Agent X

by Morgan Blayde

  “He’s not the one we want,” Elissa said. “Wyngate must be the bad guy.”

  “You finished with the other ship?” Chim asked.

  “Oh, sure. Not much of it left,” she said. “I was just stirring through the wreckage. Hey, guess who’s joined Wyngate at his table.”

  “Who?”

  “The commander’s aide. The two look thick as thieves.”

  Chim locked his visored face on the commander and shifted to an audible voice. “You’re not a bit surprised to see me, are you?”

  The commander shrugged. “Why would I be? I was there when you arrived. Remember?”

  “Can you get some transfer orders here quickly?”

  “My aide can do that. He really runs this place—I’m just window-dressing.”

  “Call someone else. Have orders typed for immediate transfer to any post you like. Have it here in five minutes, and I will approve them for you.”

  The commander stilled, entranced—a saint blessed with a vision of paradise. He set the bottle down, losing all interest in it. His eyes clung to the guardsman. His lips stammered words that never emerged. Finally, he cleared his throat, stiffened his spine, and leaned across his desk. “You’re … serious?” The question was barely above a whisper.

  “Try me.”

  “Wait … right there. Don’t move.” The commander leaped to his feet. His chair went sliding as he ran for the door. He yelled back over his shoulder, “I’ll be right back.”

  Several minutes passed, then Elissa’s voice broke in. “Sometimes I wonder about you.”

  “You do? Why?”

  “The commander; something’s been going on under his mustachioed nose, he didn’t catch it, and you’re going to reward him?”

  “He may be incompetent, but he’s honest and he knows his limitations. I’d rather have him backing the Imperium whole-heartedly than rotting away in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Talk about a man inspired! He’s at the Admin Center. The place is a madhouse of activity. I think he’ll beat your deadline by a full minute.”

  “Sometimes, a person just needs a little motivation. What about Wyngate and the aide?”

  “Splitting up. The aide is heading your way. Wyngate’s heading for his family’s corporate warehouse at the edge of the launch apron.”

  “He has a warehouse at the edge of the field? You could have mentioned that earlier.”

  “Why? Is it important?”

  “Is it big enough to conceal a small space yacht?”

  “Well…”

  “Keep an eye on him. He might be making a break for it.”

  “He can’t beat me. I’m the fastest thing in space.”

  “Normally that would be true,” Chim said, “but remember two things: one; his engines could be augmented the same way as the first freighter, strengthening its shields, and two; there’s still the platform in orbit. If my suspicions are accurate…”

  “You mean my suspicions,” Elissa said.

  “Here!” The commander returned, clutching a digital pad displaying e-papers.

  Chim took the documents without a word. He scanned them, then sub-vocalized. “Elissa, these look in order. Transmit a copy through the usual channels to Fleet Command for this sector. Add my personal authorization code.” Chim produced a stylus and drew a large X on the signature line. He handed the orders back to the commander.

  “There you go. Do me one last favor. Stand there a moment and witness your aide’s reaction to seeing me. His face will betray surprise that I’m still in one piece. You are to place him under arrest, awaiting military court martial.”

  The commander sat in his chair. “My aide?”

  “He has been assisting Marcus Wyngate in a criminal conspiracy and is guilty of misappropriating Imperial property. The pieces will fall in place once your replacement starts digging into recent events.”

  There was a chime from the door announcing a visitor. “Invite him in.” Chim lumbered off to the side where he would not be immediately visible.

  The commander complied. His aide hurriedly approached the desk. Ignored, Chim eased up behind him.

  “Sir, I regret to inform you, the guardsman is missing. I’m afraid he might be…”

  “Behind you,” Chim said.

  The aide spun. “It can’t be. You were swept away by the winds at the tower breach.”

  “I know that’s what you planned,” Chim said, “but it didn’t work. Where’s Wyngate and what’s he up to now?”

  “I don’t know what you’re…”

  “Don’t you?”

