently open.

  “Haskins, please tell me you brought lunch with you. I’m—” The words died on the man’s lips and he went cross-eyed staring at the blade Jenks pointed in his face.

  “Hi there,” she said.

  “I know you don’t like your family. Help me destroy them and you’ll live for a thousand years.”

  “If I say no, are you going to kill me?” Max asked.

  Sammi laughed. “Well, not today, though I admit I won’t be able to let you go right away, either.”

  “Believe me when I say I’m not looking for you to change your mind on this, but why wouldn’t you?”

  “Max, it’s a wide universe out there with a lot of places to hide. You have no idea.”

  “I work out there, you know; I kind of do have an idea.” Max tapped a finger on the arm of the chair. “But I get it, you’ll vanish. We won’t be able to find you. What do you want from me?”

  “I want your help, Max. I can’t get someone inside LifeEx Industries, believe me, I’ve tried. Your sister’s security is too good. But you? You could go anywhere, access anything.”

  “To do what? I’m not part of the company. I don’t have access to anything in the building unless my sister gives me permission. Your operation on Trappist is on the ropes, and even if it wasn’t, it’s not like you can take over LifeEx Industries. That’s not how this works.”

  Sammi’s smile was cold. “Max, you misunderstand me. I don’t want to take over LifeEx. I want to burn it to the ground.” She reached in her pocket and pulled out a syringe. “You have access to your family, to their private stores of the serum. There’s enough in here to contaminate the whole batch. They use it and poof!”

  Max’s stomach twisted in horror. “You’re talking about killing my family.”

  “Well, yes. See, Thomas figured out how to isolate that risk factor that accelerates the aging. He couldn’t remove it from the serum, but he could increase its effectiveness.” She wiggled the syringe with a smile. “The early version was a very effective way of dealing with traitors.”

  “Robin and Simon Holute. Ostin Prech. You killed them.”

  “They objected to our plan. Got cold feet at the thought of slipping the dupe into the mainstream LifeEx distribution and the deaths it would cause. Necessary deaths, you understand. Humanity is already expanding past what we should.”

  A second horrible realization crawled up Max’s spine. “You’re a Populationist.”

  “Of course I am.” Sammi shook her head. “We forget all too easily. It’s only been a few hundred years since the Collapse, but now it’s nothing but the arena of historians and fodder for entertainment. LifeEx has made it worse, giving people longer lives. We were going to use the dupe for the first culling. But now we’ll have to resort to more drastic measures.”

  Think, Max. You’ve got to figure out a way to get out of here and warn someone.

  “How much of that do you have?” Max asked, tipping her head at the syringe.

  “Not enough, but we’re ramping up production at the facilities we have left. NeoG has been putting everything in jeopardy with their poking around. I had to change my timetable up some. When it’s ready we’ll proceed. This one is contagious.” She smiled. “As I said, the early version was effective on everyone. Only those who are using our serum will be safe from this. What do you say, Max? You in?”

  “You are . . .” Max grappled for a word to use. “No. I’m not in. This is genocide.”

  “This is justice. You hate your family.”

  “I don’t want them dead!” Max pushed to her feet. “You don’t get it. This isn’t just about my family. It’s about the oath I swore. I won’t turn my back on that and leave people to die. Not on my watch.”

  The tech’s name was Han Wang Lei and he proved to be a helpful source of information once Rosa was able to get him to stop babbling about not wanting to die.

  It was, of course, all bad news. The lab they were in was being used for research into the dupe and development of the particular defect that sped up the aging process.

  “Fucking Populationists,” Jenks muttered from her spot next to Han, who gave her a nervous look.

  “We can’t have a repeat of the Collapse . . .” He trailed off when Rosa snapped her fingers at him.

  “Your boss kidnapped a member of the Near-Earth Orbital Guard, Han. Which makes you an accessory, never mind the charges that are going to happen when things settle from this shit storm.” Rosa gestured around them. “At this point a second Collapse is the least of your worries.”

  “Commander, I’ve got the other two Interceptors on approach. Captain Russo is wanting to speak with you.”

  “Put him through, Sapphi,” Rosa replied, moving away from their captive and closer to the door. “Captain.”

  “Commander, what’s your status?” Captain Yuri Russo was a stocky, dark-skinned man.

  “We’re in a lab just off the south airlock. Sapphi can send you a breakdown on the hostiles. Lieutenant Carmichael is in enemy hands on the far side of the base. We’re currently figuring out the best way to reach her without alerting anyone to our presence.”

  “Hey, Rosa.”

  “J
osie.” Rosa smiled. “Wasn’t expecting to hear your voice.”

