Jantine gave Crassus her full attention.
"Commander Jantine. Scout Katra reports the corridor is clear for two hundred meters then opens into an intersection. Scout Jarl has secured a cache of enemy equipment and awaits further orders. He believes we can use scattercomms undetected but worries about the atmospheric integrity in the rest of this vessel.
Jantine nodded. The thought had crossed her mind as well. The air here was too cold for comfortable living, though she’d encountered worse during training. Even the most undisciplined commander made environmental systems a priority in an emergency.
"Thank you, Crassus. Is there anything else?"
Jantine had worked with Deltas before and knew they tended to prioritize information. She couldn’t think of anything else Artemus might have relayed from further down the corridor, but she wanted to make sure.
"No, Commander Jantine. Do you require me to discipline Scientist JonB?"
JonB blanched at this but did not say anything in response. Jantine didn’t hide her smile.
"That will not be necessary, Crassus. Everyone here knows what we have to do."
"Yes, Commander Jantine. I have taken personal responsibility for Support Technician Carlton and the Builders. No harm will come to them while I live."
The Builders. Such an elegant name for the Omegas, even when spoken so formally. Crassus, you are a poet at heart.
If JonB was bothered by his omission from the Delta’s vow of protection, he didn’t show it. It was simple mathematics—the Deltas had divided responsibility for the civvies, and he wasn’t on Crassus’s list. Artemus would have him covered, even from his position up the corridor next to Jarl.
Jantine looked over her command and judged it ready for travel. Katra and Jarl would find them a path; Artemus and Crassus would make sure they got there. Her job was to give the orders, especially the unpleasant ones. So far her choices had gotten three of her people killed, but the rest still needed her.
"Time’s up. Let’s go."
JonB closed the computer’s case and handed it off to Carlton. The civvie Beta stood and tapped out something on his handheld then held it up to the Omegas. One of them looked at it, and then picked up several of the bulky packs the first wave of enemies had been carrying.
When Jantine gave him a questioning look, JonB sidled over and tipped his head toward her.
"The laser cutters may be useful. Just about everything else they’ve got is garbage, but they burned almost all the way through the container’s hull in a lot less time than it would have taken us."
Jantine thought about the other tactical advantages the mods had over the enemy. The team’s grav generators were the biggest ones, and the suit technology they’d seen so far was laughable. The enemy’s vac-suits were twice the thickness of even a civvie encounter suit, and offered much less protection. The armored suits were a little better, but even more bulky. And unlike the recoilless pulsers the combat mods used, the enemy’s induction slug throwers seemed ill-suited to fighting in a weightless environment.
It’s a wonder you people ever made it out into space. You’re like children playing with knives.
Now that she had time to think about it, Jantine’s curiosity was aroused. It also helped that for once, JonB actually seemed to be helping her, rather than complaining.
"What else can you tell me about them? While we hop."
JonB fell in beside her as she started moving. Crassus dropped back to shield his charges, and Jantine knew he’d make sure they kept up.
Jantine pushed off, keeping her strides small so as to not overrun Jarl and Artemus. At the preferred quarter-grav the team was using, she could easily cover a dozen meters with each jump. Katra’s report said there was an intersection ahead. The Gammas would have to scout both directions before they could move on, so there was no need to hurry.
"I think Jarl’s right about the scattercomms. The first group wasn’t carrying any personal transmitters, but in the damage control packs they had a relay unit of some kind that I think keys into the power system. The cargo slug’s impact must have taken out their primary infrastructure. Essentially, everyone we encounter will be operating independently, and I don’t believe they’ve got a lot of surprises for us."
Jantine had only glanced at the packs in question, but what JonB was saying made sense. The first group had been carrying far more gear than was necessary to breach their container. They must have been a repair crew, and she felt a momentary twinge of guilt at killing noncombatants. But from what she knew about the Redstone class dreadnaughts, there should be a lot more and a lot better resistance arrayed against them.
It’s as if someone decided to crew a ship with untrained recruits, rather than combat veterans. The techs certainly knew what they were doing, but that patrol was a joke.
Jantine saw Jarl and Artemus shoulder several of the downed enemy troopers and carry them forward. It was a reasonable precaution, and she wagered that JonB was as interested as she was in examining their gear.
By the time the two Betas reached the intersection, Katra and Jarl were already gone. Artemus was standing guard over the enemy corpses, bodies Jarl had selected based on the amount of damage they’d suffered.
The first corpse was nearly intact save for the shattered faceplate. A pair of pulser shots had destroyed the second’s chest, most likely killing it instantly. Or, more accurately, her. JonB wasted no time in wrestling off the helmet of the dead woman’s hardsuit.
The woman’s features were fascinating. She might have been in her late teens, with an unlined face and hair that ended neatly at the base of her neck. Jantine studied the contours of the dead woman’s face, searching for something, anything relatable to her own life. In the green glow, it was surprisingly asymmetric, instead of the designed and proportioned faces she was used to.
Jantine resisted the urge to raise a hand to her own face and feel her cheekbones and orbital ridges; her mental picture was as accurate as any mirror could be. Instead, she knelt and moved the woman’s head further into the light.
