The 13: Mission's End Book One

by M. M. Perry

  Naomi felt a lump in her throat, but kept quiet. As much as she wanted to find out about Carrie, all the bodies in the military unit made her realize it might be a lost cause. Whatever had happened on the Tereshkova, it had been devastating.

  “I’d like to take this route,” Mike traced on the map.

  Naomi watched his finger and nodded as he went through it.

  “I think that looks the most efficient.”

  “Slowly then, but with purpose. Keep an eye out for tripwires. Let’s move.”

  Mike signaled Chef to take point. He and Naomi followed close behind with Book right behind them. As they crossed the large intersection of major hallways connecting two leisure complexes, noises erupted from their right. They split, racing to either side of the intersection as lights danced around the hallway. Chef, Mike and Naomi were on one side of the hall, while the rest were on the other. The lights came closer and Naomi could make out voices.

  Mike tapped his radio and spoke softly.

  “Stay out of sight for now.”

  “Roger that,” Naomi heard Book’s voice reply in her ear.

  “We won’t be getting incubation back up for a while. Even if we did do it now, they’d simply shut it down on us again,” a woman with a clipped voice said.

  “They’d destroy another batch?” asked a man.

  Naomi thought she recognized the voice from somewhere, but she couldn’t place it. She had no reason to recognize any voice other than Carrie’s on the Tereshkova. She wondered how she could possibly have recognized anyone else. The male voice from down the hallway made her cringe and she couldn’t figure out why.

  “They aren’t destroying them. They’re leaving them in stasis. The computer can’t proceed with the incubation until the power’s stabilized. It’s got the embryos locked in cryo until it determines that it’s safe to release them. That won’t happen until you take back the core. I thought you had men inside there?”

  “They haven’t contacted me. It’s possible they’re dead. If you’d only let us vent the core…”

  Again, Naomi felt an uneasy familiarity with the voice. As her eyes travelled across the hallway to where the other half of the team was hiding, they met Casing’s. The look on his face as he caught her glance was terrifying. In that moment, she knew why the unknown male voice sounded familiar. It was a dead ringer for Casing’s.

  “We can’t do that. Some of those people have expertise that we’ll need to recover,” the female voice interrupted.

  “They won’t help us anyway. They’re mad. They’ll never come back and work without constant threat of…”

  “And that’s what your soldiers are supposed to do. A firm hand. Remember your training. Keep them in line with a firm hand. If half of you hadn’t run off into the arms of the civilians, if you’d kept better control of your own…”

  The man angrily interrupted.

  “It wasn’t half. Two dozen soldiers turned, no more. They ambushed us during lights out. And it would never have happened if you weren’t squeezing so hard for that damned conformity. The entire ship, every civvy, turned on you. If you hadn’t listened to the fucking Magellan, trying to use their fucking techniques…”

  “It worked for them for more than a hundred years. We needed something. The conformity was…”

  “Fuck the conformity! And fuck the Magellan! We had things in hand here. You don’t give a shit about the conformity any more than the Magellan did. You just wanted to control the people with your big brain instead of having to rely on us. Your big brain didn’t see this coming, did it, genius? The Magellan sabotaged us and you didn’t even see it coming! Let me send my men down to the shuttle bay to make sure they don’t finish us off!”

  “No! That’s what the civilian force is hoping for. Do you know how easy it would be for them to vent the shuttle bay? You’d all be spaced. Now listen to me, dammit. They don’t call us geniuses for nothing! You’re correct. We thought we could convince them using the Magellan’s techniques. We should have been using a firm hand all along. More examples of what would happen to anyone out of line. We learned that lesson far too late, but now we’ll correct our course. And you’ll remember who you report to. You will remember who’s gotten us to the brink of Mission’s End.”

  The man didn’t respond right away.

  “Fine. What’s your plan?”

  “You may be right that they sabotaged us, but not how you think. Someone was sowing seeds of discontent to one of our more susceptible civilians. I’ve gone over his memory logs. There was talk of revolution and revolt. I don’t know how they managed to contact the ship without being logged, but the civilian was passing messages to someone. I’ve reason to believe it was someone on the Magellan. If so, it means this all started with them.

  “But right now our main concern is the force on our own ship. The shuttle bay is under their control right now. First we take it back. Then we’ll deal with the Magellan.”

  Naomi instinctively took Mike’s hand in her own, searching for reassurance. She felt his strong hand curl around her own comfortingly. She had no idea how they’d make it through to where they needed to go, now that it was clear they’d get no help from the military on the Tereshkova. It was also possible the civilians would consider them hostile.

  “Sir,” a man called from further down the hall, “we’ve got encroachment into the forward engineering areas. We think they’re trying to get to the power modules there.”

  The angry man that had been shouting called back.

  “Station a squadron here. We’ll keep this area cleared so they can’t move in on us any further.”

  Mike peered around the corner for a second, then pulled back. He touched his mic again.

  “We’re not gonna get across this hall to regroup. We’ll need to go down a floor or two. Take it slow. Don’t get into trouble. Two floors down, we can meet in Medical S. Use the map, avoid trouble spots. It should be quiet there, away from the pissing competition going on up here. Trigger, you lead. Radio if you run into trouble.”

