by TS Hottle
Parker stepped off the line, trying to cross the distance between himself and Kray. "Lieutenant."
"Please," said Ayres. "I was doing what I was called to do."
"So am I." Kray put the pistol to Ayres's head and pumped three rounds into it. The Goshenite dropped.
Wat looked down at his comrade and frowned. "Ye know, I was going for five years on Io for me, Riley, and a poor mute named Boone. What can we do to cooperate?" He let two Marines bind him and put him back on his knees.
Suicide pushed Kray aside. "Ladies, you are welcome to come with us to the Hancock. The Compact will arrange for you to go anywhere you want to go." She turned to Kray. "As of right now, I am in command as the pilot. My prerogative."
"Just doing my duty."
"So am I. Lieutenant."
14
"You should see the other guy," JT Austin mumbled when his eyes fluttered open. He reached down and scratched at something, only to find a synth-skin bandage over his bullet wound. "How bad?"
"Worse than you thought." Suicide reached over and squeezed his hand. "Doctor Baker says you're too stubborn."
"I feel light-headed."
"That's because they had to pump a liter-and-a-half of blood into you. You lost over two."
He rubbed this synth-skin bandage. "Why's it tingle down there?"
"Nanites. Have to soak up all that leakage and rebuild your intestines." She stood. "JT, I have a problem you may be able to help me with."
His eyes went up to the bag of plasma hooked into his arm. "It may have to wait. What is it?"
She sat down. "Our friend Jez."
He let his head fall back onto the pillow and closed his eyes. "Ah, yes. The voices in her head must be hilarious."
Suicide took a deep breath. "A Gelt admiral showed me some compelling evidence that she murdered the previous Sovereign of the Realm."
His eyes snapped open. "Oh? The President's own chief of staff?"
"You can imagine why passing this to the proper authorities might simply bury it."
"One question. Why you? Why would a Gelt admiral risk provoking Metis taking this place and Amargosa back into the Compact when they're at war with it?"
"You."
He sat up. And winced.
"Lay down." She grabbed his hand. "For starters, you and Tishla do a very lousy job of hiding your attraction. And she is First Citizen of Hanar."
He dropped back onto his bed. "Then talk to her. Or her chancellor."
"You have something Tishla doesn't."
JT's eyes widened. He sat back up more slowly. "No, not that. Please don't ask me."
"JT, people are still dying out there. Both species. Maybe more. Now's not the time for you to continue your petty squabble with your mother."
He pressed his lips thin. "It's not that simple. She's not accepting my messages, either."
Suicide had known Tessa Dasarius in a previous life. The woman embraced rejuvenation and treated each trip to the clinic as a new coming out. But Tessa had also been a shrewd and fair businesswoman, one who infuriated some investors by squelching ethically questionable projects regardless of the profits to be made. Former employees, even those terminated for cause, found the protection of Tessa Dasarius following them long after they had left the company.
She also could be an absolute tyrant, Suicide had seen over the last three years, when it came to her children. "Are you sure?"
"She returned one. It was a long screed about how ungrateful I am, how I'm throwing away my future on Amargosa, that I'm lazy, undisciplined."
"She's half-right." When JT glared at her, she added, "You are undisciplined. But not lazy. I don't think you've been lazy since John Parker made you his bot wrangler." She stood. "Do you still communicate with Tol Germanicus?"
JT shook his head. "Ever since he got married… Only took him five hundred years. Ever since then, he and his wife have been on something of a sabbatical. He shows up for board meetings, but he's delegated most of what he used to do for Dasarius."
"So, you haven't heard from either of them?"
"My mother? No. I get a postcard from Uncle Tol." He frowned. "How's Jayne?"
"Medically induced coma," said Suicide. "They don't have the facilities here to undo what Juno did to her."
"Who does?"
"Thule."
JT's look said everything Suicide thought about that. Thule was cut off from the galaxy. Thule's only presence in human space lay in its hidden diaspora, the only visible portion on Amargosa. An entire population of humans lay above the galactic plane near an isolated star with no way to reach it. "I suppose taking her back to the enclave on Amargosa won't cut it."
