Quantum

by K A Carter

  ∆∆∆

  The cockpit was its usual low light comfy cabin, Freya sat half asleep in the lounge-like pilot’s seat.

  “Here,” Jericho said. She turned to him fighting the sleepiness of her eyelids and pushing herself forward in the chair. He brought her a warm cup of coffee. She took it with brittle fingers, one of them carrying a pale patch of skin that didn’t match her dark complexion. He had forgotten she had it. It was the regenerative skin graph she got after nearly burning her hand off fixing up the Gilroy.

  “Just in time to drop out of warp,” Freya said.

  “You know where we’re going?”

  “I…may have eavesdropped a few of Gideon’s conversations,” she smiled with her teeth and took a sip.

  “Good don’t stop, I’d rather come to you about it. I don’t want it changing its answers just cause I’m there. It seems to trust Gideon out of anyone for some reason.”

  Freya nodded, “Aye aye,” She looked back at her screen, the population of assorted colors all displaying equally important information. “Shit, here we go.”

  The ship slowed out of warp smoothly and came to stop. “Is that it?” he said. The Icarus screens showed a planet with an asteroid ring. The angelic motion circling a green world with clouds cascading in unison. It was beautiful to look at. No orange glow that resembled the cloudy marble that was Titan. He almost couldn’t remember what it looked like anymore. He was transfixed on what he could see in front of him. It looked like the likeliest of candidates for an inner planet. One that rivaled Sol’s most prized planets of the federation. Maybe the people here were better. No overlying government that took advantage of the ill-informed and poor to do the work the upper classes wouldn’t. No corporate giants that played the game so well that even the federation were scared of them. Something about the place attracted him to it.

  “Well this will be interesting,” said a voice out of his muffled ears.

  He snapped out of it, he had been gazing out into the picturesque planet twirling itself in the infinite oblivion, only accompanied by a star in its rightful distance. “What?” he said

  “I said this will be interesting,” Freya keyed in a few commands on her pilot controls and it cyphered through tabs until it stopped on a large schematic display.

  Jericho could see the persistent planet transfixing him once more through the transparent schematics. He pretended he was looking at the former.

  “Population is approximately three hundred and fifty-eight thousand nine hundred and twenty-two inhabitants. No nuclear traces so I’m assuming the colony is in a developing stage.”

  “How do you know all that?” Jericho asked, finally directing his eyes to her.

  “Oh, the readouts. Icarus can collect data and stuff. Long range scanners can reach out pretty far. Any place with signals typically transmit data like this.”

  “Wow, guess there’s a lot we still don’t know about our new ship.”

  “Guess not,” Freya placed her mug in a small slot next to the pilot seat and keyed more commands. “I have us on an approach vector. We’re gonna have to land planetside.”

  “Why?” Jericho asked, immediately realizing why before she said anything.

  “The asteroid belt. I don’t have any orbital drift charts and I don’t know how to get them here so we’re landing,” she said with a sass. “less you want to see how much of a beating the Icarus can take.

  Jericho shook his head. “No thanks.”

  ∆∆∆

  “Who’s all going Cap?” Scud appealed. The galley looked a little more crowded having everyone there. Almost everyone. Gideon wasn’t there which meant he could only be in a few other places.

  “We all are,” he said. “Freya is landing us down as we speak. I assume you guys know what we’re dealing with.”

  “Yeah, yeah. More humans, more shit I don’t understand and blah blah,” Morris said. He chomped down on a thick power bar the galley was stocked full of. Jericho could see the lemon color and for a moment felt almost as though he could taste it.

  “Great, so no one will be caught off guard,”

  “What are we supposed to do here?” said Anda. She sat closest to Jericho and looked up at him with endearing eyes. Her words jumbling together as she spoke quickly; she couldn’t help that.

  Not a second after a pubescent voice could be heard. “Yeah,” Keon said. “Is there really any reason to stop here?

