by M. R. Forbes
“Colonel?” Tibor said angrily. “What’s going on?”
Hayley knew he was on her side, even if he didn’t know why. The Goreshin would try to tear the Colonel apart if she wanted that.
She didn’t want that. She had to calm down. She had to trust. Quark didn’t do anything without a reason.
“Everybody relax,” Quark said. He looked back at Sykes. “You knew I would find you here. Thanks for not trying to hide. We’ve only got three hours as it is.”
“Colonel,” Sykes said. “I…”
“You what, Sykes? You’re sorry? Frag that. You screwed up as big as anyone can screw up. You’re lucky I don’t let Witchy here kill you.”
“It. Colonel. I.” She struggled to find any words. What the hell could a traitor like her say?
“What did they promise you?” he asked. “What did they give you that I couldn’t or wouldn’t? Nibia is dead because of you. All of the Riders are dead, save Witchy and me. You’re damn lucky she didn’t die, or you’d be in a lot of pain for a long time.”
“Colonel,” Hayley said, fighting to keep her voice calm. “How did you know?”
He glanced over. “That she was here? Where else would she go that the Nephies wouldn’t find her too easily.” He looked back at Sykes. “Because they want you dead too. Don’t they?”
“No witnesses,” Sykes said.
“You’re an idiot,” Quark replied. “You turned on your family for them. Did you think you could trust them?”
“No. Never.” She shook her head. “I had to.”
“Why?” Hayley said.
“My son,” she said. “He was sick.”
“Bullshit,” Hayley replied. “You don’t have a son.”
“I do. I had him before I joined the Riders. I left him with his father.”
“You never mentioned a kid,” Quark said.
“You don’t let individuals with ties outside of the crew stay with the crew.”
“I fragging wonder why.”
She looked down again. “I wanted to stay with the Riders. I wanted to stay near you.”
“If he’s sick, why didn’t you bring him to Koosa?” Hayley asked.
“They couldn’t help.”
“Bullshit,” Hayley repeated. “The Koosian witch doctors can heal anything.”
Sykes lifted her head, locking her eyes on Hayley for the first time. “You of all people know that isn’t true.”
“I was a special case,” Hayley said, refusing to back down.
“Maybe you aren’t as special as you think,” Sykes spat. “It was the naniates. The ones from Hell’s Gate. They got into him. They made him sick.”
“They’ve made a lot of folks sick,” Quark said. “They’ve killed a lot of them.”
“Exactly. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“I could have ordered them out,” Hayley said. “You didn’t need to turn to Thetan. You didn’t need to betray us. Are you fragging kidding me?”
“No,” Sykes replied. “It wasn’t like that, Hal. Shit. I. I never wanted to. I didn’t have a choice. He’s my only son. The only blood of my blood. I couldn’t just let him die. Somehow, Thetan knew he was sick. He knew the treatment wasn’t working. Maybe they hacked the medical records. Maybe somebody told him.”
“The Oracle?” Tibor asked.
“Could be,” Hayley replied.
“What’s the Oracle?” Sykes asked.
“Never mind, keep talking,” Quark said. “We’re on the clock.”
“I didn’t know they were going to shoot down the Quasar until right before they did it. They warned me; they wanted me to get out. You’re right; I didn’t trust them. Once I got on the escape ship, I killed the assholes and took off. I ran. I didn’t know what else to do. I’m sorry, Colonel. I’m sorry, Hal. They told me they were going to put your skills to the test.” She smiled slightly. “I figured you could handle it. You’re fragging Colonel Quark. I figured you would kick their asses, and they would help me fix my son. Win, win.”
Quark was shaking his head. “Did they fix him, Sykes?”
She surprised him by nodding. “Yes. Thetan said they were working on some new genetic research to counter the naniates. A cure. They brought him to their facility. He contacted me from there, whole and healthy again.”
“I never saw any incoming transmissions in the logs,” Quark said.
