by M. D. Cooper
“All the while, creating work and housing, as well as showing that Thebes is a place for top minds to congregate and build a future for themselves,” Tangel added.
“I’m still stuck on a ring,” Governor Herra said in disbelief. “A few weeks ago, I thought we were going to be saluting Emperor Constantine before long, but now we’re going to be the jewel of Praesepe inside of a decade.”
“Always spinning things for the PR value,” General Andre muttered while shaking his head. “I hate to say it, but where are we going to get the resources to rebuild? Shipyards building a fleet, and now a ring. We don’t have the facilities to gather that much raw material, let alone refine it.”
Tangel expanded the holo above the table and widened its scope to include the entire Praesepe Cluster. “The stars inside the cluster are bursting with resources. Hundreds of rare-element asteroids, dust, and even moons that are just waiting to be harvested.”
“Only one problem…” Admiral Kally began, then paused. “Shit…your jump gates. You can get into the cluster and pull out resources in no time.”
Tangel nodded. “That’s our plan. Although…”
“The Inner Empire is insular,” Kendrik finished for Tangel. “They’re not going to be terribly excited about visitors showing up on their doorstep.”
“Which is where you come in, Kendrik—well, the other place you come in.”
Kendrik lifted his hands. “Oh, no. I don’t think I’m welcome in the Inner Empire. I left a loooong time ago; I doubt I have any useful contacts there.”
“Kendrik.” Herra’s tone was flat. “You’re the sitting president’s brother.”
“As of sixty years ago,” Kendrick shot back. “That’s the age of our latest information from that deep in the cluster. Not exactly current news.”
“Our mission into the cluster would go a lot better if we had someone who knew the lay of the land,” Tangel said, watching the battle taking place in Kendrik’s eyes and on the surface of his mind.
Kendrik sliced his hand through the air. “I left the Inner Praesepe Empire, not to mention my family’s machinations, over a hundred fifty years ago. I have no desire to go back.”
“I understand,” Tangel said after everyone at the table remained silent. “We’ll do our best without you. It won’t be our first time jumping into unknown territory. There’s plenty to do here as well.” Her gaze swept around those assembled. “That is…provided you’re all in. We’re not doing this unless you four support it.”
“I’m in,” Governor Herra said solemnly. “This will honor President Ariana’s sacrifice.”
“Myself as well.” Admiral Kally gave a resolute nod. “Thebans for Thebes.”
General Andre rolled his shoulders and sighed. “Doesn’t matter to me, we’re fighting the same fight no matter the flag. If resurrecting the Theban Alliance will help, then I’m in.”
All eyes turned to Kendrik.
“What?” he lifted his hands in mock surrender. “Yeah. Of course I’m in. Just not going back to the IPE.”
“Good.” Tangel focused the holodisplay back down to the five systems comprising the Theban Alliance. “Let’s get to business, then.”
HUNT FOR ORIS
STELLAR DATE: 08.31.8949 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: First Fleet CIC, I2
REGION: Pyra, Albany System, Thebes, Septhian Alliance
“So, any luck in hunting down Oris?” Tangel asked as she stepped into the I2’s CIC.
“Stars, I wish,” Captain Rachel replied from her place at the central holotank. “When we find that traitorous bitch, I’m going to hit her so hard, her toenails are going to fall off.”
“Ever the comedian, Angela,” Rachel said, as she flicked through the reports hanging to her right. “This system’s a total disaster. She could be anywhere—or she could be dead, and her body could be anywhere…or blasted to atoms. I don’t think she would have fled, though, until we came in and crushed the Niets’ little party, she would have been the hero of the day.”
“She’ll have direct intel on Nietzschea that we can use,” Colonel Borden said from the other side of the holotable. “Even though General Mill of the Marauders had extensive files on the Niets, Oris can provide a deeper level of strategic information.”
“I feel like an idiot for letting her dupe me,” Tangel shook her head. “I mean, I knew she was playing at something, but I suspected it had more to do with career advancement than mass betrayal of her own people to the Niets.”
Rachel switched the holotank to a view of the hundred light years surrounding Thebes, and gestured at the strategic targets highlighted inside the Nietzschean borders. “Well, even if we don’t find her, we have enough intel to begin operations in Nietzschea. Especially now that we have the Marauders. If Rika and her people agree to go with Finaeus’s upgrades, they’re going to be well-nigh unstoppable.”
Tangel stared at the holo, considering various strategies against the Nietzscheans. “I won’t send them on a suicide mission.”
“You sound like you have a plan.” Rachel left the last word hanging, and Tangel nodded in response.
“See these four systems?” she asked while highlighting a quartet of independent systems between Thebes and Nietzschea. “Chances are that the Niets who got away will regroup in one before heading back across their borders. My money is on the Sepe System, but it could be another—or all. Jump scout ships ahead of them with QuanComm blades. We’ll find out where they’ve gone and send in a strike force to finish them off.”
