by Tom Chattle
Wilde turned, raising a delicate auburn eyebrow. "The subject?"
Bennett cleared his throat. "Lieutenant Chen. She is under Naval Intelligence jurisdiction and is not permitted visitors." He curled his nose. "Especially civilian visitors, Ms. Wilde."
Leaning to the side, Wilde waved at McCann when he finally caught up to them, along with the two NI guards. "Wally, is there any reason a Fleet officer can't receive visitors to their personal cabin aboard a Fleet vessel?"
McCann shook his head. "Not unless they've been actively charged with a crime."
"Thanks, Wally." Wilde turned her gaze back to Bennett, arms folded, and her jaw jutted out in defiance. "Has Lieutenant Chen been charged with anything?"
Chen could see the irritation flash through Bennett's eyes, but he took a deep breath. "No, she has not. But I warn you—"
"Okay, then!" Wilde cut him off and entered the cabin, pulling Chen after her. The door snapped closed behind them before any more of Bennett's objections could follow them through, and Chen breathed a small sigh of relief.
- 8 -
2208.10.15 // 09:57
UVS Valiant, Callisto orbit
Chen stopped just inside the doorway and took in the cabin. Smaller than the one she had enjoyed when in command, there was barely enough room for a single bed and fold-down desk. The bathroom cubicle didn't even seem big enough to stand in. At least she had a view, the pock-marked surface of Callisto just visible past the starboard rift engines and the surrounding trusswork of the spacedock.
"How have you been? It's been kind of crazy since we got back—" Wilde kept up a constant stream of cheery chatter, but Chen noticed she had pulled a small scanning device from inside her leather jacket. Lights flashed while she moved it slowly around the room.
"Wilde...Katrina—" Chen started, but Wilde held up a finger to her lips and shook her head before her emerald eyes flicked back to the device. Lights on its face flashed faster and faster. She placed the scanner on the bed and reached underneath the fold-out desk. After a few seconds, she removed a tiny electronic device, flat and faceted, and dropped it into a small, metallic bag she retrieved from an inner pocket. Wilde zipped it up and stepped over to the bathroom nook. A quick press of the large button extended the toilet from within the wall, and she dropped the bag in. Within moments, the powerful vacuum system had whisked it away into the bowels of the ship with a loud hiss of air.
A satisfied look on her face, she turned to Chen, holding her arms wide. Embracing Chen again, she sighed. "Auri, I'm so glad to see you."
Although it felt good to see the woman who had sparked the entire Arcturus mission, Chen was confused about why Wilde didn't seem to hate her for it. "Is it? I would have thought your life would have been better off since I got out of it."
Wilde shoved Chen back and looked down at the shorter woman. Her freckled nose scrunched up, and she cocked her head to one side. "What are you talking about?"
Chen stepped away to sit on the edge of the thin mattress. Though small, it still felt more comfortable than the tiny cot she'd had in her cell. "After I screwed up the mission so badly, you have every reason to loathe me."
"Why would you think that?" Wilde sat on the bed next to Chen, folded her legs up beneath her, and placed a hand on Chen's arm. "Auri, whatever happened on that mission, you still saved my life."
Chen closed her eyes. Another headache threatened to drive a nail through her skull. "I screwed it all up. People died because I wasn't cut out for the job." She glanced up at Wilde. "Everyone knew it. They all avoided me on the journey home."
"Are you really that stupid?" The frown Wilde gave her was that of a disapproving sister. "Auri, everyone avoided you on the way back because it was obvious you were traumatized and in mourning after Alex's death. You practically secluded yourself, in case you don't remember." She squeezed Chen's arm. "We were all so worried about you. After what you told us about hearing thoughts and stuff, we hoped you'd get proper medical care when we got back, but then Naval Intelligence swooped in, grabbed you, and we hadn't heard anything about you until a few days ago when Captain Arnesen was informed you would be coming back aboard."
"So, you don't hate my guts?" A surge of relief and joy rushed through Chen, and the corners of her eyes moistened.
