Agent X

by Morgan Blayde

  Chim shot a worried glance at Elissa, as she made a guilty start.

  His heart sank in him. How much does he know, and how much do I tell him? The Emperor’s demanding stare was adamant. Chim sensed that anything less than the complete truth was not going to serve with this man.

  “All right,” Chim said. “I’ll tell you what you want to know.”

  11. CRYSTAL DREAMS

  He stepped from the shower onto a grid-covered vent that buffed him with warm air. Ceiling jets targeted his wet hair. He enjoyed the sensation of being clean. His intensive workout had left him slick with sweat and pleasantly drained. Eyes closed, He let his thoughts drift far from the weight of his duties.

  “Chim?” Elissa’s voice caressed him from hidden speakers. He’d banned her from the bathroom because she couldn’t seem to grasp the idea that nakedness wasn’t an open invitation to be mauled. With her involvement, showers were prolonged and energy intensive—just what he didn’t need after punishing himself rigorously in the ship’s gym.

  “Something wrong?” he asked.

  She ghosted in beside him, fetching as always. Often, he went weeks without remembering that the real Elissa was an aquatic creature, not this fey sprite. Her hair was a golden cascade that matched her eyes. She wore a military dress uniform with campaign ribbons she’d designed and awarded to herself. Her combat boots were pink with pink laces ending in miniature pom-poms, her fingerless gloves were pink-dyed leather.

  “Good thing there aren’t any fashion police aboard,” he said.

  She looked shocked. Her projection simulated teary eyes. “Chim, you don’t like it? But I worked so hard!”

  “I never said I didn’t like it. It’s just ... unusual.” He felt his hair. Almost dry. “Why are you here anyway?”

  “We have a problem on the lift.” She let her eyes roam freely over him.

  “Something you couldn’t handle yourself?

  “It’s the Mentakan ambassador; she won’t come into the ship.”

  “Why not?” Chim asked.

  Mentakans are like vampires. They won’t enter a private residence where they’ve not been invited...by the host. It’s a cultural-slash-religious thing.”

  “So, invite her in.”

  She frowned in annoyance. “Apparently, I don’t count as a ‘real’ person. You’ll have to do it.” Her projection edged closer. Her hand slid along the small of his back, heading south. “We can push off and jump out-system for the Betelgeuse summit once she’s off the gantry. All other guests are aboard.”

  “Elissa, you’re groping me again.”

  She raised her eyebrows, feigning surprise. “Oh, I am, aren’t I? Sorry about that.” Her tone lacked all contrition.

  “You’re still doing it,” he complained.

  She sighed and faded out.

  The closet in his sleeping chamber provided a jade ship suit with silver and gold contact patches for neural interfacing with the exo-suit, his alter-ego. A soulless machine was how the delegates would view him. At the door to his quarters, a hollow sentry, one such suit waited. He opened it and slid in. The cold metal enclosed him and its systems powered up, giving him vision and hearing.

  Outfitted for the occasion, he went to the airlock to welcome his hesitant guest. He wasn’t quite ready for what he found. He knew that the ambassador was female, but he expected her to be mature, not a heart-faced girl just stepping out of childhood. Small and frail with a chalky complexion, she wore robes of black silk and sported a long dark mane of purple-dyed hair. Hugging a foot-long lacquered box to her chest, she turned blind eyes his way. Her irises were white, as if bleached by an inner light.

  Chim shelved his surprise and spoke. “Enter my home and be welcome.”

  She bowed from the waist, then stepped into the lock. He retreated. She followed the sound of his heavy steps. Her voice, when it came, was a clear, clean array of high-pitched musical tones. “I thank you for your hospitality, and will try not to burden you.”

  Elissa appeared in a dazzle of gold. “I can take things from here, Chim.”

  The ambassador jumped in place, gasping in surprise. “I thought...we were…alone...” She turned her face, seeking the new presence. “But…we are alone.”

  “What, are you? Blind?” Elissa asked.

