by Kelly Brewer
Fumbling his cane around, he stood, wincing and wobbly. He glanced around to see if anyone noticed. Nobody gave a shit. He stepped out into the New York rain, numb and dumb. He was a long way from his Kentucky home.
How could he fail? The visitorz were already helping him.
CHAPTER 54
Wedding Shower
Jupiter was Mercy’s world. She was back on board the very ship where she had been born in 2472 AD. Sylvia had arranged a bridal shower the day before the Cosmic’s Jupiter show. But after the shooting, the party had been postponed to the day after the show. The band left in a hurry, so Mercy told Kyle she would jump catch-up after.
“Love you, hurry back to me!”
There were so many ways to get in trouble in his business.
Sylvia had gathered Mercy’s two closest friends Demyna and Callisto, Aporue, her older only sister, and her Granny Kep-io to attend the intimate setting.
None of them had to travel far. Aporue was always on board her parents’ state vessel, looking after the family’s interests. She, too, was a virgin. The other two never left their born-ship. The four had grown up together aboard her father’s Ultra Class starship.
When Mercy entered the room, the four were already gossiping about men, about how most men lie and cheat, even after they get married. Untrustworthy and selfish beings they were.
Mercy was quiet. Blah blah blah, she had heard it her whole life. Her mother was so cynical. Sweet on the outside, mean in the middle. Her father was a good man. If he had any purported side action, at least he had never been caught, to her knowledge.
She was not really worried about Kyle’s intentions. He was a trustworthy man. She was worried about others’ intentions! There were millions of his fans that would do anything to be with him. She wondered where he was this very moment, and who was with him.
But her closest friends and family were with her now, surrounding her along with Sylvia and her spritely grandmother. Kep-io was Franco’s mother and of Moroccan descent. She listened quietly to the young ones’ discussions about male infidelity. Sylvia and Granny Kep-io exchanged a grim, secretive glance no one else noticed.
When the dark conversation switched to the wedding and bridesmaids’ dresses, Kep chimed in, making many helpful suggestions with a nostalgic smile on her youthful moon-shaped face.
Sylvia had arranged to have the party in the small, secluded alcove that Mercy had retreated to as a child. It was one of the few viewing cupolas at the back of the ship, a place where few ventured. Here, Mercy had dreamed of love. She had envisioned many beautiful space-scapes out those windows, longing to lie there with her imaginary lover.
A pretty pile of delicately wrapped gifts sat on the elegant table in the middle of the alcove. She was thankful for the mementoes, yet things did not much interest her. Certainly not as much as they interested her mom.
To Mercy, only love mattered. Love was her namesake. The gifts would become a bunch of stuff she couldn’t keep track of in the corner of her room. Jack-ie could deal with it all. That crazy, jetty, butler.bot had proven helpful at a key moment. Perhaps she should keep it around. It was always watching her though, waiting for the slightest command. She would tell Kyle to keep it on, even if she had told him to turn it off before.
He would be mad.
She would soon make it up to him.
CHAPTER 55
ROCKETING Deeper
Entrepreneurs and explorers were desperate for deeper runs into unchartered frozen planetary atmospheres. Capturing elemental resources from frigid planets was nominally achieved by dropping electromagnetic meshworks below mining ships like fishing nets into the frozen skies of cosmic bodies. The nets’ powerful capabilities produced limited yield, unfortunately. Better technology was the only limiting factor to grasping the mystic “apple.”
From inhospitable, remote outposts on the frontiers of the galaxy, data-hungry space junkies worked feverishly to jump shot deep-space probes from further and further out.
Probes built and launched from Neptune orbit, the most remote established system, beamed metadata back to Earth from miles beyond charted territories until they reached a strange boundary at approximately four billion miles. None were ever heard from again.
A manned probe had jumped 3.7 billion miles from Neptune two years ago. Initial findings, if corroborated, were astounding.
Feverish schemes were already being formed for the next level of Deepening.
CHAPTER 56
Threat ASSESSMENT
Saturn, T-minus 48 hours
(Dock?…out)
(go Medi)
(ok.Source of Happy-still confirmed. Darrell Lathrop.aka Ol’Sugar.aka Ol’ Shug is confirmed creator Happy-stil formula. the formula was indeed meant as a self-cure for hyperkinetic syndrome. missing ingredients targeted. sending components list and complete video. and, bonus, a photo of a Steve Lathrop. Darius confirms Steve and unknown accomplice the source of the rapidly spreading substance. method of dispersion unknown. Hadjii’s pharmacological team will undoubtably produce an antidote within a few days. what are your instructions?.out.)
(help him little piggy…out.)
(you will die for this. Medi.out)
A photo of Steve in his Steve shirt came up on holograph. He blinked at the image and it uploaded into his local wet-net.
“We are bound to meet, bro.”
CHAPTER 57
The Senator’s Hearings
The auspicious senator called the Saturn Commission committee hearings to order with the crack of a wooden gavel.
“All right, let’s get this going. Today we vote on the formation of a subcommittee to investigate alleged insurance fraud. The petition has been debated and it is time for votes. All light-year counties are present by dark wet-net and will be voting with us on this matter.