"No, silly!" Wilde gave her a playful shove on the shoulder. The thoughts and feelings Chen could read off her certainly matched her claims. "We're just glad you're finally back." She ran a finger down Chen's head. "I like what you did with your hair. Looks super cool."
"Thanks," Chen couldn't help but smile, "it wasn't exactly planned."
"A lot of things weren't." Wilde's mouth twisted, and her brow furrowed. "Auri, what the hell happened to you when we got back?"
Chen sighed. She had no desire to once again recount the painful experiences she'd been put through, but she knew she owed it to Wilde. "Like you said, NI grabbed me, carted me off to a remote facility on the Moon."
"Like, as a prisoner?" Wilde's eyes widened.
"Not in so many words, but basically." Chen's gaze dropped to her hands. "They interrogated me for months, doing medical procedures on me to try and figure out what happened when that...thing got in my head."
Wilde's slender hand shot to her mouth as it dropped open. "What kind of procedures?"
Chen took a deep breath, staring up at the ceiling. "All kinds. Scans, tests, even some surgeries to try to get in my mind." Chen lifted the short strands of hair that clung to the side of her head to reveal several scars near her ear, eliciting a soft gasp from Wilde.
"Who the hell do they think they are?"
"Naval Intelligence," Chen snorted. "They do whatever they want as long as they can claim it's to secure the Union."
Wilde's aura changed from shocked to angry. "We need to tell people, take those assholes to task for how they've treated you."
Chen sighed. "It won't do any good, Katrina. They're too powerful. If anything gets out, they'll just tell stories about a crazy chick with a fucked-up brain who is a danger to the good citizens of the United Planetary Alliance."
"Wow," Wilde shook her head, "they really did a number on you if you're thinking like that." She prodded Chen in the middle of her chest. "The Auri Chen I know would give them the finger and do what she wanted anyway."
"Yeah," Chen snapped, "and look where that got me last time. On an alien planet with a lot of good people dead. And they wouldn't even be lying. I am dangerous. Whatever that thing did to me keeps getting stronger, and I can't control it."
"Auri, I'll do everything I can to help you figure out your powers, as well as pay those bastards back."
Chen gave Wilde a tired smile. "Thanks, Katrina. But enough about me. What have you been up to? And how the hell did you know this place would be bugged?"
Wilde snorted. "Please, this is hardly my first run-in with NI. They're sneaky, but they use the same tricks every time."
"But where did you get that scanner?" Chen pressed.
"I don't know if you heard, but I was pretty famous." Wilde grinned. "Loads of people wanted to spy on me—from competing producers to creepy stalker fans. You kind of get used to it."
Chen chuckled. "Sure, I guess that makes sense. Although, I still don't understand how you are even on this mission. You're not in the military."
Wilde rolled her eyes. "Do you know the number of times I've heard that in the last few weeks?" She brushed her hair back behind her ear. "How about you just let me explain?"
- 9 -
2208.10.15 // 10:06
UVS Valiant, Callisto orbit
"It's probably best I just start from the beginning." Wilde paused and sucked on her lower lip, figuring out how best to start. "Okay, so after we got back and you pulled your little disappearing act, a lot of questions were being asked about the mission." She sighed. "Daddy got in a lot of trouble for sending you after me—he apparently didn't exactly follow the normal authorization procedures for sending out a starship. He was repriman
ded pretty badly, and he begged me not to go public with what we found, but how could I not?"
Chen nodded. "My mother mentioned that nobody believed you. She pulled strings to come see me a few weeks ago."
"Yeah." Wilde huffed. "Pretty sure NI sowed the seeds that I was a crazy, attention-seeking little drama-queen trying to divert attention from getting my entire crew killed just to make a good holo-show." Her eyes flicked downward before they snapped back up, burning with defiance. "I put all the information out there anyway, but the network cut me off—said I had lost them too much money and was a liability. Assholes."
"So, you did lose your show?" Chen knew how much Wilde had loved doing what she did. It must have been painful for her.