  “Yes.” The ambassador’s answer hung in the air, stopping Elissa from further comment. It was the first time Chim saw his partner at a complete loss for words.

  “This is Elissa.” Chim gave the cover story they always used. “She’s the holographic projection of the ship’s AI. She’ll get you settled and see to your needs. The rest of the envoys have arrived with their staff. Are you traveling alone?”

  The ambassador’s grip on her box tightened. “You could say that. May I see my cabin? I’m tired and would like to rest before dinner.”

  “Elissa will show you the way. I take it you can follow her voice?”

  “Yes. Sound gives me the parameters of the spaces I pass through so I may possess them. Do not think of me as being limited in any way.”

  “I’ll…bear that in mind, Ambassador.”

  “Please, call me Chelsea. Titles are such a yawn!”

  Chim nodded, filing the preference away. “Sure. Elissa?”

  The golden projection started. “Oh, right. This way. Shall I recite a poem or something?”

  Chelsea smiled. “Know any dirty limericks?”

  Elissa grinned. “Oh, lots and lots. There was once a boy from Thailand…”

  Chim watched them leave, sensing a fast friendship forming. He considered his next course of action. I guess I’ll go see how everyone else is settling in.

  He found the Rigelian ambassador in the ship’s garden, an area given over to botanical specimens from a hundred worlds. This had been Chim’s anniversary gift to Elissa, celebrating the day they were assigned as partners aboard the IMPERIAL DRAGON.

  In a warm humid corner, the Rigelian flared scaly nostrils, inhaling the scent of dangling rainbow orchids. As Chim approached, the ambassador turned to greet him with a delighted smile. His long fluid body undulated with a wave motion impossible to humans. “Salutations, guardsman.”

  “I see you’ve been enjoying the garden,” Chim stated the obvious.

  “I thought this great ship a sterile cage until I found this place of beauty.”

  “I came to see how you and your staff were settling in. If there’s anything you need…”

  The reptile waved off the question. “Now that I have found nourishment for the soul, I am fine. But if need arises, I will impose upon your generosity.” The ambassador turned away. Chim took that as a dismal.

  He left and drew stares from assorted flunkies in the passageways. Soon, he reached the quarters assigned to the Betelgeuse envoy. He touched the door to announce himself. It opened, revealing a handsome woman with silver hair and pale green eyes, matching her dress. He knew her from an earlier review of computer files. Kathleen Raines, former actress and model. At one time, her face launched a thousand ad campaigns across the galactic net. Though those days were well past, she was still easy on the eyes.

  “You are here to see my husband?”

  Chim inclined his head. “A social call to ensure your needs have been provided for.”

  She invited him in with a gesture. “The suite is spacious, beautiful

  even. We’re happy with it. My husband is in conference with his aides. I’ll let him know you’re here.” She left and returned in moments with a large bear of a man. Wearing denim pants, a checkered shirt with rolled up sleeves, and a bushy black beard, the red-faced man look more like a lumberjack than a politician. Of course, that made sense when you remembered that Betelgeuse V was famous for its forests and exotic hard woods.

  The ambassador extended a large, meaty hand as Kathleen swept from the room. “Ah, guardsman! It’s a pleasure.”

  “Same here.” They shook hands in the ancient manner spawned on Earth centuries ago.

  “C
all me Jack,” the ambassador insisted. “I take it you’ve made the rounds?”

  “Yes. I go to the bridge from here. We should be lifting soon and I intend to oversee the launch, though it’s not really necessary. The ship can operate quite well on her own.”

  Jack’s face grew grave. “I do hope our trip will be untroubled.”

  “You have reason to expect otherwise?” Chim asked.

  The ambassador sighed. “Nothing I can put my finger on, just a feeling. Maybe I’m being overly cautious because this will be the first time Mentakan Prime has ever sent a delegate off world. I want this to go well. There are important trade disputes to be hammered out.”

  “I’m sure you’ll do fine,” Chim said. “If there’s anything I can do to make the trip more pleasant—?”