  “Heard you needed some help,” Commander Josie Uli replied. “I’m seeing three airlocks in total, is that correct?”

  “It is. We’ve got one locked down. Sapphi’s working on the rest of the system.”

  “I’m almost in, Commander.”

  The door opened on the heels of Sapphi’s announcement and for a split second it was a toss-up who was more surprised, Rosa or the guard standing in the doorway with a lunch tray.

  Rosa recovered first, years of training moving her sword arm up in a sweeping arc. The razor-sharp blade cut through metal, clothing, and skin. She saw the guard’s mouth open but the shout of alarm died in a choked gurgle as the woman crumpled to the floor.

  Han’s terrified scream cut off with a thumping noise and Rosa turned as Jenks lowered the man to the floor. “He’s fine,” she said. “I mean, concussion probably, but better off than her.” She gestured at the dead guard and the rapidly spreading pool of blood.

  “Rosa, what’s going on down there?” Josie demanded.

  “Little surprise, we’re all fine here,” she replied. “Get moving, you two. Sapphi, where should they come in?”

  “Wipe your face,” Ma said, tossing a spare lab coat in Rosa’s direction. “We’re going to need to move. I’d bet they’ve got some kind of biometrics on their guards.”

  An alarm rang through the air.

  “I’ve got control of the airlocks, Commander,” Sapphi said. “Might be best for backup to come in through the south one and make for the bay. There’s two ships in there right now. We’ll want to make sure no one slips out that direction.”

  “We’ll park the ships outside,” Captain Russo said. “Just to deter anyone from getting any ideas.”

  “Keep people alive if you can,” Rosa replied. “I want someone to question when this is all over. This thing is bigger than just Max’s kidnapping.”

  “Sounds like a plan. You go retrieve your wayward lieutenant, we’ll hold things down around here.”

  “Hey, Rosa, about Max?”

  “What, Sapphi?”

  “She’s on the run, headed your direction.”

  Max felt oddly calm as she stared Sammi down. She was going to die here, that much was certain, but far better to do it standing up for what was right. What she’d fought to have her whole life.

  “Max, you are making a terrible mistake.”

  The door to her left opened. “Sammi, you need to come look at this,” the man in the doorway said, and Sammi huffed a little sigh before she got to her feet and followed him from the room.

  Door at the far side, Max, move!

  She bent over even as the voice in her head shouted the order and brought her bound hands down sharply against her back. The zip tie snapped on the second try, the edges cutting into her wrists.

  Whispering a prayer of thanks to her kindergarten bodyguard, Max dropped on a knee, fumbling at the heel of her sneaker for the razor blade she’d kept hidden in the sole of every pair of shoes since Hoa had shown her the trick.

  “You never know when you may need it, my darling.”

  She sliced through the zip tie at her ankles just as Sammi came back in the room. Max vaulted over the table and sprinted for the door. It slid open as if expecting her and she slipped through it, hearing Sammi’s shouts as it shut behind her.

  Max didn’t stop to investigate the impact noise or the sudden grinding as the door shuddered closed, dodging around the white-coated lab techs who appeared in the corridor. They were milling about in confusion over the sudden alarm blaring through the air.

  “Get down!” shouted an unfamiliar voice, and the lab techs complied. Max vaulted over one man, grabbing for the corner and skidding around it in a sharp left turn. The sizzling sound of an illegal pulse rifle cut through the air, the electrical shot slamming into the bulkhead behind her, leaving a burn mark the size of her torso. Now she knew what that noise had been and she did not want to get shot by that gun.

  I have nothing, no map, no fucking exit. Think, Max!

  There had to be a ship bay in this place.

  She grabbed a tech who emerged from their room, jerking the wide-eyed person close. “Where’s the transport?”

  “What?”

  “The fucking transport!”

  “That way, I—”

  Max barely let them go in time. They went down twitching as the next shot hit them square in the back.

  “That’s enough, Max,” Sammi said from down the hall. “I will have Carmine shoot you. It won’t kill you but it’ll hurt.”

  Max took one step back from the unconscious tech toward the hallway behind her and then another before Carmine snarled at her and the pulse rifle made a threatening whine.

  “I’m not going to help you.” She was calculating the odds of being able to dive to the dubious safety of the hallway before Carmine shot her when Jenks skidded around the corner out of sight and Max had to bite back a sob of relief.

  “Yes, you will.” Sammi shook her head. “Oh, Max, one way or another you’re going to help us.”

  Jenks crept closer to the edge of the wall. She could see Max with her hands in the air, had seen Max’s involuntary jerk when she spotted her.

  “Max, how many are there?” Jenks hissed.

