The Fifth Column Boxed Set

by J. N. Chaney

  That had nearly been the end of my adventure. Then I passed the tattoo artist on my way out and noticed her finishing a piece that looked decent. It had been an easy decision.

  The simple purple band I chose, broken in one place to signify the past I was leaving behind, was inked into one wrist. On the other was a dragon just like the one on Sophie’s token.

  The final result was, in my mind, a tough bitch not to be trifled with. I headed back to the docks feeling lighter than I could ever remember.

  When I returned to the Dreadnight, Mack had already arrived. She and Sophie were talking with their backs turned to me when I walked in.

  “There you are,” Sophie said. Whatever she’d been about to say next died on her lips when she got a good look at me.

  “Pick your jaw up off the floor,” I said with a smirk.

  The woman beside her chuckled. Now that they stood side by side, I could see the family resemblance. They had the same nose and eye shape, although Mack’s eyes were altered to a deep shade of purple.

  “I take it she doesn’t usually look like that?” she asked.

  Sophie didn’t—or couldn’t—respond, so I stepped forward and offered my hand.

  “I’m Eva,” I said. “You must be Mack.”

  “Got it in one.” She winked and clasped my hand in a firm grip.

  “You hate shopping,” blurted Sophie, finally pulling herself together. “What was that you always said? Oh yeah, that it was a waste of time and money.”

  She crossed both arms over her chest and circled me, studying my new persona with a critical eye. “I like it,” she said, nodding in approval.

  I lifted a shoulder in an “oh well” gesture.

  “It seemed prudent to change it up a bit,” I said. “You should probably do the same.”

  “She’s got a point,” Mack broke in. “I was going to suggest the same thing, cuz. You want your new identities to look, well, new.”

  “Hey, I don’t need an excuse to buy things,” said Sophie in response, a smirk on her face. “In fact, why don’t I go do that now. You can get started on the modifying the ship.”

  “Good idea,” Mack agreed with a quick nod. “Don’t be long. I’ll need a picture for your new I.D.”

  After Sophie left, Mack turned to me with something in her hand. When I visibly tensed, she held it open, revealing a small camera.

  “Just need a quick picture to put in the system,” she explained.

  “Oh, right,” I said, relaxing. “Sorry, military habits die hard.”

  The hacker waved my apology away and held up the mini cam.

  “Don’t smile,” Mack ordered. She took a few shots from different angles then plugged the camera into her computer. Her fingers flew over the keys as she worked.

  “Now all you need is a new name,” she said after a few minutes, sitting back in her chair and interlocking her fingers behind her head. “Any idea who you want to be now?”

  I didn’t respond right away. It hadn’t occurred to me that I’d be choosing what I wanted to be called.

  “It’s okay if you don’t,” Mack said. “I can auto-generate one.”

  “No, I’ll pick, just give me a second.” I shook my head and leaned a hip on one of the empty crates.

  “Try not to use something that can be traced back to you,” Mack advised.

  Some long-ago memory surfaced of a fairy tale. The details were hazy, but I remembered the heroine had been named Alyss. Cortez was common enough that it wouldn’t draw suspicion.

  “Alyss. Alyss Cortez,” I finally decided.

  Mack worked the computer for a few more seconds. It chimed to indicate it had finished its task, then she removed a card from one of the slots.

  “Done,” she announced, then passed the card to me. “Now I can reconfigure the ship with you as captain.”

  “Huh?” I asked, my gaze snapping up from the shiny new identity I’d been studying.

  “The ship needs a registered captain in order to be operable,” she explained, gesturing around the cargo bay. “Sophie said that would be you.”

  “We hadn’t talked about it, but if she’s okay with it, so am I.”

  Nodding again, Mack turned to the computer and got to work. She muttered to herself every so often, but I couldn’t make out the words. I knew from working with Haas that tech people didn’t like to be bothered, so I kept quiet.

  After about a half hour, she sat back and blew out a breath.