  “Oh, there is one thing. I try to observe a strict daily routine of exercise. My publicists demand it. I represent a hearty folk who have little tolerance for soft leaders.”

  “We have recreation facilities complete with resistance machines and free weights. Just ask Elissa to guide you there when you’re ready.”

  “Elissa?”

  She faded in, splashing the room with golden light.

  “This is Elissa,” Chim said. “She is the soul of the ship.”

  Jack nodded his understanding. “Ah, the holographic entity I met earlier.” He bowed courteously.

  “If you’d like a tour of the unrestricted levels,” Elissa said, “I’d be happy to escort you and your wife.”

  “That sounds like fun. Perhaps later, I have a strategy meeting I need to get back to.”

  Chim excused himself.

  He threaded passageways to a lift. It carried him to the bridge. He entered with Elissa following, and took his customary chair. Holo-screens appeared with navigational data streams and read outs from engineering. “I see you have everything well in hand,” Chim said.

  She acquired density, climbed into his lap, and made herself comfortable. “Don’t I always?”

  Hours later, in bed, Chim snapped to full awareness. He stared into Elissa’s stricken face as she clutched his arm. Her features displayed unbearable agony, eyes rolled back in her head. Lips writhed over clenched teeth. She tried shaping words, but nothing emerged. The lights were also having a fit; they strobed, and the comm filled the air with a white noise scream across all frequencies of sound. Chim felt sub-sonics in his bones.

  The ship was screaming for Elissa.

  He held her tightly. “What’s wrong?”

  She shuddered, unable to answer. He knew her projection to be photon-based; it couldn’t feel pain. The trouble had to be with her real body, tanked in engineering.

  Have to get there, fast!

  He released her and scrambled off the bed, thoughtlessly snatching up a dark green robe as he fled the bedroom. The door to his quarters wouldn’t open. The sensor was unresponsive.

  Whatever’s wrong with Elissa is screwing up the rest of the ship too, through her cyber-interface.

  “Elissa!” he called. “Try to focus through the pain. I need this door open!”

  “Tr—trying … Chim … hurts … s-so bad…”

  “I can’t help, if I can’t reach you.”

  The door slid open. Chim bolted out. He didn’t take time to don his exo-suit. Trapped in their cabins, none of the passenger could see him. He found two drones grappling with each at an intersection, each demanding right of way; another sign that ship was seriously out of whack. Chim leaped the combatants and plunged into a lift tube. It carried him toward engineering.

  This disaster, happening during a priority transfer of diplomatic personnel—if I find sabotage…

  His hands curled into fists. His heart filled with murder, pumping an icy rage through his system. The lift opened and he lunged out, grateful that the glitches hadn’t yet affected gravity controls.

  At the core of the engine room, he found Elissa’s containment sphere, hall-full of roiling brine, cracked, leaking. The break wasn’t low enough to seriously empty the tank, a small blessing. He located the bigger problem; the temperature controls were on overload, boiling her alive. In the froth, her invertebrate body thrashed and pulsed. Tentacles curled and writhed in agony.

  Chim fought the controls, but they wouldn’t respond. In desperation,

  he grabbed the regulator’s power lead. He wrenched it loose and flung it across the deck. The device went off-line. Running to the sphere, he touched it gingerly. The silica shell was hot, but he kept contact, determined to share some small measure of Elissa’s pain since he could only wait.

  The seawater lost agitation as minutes crept by. “Elissa!” he breathed her name. There was no answer. In the tank, the organs seen through her outer membrane were motionless. Her electric glow dimmed, guttering out. “Elissa! Answer me. Are you—?” he couldn’t complete the question. “Please, don’t leave me!”

  “Attention,” a flat artificial voice announced itself from the ship comm. “This is the Emergency System Interface Program coming on-line. I have asserted control in the absence of the primary unit. Beginning diagnostic and repair operations.”

  Chim’s felt his heart withering within him. The secondary control system was designed to activate should severe injury or death occur to Elissa. He’d hoped never to experience this moment. Drones arrived and swarmed the silica sphere. “Is she…dead?” he asked.

