But mostly, she was angry with Tommy for how he’d hurt her when they parted for the last time, and how he’d taken his rage out on Debbi when Mira wasn’t around.
Maranova must have seen some of the struggle in Janbi’s eyes, because she stepped forward until the point of the cane was pressed against her chest. "I swear to you, to all of you, that we had no idea what kinds of experiments Horace was doing. A little over five years ago, an expedition commanded by Vice-Admiral James Worthy touched down on a frozen world about 700 light years from here. He returned home with wreckage from a destroyed ship, including the two sleeper units we’ve been arguing about ever since. When Aloysius told me the other Alpha was dead, I wanted to kill Captain Kołodziejski, then myself for not stopping him."
Maranova looked directly at Serene, as if seeking the child’s forgiveness for her subordinate’s actions.
"Mordecai over there can tell you I’ve spent the last few days trying to keep the SDF from tearing itself apart over how to interpret Jantine’s transmission. There is definitely a faction calling for total war against the Outer Colonies, and Kołodziejski is its leading advocate."
Now that she could distinguish the deep currents of rage swirling around in the Alpha’s complex emotions, Mira knew the commodore would be waiting until long after the sun died before she’d get any absolution from Serene.
"But if this got out, if it gets out . . ." Maranova raised her voice, ensuring that the armored troopers could also hear her, "preventing that conflict might be impossible. Time and distance have been keeping you safe so far, but if Kołodziejski’s scientists really have weaponized the T-virus, I want it destroyed as much as you do. Earth can’t afford another Transgenic War. Not after how long it’s taken to forgive ourselves for the last one."
The room fell uncomfortably silent, until Katra stepped up and took the cane fragment away. She twisted her hands, and the ceroplastic shattered into dozens of long splinters.
Mira regained enough composure to form the greater part of her rage into another row of stones for her wall, then buried the rest of it in her gut for later.
"Janbi, what’s your plan? From what I remember of Captain Kołodziejski, he’s not a very patient person."
"You’ve got that right, Harlan. So how about it, boy? What do you have in mind?"
Janbi took a moment and looked around the room. To Mira’s surprise, all of the mods were waiting to hear what he had to say, and more.
~Are you sure about this, Serene? He’s not that much older than you are.~
The Alpha’s answering thought came with a wave of comfort, and a healthy dose of laughter.
~As you’re so fond of telling us, we’re on your planet now, Mira. We should pick our leaders the human way from now on. And despite his arrogance, he is the best.~
Janbi stood up a bit taller, and Mira smiled. Serene must have shared their conversation with him, because the devilish smile Mira had been trying to forget was back with a vengeance.
"So here’s what we have to do . . ."
BOOK FOUR
Mira
"COPY THAT, CONTROL. COMING AROUND TO VECTOR six-bravo, velocity ten meters per. Touchdown in three minutes, on your mark."
"Confirmed, Clarke Six. Black King sends his regards to the queen, and requests she join him at her convenience. Over."
Mira cut the circuit, trying not to let her annoyance show. The woman responsible for bringing the shuttle in had either defeated Janbi’s scramble program, or some bright-eyed officer was following procedure for a change and looking out a window.
Either way, it meant trouble. Mira turned her head and shouted down the shuttle’s main corridor to Jantine.
"Get everyone closed up, we’re going to go with the gas."
Jantine responded mentally, and Mira winced. The Beta was completely enamored of using that form of communication, no matter what difficulties it caused anyone else.
~Noted. I hope the filters on these suits are everything you say they are.~
Mira sighed, added another stone to her wall, and sent a reply though the pain.
~Just keep your eyes open and weapons loose. We’ll be completely helpless until we’re tractored all the way in, and they might already have eyes on us.~
~Understood.~
The Lunar surface was speeding beneath the shuttle as Mira sent the disarm codes to the hidden missile platforms lining the approach to Chimera base. Both her instruments and eyes told her she was flying straight into a crater wall, but she was on the beam with no deviation. Since she hadn’t been blown out of space yet, the codes were authentic, and there was still a chance that whoever it was on the other end of the comm wasn’t mobilizing the entire base against her.
