by Amy Spahn
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Thomas said, “we have a traitor on board.”
* * *
The rec room had been turned into a makeshift interrogation space. The furniture was pushed up against the bulkheads, the two fake plants removed to another compartment. The coffee maker was stowed, the cards and games stashed in cabinets, leaving only a sparse single table in the center of the fraying carpet, one chair on either side of it.
Thomas sat on the side facing the compartment’s hatch. Ivanokoff stood behind him. Areva lurked somewhere behind the extra furniture. Thomas had no doubt she’d pick up any useful detail he missed during the questioning.
He glowered at the figure sitting across the table. When he took command of the Endurance a year ago, this was not a situation he’d imagined in his future. “Who’s on Phobos, Mr. Cleaver?”
The Endurance’s 103-year-old janitor, Archibald Cleaver, rubbed the back of one wrinkled hand. “Not sure I know anybody there, Captain sir,” he said in his creaky twang. He glanced across the room to where his equally ancient beloved vacuum cleaner was parked.
Thomas unfolded a pocket computer on the table and pushed it so its display faced Archibald. “That’s security footage of you hanging around the EMP emitter controls, just before they were used to bypass the bridge’s communication filters and send a message to Phobos.”
“I was just vacuuming.”
“Where’s the vacuum in this footage?”
Archibald stared down at his yellowing nails. “I forgot it. I’m old, you know. Been around the solar system a few times.”
“Bullshit. You take that thing everywhere.” Despite his anger, Thomas couldn’t bring himself to actually scream at the old man. Such an act might shatter his bones. “Mr. Cleaver, this is very serious. You know what happened earlier?”
“I’m a civilian. Not s’posed to be privy to official happenings up on the bri—”
“But you know what happened earlier.”
A pause. “Yup.”
“The Haxozin have taken Earth. They only knew where to find it because of the Uprising.”
Archibald’s shoulders hunched. “I know.”
“So why were you contacting them?”
The janitor took a rattling breath. “‘Twas a long time ago.”
“What was?”
“Way beyond the statute of limitations.”
Thomas leaned forward and dropped his voice. “Were you involved with the Uprising, Archibald?”
The janitor’s head snapped up, and he pierced Thomas with his milky blue eyes. “Promise I won’t get prosecuted for that message.”
“I can’t promise that,” said Thomas.
“Well, the way I see it, what I tell you could help us fulfill that last order from the commissioner, which I did not officially hear. Bring back help. That’s why I sent that message, to ask questions. You want the answers, you let me off the hook.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Promise? I know you keep your word, Captain sir.”
Thomas ground his teeth. “Fine. I promise I will do my best to keep you out of court for that message. Tell us who you contacted and what they know.”
Archibald placed his palms on the table and rubbed them across the metal surface. “You know I volunteered to clean starships way back, oh, over eighty years ago, when us civvies could still do that. Lived my whole life here on the Endurance. Loved it, too. Kept this ship sparkling. Still do.”
Thomas glanced at the fingerprints on the hatch handles and the dust bunnies in the corner, then at Archibald’s aged eyes. “Sure.”
“Just after I joined up, the Uprising gained lots more popularity. This was just after the new United Earth justice system got implemented. People who wanted to stick with nation-states were real mad. And so they started paying for information. Paying lots.”
“You sold out.” Thomas’s hands formed fists.
“Kinda. Cleaning the whole ship, you hear stuff. Some of it’s not s’posed to be heard. UELE plans to ambush Uprising ships, that kinda thing. I traded them recordings, and they paid me enough that I could live on my little UELE salary. When I started collecting informing for the Uprising, they gave me some contacts. Places I could message when I had data to sell.”
“How long did you keep doing this?”
“Just a year or two. After the Uprising invaded that part of South America ‘n United Earth had to kick them out, I thought maybe I didn’t want to support the wrong side anymore. So I stopped. Gave away all the money they’d paid. Told them never to contact me again.” His fingers interlaced, and his arms trembled.
“Archibald,” said Thomas quietly, “have you had any contact with the Uprising in the last year?”
The janitor dropped his head and closed his eyes. “I didn’t know. I promise, Captain. I didn’t know what they were planning. Just after Mattie invented the D Drive and that business with the People of Tone and the Haxozin went down, one of the Uprising folks contacted me. They said they’d pay good, let me retire in luxury if I told them what the UELE was doing.”
“Did you?”
“No! But they gave me a signal to use, a way to get in touch if I wanted to talk. Said to send a message to Killian Yang’s people on Phobos.”
Thomas and Ivanokoff both stiffened at the name. They’d run into Yang before.
Archibald didn’t notice. “After ... after all those ships showed up at Earth ... I thought maybe they’d realize they messed up. Maybe they’d tell us anything they know about the Haxozin so we could find a weakness.”
“You broadcast our position to a known enemy.”
“I’m sorry, Captain. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“How about telling us your story up front?”
Archibald looked up again. “Would you have given me the chance?”
Thomas paused. “I guess not.”
“Didn’t think so.” The janitor sat back in his chair and tapped one hand absently on the table. “You’ve got honor, Captain, but you’re not the best listener.”
