“But not.Too. Much.”
Elfrida’s mouth went dry.
“When you uncovered the POCK smuggling racket, you strayed outside the parameters of the test as it was designed. That activated a different test flow. Which you also passed—by surviving; and by participating in the capture of that gang of smugglers. They will be going back to Earth to face trial. Let’s hope they survive the journey.
“So. You needn’t answer immediately, but ....”
The dean was speaking to Kristiansen now. The girls exchanged a confused glance.
“Have you ever considered a career with the ISA?”
Kristiansen’s mouth hung open. He stuttered, “The Intelligence Security Agency?”
“Yes, that one.”
The ISA was dreaded throughout the solar system. It operated behind a veil of secrecy, which fed rumors that the ISA was the power behind the United Nations itself.
“Sir!” Colden blurted. “Are you an ISA agent?”
“No. I merely recruit for them.”
Kristiansen said, “Well, I’m not interested. My father’s a Star Force officer. He would never forgive me if I went to work for the spooks.”
“He would never know,” the dean said.
“That’s exactly the point.” Kristiansen slid a wry glance at Colden. “And more importantly …someone else wouldn’t forgive me, either.”
“Damn straight,” Colden said. She was smiling.
“I put your name forward, too,” the dean said to Elfrida. “But they took a pass. Something to do with your heritage.”
Elfrida shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I’m not interested, anyway.” She had a lump in her throat. “I didn’t join the Space Corps just to quit as soon as the going gets tough.”
Colden reached behind Kristiansen’s back and squeezed Elfrida’s hand.
But something else had occurred to Elfrida. “Sir, is that why … never mind.”
“Something to say, Goto?”
“I was just wondering. The Love Shack’s hub. It helped me to escape.”
“It helped us, too,” Kristiansen said. “Brad tried to turn the sprinklers on me. They didn’t work. The hub wouldn’t obey his commands. But it helped me to access and download the ship’s log, which I gave you, sir.”
The dean nodded. “The Love Shack’s hub was compromised by the ISA some time ago. It was an undercover operation. However, the MI prioritized your safety over the needs of the operation. Fortunately for you three.”
Elfrida nodded in heartfelt agreement.
“It recognized you as Space Corps agents, and prioritized your survival accordingly. The operation is now blown. Still, with the ship’s log in hand, we may be able to reel in a few of the bigger fish out there. All in all, not a bad result.”
The dean stood up.
“Your final assignments, then. Kristiansen: UNLEOSS. The blue sky divison needs out-of-the-box thinkers.”
Kristiansen gasped. Elfrida couldn’t tell whether he was shocked or relieved. The UN Low Earth Orbit Space Station was the equivalent of being posted to Hawaii, with better weather.
“Colden, Goto; before I give you your assignments, I’d like you to answer one last question. What, in your opinion, should be done about this place?”
“This place, sir?” This was all happening too fast for Elfrida.
“Ganymede. Imagine you’ve been sent here to assess the community. What is your recommendation, based on everything you’ve seen?”
Colden surprised Elfrida. “They need help,” she said. “They’re on their own here, and they know it. That’s why they’re losing their way. They need more support from Earth. Educators, counselors, ethicists. They need a freaking police force.”
Colden, too, had been changed by their ordeal. There were tears in her dark brown eyes. She was clinging to Kristiansen’s hand.
“All right. Colden: you are assigned to telepresence operations on Earth. Don’t cry; it’s not far from UNLOESS.
“Goto?”
“They ought to be evacuated,” Elfrida said. “Every last freaking one of them.” She remembered Nell’s smile at Club Anonymous. The terror she’d felt in the ice tunnels. POCKs waving their little hands at her. The taste of those nutriblocks. “Send the gengineers to Pallas, and resettle the rest of them on Ceres. Let the asteroid colonists grow their own damn buckwheat. There’s too much freaking radiation here, anyway. I had to get half the blood in my body replaced.”
