“Sorry.” She finished anyway.
“Where were you?”
“I went to the Savorchan temple with the baron and your friend, Eckortaan Setha. They have some odd beliefs.”
“I’m unfamiliar,” Nero shrugged. “I’ve got to talk to the baron as soon as possible. I think I found us a working radio that we can use to get into the Akanda provided we can get the shield down. I know where the aegis-field generator is, at least. Can you fly her?”
“Nero, I—” she hesitated. “Never mind.”
He frowned. “What is it?”
“It is—no—it is not work appropriate.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“Nothing. I should not say.”
“Khepria, we’ve worked together a long time. Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
“Just—” she touched his arm. “If Setha says something to you about Prospero, think it through first.”
“If she says what?”
She shook her head. “I am sorry. I can try to repair him again—now, if you like.”
“Oh, um, no. Maybe after I see Baron Mitsugawa.” Nero gave her a look. He’d never seen her act this way before.
“Oh, of course. I am sorry.”
“Why? No, wait, never mind. You have nothing to be sorry for. Let’s just go see the baron.” He waved his hand, confused. Had something happened at the temple?
She followed him out into the camp.
As they walked over to the command tent he noticed the soldiers looked preoccupied, chatting in whispers with each other. They passed another soldier sitting on the ground, staring out into nothing on the way. He was Solan, a young man with blue eyes and a line of drool connecting the side of his chin with the bottom of his short-cropped beard.
“Siren exposure.” Nero frowned.
Khepria paused, extending the hand with her forensic sensors in it towards the man. “My scans show it is inert in his system. It is a different strain of the nanomachine from the one that killed the senior Mitsugawa.”
“But it’s still related?” Nero asked.
Her ears twitched. “Yes, but we need more evidence to link the two. There were a few different trial-strains in the laboratory. It seems they were experimenting here.”
He was concerned that coming here was a waste of time if they didn’t have direct evidence that the Siren which killed Mitsugawa Yoji was made here. “But you did find the Siren strain we are looking for, right?”
“Some.” She pressed her lips together into a tight line. Her ears stiffened.
“Not enough?”
“We have also managed to recover some data from the erased servers in the facility. Together, it might be enough.”
He took a deep breath and tried to avoid gritting his teeth. “Okay, that’s promising.”
“We’ll catch him, Nero.” Khepria nodded at him.
“I know.”
Mamiya held the flap open for them when they arrived. Within the tent Commander Armstrong, Baron Mitsugawa, and Setha clustered around the large holographic projector table. Lying barely a meter away from her, Tengu filled the air with low rumbling snores from the tarp-covered ground.
“I’m relieved to see you again,” Baron Mitsugawa said. “We were worried.”
Nero looked at each of them and licked his lips. “I had to maintain radio silence, and the Broghites are jamming all transmissions in town. I’ve got some important intel—a couple of things, actually.”
Mitsugawa gestured for him to approach the table.
“Obviously, the town is occupied. There are regular patrols through the streets, and they seem to have instituted some kind of curfew,” Nero said.
“Standard Brogh practices. They did the same on my world,” Armstrong muttered. Her mismatched eyes narrowed.
“If my source is to be trusted, the generator for the aegis keeping my ship captive is beneath the customs building. It’s a single target, so disabling it should be fairly straightforward,” Nero said.
“But?” Mitsugawa asked.
“But the space port isn’t that far from town, and any alarm we raise there is going to result in the entire Broghite garrison descending on us. Also, even if we get the aegis down, without Prospero we still can’t get into the Akanda. We’ll be slaughtered beneath it.”
“There’s no override on that thing?” Armstrong asked.
“No.”
“Daedalus designed the ships to be a part of the Abyssians they carry, and SCC’s like Prospero are integral to the relationship. No SCC, no ship,” Khepria said.
“Well, that’s stupid,” Armstrong drawled.
“It is secure.” Khepria frowned at her.