Ivanokoff snickered.
Thomas ignored him. “Now that you’ve told us all this, how do we use it? Do you know where exactly your message to the Uprising went? Where they’re hiding on Phobos?”
“Nope. But betcha if I took a look at the area where the message reached, I could make a good guess.”
“The Haxozin will be spreading out through the solar system,” said Ivanokoff.
“Not yet,” said Thomas. “It’s only been a few hours. They need to solidify their hold on Earth, then the moon before they start going for the planetary colonies. We’ve got a little time.” He said a quick prayer for Loretta’s safety. She was smart. She would keep herself safe. Thomas appraised the ancient man across from him. “You realize even if this leads us to a solution, your time in the UELE is done.”
Archibald nodded. “I figured. Just want to help now. You got any other questions, you ask.”
Thomas pushed back from the table. “Just one, for the moment. You said you sold the Uprising recordings. Did you sabotage any of the ship’s systems?”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. I’m not so good with technology.”
“Then how’d you get the recordings?”
Archibald nodded toward his vacuum. “There’s a reason I never traded her in for a newer model.”
Thomas blinked. “You put surveillance equipment in the vacuum?”
A shrug.
“Is it still there?”
“Nope. But it leaves a mark. Anybody gave it a serious look, they’d know what used to be in there.”
“Which is why you couldn’t risk letting it out of sight.” Thomas shook his head. “And I thought you were only attached to that thing through sentiment.”
Archibald’s smile lines appeared. “That wasn’t a lie. That vacuum’s my best friend.”
“Let’s just hope some of your other friends are still home when we come calling.”
* * *
Phobos had never been a popular place to live. After Matthias calculated another micro D Drive jump back into the solar system, and everyone held their breaths and hoped they wouldn’t emerge inside a rock, they arrived at Mars and its moons safely. Through the bridge’s viewports, a handful of livable Martian domes contrasted with the red surface of the planet. Mars was nowhere near as built up as the lunar dome network, which had almost crowded out the natural rock of the moon. Mars’s red terrain retained a rugged otherworldliness, the promise of adventure on what was still half frontier.
Phobos and Deimos were all frontier. Nothing had been built on their surfaces. Instead, a few holes showed the way into the airlock-secured tunnels where a handful of ambitious individuals struggled to create something resembling civilization. Thomas had never visited those particular moons, but from what he’d heard, the colonists weren’t succeeding.
Thermal scans confirmed those rumors. “Uh, I’m not getting any warm bodies,” said Chris Fish. “Looks like nobody’s here.”
“At all?” asked Thomas.
“At all. Heat readings are completely negative.”
“It is possible,” said Ivanokoff, “that the residents of the moon relocated to Mars after learning of the Haxozin attack.”
“That makes sense,” said Thomas. “Strength in numbers. But it does leave us with a problem. Mars has a large population. We don’t have time to locate the Uprising contacts there.” He turned toward Archibald, who sat on the passenger seats along the aft bulkhead of the bridge. “Did they give you any other way to contact them? Anything that might pinpoint their location?”
The janitor tapped his fingers together. “Not for Phobos, no. I don’t know any other currently operating bases. But ... there might be someone from the past who can help.”
“Who?” asked Thomas. “One of your old contacts?”
“Sort of. Never spoke to him myself, but I know a handful of Uprising bigwigs from the twenties and thirties retired to the Enceladus colony.”
Ivanokoff was already shaking his head when Archibald finished speaking. “We surveyed Enceladus thoroughly after the incident with Yang and Okoro. There are no Uprising operatives left there.”
“Not active ones,” said Archibald. “But their geezers are still around.”
“Would they know anything about the Uprising’s current intelligence?” asked Thomas.
Archibald smiled. “Do I know anything about the UELE’s current intelligence? Retirement doesn’t stick so well when you’re part of a sedition, Captain. If we find one of the old-timers, they’ll know something. Not everything, but something. Being old has its advantages. We can act deaf or asleep and you young folk will spill all sorts of information around us.”
Thomas turned to the front of the bridge. “It’s worth a shot. Head to Enceladus.”
As the helmswoman routed the Adkinsium reactor’s power into the Endurance’s propulsion system, Thomas leaned over to Ivanokoff. “Did I ever drop classified information around Cleaver?”
Ivanokoff answered in an undertone. “Not to my knowledge.”
“Has he pretended to be asleep around us?”
“I do not recall.”
“Well, don’t let me discuss things around old people in the future. It’s hard enough keeping secrets with Areva hiding everywhere.”
A squeak came through the open hatch of Thomas’s office. “I don’t hide everywhere.”
Thomas gestured toward the hatch. “See? I don’t need more people overhearing my every word.”
Chris Fish shook his head as he did two different things on two different screens at once. “Too late for that. They hear everything. I’m working on a helmet to block their reception of our brainwaves, but in the meantime you can read my dissertation on exercises to resist telepathy.”
Thomas settled back in his chair and didn’t acknowledge that with a response.
* * *
Enceladus was, in some ways, a suburb of the solar system. Houses with picket fences lined underground streets. Little tunnels connected interweaving caverns. Many areas looked like any quiet neighborhood on Earth, save the rocky roof covering everything.