The appearance of the dead trooper was unnerving, a fact that bothered Jantine in and of itself. Not three meters behind her were mods whose faces were much more removed from the human baseline. But this woman was . . . almost familiar. There was no one thing wrong with her features; it was just that none of them were "right."
Jantine let the body fall, and she scanned both sides of the passageway for some sign of the Gammas. When none came, she closed her eyes and listened instead. She could hear JonB tinkering with the helmet, and filed the sound away in order to narrow her focus.
In similar fashion, she catalogued the sounds of the bundles the Omegas carried moving against one another, Crassus’s careful footsteps, and even Carlton’s compulsive fidgeting. Finally, she focused on the sound of her own heart beating, letting it drop below her normal resting rate of forty beats per minute until she could feel it pulsing throughout her entire body. With each heartbeat, she considered another of the facts before her.
We have met no solid resistance.
Our opponents are inexperienced.
This ship is either dead or dying.
This area of space should be empty.
Malik said ships, plural.
Our opponents are inexperienced.
We are not alone.
"JonB. I need blood samples from both these bodies. Artemus, Crassus, get the Gammas back, at least to comm range. Carlton, I want a full, functioning suit of this armor and some of their weapons for analysis. I don’t care how many pieces either is in, just as long as they work."
Jantine was about to include instructions for the Omegas, but she had a sense they were already busy with something. Turning around, she saw they were moving their heads back and forth, as if trying to zero in on something with their exceptional auditory range.
Jantine watched the pair of mods for another few seconds. It didn’t seem right to stare at them, but Doria’s smiling face wasn’t there as
a buffer anymore. The Omegas didn’t seem concerned by the noises JonB and Carlton were making while they dealt with the bodies, or by the sound of the Deltas’ feet skipping down the corridor. It was if the thing they were searching for was just beyond their ability to sense, and that thought was a sobering one.
Whatever it is, they’ll let me know about it when it’s relevant. Until then, I’ve got a job to do.
Undisguised footsteps from both sides brought her back into focus. Katra and Artemus were together, but the Katra’s eyes and shaking head were just as effective a report as any words would be.
From the other direction, Crassus came back alone, with something small and dark held in a lower hand. He raised it to his head once he was sure she could see him, then extended a long forefinger and trailed it along his jaw.
Scattercomms were standard issue for combat ops. The organic circuitry was easily applied along the underside of the jaw, with one end resting just under the chin and the other tucked in behind the left ear.
Though the devices were powered by piezoelectric charges from the skin of the wearer and nearly undetectable while active, it was impossible to have a truly secure conversation while using them. The main advantage of scattercomms were instant group conversations over a medium distance, when a helmet channel or handheld wasn’t practical.
Jantine ran a finger down her jaw to activate her unit, then pumped her mouth twice without speaking to open a channel. She heard three clicks in her left ear, one for herself and each mod already in the loop. Crassus set whatever he was carrying on the decking, and then moved back down the corridor to act as a relay. When he was almost at the edge of her visual range, she heard four clicks. She swallowed, and began talking from the back of her throat in a whisper that barely escaped her lips.
"Jarl. Go."
"Encountered another repair group, boss. No weapons or cutters, but this one had emergency lights, a power relay, some handheld comms, and a map."
Jantine felt her heartbeat speed up at the news, but she kept her voice calm.
"Is that what Crassus brought back?" She nudged JonB with her foot, making the comm motion with her left hand and gestured at the object with her pulse rifle in her right. He signaled understanding and moved forward to collect it. Five clicks sounded in her ear, and Jarl spoke again.
"No. Comm unit. It’s unlocked, but don’t . . ."
A high-pitched squeal rang out from the black object in JonB’s hand, and Jantine dropped into a firing crouch. Over her sights she watched the civvie fumble with the device for several seconds until he managed to reverse whatever he’d done to make it react like that.
". . . turn it on while using active scatter. There’s a feedback loop."
Jantine frowned slightly, marking up yet another reason not to use the supposedly untraceable comms.
"Were you detected?" She heard four clicks, and saw JonB hunch his shoulders somewhat. His lopsided smile was all the apology she needed, and as she and the other combat mods lowered their weapons, he relaxed his posture and went to work on the captured device.
"No. They had no time to send a signal. Map shows a maintenance entrance ten meters from here, but I have no visual confirmation. Found what looks like a transit bay, but it’s the long way around and one level up."
Jarl didn’t waste any breath on the fate of the repair team, and Jantine didn’t bother to ask. If he was being observed, Jarl was too good to risk comm chatter, especially after discovering the feedback loop.
"Hold position. We’re coming to you. Next comm in sixty seconds."
Jantine used her left hand to swipe her jawline, killing the connection. As she stood up, she held the same hand out to Carlton and the Omegas, then gestured down the passageway in Jarl’s general direction. JonB started back to the group as Carlton finished packing away the hardsuit’s components.
Out of her armor, the dead woman looked even younger than she had from the neck up. She had well-muscled arms, but she still had a softness that indicated she’d only been engaging in intensive exercise for a short time. She lacked the definition of Jantine and the Gammas, but most humans did.
