by L S Roebuck
North was military neat, and his apartment was straight and clean. He had only three adornments hanging on his wall: A photograph of his parents set in a rare ornate oak frame, a photo of the earth city Vancouver, Canada circa 2000, and an abstract painting of three crosses meant to depict the Christ’s crucifixion scene as described in the New Testament.
The doorbell rang, and North, seeing it was Amberly on the security monitor, voice commanded the door open. North was still wearing his well-fitting uniform.
“Come in, Amberly,” North stood and motioned her to sit at the table. She did, and did not speak, instead, looked around the room, slowly taking it all in. She’d been in North’s apartment a hundred times, but to North, it seemed like she was acting like the whole place was new to her.
Amberly was, of course, thinking about where the access card could be. She was counting on the fact that North hadn’t already sent it to the recycle center.
“Hey, Red. I’m glad you came over. I’ve been thinking about our trip and I wanted you to know I can see how you think what I suggested would be offensive and I wanted to–”
Amberly reached over and put a finger over North’s mouth.
“Shhh. Let me talk first,” she said, dropping her right hand first to the surface of table, then, moving it across the table to take North’s left hand.
“You know, I’ve been ungrateful, and a bad friend,” Amberly said. “You opened up to me, and as your friend, I was really rotten to you.” Amberly again felt guilt in her manipulations. Still, she rationalized, everything she said was true, and finding out about her mother surely justified these means.
North smiled warmly and squeezed Amberly’s hand, then released it.
“That’s kind of you to say, but you’re not the first filly to turn me down,” North said, with a comfortable confidence that made Amberly feel childish and keenly aware of the 10 years that separated them. North smiled. “But you were the best. Don’t worry on my account. I’m made of stern stuff.”
Amberly was about to respond, but she didn’t know if she was offended that he’d apparently moved on so quickly. On the other hand, she felt strangely attracted to him because, suddenly, with a phrase and a hand gesture, North had gone from desperate to unattainable. Another feeling flashed in her chest: Had she let a good thing get away? She didn’t know what to say, and after a few seconds of silence, North filled the air.
“You know, before I left Arara, I’d look up into the night sky, and see the billions and billions of stars staring down on me. I knew the stars would be brighter if I was closer, but I never dreamed I’d find a star as bright as you. You are too good for me; you know it; I know it. I’ve made peace with that.”
Amberly was about to protest, but realized she was forgetting why she was here. She had to know about her mother.
“Any woman who was looking for a husband would be a fool not to take an offer from you,” Amberly said. “You’re a fine specimen. You have a great pedigree, a farm back on Arara when you retire. I’m sure your children will be gorgeous. You’re a Marine, so you have that whole protection thing down for any woman who is into that sort of thing.”
“You said you had something for me,” North said, trying to change the subject. Amberly wondered if maybe he was more broken over her rejection than he was letting on. The moment of truth had come.
“Taking me out on a corvette, choosing me to go to the Spencer Belt over all the others, that means a lot, and I didn’t really show my gratitude.” While Amberly was speaking, she had slid from the chair that was across the table from North onto the wall bench he was sitting on.
North seemed unsure about where this exchange was going, and he started to talk again, but this time Amberly was quicker to place her pointing finger over his lips. North sighed, and Amberly reached deep inside to find motivation to put her plan into play. The guilt was growing, but she hoped everything would come out all right in the end.
“I lied a little, I don’t have something to give you,” Amberly said to the shushed North. “I have something to trade for something you have that I’d like. I wanted to have a memento from our outing. My dad always had those ship passes every time he went on an adventure, and I never managed to snag one for my keepsake box. I suppose I could have just tried to get any old one, but you know, they are actually really hard to come by, even the used ones, and besides, I want one that has meaning, something that I shared with a man I care about.”
North gently pushed her finger from his mouth.
“You want the ship pass card? It’s just a hunk of circuits and code.” North was amused at what seemed to him an odd request. “I’m supposed to turn this in to recycling. It’s possible that someone might miss it.”
“Oh, you know no one will miss it,” Amberly said and she causally slipped an arm over North’s shoulder. “Besides, don’t you want to know what I am willing to trade for it?”
“Okay, I’ll bite, what are you willing to tra—” Amberly put her hand to North’s mouth for a third time, this time, index, middle and ring finger. She looked deeply into his brown eyes, her green ones blinking in slow motion.
Amberly leaned in and kissed North. The kiss was full mouthed and active, moist, hot and sweet. She liked this kiss too much, and after a time that seemed too long and, yet at the same time, too short, North pulled away from Amberly.
“I’m sorry, Amberly, I don’t understand what you are trying to do here,” North said. He enjoyed the kiss, but he knew Amberly was playing some sort of game, and he didn’t want to play. This wasn’t an affirming affection between partners. This was childish.
“Amberly, I care for you deeply, but this isn’t right.”
Amberly resisted the urge to panic. Did North see through her? Was she in over her head? She started to wonder what unintended consequences might transpire because of her manipulation of North — and Dek.
“I’m sorry, but I need to go,” Amberly said, nervously. “May I have the pass?”