  “All the soft-modules are clean, that was the easy part. Hard-modules are scattered everywhere in the ship. It’d take weeks to physically dig them out, so I put them in quarantine. They’re network isolated now so they can’t call home or even talk to the rest of the ship,” Mack said triumphantly. “Do you want to reset the AI?”

  “Is that necessary?” I didn’t like the idea of messing with Z, especially after everything she’d done for us.

  Mack shrugged. “It would wipe the computer’s memory. You’d be starting fresh. If it’s a product of Sarkonian military, it might give you some peace of mind.”

  I didn’t hesitate to answer. “No, Z has been invaluable. We probably wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for her.”

  “You call her Z?”

  “Z9-77A was her factory setting identifier,” I clarified. “Sophie and I took to calling her Z. Resetting her memory would take away the relationship we’ve built with her.”

  “Doesn’t matter to me,” Mack replied. “Do you want to change her identifier?”

  I looked up as if Z was in the ceiling somewhere. “You’ve been quiet, Z. How about it, want a new name?”

  “That’s entirely up to you, Sergeant,” she answered agreeably.

  “Not a sergeant anymore,” I said, shaking my head. “Me and Sophie get new names. You might as well join the club.”

  “Then I am happy to receive a new identifier,” Z responded.

  “Let’s keep it simple. I’ve always liked the name Vega. That sound good?”

  “Vega,” said the AI, testing it out. “I believe that is perfect, Captain Cortez.”

  “One last thing,” piped up Mack. “The ship needs a new name for the registration.”

  I scrubbed at my face. “I’ve got nothing. Can you pick? I’m fresh out of names.”

  “Second Genesis,” said a voice behind us. Sophie had returned. I had a feeling it would be our turn to gawk and wasn’t disappointed.

  Her auburn hair had been dyed a deep shade of purple. At first glance, it looked black, but when the light hit it right, the purple showed. She hadn’t taken any of the length off, though she’d added a fringe of bangs. I suspected that was to let it grow out some, something she had never been allowed to do.

  “Nice jacket.” I grinned. She was wearing the twin to mine.

  Her lips curved into an impish smile. Like me, she’d gone for dark colors and clothes that wouldn’t hinder her in a fight.

  “One of many. I went to the same place as you. Aimee has a great eye.”

  “Who’s Aimee?” I asked, confused.

  “The saleswoman? With the pink hair,” Sophie said, rolling her eyes. “You didn’t even get her name, did you?”

  “Nope, and the transaction went through just fine,” I said. “But Second Genesis is a good name.”

  I inclined my head at Mack, who nodded her acknowledgement. A few seconds later, it was done.

  “Okay, you’re all set with the ship,” she told me. “Let me get Sophie’s new identification put together, then we can work on finances.”

  “I already came up with a name,” Sophie announced brightly.

  Mack smirked. “Let me guess. Farah,” she said, turning to me with laughing eyes. “It was a character in this cartoon she used to be obsessed with,” she explained.

  “Oh gods, I can’t believe you remember that.” Sophie—Farah now—burst into giggles.

  “How could I forget? You made us watch it nonstop,” complained Mack. “And it was terrible.”

&nb
sp; “I never saw it,” I said, a little embarrassed. The Delgados had never been big on entertainment.

  “You wouldn’t have,” Mack said with a sly grin.

  I looked from her to the newly named Farah.

  “It wasn’t on the approved program list,” Farah admitted. “My dad got it bootleg.”

  “Your dad had illegal holo shows?” I couldn’t picture her dad doing anything illegal. “Next you’re going to tell me you’re a double agent for the Union.”

  Farah exchanged a knowing glance with Mack then and I narrowed my eyes at the pair.

  “What’s going on, Sophie?”

  “Farah,” Mack corrected automatically.

  I ignored her.

  “Nothing,” Farah assured me without quite meeting my eyes.

  She was definitely hiding something.

  “Pardon my interruption, Captain, but I believe you will want to see this,” said Vega.