“I was the ship’s Engineer,” Sykes said. “I had access to everything. I deleted the records so you wouldn’t know. The same way I communicated with the Nephilim without you knowing.”
“How long have you been lying to me?” Quark said.
“Uh, Colonel,” Hayley said before Sykes could respond.
“What is it, Witchy?” Quark replied.
Hayley’s heart started to race. The Colonel missed the cue, but she hadn’t. She leaned up, whispering in his ear.
“They brought her son to their facility,” she said, remembering the numerous cells on Yeti-4. Where else could he have been?
“Oh,” Quark replied, catching up. “Shit.” He paused a moment, looking at Sykes. Then he shook his head and started to laugh. “This is all so fragged up. I don’t even know where to start.”
“Colonel?” Sykes said, confused by his reaction.
“I hate to tell you this,” Quark said, his laughter ceasing, his expression and qi shifting to sad and serious. “Your son is dead.”
The words slammed into her, sucking all of the color from her face. She stared at him in silence for a few seconds, her mouth hanging open. “What?”
“We just came from Thetan’s research facility,” Quark said. “Or should I say Don Pallimo’s research facility. We blew the frag out of it. If your kid was still there, he’s gone. The whole fragging rock is gone.”
She kept staring, her qi going completely white. She fell to her knees, burying her face in her hands. “No,” she said softly. “This can’t be real. This can’t be happening.”
Hayley watched Sykes for a second. She wanted to be furious at the engineer. A part of her still was. But she couldn’t look at anyone in so much pain without finding any compassion for them. She moved past Quark, gently this time, crouching beside Sykes and putting her arms around her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. And she was. Sykes’ son, whoever he was, had been innocent in all of this.
“Everything I did, I did for him,” Sykes said. “He never got to know me. I was never there for him. I owed him this.” She picked up her head, glaring at Quark. “And you killed him.”
“Whoa. Hold up there, Sykes-o,” Quark said. “We never saw anyone who wasn’t a bad guy, did we, Witchy?”
“No, Colonel,” Hayley replied. “We never saw your son, Alice. He may have been dead before we got there. The research wasn’t complete. It wasn’t perfected. It also wasn’t under Thetan or Don Pallimo’s control.”
“What do you mean?” Sykes asked.
“Some of the free naniates have formed a Collective,” she said. “They’ve become autonomous. They usurped Thetan’s research.”
“And we accidentally helped them get off the planet before it collapsed,” Tibor said.
“Which is the real reason we’re here,” Quark said. “Catching up to you was a bonus, not the main idea. This is a resupply mission, first and foremost. We need supplies. Lots of them.”
“What for?” Sykes asked.
“We need to break into the Worldbrain,” Hayley said.
Sykes turned her head to look at her. “What? You can’t break into the Worldbrain. Nobody can.”
“We’re going to have to put that theory to the test,” Quark said. “And we’re the fragging Riders. We exist to do what nobody else can.”
“Colonel. I. You’re going to need help. Someone with a background in hardware, firmware, and control systems.”
“We’ve got Gant,” Hayley said.
“You’ve got an artificial representation of Gant,” Sykes replied. “That will only take you so far. Col
onel, you can do whatever you want with me. Kill me. Torture me. I don’t care. I screwed up. I know. I’m sorry. Please, take me back. I can help you. I want to help you. It doesn’t matter if it was Thetan or the Collective. If one of them killed my son, I want my chance to make all of this right.”
“And what about trust?” Hayley said.
“I don’t need you to trust me. Watch everything I do. I’ve earned that. Colonel, you know I can help you.”
Quark stared at her. “You can’t make this right, Sykes. Nibia is dead. Ram, Jules, and all of the others are dead. There’s no atoning for that.”
“Maybe not, but there are millions of individuals out there who aren’t dead. They will be if you fail, won’t they?”
He nodded. “Damn right.”
“I can help you. You know that’s the truth.”
