by M. D. Cooper
“But it’s a five-hundred-meter warship!” Leanne exclaimed. “You don’t need a ship like that to chase after the Intrepid. You just need an interstellar pinnace.”
A sardonic smile teased the corners of Katrina’s lips. “Yes, that is the point I’ve been trying to make for some time now, but no one has been listening to me.”
Leanne pushed off from the desk and walked to the office’s window, staring out for a moment before turning back to look at Katrina. “You’re really serious about this? About going after the Intrepid?”
“I am.” Katrina’s voice was unwavering and resolute. “What continues to amaze me is that I’m the only one.”
“Everyone is worried about them,” Leanne said. “But the government has debated this, and the arguments have all been made. The veil of secrecy is not to be lifted.”
“Well, given that it is my ship, it’s not the government’s call,” Katrina replied.
“I don’t know that it is yours either. You may get the Victory back from the space force, but that doesn’t mean that you will be allowed to leave the heliosphere in it,” Leanne said as she sat behind her desk, the clear plas surface doing little to mute her clothing’s light show.
“The Veil Act is intended to disallow interstellar and trade activities that would reveal that the Kapteyn’s Star System is inhabited,” Katrina said, trying not to grip the chair’s arms. “Flying after the Intrepid does not go against the spirit of that act. I should know—I’m one of the signatories on it, for light’s sake.”
Leanne folded her hands and rested her chin on them. “It may be that the courts will have to decide upon the law’s intent, in that regard.”
“And the Victory?” Katrina asked. “Are you going to fight me on that, as well?”
Leanne sighed. “It’s a warship, it crews over four hundred. You have no need of such a vessel.”
“Are you sure that is how you want to play this?” Katrina asked. “I know our laws very well.”
“Katrina, this will drag on for years,” Leanne said, her tone moving into the realm of conciliatory pleading. “In the end, you’ll lose.”
Katrina rose from her seat. “I’ve given you fair warning of what I intended to do. This is a thing that will happen. Even if I have to regain the Victorian Presidency, or become the Primacy’s Chancellor.”
Leanne’s eyes grew wide. “Katrina—”
“I’ll be seeing you,” Katrina said and turned away. A smile formed on her lips as she walked out of the president’s office.
Leanne called out to her one last time, but Katrina ignored it.
Troy replied.
Katrina smiled as she stepped into the lift.
Troy chuckled before responding.
Katrina leaned against the lift’s rear wall.
SUITE WITH A VIEW
STELLAR DATE: 08.20.4330 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Katrina’s Quarters, High Victoria
REGION: Victoria, Kapteyn Primacy, Kapteyn’s Star System
“They’re watching your suites, you know,” Laura said as she sat on a sofa in Katrina’s lounge.
Katrina poured two glasses of white wine—Laura’s favorite—and turned toward the seating area. “I know. Troy has it all in hand. Right now, I have no need to deceive; subterfuge will come later.”
“The nets are ablaze with the rumors of what a run for Chancellor by the Matrem Katrina could mean,” Laura said as she took the glass of wine from Katrina. “And speculation about the real reasons why you’re doing this is beginning to circulate.”
Katrina sat and nodded silently, staring out the wraparound window that nearly encircled the entire lounge. It provided a brilliant view of several levels of High Victoria ‘below’ them on the ring, and beyond, the world of Victoria below.
“Are you not worried?” Laura asked.
Katrina glanced at her friend and smiled. Laura was a young woman, only thirty-five years old. She hadn’t been born yet when President Tom had attempted to kidnap Tanis and the Intrepid’s command crew; neither had she seen the Sirian fleet dissolve into atoms as the Edener’s picotech obliterated ships and crews alike.
Laura had never fought the fires that burned across the surface of Victoria after the wreckage fell, attended the hundreds of funerals, or testified at the mass trials where the Sirian invaders were given lifelong prison sentences—those who were spared the death penalty, anyway.
To her, that was a history lesson—even the Intrepid’s departure was a dim childhood memory to her.
Yet somehow, Laura understood Katrina better than anyone.
“Worried?” Katrina repeated the question. “No. Evaluating, yes. Well, I am worried. But it’s for you, Laura. I should fire you soon. When my plan comes to fruition, your part in it will not be looked upon kindly.”
Laura shrugged. “I’ve done nothing illegal…at least not that anyone can trace back to me—I hope.”
“Helps that all the AIs here revere you as a hero and a miracle, Troy,” Katrina said.
Troy replied.
