“When do you want to meet her?” he asked cautiously, as if he may be being led into a trap.
Arlene shrugged and started tidying up pieces of lab equipment that had been left on the workbench. “Whenever,” she said simply. “Although, you’ve got to promise this is a joint effort. You’re not going to just ditch me with your charge and then leave me to do all the mentoring and training.”
Giles started to protest, his expression a mixture of indignation and innocence around the accusation. “I…”
Arlene reeled around and pointed her finger at him. “Say it, space boy. She’s your responsibility and I’m just helping you with her.”
Giles threw his hands up in surrender. “Yes, yes. I agree.”
Arlene carried on tidying the lab equipment up. Giles added more quietly, “We’re in this together.”
Arlene didn’t react and Giles didn’t push it.
Arlene started muttering away quietly. “It’s like you give me a child to look after and then swam off without any recourse. I don’t want to have to raise another one, which is what this will be,” she added. “You hear me?” she said more loudly.
“Yes, I hear you,” he confirmed obediently, folding his arms and settling himself down.
Arlene still had her back to him as she worked away. “Anything else you’d like to tell me?” she asked. “You seem… different.”
Giles felt his heart rate increase. “How so?” he asked, as innocently as he could muster.
“Like you’re hiding something,” she told him.
“What could I possibly be hiding?”
“I dunno. But it’s like you have a spring in your step. Which isn’t like you… unless…?”
Arlene stopped, turned around and regarded him suspiciously.
“What?” he asked defensively.
“Unless…” she said slowly, unknowingly keeping him in suspense, “you’ve got a new project?”
Giles tried not to allow his exhale of relief be obvious. “Nope. No new project. Unless, of course, you count dear little Anne. And I can assure you mentoring isn’t the kind of project that puts a spring in my step.”
“Unconvinced,” Arlene proclaimed, waving a hand. “After all, I heard about your other little mentoring project.”
Giles looked confused.
“The smoke bomb guy,” she clarified, turning around after moving a book.
“Oh yes,” he said, relieved. “Well… one less ignorant mind on the planet…” he tried to justify.
Arlene chuckled to herself, turning to look at him again. “You don’t fool me, Professor Kurns.”
Giles regained his game. “I wasn’t trying to.”
Arlene’s chuckling subsided. “Look, I know you love it really. Teaching. Educating. We’ve landed in your dream day job!” she exclaimed with a graceful wave of her arms, as if bowing to the room. “If space anthropology field work were ever off the table…”
Giles smiled awkwardly as he took off his glasses to clean them. “Well, yes,” he conceded. “I expect you’re right.”
“Meanwhile,” she noted a little more pointedly, “one of us has to do some real work… else we’ll be stuck here forever.” She turned her attention back to organizing some samples on the bench next to her.
“Yes, how’s it coming?” he asked, glad for the change of subject.
She shook her head. “Slooooowly.”
“Where are we at?”
“Well,” she sighed, pulling a tray from a drawer off to her right. She plonked it down on the table Giles was perched. “It seems that there is DNA in it. Hence the…” she gestured at the microscope and the samples scattered everywhere.
Giles looked intrigued as he hurriedly put his glasses back on - as if they actually did anything for him being able to see better. “You mean of a species?”
Arlene pursed her lips. “No. Can’t seem to get it to match anything resembling life. Too chaotic.”
Giles frowned, looking from the talisman to his partner in crime. “You think it might be just a data storage thing?”
Arlene raised her eyebrows. “Possibly,” she agreed optimistically. “I’m working at trying to decode it. It’s just taking forever.”
Giles poked at the talisman, remembering the saga they had been through to acquire it. “Anything you can give ADAM to process?” he mused, almost to himself, as his creative mind churned.
“Not yet,” she said, her lips firmly together in concentration. “Not until I’ve got a handle on a few creative leaps to try on him.”
Giles nodded, his eyes still on the talisman. “Okay. Anything I can do?” he mumbled half heartedly.
“Yes!” Arlene told him sharply. “Stop bringing me little girls with energy problems!”
“Sorry,” he replied spontaneously. He paused, catching up to her comment. “I’ll do my best.”
Arlene picked up the tray and placed it back in the draw and then shuffled between the drawer and her microscope, tidying up samples. “Yeah, between you with Anne, and now Molly’s problem, it’ll be a miracle if I get any work done at all.”
Giles froze. “Molly has a problem?”
“Hmmm, I’m not entirely sure yet,” she replied, oblivious to Giles’s guilty expression. “Sean was going to talk to me again when he gets a minute.”
“Anything serious?” he asked as casually as he could manage.
“I dunno,” she shrugged. “She’s walking a path very few have ever been through in one life time. We’ll have to see.”
Giles contemplated asking more, but then figured anything else could look suspicious. Damn, he wished he knew where he stood with Molly now. It would make everything so much easier.
Arlene returned to busying herself with work. He saw an escape and started heading towards the door. “Okay,” he called back to her as he walked. “I’ll bring Anne by soon then!”
“Okay, fine,” Arlene agreed, her voice muffled by the microscope she was once again peering down. “And in the meantime I’ll try not to die from mundanity!” she added as his footsteps disappeared into the corridor beyond.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Aboard the Scamp Princess, unknown location
“Sean?”
