“If this stuff is so nasty, why did you take the job?”
“That’s the thing, isn’t it?” Kae waited for his next drink to arrive and downed half of it before continuing. “I wasn’t given much of a choice, and in the beginning I didn’t realize what was going on. That was before I saw—“ he stuttered to a stop, ending up with his eyes pointed straight down at the bottom of his glass.
Even more intrigued now than before, she wished they were in the same system as a Star Corps base. The dossier she had listed his name, ship’s registry, and some details, but no personal information or history. She knew he was ex-Star Corps from their earlier discussion, but had nothing else with which to guess what the deal was with this cargo and his reaction to it.
“What do you mean?” she asked after several moments of silence.
“I’m sorry I mentioned it. The stuff you want is in a warehouse nearby. Let me message you the location. Just a word of warning; if they’re going to test it here, don’t be well-side when they do.”
“Is it a weapon of some kind?” A message request popped up in her implant’s UI. She accepted it, and a set of local GPS coordinates appeared in the upper right part of her vision.
“Yeah, it is.” He finished his drink.
“Look, Captain Faen, I don’t know what’s going on, but I think you’ve convinced me. I want to know what this crap is before I load it on my ship.” She could feel an unsettled look appearing on her face as she spoke.
He stared at her for a long moment, his eyes glassy from the drinks. “I’ll tell you what this crap is, Lieutenant. I’ll even do one better than that. Meet me at the warehouse in an hour.”
That would put her off Solus’ schedule, but at this point she wasn’t sure that was a bad thing. “Make it thirty minutes.”
“I’ve got to find some nanodetox first—“
She held up her hand, reached into a compartment on her belt, and produced a small cylinder of instant sober for him.
“Okay, make it thirty minutes then.” He nodded and grabbed the injector off the table.
“I am renewing my objection to this,” Sub-Lieutenant Ostrin said as they walked across the crunching, dust-covered street beside the warehouse.
“Noted.” Meia estimated the structure at forty-meters wide with a door large enough to pilot a shuttle through. It was sandwiched between four others of its type, and had a railroad siding running to a main line that stretched from the center of the colony out into the distant wilderness. An ore transport drone rested in front of the warehouse at the end of the row. The bubble housing its robot brain and sensor suite sat twenty-meters above the ground at the head of its massive, corrugated body.
Down the road heading into town, miners meandered from a railcar to the bar. Their stained overalls glowed like runway lights in the sunset illumination. Only a few broke away from the herd for other destinations. She was grateful that her group was drawing fewer stares now that long shadows obscured the details of their uniforms. Ostrin still drew some looks from the mob of tired miners, though that couldn’t be helped. Delgrix were rare on this side of the Confederation.
“The structure is shielded in the EM spectrum,” Iapetus said through the 109’s vocalizer. “I recommend downloading a fragment of my consciousness program to maintain autonomous decision making capabilities. Please authorize.”
“Authorized,” she said, trusting the A.I.’s judgment. She didn’t want a strong ally going into zombie-mode just because the platform got cut off from his central processors.
“Download complete,” he said as the huge warehouse doors cracked open with the groan of hydraulic pistons. The DS-109 was now a functional copy of the ship’s AI on the light-attack frigate in geosync above the colony.
A young boy with blue eyes and copper-red hair peeked out from behind the door, keeping all but the side of his freckled face behind it.
“Hello there,” Meia said, bending down. She looked past him to the stacks of cylindrical canisters, each a meter tall and about half as thick, were arranged into rows inside. All together there were enough to fill the cargo hold of a light aerospace transport ship, which left a lot of empty space around them. Clearly, someone rented this whole place out for the singular purpose of storing this cargo for the CSS Laocoon. It couldn’t have been cheap, even on a backwater nowhere like this moon. Her eyes lingered on the stacks for a moment, wondering who would go through the trouble and why. When she looked down the boy was gone.
“Lieutenant?” Ostrin asked, stroking his beard with one hand.