  Max curled down all but two fingers on her left hand for just a moment. “Look, I don’t want to be shot with that pulse rifle any more than you want to shoot me with it.” She tipped her head slightly to the right.

  Jenks felt a little swell of pride. “Commander, found our girl. We’ve got two hostiles. One on the right has a pulse rifle trained on Lieutenant Carmichael,” she reported over the com.

  “I see you, Jenks. Confirm that. The man on the right is Pat Carmine. Busted for smuggling in 2431. Dishonorably discharged from the CHN Marines in 2432 after his trial.”

  “Why is it always the big fuckers?” Jenks muttered when his profile came up in her vision. “Sapphi, give me something. I can’t charge him, he’ll shoot me with that rifle and I am not in the mood.”

  “Hang on. I’ve got the lights. Can’t turn off a section, I’ll have to do the whole base. Commander, you copy?”

  “Got you, Sapphi. Everyone prepare to switch to night vision on Sapphi’s mark.”

  “LT,” Jenks whispered. “Sapphi’s going to cut the lights in three. I want you to drop.” She watched Max’s chin lower in the barest of acknowledgments. “On my three, Saphs. One, two, three.”

  “Mark it.”

  The lights went, dropping them all into blackness. Jenks flipped on her night vision, staying low, her hand trailing over Max’s back as she kept herself pressed to the wall. The idiot discharged his pulse rifle into the dark just like she’d hoped he would. Three times and then it went silent.

  “Empty!” Max shouted, and Jenks sprinted for the pair. She tackled Carmine head-on, heard him grunt as the air was knocked from his lungs, and punched him twice before sliding out of his grip. She already had him on the ground and this wasn’t a cage match. Jenks grabbed him by the head, twisted, and felt the fragile bones in his neck snap under the pressure.

  “No!”

  Jenks saw Sammi lash out at her. Something snagged on her suit as she leaned out of the way. Then there was a rush of air and a thud as Max crashed into Sammi.

  Max, whose DD chip was down and who couldn’t see in the dark.

  “Sapphi, give me the damn lights back!” Jenks shouted, squeezing her eyes shut and turning off her night vision.

  The lights came up and she saw Max scrambling to her feet. Sammi lay on her back, a syringe sticking out of her chest. Sammi screamed and Jenks watched in horrified shock as the woman began to age rapidly before their eyes. Soon there was nothing left but a pile of unrecognizable flesh and goo.

  “Oh god,” Max gasped. “She was telling the truth.” She grabbed Jenks’s arm. “Run!”

  They took off down the hallway, Jenks refusing to look back.


  “Jenks, tell Sapphi to shut this sector down. Get all our people out. Shut it down, the filtration, too!”

  Jenks relayed the message.

  “Jenks, what is it?”

  “I don’t know! Max said run, I’m not arguing.” The pair sprinted down the hallway in the opposite direction.

  “You’re the only two still in that section, Jenks. I can’t close the doors—”

  “Close the goddamned doors, Sapphi!” She saw the bulkhead starting to lower at the end of the corridor and pushed Max ahead of her. “Slide! Slide!” she shouted, and Max dropped, sliding under the rapidly dropping bulkhead. Jenks rolled after her, crashing into the LT’s side.

  “Everything’s locked down. Jenks, you want to tell us what the hell is going on?” Sapphi demanded as Rosa and the others came running down the hall.

  “Swear to god those things always move slower in the movies,” Jenks murmured.

  Max laughed weakly.

  Chapter 51

  As the other Interceptors secured the facility, Sapphi flew Zuma’s Ghost into the transport bay and the team loaded on to fly back to London. Rosa sat in the copilot seat as they left the base.

  “We’re both fine, Nika.” Jenks’s voice floated up from the common room. “You, however, are not going to be if you don’t get your ass back to rehab.”

  “Don’t look at me,” Max said after Nika’s garbled reply. “I’ll help her. We’re headed back to Jupiter as soon as we’re done, anyway. We’ll see you soon.”

  Ma chuckled. “He’s outnumbered.”

  “And those two are thick as thieves now,” Rosa murmured. “What kind of nightmare have we created, Ma?”

  “Not a nightmare. A dream team.” He grinned at her.

  “I’m going to remind you of that the next time we have to retrieve them from a bar fight.” Rosa pressed suddenly shaking fingers to her eyes and felt Ma’s hand on her shoulder.

  “They’re all right, Rosa. We rescued Max. It’s all good.”

  “I know.” She took a deep breath and blew it out.

  Back at HQ there was a tearful reunion with Max’s sister, on Ria’s side anyway, though the tears dissipated as fast as they’d formed. The LifeEx president smiled her practiced smile and thanked Rosa for a job well done.