On a Pale Ship

by Jamie McFarlane

  “Good looking boat,” Luc said.

  “Thanks. Care for a beer? The refer is well stocked.”

  Luc opened the cabinet Torigan nodded to and pulled out two bottles. The powerful motors hummed as the boat plowed through the water, sending a white wave out from the prow.

  “If we don’t run into a patrol, we’ll be there in two hours.”

  “What happens if we do run into a patrol?

  “We’ll take the long way around.”

  Luc found that he enjoyed the man’s company and they chatted amiably as the boat traversed the shallow waters. Periodically, Torigan would turn away from a radar blip, explaining the different types of obstacles he preferred to avoid, whether manmade or natural. In the end, Luc came to the conclusion the man was a smuggler.

  “There she is,” Torigan said, about the same time a giant beam of light swung above the boat from high on a wall. “And it looks like they’ve seen us.”

  “That a problem?”

  “Not for us. Might cause the patrol leader we slipped a kilometer back an issue, but there’s nothing illegal about using the public docks at Cauldron.”

  Luc looked up at the foreboding town as Torigan slowed and continued to slide through water, a second bright searchlight falling on them.

  “Cauldron Harbor Master, this is Haik Torigan, over,” Torigan called.

  “Go ahead, Haik Torigan.”

  “I’ve one passenger for drop-off on dock two, over.”

  “Copy, Haik Torigan. You are clear.”

  “And that’s it. You’re officially delivered to Cauldron.” Torigan slowed even further as he pulled up to the end of a deserted dock.

  Luc’s eyes followed the tall walls that sprouted from the sea. Two towers with large guns atop were visible from their position and given their spacing he could imagine the walls held a few more.

  He pulled a second finger of gold from his pocket and handed it to Torigan. “Any way to get hold of you if I need a ride out of here?”

  “Your comms won’t work within Cauldron,” Torigan said. “There’s a church. Talk to the priest, he can get word to me. I can be here in six hours. Be careful, Baron Roth Serikov. Far fewer people leave Cauldron than enter.”

  Chapter 9

  Regret

  System: Bethe Peierls, Planet: Vermeer, City: Fariza, Belsev Tether

  Katriona considered the large, cylindrical structure behind Marek’s back. She couldn’t see much of the structure, as it disappeared into the inky night sky. She didn’t know much about Belsev Tether beyond that it served as a space elevator to the once-grand Fariza orbital trading hub. Decades in the past, when the democratic government of Fariza had fallen, the hub was closed to public traffic.

  Like most things of Fariza, the elevator’s beautiful public façade now had a creepy undertone. From time to time, rumors circulated of illegal genetic experimentation taking place on the space station. Aside from those whispers, most of the city’s divided population ignored the presence of the old hub, as few people had seen the inside and there just wasn’t much information available about it. What most citizens of Fariza knew was that the well-kempt grounds were open to all and it was a beautiful place to meet for outdoor sporting events and general recreation.

  “Something on your mind?” Marek asked, holding out his hand.

  “Just wondering why you chose this location,” she answered.

  “Public place with lots of open space,” he said. “I didn’t want to spook you further.”

  “Right,” she said ironically, placing the small box she’d kept hidden into Marek’s outstretched hand. Wordlessly, he opened the box and scanned the lens with a device he’d been holding.

  “What’s it going to be?” He handed her a plastic nub she recognized as a credit chip. The device was the size of the end of her pinky finger. “Are you ready to double down?”

  Katriona’s AI reported the chit held twenty thousand credits, just as he’d promised. A thrill ran through her body. It was a sum Irena, Sveta, and she could live on for more than half a year, even with the expense of Sveta’s drugs. They might even be able to afford an apartment with a second bedroom.

  “What’s the job?”

  “Unless you agree, I can’t give you details. But it’s right up your alley. High altitude work. Switch out a bag. That sort of thing,” he said, feigning nonchalance.