“Looking to deny the Nietzschean emperor any intel from the battle here?” Colonel Borden asked.
“That’s secondary,” Tangel replied. “I want him to know that we completely crushed him. Civilian sources will get him the other details before long.”
“Sorry,” Tangel said to Rachel and Borden. “I have to go see Katrina.”
“Say ‘hi’ for me,” Rachel said. “I didn’t know her too well back at Victoria, but she was an impressive role model.”
“For myself, as well,” Borden said solemnly. “Katrina was an inspiration.”
“I’ll relay that,” Tangel said, not sharing her uncertainty about how the meeting might go. “Hopefully everything will turn out well, and she can retire on New Canaan—or take up a role with the allies. From what I gather, she has a lot of contacts in the Inner Stars, Transcend, and Orion.”
Rachel snorted. “Yeah, flying around for five hundred years seems to facilitate that.”
* * * * *
Tangel took an exterior maglev to Ol’ Sam, riding one of the I2’s gossamer arcs that brought the rail close to the cylinder before shooting the car through a port on the cylinder’s hull and then into the interior.
She reveled in the fact that the maglevs still relied on timing and not a-grav to effect the maneuver. If they were off by a second, the car would slam into the hull of the ship.
But they were never off. Bob saw to that.
The maglev car took her past hundreds of particle beam batteries as it passed through the cylinder’s skin and into the world beyond.
Funny to think that I’ve spent more of my life inside this cylinder than any one other place, Tangel thought. I wonder how much of my future will be spent here, as well.
She doubted it would be much longer.
Though Tangel had no intentions of leaving her family or her people any time soon, she
did have a feeling that she and the I2 may be seeing less of each other, once the war was behind them.
The maglev stopped at the platform, and Tangel stepped out, breathing in the fresh air. She pulled up the transit data and saw that Katrina was just a minute away.
May as well wait, she thought, amused that even though there was now just one person in her head, she still tried to have conversations with herself. Maybe I need an AI.
The thought elicited a chuckle from Tangel, as she watched the maglev carrying Katrina slide to a stop.
Two ISF Marines were first out, both nodding to Tangel before they gestured for their passenger to exit. A moment later, Katrina walked out of the maglev, followed by two more Marines.
Tangel felt her heart rate quicken, seeing her old friend after so long. Granted, for Tanis, it had been fewer than twenty-five years since she’d laid eyes on Katrina. For the other woman, it had been much longer.
Katrina’s hands were bound in front of her, wrists clamped to forearms, hands gripping elbows. A suppression collar was also around her neck, not controlling her, but blocking any Link access, and keeping her nano within her skin.
While the woman’s expression seemed implacable, Tangel could tell there was a simmering rage beneath it. Some of it would be born from her treatment, but there was something else.
“I’ve missed you, Katrina,” Tangel said, her voice quiet and measured. “Joe related your story to me. I’m truly sorry for what you’ve been through.”
“But not sorry enough to grant me any measure of freedom.” Katrina’s voice had a hard edge, a coldness to it that drove home the centuries of struggle she’d been through.
“You may go,” Tangel said to the Marines. “I have no need of your protection from Katrina. Remove her restraints first, though.”
Katrina’s expression softened a touch, as she lifted her arms for one of the Marines to free her. “I’m glad you feel that way, Tanis. After how Joe and your daughters treated me, I wasn’t sure what sort of welcome I’d receive.”
Though the Marines had followed Tanis’s commands, they seemed reluctant to leave their leader alone with Katrina. They didn’t question her orders, but she could see the worry in their eyes.
Katrina stretched her arms out, and then ran a hand along her neck. “You have no idea how much I hate wearing collars, Tanis.”
Tangel cocked an eyebrow. “I have some idea. Troy gave an account of what you went through in Midditerra.”
“I never told Troy the half of it,” Katrina said, her eyes lowered. “Trust me. It was a lot worse.”
Tangel took a step toward Katrina, her eyes locked on the other woman’s. She held out her hand and smiled. “The universe seems to have it in for us.”
Katrina stared at the offered hand for a minute, then her eyes rose to lock on Tangel’s.
“You trust me this much?” she asked. “What if I use my nano to attack you?”
“Why would you attack me?” Tangel asked with a warm smile. “We’re friends.”
“Didn’t Joe tell you? About Xavia? She believes you have to die to save humanity.”
Tangel nodded, still holding out her hand. “He did. He acted protectively, which—given how things have gone with ascended AIs of late—was a very understandable tactic on his part, but it’s not my reaction.”
“But you’re not worried?” Katrina asked, still not taking Tangel’s hand.
“No,” Tangel answered, taking a step forward and clasping Katrina’s right hand in both of hers. “Do you still feel compelled to harm me? Does Xavia still have influence over you?”
Katrina’s eyes fell once more, and she stared at her hand, resting between Tangel’s. Her breathing became ragged, as though she were on the verge of losing control.