Lots of variables. Still so many things that can go wrong.
"Control, sorry for the confusion. This is Clarke Three, not Six. No flag this trip, just pawns dropping off the mail. But I will convey Black King’s regards, over. One minute to surface, the ball is yours."
Mira activated the autopilot and gave a sigh of relief as Chimera’s computers took over the approach. She imagined the maneuvering jets firing to slow the shuttle, but she didn’t check the instruments to confirm. She was already out of her chair and floating aft to join Artemus on the cargo ramp, sealing her helmet as she went.
Commodore, I sure hope your intel is good on this one. Because we’ll make one messy terrain feature if they decide to divert us now.
Mira passed Carlton and Serene standing in the door of a stateroom, breathers on and ready to go. She knew they couldn’t see her face inside the helmet, but she smiled at them anyway, knowing that the Alpha would pick it up and relay the sentiment.
Serene was, for the most part, cocooned in a hazard bag, waiting for Carlton to seal her in and carry her down to the mobile containment unit in the cargo bay. It was sweet irony that she’d be the most protected member of their group inside the unit, but completely shut off from the rest of the team while there. Even with an inactive stasis field, something about the unit’s construction completely blocked mental communications, something she’d need to remember if they ever had to pull this stunt again.
For now, Mira had to keep her focus on the next few minutes, and the numbers counting down on her helmet display.
~Mira, we just crashed into the Lunar surface. It’s fairly dark where I am, but I feel quite alive.~
From her position on the hull, Katra had a much better chance of surviving the next few minutes than anyone else. Mira was depending on her eyes to tell her when it was safe to act, and part of her wanted to be out there with her. But no one else could fly the shuttle, and despite their combat training none of the mods could pass for a fleet officer over a comm.
"Touchdown, Clarke Three. We have you in the green. Initiating core shutdown. Be advised you’ll be on your own for a few minutes—you caught us during shift change and we’re still trying to find some loaders to help you."
"Roger that, Control. Tell those crane monkeys there’s a little something extra in it for them if they can get me back in the sky in under an hour. I left something simmering back home, and I’d hate for him to get cold, if you know what I mean."
Mira wished her abilities worked over comm lines so she could tell whether the laughter on the other end was with her or at her. Careers were going to end because of this op, but Mira still wanted to keep the body count as low as possible.
"Understood, Clarke Three. Welcome to Echo Base. I’ll try and get you back in your own bed as soon as possible. Control out."
Something grabbed the bottom of the shuttle, causing a vibration strong enough to register through both the deck and her boots. The lights went out in the cargo bay, and Mira switched over to her suit’s internal sensors while at the same time borrowing the use of Jason’s eyes for Carlton and Serene. Artemus was still in his encounter suit, and from her experience sharing Katra’s perceptions in the tunnel, she knew the Delta’s visor was even better suited than hers to lightless comba
t.
~We are moving through a tunnel now, zero tolerance. I repeat, zero tolerance.~
Katra’s check-in increased the pain in her head. Mira tried to shove it away, but acting as a communications relay again was stretching herself too thin. Her skull felt like an eggshell, and even though they’d be leaving Artemus and the Omegas behind for a while, this mission was only just beginning.
What Katra was saying seemed right; it made sense that the hidden entrance to a hidden base was the same diameter as a flag shuttle, and not a meter wider.
Even though she worried about increasing the load on her poor brain, she chanced a message to Carlton.
~Are we ready?~
If there was even one sleeper hidden inside the base, Carlton was the only one of the team who could bring them out of suspended animation safely. And for Janbi’s plan to work, he’d have to do it in record time.