  “What is it?” I asked, not taking my eyes off my friend.

  One of the holo displays in the cargo bay blinked on to a Union news report.

  “Be advised, the two women are highly skilled and capable of extreme violence. The Sarkonian Empire has classified the pair as terrorists.”

  The audio had me turning to watch the report as the image on the screen cut to side by side pictures of us, pre-makeovers.

  “The pair are accused of murdering their unit commander when she tracked them to Sobek and attempted to stop them from assassinating a prominent Union scientist.”

  “That is bullshit!” I exploded, gesturing angrily at the display. “How can they pin that on us?”

  “The Sarkonians needed a scapegoat for why Navari was at the scene,” Farah reasoned. “It makes sense that they would use us. Makes me wonder what happened to Haas though.”

  I too had noticed his absence from the report and wondered the same thing.

  The reporter had already moved on to another story about more missing colonists on a mining moon. I ordered the display off.

  “It’s still bullshit. Part of me wants to release their plans to experiment on their own citizens,” I growled.

  New name or not, Farah remained the voice of reason. “We can’t. It would just cause mass panic and might force the Sarkonian government to move their timetables up,” she cautioned.

  I had to admit she had a point. Acting too brashly now would only harm the people we wanted to protect. As it stood, one of our few advantages was the fact that the Sarkonian government had no idea that we had access to their plans. I took a few calming breaths then nodded.

  “Okay, let’s finish up here then go stop some assholes, Co-captain… wait, what’s your last name?”

  “Shahi,” she said, giving me a mock salute. “Farah Shahi, at your service, Captain.”

  14

  We left Neblinar a few hours later and set a course for the Deadlands. Sophie had asked Mack to join us, but she declined the invitation. Adamantly at that, saying we were “way too hot” for her to be around, at least for right now.

  I’d been mildly disappointed—having a hacker aboard would have been a nice ace up our sleeve. Couldn’t say I blamed her, though. Hanging around two wanted terrorists was a surefire way to get her more attention from the law than she already had.

  All the money Eva Delgado and Sophie Singh had in Sarkonian banks now resided in the untraceable accounts of Alyss Cortez and Farah Shahi. Our new papers listed us as cargo haulers cleared for personal transportation.

  The news report had not included a description of the Second Genesis, formerly known as the Dreadnight. I assumed this had something to do with the Union not wanting to admit one of their vessels was in the hands of two Sarkonian terrorists, and that was just fine with me. Since the Genesis had already been disguised as a cargo ship, the only modification we made was to the name emblazoned on the side of the hull.

  Nothing remained of our connection to the Sarkonian Empire except for some old uniforms and a few easily removed images inside the ship. I’d been ready to dump the uniforms into the black void of empty space when Farah stopped me. She reasoned that they might come in handy if we had to look Sarkonian again. Given the nature of our plans, I’d grudgingly agreed.

  Before leaving, Mack, Farah, and I sorted through Navari’s cache of operations and began ranking them. At the top were those with the worst fallout for innocent people, both Union and Sarkonian. The way I looked at it, civilians were innocent, no matter whose territory they lived in.

  With no way of knowing when they planned to carry them out, we aimed for the operations with the highest projected casualties first. Our plan was to stop as many of them as possible, one at a time, starting with the mining colony of Karbine.

  Vice-Admiral-Kaska planned to test a device there that could introduce an undetectable neurotoxin to the air supply through an atmospheric generator. Any amount would have disastrous effects on the people that resided there, and the report estimated that the entire colony would be murdered within hours.

  As far as we could tell, the device was already at the colony. Sarkonian researchers were just making final tweaks to the chemical composition, which, according to the data, could be ready at any time. We used the information in the dossier to create our own anti-mission.

  “Why does it have to be a toxin?” I grumbled. “They could test out a laughing gas or something harmless.”

  Farah just laughed mirthlessly. “Because no one ever won a war making the other side giggle.”