“I do, as much as I hate to admit it. You’re the best damn Engineer I’ve ever met outside of Gant. The real Gant. That doesn’t take you off the hook for what you did.”
“I know. I’ve got nothing left, Colonel. No Riders. No son. This is all I can think to live for.”
“What do you say, Witchy?” Quark said.
“Colonel? Why are you asking me?” Hayley replied.
“They were your family, too. We can’t afford to be divided on this.”
Hayley watched Sykes’ qi. The Engineer was as remorseful as she had ever seen. She wanted to hate her for what she had done, but how could she say for certain she wouldn’t have done the same?
She had trained as a soldier, but like she had told Ahab, she was foremost a healer. She didn’t have a right to be Sykes’ judge and executioner.
“We could use a good Engineer,” she said.
4
Just because they had decided to take Sykes back into the fold, that didn’t mean it was easy.
The whole deal left Hayley conflicted. She had compassion for the loss of the woman’s son. At the same time, the whole situation probably could have been avoided if she had been honest from the get-go. Then again, Quark was the one who made that honesty difficult. He didn’t let his Riders have outside attachments. No spouses. No children. He said it left them conflicted. And of course, he had been right about that.
The result was a whole circle of blame. And what was the point of pinning the blame anywhere? It wasn’t going to bring Nibia back. It wasn’t going to bring the other Riders back. It wasn’t going to stop Thetan or the Collective.
It still hurt like hell.
She struggled to look at Sykes as they made their way from the spoked docking ring inward toward the main part of Rage Station. She could see the Engineer’s qi in the corner of her field of view. She was still remorseful. Still sad. There was a trickle of hope in there. A vein of anger. There was no question to Hayley that Sykes would be loyal to them now, but they had already lost so much.
They made their way along a rounded corridor that stretched from the docking ring toward the outer habitat. There were windows along the corridor, through which she could gaze into the apartments that sat at the outer edge of the Station. Some of the residents had left their viewports completely transparent, and she could make out their forms inside. Humans, mostly, though she caught glimpses of a couple of Atmos. All of them were either hiding from something, or trying to make a living on the individuals who were hiding from something, or had been born and raised here. Those were the only reasons to live in a place like Rage Station. The station itself wasn’t small, but it also wasn’t overly large, and too much time in artificial gravity and fake atmosphere could drive anyone mad.
“Do you know where we’re headed, Colonel?” Narrl asked.
“Sure do,” Quark replied. “I know a dealer here. He sold me the cloaking generator on the Quasar. Damn. Probably about fifty years ago, now. I hope he isn’t dead.”
They reached the end of the corridor. There was a tube at the end that would carry them from docking into the station proper. They gathered inside it, the platform carrying them down through a dozen levels of apartments, giving them only a quick flash of sterile corridors as they passed them by.
The surface of the station changed as they sank beneath the upper living areas. The sterile corridors started filling with garbage and debris, the burst of color from the lights fading and dimming. A smell started entering the tube like something was burning.
“This place is a dump,” Ahab said.
“The Chalandra making you soft, Ahab?” Tibor asked.
“He’s already soft,” Quark replied. “Can’t get much softer.”
Ahab didn’t reply. Hayley could see the embarrassment in his qi.
The platform stopped a moment later, dropping them off on Deck 34G. Hayley didn’t know what the G meant. She could tell by the smell they hadn’t cycled back to the cleanliness closer to the docking arms.
“Station Control keeps a tight grip on the upper decks,” Quark explained. “Every so often, some asshole from the Outworlds or the Republic drops in wanting to incorporate the station or claim the space around it. Control gives them the high-roller tour. Good food, a stateroom that makes the Chalandra look like a slum, whatever kind of pleasure synth they’re into, and a nice bribe to make them go away. They don’t let them see the underworld, the real business end of the station. If either government had half an idea of the contraband for sale down here, it would all end real quick. That’s why Control won’t let us sell the pansy ship. Too much attention is bad for their survival.”