  The aide tried to bolt past Chim. The guardsman caught him by the nape of the neck. There was a brittle crack. A sickening feeling in his gut told Chim that his malfunctioning armor had snapped the man’s vertebra. He stuffed guilt away in a closet to deal with when convenient. Meanwhile, he couldn’t bring the man back, but he could give the death meaning, if only as a warning to others in the future. He decided to let the incident add to the mystique of x-class agents.

  He dropped the body, as though it could no longer concern him, and faced the commander. “Resisting arrest is the least of his crimes, but it will provide a good enough reason for his termination. Justice is best when served swiftly.”

  The commander stared in wide-eyed horror. “What they say about your kind is true; you’re not human.”

  Chim shrugged mechanically. “When did I ever say I was?”

  He turned and stepped over the slack body. Turning in the doorway, he noticed the commander taking a healthy swig from his bottle. Chim kept moving toward the conduit that would take him back to his ship. Elissa’s softened voice kept at him, but he ignored it, not quite ready for words with anyone. Within his shell, tears dripped down a face he could never show the universe.

  Soon, he was back aboard. His exo-suit was left on the floor outside the air lock. He decided not to have it repaired. He didn’t want to wear that particular one ever again. In his jade body-sheath, he made his way to the bridge, and took his chair. The hologram of Elissa faded slowly, warily, into view.

  “Chim?” Her replicated voice was a soft whisper that barely disturbed the air. “Are you all right?”

  “No,” he said.

  “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “No, it wasn’t. But a man still died at my hands.”

  “He was a criminal. He’d probably have been executed anyway.”

  “That doesn’t help.”

  She stared into his haunted eyes. “What will?”

  He reached out to trace her face. His trembling hand passed through her ghostly image without stirring it. Her hand darted out to catch his as it retreated. Hand passed through hand, neither finding substance. Chim’s head slumped forward. His eyes closed a moment, and reopened, kindled with the fire of purpose as he dragged himself back to duty. “We’re not done here. There’s still Wyngate.” His voice snapped out. “Where is

  he?”

  “Uh … leaving!” she said.

  “On screen!” Chim ordered. “Release the umbilical and launch when ready. Maintain weapon locks.”

  A wrap-around slick of light appeared before him. It thickened into a digitized holo-reconstruction of the view outside the ship, having the clarity of a true window though only a projection. Chim felt he could almost reach out and grasp the escaping yacht in his fist. “What’s his speed?”

  “It’s … wait...! This can’t be right.”

  “He’s boosted his ship’s drive, right?”

  “Affirmative, it’ll be close but he’s got enough power to edge away from our top speed and eventually elude us.”

  “We can’t take the chance that the space platform won’t be used against us. We need to take Wyngate out before he reaches space, so we won’t have two targets to deal with.”

  “Hell-bore missiles are loaded. Launch ports are open. Target is acquired. You want some kind of warning shot fired first?”

  “No. Time’s too tight. Fire missiles.”
/>
  “Aye, Sir. Missiles away.”

  They were streaks of light on his holo-screen, golden comets that flowered into suns and faded in moments—just short of the mark. Surrounded by the detonations, the fleeing ship was unharmed.

  “What happened,” Chim asked.

  “Their shields are boosted as well. I wish I knew how they were doing that.”

  Chim banged his fist on the arm of his command chair. “Blast it! We can’t allow this new technology to fall into criminal hands. The universe would be at Wyngate’s mercy.”

  “We need to worry about ourselves,” Elissa said. “He’s opened up a deflector shear against us, and it’s hot as a pulsar. Outer shields—buckling. Trying to reinforce, diverting power from all secondary systems. Second shield layer is down, Chim! One to go.”

  “Evasive action,” he ordered.

  “I can’t. We’re in a polarized graviton field, locked in place. Must be the sky-hook, coming on-line. If the last shield goes, we’ll be badly mauled, maybe crushed, Chim.”

  “Look, there on the screen. We have company.”

  “But there are no other ships planet side.”