“And an unfortunate fact for us,” Mamiya added.
“Can we get your SCC back online?” Baron Mitsugawa asked.
Nero looked at Khepria. She let out a long sigh and her ears drooped.
“I have tried everything I can think of. I cannot seem to break through Daedalus’ barriers enough to even understand what is wrong.” She looked down at the floor.
“I have offered my services to the Praetor. He refused them,” Mamiya said.
“It’s a security concern.” Nero frowned.
“So, do we need to find alternative transportation?” Mitsugawa looked at Mamiya when he said it.
“Actually, there may be a workaround. There’s a big communications tower in the center of town with a powerful transmitter. It may be enough to penetrate the Broghite aegis field. If we can get to it there’s a slim chance Agent Khepria can hack the Akanda’s systems remotely,” Nero said. Her ears perked up, but she didn’t speak.
“An’ what kind o’ defenses are we talkin’ about? We weren’ a big company to begin with, an’ now that damn plague-lab has cut into my numbers.” Armstrong crossed her armored arms before her and glared at the baron.
“Broghite patrols, a barricade, armed troops—that sort of thing.” Nero took a deep breath.
Mitsugawa pressed his lips together into a thin line.
“And there is no chance to get your SCC back online?” Mamiya asked.
“No.” Nero shook his head.
“Maybe we won’t have to.” Baron Mitsugawa pulled his gauntlet off and scratched his chin. “We will break into two groups.” As he spoke, the table lit up, projecting three-dimensional maps of Sanakrat and the surrounding area into the air. “Group one will proceed to the tower, break into its comm system, and link-up to the Akanda. Obviously, your talents will be required, Agent Khepria.”
“My lord—” Mamiya began.
“And yours,” Mitsugawa added. “Commander Armstrong, I want you to go along with them for their protection.”
“Boss?”
“Follow Nero’s orders,” Setha said.
Armstrong nodded.
“Take however many men are required to keep them safe,” Mitsugawa said.
“Jus’ me. My lieutenant, Kasca, can lead my forces elsewhere. The closer we get to that tower the more sensitive the patrols will be to numbers o’ people gettin’ close. Besides, y’all gonna need a distraction for the spaceport attack.”
Mitsugawa nodded. “I will hit the Broghite forces near and in the town with my troops.”
“Save it. My boys will be wantin’ a piece o’ them, an’ this will be on the house.”
The baron cocked up an eyebrow.
“We’ve crossed bullets with ‘em before, an' my boys are itchin’ to get some o’ the frustration off their chests from what happened in the labs. We’re down ten.”
Mitsugawa gave her a stern look before speaking again. “Very well. My forces will attack the spaceport. Setha-san, you’ll be with me there.”
She nodded, leaning on her sarkh.
“How are we planning to get the tower team on the ship?” Nero asked.
“If you succeed, won’t you have remote control of the vessel?” Mitsugawa asked.
“Maybe, but I’m not sure how much control we’ll have. If we can’t get b
asic flight online we’ll be done right then, but it could be that’s the only thing that comes up. Agent Khepria will need to pilot her, and there’s one more complication. If we don’t have stealth she’s going to take a pounding coming in for us.”
“I don’t see a way around that, Praetor Graves.” Mitsugawa put his gauntlet back on.
Nero looked around the table. “I guess I don’t either. There’s another issue. The Akanda does not have an FTL drive.”
Baron Mitsugawa took a deep breath. “I’m working on that.”
“What’s the point of all this risk if we can’t leave the system?” Nero asked.
Mitsugawa leveled a stern look at him.
“Our frigate’s got an AlCas drive, but odds are good the squid-heads blew it t’hell when they showed up. Haven’ been able t’contact it since,” Armstrong said.