North shrugged, went a little stone faced, and stepped into his bedroom. Amberly could hear him ruffling though his belongings.
North emerged with the card. “Here you go,” North handed Amberly the card, and she slipped it into her handbag along with Verne.
“I really have to go,” Amberly repeated, moving for the portal. And she slipped out the door.
The feeling of naïveté North had when Amberly rejected him on the Shard Cave trip returned. No, this was the taste of ignorance, North reasoned. He scratched his head and started wondering if he really knew Amberly at all. North picked up a stick of beef jerky, ripping it with his teeth.
Amberly was nearly sprinting down the hall to make her next rendezvous. She was not a liar, at least, she hadn’t been one until now. Manipulation isn’t a lie, not necessarily, she reasoned.
A small part of Amberly realized that she had not only successfully deceived North, but she had deceived herself, too.
CHAPTER NINE
“I have it,” Amberly said through the intercom at Dek’s temporary apartment. “Let’s finish our deal.”
Amberly wasn’t surprised when she didn’t hear Dek’s voice, but Joti’s in reply. The door slid open and Joti reached out and yanked the petite woman inside, the door sliding closed as quickly as it had opened.
Amberly surveyed the room. Joti was standing next to her, and seated on the folded down bed was Dek, and next to him was a woman with long strawberry blonde hair. She was the one who spoke, “Let me see it.”
Amberly reached into a pocket and fingered the access card.
“Are you really Dek’s cohort sister?”
The woman just snorted with some disdain.
Amberly looked at Dek, who looked down at the textured metallic floor. “Tell me, what do you need with a ship pass that has been already used?”
“Silly girl,” the woman said to Amberly, and then looked at Dek. “You didn’t tell her, did you? She’s in for a shock.”
The woman tur
ned back to Amberly. After a moment, she spoke.
“Dek isn’t anything romantic to me if that’s what you’re worried about. We’re cohort mates. We did grow up together, and we both joined Chasm about the same time. That’s all we are – now. The stories of your mother Kimberly, before she left for Magellan, inspired me to join Chasm. She’s a legend to us, you know.”
“No, I don’t know,” Amberly blustered. “Why don’t you tell me?”
“The card please?” the woman said. Joti’s eyes widened as Amberly pulled the pass from her pocket and handed it to the woman. The woman in turn handed it to Joti, who put it in his pocket, and in a flash, exited the apartment.
“Joti has a lot of work to do in a short time,” the woman said. “As do I. Let me tell you what is going to happen tonight, Amberly. The first thing you should know is I am not going to tell you my name. You can call me Sparks, because I am the spark that will start the chasm.”
Amberly was growing weary of the theatrics. “Whatever, Sparks,” she said sarcastically. Sparks laughed in reply.
“You see, we are going to take M.S.S. Firebird tonight. We have to recover some personnel from the Spencer Belt,” Dek said, speaking for the first time. “You have to come with us. We can tell you all about your mom on the trip over there.”
Amberly was confused. “You guys know this pass will not let you launch with the Firebird, or any ship right? The launch code is used already. You need a new launch code.”
“Of course, you are correct Amberly,” Dek said. Sparks rolled her eyes. “We have the ability to write a new code on the card. We just needed a used card to put a new code on. As you know, those cards are hard to come by. Magellan security never figured someone could do what Joti is doing right now — forging a new launch code to overwrite an old one.”
Amberly remembered the evening with Dek and the strange device he had to access the topside gardens. “Your hacking box. It’s how we got into the topside gardens. But that’s different than a launch card—”
Dek reached into a parachute pocket of his khaki pants, and pulled out a few assorted items and set them on the table. Amberly recognized Dek’s device from the evening at Rick’s, which Dek presented to her. But Amberly was keenly interested in another item Dek had emptied out of his pocket: a hard decoder key, probably for accessing encrypted messages like the one Skip had intercepted. Now she had to figure out how to get the hard key without arousing suspicion.
“And there is the hacking box now,” Amberly said.
“It’s a thing of beauty, really,” Dek replied. “Time to start giving you what you asked for. Your mother … was one of the most gifted people to ever work on cryptology. Writing unbreakable encryption algorithms… breaking everyone else’s. She was amazing. A prodigy. She had spent every free moment on Magellan working to crack every encryption and security code on the waypoint. A long, boring and arduous task reserved for only the most disciplined geniuses. And Kimberly was the best.”
“Nearly 30 years ago, we started sending code crackers to the five closest waypoints,” Sparks explained.
“But why?”
“All in due time,” Sparks smiled. “Trust me, you are going to be pleased.”
Dek jumped in. “Your mother cracked the code first among her colleagues at the other waypoints, but she feared she was compromised. Some conversation intercepted or something. She figured she didn’t have years for the rest of the Chasm code crackers to do their work. Then she disappeared with your father. Your mother was dedicated to Chasm like no other. And as you now know, she paid dearly for it.”
Amberly’s head was spinning. She knew her mother was sharp, but a super genius? Learning about her mother’s secret life was enough to stir her emotions. But this secret plot her mother apparently gave her life for that was about to unfold, and could have unknown consequences, was almost too much for Amberly to process. “Why do you guys want all the codes? What are you planning to do?” Amberly was becoming worried about what would happen next.