Today we will fund a committee to investigate complaints against multi-planet companies and CEOs suspected of defrauding taxpayers by defrauding government healthcare.” Bushy gray eyebrows scolded the as-yet-unnamed perpetrators.
Dock was inside her head. From his ship in Jupiter orbit, Dock watched the hypocrisy of the hearings through Gina.baby’s eyes. What she saw is what he and the Ro-mans saw. She was in the balcony at the hearings, watching and waiting.
She was working her way into Dock’s heart.
The attachments to the bill were the real play. The incredible discovery a year ago of the ninth and tenth planets of our solar system was known to very few. Lucrative future mining contracts were imbedded in the bill, hidden in obscure language.
“If ever a ninth or tenth planet is discovered, certain titans of Industry will have exclusive ‘discovery’ rights for the first 200 years.”
The amendment seemed frivolous, naive. It would easily pass as a bill rider. Certain privy Titans would guarantee their fortunes for generations with the passage of the senator’s final legislative bill.
Dock/Gina was present because the senator had stonewalled him. But he was getting in on that action, one way or another.
The senator proceeded. “So if each light-year county will register your vote on-screen now…” He adjusted the screen in front of him, preparing to enter his yes vote.
“Let’s proceed.” One by one the orbital county chairs voted. Each of the eight planetary counties was one vote. Nine votes were needed for quorum. The senator would vote last if necessary, in the event of a tie and, as expected, it was a 4/4 tie. The senator’s chairman vote would be the tiebreaker.
Gina watched from the balcony above the chamber. Timing was critical. Dock had clocked her circuits before sending her on the delicate task. As the old senator smiled and reached to press the yes button, Gina.bot shook her head no.
The senator had been secretly drugged. The red face paint she smeared on him in their previous meeting had contained metalloprotein.bots laced with lead. The
y had entered his nose and mouth and headed downstream to specific neurologic site receptors. The microscopic robots switched calcium to lead in the senator’s calmodulin, a nerve-signal transduction protein.
Gina’s wet-net was synced to the metalloprotein.bots running around in the senator’s aged, famously unshielded brain. The protein paint.bots infiltrated the man’s neural complex, allowing his autonomic nervous system to be hacked by Gina’s bot.brain. The sudden switch from calcium to lead resulted in the subject performing the opposite action he intended. She could control his decisions without Dock having to pay for them, though the trillionaire had politely offered on several occasions.
She would have to send a new pulse for each decision. She only needed two.
The senator wavered and pressed the no button. An aide nearby quickly leaned in, whispering to him. The senator sat back, looking up at the tally of votes on the big screen. His vote had registered as no. He blinked and shook his head in confusion, looking around. The aide quickly cleared the no vote, and instructed the senator on how to cast a yes vote.
“Press the yes button right here, sir.” The aide’s finger hovered just above the screen. He wanted to select yes for the senator but that might get him killed.
A murmur went around the room as the expected vote changed, then was quickly cleared. Slumbering county chairmen awoke slightly at the new intrigue.
The senator hesitated, consulted with the aide again, put on his glasses, looked at the screen carefully then again reached a deliberate, crooked finger towards the yes button. Gina.baby shook her head no and he clumsily pushed the no button again.
Confusion engulfed the room. The votes had all been bought and paid for. Had someone outbid for the senator’s vote at the last minute? The aide attempted to clear the no vote again but only one correction was allowed, by rules. The committee was voted down by the very senator who had raised and championed the issue on behalf of his constituents.
On-screen the looks of panic across the solar system were joined with shouts of “treason!” in the rattled senator’s caucus chamber. Shocked and disoriented, aides surrounded and escorted him out of the raucous meeting room, cutting the session short.
His life was now in jeopardy. Like Saturn of old, his own children would see him out.
Dad had just lost them trillions.
CHAPTER 58
BEST LAID PLAN INDEED
Saturn, T-minus 36 hours
(Gina.out)
(go Gina)
(Senator Saturn loves us.out)
(confusion reigneth. I tried to buy his no vote. he refused so I’ll just take it for free. if he’d bothered to embrace enhancements, he would have been shielded and you wouldn’t have been able to track his innards, doll. you have to be able to work with what’s available, honey, remember that. that no vote will buy us enough time to maneuver for Nine and Ten mining rights. And, three of your brand-new sisters have arrived early and I want you to help me… unpack them)
Dock wondered if dark matter jumping affected androids. He would compare Gina’s current calibrations against her last diagnostic when she returned.
(Gina./baby.out)
That business neatly handled, a recitation of the entire music tour’s updated insurance policy ensued. He stopped and started the fresh, diminutive asian.clerical.baby.bot repeatedly, rewinding the legal language out loud for lawyers and Ro-man analysts in order to clarify coverages.
Asia.bot confirmed each of Dock’s corrections. Confident DockInHaus’s triple-indemnity policy insuring the entire Deepening Tour was in effect, wary underwriters reluctantly signed off after confirming a deposit of ten million cash credits in exchange for a twenty-billion-credit upgrade.
