by Terry Mixon
Kayden laughed. “Most excellent, then. I think we can work well together, Grace Tolliver. I’m willing to trust you as far as you trust me. To be more explicit, I’d rather not be locked up in this cabin.
“If I commit myself fully to what’s going on, you’re going to be able to check every bit of information with the copies of my files that Captain Anders certainly already has in his possession. Let’s find if we can work together more closely, because if we can avoid distrusting one another, we can achieve a more satisfactory end result.”
Grace nodded, rose to her feet, and extended her hand. “Deal.”
Anders stood and shook his hand as well. “It’s going to take us about six weeks to get into position to enter the Singularity. I’d like to have our targets picked out at least two weeks in advance of that so that we can tailor our course to get to where we need to go. The more time we have to plan, the better our ultimate chances of success.”
“Then I’ll get to work,” Kayden said. “I have to say that this is a pleasant surprise, and I’m looking forward to working with the pair of you. May our little conspiracy prosper and cause great pain to the ruling caste of the Singularity.”
“That’s something I can toast to,” Grace said. “Let’s grab something to eat while we get to know each other better.”
Kayden bowed again, this time even more deeply, and he added a flourish with his hands. “I am at your complete disposal, my lady.”
9
One Twenty-Four had thought Thirty-One would strike quickly, but the other girl displayed far more patience than she’d expected. Weeks went by with nothing more than glares and snide words. She’d begun to suspect that the other girl feared the consequences of a direct attack.
And, of course, that moment of complacency was the best for an enemy to strike.
Her realization came during their physical education class. Keeper had decided they’d run an obstacle course to improve their strength, speed, and dexterity. This involved going over walls, crawling under things, and climbing ropes that went to the ceiling, as well as other tasks that allowed them to compare themselves to one another.
One Twenty-Four was climbing toward the ceiling on one of the ropes when there was a sharp metallic “crack” from above, and the rope came loose from its mount. In that instant, she’d known that Thirty-One had somehow been responsible.
Not that the knowledge had been all that useful at that moment.
She screamed as she fell but remembered Keeper’s lessons and focused on minimizing her damage on landing. She was high enough that she wasn’t wholly successful, and there was a loud “pop” when she struck the mat, and her left leg was suddenly torn with agony.
Even so, she managed to roll and absorb some of her momentum. Not enough to avoid flying off the mat and striking her head on the floor hard enough to daze her.
Keeper was at her side in an instant, though One Twenty-Four wasn’t able to understand what she was saying. The world spun, and darkness engulfed her.
When she woke, she was laid out on the table in the infirmary. She blinked in surprise and tried to rise.
Keeper put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her. “Remain still. I’ve finished regenerating the concussion and the torn ligament, but I’m still conducting tests.”
“What happened?” One Twenty-Four asked quietly, forcing herself to relax.
“Something interesting,” Keeper said. “It could’ve been a failure of the equipment or something more sinister. That’s what interests me.
“There’s a lesson to be learned here, One Twenty-Four. I wonder if you have the capacity to grasp it.”
Since responding to that by saying that she didn’t understand would’ve been dangerous, One Twenty-Four said nothing.
After a moment, Keeper continued as she ran a hand scanner across One Twenty-Four’s leg. “The fitting where the rope you were climbing attached to the ceiling sheared. Perhaps it was manufactured poorly. I’ll conduct a more thorough examination of it at some point, but the possibility also exists that it was sabotaged.
“Which do you think is more likely, One Twenty-Four?”
“Sabotage,” she said softly.
Keeper paused for a moment and considered her. After studying her for a few seconds, she nodded and resumed her work.
“I think that your paranoia is warranted. Thirty-One doesn’t have your best interests at heart, and considering how much at variance you are from the rest of the crèche, I find it hard to blame her.
“On the other hand, the girl has a vicious streak that will have to be tempered if she’s to become an effective leader. Figuring out how to balance the two of you into something that can enhance the Andrea Line will provide me with an interesting distraction from my normal duties.”
Keeper put the instrument away. “Sit up. While I’ve used the regeneration equipment to completely repair all of the damage that you’ve suffered, I think it’s time we had a long-overdue talk about your position within the crèche.”
One Twenty-Four went cold. That was not the kind of conversation one wanted to have with Keeper.
She cautiously sat up, put her hands into her lap, and gave Keeper her complete and undivided attention. “I’m ready, Keeper.”
“You’re not, and that’s part of the problem. There’s an acceptable range of behavior inside the crèche. That you know. What you lack is the perspective to understand is that that changes once you become an adult.
“I have to make certain that each and every member of the crèche is capable of doing what needs to be done in a manner that we find acceptable once they leave. You have far too much curiosity, and you’re too easily distracted. You lack focus.”
That wasn’t really telling One Twenty-Four anything that she didn’t already know.
Keeper considered her for a moment and then nodded as if making a decision. “If you could focus yourself, that creativity would be of benefit later in your life. There are too many members of the ruling caste that lack subtlety in how they address challenges. Your curiosity could lead you to creative solutions that won’t occur to others. Sadly, the crèche is not the place to display that curiosity.