Sparks laughed. “Sorry sister. Telling you the details about Chasm wasn’t part of the deal. But I guarantee you’ll want to be on the Firebird when we borrow it tonight. After we show you our… secret, you can decide then if you want to join us, and if you join us, then you get to know everything.”
Sparks reached out and put a hand on Dek and smiled. “It’s time. We have our orders. Let’s change history.”
Dek smiled excitedly, reached out his hand and clasped it on Sparks’ shoulder.
“Go and help Joti prepare for the trip. I’ll make sure that Amberly gets to the hangar bay in time for departure,” Dek replied. “It’s so surreal, after all this time, after lifetimes of work, we’re finally ready. I thought I wouldn’t be sure about going through with the plan, but I have never been more sure about anything.”
Sparks leaned in and kissed Dek on the cheek. Amberly unintentionally sighed aloud.
“Jealous?” Sparks said. “Well you should be. You may be the daughter of the iconic Kimberly Macready, but I’ve earned my place, earned the admiration of my peers, and well, don’t worry, someday you may blossom.”
Sparks turned back to Dek, who wasn’t giving anything away with his expressions. Amberly fumed.
“There’s no reason to get her worked up,” Dek said to Sparks.
“Can’t a girl have some fun?” Sparks tossed out as she exited Dek’s temporary apartment. Amberly and Dek were alone.
“What was that about?” Amberly said. “You and she…”
“It was nothing and it was a long time ago,” Dek said, taking Amberly’s hands into his. “Don’t listen to Sparks. You are twice the woman she is.”
Amberly leaned into Dek and embraced him.
“Dek, I’m sort of getting scared. I want to trust you, but —” Amberly admitted, looking up into Dek’s bright hazel eyes.
“There’s nothing to fear,” Dek said. “We are on the edge of history, and you have a front row seat.”
“That’s what I mean, Dek,” Amberly said, standing back. “You and your weird crew are acting like Armageddon is knocking on the outer hull, and somehow my super-genius mom was the harbinger of the apocalypse.”
“Look, we could be in the Spencer Belt for a few days. Why don’t we go by your place and you can get some stuff,” Dek said.
Amberly didn’t want to get on the ship with the Chasm team. Not without knowing what was going on. Stealing a runabout, even borrowing one, was not an insignificant crime, and not one that you could easily get away with if you ever wanted to set foot back on Magellan again. On a closed environment like Magellan, there weren’t a lot of places you could lay low for a while. And Amberly didn’t want to accidentally exile herself from her home. Of course, Dek knew this, and it seemed unlikely he would put himself in so much trouble without an escape plan.
She thought he might try to get away on the American Spirit, but it wasn’t scheduled to leave for another four weeks. Were they planning on being out in the Spencer Belt for that long? Amberly’s absence from her normal routines and the missing runabout would point to her culpability. Was she just going along to be framed?
On the other hand, Amberly was intensely curious about what Joti, Sparks and Dek weren’t telling her. She knew they were holding out, and they were holding out something big about her mother. Every morsel of information they fed her only made her want more. Amberly, who had spent the last six years obsessing over her dead mother, was vulnerable to making irrational decisions when tempted with the idea of becoming closer to Kimberly Macready, posthumously.
They also might try to compel her to come. Joti certainly liked to wave around his weapon. She did trust Dek. She certainly didn’t trust Sparks, and defiantly kept a wary eye on Joti. Dek was different, she thought. Or maybe she was just hoping he was different, because she was attracted to him — a strong intellect, who believed in a cause and was willing to take significant measures, someone who took command in a situation and took care of the
people around him.
Just a week ago, Amberly was just a bright, young scientist on an obscure waypoint in the far-off reaches of space. Now she was involved in a… in a what? She didn’t know what she was involved in: plot, conspiracy, protest? She thought the best course of action would be to play both sides, at least until she had all the information.
“Yeah, let’s go to my place. Do you mind if I use your restroom first? I know this is awkward, but I really need to go. And would you be a gentleman and, well…” Amberly motioned toward the door of the small apartment. Even though there was a privacy curtain, Dek knew the polite thing would be for him to step outside, and he did.
“Wait for me outside,” Amberly called out, “I’ll be right out.”
Once Dek was outside, she moved quickly. She turned on the water in the restroom sink and let it run. She sat down and pulled off her boot, and then grabbed the hard key Skip needed and slipped it inside the shoe. She quickly pulled the boot back on, careful not to crush the hard key with her foot. The key was uncomfortable when she stepped on it, but she ignored the odd sensation in her shoe and tried to walk normally.
She washed and dried her hands, pulled the curtain closed, and then grabbed the hacking box and stepped outside the door.
Dek was waiting for her, and she immediately handed the hacking box to Dek.
“I figured we might need this, so I grabbed it,” Amberly said as Dek took the device and slid it into his pocket. Amberly started for the tube car at a rapid pace.
“Let’s go,” she said. Dek turned away from Amberly and took a step back toward the door. Was Dek was thinking about the hard key he left in the apartment? Amberly’s heart started to beat a little faster, and she was worried her face would become flush.