~She’s locked in. Mira, can you explain something for me?~
~Make it fast.~
~Serene kissed me on the cheek before I sealed the hazard bag. Is all this kissing going to become a thing?~
Mira smiled at the image he unconsciously transmitted with his question, then blinked her eyes when the Alpha’s chaste kiss on the cheek was replaced with a very sensual scene of Carlton walking in on Jantine and Janbi while they were having sex.
She wished he hadn’t seen that, or that they’d seen him before he backed out of the room. From what she understood about Betas, they’d likely have invited him to join their lovemaking, and it couldn’t have been easy for the emotionally isolated Carlton.
If Mira hadn’t known better, everything she almost remembered or had been told about the social structure of the Outer Colonies would identify Carlton as a perfect Gamma. But he was born into a Beta crèche and came from a genetic line of incredibly talented technical specialists. In many ways, he’d had even less choice about his future than Janbi. Even so, only his superior skill with machinery had kept him on the mission rolls once some of his crèche-siblings were selected.
That, and his expendability. One more thing for the two of us to be angry about.
Mira moved closer to Carlton, opened her visor, and put a hand on his shoulder. What she had to say was probably better relayed mentally, but her head was already pounding, and the Beta could probably use some physical comforting.
"It’s called being human, Carlton. You’ll get used to it, and with the right person it’s a lot of fun. I wouldn’t worry about Serene, though. She was just wishing you luck, and trying to tell you how much faith she has that you’ll keep her safe. I’m going dark now, so tuck in and hold on to something until I give you the all clear."
Carlton sent her a wordless acknowledgment, and she dissolved the sensory link, and the edges of the whirlwind pulled back enough for her to add another stone to her mental wall. It was getting taller all the time, but she kept finding new ways to add fresh layers to the top.
For example, though she needed to keep her attention focused on the base of the cargo ramp, Mira couldn’t help but think about Carlton’s confused emotions. He said the Omegas had helped him deal with Harren’s death, but when she asked Jason about it, the Omega told her that O-6913 had done what was necessary at the time. And since the other Omega wasn’t very receptive to her mental communications, she’d let the matter drop.
I definitely need to get all of these kids hooked up with some of Harrison’s psychoanalysts. They’ve got a lifetime of bad programming to unlearn if they’re ever going to fit in on Earth.
Mira returned her thoughts to the vibrations under her feet. Whatever was going to happen, it was going to be soon.
~Mira. We are approaching a barrier of some kind, and have travelled approximately four hundred meters on a declining slope.~
Mira did a quick calculation on the distances Katra supplied and realized that she was missing some information. Despite the pain, she pulled Katra and Jantine into a single conversation, careful not to overwhelm the former lest she lose her grip on the shuttle’s hull.
~Katra, Can you send me your last clear memory of the crater wall? I’m trying to figure how deep we are, and—~
Katra replied at once, not only with the memory she’d requested, but with a real time image of her suit visor display. It was Jantine who provided context, though, and Mira gave herself a mental kick in the backside for not thinking of it sooner.
~Seven hundred eighty meters. Janbi interfaced our handhelds with both the encounter suit grav systems and the sensor suites of this Earther armor. I didn’t see any reason why we should be as clumsy as the humans, if it comes down to a running fight.~
Although she approved of Janbi’s initiative, she didn’t like that neither he nor Jantine had told her about it, or Jantine’s continuing derision of humans as being, well, sub-human.
~We talked about this, remember? We’re all human no matter what the T-virus has done to us. We have to keep that in mind, or we’ll never make this work.~
~As you say. Perhaps if we survive this mission you can remind me again. Katra, can you see any enemies from your position?~
~Negative. The barrier has opened, and there is a lighted chamber beyond with a track on the floor and what look like blast doors on the other side. There are neither any visible weapons systems nor any unloading equipment.~
The rumbling under her feet stopped, and Katra’s head moved enough for Mira to watch the bay doors grind shut after the shuttle was clear. Atmospheric sensors on her visor showed increased pressure in the chamber, and Katra triggered the gas canisters.