“You think that I don’t like you, but you’re wrong. When I was your age, I was the one whose behavior put me on the outskirts of my crèche. I ran the same risk of being expelled and executed that you do now.”
The revelation astonished One Twenty-Four. Keeper had been like her? How could that even be possible? Keeper was everything that she was not.
While she was processing that, the woman continued. “My Keeper pressured me to conform, and I did. It wasn’t easy, but it was worth it. Once I became an adult, I found my calling by teaching our young. I don’t like some of the things that I’m required to do, but I understand their necessity.
“You undoubtedly think that the crèche is a horrible place filled with the opportunity for death. In that, you’re not wrong. Each crèche starts out with two hundred girls, and we’re forced to cull them down until only the strongest survive.
“The reason that we must do this is because the Singularity is always at war. The Terran Empire is always pushing at our borders, and they’re just waiting for an opportunity to turn us into their slaves and destroy the ruling caste.
“They loathe us because we’re genetically constructed. The order and design that went into creating the pinnacle of human evolution offends Imperial Humans because they’re jealous and hate us. Only through machines can they elevate themselves, and that humiliates them.
“If they got their hands upon you, you’d be taken to a laboratory and dissected. Then they’d euthanize you as an abomination.”
One Twenty-Four wasn’t sure that was too much worse than the fate that awaited her if she failed in the crèche, but that wouldn’t be prudent to say, so she remained attentively silent.
“The Empire has ruled that all genetically created people are property,” Keeper continued. “They see us as things that can be bo
ught, sold, and broken with impunity. Oh, they have laws against the production of genetically engineered people, but I have no doubt that somewhere in their society, there is an illicit trade.
“If you ever fell into their grasp, they could literally do anything they wanted to you with no penalty. Or to me, for that matter. And that’s what they want. Absolute and utter domination of those who are not like them.”
One Twenty-Four took that in, stunned. Keeper had never spoken to her—or any of her crèche mates—like this before. She’d never shown this kind of passion. One Twenty-Four wasn’t even sure how she should respond.
In the face of this, she took an awful chance.
“What do I need to do, Keeper?” she asked in a soft voice. “I want to serve the Line, and I want to survive, but it’s as if there’s a portion of me that I can’t control. I’m so curious about everything that it’s hard to focus. How do I overcome this?”
“Curiosity is not something that one overcomes, One Twenty-Four,” Keeper said, rubbing her eyes tiredly, her energy seemingly gone. “It’s something that you have to channel into something acceptable. Daydreaming is a path to inevitable death.
“Perhaps this attack on you is fortuitous. Focus your mind on how to foil Thirty-One’s next attempt, lest it be more successful. You can do so while staying within what is acceptable within the crèche.
“There are also many other tasks where your curiosity would be of benefit. What you don’t grasp are the boundaries. If you can learn them, you’ll not only survive the crèche, but you’ll benefit from it in so many ways.”
Keeper gestured for One Twenty-Four to stand. “I want you to walk around the infirmary and test that you have no pain or restrictions on your movement. Also, make sure that you have no lingering dizziness.”
One Twenty-Four rose gingerly and tested her leg. Once she’d determined that everything felt normal, she walked around the room and even did knee bends. Her session in the infirmary had fixed the damage from the fall.
“How can I use my curiosity to combat Thirty-One?” she asked as she turned back toward Keeper, risking more boldness. “I don’t know how she would’ve done this, but I know that it was her. How can I possibly respond without breaking the rules like she did?”
Keeper smiled. “And here is another valuable lesson for you. She didn’t break the rules. There’s doubt in my mind as to whether or not this was an act of sabotage. If I didn’t already know that the two of you have this feud, I’d have believed this to be metal fatigue without a second thought, and that is the brilliance of her action.
“She struck at an enemy in a way that likely wouldn’t come back to haunt her. At this point, I’m going to find out exactly what she did, but even once I do, I won’t take action against her.
“Thirty-One has also learned a valuable lesson that you must also absorb. Sometimes one’s enemies must be disposed of in ways that are untraceable and won’t come back to haunt you or the Line.
“That’s the kind of situation in which your curiosity can come to your aid. It’s more than acceptable within the crèche to utilize your brains to outmaneuver an opponent. That can even include physical action like Thirty-One probably enacted today.
“Act to show Thirty-One the boundaries of your own will. If she fears your response, she will become more cautious. And if you succeed in causing the death of your enemy while making it look like something disconnected from yourself, then you’ve accomplished something of note and worth.
“If Thirty-One isn’t smart enough to overcome this challenge, then she doesn’t deserve to survive. The same is true of you. Understand that, and you grasp the Singularity and the ruling caste in one single epiphany.”
With that, Keeper opened the door and gestured for One Twenty-Four to exit. As they walked back toward the gym, she considered everything she’d been told.
Keeper was absolutely correct. Thirty-One had to be stopped, and that might mean killing the girl—as much as One Twenty-Four didn’t want to do so.