"Ugh." Wilde fell back onto the bed and folded her arms. "Yes, they took it away from me as fast as they could. After that, I went to my father to see if he could help, but he was in the middle of a power struggle—plus kinda pissed I ignored him and released the information. He's pretty sure there are some high-ranking political players in Fleet Command trying to oust him." She rolled on her side, head perched on her hand. "Still, he told me this mission was being put together to investigate missing colonies and used about all the power he had left to get me on it as an 'alien adviser.' He wasn't happy that I decided to go, but I'm pretty sure both Fleet and NI are pleased to get me away from the spotlight, to be honest."
"Sounds like you've had a busy time." Chen raised her eyebrows.
"Oh, most of that was months ago." Wilde sat back up and shrugged. "Since then, I've been digging into research, trying to find anything that could lead us to more information on the Syrax and who covered up their existence."
That got Chen's attention. "Did you find anything?"
Wilde sucked air through her teeth. "Some, not as much as I would have liked. Best I could tell, early in the Third System War, an Earth Star Fleet captain was scouting the Arcturus system for a possible outpost and discovered what was there." She balled up a fist and bounced it off the mattress. "I guess they didn't wake the Syrax somehow, but I haven't found any more information than that, and the captain's name is redacted from the records I managed to access. There were a few other references I found about another alien race—the ones that caused me to go explore the system in the first place—but they don't match the Syrax at all, more like humans, in a way."
Chen closed her eyes, and her memory drifted to the vast pile of alien skulls they had come across in a chamber in the mountain fortress. Those had definitely not been Syrax. Perhaps they could be the race Wilde was talking about. She was about to mention the theory when pain stabbed through her mind, and her vision filled with a harsh, violet light.
She blinked and disorientation threatened to overwhelm her. Chen was back inside the dark, hostile depths of the mountain, a wide, bowl-shaped cavern spread out below. Hulking Syrax guards lined the walkways around her, weapons pointed down at the mass of bodies huddled in the center of the space. She couldn't make them out well, but they seemed to be tall and thin with strange hair. A high-pitched whine grew in the confined space, and cries of terror rang out at the pulsing lights that throbbed down the sides of a vast stalactite-like structure hanging from the distant ceiling. Before Chen could call out, a crackling web of energy shot down from it and enveloped the aliens beneath, their death screams echoing off the walls.
A hand grasped her shoulder, and Chen lashed out, backhanding her attacker as hard as she could. Leaping to her feet, she turned to face them, only to discover Wilde sprawled back against the bed, a trickle of blood under her nose, eyes wide in surprise.
The pain and adrenaline immediately evaporated, and Chen rushed to her. "Katrina, I'm so sorry."
Wilde didn't respond, but her eyes darted back and forth between Chen and her surroundings. Trying to understand what she was looking at, Chen turned her head. A pillow and part of the bedding floated in mid-air, along with a charging station attached to the small bedside table. Each item was wreathed in a hazy aurora of faint, violet light that flickered and sparked.
"What the hell?" Chen muttered. Instantly, they fell back, and the charger clattered to the floor. Without quite understanding why, Chen knew it had been her making them levitate.
"Auri..." Wilde started, wiping blood from her freckled cheek.
"I told you I was dangerous," Chen cut in, a wave of melancholy creeping through her heart. "You should leave. I'm sorry."
"Oh, this?" Wilde smeared the blood on her pants and clambered off the bed. "I've had worse. What you just did was amazing."
Chen was still digesting both what she'd seen and whatever the hell she'd done to the objects that had floated. "That's...that's never happened before."
"Don't worry, I'm sure it happens to everyone with cool psychic powers." Wilde smirked. "But, seriously, did you know you could do that? I thought your powers were just sneaking a few dirty thoughts from my head."
Chen ran a hand through her hair. She was glad Bennett hadn't been around to see that. The thought of him triggering the neural dampener led her fingers down her neck to play with the tender skin that surrounded it. "Yeah, it's more complicated than that, but this is a new one. I could sort of control some of the Syrax tech while we were in close proximity to it...but nothing outside that."
Wilde nodded her head toward the smooth device on Chen's neck. "What is that thing, anyway?"