  “Twenty upfront? Twenty more on the back end?” In the back of her mind she felt a twinge of warning, but the money was too good to walk away from just because of a silly feeling.

  “That’s right.”

  “Let’s do it,” she said.

  Marek handed her another chit worth twenty thousand and returned the box she’d just given him. “I thought you might feel that way.” He pointed at his eyes and flicked his finger at her — a standard mechanism for privately transferring information between two individuals. “You have six hours to complete the mission and return the package. This is big, Kat. Don’t screw it up. It’d be bad for both of us. If you’re successful, you’ll have made some new, powerful friends.” Having completed his task, Marek turned and walked away.

  Katriona watched him go, wondering if she’d fooled herself when it came to Marek. Just twenty-four hours ago, they had been happily asleep in bed together and she thought there was some possibility of a relationship. At the moment, however, he seemed distant, almost another person.

  Data streamed across the HUD projected on her retina. Her AI had paused, patiently waiting as it recognized she wasn’t consuming the information. Katriona focused and quickly discovered why Marek had chosen to meet her at Belsev Tether. The woman whose lens she’d stolen was a scientist who worked in the station atop the tether. She was to use the lens to bypass station security and switch out a package in one of the station’s lower levels. The fact that she bore an uncanny resemblance to the scientist no longer felt like a coincidence and she wondered what Marek would have done if she’d turned down the job. Obviously, he’d known she wouldn’t, which stuck in her craw. As a thief, being predictable was not a particularly useful trait.

  She’d met Marek at one of several ball fields near the tether. According to her AI, she was still two kilometers from the entrance that had been scoped out for her. On a normal day, running an additional couple of kilometers would be no big deal. Bruised and battered from her earlier water ride, however, Katriona wasn’t excited about the extra exercise. Fortunately, she had the hoverboard. She tossed it onto the ground in front of her and jumped on, pushing off with her left and leading goofy foot with her right.

  The cool early morning air breezed by as she swung through the park, careful to stay in the less well-lit areas. She left her hood up, but didn’t invoke the stealth fabric. It wouldn’t do to have someone see a hoverboard gliding unattended through the park.

  Reaching the specified destination, she jumped from the board, kicked the tail, and caught it easily. With a few quick bends, she folded the board and stuffed it into her backpack. After engaging the stealth program in her cat-suit, Katriona looked for an entrance. Tall shrubs had grown up next to the base of the tether and for a moment she had trouble finding what she was looking for. Sensing confusion, her AI outlined a previously concealed panel three meters from ground level. Nimbly, she jumped, kicking off the wall as she did. When her fingers found purchase on the ledge, she pulled herself up, holding close to the wall.

  Extracting a short length of silk from her pouch, she deftly adhered it to the end of the panel. She hadn’t expected the panel to be loose and nearly lost her balance when she pulled against it and it moved. Fortunately, Katriona was cautious and steadied herself and the panel before sliding it to the side and climbing into the building. Her feet found a solid surface, so she turned around, tugged on the silk strand, and reeled the panel back into place. Thoughtfully, whoever had come before her had left a screwdriver and screws behind so she could re-secure the panel.

  The room she found herself in was a sto
rage room packed with cleaning supplies. On a nearby shelf, her AI highlighted several items: a folded lab coat, a pair of gloves, cleansing wipes, a small facemask and three rectangular packages, two centimeters square and ten centimeters long. With the wipes, she methodically cleaned her hands and then donned the gloves which proceeded to melt onto her skin. She placed the packages in her backpack next to the hoverboard.

  Voices on the other side of the door warned Katriona that she wasn’t alone. She slunk to the wall next to the door and waited.

  “Let me grab it and I’ll be right there,” a woman’s voice said. It was so loud that the person had to be approaching the closet where she hid. Even worse, the likelihood of being discovered in the cramped closet was very high. While Katriona could stealth, the approaching woman would almost certainly bump into her in such small quarters.

