by Amie Kaufman
“That’ll take hours with one squa—”
“Then I want you to formulate an assault strategy to deal with the kitties holed up in C & C. They have hardware on the bridge we can use. And the chief of engineering might be useful now that we’re apparently shorthanded. Smoke the others out and skin them, but bring me Chief Grant alive.”
“And after that?”
Falk stoops to pick up the holoprint of Hanna Donnelly from the ruins of her father’s desk. It’s a nice shot. Daddy’s little girl. Designer clothes. Perfect hair. Million ISĦ smile.
He hands the print to Kali. “Good hunting, yes?”
And now Kali’s smiling, too.
Merrick, J: Hanna?
Donnelly, H: Wha?
Merrick, J: Hanna, are you okay?
Donnelly, H: I was asleep.
Merrick, J: Seriously?
Donnelly, H: Take it when you can get it. Are you guys holding the bridge?
Merrick, J: Yeah, still here. Chief Grant got us into the comms system again, but I’m not sure how long I’ve got. Are you all right? Are you safe?
Donnelly, H: I’ve been kind of busy, but I’m okay. My PLoB’s out, they can’t find me.
Merrick, J: Is there anyone else out there? Other people on the loose?
Donnelly, H: Should we talk about that stuff? If they can take whisperNET down, who says they can’t hack in and read it?
Merrick, J: Yeah, okay. Good point. It’s just we’re getting some of their comms in here. Something’s gone wrong. They’re looking for someone. “Hunting,” they said.
Merrick, J: Whoever it is, they’re going to kill them when they find them. I don’t want you catching a bullet for someone else’s stupidity.
Donnelly, H: I think it’s safe to say they’re pretty upset with me, regardless.
Merrick, J: I really think you should turn yourself in, Hanna. You’re not safe out there. These people are dangerous. I’m not sure provoking them more is the smartest move.
Donnelly, H: *** the smartest move, Jax. They’re going to kill us. I’m not volunteering to be next.
Merrick, J: You don’t know that. These people aren’t just random psychos here to shoot up the place. They’re on this station for a reason. Once they get what they want, they’ll leave. And screwing with them is only going to waste their time and **** them off.
Donnelly, H: You have no idea who they are or what they want. If they’re that ****ed off, they’ll shoot me on sight. I would. Is this some kind of chivalry ****? Because I notice you’re not hurrying to unlock the doors and turn yourself in. You and the chief are still holed up tight in C & C. Am I meant to be safe while you defend us all?
Merrick, J: We have access to systems in here. Computers, weapons. Not to mention a meter of plate steel between us and them. You’re out there in a bloody Danae Matresco jumpsuit! Don’t you get it? They’re going to kill you! I don’t want you getting hurt!
Donnelly, H: Actually, I lost the jumpsuit. It’s kind of a long story and would probably only raise your blood pressure.
Merrick, J: Look, we have some access to their comms in here. Maybe we can talk to them. Let them know you’re coming in. Get them to guarantee your safety. They have the others in the atrium. Keiko and Claire are there, right? What if they hurt them, trying to get information about you? They’ve got no reason to kill or hurt anyone unless someone gives them one.
Donnelly, H: Well, Jax, I’m pretty sure the atrium is where they murdered my father. So no, I won’t be going there. You think he did something to give them a reason? Knowing him, you really believe that?
Merrick, J: …You know about your dad?
Donnelly, H: Are you kidding me?
Donnelly, H: Are you ****ing KIDDING ME?
Donnelly, H: You knew, and you didn’t say?
Merrick, J: I didn’t know. We heard chatter, we figured maybe something bad had happened to him. But I wasn’t certain.
Merrick, J: Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to upset you. Or send you off half cocked. I know how you get. I didn’t want you getting hurt, don’t you understand?
Donnelly, H: Well, you certainly do know what’s best for me, Jax. Of course I’m worried about my friends, but I can do more for them out here than I can in there.
Merrick, J: Hanna, I’m sorry.
Donnelly, H: I have to go. Be safe.
Merrick, J: Hanna, I’m sorry!
Merrick, J: Hanna!