“Yes, Scamp.”
“Those coordinates we’re heading towards…”
“Yes?”
“My sensors are telling me that there’s nothing there.”
“Yes. That’s right.” Sean closed the holo video he’d been rewatching for the hundredth time and swiveled round to check the instruments and readings that Scamp was talking about.
“So why are we going there?” Scamp asked, confused.
“Because that’s where we need to be to receive the coordinates of where we’re actually going.”
Scamp’s simulated voice cracked over the aging intercom. “How does that work?”
Sean wasn’t making this discussion EI-friendly at all.
“Well, this is where my friend — and I use the term loosely — and I decided would be our transmission point. If we ever needed to meet again.”
“How do you mean?” Scamp appeared as a visual simulation on the console in front of Sean, as if giving Sean a focal point might actually help in extracting an explanation from him.
“Well,” Sean started slowly, “a long time ago while you were still in the employ of our illustrious Empress… I met a girl.”
Scamp’s expression changed to one of genuine surprise. “Oh. You were involved?”
“Yes, you could say that. But things happened and she was in trouble. I helped her out and things… happened.”
Scamp raised one simulated eyebrow. “You’re being very vague. I hope you’re not this amorphous on your mission reports. It could make for some very unsatisfying reading.”
Sean’s face suddenly looked old. “Well…” he sighed. “Long story short, we had to part company to make sure we were both going to be safe. And because… well, I couldn’t guarantee I wasn’t going to kill her m
yself, between her annoying habits and boneheadedness.”
Scamp chuckled over the intercom. It sounded like a combination of kittens giggling crossed with claws down a blackboard. “Sounds like a match made in heaven,” she teased.
Sean scowled. “Not even a little bit. Anyway, this was the pick up point where if we needed to be in touch with one another, we would send a message to a special server, and then transmit the meeting point coordinates to this spot.”
Scamp frowned, still befuddled by this strange protocol. “Why wouldn’t you just send them in the initial message?”
“Because,” Sean explained, “if the message were ever intercepted then our meeting would be compromised.”
There was a pause, then Scamp confirmed. “I understand.”
“Cool,” Sean acknowledged, going back to monitoring his instruments. “And just keep that to yourself, eh? I don’t want Molly and the others finding out.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want them following me, or getting involved in anything in the future,” he said, a hint of frustration in his voice. “The less they know the better.”
Scamp once again displayed his preset “confused face.” “But I’m sure if they knew your problem they would be more than happy to help. Molly helped Joel with one of his things a few weeks ago.”
Sean looked up, “What thing?”
“Oh. You didn’t know?” Scamp cooed coolly. “I guess this is what happens when people keep secrets.” She looked satisfied that she had made his point cleverly.
“Look Scamp, I’m not keeping secrets for the sake of being mysterious,” Sean retorted. “I’m trying to keep my friends safe. Yes, Molly would be behind me on this in an instant, but I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to any of them as a result of something I dragged them into.”
Scamp shook his virtual head. “I’m sure they wouldn’t agree with that.”
“Maybe not,” Sean agreed, “but this is my mess, and I’m taking care of it. If they know anything, they’d be at risk. If they came with me, they’d be at risk. And quite honestly, I don’t even know if I’m coming back from this alive.”
Scamp’s representation on screen morphed into an expression of concern. “How do you mean?”
“This friend…” Sean confessed, “she was mixed up with some very dangerous people. That’s all you need to know.” His tone was definite.
Scamp had the sophistication to recognize the vocal nuance. “Okay, Sean. I’ll respect that. For now. But if there is anything that pertains to this operation you need to start talking before we get to that meeting point. I need to be fully briefed.”
Sean sighed and sat back in the console chair. Scamp was right. And if Scamp was going to go along with his secrecy thing, then she owed him the full story.
Just then the message screen started flashing, and Sean sat up.
“Looks like your coordinates just came in,” Scamp reported.
“Great!” he said, a little more engaged now that there was progress. “Set a course,” he instructed. “And then I’ll tell you everything you need to know for the next phase of our little escapade.”
The ship hovered in mid-space light years from anything for a few seconds. And then it vanished, leaving only the trace of a gate jump.
Sean Royale truly was on his own now.
“So.” Sean laid his head back on the seats headrest. “There was a girl.”
“This sounds like the typical start of a bad situation,” Scamp interjected.
Sean looked over at Scamp’s face on the screen. “That’s because it is, and who is telling this story?”
“Well, you. However, you aren’t doing it very quickly,” Scamp replied.
“That’s because stories that start ‘there was a girl’ usually hurt and it takes a bit to be willing to yank that bandage off.”
“Oh.”
“So,” Sean started again. “There was a girl…”
This time, Scamp didn’t interrupt.
EPILOGUE
Common area, Gaitune-67
Oz’s voice interrupted the chattering in their audio implants. “Hey, I’m here.”
Paige and Maya looked at each other, then glanced around conspiratorially.
“Ok, go ahead,” Paige whispered taking a sip of her sneaky home-made margarita.