  “Your primary goal is to find out whatever we can about them. There are humans down there which means they had to have traveled from back home.”

  That part must’ve made sense, cause no one else said anything.

  “We shouldn’t spend too long here,” said a quaint voice aside him. Araime only now making herself known.

  “I don’t intend to.” Jericho looked beside himself at Araime. She remained cloaked by her hooded robe but didn’t stray away from looking him eye to eye. Something about it made him believe that she trusted him, and that he could trust her. Her eyes slowly changed in front of him, from golden to a vibrant violet. She walked off. The background cloud of conversation drawing him back to the rest of his crew.

  An unfamiliar turbulence sprung up and leveled off. It wasn’t the worst he’d felt before but it did the trick of making landing feel a bit uneasy. Finally, it slowed to a stop.

  “We just made landfall,” Freya over the intercom.

  “Alright crew suit up,”

  Jericho geared up in one of the environmental suits, there were little more than a dozen. Some of them different shades of grey. His was black with an unfamiliar insignia on the left chest plate.

  “Do we need these? Should I be worried?” said Anda disconcertedly. She squeezed into the fiber mesh under-armor.

  “No,” he pressed the intercom next to him. “Freya give me something. What am I walking into?”

  The intercom churned with a light after static from the core and finally she said “About a g and a half. I’m reading eighty-two percent nitrogen and fifteen percent oxygen. The rest a mixture of various gases. Nothing crazy.”

  Jericho shrugged his eyebrows back at Anda and smirked through them. “See?” he said. “Nothing to worry about.”

  Chapter 31: Nario

  The whispers weren’t as silent as many of the people thought they were. Clearly, if Nario could hear them without really focusing in on them. Glima Docking Port was like the scene out of one of the worst glamour movies he could have imagined seeing. Everyone was grandiose and plush as the royal families he’d been taught about as a young learner.

  Many of them wore the shiniest of jewelry. Lockets and wrist slips that looked like they ought to be funding colonies single-handedly. That wasn’t the lifestyle he was comfortable with. Nario’s father was a botanist and had worked on the inner-planetary environmental stabilization projects. All of the terraformed planets required perpetual upkeep. Even generations after the first finished planet. His mother had died in an inconspicuous space-faring accident when he was a young boy.

  His father, rest in peace, provided him with stipends and sent him off to boarding primary schools. It wasn’t anything like what he was seeing. Much of his early life spent rather modestly.

  The gaudy rich laughed and giggled at each other as though the lives they knew weren’t in jeopardy. It pained Nario to see this side of the civilians life. At the end of the day this was part of what the marines were protecting; what he was protecting.

  Nario sat waiting, the restaurant on Glima Station was extravagant to the point of overabundance. In front him was a well-prepared fish. It was whole, eyes hollowed and smelled like the freshest of spices. He had taken a few bites of it but was more focused on the things around him. Although he had intended to meet with Rhion, he had been fed a lead by his old friend that a corporate player may be interested in speaking. The man behind the second largest economic giant behind Orcus.

  A fair haired man approached the table. His face carried a smile and he held out his hand b
efore he got to the table, which meant he was eager to meet Nario. That or his tack for being overly polite played into his good fortune.

  “Ambassador Dios-Lobin, it is quite a pleasure,” He stopped at the table but didn’t sit down right away. His voice was sleek and carried an accent reminiscent of the Spanish films his father sent him when he was younger. Something that rung in his head as a part of his heritage.

  “Director Marchides, pleasure is all mine.” Nario shook the man’s hand firmly and threw in an equally radiant smile.

  Director Rudi Marchides. Most of his constituents would label him a philanthropist and prominent political executive. The Director of Operations for Tobayashi-Marchides.

  Nario knew this move would put an even bigger target on his back but that was what the federation was good for. It was time to start pushing up against The Brink. He had compiled a list of the most influential people in the outer planets and moons past the belt and came up with three game changers. Unfortunately, number one on the list had just attempted an assassination. But it seemed more likely to be a scare tactic or kidnapping, Vacura was surely devising some sort of plan that meant gaining a leg up on the CPF.