He led them along the corridor. It curved slightly as they walked, moving with the shape of the station. There were hatches on either side, some of which had signs hanging over them or characters etched into the metal beside them. They weren’t written in Earth Standard. It looked more like Mandarin or maybe Plixian. Either way, she couldn’t read it.
Quark seemed to be able to. He continued down the hallway without slowing. They had to break apart a few times as they passed other visitors or residents. The individuals watched them with curiosity, not speaking or making eye contact, but monitoring them all the same.
The Colonel finally came to a stop at one of the hatches. It was as nondescript as the rest. It didn’t have any writing near it, suggesting it was a place to do business. He raised his hand to pound on it.
“Shasta, you in there?” he shouted, rapping his fist on the metal. “It’s your old buddy, Quark.”
They waited a few seconds. Nobody answered.
“Shasta!” Quark shouted again, hitting the door. “I brought coin. Lots of it.”
Still no answer.
“I guess he’s not here,” Sykes said.
“She,” Quark corrected.
“Maybe you have the wrong door, sir,” Tibor suggested.
Quark whipped his head around to glare at him. “I’m not that old. This is the place.”
“It has been fifty years, Colonel,” Hayley said.
“Shasta was only seventeen last time I saw her. There’s no reason for her to be dead.”
“Maybe she moved on?”
“Nobody moves on from Rage Station. That isn’t how it works out here.” He hit the door again. “Shasta!”
The door didn’t open.
“I think we need a new arms dealer,” Narrl said.
“You may be-”
The door made a harsh grinding sound and then began to slide open. Before any of them could react, a pistol emerged from the crack of it, pressing against Quark’s forehead. The holder was a revealed a few seconds later. A young woman, no more than seventeen, slight and haggard.
Hayley could tell right away the girl was a synth.
She could also hear the boots quickly approaching down the corridor, rushing toward them from both sides, just out of view around the curves.
“Shasta,” Quark said. “What the hell?”
“Colonel Quark,” she replied. “Don’t move a muscle. You’re under arrest. All of you.”
5
“How the frag can we be under arrest?” T
ibor said. “We just got here.”
“Never mind that,” Quark said, not trying to move with the gun pressed against his head. “Last time I checked, Rage Station didn’t have too many laws. What gives?”
The soldiers finally appeared in the corridor. There were half a dozen on each side, wearing lightsuits and carrying laser rifles. They were synths too.
“I don’t know,” the synth replied. “I was ordered to detain you. I don’t ask questions.”
“What happened to the real Shasta?” Quark asked.
“Murdered,” the synth said. “Ten years ago now. Control installed me here when you arrived.”
“I don’t get it,” Quark said. “If Control wanted to grab me, why didn’t they do it topside?”
“I told you, I don’t ask questions.”
The soldiers reached them, surrounding them and keeping their rifles trained on them. The Shasta synth tilted her head slightly and then removed the barrel from Quark’s head.
“You will follow me,” she said. “If you try anything, one or more of you will come to harm.”
Quark glanced at Hayley. He was amused by the turn of events. “Stay cool, Riders,” he said. “Lead the way.”
The Shasta synth moved past them, down the corridor, back the direction they had come. The soldiers around them nudged them forward behind her.
“It would have been nice to at least have gotten some fragging guns first,” Narrl said, putting his hand under his arm to signal his hidden blade.
“Let’s see how this plays out,” Quark replied. “We aren’t in trouble until we see a fat lady.”
“Huh?” Narrl said.
“It’s an Earth colloquialism,” Hayley said. “And the Colonel showing his age.”
“Oh.”
They trailed the synth back to the tube. It was a tight fit for the entire entourage, and each of the guards made sure to keep their rifles pressed into one of the Riders. Hayley expected they would be going back up toward Control, but they didn’t. The synth entered something on the tube’s control panel, and they continued the descent.
“You overrode the default systems,” Sykes said. “You’re taking us down to Support?”