Dock schooled his classroom, “It is certainly justified by the recent failed terrorist attempt and unsteady times in general. Another Spike beginning at dusk this morning in Haiti was quelled only after a million people had consumed each other by sunrise! Frequency and ferocity are incrementally increasing.”
The human sense of it all was… time is dwindling.
Understandably the company was jittery.
Dock could smell underwriter underwear sweat a billion miles away.
A single policy caveat required DockInHaus Inc. to provide additional security for every component of the tour apparatus. No problem.
The triumphant return of the spurned Bistros C. Gully and his beloved safety inspectors would supply the necessary manpower, conveniently paid for by global-county taxpayers. And his inspectors would be there to share the blame if this business went badly. C. Gully was played like a kazoo, another squawking idiot.
“Co-exist can bite me too.” Dock laughed.
With that bit of business taken care of, it was time to get another look at his assassin. He contacted Shady’s number from a dark back channel. When voicemail answered, a Ro-man spoke the automated, prerecorded instructions.
“Jump to Saturn tomorrow, one day before the Saturn show. Wear a red baseball cap and white shirt. Check in at security counter nineteen at Saturn SpacePort. When you arrive at 1800 hours, go to security counter nineteen and repeat, ‘May the riches of the universe guide us.’ Then walk away.
“Someone will find you, check you in, and give you a key to locker nineteen. There you will find your all-access pass to enter Saturn Security Complex, a uniform, updated credentials. A resupply of all the medications you currently take will be provided. We want you healthy and coherent.
Proceed to the security desk. Report to Chief Inspector Gully, who is expecting you. Jump to the Uranus show and finally to the Neptune show with Safety and band security.
Non-military personnel cannot carry weapons. I will contact you when you arrive in Neptune orbit and supply you with a power gun and final payment. The mark will be revealed if you make it that far. It is imperative you complete the job before the last song is over.
If you fail, I will kill you.
Act natural, don’t do anything stupid. Remember, the band owes you. They took away your life, they don’t care about you.”
Pause, “Thiz will be the biggest payday of your life.”
The Ro-man severed the connection.
Dock said, “It’s a good thing for Shady it went to voicemail. He’ll have to listen to it several times before his partially crushed brain will comprehend the simple plan. The call was routed through a number registered to a Co-exist church in New York, near his favorite bar. In case Mooney investigates… afterwards.”
A Ro-man telecomm’s tech added, “I also captured all the data in Shady’s phone while the connection was open.” Numbers, calls, and messages lined up on the tech’s screen.
“Good show! This is the fun part, listening back to the rest of the crazy! Scan, summarize, send me a report,” Dock ordered. “Adding jumps to Uranus and Neptune while under the influence of drugs laced with Happy-stil will add to the Reverend’s dementia. If he stumbles before the final act, my business partner has arranged to pump him up long enough to finish the job, then punch his clock directly after that. His blood, if there is any left, will show a myriad of prescription and non-prescription medications. And,” he continued, “Shady’s recent interest in Co-exist will tie him to space’s newest ex-terrorist, Chica Boom gone Boom, revealing an ongoing plot to murder a Cosmic band member. And a twenty-billion-credit insurance payoff will be wired to my accounts.”
“Best Laid Plan indeed,” he dared the unusually quiet war room.
CHAPTER 59
TRUST ME
War was now Kyle’s mindset. He was again a soldier. Rock star be damned, there was a secret battle brewing and he aimed to be ready. Time to face the enemy, whoever it was. Time to stop being hunted. He may have shifted tactics too late.
Calling the trusty crew and band together for prayer after sound check at the stadium, he shared his new paradigm with them. They understood the i
mplications and agreed.
Kyle looked into each face and said, “Let’s really pray my friends.” They bowed their heads.
“Father of light, earth, fire, water, and spirit, forgive our weaknesses. You know what they are because you are the one who weakened us, so that we will lean on you. Indeed we do. We use your fire for warmth, your earth feeds us, your air fills us, your water flows through us and refreshes us, and your spirit revives us. We have an unseen enemy seeking our destruction. Reveal him… or them, rebuke him… or them. We seek victory, if not peace, over our enemy. Guide us across the stormy ocean we must cross, lead us down a peaceful river and to an island where we may dwell safely, amen.”
They all finished with a hearty amen.
Kyle was moved and shared his amazement. “I’m so blessed and encouraged by your spirit. I think together we can finish this tour strong. Assume the next strike is today. Assume we’re being watched as we speak. I will repeat it…we are at war with someone or… something.” He paused.
“This is no longer just playing music. We are fighting for our lives and for those out here in the Deep. Look for anything or anyone out of place. Trust no one. These Safety geeks here… use them as a shield.”
They worked on a battle plan while walking back to Angel’s Fuzzy Dice Inn.
Mac, Ox, and Kyle went to the jam room for practice with Peco. After a few songs, Moore came in with rejuvenator and IV still attached. Angel monitored him.
Moore listened to them play and did not interrupt. His color was off, but he seemed calm and contrite. Kyle watched him but Mark wouldn’t meet his gaze.