PALMPAD IM: D2D NETWORK
Participants: Niklas Malikov, Civilian (unregistered)
Hanna Donnelly, Civilian (unregistered)
Date: 08/16/75
Timestamp: 04:13
Nik M: u awake?
Hanna D: Unfortunately. napped a little earlier. Tactical guides are all about sleeping when you can. If only they told you how.
Nik M: try opera :)
Nik M: what u doing?
Hanna D: Drawing. You?
Nik M: talkin with u :P
Nik M: i didn’t know u could draw
Hanna D: Didn’t we talk once about how there’s a list of things you don’t know about me?
Nik M: well don’t look now, highness, but that list seems to be getting shorter
Hanna D: It’s my thing. I draw a journal. Images come easier than words.
Nik M: a journal? Like a deeply personal collection of thoughts and feels?
Nik M: “dear diary, today my space station got invaded by a team of gun toting sociopaths, and I lost all my clothes. Ps: I am still madly in love with Nik Malikov. Luv Hanna.”
Hanna D: Wow, it’s like you’re actually here.
Hanna D: Leave my journal alone. Yes, it’s a collection of thoughts and feelings. Which I have right now. Don’t make me sorry I told you.
Nik M: u ever draw me in there?
Nik M: no, wait
Nik M: sorry, that’s non eof my biz forget I asked :P
Hanna D: Yeah, I have. Everything goes in there. Probably stupid to do it now, but it’s something to do.
Hanna D: My Dad bought it for me.
Hanna D: it’s all I have left of him.
Nik M: ?
Hanna D: Nik, they killed him.
Nik M: …
Nik M: oh jesus
Nik M: oh ****ing hell hanna i’m sorry i didn’t know
Hanna D: It’s okay, I know.
Hanna D: I’m mostly numb. I know what I have to do.
Nik M: and what’s that?
Hanna D: Exactly what he taught me. I’m going to take them apart piece by piece.
Hanna D: They’ve got numbers, but we’ve got home ground and, with Ella, better intel.
Nik M: u should get some more z’s. you’ll be thinking clearer tomorrw
Hanna D: I cant see tomorrow from here. cant imagine anything after this. Once it’s done. That’s another advantage we have over them. They want to make it out.
Nik M: hey listen
Nik M: you cancel that talk right now
Nik M: i know ur bleeding. Trust me, I do. but the last thing in the ’verse your dad would want right now is u thinking like that
Hanna D: He doesn’t get a vote. He’d want me hijacking a ship and flying it straight through the jump gate to somewhere safe.
Nik M: I know “voice of reason” isn’t usually in my job description, but pls explain how that’s a bad idea?
Hanna D: You want to do it, you go. I’m more in a vengeance kind of mood.
Nik M: right
Nik M: I’ll tell you a bedtime story, highness.
Nik M: It’s about my babushka. My grandma, yeah? Her name was Nika. Grand old fem. Hard as a coffin nail. took ZERO ****. u woulda liked her.
Nik M: See my granpa—he was a fan of the ladies. A real player. and my babushka was this dropdead redhead. I seen holos of her back then, damn. The Red Queen, they used to call her. Every boy on the grid was chasing her heels, and she sends em all home limping.
Nik M: But after years of trying, granpa gets her to go out wit
h him. And she tells him, once they get together, he’s gotta settle down. show respect. And he’s so jazzed he’s landed the Queen, he swears on his life he’ll never touch another woman after he’s touched her.
Nik M: So they get married. And it’s all good for a while. But about three months into it, she finds out granpa’s still seeing this old slice of his. After he swore on his LIFE he’d never touch another fem.
Nik M: Guess what my babushka did
Hanna D: I bet she was smart enough not to get tattooed for it, whatever it was.
Nik M: She gave him four sons and a daughter. And on their 5th wedding anniversary, once she wuz in the family deep enough—once my great grandfather loved those kids of hers hard enough—she got my granpa drunk. Handcuffed him to the bed. Cut off the cause of all his problems with a hacksaw, and let him bleed out. Real slow.
Nik M: She mailed his junk to his mistress with a note that said “best served cold.”