"One of Bennett's little experiments." Chen scowled. "I sometimes lash out, can't control myself—as you just found out. Bennett implanted this device in me to...control those outbursts."
"Control how?" Wilde asked, as though she already knew the answer.
"Pain. It overloads my nervous system, knocks me down. Hurts like hell."
The two women sat in silence for a long moment before an idea sparked in Chen's mind. "You know, Bennett seems fairly high in Naval Intelligence, and I doubt he would come on this mission without access to their files."
Wilde's head snapped up, fire in her eyes. "If you can get him off the ship at some point, I can probably get access to his cabin, see what NI equipment he has in there."
"You can do that?" Chen was skeptical—NI put pretty heavy security on their tech.
A grin spread across Wilde's face. "I have my secrets."
"Apparently so." Chen shook her head. Wilde was full of surprises.
Wilde jumped up and gave Chen a quick hug. "You should get some rest. You've had a long trip, and it sounds like this may be the most comfortable bed you've been around in months." She headed for the door calling back over her shoulder. "I'll start working on a plan to squeeze some juicy intel out of Bennett."
With that, she was gone, and Chen was left alone in the small cabin. Wilde wasn't wrong. This was by far the nicest accommodations she'd had since leaving the Valiant the last time. Chen shook the tension out of her arms and headed for the bathroom cubicle. Maybe a nice, hot shower was just what she needed.
- 10 -
2208.10.16 // 07:08
UVS Valiant, Callisto orbit
Chen spent extra time tidying herself up the next morning. Someone had provided her with extra uniforms and underclothes in the compact drawers under the bed, and it felt nice to get back to actually feeling as though she was presentable. She had found a pair of scissors and managed to trim up the worst of the shoddy haircut that had been enforced upon her. Brushing the ends into the trash, she examined herself in the mirror.
It was strange not being in the gray and orange of her Fleet uniform, but the unmarked Naval Intelligence uniform wasn't too bad, all things considered. She squinted and rubbed at her eyes, their edges red-rimmed and puffy. Although she felt a lot better having been able to freshen up and lie on a comfortable mattress, Chen still hadn't slept well for months. The dreams were always there. Dreams wasn't even the right word—nightmares would be more accurate, she supposed. Endless nighttime cycles of mistakes, violence, and death...
A soft chime from the door broke through the haze that had formed in
her mind. Giving herself one last check in the mirror, she took the few steps from the bathroom to the door and thumbed the control pad, the door opening with a hiss. Expecting Bennett, Chen raised her eyebrows in surprise at her visitor. "Oh, hi..."
"Hey, Auri." McCann smiled. "I persuaded Bennett to let me take you for some breakfast."
Chen glanced down the hallway, then back at McCann. His outward appearance was amiable, but an air of unease and anxiety rolled off him. Still, she didn't see how she could refuse his offer, and she was awfully hungry.
She nodded and stepped out of her cabin. "I could use some chow."
McCann led the way, his pace relaxed while they headed in the direction of the main mess hall. There was an uncomfortable silence between them—the total opposite of how their relationship had been as long as she'd known him—but Chen didn't know what to say. She was certain McCann was just being polite and doing his expected duties as the Valiant's first officer. Several times, she thought she saw McCann about to say something from the corner of her vision, but each time he just let out a breath and stayed quiet, his thoughts a confused mess.
They neared the mess hall, and the noise got louder—both to Chen's ears as well as her mind. The din grew as they entered the broad, low-ceilinged room. A large number of the ship's crew milled around, taking advantage of the relaxed shifts during refit in spacedock. One side of the room was given over to a glass-fronted serving line, where men and women joked and chatted while they waited to be doled out portions of semi-edible food. The rest was filled with long tables and benches, drinks stations dotted sporadically between them.
"Hey, Lieutenant McCann!" a heavy-set kitchen worker called out from the nearest end of the serving wall. "I gotcha right here." When McCann diverted over to greet him, the man set a plastic tray out on the counter, food already served. "Here you go, sir."