"It might. But she'd still be a target. Remember, Juno fired two needles at the planet trying to frame the Compact and the Realm. Who's to say they won't try again?" She stood. "I'm going to have to call back to Amargosa. This is way above our pay grade."
"Ya think?"
"I'm going to kill you for this." John Farno stood at the airlock in a stiff-looking suit. He kept tugging at his collar. Mitsuko Yamato's Sapper team had donned their dress blacks to act as an honor guard. "I'm a glorified terraforming project manager, not governor of a world."
Suicide kept her face neutral. She, too, had dressed formally, wearing an ill-fitting Compact Navy uniform someone had. Her mission did not include summoning the Jovann sisters from Amargosa and Metis, so she did not pack her own dress uniforms. JT's inability to contact his mother gave her no choice. Worse, the uniform had a skirt. Suicide never wore skirts in the service. She told her father they made her feel like a whore.
He reminded her she had worn a dress quite often when Akrad still lived.
"That was different," she said and did not elaborate. She might have become the fierce warrior of the sky Cui Jiao-long wanted her to be, but she still was his little girl.
"How do you think I feel?" she said. "If Austin could have lured his mother or Tol Germanicus here, I could get by with wearing a flight suit."
"Uh-huh." Farno jerked a thumb at his wife. "At least that one can change her clothes just by thinking about it."
Persephone looked over at both of them and grinned. As she did, her flowing white gown transformed into a smart black business suit with a pencil skirt and a tasteful pair of heels. "Ugh. How do women walk in these things? I'm going to have to derez just to get rid of the back pain."
And that was why Suicide hated uniforms with skirts. When a holographic woman complained about heels, it proved their uselessness even for official functions.
A recorded version of the Metisian planetary anthem sounded, probably coming from Persephone herself. Mitsuko and her honor guard snapped to attention. Suicide assumed parade stance.
The airlock opened. Douglas Best emerged, Athena Jovann pushing his wheelchair. Behind her, a woman who could almost be Jovann's twin, stepped out. This one Suicide knew to be June Jovann, the oldest of the Jovann sisters and Chancelloress of Metis. While Mitsuko's people stood at attention, Suicide noticed John Farno did not. Technically, Farno governed Farigha, but the man showed absolutely no desire to be anything but a terraforming director. And even that, Suicide thought, came reluctantly.
"Director Farno," said June Jovann.
"Chancelloress." Farno's voice came out weak. It drew an annoyed look from Persephone.
"This is Governor Best of Amargosa." She indicated Best in his wheelchair. "And Governor-General Athena Jovann, Metis's representative on the planet."
"Just curious," said Farno, "why don't we have a Metisian representative?"
"Are you doing much beyond terraforming?"
"Not really, other than building a communications hypergate for real-time interstellar broadcasting."
"Then you don't need us interfering in your business," said Athena. She looked at Suicide. "Commander Cui, nice to see you again. You clean up well."
"Governor-General." Suicide nodded to Best. "Governor."
"Ladies and gentlemen," said Best. "I kn
ow we have urgent business, but I'd like to see my wife."
Persephone pressed her lips thin. "She is in stasis, Governor. It was the only way to stabilize her vitals."
"Understood," said Best. "But I see my wife so seldom these days because of our work." He looked to Suicide. "Does our friend have my daughters?"
Suicide kept her face neutral. "Safe and sound, Governor. They'll come home whenever you give the word."
"Let's see what this Gelt admiral has to say first. Sounds like they're tired of the war."
"I know I am," said Farno. "I was here when it started."
The holo had been left behind by Admiral Shorees, one of several. Suicide sat with Persephone and Farno as Best and the Jovann sisters watched. They had already witnessed Jez Salamacis presenting the heart of the last Named Sovereign to the new Sovereign. Shorees had also left a video report of Realm enforcers trying to determine where she had gone afterward. Persephone translated the enforcers' words for them and paused when she came to "incendiary nanites." The final holo, however, drove home what Salamacis had planned.
