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by Scott James Magner

  But Jantine doesn’t know one way or the other, and her life is one of absolutes.

  While Mira was thinking about what to say, Jantine turned her attention to the ground in front of her. Mira could see that she’d been poking at the soil, but Mira didn’t know why until Jantine’s right hand darted out and came up with a tiny, wriggling figure cradled between her thumb and forefinger.

  "What do you call this?"

  Mira started to squint again, but her eyes knew how to adjust their focus on small things as well as distant shiny ones, even if her brain needed more time to adjust to her expanded visual range.

  "It’s an ant. There must be a colony nearby."

  Jantine gently placed the insect back on the ground. It took a moment to orient itself, and then it raced away as fast as its six legs could carry it.

  "This was supposed to be us. A colony. Hidden inside the Earth until we were strong enough to venture forth. But like the ant, we are subject to outside forces beyond our control."

  Mira didn’t need transgenic powers to know Jantine was building to something. She was far more intelligent than any Earth girl would be at her age—certainly smarter than Mira herself had been.

  "Think about what stories it will carry back to its fellows. Of the great pink thing that held it in place. Of the rushing wind that carried it from one pebble to another. Will it even have a vocabulary for what happened?"

  Mira saw where Jantine was heading, and decided to ease the Beta’s mind.

  "But ants work together. They’re never really alone. Even if an individual worker has a problem, the colony survives. They also have a queen, who works to protect them."

  Well, that’s about as ham-fisted an analogy as I can come up with, isn’t it?

  "I don’t know. We don’t have these where I come from. About twelve hundred light years, yonder."

  Mira laughed as Jantine waved her arm toward the darkening sky. But then the young woman’s thoughts took on a decidedly different flavor, and Mira regretted her earlier word choice.

  "But we do have queens. And their rule is absolute. It’s what they’re there for."

  The pair sat in silence for almost a minute. For Mira, the wait to speak was an eternity, but Jantine had said her piece, and was waiting for whatever the universe brought next.

  She may have said it, but what has she decided?

  Mira let the silence continue, wishing she had enough real experience as whatever it was she’d become to help Jantine. Implanted memories were fine as a guideline of what she was supposed to do, but those same memories told her the knowledge she had right now would fade in time, sinking to the lowest depths of her mind until it was time to pass them on to someone else.

  The extra lifetimes she’d received had only survived by associating themselves with her own life experiences, and were for the most part inaccessible until something triggered one. It was just her dumb luck that she was two decades older than most gammas were when a transfer was made, and had more memories to match them up to.

  An empathic Gamma child was born with the ability to reach another’s mind, and was trained for years by other Gammas in how to hone that ability. Mira had the lessons they received over a decade crammed into her skull all at once, and the Builders were as surprised as she was that the process had worked.

  They just wanted someone to talk to. Lucky me. And if I can’t get a soldier like Jantine to open up, I’ve got no hope of cracking open one of those big orange skulls without a hammer as big as a mountain.

  "We should get back. Janbi and I were able to salvage part of the data core, but he figures we lost about half the information in the crash. And the Omegas are . . . impatient for your decision."

  It was Jantine’s turn to laugh. The Beta stood up, folding the wrapper of a ration bar into a pocket and then brushing dirt and crumbs off her coveralls with quick, efficient motions. Watching her, Mira was sure it would take an ultrascanner to find any particles she’d missed.

  "Now I know you’re not a Gamma. One of them would have started the report with the Omegas. But you’re right, we do need to get back."

  Jantine started back to the shuttle, and was a few meters away before Mira rolled to her feet and followed. As she drew even with her, Mira could feel the walls Jantine had erected coming down, and chanced sending her a wave of encouragement. She felt, rather than saw a smile widen in response.

  "What do you want to be called?"

  Unsure of how to answer Jantine’s question, Mira searched the memories for some clue as to her meaning. Finding none, she quickened her steps to try and get a reading from the girl’s face. Jantine’s rare smiles had a mischievous quality, and for the first time she seemed truly happy.

  "We choose our names in the Outer Colonies. The designations don’t really matter unless you’re ready for a pairing, and only traditionalists insist on them. But Lieutenant Commander Mira Harlan of the System Defense Force ship Valiant is going to break Artemus’s mouth. And among friends, we speak as equals whenever possible."

  The last rays of the sun had turned the shuttle into a beacon of reflected fire, though only a few wisps of smoke remained. Mira’s enhanced eyesight could pick out Artemus and the Omegas and moving the bulky sleeper unit through a smoothed and widened hole in the vessel’s side, with Carlton and a now upright Katra watching them.

  "Mira. Mira will be fine."

  Jantine stopped walking, and Mira was several steps past her before she realized what had happened. Turning back, she saw a hint of the uncertainty and fear Jantine had worked so hard to master in her eyes. Mira walked back to stand at her side and was surprised when Jantine took one of her hands in her own.

  "Mira, I don’t want to open that sleeper unit, not until we find out what happened to the others and are someplace safe. Can we trust the people of this Harrison Institute? Really trust them?"

  Mira didn’t need help from borrowed memories to answer this one.