Hanna D: Jeeeeeesus.
Hanna D: You’re surprisingly daring in courting me, given your family history.
Nik M: Babushka Nika used to tell this story at family gatherings. Pull my brother and my boy cousins and me into a room, sit us down and do retellings of “How i killed your grandfather.” I’m not ****ting you. BUT the lessons ingrained in the Malikov male psyche as a result are twofold:
Nik M: 1. Never. Ever. EVER cheat on your girl (everrrrrrrrrrrr)
Nik M: 2. Revenge can wait a long time if it has to.
Nik M: babushka nika used to say
Nik M: “Patience and Silence had one beautiful daughter. And her name was Vengeance.”
Hanna D: Are you voting we try and run for it?
Nik M: I’m saying if my grandma can spend 5 years planning a hacksaw party, serving it cold is an option we should consider.
Nik M: And if the other option is “Hanna Donnelly takes down the bad guys and who gives a **** if she dies in the process,” let me be the first to say *i’d* give a **** if she died in the process, and point toward option A.
Hanna D: We’ll wait for Ella. See what she has for us. Will that do?
Nik M: it’ll do for now
Nik M: and i really am sorry about ur dad, Hanna
Nik M: the ’verse has a real ****ty sense of humor sometimes
Hanna D: if there’s a joke here at all, make it, I could use the laugh.
Nik M: your old man’s dead. mine’s still alive. If that isn’t a ****ing joke, I dunno what is
Hanna D: Thank you, Nik.
Hanna D: For being here. Guess the list is getting shorter after all.
Nik M: get some sleep, highness. the sun always rises
Nik M: unless you’re on a space station, I guess…
Nik M: okay, bad analogy. U know what I mean
Hanna D: I’m discovering I do.
Hanna D: You sleep well too.
Nik M: :)
PALMPAD IM: D2D NETWORK
Participants: Niklas Malikov, Civilian (unregistered)
Ella Malikova, Civilian (unregistered)
Date: 08/16/75
Timestamp: 06:27
Nik M: how goes, my cuz. U got any sleep
Pauchok: slowly. And no
Nik M: y it taking so long? i mean this airvent isn’t bad as slam, but at least in there we had books and toilets and breakfast and whatnot
Pauchok: u & books? lol
Nik M: hey I read
Pauchok: name one book u read in slam, nik
Nik M: “Why i am so mean to my cuz when he is the bestest cuz in the ’verse” by Ella Malikova.
Nik M: it was a mystery. a pretty good one, too.
Pauchok: it’s taking so long because I need to b quiet. think of it like rolling a cred exchange. u can blow the hinges off the vault, but then everyone knows u there.
Pauchok: u wanna get away clean, u gotta move slow.
Pauchok: and I’m sorry
Pauchok: 4 being mean 2 u :(
Nik M: u never ever have to apologize to me little spider
Pauchok: so where’s Her Ladyship? sleeping like the grateful dead in her silken jimjams?
Nik M: cuz, y u riding her so bad
Pauchok: y the **** u giving her a free pass?
Pauchok: O yes, little nik driving the bus, I forgot silly me
Nik M: u shud cut her some slack, fem. her old man just got X-ed
Pauchok: well ****, I wonder how that feels Nik
Nik M: Ella that’s exactly my goddamn point
Nik M: her dad’s dead. whole world ripped to pieces. And she’s not breathing a word of it. nto complaining, not crying herself to ****ing sleep. She’s fighting. Kicking and screaming.
Nik M: u got her picked 4 the spoiled little rich girl, I get that.
Nik M: but in case u haven’t noticed, she’s lost just as much as u
Nik M: and she’s punching back just as hard
Pauchok: …
Nik M: i know ur hurting, cuz. But maybe
Nik M: just maybe
Nik M: the fight’s out there, not in here
Pauchok: …
Pauchok: I miss him nik
Nik M: I know
Pauchok: this is so ****ed
Nik M: yeah
Pauchok: I know he hurt people. And he did bad things sometimes
Pauchok: but he could be kind too. Ppl never saw that part of him, but I did.