Katrina laughed and shook her head. She was the one who had spearheaded the mission to find AIs lost in the Battle for Victoria. The planet’s moon, Anne, had been riddled with so much debris coming down over the years, that many had said it was a fool’s errand; yet the intact cores of both Troy and Jerome had been found on Anne’s surface.
It was a rescue operation that had earned Katrina the gratitude of the remaining AIs in The Kap.
Troy’s AI core now rested in a pillar in the center of the sitting room—where he’d remained since being restored after the rescue. Katrina gazed at it for a moment as she held her glass to her lips.
“Command calling Kat.” Laura gave a small wave. “You still with us?”
“Hmmm?” Katrina said, focusing on Laura. “Yes, sorry, I was just letting my mind wander for a minute. Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?”
Laura shook her head. “Yes…no…I wish I could, Kat. They’re important to you, the Edeners. And your friend, Tanis—she means the world to you, and you miss her greatly. I can see it in your eyes whenever you think about where that ship might be. I—”
Katrina reached out and touched Laura’s hand as she saw tears from in her friend’s eyes. “You fear you’ll feel the same way about me when I’m gone.”
Laura nodded wordlessly and turned her face aside.
“It’s OK for you to feel torn about this,” Katrina said softly. “These things are never easy. The heart cannot decide, so the mind must. I let my mind keep me here; held in place by my duty, my dedication. But my heart is stronger now…and the stars call me.”
Laura turned to face Katrina, tears spilling out of her eyes once more. “Will you ever come back, Kat?”
“’Ever’…. Ever is a long, long time, Laura. But I do not know, and I do not wish to sow false hope in you.”
Neither woman spoke for several minutes. Katrina’s hips began to feel stiff
. She stretched and let out a long sigh. “I feel like I’m betraying him.”
“By leaving?” Laura asked. “From what you’ve told me, I think he’d care that you were happy more than anything.”
Katrina nodded. “That I understand. I meant the rejuvination. I grew old with him out of respect—stayed old for the same reason. I’ve become accustomed to being an old woman. I think it suits me—but in a couple weeks, I undo that. It feels like erasing our time together.”
“He’ll be forever in your heart, just like a piece of mine is with you, Kat,” Laura whispered. “A part of it will travel across the stars with you, and be lost to me forever. But should I go with you, I’d feel the same loss for my family.”
Katrina gave Laura a kindly smile. “There is no need to be so fatalistic about it. The heart will heal.”
“Yours hasn’t,” Laura said quietly.
“Yes,” Katrina said with a nod. “But mine, I think, has suffered more than most.”
* * * * *
Katrina stared at the holoprojection of herself, and gave a tentative smile. She felt like she was seeing a ghost, a vision from the past.
She was young again.
The rejuv treatment had taken over a week, the doctor admonishing her many times about how long she had let herself go. Over the years, her bone density had decreased and her muscles had weakened. The deterioration had required the regrowth of much of her skeleton, and reinforcement of her joints and ligaments.
Many of her upgrades from the days before she had joined the Noctus rebellion in the Sirius System had also needed replacing, which was fine by Katrina. She would rather be augmented by Edener tech than that of her former people any day.
The doctor had also found it necessary to completely regrow her skin, as well as replace her eyes, which had suffered too much cone and rod damage over the decades to repair.
The process had begun to take so long that she worried it would require postponing her plans, but in the end, the doctor had finished with a day to spare.
She had made one tweak after the doctor’s work was done. She had used her nano to create small crow’s feet around her eyes. A reminder that though she appeared to be a young woman, she was not. Not in her heart.
As she turned and examined her features, the memories that came over her were bittersweet. She hadn’t looked like this since the rebellion on the Hyperion. Since before the fifty-year journey to Kapteyn’s Star.
Since she and Markus had been young and falling in love.
“Oh, Markus, you stubborn old man; why did you have to leave me?” Katrina whispered softly.
Katrina shook her head. “No, though I think of him less as time goes on…only a thousand times a day instead of ten thousand.” She gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Does it feel like that for you, Troy? AIs love, in their own way, don’t they? You had loved ones on the Intrepid.”
“Tanis…the cure for all our woes,” Katrina whispered with a shake of her head.
“I know that, Troy. Sometimes, though…sometimes I feel like the well is dry.”
Troy’s words stung, but she knew he was right. If she spent the next decade pining and yearning for everything she no longer had, she would destroy herself.
Something that would be all too easy out in the black.