  “Right, but our friends from the other continent don’t need ships for sub-orbital flight.”

  “You’re right, Chim. It’s the Wind-Riders!”

  “They’ve come to take back their planet. I just hope they know we’re

  on their side.”

  “I’ll say they do. The Riders have blocked the force shear.”

  “Must be hundreds of them,” Chim noted. The screen showed small dark red figures swarming Wyngate’s ship, boarding it mid-air. “Give me maximum amplification on the yacht.”

  The image jumped. It seemed to Chim that he was nearly up against the distant hull. There was a hole there, melted into the side of the ship. The view flickered as flyers glided by, interrupting it, but Chim made out the old man who led the Riders. He filled the hole for a moment his belt’s stone blazing just as angrily as the larger stone he carried. That rescued stone went into a bag that hung from the man’s belt.

  He looked up and smiled, as if he could see the guardsman watching him. Then, the Rider leaped away, merging into the swarm. “There goes Wyngate’s new power source,” Chim said.

  The yacht continued climbing for space—closing in on the renegade platform—while the IMPERIAL DRAGON was held in place. Without their shields being weakened by the shear, the enemy’s graviton lock was less dangerous, but still a nuisance.

  Until the sky-hook took a quantum leap in power, its energy shading into red.

  “They must have a master stone on the platform, too,” Chim said. “Something like this could affect weather patterns—make mining these stones easier for Wyngate. That could be the whole purpose behind the sky-hook.”

  “Wyngate’s a fool,” Elissa said. “He should have done better research on the stones, he’d have realized…” Elissa fell ominously silent.

  “Realized what?” Chim asked.

  “The sky-hook’s not only going to affect the weather patterns, it’s likely to alter the axial tilt of the planet.”

  “You mean the weather could be made permanently worse?”

  “The conditions that allow life to exist here could be cancelled out. And if that’s not bad enough…”

  “All right, Elissa. Enough with the dramatic pauses! Give me the worst-case scenario.”

  “Sorry, Chim, I’ve just been preoccupied trying to develop a way to get us free of this graviton field. To answer your question, if there are larger stones deeper in Hera’s crust, they could well absorb the gravitons and there could be a counter flux that would literally tear the planet apart.”

  Chim’s face paled as he imagined such a thing. He closed his emotions off with fierce concentration, glaring at the skyhook now at the center of the holo-screen. “No matter the cost, we must not let Wyngate keep this technology. The crystals must stay on Hera. How’s your escape plan coming, Elissa?”

  “Just about ready. Chim, this is going to be dangerous, maybe even suicidal. I need your authorization. I can only risk our total sacrifice on your command.”

  “What have you come up with?”

  “Same trick as Wyngate. The gemstone I have on-board has been tied into my power generation system. It could blow us to cee-square and back, or super-charge our shields so we can slide free,” Elissa said. “It’s your call, Boss.”

  “Do it.”

  “Aye, sir. Order received. Execution proceeds.”

  Chim drew a deep breath, leaning forward in his chair. His eyes sought out Elissa’s holo-image. His hand reached for her, stopping just short of the holo-field. “Elissa?”

  “Yes, Chim?”

  “In case this ends badly, I want you to know…”

  Her hand filled the space over his, as if touching. And then they did. The red stone sent a power-surge kicking through all ship systems. Elissa’s hand acquired a force field’s solidity—turning opaque with density. Chim’s eyes widened with disbelief. His jaw hung open as his thoughts lurched in search of an adequate response to this miracle.

  “I know all I need to, Chim. You never had to say the words. I’ve always known.”

  His hand trembled with joy as he drew her fingers to his lips and kissed them. Elissa moved closer. Beautiful, exotic, a goddess carved from light, she came into his arms and he held her with a desperate strength that would have injured real flesh.

  “We’ve countered the sky-hooks graviton field,” Elissa whispered, nibbling an earlobe. “What now?”