In other ways, Enceladus was an armpit, or maybe a spleen. Some part of the body where sweat and toxins could hide from the outside world. Particularly in the more urban areas, where the buildings almost reached the cave roofs, criminal rot had started to grow, secure in the moon’s out-of-the-way location and quiet culture to help preserve anonymity.
By the time Endurance arrived a day and a half after the attack on Earth, Matthias and Chris had calculated that they had at least six hours’ head start on the Haxozin. The gravity on a stick technology couldn’t function at full power near the natural gravity of planets. As long as Thomas’s crew worked quickly, they could scour Enceladus for information and be on their way before the invaders arrived from Earth.
Endurance passed through the double airlocks in the moon’s surface and landed in a parking lot. Thomas led the way down the boarding ramp. Areva Praphasat left the ship with Thomas and Archibald and promptly vanished behind the rows of parked ships. Thomas let her go; she’d be around when she was needed.
“In case you’re thinking of turning on us,” Thomas muttered to Archibald, who shambled along next to him, “you should know Areva’s watching.”
“Hah!” hacked the old man. “She’s always watching. If she’d been around when I was tryin’ to sell information, I’d never have managed it. Same with Mattie; that boy’s a genius. You got yourself a good crew, Captain.”
“I know it.”
They picked their way through the narrow streets, dodging pedestrians and two layers of hovercar traffic. Thomas tried not to feel claustrophobic under the dark ceiling. He missed the stars.
The local UELE offices occupied a prominent place in the center of Portsmouth City. A freshly painted UELE logo stood out in vibrant color above the door, and the offices had expanded since the last time Thomas was here. The pervasive smell of salt water from the nearby underground ocean hadn’t changed.
Thomas climbed three steps to the front entry, passed through the sliding doors, and flashed his pocket comp badge at the young man behind the front desk. “I need to see your captain.”
He and Archibald were ushered to the third floor, to a moderate-sized office with refurbished furniture. Awards and family photos adorned the walls, and a well-tended vine spilled out of its pot on a bookshelf. A female officer sat behind the desk, captain’s patch on one shoulder of her blue uniform shirt, certification patches on the other. Her sleeves were rolled up to the elbows, a concession to her position, but the uniform indicated that she hadn’t lost touch with street work. She was engaged in spitfire dialogue with someone via her desk monitor. A flush showed beneath her dark complexion.
“I don’t know!” she said. “Yes, I got the same message from Dispatch, but I have no more information than you do.” She glanced up as Thomas and Archibald entered, nodded to the desk officer, and waved him out of the room. “I’ll let you know if we learn anything else. Right now I have to go.” She tapped her intercom earpiece to end the conversation.
She stood and extended a hand to Thomas, glancing once at his rank patch. “Captain.”
“Captain,” he answered, accepting the shake. “I’m Thomas Withers.”
“Sekai Nandoro. You here to tell us what the hell’s going on? That was one of my counterparts on Titan. We all got this message from Dispatch saying Earth had been invaded, and to launch all ships.”
“Did you?”
“Yes, but I didn’t know where to send ours. They’re hanging out in orbit of Saturn with everyone else from the area. We haven’t heard from our commissioner, so we’re just waiting. It’s been a bad time.”
“Yes. Yes it has.”
Her eyes widened. “So it’s true?”
“The Haxozin fleet ambushed Earth two days ago. Once they’ve secured that part of the system, they’ll be on their way here.”
/> “You escaped?”
“Yes. Have you heard from any other ships?”
“No. We guessed any ships that escaped would either use their D Drives if they had them, or find somewhere in the interplanetary void to regroup. I was going to send my patrol ships to help once we found out where they went.”
“There might not be a regrouping. The fighting was bad. It’s possible no other Earth-based ships made it.”
Captain Nandoro took a deep breath and began to roll down her shirtsleeves. “All right. Then the regrouping starts here. What do we need to know?”
Thomas shook his head. “I’m not here to bolster your defenses. My ship has D Drive. I’m leaving the solar system and looking for some way to fight back.”
“Alone?”
“It’s the only chance, and we’re the only ones. Any D Drive ships returning from outside the system will be captured as soon as they reach Earth.”
Nandoro finished buttoning her cuffs and straightened her shoulders. “Fair point. Anything you need from us before you go?”
“Actually, yes.” Thomas motioned Archibald forward. “This is my ship’s janitor.”
“You still have one?” asked Nandoro.
Archibald smiled and shrugged. “Legacy position.”
“I need you to show him your arrest profiles,” said Thomas. “We think someone he used to know has information we can use to track down any Haxozin weaknesses.”
Nandoro nodded and spun her monitor to face them, then began tapping commands on the screen. “Of course. Anything I can do.”
“Start with criminal records from about eighty years ago,” said Thomas. When Nandoro gave him a puzzled look, he jerked his head toward Archibald. “He’s been around for a while.”
Nandoro set Archibald to scrolling through old arrest records and mugshots, filtering the results to only include those individuals still living on Enceladus.
While the janitor tapped at the screen, Nandoro spoke quietly to Thomas. “Give me your honest opinion. Can we win?”