“Not a word.” She yanked back the sleeve of her jacket and exposed a thick band of chromium metal clutching her wrist. It had a jewel-like blue teardrop in its center, and the letters MRD-05 were etched into the shiny surface on either side of the blue protrusion.
“I wouldn’t dare,” Ostrin replied.
With a command from her implant the miniature recon drone’s four arms let go of her wrist and rotated outward. Splayed to the sides, each ended in a miniature ion-induction turbine which powered up with a whine. A feed opened up in her vision showing the view from the mini-drone’s sensor-suite as it lifted up high above them. She watched the top of their heads recede into the background, then set the drone to hover over the warehouse’s entrance. She could now watch the street without drawing attention by posting either Ostrin or Iapetus outside.
“Come on, let’s go.” She unhooked the strap of her ’90 and proceeded through the gap between the heavy doors with the others behind her.
“Good evening, Meia.” Captain Faen leaned against the wall to her right a good twenty-meters from her position. The boy was at his side, emulating his posture. She noted the mother of pearl hilt protruding from a holster strapped to Kae’s thigh, but couldn’t quite make out the model of his sidearm. Whatever it was, it was lighter than the ‘90 she had, but looked big enough to put some hurt on whatever it hit.
He pushed off the wall, causing the flaps of his scale-skin jacket to flutter, and walked over towards them with casual steps. The kid behind him did the same, but stayed by the wall eyeing them with suspicion. She was surprised to see him there, not figuring Faen for the father-type. Maybe he wasn’t. It occurred to her that he might have hired some local kid to hang around, trusting the presence of a youngster to suppress the urge for a firefight. He was right, of course. She wasn’t about to draw her weapon around someone so young, and she knew Ostrin wouldn’t either. The only thing Kae may not know, however, is that Iapetus wouldn’t have such issues. She trusted his mechanical accuracy enough that she wasn’t about to inhibit his ability to open fire.
“I’m here for business,” she said once Faen was within two paces. “It’s Lieutenant Ironstar while we’re dealing with this. Cute kid, by the way. You didn’t mention you had one.”
He gave her a hurt look and an easy smile. “Don’t worry, the mom’s not in the picture, and it’s nice to see you, too, Meia.”
She frowned at his refusal to comply. So, he was charming but irritating. It was good to know but didn’t really impact their business. She intended to be done with him after tonight anyway.
His smile turned wicked, the bastard.
“So this is it. I moved the cargo to this warehouse. Couldn’t get it off my ship fast enough, to tell you the truth. I figure you can pull your C-37 up here and just take it. There’s roof access, too, but it’s better if you load up by the rails. There’s no lift in here so you’ll have to carry up the barrels one at a time if you choose the roof.”
“Noted, Captain Faen.”
“That’s Kae to you.” He winked.
“We’ll pay you after we’ve loaded up.” She glanced at Ostrin with her ears burning and was thankful that her olive-dark skin would hide her blushing to at least some degree. Embarrassing her in front of her men was decreasing her urge to get his pants off—and she was pretty sure that’s what they both wanted for the night. “It’ll go faster if you help, and better if you work with me.”
“I already told you, I’ve got no interest in touching this stuff again.” He sighed, and the smile faded away. “I’ve already seen what it can do.”
“What is this stuff?” Ostrin asked.
“Active x-ray and radar scans indicate it to be some kind of nanomechanical suspension under high pressure,” Iapetus said before Kaeden could answer.
“Your ‘bot’s right. That’s what it is, and it’s all bad news. I don’t know where you’re taking it but that doesn’t matter, really. I’d set fire to this place and forget about it if I were you.”
Meia frowned. “You keep saying things like that. Come clean with me, then. What is this stuff? No games.” She noted some movement outside through the MRD’s eyes. “Hang on a second.”
She cycled its sensors from the visual spectrum to the infra-red. There were four men approaching the warehouse from down the street.
“Were you followed?” she asked.
Kaeden frowned, his eyes darted to his boy and back. “Were you?”
