Close Proximity - An Aeon14 Space Opera Adventure (Perilous Alliance)

by Chris J. Pike

  Grayson studied her eyes.

 

  His eyes flicked back to hers, but he didn’t say anything. Nothing changed in his bearing, he just turned and left the bridge. Kylie had a bad feeling about this.

  She gazed back at Rogers as the grappling arms locked in place. With that done, his chair righted itself, and he gave a whistle. “Locked and ready to go, Cap!”

  If he had been upset by Grayson, he didn’t say so. Still, Kylie was sorry on his behalf.

  “What’s our ETA to the jump point?” Kylie asked.

  Rogers glanced at the holopanel that floated in front of his elevated pilot’s seat. “Your SA friends have a clear point not far from here. One that’s not on the public charts. They topped us off on antimatter, so once we clear their station, it will only take us nine hours to get there.”

  A full antimatter bottle? That was the best news Kylie had heard all day.

  “What’s our dark layer travel time?” she asked.

  “We’ll hit the DL at about 0.57c, if I do everything right,” Rogers replied, then turned his head and gave her the requisite ‘cocky pilot’ grin. “And I assure you, I always do everything right.”

  Kylie did the math in her head. It was 6.3 light years from Trio to Gedri, and the average dark layer multiplier between the two systems was 692. That put their FTL transit time at just shy of six days. Six long days.

  “Nadine,” Kylie looked down at her comm officer, “we’ve been away for a long time. Cue up a message for the GFF to send out the moment we dump out of the DL in Gedri.”

  Nadine activated her holodisplay. Her posture, picture perfect and erect, she barely glanced at Kylie. “Of course, Captain.”

  Kylie nodded and stepped off the bridge. Barely a day in and she had alienated over half her crew. Wasn’t this going to be fun?

  * * * * *

  Kylie stood at the back of the bridge, looking out through the glass dome at the Dauntless’s prow and into the Gedri system.

  Where Trio had received the full works from the Future Generation Terraformers—with two terraformed worlds and a space elevator to boot—the ancient terraformers had completely passed Gedri by. Its primary star, which carried the same name as the system, was old had long ago moved off the main sequence, with only a hundred million years go to before it burned out completely.

  The second star, named Townsend, whipped around Gedri, only a scant thirty AU away. Luckily, Townsend was a low-mass red dwarf, and, from a navigational standpoint, was not much harder to deal with than a large jovian planet.

  Townsend had captured three planet-sized worlds at some point in its history—probably stolen from Gedri long before the old star puffed up and turned orange. The largest of the three was named Jericho, and that was where the Dauntless was headed.

  The Gedri Freedom Federation held the most sway on the worlds surrounding Townsend. It was far from the official capital world of Freemont, from which the Silstrand Alliance liked to pretend it controlled the Gedri system.

  But everyone knew it was on Jericho where the real power lay—and where the real decisions were made.

  Politics in Gedri were complex. Officially a member of the Silstrand Alliance, Gedri’s parliament was controlled by members of the GFF. When it was founded, the GFF had just been a freedom organization, which really consisted of little more than pirates and outlaws banding together for protection.

  But, over time, the GFF had become more organized and gained legitimacy. Now, it controlled the Gedri system and even sent representatives to the Silstrand Alliance Senate.

  Underneath it all, though, the GFF’s power still came from the crime syndicates and old families that had been operating their empires out of the system for centuries. The GFF was just a veneer of civilization over the syndicates’ corruption.

  A veneer that was at its thinnest at their destination of Jericho.

  Kylie took her eyes away from the blackness of space and the glow of the orange and red stars, settling her gaze on Nadine. She and the boys were about to have their mission briefing with Grayson, and Kylie decided it was best if Nadine wasn’t present. Things hadn’t become much less tense over the past five days in the dark layer, and she needed the meeting to go smoothly.

  She opened her mouth to speak and saw Nadine’s posture stiffen, almost as if she sensed Kylie’s presence.

  Kylie let out a silent breath, turned, and left the bridge without saying a word. When she reached the main cargo hold, Winter, Rogers, and Grayson were all waiting for her.

  “Nice of you to join us, Captain,” Rogers said in a mocking tone, though his smile was genuine.

  “Good, let’s get started,” Grayson said without preamble. He sent a data burst over the Link, and Kylie leaned against an open create as she went over the files and scanned the vids of Lana’s abduction.

  “Picture A-1. This is the most recent image of Lana that the SSF has.” The holographic image of the young woman’s head rotated in the open space amidst the crew. Her expression was carefree, her skin tight and smooth, with a light dusting of freckles on her cheeks. Her hair was pulled back in a long braid, while her blonde bangs curled right on her eyebrow line. Blue eyes. Simple and pure—just the way Maverick liked his girls.