  Hastily, Katriona pulled a stack of towels from a waist-high shelf and tossed them as neatly as she could onto the floor against the wall. As the door opened, she slowly slid herself onto the shelf, choosing silence over speed, fighting against her instincts to rush. One of the things she counted on was her ability to squeeze into spaces most people wouldn’t consider human friendly. Her ability was one-part size and the other, unusual flexibility.

  A light flicked on as the door opened, flooding the small closet. Katriona felt exposed as she’d only partially climbed onto the shelf; her hip and left leg still hanging off. She sucked in a breath and continued to fold herself into the small space. She winced as the sound of her suit sliding against the shelf’s edge seemed to fill the entire space. Katriona froze as a plain-looking woman, framed in the doorway, stopped and stared directly at her. It was a look Katriona had seen before. Something in the woman’s visual perception wasn’t quite right and she was trying to rectify it. Katriona’s inner thigh muscle screamed as she held her leg absolutely still. The suit’s stealth was difficult to penetrate if she didn’t move.

  “It’s like I work with children,” the woman said to herself, finally looking away, her eyes coming to rest on the stack of towels thrown to the side. Katriona used the woman’s inattention to pull her leg onto the shelf.

  To Katriona’s horror, the woman crossed over and bent to pick up the towels, taking a moment to restack them. With deliberate slowness, Katriona slipped her left foot out the end of the shelf and straightened her leg. She had precious little time, but the woman seemed intent on returning the towels to their rightful place on the shelf. With one leg clear, she pressed her left thigh into the edge of the shelf, levering her ribcage so she could lift her right foot, which she slipped out the back side.

  “What the frak?” the woman complained as she pushed the stack of towels into the space still occupied by Katriona.

  Knowing she was on the verge of discovery, Katriona kicked her foot out, catching the closet door, causing it to shut abruptly, the light flicking off as it did.

  “Angie, stop messing around!” the woman said, angrily.

  Katriona slipped completely off the shelf, using the woman’s confusion to mask the noise.

  A muffled voice from outside the closet argued back against the accusation, the words lost but the meaning clear. Katriona danced around the woman as the door opened and the lights flicked on again.

  “What are you doing in there?” the second woman’s voice asked from the entry.

  “Why’d you close the door?”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Right,” the woman answered, plucking a spray bottle from the shelf. She exited the room, not bothering to shut the door behind her.

  Katriona slowly breathed out a sigh of relief and looked to the brightly lit hallway. She made a quick decision, pulling the white lab coat from her backpack and adjusting her cat-suit so it resembled a high-necked shirt. Purposefully, she strode into the hallway and followed green arrows projected onto her retina by her AI.

  At 0430 the basement of Belsev Tether was sparsely occupied and Katriona found little difficulty avoiding the other inhabitants as she worked her way down two levels and around several long hallways. She finally arrived at a door clearly marked ‘Lift Maintenance Personnel Only.’

  Much of being a good thief was having the audacity to do what others would not. Katriona walked up to the door like she belonged, even as she heard footsteps approaching from behind. She placed her right hand on the security panel on the door frame and pushed on the door with her left. When it refused to open, she removed her hand and tried a second time, unhappily ignoring the eye scanner which sat above the hand scanner.

  “Gotta scan your eye,” a man’s voice said too close, causing the hair on Katriona’s neck to stand up.

  “I did,” Katriona said. “It’s not getting a good read. I’ve got allergies.”

  “Give it another try,” the man said. “Just stay still, allergies shouldn’t be a problem.”

  Surreptitiously, Katriona slipped a hand into the pouch at her waist and extracted the small box containing the security lens. “I don’t need your help,” she replied testily.

  “You do if you’re trying to break into the maintenance room. I’m calling security,” he said. “You can work it out with them.”

  “Geez,” Katriona said and sneezed into her hands, taking the opportunity to place the lens into her eye. For a moment, her eye burned, unhappy at the foreign object. “Don’t be a jerk.”

  The man had worked his way around so he could see her face. “Your eye is really puffy,” he said, non-apologetically. “If you’re sick, you shouldn’t be here.”