“How would I know, Tanis? I’ve just recently learned that over the last five centuries, I’ve possibly been under the control of another being. I traded my captors on Midditerra for another master, and never even realized it.”
“Maybe it was a crucible you needed to go through, and a punishment you needed to receive,” Tangel replied.
“Shit, Tanis, that’s harsh.”
Tangel shrugged. “You know me. I call ‘em like I see ‘em.”
“Yeah, I do remember that about you.”
“Come,” Tangel said. “Let’s go for a walk.”
She continued to hold Katrina’s hand. Not because she thought the other woman would run off, but because under her brusque exterior—such as it was—the older woman seemed so frail and uncertain.
Tangel turned off the well-trodden path and took the same route she’d used with Rika just the other day. They walked in silence for a few minutes before Katrina spoke up.
“Does it bother you?”
It wasn’t necessary for Katrina to say what she thought should bother Tangel, she could see the direction of the other woman’s thoughts on the surface of her mind. “That the AIs shaped me so much? No, it does not. Does it bother you that they did it to you too?”
Katrina barked a laugh. “Hell yes! They moved all of us around like we were pawns! They made you. First the Caretaker in Sol, and then Bob out in the darkness between Estrella de la Muerte and Kapteyn’s Star.”
“Well,” Tangel said with a rueful laugh. “To be fair, Bob mucked around in my head a bit even before that.”
“See?” Katrina turned to gaze into Tangel’s eyes. “How can you be so blasé about all this?”
“Well,” Tangel held up her other hand, one finger in the air. “For starters, Bob’s intervention saved my and Angela’s lives. And secondly,” she lifted another finger, “everything he has done has been to keep our people safe.”
“And you believe him?”
“Here are the options, Katrina. There are ascended AIs who wish to wipe out humanity—I’ve no direct evidence of them, but I imagine they’re out there. There are some who wish to keep humanity—and most other AIs, for that matter—suppressed. That group consists of the Caretaker and his ilk. There are others, like your Xavia, who seem to want to help humanity, but very much on their terms. I lump them in the same category as Airtha. There’s also a fourth category of AIs. The ones who want humanity to reach its full potential, but at its own speed. Bob is one of those AIs.”
“Are you sure about that?” Katrina pressed. “Bob manipulated you.”
“Yes,” Tangel nodded. “A bit. He and I have had a chat about that, and I’ve forgiven him.”
“Is he still shaping you?”
Tangel laughed. “You’re just full of questions, Katrina. No, Bob is no longer shaping me. He’s never really been able to do it, anyway.”
“I think you’re wrong about Xavia, by the way. I think she’s like Bob; she just has a different way of going about things.”
“Perhaps,” Tangel shrugged. “I’ll ask her if I ever see her.”
Katrina’s eyes widened. “She’ll kill you. She thinks you’re the pawn of the Caretaker—whether you want to be or not.”
Tangel allowed a filament of her other self, the body beyond the narrow dimensions Katrina could see, to move out of her hand. Visually, it appeared to be a twisting helix of light, reaching into the air. “I’ll be ready for her.”
“Nooooo…” Katrina whispered. “You’ve ascended.”
Tangel nodded. “I have, though I’d appreciate it if you kept that to yourself. Not everyone is ready for this information.”
“And I am? What if I’m an agent of your enemies? Have you forgotten that whole bit where I was sent to kill you?”
Tanis released Katrina’s hand and took a step away. “Do you feel compelled to kill me?”
Katrina snorted. “Well, I doubt I could manage. You’d just disappear or something.”
“I’m not that sort of ascended person.” Tanis shook her head. “I very much need this body to remain alive.”
“I have no weapon.”
Tanis pulled her lightwand from her thigh and handed it to Katrina. “Do you want to kill me?”
Katrina took the lightwand. “Stars, been awhile since I’ve held one of these. And, no…I don’t seem to have any homicidal instincts right now. But who’s to say that I won’t later? There could be a trigger inside me, waiting for the right time.”
Katrina activated the lightwand and held it in front of herself, her voice nearly a whisper as she said, “Maybe it would be best if I just removed myself from the equation.”
Tangel’s lips pursed as she regarded her old friend, a woman she’d spent decades with, striving to make a colony out of barren rock and dust at Kapteyn’s Star.
“You don’t really want that, do you? After all this time, just to fall on your sword?”
Katrina turned off the lightwand. “Well, technically it’s your sword.”
“Do you feel like you can be trusted?” Tangel asked as she took the lightwand back.
A long sigh escaped Katrina’s lips. “Honestly, I really don’t know. If I’m not going to end myself, maybe we’d all be better off if I just went away.”
“I could reach into your mind and be sure,” Tangel said quietly. “But I don’t need the assurance. You do, and I don’t know that you’d accept my word.”
Katrina’s eyebrows knit together. “Yeah, I don’t think I need more beings rooting around inside my head, telling me that I’m ‘OK’—no offense, Tanis.”