  "I have no idea. I can only tell you that the captain trusted them. The names of his network were in that data core, and who knows what we’ll be able to salvage given time."

  Jantine held Mira’s hand for a few more seconds before continuing.

  "Then what am I supposed to do?"

  Now Jantine looked like a frightened teenager was supposed to, and the Gamma part of her was appalled at the lack of confidence the Beta was displaying. But Mirabelle Agnes Harlan from Roswell, New Mexico thought it was a good thing, and did what any big sister would do.

  She lied.

  "I can only tell you what the captain told me, when I came aboard the Valiant for the first time. The ship was so big, you see, and I’d never been part of a command team before.

  "He took me aside, and said, ‘Harlan, I’m about to give you the most important piece of advice I’ve ever received, but I’m only going to say this once. So listen carefully. You’re going to screw up. You’re going to make a lot of bad calls, and some may even get people killed. You’ll stay up at night trying to figure out what you could have done better, but the answer is always going to be the same.’

  "’Absolutely nothing. You’re in command now. You’re the one with the answers, even when they’re wrong. Feel free to listen to other people’s opinions, but your first instincts are going to be right pretty much every time. You’re going to fight it, you’re going to hate yourself, but the decision you know has to be made is always the right one.’"

  Mira paused for effect, trying to summon up the twinkle in the Old Man’s eye when he talked. She’d used her best approximation of his voice, but the smile was the real key.

  It made the lies that much more believable.

  "Now, personally, I thought he was full of crap. It was my job to keep people alive, no matter what the regs said. But you and I both know that’s not always an option, and as officers the only thing we’re ultimately responsible for is keeping ourselves alive as long as possible, so that the people who look to us for leadership know what they’re suppo
sed to do."

  I fired the that first salvo of missiles at your vessel. It was the right thing to do, even though it ultimately killed your friends Malik and Doria and Harren. Jarl died rescuing me from my own people, and Crassus is dead because I put that Alpha on the shuttle. And I’d do it all again, because it was the right thing to do.

  "I can’t tell you what to do, Jantine. You’re in charge. But I can tell you one thing that the rest of them won’t." Mira gestured at the shuttle. The warm, caramel flavor of Carlton’s thoughts spiked in her mind, as did the icy peppermint of Katra’s disapproval.

  "And what is that?"

  "On Earth, we pick who to follow by their actions, not their looks. No matter what happens, you’ve earned their respect, and no one can take that away from you."

  Jantine nodded, and Mira could feel the wall around her mind going back up again. Carlton and Katra were coming closer, and as she turned to look at them, Jantine’s hand slipped out of her grasp as the last emotional bricks fell into place.

  Do what you think is best, Jantine. But the real truth is that thing in there terrifies me, and I hope it never wakes up.

  Jantine

  JANTINE LOOKED PAST MIRA TO THE CAPTURED Earther shuttle, and she didn’t like what she saw. It wasn’t the damage to their escape craft, or the concerned faces of Carlton and Katra as they walked to meet her. It wasn’t even the Omegas standing next to that damned sleeper unit with Artemus watching over them.

  It was the sinking feeling that someone was about to give her some more bad news, and there was nothing she could do about it.

  Carlton spoke first. Now that they’d reached the surface, the Beta was much more himself than he had been aboard the Valiant. How much of that was having a puzzle to solve or patients to treat, she couldn’t say. Mira said they’d been talking, so his mood must have softened some from their initial encounter.

  A lot of things have changed in the last few hours, for all of us.

  "Commander. There’s something you should see."

  "What is it?" Jantine was surprised to hear Mira ask the same question, but not as much as Carlton. The civvie’s mouth pumped soundlessly for a few seconds as he processed both their faces, trying to decide if Mira actually outranked him.

  Katra had no such qualms. She stared Mira straight in the eyes as she spoke, though the words were meant for Jantine.

  "Transmitter in the unit. Started pinging when we moved it."

  Jantine cocked her head toward Mira, noting that Carlton was now studying all three women’s features for some clue as to who was in charge.

  Or, he could just be staring at Mira.

  The virus was still changing the Earther’s face. The odd spots on her face were already gone, and her eyes were changing color. She would never look like a true child of the stars; she was too tall for one thing, with hard muscles formed and refined on the home planet. Plus, no amount of genetic restructuring would change the way she acted. Her culture promised her she could have anything she wanted, provided she had the will to take it.

  And just what is it you want now, Mira?

  At the moment, the Earther had her hands in the air, palms out, shaking her head in denial.

  "Don’t look at me," Mira said. "I saw that thing for the first time about four hours ago. But a hidden transmitter would definitely explain . . ."

  Mira chewed her lower lip, seemingly unaware of the three mods waiting for her to finish her sentence. The unguarded expression was an odd thing to watch, especially in an otherwise disciplined person. Jantine wondered how many other foreign mannerisms she’d have to learn before she could fully understand her new team member.

  That’s definitely the direction we’re heading in, at least if I still have any say in the matter.

  "Mira, what is it?"