Pauchok: When the lysergia got into my lungs, he sat with me every minute of every day in the hospital. He’d just glare at anyone who said the words “visiting hours” until they went away. He put the doctor who suggested unplugging me in traction. He let everything else slide. But whn I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was him holding my hand
Pauchok: he was my daddy and he loved me
Pauchok: and they ****ing killed him
Nik M: u still got people who love you cuz. Never forget that
Pauchok: jesus this O2 mask was not built to repel snot of this magnitude. So much gag
Pauchok: wish u were here, cuz mine
Pauchok: could use some hugs right about now
Nik M: um
Nik M: gimmee a minute
Nik M:
Pauchok: …is that supposed to be u?
Nik M: erm…
Pauchok: y u only got 3 fingers? And wtf @ ur hair
Nik M: it’s a work in progress
Pauchok: well now I’m blubbing like a ***** and there’s snot everywhere
Pauchok: thanks a bunch ***hole
Nik M: <3
Pauchok: <3<3<3<3<3<3<3
Nik M: try to get some sleep, cuz
Pauchok: sleep is for the weak
FROM: Director Frobisher, BEITECH HEADQUARTERS, JIA III
TO: RAPIER OPERATIVE
INCEPT: 08/16/75
FROBISHER, L, DIR: Good morning, Sam.
RAPIER: Director Frobisher.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: Status report, if you’d be so kind.
RAPIER: Audit team infiltration successful. Heimdall is under our control.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: That makes me very happy to hear, Sam. Difficulties?
RAPIER: Some maintenance work is required on the wormhole generator before it’s operational. There’s an issue with an outside contaminant in the computer systems, but nothing we can’t handle. There are also some locals causing trouble. We’ve got a few holed up on the bridge, but they’re cut out of the system. A couple more running loose, but the team is on it.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: Excellent. Please keep me apprised of developments. Assault Fleet Kennedy is on schedule and inbound to your location.
RAPIER: Director, I have a concern.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: Oh? With what?
RAPIER: With Lieutenant Falk.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: Spit it out, Sam. I’m not paying you by the hour.
RAPIER: Director, he murdered Commander Donnelly. I’ve typed up an AAR of the incident, which I’m mailing you now. Donnelly was a smart man. He would’ve seen the cards on the ta
ble and cooperated. There was no good reason to X him, but Falk blew his head off in front of his entire staff.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: I think you’ll find the act itself was the reason, Sam. Falk is an expert in urban pacification. He does nothing without cause. Strike the shepherd, the sheep will scatter.
RAPIER: Demonstration of power, I get it. But wouldn’t it have been an even bigger statement if he took the station without firing a shot?
FROBISHER, L, DIR: Lieutenant Falk is in charge of the seizure operation, Sam. I trust his judgment. Whether he killed Donnelly now or later makes no real difference.
RAPIER: Meaning what, exactly?
FROBISHER, L, DIR: Surely you don’t think anyone outside our team is making it off that station alive?
RAPIER: You’re planning to kill everyone? What the **** for? Nobody here knows we’re from BeiTech. We could jump the Kennedy fleet through to deal with the Hypatia and leave without anyone ever knowing why we were here.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: You can’t be this naïve.
RAPIER: Director, this is insane.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: What’s insane is the suggestion I should leave any more elements in this equation to chance. The entire reason we’re in this mess is because Taylor orchestrated a cluster**** black op that left hundreds of witnesses breathing. You’re seriously suggesting we leave hundreds more?
RAPIER: Director, I have serious reservations about this.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: ENOUGH.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: I’ve had enough of this, Sam.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: I understand this is not the op you signed on for, but you will toe the party line. This is not a democracy. This is a war. Your father was a soldier. He understood notions like Duty. Code. Loyalty.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: Do you?
RAPIER: …
RAPIER: Yes, ma’am.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: Please keep me apprised of further developments.
RAPIER: Yes, ma’am. Apologies, ma’am.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: Thank you, Sam. I do truly appreciate all the work you’re doing. It’s not long now. We will get through this.
RAPIER: Yes, ma’am.
FROBISHER, L, DIR: Frobisher out.
PALMPAD IM: D2D NETWORK