“I detected no pursuit on the way over here,” Iapetus responded.
“So why are you asking?” Kaeden said.
“We may have some company.” She zoomed in on the men’s faces. One of them was the bearded guy from outside the bar. “Dammit.”
“What?” Kaeden asked.
“Looks like we were followed. It’s that creep from the bar and some of his friends. Guess he doesn’t take no for an answer.” She shook her head. “I’ll scare them off.”
“Please allow me, Lieutenant,” Iapetus said. The gun turrets on his shoulders twitched.
“Allow us.” Ostrin drew his service pistol.
“Set for stun. I don’t want to have to do the paperwork for kills. You know how colonial authorities get when you terminate their locals,” she said.
Ostrin looked sad for a moment but nodded. “Aye, ma’am.”
“I’ll have Mr. D give you some air support.”
“Mister D?” Kaeden asked.
“The miniature recon drone I have outside,” she said.
“Miniature Recon Drone—oh, I get it. Very cute, MR-D.” He smiled, then turned around to the young boy by the wall. “Come here.”
The kid frowned, but did as he was told.
“Who’s this?” she asked when he arrived.
“My son, Rune,” Kaeden said with pride in his voice.
She bent down to look the kid in the eye. “Nice to meet you, Rune. I’m Meia.”
“Hi.” He waved once, eyeing her up.
“Rune, stick close.” Kaeden unlatched the holster on his sidearm.
“What is that?” She nodded towards its iridescent-white hilt.
“An RA-10G I kept from my days in the corps.” He drew it so that she could see the chromium plated gauss pistol in all its glory. “I added a few extras.”
“Chromium?” She cocked an eyebrow.
“Well, I do like to make a statement—“
He was cut off by a booming sound coming from the opposite end of the space that sent a jolt through both of them. Meia turned and put her hand on her ’90, looking past the stacks of canisters to where a neat hole had been blown in the far wall. Dark-gray smoke rose from the gaping rupture. The smell of carbon, sulfurous compounds, and ozone grew heavy in the air.
She started to move to take cover behind the barrels, but Kaeden blocked her path with his arm.
“Don’t! Trust me.” His other hand had Rune by the shoulder of his jacket. “We don’t want to be anywhere near this warehouse if those barrels get shot open. We need to get outside, right now.”
She didn’t question him, the tone in his voice told her everything she needed to know. With a nod she backed up towards the door, drawing her heavy pistol and aiming it at the smoldering break in the wall.
Iapetus, we are under attack, she transmitted as she checked the feed from Mr. D. The attackers had taken cover around the corners of the other warehouses when the explosion went off and had pistols drawn. In front of her the first of their immediate assailants stuck his head through. She pulled her trigger and her gun barked, jolting her arm back as his head exploded. So much for avoiding paperwork, she thought.
“Double-time it,” she shouted, laying down a few extra rounds to discourage return fire, and put herself between Kaeden, the boy, and the canisters.
He picked up Rune and charged out through the gap.
“Attention unknown assailants, we are officers of the Confederate Star Corps. You will lay down your weapons now and place your hands on your heads,” Iapetus announced. The response was gunfire.
Meia came under fire from the hole in the wall. She suppressed the instinct to take cover, instead throwing herself backwards into Kaeden and Rune, sending the three of them to the ground as the hypersonic bullets splattered on the thick warehouse door like hard rain. Ostrin turned towards the new threat, bracing himself with all four legs, but caught the next burst full in the chest and collapsed.
“Shit!” she shouted. The stacks of barrels provided cover from the new assailants for her, Kaeden and the kid, but they did nothing for Iapetus standing in the gap between the doors. Bullets pinged off his thick armor and sent sparks into the air.
“Lieutenant, permission to switch to lethal force requested,” he transmitted.
“Granted,” she transmitted back.