  One of the drones answered in silk-smooth modulations. “Affirmative. Life signs have ceased. Extraneous biological matter will be disposed of according to hazmat protocols.”

  The universe seemed to have slipped it’s mooring, lurching around in a gathering gyre. A roaring darkness chased it, nibbling at the corners of reality, as his heart turned to ice, bleeding away all heat. “No!” He forced perspective back into place, packing his emotions into a small box, slammed the lid on them. He had to stay functional. “Close up the sphere’s outer shielding and refrigerate the…remains.” In his own ears, his voice seemed a hard and distant thing belonging to someone else. “She will receive the honor due a fallen comrade. I will see to it myself, but first, I’ve a mission to complete, and a saboteur to apprehend.”

  He spoke of duty and justice, but knew that something different guided him. In a very real sense, his world had just ended and only vengeance gave him a reason for drawing breath.

  Someone did this. They will suffer the afflictions of the damned and beg for a death that will long in coming.

  “Computer,” he called. “Report on location and status of all guests. Let’s see if anyone is where they shouldn’t be.”

  “Cabin surveillance systems are back on-line. Minor delegation members have been accounted for, and are operating within biological parameters. Two of the ambassadors on-board are asleep, one is in the gym, working out, and the fourth is dead in his cabin.”

  “So, Elissa wasn’t the only target. Which ambassador was killed?”

  “The Rigelian representative.”

  The dragon.

  “Follow crime-scene protocols. Examine the ambassador’s cabin for forensic evidence and keep our surviving guests where they are.”

  He left engineering and swung by the cargo deck for an exo- suit.

  I must put compassion and mercy away, along with humanity. I must become the machine I’ve always pretended to be.

  Chim climbed into the high-tech armor and sealed it. Lastly, he enclosed his face with a helmeted visor, activating the computer-enhanced visuals. Reflexively, he almost called Elissa, but caught himself. He called the ESI program instead, testing the sub-vocal comm system that let him talk to the ship without being overhead by those in his presence. “Computer—how’s reception?”

  A small, smooth-toned voice unwound in his ear. “Reading you clearly. Suit and ship interface has attained synchronicity. Standing by for further instructions.”

  “I’m on my way to the bridge. I want you to subject all archive files to an in-depth analysis for suspicious activity. Look for any sign
that one of our guests accessed ship systems. Safeguards should have prevented this, but…”

  “Understood. Examination is progressing.”

  Chim returned to the lift. It carried him to the bridge. He crossed to his chair and sat. The wrap-around holo-screen appeared. Some deep part of him expected Elissa to pop up, like a genie from a bottle, as she usually did when he took his station. He clenched his jaw. The bottle’s broken. I have to get used to being alone again—if I can.

  He forced himself to relax and lean back, breathing deeply. “How much time do I have to solve this riddle,” he asked the ESI program.

  “Ten hours until we reach Betelgeuse Station and the diplomatic representatives disembark for the conference.”

  “It will have to be enough.”

  “I’m receiving requests for information. The recent malfunctions have drawn attention.”

  “I’ll make an announcement,” Chim said. “Open a channel.”

  “Channel open.”

  “Attention passengers, this is your host speaking. We have sustained damage and are rectifying the problem. Though there is no cause for alarm, emergency conditions are in effect. Please remain where you are until further word. The Imperium thanks you for your assistance in this matter.”

  He fell silent, musing. Someone knew the ship was likely to detect a murder in progress. They didn’t want to get caught, so they struck in engineering first, to clear the way. When I find who assassinated the Rigelian, I’ll find Elissa’s killer as well.

  The ESI program reported. “No suspicious activity detected in review of archived records. All uses of cabin terminals have been judged innocuous.”

  He nodded. “Then let’s try to approach this from another angle. We’ll create a time-line, charting events, and look for causality.”

  The wrap-around field became deep blue, horizontally dissected by a red ribbon connecting two points. He pointed at the left spot which originated the line. We’ll begin with the envoys boarding the ship. All were assigned a room that they settled in, correct?”