This last thought cemented what Jantine found so troubling about the bodies, and made JonB’s blood samples mostly irrelevant.
It’s as if she’s virus-free. But that’s not supposed to be possible . . .
JonB reached her just as Carlton finished, and he packed up his gear in seconds, leaving the portable enemy comm out on the deck. Jantine looked at it, weighing whether or not destroying it was the right call.
"Can you make that thing work?"
"Yes. It has an internal power cell, but the default setting is to function on broadcast power. It’s just bad luck that it thinks the scattercomms are part of that system. As long as I can bypass the protocol, it should be fine. And I found a volume control; we should be able to listen in at a rational level."
"All right. Don’t experiment without telling me first. I don’t want any more surprises."
"Of course, Commander. But . . ." JonB looked nervously at the other mods while he shouldered his pack.
"JonB, you and I have to trust each other for this to work. If there’s a concern, it comes straight to me now. And if I’m not around, to Jarl. Understand?"
Jantine watched the Omegas and Carlton move ahead to join Crassus, while Artemus took a position that allowed the Delta to still see JonB. Katra was guarding their rear, and if she took any offense at Jantine’s statement, she gave no sign. Technically Jarl was next in command, even though Katra was older and more experienced. But the same lack of imagination that made her sims predictable also kept Katra out of the command structure. She was a creature of instinct, not intuition.
A distinction probably lost on JonB. But this mission doesn’t require that we all like each other.
"Yes, Commander. I was wondering why you wanted the blood samples? You already know the answer . . ."
Jantine held up her hand to stop him then gestured down the corridor. JonB was a bit slow in following her meaning, and instead of repeating the gesture, she grabbed his shoulder and gently shoved him after the rest of the team. The scientist stumbled briefly, but he still had a Beta’s grace and was able to keep up with her long strides as she started skipping down the corridor.
Jantine didn’t bother looking at him when she spoke. There’d be time enough to whip him into shape once they got through the current crisis and onto the next one.
"Look around us, JonB. These people, this ship. They’re not advancing, not as fast as they should be. If this is the best they have to offer, our mission is pointless."
Before he could answer, Jantine activated her scattercomm, trusting that JonB had disabled the enemy device as he’d said. She received five clicks in response.
"All clear."
"No change, boss." Jarl’s whisper was controlled, and Jantine imagined he was under active camouflage again.
"Rear secure." Katra’s check in was expected, and Jantine knew the other listeners were the Deltas, spaced out to function as signal relays. Part of her had hoped that JonB would follow protocols for once and join in, but the Beta was silent at her side.
"Out."
Jantine shut down the comm, and she thought a bit more on what she was going to do with JonB. Her original plan to replace him once the sleepers were activated seemed somewhat petty now that they’d taken casualties. He might ask too many questions, but that was his job. An analyst had to have as much information as possible, otherwise he couldn’t formulate effective plans.
In many ways, he was the polar opposite of Katra, and that comparison as much as anything else told Jantine what she had to do. It was incumbent on her to get better at answering JonB’s questions, not the other way around. The Alphas’ plan included them working together for a long time, and he hadn’t been selected at random. Further, if she felt Katra’s planning skills were deficient, it was Jantine’s duty as her commander to improve them.
The corridor ah
ead grew lighter, and as she felt the ship’s gravity field take hold, Jantine slowed her steps and powered down her personal generator. Both JonB and Katra were long-term projects; getting her team off this vessel intact was a more immediate one.
The scene she came upon was textbook perfect. Jarl had taken out a team of six techs and then arranged the bodies among the bulky repair gear so cleverly that a casual observer would think the area abandoned. There was no sign of the Gamma himself, but Jantine knew he was there all the same.
Carlton moved up to the assembled gear, examining each pack briefly for useful items under Crassus’s watchful eyes. The Delta stood over him with pulsers in all of his hands, covering the corridor in front of them. Artemus took up a similar stance facing the other direction, while Katra skipped past everyone to scout further ahead.
The Omegas were swiveling their heads around again, and Jantine was starting to worry. Something was bothering them. Doria had said they would get by fine without her, but Jantine suspected her absence was affecting them a lot more than they let on.
"Show me the map."
To his credit, JonB did not scream when Jarl appeared seemingly out of nowhere between them. But he was visibly shaken, and Jantine lost a battle with her smile.
Jarl held up a thin sheet of flimsy, translucent material in both hands. With a small flourish, he unfolded it along an invisible seam, and a holographic representation of a Redstone dreadnaught appeared in the air above it. JonB’s eyes widened, and Jantine had to admit she was impressed as well.
Finally, some sign of advanced technology. But why are the techs so well equipped, while the combat operatives are so inexperienced? Who are these people?
Jarl clearly had been experimenting with the map, because he moved to the side of the corridor and placed the clear sheet against a bulkhead at chest height. It stayed in place, allowing Jarl to place his hands into the image then spread his arms. The holographic ship expanded, and both JonB and Jantine leaned into examine the details. The civvie was first to speak, but since he and Jantine had the same question it didn’t really matter.
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