  Marchides was the man in the shadows when it came to corporate politics. He owned a fair portion of real estate in most of the inner planets. Dozens of stations scattered throughout the solar system and was currently funding Miranda and one of the moons in the Jovian system he couldn’t recall. It was enough that he came in second on the list. Why he didn’t come to mind was only contingent on the dichotomy of his efforts in two separate avenues. That of a charitable humanitarian.

  The others, Omid Farasik of Farasik Trading Company, Phaedra King of Northbreak Combine, and even the Merae Field Organization, all of them seemingly under the strict umbrella of Orcus. It would almost be a waste of time to talk to any of them. With the Brink being left to govern itself, it set up the perfect opportunity for the corporations to develop a jointed governing agreement. Essentially, they would be left to the moons and stations each of them owned and would only need to consort with each other when making interstellar trade deals and militaristic decisions. Thankfully, to Nario’s knowledge, neither of those decisions had reached the skirt of the Kuiper Belt yet. It was in the works, but nothing quite definitive.

  “What brings you to the fanciest station in The Brink?” Marchides asked, he unfurled a cloth laying it down on his lap and signaling a waiter with flick of his finger.

  “I’m sure you know that the federation is looking for a partnership with the Brink,” Nario said.

  Marchides nodded as a young waiter mentally jotted down his order and strutted to the kitchen. “I do,” he said letting out a faint chuckle. “Tob-Mar is expanding and the thought of partnering with the CPF is intriguing. I suppose we’ve grown tiresome of our counterparts.”

  Nario leaned up slightly in his seat, “That’s good to – “

  “But, doing so would paint a nice big target on our assets, Orcus is not as diplomatic as I’m sure you know.”

  Nario blinked and took a gulp of the brandy that sat still in a silver infused cutlass glass. “So, you know about the attempt on my life then?”

  “Me and everyone who is anyone in The Brink knows,” a smile remained on his face, even after the waiter brought a gourmet dish with chicken and interestingly placed accents of garnish and after he took a small scoop.

  “I want to be frank with you,” Nario said, “right now the fed is barely keeping its head above drowning. There is a war on the horizon. I know that we can’t do it without the help of everyone. All of us, working together as a unified front. If we do this and succeed the possibilities are unimaginable. Actual colonies outside of the solar system, a full functioning alliance with other species. I’ve seen it, and I know it’s our best chance. Otherwise, we’re no better off than our ancestors.”

  Marchides didn’t stop eating. He swung his eyes around the room while he chewed. He waited until he swallowed what was left and set the utensils down. “So that was it?” he said. He sat up in his seat his posture more professional now and mimicking someone who was actually running a multi-trillion unit company.

  “Was what?”

  “That was your big pitch that would convince me that this was the right thing to do and that by helping the federation, I was essentially helping myself.” His face was serious; his smile had been wiped away by the cloth he kept in his lap. “You seem like you are the right man to talk to. I can tell things like that. But you’re shit out of luck if that’s all you got.”

  Nario was confused and his brows scrunched up close to his nose and squinted his eyes as they usually did to show it. He opened his mouth to speak but didn’t have a response.

  “Ambassador, I am a man of contingency, I have to be prepared for everything no matter how minuscule it may seem. And I like your speech, but I need more.”

  Nario hadn’t prepped for a bartering dinner. All he knew was that someone as distinguished as Rudi Marchides, would have done anything to help keep the people as safe as they were capable of. Maybe it was all a ploy. It could’ve been that the Marchides the media knew was a scripted bot to the real one. A man with his own secrets and games.

  “What more do you need?” Nario asked.

  “For starters, you want access to prototype vessels, black projects, my military force, the whole basket.”

  Nario gave a subtle frown and nodded.