Katrina narrowed her eyes, watching the holoprojection follow suit. “You’re right, Troy. As you so often are, you bitter old thing. I still have steel in me, and I know we’ll find the Intrepid. They’re out there, and sure as the stars burn, we will find them.”
She stooped over and grabbed the bag that held personal mementos from her years at The Kap, while the case containing her clothing and other personal necessities rolled across the bedroom toward her.
As she straightened, Katrina smiled at how nice it felt not to have her bones creak in protest. She surveyed her room; the bed was not perfectly made, there was a dress draped over a chair, the bathroom light was on.
It was the room of someone who planned to return soon, not someone who would never come back.
She walked out into her suite’s living room and approached Troy’s column.
“What would I do without you, Troy?” Katrina asked as she stood in front of his column.
The column’s light blue glow faded, and a panel slid aside. Within lay the tetrahedron-like cube that was Troy’s core. She reached in and carefully lifted it from the data socket, then slipped it into a protective case on the coffee table.
The case had both power and wireless Link access, and once the core settled into the socket, Troy’s voice came back to her.
“Sorry, can’t really take your column.”
“There are a lot of things we both should have done sooner,” Katrina replied. “OK, here goes.”
She placed Troy’s protective case on top of the rolling case containing her clothing, and pulled a strap over both. Once satisfied that Troy was secure, Katrina walked to her suite’s door.
As it slid open, she came face to face with Laura.
“Katrina!” Laura exclaimed. “I’ve been trying to reach you, but you haven’t responded to my calls and your suite denied me access…”
“Yes, Laura,” Katrina replied evenly. “I’ve decided to let you go. I no longer require your services.”
The look of pain that flooded Laura’s features was so genuine that Katrina knew she was drawing on real sorrow. Good, the girl had potential.
“But…Katrina, I was to come with you to Tara! You’re going to need help interviewing the campaign manager positions. I…I don’t understand.”
“Laura,” Katrina said, her tone not entirely unkind. “We talked about this. I need someone who has experience in politics to be my personal assistant. You have potential, but this run is too important for me to mentor you along the way. I really am sorry, but our time together is over.”
Laura’s face fell and Katrina wanted to reach out to the young woman, to tell her that she was a dear friend, and to remind her that these words were an act.
But she could not. After Katrina did what she planned, Laura’s life would be under a microscope. This conversation would be pulled from the passageway’s cameras, and if it was discovered that Katrina had spoken with Laura over the Link while dismissing her aloud, it would destroy the credibility of the scene.
“When you come back from Tara?” Laura asked, her voice wavering, “I can resume my service, then? I just want to work with you, Katrina; to be the personal assistant of the chancellor would be amazing, and I want to be by your side.”
Katrina peered into Laura’s eyes and saw no lie in those words. She knew that Laura felt more than a professional affection for her
—but for Katrina, it was motherly…or maybe grandmotherly. It was one of the reasons she was glad that Laura had decided of her own accord to stay behind.
There was no small risk in this journey, and risk would be too hard to undertake with this wonderful woman at her side.
And there was also Markus.
Markus still had too much of her heart to share the remainder with someone else. It would not be fair.
“No, Laura. Your service to me is over. Now if you’ll excuse me, I must be on my way. I have departure checks to perform.”
The coldness in her voice hurt both women, and Laura clutched at her arm. “No, Katrina, please, please let me come with you. This can’t be the end.”
Katrina shook Laura’s hand free. “Laura. Pull yourself together. You are a smart woman with a bright future ahead of you. It is with a heavy heart that I terminate your employment with me. But my recommendation for you is on record. Take that, and retain your dignity. Now allow me to be on my way in peace.”
She spoke the last word with a ringing finality and watched a tear slip down Laura’s face.
“Goodbye,” Katrina said, and turned away. The sight of Laura’s pained expression would become another memory in a long list that would haunt her forever.
Katrina knew at the end, as she’d pleaded, Laura had not been acting.
DEPARTURE
STELLAR DATE: 08.20.4330 (Adjusted Gregorian)
LOCATION: Bay 148, Docking Ring 4, High Victoria
REGION: Victoria, Kapteyn Primacy, Kapteyn’s Star System
Half an hour later, as Katrina settled into the cockpit of her pinnace, she let the tears come. Not just for Laura and the way they had parted—even though it was out of necessity—but also because she would never set foot in High Victoria again.
The suite that she had left in moderate disarray was where she had spent her final years with Markus. It was where so much good time had been spent.
“It’ll be good to leave,” Katrina said. “Too many memories here. I need to stop living in the past.”