  Jantine’s prompt shook the Earther out of whatever reverie she’d slipped into. Jantine felt a touch of embarrassment brush her mind; despite her growing skill in empathic communication, Mira was having a hard time keeping her inner feelings a secret.

  "Oh, sorry. I was thinking about whoever fired that last missile salvo. Until you crashed into us, the Valiant was for the most part completely undetectable. A transmitter on the sleeper unit would explain how they found us; Captain Martin and I had just finished stowing it on the shuttle when Kołodziejski’s capture order came through."

  Mira’s face took on a more serious expression, and her projected embarrassment shifted to urgent concern.

  "Jantine, if it’s active now, Janbi’s trick to cover our tracks up there may not last much longer. Carlton, do you know where it is?"

  Carlton raised his hands and gave a small shrug. He turned back to look at the sleeper unit before talking, and his voice had the same sort of distracted quality Jantine found so annoying in JonB.

  "Probably, but the Omegas won’t let me touch it. After we got it out of the bay, they pushed me aside and started . . . well, whatever it is they’re doing now."

  Jantine stepped out of the impromptu huddle the others had formed around her. The Omegas were sitting on the ground, backs to one another. One was facing the sleeper unit, and the other was looking in her general direction.

  "Carlton, how did you detect the signal?"

  "It was the Omegas, boss. That thing they do when they swing their heads, like on the ship. When they started again, I checked my handheld and found an RF signal just outside the range of the scattercomms. It’s not one the Earthers normally use; I’m sure they can detect it, but I haven’t seen anything like it before."

  Carlton’s explanation reminded Jantine of something, a half-remembered lesson from the crèche regarding the early days of the colonies. Of how ships sometimes would go missing on long voyages, only to be found waiting on the surface of an inhospitable planet years later by another expedition.

  We didn’t know the galaxy so well then, but we had no choice but to go on looking.

  Jantine looked at the Omega facing her, trying to find some clue as to which one it might be. They were intentionally vague in that regard, letting the rest of society regard the Gammas as their "faces."

  Well, you haven’t got one now, have you? And I need answers.

  "Mira. Will you help me speak to them?" Jantine wanted to make it an order, but still didn’t know how to treat Mira.

  "Of course. They’ve been pounding on the inside of my head since we started back. I can’t promise I’ll get it right, but it seemed to go well enough earlier when Janbi asked."

  And what has my civvie scientist been up to that he needed the Omegas? Perhaps I was out in the field for too long.

  But it was the other part of Mira’s statement that troubled her.

  "You have to tell us right away when they want something. They don’t ask us for that many things, but when they do it’s usually important."

  "I’m sorry, I didn’t know." Mira’s face fell, and the embarrassment came back, underlaid with tastes of regret and fear. "I thought you were working something out on your own, and you didn’t seem that interested in talking to me."

  It was Jantine’s turn to be embarrassed. She had treated the Earther poorly, resenting her new status and shifting some of the blame for what happened to her team onto Mira.

  It’s not like she’s the one who killed them. And she’s one of us now, sort of. We have to learn to work together.

  Putting the matter aside, Jantine moved forward until she was close enough to get a good look at the Omega’s face. Mira came up to stand behind her, and Jantine assumed the flicker of fear coming from the Earther meant Katra was nearby.

  I’m going to have to deal with that, too.

  Jantine readied herself. Her last two conversations with the Omegas had not gone well, but she thought she understood part of the reason why now.

  Hopefully this one won’t end in violence.

  Burying her fear, she began.

  "It’s a distress beacon, isn’t it?"

  "Of course!" Before the Omegas, or rathe
r, Mira could answer, Carlton’s exclamation ruined the somber mood Jantine was trying to create. The Beta rushed toward the unit, but the Omega facing away from her raised an arm to block his path. Carlton stared at it with a shocked expression, and Artemus hurried over to pull him aside.

  Then Mira started speaking, and the words had a distant quality to them Jantine recognized.

  Here we go.

  "Why have you not awakened the Adept? Wait, that can’t be right. It’s. . . the thought concept they’re using doesn’t make sense Jantine, I’m sorry."

  The unfamiliar word didn’t bother Jantine, she knew what they meant. And she felt a bit guilty, not because she’d delayed her decision, but because she took some pleasure that Mira wasn’t quite as far advanced in her communications as she thought she was. Ignoring the Earther’s commentary, Jantine continued with her questioning.

  "It’s not safe here. Whoever she is, we can’t expose her to needless dangers. And our priority is the mission. We need to find the rest of the sleepers first."

  "No."

  No?

  Jantine hadn’t heard that word in some time, and having the Omegas finally voice their disobedience didn’t make her like it any better.

  "The distress call. What does it say?"

  "S-A-198 must be awakened. You will instruct the others."

  Jantine did her best to keep her temper under control. Nothing in her training had prepared her for this kind of insubordination, and the Omegas were the last members of her team she expected to give it.

  "I give the orders on this mission. Tell me about the distress call."

  When Mira did not answer right away Jantine turned and looked at the Earther. The older woman’s face had a puzzled expression, and when she did speak, it was clear to Jantine that she was using her own words this time.