  “I want pull. I want a direct line to Erusha, a seat at the table as it would have it, and I have a good feeling you’re going to be that. I can’t risk everything on whim. I have an image to protect.”

  Nario frowned a little more and said, “I misjudged you. I thought you were a paragon. I thought you would be open to helping with as much as there is at stake.

  Marchides grinned sinisterly and stood up. “There is no such thing out here. There is only the vast darkness that so ardently strangles us into our places. I am a man with a lot, but until I have what I seek, I will be just another man playing with his toys.”

  He placed the cloth over the food he’d been eating and walked the opposite way, two guards joining him in an entourage neat the exit of the restaurant. Nario knew his marines were somewhere not far off.

  It gave Nario a lot to think about. Why would a man like Marchides want a line to Erusha. There were only so many possible outcomes to such a detail. If he had to guess it was something to do with the government and elections in the Federation. The thought was so unnerving to Nario that he had lost his appetite. He was hardly eating his fish anyways.

  Back on the Venture, Halle sauntered up to Nario. She was typing on a hand terminal and slid it in her back pocket when she looked up to see him. “Where to next?” she asked. For a moment her youth boggled Nario and he had to remember that she was the solo pilot of the Venture.

  “Probably, back to federal space. I don’t want to go home so quickly but I’d rather not get shot at anymore.”

  “I heard that,” she said, letting out an elevated laugh. “Sorry I wasn’t there. I ain’t good with a blaster but I can throw a rock pretty good.”

  Nario smiled but didn’t laugh, he was too serious about it.

  “I’m just waiting for the last bit of marines to trickle back in. If you want I can tell them to take a bit longer,” she said.

  “That works.”

  In his private cabin, he undressed and got relaxed. There was no use in bracing himself for whatever was waiting in his messages while still wearing the typical uptight garment.

  He opened his terminal and toggled to messages. There were three and all of them from Rhion. Knowing his best friend, three messages were a bad thing. He let it settle in that he could be reading the worst news he will ever hear. His heart felt hard and he could feel it beating without touching his chest. Nario let out a sigh and clicked on the bottom of the three. It was dated four hours ago and was sent first.

  Vice Ambassador Thaddeus Rhion: Transmission date: 2642. 12:58 GST.r />
  D.L. I made contact with Corrinne. She’s seen combat. There’s something I have to tell you, get back to me asap

  It was Nario’s greatest fears manifesting themselves in an almost instantaneous pain in his chest. He didn’t want to read the others but forced himself to. The second and third message was Rhion urging to contact him, each of them roughly two hours apart.

  The feeling in his chest didn’t fade. Nario set up his terminal the way the last message Rhion sent said too. After he messaged him to let him know he got it, he waited. It didn’t take much longer. Nario wasn’t counting but the response was almost immediate by deep space standards. A tightbeam untethered to the typical subspace frequencies. His terminal chimed with a bright glow to accept a call.

  He clicked on it as quick as he could, in hopes that the anticipation of bad news would go away quickly and he could begin his grieving process.

  Rhion popped onto the screen, he had cut his red tinted hair into a buzz cut and covered it with a Federal Navy Admiral cap.

  “D.L.,” he said, his voice hoarse. Behind him was a backdrop of Martian beauty. The sunset calmly dimming. “Hold on, connecting her now.” Rhion extended his hands past the range of the screen and was typing by the sound of holographic keynote response. Moments later the screen split and the brawny brunette appeared. She sat in a marine barracks, the sounds of fellow soldiers conversing and exchanging fits of laughter.

  “Cor,” Nario said under his breath. Corrinne gave a smirk which signaled that she had heard him. “I was worried you were KIA.” The pain in his chest slowly subsided as he sat up.

  “No not yet,” she brushed her hair from her left cheek. “It’s bad over here though. Did you know it was going to be this bad?”

  “I didn’t. I don’t know. No one has given me anything to go off of.”