As power returned to the shuttle, and the lights came on in the cargo bay, Mira dissolved the three-way link and sent one last message to the group.
~Get ready everybody. It’s time.~
Ignoring the pounding in her head, Mira resealed her helmet, stepped forward, and activated the ramp controls. Through her external pickups, she heard a hissing sound as the shuttle’s atmosphere started mingling with the thinner air outside, and sent a silent prayer eighty thousand kilometers into space.
All right, Commodore Maranova. Keep your eyes peeled for our signal, because no matter how friendly we get, we’re not going to fit three hundred more people on this boat for the return trip. . .
Katra
KATRA DROPPED FROM HER POSITION UNDERNEATH the hull to the top of the cargo tender holding the shuttle fast, reinforcing Mira’s suspicion that they would not be using it as an escape vessel.
Still on the lookout for enemies, she reclaimed her slugthrower rifle from where it was racked next to the gas canisters, and waited. Jantine would join her soon if the bay was clear, and if it was not then she would find an enemy and kill it.
Katra wished she’d had more time to train with the unfamiliar weapon, but she’d seen enough of them in action aboard the Valiant to know the basics. Once Mira showed her how to maintain the rifle, she was as ready as she’d get without several days of living with the weapon.
And if we’re not successful in several hours, I won’t need weapons or anything else anymore.
There was no need for speculation at this point, either they would be attacked soon, or they wouldn’t. At least here they’d be able to see the enemy coming.
As the cargo ramp lowered, Jantine skipped down the ramp with a tight grip on her own borrowed weapon.
Jantine’s boots attached to the tender, something Katra had forgotten to do. It was a minor lapse in discipline, but she still didn’t trust the Earther suits.
Katra inclined her head to Jantine, who repeated the gesture until the two mods’ faceplates touched.
"Anything?"
"No."
The suit pickups recorded the sound of Mira’s footsteps on the ramp, and then Katra heard the Earther’s voice in her head again.
~Jason says the securcams are on, but there’s no movement in the corridors toward us. And no one’s talking to me on the comm channel. We’ve been made.~
Katra and Jantine rolled out from under the
shuttle and into firing positions, which they held only long enough to verify the landing chamber was empty.
The Earther was already racing for the blast doors, and she pulled a round object from one of the pouches on her hip. Aside from her handheld, Katra’s pouches contained only additional ammunition and replacement rifle components, but whatever Mira was carrying opened the doors within seconds.
Katra sprinted for the door, mirrored by Jantine from the other side of the shuttle. But while Jantine continued out into the now-revealed corridor of carved regolith, Katra put her back to the manufactured wall of the room she was in and looked back at the shuttle.
Carlton came rocketing down the ramp at the controls of the mobile stasis unit. It responded to his deft touch like a personal transport, and Katra smiled at the thought of the dour Beta riding into battle atop an armored duo-cycle.
A schematic of the base’s corridors appeared on her visor, just ahead of Mira’s voice in her head.
~Jason says he’s redirected the securcam feeds and also sent a map to your handhelds. I don’t want to know how he did it, just that it worked.~
~Confirmed. I see Jantine down the corridor.~
Jantine sent her own response a second later.
~Clear. Tell Carlton to come ahead. We have one hundred ten meters of passage secured.~
Katra waved Carlton ahead. Mira had probably relayed Jantine’s order to him as well, but as long as the Beta complied it didn’t matter how he’d received the message.
Over his shoulder at the shuttle, she saw Artemus and O-6913 come down the ramp. The Delta took up a defensive position at ramp’s base, while the Omega crouched under the shuttle and examined the clamp preventing their escape. It would be good to have more options, and the Omegas had already demonstrated their ability to deal with Earther technology. Once Carlton hummed by on the mobile unit, Katra looked to Mira. The Earther held up a hand with four fingers extended, and started folding them in toward her gauntleted palm. When she made a fist, Katra rolled forward into the corridor, noting that Mira had used her suit’s maneuvering jets to clear the blast doors before they closed.
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