AlCas drives were older-style FTL engines. They got the job done but they were at least ten times slower than a modern FTL system, and expensive to maintain. They were only used for short-range travel by those who could afford them. The one advantage they had over modern FTL systems was that they didn’t require a planetary mass, so they could approach close to planets. That made them practical for large companies and mercenary groups as an alternative means of star travel.
“An AlCas drive is too slow to get us back to the capital in time,” Nero said.
“I can get us out,” Setha stated in her carrying whisper.
All eyes turned to her.
“I thought the temple—” Mitsugawa began.
“I can do it.”
An awkward silence ensued. Nero looked at Khepria, who shrugged in the human fashion.
Mamiya cleared his throat.
“What is the state of the evidence?” Nero asked. “Khepria was telling me that maybe it wasn’t so good. Do we have what we came for?”
Mitsugawa nodded at Mamiya.
“Agent Khepria is correct. Unfortunately, we don’t know much more than we did before. We have Siren samples that match those found in the honored Baron Mitsugawa Yoji’s body. We have fragments of records showing it was made here, and we have serial numbers from equipment, but little else. To trace the numbers to their owner we will need a planet connected to the interstellar network. Taiumikai is one such world.” Mamiya’s multi-faceted eyes gleamed in the light of the holoprojector.
“And that’s where we’re going,” Mitsugawa looked at Setha.
“The capital is closer,” Nero said.
“And is in the enemy’s hands as far as House Mitsugawa is concerned. We wouldn’t be able to rely on a trace done from Kosfanter even if Revenant allowed one to work in the local Cyberweb,” Mamiya said.
“We need my home world’s systems to do this. If the information has been erased in the local communication station records, the computers on Taiumikai could find fragments of it still in the interstellar network,” Baron Mitsugawa added. “Also, we’ll need your authority to access the FTL-Comm station computers when we do that.”
“Of course, but your systems can find deleted data in such a vast network? That seems—“ Khepria began.
“Remember, my family helped invent Daedalus,” Baron Mitsugawa said.
Nero nodded. “All right. I assume you’ll share the evidence?”
“You have my word,” Mitsugawa nodded.
“We should discuss the logistics of the operation ahead of us,” Khepria said.
The baron nodded, and the planning began.
Nero tried to catch Setha’s eye after the meeting, but she went off with the baron immediately after. The most he got was a sympathetic look from Tengu before the cerberai followed his master. Mamiya gave him an odd look as he and Khepria headed out.
“Maybe you should let him try,” she said when they arrived back at their tent.
“You know I can’t do that. Mamiya is not a member of the groups that Daedalus allows to access his technology.” He shook his head. “It’s impossible.”
“Is it, Nero? It seems the circumstances might warrant it.”
He sighed, wanting to give a different answer. “I can’t do it.”
Khepria grabbed his arm.
“What is this about?” He looked into her amber, feline eyes.
She let go of him. Her ears twitched. “I am worried.”
“About me? You shouldn’t be. I’m still alive, even without Prospero.”
“You should not be. Have you noticed differences?”
He frowned. “Sure, I get tired faster, but it’s nothing major. I just need to build up my endurance. Prospero’s told me so before.”
She looked off at the tree line. “You need your SCC back. You will change without it.”
“What do you mean?” She looked genuinely concerned, as much as he’d ever seen her be. The sight of her holding her arms across her stomach with her ears twitching in tight vibrations, set his gut to tingling.
“Prospero is a basic part of who you are. He is a part of your brain, physically, and mentally. I do not see how he can be missing without it affecting you.”
“I guess that makes sense, but really, I feel okay.” He shrugged. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ve survived worse.”
“You have not. There is no way you could have.” She shook her head.
Why was she so upset about this? It made no sense.
“Is this about what Setha said to me? About not being what I once was?” He watched her looking for any twitch of an eye or ear, or a shift in her posture that might indicate that he hit on the issue.
She looked at him, seeming to shrink into herself. “I do not know what she meant, but that is not possible. Daedalus does not change people into Abyssians. He builds them.”
“Are you sure?”