  “Roger that,” Trigger’s voice came through the speaker in Naomi’s ear.

  “Alright, comrades, let’s get moving.”

  Naomi remained close by Mike’s side taking quick, soft steps to keep up with him. Chef was scouting ahead of them, looking for traps and hostiles. She waved them forward as she approached the starboard medical unit. Chef tried to get the door open but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Here, power cell,” Naomi said, handing a small white unit to Chef.

  Chef took the unit, lifted the hatch under a panel near the door and plugged it in. The panel lit up and the door opened. The group hurried inside, Chef grabbing the power cell on her way in causing the door to close behind them.

  Mike switched his radio on.

  “Trigger, how’s it coming?”

  Trigger’s voice came through, low and whispery.

  “We got a little waylaid, sir. They’re moving some large equipment up a floor. Not sure what it is, but at the rate they’re going, we’re backed into a leisure unit until they’re finished. Probably a couple hours at least. We could try a re-route, but that would put us close to the hull breach Tesla warned us about.”

  “No. Hold out there. Let me know if the situation changes. We’ll be waiting here for you. Out.”

  He shrugged.

  “I guess we sit tight here for a while.”

  Naomi looked around and noticed a workstation. She grabbed a power cell and plugged it in. Chef and Mike watched her with interest. She tapped at the screen for a few minutes until the panel near the door lit up and turned red. She tapped a few more times. A diagram of the area they were hiding in displayed on the station. Mike looked it over.

  “This is the hallway out here?”

  “Yes. We’ll see if anyone is coming our way,” Naomi said.

  “Won’t they see we’re using power here?”

  “Not if central power is down. Each critical tier unit, like medical, is d
esigned to function on its own if there is a catastrophic power outage. It has its own power cell. Units like Leisure also have power cells, but they’re clustered, so a single cell might power up ten units. There are more than a hundred all over the ship. Normally all the units would still be able to power up right now, even without the central core monitoring them. But someone has also shut down the individual power cells for the units. This is a very organized uprising. Every single one of these cells has been powered down manually.

  “During a catastrophic power outage, say your ship has multiple breaches to the hull, normally everything is designed to run from the central core, which is shielded better than anywhere else on the ship. If you shut down all the units manually, the core would try to take over. It starts a cascading reboot that locks everyone out for twenty-four hours. After the lock-out period has ended, Command can use their override codes to unlock it.

  “But, if you’re skilled enough, you could trick it into thinking there was a power drain somewhere. If you could manage that, it would allow you to turn off central power to assess and repair the damage, without triggering the cascading reboot that locks everyone out. There is a countdown before the cascading reboot. You need to be in the core to reset the countdown every sixty minutes, and not many people have access to the core. Someone has crippled the ship, but just enough to cause chaos. No one on board is in any real danger of dying from the outages. It’s… it’s pretty genius.”

  “Gennie,” Mike said.

  “I don’t know anyone who could trick the computer for longer than a day, and it looks like this has been going on for more than a week. Someone has figured out a way to get around the failsafe to control power throughout the ship. More importantly, they haven’t done it brutishly. Water reclamation, hydroponics, temperature controlled storage areas… they still have power despite central power reporting this massive drain to override the cascade. So,” she turned and looked at Mike, “yeah. I think a gennie did this.”

  Naomi fiddled with her radio.

  “Engineer Henry?”

  “Yeah,” Henry said brusquely over the radio.

  “I suggest you use a power cell to access the nearest workstation. You can lock out access to the door and monitor the hallway.”

  “What if they come to the door to check it and find they can’t enter?” Trigger asked over the line.

  “With everything down, they should just think it’s jammed. A lot of doors might be, in fact. It wouldn’t be odd. But in a leisure unit, if they did decide to check on you, other than the sleeping pods there’s nowhere to hide,” Naomi said.

  “Roger,” Trigger said.

  Naomi closed the connection and sat down on a chair.

  “He can do that, right?” Mike asked. “Henry I mean.”

  Naomi nodded.

  “He might not like me, but he’s a proficient engineer. Some of the projects he’s on are good work. His file, though. It’s been scrubbed of demerits. I’m almost sure of it. He’s likely to have other issues. Maybe uses shortcuts. I suspect he’ll be fine with this. He strikes me as the kind of person who likes to impress. He’d want the soldiers respect.”

  “You notice a lot of details,” Chef said, sitting across from her. “You’d be good at demolitions. Steady hands, detail oriented.”

  “Maybe our genetic makeup is similar,” Naomi said. “Only I’m better at looking at diagnostic screens and finding the thing that stands out, and you see wires and traps.”

  Chef stared at Naomi.

  “You have an odd way of looking at things. Anyone ever tell you that?”

  “No, I didn’t realize.”

  Mike sat down next to Naomi and eased out of his pack.

  “Chef’s spent less time with civilians than me. She’s not used to your viewpoint. You’re pretty much like the other ones I’ve met.”

  “Is that so,” Chef said, eyeing Mike with a smirk.

  Mike glowered at her.

  “I think I’m missing out on some fun,” Naomi said, smiling at what she figured was an inside joke.