  “I told you,” she replied. “It’s allergies.”

  “Go ahead and scan. If you get it this time, I won’t call security,” he said.

  “Right. Like my big goal this morning was to wake up, eat my meal bar, and break into the maintenance room,” she said dryly, looking up into his face. She was fully aware of the impact she had on men and wasn’t surprised when the lines in his face softened as he took her in.

  “Hey, look. We’re getting off on the wrong foot here. Apparently, we’re going to be working together today. You must be new,” he said. “I’m Tom.”

  Katriona returned a tight smile and gave a quick nod. “Loreen.” She turned back to the eye scanner and placed her hand on the panel. The door clicked open just as the name Dr. Silviya Yordenova appeared on the security panel.

  “I thought you said…” Tom started.

  Katriona’s hand darted out and struck Tom’s throat just over his larynx. “I got you,” she said conversationally as she helped him through the door, hoping the maintenance room was empty. Tom looked at her in disbelief and shock as he gasped for air.

  Moving at full speed, she dragged him across the floor and rested his back against a workbench. A small swab appeared in her hand, which she thrust into Tom’s mouth. “There, there,” she comforted. The swab contained both nano-bots that would heal minor injuries as well as a powerful tranquilizer that should keep him asleep for at least six hours. Tom’s eyes rolled back in his head just as his breathing eased.

  Unsure as to how much traffic the room received, Katriona searched for and found an empty locker big enough to hold Tom’s lanky body. The rectangular room was primarily open with a single, two-meter square pillar that pierced the ceiling. Evenly spaced and completing a square, three outlines were painted on the floor with a yellow-striped, caution pattern.

  “What’s next?” she whispered, pushing her AI which seemed to be lagging a bit with the quick turn of events.

  Her AI highlighted the single pillar with a green flashing outline and then painted the wire frame of an elevator car, simulating it disappearing into the ceiling. She realized the pillar must actually be the base for one of the tether cars that traveled to Fariza’s orbital station. A rattling sound drew her attention to ceiling-height louvers on the wall next to her. Air rushed past into the vent as a car descended rapidly and a new pillar stopped atop one of the painted squares on the floor. Before she could react, the air reversed and t
he car she’d once thought a pillar lifted from view, disappearing almost instantly.

  Arrows appeared on the floor, with a countdown timer set to fifteen seconds. Katriona raced around the car and looked up to where a small hatch was highlighted. Fortunately, it was within reach and she opened it. A chime sounded in her ear as the countdown reached ten seconds. With no time to spare an inspection, she leapt up, her hands grabbing for purchase inside the narrow space revealed by the hatch. She scrabbled forward and twisted around, cursing the white lab coat she still wore. She had no doubt that even though she’d pulled her body in, the safety mechanisms of the elevator would stop the car if the hatch were sheared off upon lifting through the ceiling. At the last moment, she snagged the hatch and pulled it closed.

  A new timer showed on her HUD. She had four minutes before the car she was riding in would arrive at its final destination. Katriona took a moment to survey a schematic of the room where she would arrive. It was similar to the one she’d just left. She was to exit the elevator car and work her way up to the third level of the station where she would exit through a ventilation panel, climb along the outside skin of the station, climb back in through another panel, up one level in the ventilation system and finally into a well-secured room.

  Her exit plan was simple. Having gained entry to the room, she was to swap out the packages and exit the room through the door that would open easily from the inside. She would then re-board the elevator and exit just like any normal station inhabitant finishing a shift.

  The plan worked flawlessly up to the point where she entered the secured room, having dropped lightly from the ventilation access in the ceiling. The room held twenty upright, cylindrical medical tanks. Upon inspection of the ones nearby, she was horrified to discover grievously wounded, partial bodies floating freely. She’d heard of medical tanks but had never seen them. Their ability to aid in the repair of damaged tissues and even the replacement of missing limbs was the stuff of legends for someone from the slums.