The final holo came from the Sovereign's Residence, which Shorees said remained quarantined. Workers in isolation suits swarmed a room that one of them announced was the Sovereign's personal quarters. On the floor, several piles of clothes lay, black goo pooling around them.
Suicide recognized that substance. "She sent them the bio-toxin."
"Bio-toxin?" asked June.
"The same one Kray wanted to use on the Gelt on Amargosa," Athena explained. "Gelt leaders, at least until the invasion, keep a suicide capsule embedded in a false tooth. If captured by an enemy, they crush it. A bacteria swarms their body and decomposes them in minutes. The warlord Lucius Kray managed to synthesize it and put it into bullets. Does not harm humans."
"One reason the remaining Gelt settlers are so cooperative," Suicide added, "is that we Section 11'd Kray for it."
"You shot him?" asked June.
"We let sapient lycanths devour him. Alive."
June Jovann bristled.
Suicide shrugged. "Time of war. And they had as much of a grievance against Kray as the rest of us. The question is how could a Gelt heart be swarming with a toxin that destroys their flesh on contact? What is that anyway?"
"I've heard of flesh-eating bacteria on several worlds," said Best. "But those infections usually take hours to create a wound and respond to nano-biotics or antibiotics. Even a mersa-type version only attacks a small section of skin."
Persephone stared off into space, which Suicide knew meant the actual AI Persephone had just loaded a huge amount of data into her avatar. "According to the briefing Shorees gave us, the toxin came from a world where it filled a niche. Apparently, this planet has a lot of organic matter lying around. This species of bacteria breaks down dead biomass quickly to fertilize the ecosystem. About six hundred years ago, the Gelt's homeworld had its last global war. Nuclear weapons had become taboo by that point, but chemical and biological weapons had not. Someone weaponized this pathogen and unleashed an earlier mutation around the same time a chemical weapon went out of control. The chemical kept the toxin in check so that, after six hundred years, the heart Salamacis obtained had been perfectly preserved."
"But it would kill any Gelt who touched it," said Farno.
Both Jovann sisters shivered.
"So, Jez Salamacis," said June, "representing the entire Compact, delivers that heart to the one woman who can end the war from the Realm's side. With President ibn-Aziz more than willing to commit the Compact to peace as well."
"Then that bitch swallows some sort of suicide capsule." Athena paused when she seemed to realize her double entendre. She shrugged at Suicide. "But yet she's Acting President Leitman's chief of staff."
"And," said Farno, "tooling around the Compact with its newest capital ship barking orders at people like she's Leitman herself."
"How does one do that if they've self-destructed?"
"Clone."
All eyes went to Suicide.
"She uses clones," she continued. "I know. I destroyed one on Walton."
"How?" asked June. "A clone is simply a person whose genetic material is directly sourced from another person. Biologically, they're an exact copy of the donor, but fundamentally a clone is its own person."
"You have read John Farno's logs," said Persephone. "Correct? You know my true nature?"
Everyone nodded but looked a bit stunned to hear it finally said.
"The fact is," she continued, "I could easily download to some AI-capable construct indistinguishable from a human, but not a human body itself. I'm based on an actual human, which is how I can claim to be one, but I've never had an organic body. Jez Salamacis has."
Athena's eyes went wide. "Are you telling me Jez Salamacis is an AI?"
"AI is involved, most likely for storage. What I'm saying is that Juno has mastered—or more likely stolen—resurrection technology." She looked around the room. "Uploading to an AI containment has been around since the World War Era. What do you think Steven Turing was?"
Farno did not react to this. It was likely a conversation they had already rehashed multiple times. The Jovanns and Best, though, paled at the mention of the AI who nearly destroyed the human race on Earth.
"Downloading a human mind back into an organic body?" Persephone continued. "To my knowledge, no one has ever done it. It means they would need an exact replica of their original body. The reason I cannot be downloaded into, say, one of you, aside from the fact that your minds are still in your brains, is that I wouldn't be able to handle all the myriad of connections throughout your bodies that you take for granted. A construct would have its own operating system to handle that. But a human body? A clone would reduce that problem to manageable levels."