  “Young, but troubled about the recent elections in Silstrand, she was on her way to a pro-Scipcio rally when she ran into trouble,” Grayson explained.

  Winter snorted. “And you tell me daddy general was okay with that?”

  “General Samuel prefers to stay out of his children’s affairs, but he did advise caution. Events like this can be rife with violence and offliners. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that.”

  Kylie nodded to Grayson and privately waved a white flag across the Link at Winter. “Continue.”

  “Video A-1. Here she is arriving at the transport platform not far from her dorm on Silstrand.”

  The video began to play, and while it showed events from a distance, Lana was easily distinguished by her long braid. Dressed casually in tight black pants and matching jacket, she carried an orange backpack. She stepped onto the platform where she awaited a transport shuttle, almost completely lost in the crowd at times. Several minutes later, a small shuttle arrived, and two men stepped out.

  They brandished weapons and pushed the crowd back. Lana edged backward, and when the men approached her, the girl raised her hands. Kylie zoomed in. The wide-eyed terror was real.

  One of the men shot her with a dart. Within a moment, her body went limp and her knees buckled—a clear sign she had been sedated. The other man caught her and carried her onto the ship.

  By the time the authorities arrived, the shuttle was gone. Kylie paused her video and spun the shuttle around to catch the serial number on the back. The glow from the thrusters hid most of it, but she thought it could be deciphered with a little digital forensics.

  She sent a private message over the Link to Nadine.

 

 

  She sighed with exasperation across the Link.

  Kylie closed the communication and paid attention to what Winter was saying.

  “A snatch and grab like that? In the middle of the day on a busy platform? In Silstrand of all places? It’s not Maverick’s style.”

  “Perhaps Lana has something on him and his organization. We don’t know, but we can ask her when we find her,” Grayson said.

  “If she’s still alive,” Rogers said. “I know you told me you tracked her to Maverick, but you don’t know where she is. What if she isn’t anywhere? What if he used her and then disposed of her? It wouldn’t be the first time.”

  “Or the first hundred,” Winter added.

  “Doubtful. You don’t
do a high-risk extraction like that, use the girl, and then just dump her like trash.” Grayson took a breath. “However, if that’s what we find, at least the general can get some closure and select his next option.”

  “Would that be revenge?” Kylie stepped away from her cargo crate into the center of the room. “Here I thought the SSF was too evolved for such a thing.”

  Grayson cast her a dirty look. “Things change when it’s your daughter. Plus, the SSF has been looking for the right reason to take down the GFF for good.”

  Winter snorted. “Good luck to them.”

  Kylie nodded. “No kidding. That’s not something I want any part of.”

  “You won’t be. Just do your bit here. With luck, we’ll get Lana back home, and we can go about our business. Separately.”

  So, she wasn’t the only one who didn’t like their arrangement. Not surprising, but it didn’t make Kylie feel any better.

  “You really think it’ll be that easy?” Winter asked.

  “Nothing ever is.” Rogers shook his head. “This could ruin us.”

  “We can always head over to the Scipio Federation. If the SSF is going to wage war on Gedri, I prefer somewhere that isn’t here,” Winter said with a shrug.

  “Let’s try to be positive, gentlemen. Okay?” Kylie eyed Rogers and Winter. “Grayson, you said you tracked this shuttle to Maverick?”

  Grayson pushed another document across the Link. Pictures of two men, presumably the ones who grabbed Lana—one bald with a scar running down the side of his face, the other with a tattoo over two-thirds his face.

  How charming.

  Kylie read through their criminal records and saw the breadcrumbs that led straight to the GFF. Hitmen for hire with a history of violence, drug abuse, and trafficking. These guys weren’t low-level scum; they were heavy hitters. They wouldn’t have taken a job to kidnap Lana if it hadn’t come with a hefty cash bounty.

  Could she be alive? Maybe. Unspoiled? Probably not. Kylie felt for the girl, which was one of the reasons she hated these sorts of missions. Her emotions got all mixed up. She started to care a little bit too much, which led to inevitable heartache if she failed.

  “If we doubt why we’re doing this, just bring out image A-1 and look into her eyes,” Kylie said to her men. “Generally, I know, we don’t take sides. We do our job and get out. But if we can save this girl…”

  “You don’t have to sell us,” Winter said. “We’re doing this. I get it but don’t expect me to start crying and making origami animals while we lay around and do each other’s hair. I care about our crew, not some hapless girl.”

  Grayson scowled and stepped in Winter’s way. Winter sighed and folded his arms.

  “Get out of my way,” Winter growled.

  But Grayson didn’t move. Kylie sensed a low, boil of anger coming from his direction, but it didn’t play out on his face. “Don’t you care about the girl? Even a little bit? She could be tortured, forced to do sexual acts against her will, and you’re telling me you don’t care?”

  “No,” Winter grumbled and pushed past Grayson and disappeared through the doorway, never looking back.