  “You have your own graviton anchor. You can super-charge it, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Then give ‘em a taste of their own medicine,” he ordered. “Lock on and head out-system. They can come along for the ride, or resist, overload, and blow themselves apart. I don’t care which.”

  “Done. They’re fighting us!”

  The image on the wraparound holo screen was burned out by white fire as the captive vessel exploded, spewing pieces of itself across space. After a while, the darkness of void returned, strewn with cold, indifferent stars. Chim felt a little more darkness creep into his soul.

  “Their choice,” he said.

  Elissa touched his face, turned his face. Her lips caught his. She kissed him softly, deliberately, with great thoroughness, and pulled back. “Anything else you need?”

  “Oh, yes.” He rose from the chair, holding Elissa against himself. Carrying her easily, he headed for the lift. It would take him to the level of his private quarters. “You can kill the bridge lights. We won’t need them for a while.”

  INTERLUDE

  “The military could have benefited greatly by incorporating the Hera crystals into their weapon systems. You opposed this just as you opposed distribution of the new nova beam technology.”

  “I believe some secrets should have a very narrow application. If certain technologies were to be commonly available, they could be regularly used against x-class agents in the field. There’s no reason we should stack the deck against ourselves, is there? Besides, when the next major threat to galactic civilization hits, it won’t be the military that saves us. It will be those of us in this room.”

  A moment of deep silence took hold, telling Chim he’d scored a major point, but his accuser cleared his throat and pressed on. “Are you sure you’re not acting out of an anti-tech bias?”

  Chim shrugged. “Technology is only as good as the use it’s put to. It makes a good servant, but terrible master. Sometimes, a society needs to be protected from itself. Some toys are simply too dangerous.”

  A new voice took over the questioning, “So, does that explains Ibis and Ebon as well?”

  Names to conjure by, he thought.

  3. SEA-CHANGE

  Chim occupied an island of soft golden light that kept the shadows of the dim bedroom at bay. His eyes were closed but his other senses were fully attuned to Elissa’s warmth pressed against him. Silk sheets modestly covered
her—not that she had a modest bone in her body.

  “Chim?”

  “Yes, Elissa.” She had neither scent nor flavor. Her photon-based body shimmered softly, warm within his arms, half-tangled in the sheets.

  “We’ve got an in-coming message from Imperium R&D.”

  “Research and Development? What do they want?”

  “It’s a request to divert to Ebon, the aquatic moon of Janus, in the Sirius system. An Imperium research base needs emergency assistance.”

  Chim sat up in bed, frowning. “Research base? We have anything on file about it?”

  “Only that it’s involved in xeno-genetic manipulation, and classified need-to-know. I’ll check with a few of my sources, see what else I can turn up.”

  “I hope it is just marine research.”

  “You think the Imperium is playing god again with human subjects?”

  “If there’s a big enough pay-off... Look at Project X. That was pushing the envelope, brutally shoving the human element to its ultimate extreme. No one talks about it, but our program had its failures—its casualties. In fact, the successes are far outnumbered by the head-cases it produced. If you’d lived my life, you’d be surprised by nothing.”

  “Do you want to tell me about it?”

  He closed his eyes. A shudder went through him. “I can’t, at least, not all at once. I’m not even sure there are words strange enough…extreme enough.”

  “I’m here, Lover.” Her hand brushed his arm. “Set your own pace. Bring the darkness to light, one small piece at a time, if that’s what it takes.”

  “That might not be wise. Sometimes the darkness is merciful, hiding what would otherwise shatter us. There are a good many hypnotic blocks installed in my subconscious so I can do this job, keep all the Imperium’s secrets, and be what I am. How am I to know that plucking at loose threads won’t unravel me?”

  “I know your depths, Chim. You’re the strongest person I know, the most balanced and sane.”

  “And I’d like to keep it that way.”

  Elissa frowned. “Okay, I’ll drop it for now, but not forever.”

  The guardsman’s gaze caressed her contours, absorbing her digitized perfection. He lowered himself to her, teasing her light-sculpted lips with a kiss. “Now is all I need.”