The best outcome would be to find a way to injure Thirty-One badly enough that she became cautious. There was a saying that Keeper had once quoted that came from the time before the Singularity. “Let them hate, so long as they fear.”
It didn’t matter what Thirty-One thought about One Twenty-Four, so long as she was afraid to strike at her again. To make that happen, she was going to have to take direct action in such a way that it wouldn’t lead back to her. That was going to require some thought.
Luckily, now that Thirty-One had struck, she wouldn’t dare make another move for some time. She wouldn’t want to focus suspicion upon herself.
Perhaps that was an angle to consider. If she made Thirty-One seem as if she’d struck at her a second time, but with such obvious flaws that the action couldn’t be ignored, Keeper would eliminate the girl for incompetence.
The problem was that One Twenty-Four wasn’t confident she could bring herself to do that. She’d be directly responsible for the death of her line sib.
Still, it was her or Thirty-One, since the other girl would keep trying until she succeeded or was dealt with.
That gave her a lot to think about. No matter what needed doing, she’d find a way. Thirty-One would not win. One Twenty-Four’s resolve had firmed, and Keeper’s encouraging words had given her hope.
If she could control herself, she’d become an asset to both the Andrea Line and the Singularity. Nothing could be allowed to stand in the way of that. Not Thirty-One and not herself.
10
Grace sat at the head of Bright Passage’s cramped mess table and looked over her compatriots while sipping a cup of coffee that fell somewhere between mediocre and passable. Maybe they could raid someone’s coffee stores before the mission was over.
Joining her for their first major strategy session were Na Fei, Jay Anders, Alan Kyle, and Kayden Harmon. This wasn’t their first brainstorming session, but they’d make their final decisions today on what got hit. They were about a week from crossing over into the Singularity, and they needed to know what course to take.
She’d examined the potential targets on her own, trying to determine where she’d strike if it were left up to her. The targets ranged from manufacturing orbitals to massive refineries placed inside asteroid belts.
Any of those would have grave economic consequences for the system in which they were located but wouldn’t have much effect outside of that. If they wanted this raid to be more than a pinprick, they needed to up their game.
She looked forward to seeing what Kayden thought the best target was. His in-depth knowledge of this sector had already proven valuable. He’d led them through the fringe worlds in such a manner that they’d raised no eyebrows whatsoever.
In fact, they very rarely saw any armed ships at all. That was by design, Kayden had said. There were some systems where the Singularity performed regular patrols or had forces stationed in case of trouble, but he knew where they were, and that made it easy to slip past them.
Better yet, because he and the ship had a long history in this area, their movement raised no eyebrows. In fact, the one time they’d gotten additional questioning from control in one of the systems, Kayden had personally known the controller.
Their relationship had smoothed the waters. A promise of a couple of bottles of something special the next time Kayden came through was more than enough to ease their passage.
Now that they were almost to the area where they’d chosen to enter the Singularity, it was about to get real, and they needed to firm up their plans.
“I’ve been looking over the information you gave us, Kayden,” Grace said to open things up. “I’ll admit that not being a merchant has hampered my ability to understand what I was looking at. I’m a lot more experienced in assessing military targets.
“Did you find anything that will cause widespread damage to the wider economy if we take it out? I didn’t see anything.”
The man grinned at her. “As a matter of
fact, I did. I’ll admit that it wouldn’t be obvious at a glance, but if one looks at the flow of trade through the sector with a knowledgeable eye, one can find points that are critical to maintaining the distribution of equipment and trade goods.
“For example, let’s look at the Aponte system. If you examine the information that I sent you, you’ll note that it’s four flips from the hard border. Read about it and tell me what you think.”
Grace picked up her slate and went through the information that he’d sent to them. She’d uploaded it to her implants, but it felt rude to single him out as different than the rest of them, so she read it the old-fashioned way.
The basic statistics of the system itself weren’t all that impressive. Yes, it had a densely populated world, but it was basically an agricultural breadbasket that fed many of the systems around it. The only way hitting it could hurt anyone else was at the dinner table.
“Are you suggesting that we destroy the supplier of nutrition to half a dozen other worlds?” she asked carefully. “While I have no objection to destroying many Singularity targets, I’m not a fan of forcing billions of people to starve. If that’s your idea of a good target, then I think you need to reevaluate your target list.”
The man’s smile dimmed somewhat, but he shook his head. “You’re only looking at the surface information. While I may loathe the rulers of the Singularity, I’m one of the very people that would’ve starved should something like that have happened when I was younger. I’m not even looking at the main world.
“Rather than leaping to conclusions about how I think, why don’t you parse the data in more detail. Once you find what I’m talking about, I think you might understand both our potential target and me a little better.”
His reproving tone embarrassed her. She’d made an assumption about him that might have been unwarranted. She really needed to work harder at keeping a more open mind.
If he wasn’t looking at the main world in the system, what else was there? There were the almost obligatory manufacturing centers around the planet and refineries in the asteroid belt, but there didn’t seem to be anything special about them.