To her astonishment, the dean grinned at her. “Hear, hear. As they say, pigs might fly … but then again, pigs do fly, here, so who knows. In the future, Ganymede may be brought fully within the UN community. For now, the Space Corps has other projects that require … ah … a certain principled ruthlessness. Goto, you’re assigned to the United Nations Venus Remediation Project.”
Venus!
Elfrida sagged. “Venus, Venus, Venus,” she whispered. Kristiansen and Colden slapped her back and congratulated her with warm sincerity.
“I expect great things of all three of you,” the dean said. “And now I think we ought to give Mr. Shyaka back his office.”
Squeak!
“What was that?” the dean said.
Lopsided on her crutch, Colden swung across the LivingLawn. The door was a soundproof curtain of microbeads. She shoved through it with the other two close behind. In the receptionist’s office, Shyaka knelt on the grass with his bottom in the air, reaching under the receptionist’s desk.
Elfrida dropped to her knees, shoved Shyaka out of the way, and reached in.
A baby POCK climbed onto her hand.
Colden had found the infant in the hold of the Love Shack, miraculously still alive. She had refused to let it out of her sight since. Shyaka’s receptionist had agreed to watch it for her, but had apparently gone for lunch.
“I wasn’t going to hurt it,” Shyaka said. “I was just offering it a biscuit.”
Colden took the little creature from Elfrida. “I’m sorry I called you a Hutu,” she said to Shyaka.
“Well, I am one,” he said blankly.
“That’s … oh, never mind.” Colden cradled her baby POCK. “I’m keeping it, sir.”
“You won’t be allowed to take it to Earth.”
“Then Kristiansen can keep it for me. Or Goto.”
Shyaka cleared his throat. “Maybe I could keep it for you. It seems to like the grass in here. I’ll set up a vid feed so you know it hasn’t been turned into nutriblocks.”
“I—I guess that would work.”
Elfrida smiled. Personally, memories were the only souvenirs she wanted from Ganymede. She made a mental note to remove that piercing, too.
★
“I’m going to straighten out,” she texted Colden later. “No more drugs. No more women. I might even let my hair go back to its natural color.”
“You mean it isn’t naturally pink?”
“I got Venus! I’m not screwing this up.”
Strapped into their couches on the Sargent Shriver, they watched Ganymede shrink on the big screen, a blue-white hailstone.
“I won’t have you around to keep me pointed in the right direction anymore,” Elfrida texted. “To rescue the baby POCKs of the universe. So I’m just going to have to be really careful …never, ever to get into a mess like this again.”
THE END
Elfrida Goto returns in The Galapagos Incident, followed by The Vesta Conspiracy, The Mercury Rebellion, and The Luna Deception (coming in 2015). You can get The Galapagos Incident for FREE by subscribing to my newsletter. You’ll also get access to lots of exclusive content, including contests and giveaways. Here’s that sign-up link:
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Felix
Books by Felix R. Savage
The Solarian War Saga, in chronological order:
Crapkiller
The Galapagos Incident
The Vesta Conspiracy
> A Very Merry Zero-Gravity Christmas (short story)
The Mercury Rebellion
The Luna Deception (coming in 2015)
Stand-alone
Finity (A Story of Mars Exploration)
Mercy (A Fantasy Novella of Revenge)
… and more to come!
CRAPKILLER
(A PREQUEL TO THE SOLARIAN WAR SAGA)
A Thrilling Science Fiction Novella
Copyright © 2015 by Felix R. Savage
The right to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by Felix R. Savage. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher or author.
First published in the United States of America in 2015 by Knights Hill Publishing.
Cover images by
DepositPhotos / ooGleb
DepositPhotos / tatchaihot
DepositPhotos / Rastan
BigStockPhotos / Tristan3D
Cover design by Donna Mixon:[email protected]
Interior design and layout by Felix R. Savage: [email protected]
Table of Contents
Crapkiller
A Note from the Author
More Books by the Author
Crapkiller: A Thrilling Science Fiction Novella (The Solarian War Saga Book 0) Page 10