One of his shoulder turrets swiveled towards the inside of the warehouse while the other tracked the targets outside of it. The electric buzz of their high-intensity lasers was the only indication that he was firing since she couldn’t see the bright burn-spots the weapons inflicted on their assailants from her position. After a moment sections of his forearms indented and a new set of gun-barrels protruded from them. He raised his arms, one towards each set of hostiles, and bright blue-white bolts shot out from the particle accelerators.
“We have to get out of here!” Kae shouted over the din of gunfire. He had his body curled up around Rune, trying to shield him from both directions at once. “If those barrels go we’re done!”
She nodded and sent Mr. D up higher into the air.
“I’ve got a route out of the area but we’re going to have to dash across the street,” she shouted back.
“It is what it is! I don’t care as long as we get away from this warehouse now!” Kae looked panicked and set off a spike in her epinephrine levels.
Cover us, she transmitted, looping Iapetus in with Mr. D.
“Affirmative, Lieutenant. Laying down cover in five, four—“
She got up to her knees and fired off a few more rounds at the hole, then nodded at Kaeden and the boy. He scrambled up, taking Rune in his arms, and bolted outside. She gave him a second, then followed. Ahead of her she saw Iapetus open the DS-109’s back panels and extend its racks of mini-missiles. Four howled up into the sky before turning downward towards their targets. The racks were already retracting when as she threw herself through the doorway and beat her feet against the sandy ground. She was half-way across the street when she heard the sound of gunfire precede the tinny ring of bullets passing through thin metal. A loud popping sound reverberated off the buildings around her. Down the street the rockets found their marks, exploding with the sound of thunder. Gunfire from that direction fell silent after.
Kaeden paused in his charge and turned a pale, wide-eyed face back in her direction. “Run!”
He took off down a side-street. Meia turned her head and saw the warehouse filling with a white smoke from holes in several of the barrels. She still didn’t know what it was, but she trusted Kaeden’s reaction and did as he said.
Iapetus, let’s go. Make for the landing platforms and fire up the C-37 while we go, she transmitted, holding out her arm. Mr. D swooped down and landed on it, clamping its hot arms around her wrist. She winced, but there was no time to let them cool off first.
“What about Sub-Lieutenant Ostrin’s body?” Iapetus asked as the DS-109 ran up alongside her.
We’ll come back for it, she
transmitted.
The gunfire behind them coming from inside the warehouse fell silent, and only the crunch of her rapid footfalls remained in Meia’s ears. She sprinted for a good hundred-meters before letting herself slow down to a jog. Ahead of her the main strip went past the only landing pads the colony had. On one of them rested the bird-like C-37. Its lights were on and the ramp was already down. On the neighboring pad was an angular ship twice its size, with a long fuselage connecting two, box-like sections. The protrusion of four pylons in an “x” formation in both the fore and the aft told her it was an AlCas-drive powered FTL ship. The shape and heavily scarred hull matched the description of the Katozi Slynn from her dossier.
Behind her she could see white smoke billowing out from the open warehouse door. It seemed to be following the tracks, heading into town but not out towards the arid wilderness behind it. It was as though the cloud had a mind of its own—she realized she was staring at an airborne colonial organism comprised of trillions of nanomachines. The cloud came up on the positions where the four men were firing on them earlier. Each was on fire from the rockets Iapetus had sent to neutralize those hostiles. The gas seemed to pause by them, sending tendrils down each narrow alley, then retracted from all but one.
“Let’s go!” Kaeden shouted. She turned her head to see him burst out of the side-streets and head right for his ship.
Curious about what the cloud was doing, she turned back but kept backing up towards the landing platforms. The bearded man came stumbling out of the alleyway with the nanomachine-cloud tendril wrapped around him. He twitched, shouted, and shook as if in a seizure, then turned and vomited on the street. He was wearing black armor of some kind that she thought looked familiar, but it was difficult to tell in the dark with the haze of the nanomachine cloud was making it worse.
“What the hell?” she whispered. She had no idea where a miner would get anything like that.
He looked up at her and started charging with the cloud flowing in behind him.
Keltan's Gambit: Chronicles of the Orion Spur Book 2 Page 2