“I know of no other way Abyssians come to be.”
He frowned. Was it possible that Daedalus did turn people into Abyssians? Khepria wouldn’t be in a position to know. No living being had ever been to Deep Hydra, but it wouldn’t be productive to point that out. It would probably only lead to more of a conflict. Soon there would be enough of that.
“Okay, but you said every other Abyssian died without their SCC, right?”
She shifted her weight. “To my knowledge.”
“So I’m at least unusual in that respect.” He sighed. “Look, I’m not trying to argue with you. I don’t know what this is really about, and Prospero isn’t around to clue me in. So, um—”
“I am sorry.” She looked away. “I just want you to be okay. I scanned Mamiya-san, he has more than the legal amount of cybernetics.” She flexed her right hand, the one with the sensitive forensic sensors embedded in its skin. “He is a CEL.”
CEL stood for Cyber-Evolved Life-form. It was the nicer term in common use for those who took on so many artificial enhancements that they were more machine than biological. It was most common among Solans and Cleebians, but other sentient species were known to become CELs as well. The CSA was tracking an organization of them, though its exact size and nature was still being determined. It was illegal to exceed a certain percentage of alterations in the Confederation—a law meant to keep the playing field equal for all sentient beings.
“Are you sure?”
“Praetor, this is what I do.”
He nodded. “I’ll arrest him.”
“Please do not.” Her ears flicked at the air.
“What?” His eyes widened. “It’s your job. It’s my job.”
“I think he can help you.”
“I don’t need his help, and if he’s breaking the law—”
“Nero, listen to me. I cannot get past Daedalus’ firewalls. They are still active, and they are protecting whatever is harming Prospero and you. We do not know what is going on behind them. You could be dying.”
“I doubt that. I feel fine, just tired.”
“Nero, please, let him help you.” She bit her lip.
He sighed, feeling like someone had just punched him in the gut. He knew she wante
d him to say yes despite his training, despite his programming. He couldn’t, though. He was incapable of disobeying Daedalus.
“The law is the law, Agent Khepria. I can’t.”
Her ears wilted. “Even though having Prospero back will help us escape? Without him we might not even get the ship off the ground.”
He gritted his teeth. “Khepria, please. I can’t, I mean it. I cannot disobey my programming.”
She sighed, her ears flopped to the sides. “You cannot go on like this. I do not know if you are going to wind up like the other Abyssians who lost their SCCs, or if you can continue without yours, but you are used to having it. You are used to being more than you are now. Eventually, maybe tomorrow, you are going to think you can do something without Prospero that you cannot, and you will die trying.”
“Khepria, I—”
She held up her hand. “Do you trust Setha?”
“What has that got to do with anything?”
“She says she can remove your SCC, but that will kill you—or maybe just kill who you are. You cannot remove part of your brain without destroying Nero the person. Do you understand?”
He frowned. He didn’t. “Where is this coming from?”
Tension drew the muscles of her face taut and her ears snapped up to twitching points in the air. “You are a good partner, and the only Abyssian I know who shows emotion. Your loss would be—” she cut herself off. Her body trembled for a moment like her ears and she hugged her arms to her abdomen.
Something stirred in his mind as he watched her. It was a vague memory of another time so fuzzy it was more like seeing shadows in fog than experiencing any kind of clear vision. He felt an odd sense of having watched something like this before and took a step towards her, closing the distance to centimeters. He could smell her dusky, cinnamon-like scent in his nostrils. He looked down into her honey-gold eyes. They looked bigger and wetter than he had ever seen them.
“Please let him try?” she asked in a small voice.
He saw a shadow move on the tent wall and whirled around. Nero froze in shock, staring at Mamiya standing a meter behind him. It was as though he just appeared beside the tent in the gray light. He never could have been approached like that with Prospero monitoring his senses.
Keltan's Gambit: Chronicles of the Orion Spur Book 2 Page 16