  With a level stare, Grayson brought his attention back to Kylie. “Well, nice to see the kind of people you’re keeping company with. Good job choosing them over the SSF.”

  “I care.” Rogers raised his hand. “I don’t want to die in a blaze of glory over this girl, but I care. Let’s try to stay alive. Can we do that?”

  Grayson nodded. “Staying alive is something we can all agree is a top priority.”

  “Good,” Kylie said. “I can keep Winter in line. I know his bedside manner sucks, but he’s not as rough as he pretends. He’ll do what we want, as long as it goes through me, Grayson.”

  “Understood, loud and clear.”

  Now they were making progress.

  “I’m going to go check in with the ship,” Rogers said. “When we drop out of FTL in Gedri, I’ll let you both know over the Link.”

  “Thanks, Rogers,” Kylie said and watched him go.

  “He’s a good man,” Grayson said.

  Kylie did a double take. “I’m surprised you can admit that.”

  “Well, he didn’t try to kill me.”

  Winter had really lowered the bar.

  “Want to tell me what your plan is?” Grayson asked. “How are you going to find out from Maverick where he’s keeping Lana?”

  “Once we’ve dropped off the hull, and taken the elevator down to Montral, he’ll know and send for us. If he doesn’t, well…there’s always a party going on at Shade, his favorite nightclub, and he’s there as often as not. If he’s keeping Lana around for fun, then I’ll see her. If not, it’ll get trickier, but I have an in with him that most don’t.”

  Grayson raised his eyebrows. “Oh?”

  “He loves brunettes with purple streaks in their hair.”

  “Kylie,” Grayson shook his head. “You…I can’t ask you to…”

  She pushed her hand against his chest. “We do what we do to survive. When I left the SSF, this is what I did. If I can use it now to clear this mission and reward my crew with a letter of marquee, I will. Besides, I kind of owe it to all the girls I’ve seen…and never helped.”

  “All right, but I’ll be listening, and if you run into trouble, we won’t be far behind.”

  “I can handle myself, but thanks. Maverick knows not to mess up a good thing. He likes me too much. And before I forget, tomorrow morning, you’re on breakfast prep. Six-hundred hours, ship time.”

  Grayson’s eyes narrowed. “Breakfast? As in cook?”

  Kylie smirked. “Winter will be on rotation, too, so don’t be late. He hates a tardy cook, but don’t worry; I hid all the sporks.” She sauntered away for the engine room to check on the system status before retiring to her quarters.

  She willed herself not to look back. The last thing she needed to do was start throwing second glances at Grayson, especially with Nadine so mad at her. Though she wondered if Grayson still stared—if he still liked to watch after her as she left a room. She thought of checking the ship cameras to see but thought better of it.

  That was a wound she didn’t need to re-open.

  There was an engine to check out, and Kylie loved to listen to it hum. When she was most troubled, the sound of the engines always lulled her to a happy, comfortable place. She might’ve been born planetside, but space was her home. The Dauntless made her feel complete, and Kylie intended to never lose it again.

  * * * * *

  Grayson watched her go with a deep sense of longing—one he thought he had gotten over years ago. But being back with her in the thick of it brought old feelings he thought long suppressed bubbling to the surface.

  He sighed and leaned his arm against a support beam while gazing at photo A-1 of Lana. She was the mission. She had to be, but being with Kylie again filled him with such an energy, like part of him came alive just to spar with her again.

 

 

  Jerrod asked.

 

 

  It made Grayson nervous, too, but he’d never say it out loud. Grayson said.

 

  Good old Jerry, always looking out for him.

>  

  They had been together for ten years. Soon the SSF would have no choice but to part them and give Grayson a new AI. It wasn’t something he really looked forward to. He liked Jerrod and they had worked well together.

  Grayson turned and left the cargo bay in search of his quarters. He had made his decision, but it had been easier on the space station and before he had stepped onboard the ship. Winter, he could leave or take, but the rest of them…

  He wasn’t sure what he would do if push came to shove.

 

  In case everything went sideways. Everyone but himself and Lana were expendable.

  Even the ship. And Kylie. Grayson didn’t want to think about that.

  A HOMEMADE DINNER

  STELLAR DATE: 08.36.8947 (Adjusted Years)

  LOCATION: Salvage ship Dauntless

  REGION: Outer Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance

  Kylie lingered between a dream-like state and being awake when her comm chirped.

  If it hadn’t been Nadine, Kylie would’ve just rolled over and ignored it. Instead, she gave a little stretch and arched her back.

 

  Kylie swung her legs over the side of her bed and rubbed her face. She was really going to need to grab some coffee to make it through the day.

 

  Just in case. That was her girl, always thinking and planning ahead for the future.

 

  Even across the Link, Kylie could make out Nadine’s rising anxiety.