June looked thoughtful, then frowned. Then she scowled. "So, we are dealing with someone for whom death is merely an escape route."
"She'd have to be making backups somehow," said Suicide. "She obviously isn't counting on an implant to contain her mind if she incinerated her own body to discard evidence of murder."
"Who would have such technology?" asked Athena.
"Dasarius," said Best. "Only corporate or even state entity big enough to fund that kind of research. But…"
"Dasarius owned JunoCorp and dismantled it," said Suicide.
"And our brave, reluctant acting President claims to have been an unwitting dupe of that company," said June. "I've heard enough." She looked to Athena. "I'm going before Parliament and requesting that we submit a formal refusal to sign the revised Compact. Then I'm going to recall every Metisian official we have on Earth." To Best, she said, "I can't force you to come along, Douglas. I know your people's situation differs from ours."
Best pressed his lips thin. "If you can stand having a bunch of stranded Gelt settlers and a population of werewolf-like beings as Citizens, I can probably sell them on joining with you. As it is, I don't think there's much love left for the Compact on Amargosa."
Suicide slid her poker face into place. She never expected Amargosa to return to the Compact fold, especially if it meant Mars once again became its parent world. But now she had to decide if she were a Citizen of Amargosa (or Metis if it remained joined with her) or the Compact.
And what would JT decide, given that his Naval Academy appointment remained pending?
"Get a room, you two." Mitsuko Yamato, now in the utilitarian civilian garb most Farigans dressed in, leaned against the transparent wall of a dome.
Suicide walked up the corridor supporting JT. He did not need a cane, but he still wobbled occasionally. "Aren't you supposed to be gone by now?"
Mitsuko shrugged. "Who's going to call me out? My uncle? The Duke of Windsor?"
Suicide's eyes went to the ring on Mitsuko's finger, a Bonapartan house ring sporting the lion's head of the House of Windsor. "Does the Duke know you're abusing your betrothal to him?"
"What makes you think he's not in on this?" She took out her dagg
er and started cleaning her nails with it. "My uncle, on the other hand…"
"Must be nice," said JT. "God, my side hurts."
Persephone appeared. Suicide wondered if she had walked around the next turn or simply appeared there while they weren't looking. "Commander Cui, we need you in orbit."
Suicide looked at JT. "Are you up to flying?"
He grinned. "Flying is done sitting down. Had plenty of practice at that for the last week."
Persephone waved her hands at them. "No, you don't understand. We need you aboard the Bova. We need you to brief the captain on everything you've done up until now. Then you need to accompany Jayne Best to where she will get some care."
"On Jefivah?"
Persephone smiled. "No. Thule."
The Bova was a monster of a ship. Suicide wondered how Metis, not one of the Compact's "Big Five" worlds when the Compact was one big happy, could afford to build that and the Minerva in the three years since hostilities began with the Gelt.
The Realm, she corrected herself. The Compact is at war with the Realm, not the Gelt.
The Bova's CNC reminded Suicide of the Hancock, the venerable carrier she had served aboard during the Polygamy Wars. The compartment stretched the entire width of the ship with enough consoles for it to resemble a traffic control center. Suicide had left JT in rather comfortable guest quarters before answering the summons to the CNC. Now she stood taking in the buzz of activity.
One other thing struck her. No Compact symbols or signage adorned the CNC or anything else on the ship. Instead of the sunburst that graced all Compact military vessels, a silhouette of a woman looking to the sky and holding up a triumphant fist graced the bulkheads and viewscreens of the Bova.
Also missing were the blue and black uniforms of the Navy. Suicide wore a Compact flight suit and had since leaving Amargosa, but something had changed. This crew dressed in dark green, a color suggesting a core world's planetary guard. But if the uniforms struck Suicide as off, the crew's compliment screamed Metis's official succession.