  “That’s only because no one’s ever tried it,” I muttered in return.

  “You’re probably right about that,” she agreed. Her brow furrowed before she continued. “We need to get our hands on this toxin and get it out of theirs.”

  “I know,” I said, then shook my head. “But without confirmed information on its location, we have to focus on the device. The toxin will be harmless if they don’t have a way to distribute it.”

  “Okay, that makes sense,” Sophie grudgingly conceded. “It’s better than nothing. I just hate the idea of them having it at all.”

  “Me too, believe me.” I studied the data again. “Since all of the ship’s data has been changed, I think we should be okay to dock and pose as travelers.”

  “What if they have facial recognition?” she countered.

  “Z—sorry. Vega, is there any way to tell what kind of security measures they have?” I asked.

  I’d told Sophie about the name change and she liked it. She also seemed to like the mantle of co-captain, and so far nothing had come up that we disagreed on.

  “I’m afraid not, Captain Cortez.” The AI’s voice actually managed to sound apologetic.

  The modifications that Mack had made became more evident with each passing day. Vega, no longer hobbled by the Sarkon programming, sounded a little bit more human. She was still your standard military grade artificial intelligence, of course. The only real change was her ability to mimic and express empathy as she learned.

  As a result, she had an even more human sounding voice that should have creeped me out, but I found that I liked it. In all honesty, she had more emotion than my adoptive father, though that wasn’t all that hard. The man had the emotional range of an asteroid.

  “Can you get us to the surface without being detected?” I asked. “I’m not entirely sold on docking. Not after that report.”

  “Yes, Captain,” replied the computer, sounding confident.

  It was good enough for me. “Okay, just get us as close to the target as possible,” I instructed. “Let me know when you have something viable.”

  “With pleasure,” Vega replied cheerfully.

  “You sure about this?” asked Farah.

  I shrugged indifferently. “I’m about as sure as I ever am before an op,” I said, not looking up from the map I’d been analyzing.

  “Not about the op,” she said. Something in her voice caught my attention and I glanced up. She had all the files scattered over the holo.

&
nbsp; “You mean stopping the Sarkonian Empire from committing mass murder?” I asked. “Hell yeah, I’m sure. Why, are you having second thoughts?”

  Farah shook her head quickly. “Gods no. This is the surest I’ve been about things in a long time,” she said firmly.

  I abandoned my own files and walked over to her, then I leaned on the table. I wanted to make one thing clear before there was no going back.

  “Look,” I said, letting my voice go serious. “I’ve been meaning to bring this up. If you’re doing this out of obligation or because you think you owe me… Well, you don’t.”

  Her forehead creased in confusion. “What are you talking about? Obligation for what?”

  I sighed and started to pace. “I just mean if you’re here because you’re being loyal to our friendship or our past or whatever, you don’t have to.”

  “Our past? You mean when we were kids back at academy?” she asked, still looking confused.

  “Yeah,” I said, kicking an imaginary rock and scuffing my boot on the floor. “You’ve been weird lately. Anytime your parents come up especially.”

  “I see,” she said finally. “Well, there’s no way I’d be here if it had been Haas, you can bet on that.”

  She tried for a laugh, but I wasn’t in the mood.

  “The short answer is no.” Her voice was strained, as if she were wrestling with elaborating.

  That gave me pause.

  “What’s the long answer?” I asked bluntly.

  Farah tipped her head back and studied the ceiling.

  Impatience warred inside me, but I forced myself to stay quiet. This had to be what she had been hiding.

  “I haven’t been completely honest with you,” she finally confessed.

  “Okay, I figured something was up,” I said with a nod. “If you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine.”

  Farah shook her head then met my gaze, looking more serious than I’d ever seen her. “You need to know. Deserve to know.” She paused then, and I could tell she was trying to find the right words. “My parents are part of a group dedicated to overthrowing the Sarkonian Empire,” she blurted out, the words tumbling out of her mouth in a rush.