  “Only a little bit of fun,” Chef said, taking her pack off as well. “You may be like the other civilians, but the boss here has only ever been comfortable with you.”

  “Sissy,” Mike said warningly.

  “Comfortable?” Naomi looked between Chef and Mike, “oh, you mean take comfort. Yes, I suspect you mainly look to other soldiers for that. We’re obviously raised differently. Since we’re on that subject, I should declare. The situation we’re in, there might not be a better time for it.”

  “Declare?” Mike asked, taking a drink of water. “You mentioned that before. What is that? We weren’t briefed on that, and civilian jargon still throws me for a loop sometimes.”

  “Uh, yes, maybe you don’t do that either. I must admit, it’s a little unsettling how different you are with this. I don’t want to accidentally impose or cause discomfort.”

  “What is declaring?” Chef asked, leaning back in her chair.

  “Oh, okay. I tell you what sex brings me comfort. That way you know whose needs are compatible with your own. I’ll start. This is kind of fun. I feel a little like a teacher. Ahem. I prefer men, but I have dabbled with women. It’s not my preference. I don’t seek it out, but if it’s a close companion, I’m receptive. Now, you, Chef.”

  Chef blushed bright red. Mike covered his mouth to stifle a laugh.

  “Uh,” Chef said.

  She looked at Naomi and could see nothing but honest openness there. She felt both frightened and drawn in at the same time.

  “I prefer men. I’ve never dabbled, as you put it.”

  Naomi smiled broadly at her.

  “Okay. Mike?”

  Mike spit his water out. Chef leaned forward, laughing.

  “Come on, boss. It isn’t that hard once you do it. It’s actually a bit freeing.”

  “Fine,” Mike gave in, “I prefer women. I have never dabbled.”

  “Great,” Naomi said. “Chef and I will just have to share then.”

  Chef snorted.

  “What?” Mike coughed.

  “Well,” Naomi said looking from one to the other, “only if you wanted to receive comfort. Comfort goes both ways.”

  “We’re in an enemy ship, Patches. You do get that, don’t you?”

  Naomi smiled.

  “Oh sure, we aren’t going to jump into a pod in the middle of a firefight. Obviously, the timing would have to be prudent.”

  “Obviously,” Chef said, sharing a smile with Mike.

  “Like now for instance. We’re safe for the moment. If they came down the hall and right to the door, we’d have some problems, yeah. But, if you’re going to get spaced, might as well have had a memory of some pod time to keep you company out in the vacuum.”

  Naomi was digging through her pack looking for a snack, so she didn’t see the amused looks on Chef and Mike’s faces. She fished out an energy bar and opened it up, offering some to her companions before she took a bite. Both Chef and Mike declined.

  “You know, Patches, I prefer my comfort a little more specific. Don’t worry about me. Mike’s all yours.”

  Mike kicked Chef’s boot while Naomi wasn’t looking.

  “Oh, I keep forgetting you can do that.”

  Naomi held her energy bar in her hand as something flitted across her face, the corner of her mouth turning down for a second. Chef sat up.

  “Patches?” she said with some concern.

  “Hmm,” Naomi replied lost in thought, “Oh, um, I’m just going to update Alphea. Then if you don’t mind, I’ll rest in one of the sleeping pods here. I’m tired all of a sudden.”

  Chef watched as Naomi crawled into one of the sleeping pods on the wall and closed the door.

  “Now I feel bad,” she said quietly.

  Mike just looked at the closed pod door and said nothing.

  “You were right, boss. There’s something weirdly innocent about all that. The way she talks about sex. There’s no s
tigma whatsoever. For her it’s like giving a friend a hug. I’m sorry I questioned your integrity.”

  Mike turned his attention to Chef.

  “Yeah, it’s… it’s something else, isn’t it?”

  “You know,” Chef said thinking out loud, “it’s pretty shitty, all the brain cutting and control they have on them. But that other part, that doesn’t seem all that bad now, does it?”

  Mike smiled while he fished in his own pack for some water. Chef closed her eyes and leaned back to rest. Her brow scrunched up as a thought occurred to her.

  “That guy in the hallway. He sound like Casings to you?”

  Mike put his water back in his pack.

  “You thought so, too? It was uncanny.”

  “If he hadn’t been scowling at us from across the hall, I’d have sworn it was him.”

  Mike stretched his legs out in front of him.

  “Maybe it’s his long-lost twin.”

  “Oh, what fun. Two of him.”

  As Naomi felt the pod’s air intake kick in, she relished the gentle silence that enveloped her. She wasn’t used to laying in a pod clothed, but she knew it would be bad if she was caught unprepared and they needed to move quickly. She fiddled with her radio and got Alphea on the line.

  “Alphea?”

  “I’m here. How’s it going? I haven’t heard from you in a while.”

  Naomi updated Alphea on everything she’d seen so far, trying her best to give details she felt were pertinent. When she was done she felt relieved.

  “Naomi,” Alphea said, the tone of her voice very different, almost excited. “Naomi, you need to be careful. You might think you see someone you know, but…” she faltered.

  Naomi waited for Alphea to finish.