They’d been working for 48 hours straight since they found out about Sean, and even though they were intent on running down every dead end lead they could come up with Molly and Joel had insisted they take a break, have a drink and then get some rack time.
“I brought Bourne,” Oz explained. “I figured you two are safe… as in, not going to fill his fragile little mind with death and destruction.”
Paige raised one eyebrow, more for Maya’s benefit than anything. “Who says? If you don’t spill on what you know, there may be carnage… of the cyber variety!”
Oz chuckled. “Well, we’ll see. But remember my loyalty is to Molly first.”
Another voice interrupted on their implants. “I don’t know why I even need to be here. I was perfectly hap-“
Oz interrupted the second voice. “Bourne, binge-watching Netflix is not the same as getting real-life interactions.”
Bourne’s digitally rough voice responded. “It is. I’m even learning about vampires.”
Maya’s lips turned up into a half-smile. “What’s he watching?” she asked with morbid curiosity.
“Vampire Diaries,” Oz responded. Maya could almost hear the eyeroll in his voice.
Paige sniggered. “LOVE that show…”
“Besides,” Oz continued parenting Bourne, “you do realize that the representation they have of vampires is completely off kilter with real life, right?”
Bourne muttered something which Paige and Maya couldn’t make out.
“Wow…” Paige commented, “teenage years come quick when you’re an AI, eh?”
Oz sighed. “You’re frikkin’ telling me…”
Maya suddenly thought of something, almost spilling her drink. “Ooo – before I forget,” she said. “I was made on the military-base, right? They would have had me on video walking in and out of there?”
Paige’s eyes flickered in recognition. In amongst everything she’d forgotten that detail.
“Yes,” Oz confirmed. “Although I’ve already enacted the same online protocol I’ve been using for Molly.”
Maya frowned. “What’s that?”
Oz loved these moments. “Well, since there is no way I can stop you people from walking around and drawing attention to yourselves, I realized I needed to make sure that every image of you that is ever put online needs to be… corrupted… in some way to avoid being flagged as a match by facial recognition.”
Maya was tech-savvy. And yet she was still frowning in confusion. “What does that mean?”
Oz had a smile in his tone. “Quite simply I just make sure that the faces and various features like height and build are… altered… so that the systems can’t detect them as a match.”
Paige looked horrified for a moment. “You’re not altering us to make up look ugly are you?”
Oz was audibly chuckling now. “Well, ugly is such a subjective term. But no. I don’t think so. Just changing the proportions enough so as to throw the algorithms. That’s all.”
Paige looked somewhat relieved. “But why don’t you just take them down?”
“And draw even more attention?” Oz chuffed. “Yeah, I was doing that, but then the disappearance of the images was making things more complicated. And then Molly went and started the university and… well, let’s just say that Estarians have their comfort levels and having a board member whose image kept disappearing was spooking them.”
Maya giggled and covered her mouth with her hand.
“Well, ok then,” she said, evidently convinced she wasn’t going to have the military on her tail. “Now onto the important questions. We’re dying to know… what the hell was going on with Moll
y and Giles? It was Giles in there with her the other day right?”
Their audio implants were quiet for a moment while Oz processed what he was going to say. “Ok,” he said finally. “Yes. It was Giles. And yes, something did happ-“
“I KNEW it!” Maya exclaimed, suddenly animated, snapping her fingers. Excitement vibrated through her whole persona. “And good on her. About time one of these dudes stepped up and…” She stopped, realizing she was about to be crude.
About their boss.
And their friend.
Then she noticed Paige’s expression: it was one of immediate concern layered on top of the existing anxiety of their missing team mate and friend.
“What is it?” Maya asked.
Paige tipped her head slowly to one side, searching to put words to her feelings. “I dunno. I mean, I didn’t like Giles at first. But he’s kinda grown on me… especially since he stepped up into this being all he can be and tackling the talisman quest and all…”
“And his role at the university… to support Molly,” Maya interjected.
“Yes… and yet. I dunno.” Paige’s shoulders dropped an inch. “I just feel like it’s a bit…”
She didn’t finish the thought.
“Sudden?” Maya offered.
“Reactionary,” Paige decided. “I mean, she just reconnected with her parents, she’s got tons going on with the university and some unknown threat. She has the responsibility of a new baby.”
“I’m hardly a baby,” Bourne interjected.
Paige continued, ignoring Bourne’s comment. “… and then I’m sure there’s something else going on with her. Something realm related…but she just hasn’t had chance to deal with it all.”
Maya was bobbing her head gently. “So you’re thinking that her thing with Giles is just a reaction?”
“Maybe.” Paige confessed.
“Well, good for her,” Maya concluded. “I mean, we cope how we cope,” she added, raising her margarita glass.
Paige remained unconvinced. “I suppose,” she said, taking a sip of her own drink.
Oz pipped up. “If I may…” he said, inserting himself into the analysis. “I think Paige is right. Molly has a lot going on, and as her friends who love her very much, we’re right to be concerned. The other thing that we have to remember is that that she is a grown-ass adult, more than capable of making her own decisions. And whatever we think of Giles, or the Molly and Giles combo, we have to respect Molly’s choices.”
Bourne Page 20