by Terry Mixon
She didn’t know. How could she?
One Twenty-Four realized that she’d been sitting there for quite a while, just thinking. Fei had been quietly allowing her to process what she’d seen. She looked up at the woman’s face and cocked her head to the side.
“The Imperial Marines saved me. Anne Marie Scott died, at least in part, because she was protecting me, an enemy of your people. Why did you take me with you, knowing that it would draw those that would kill to get at me?”
Fei smiled slightly. “Because we could no more stand by and leave a child to die than we could stomach any other atrocity. We know right from wrong, and we’re willing to use force to stop monsters like that. We’re willing to die to stop them if need be.
“I wish I could explain it better, Little One, but I can’t. It’s who we are.
“When you get older, you’re going to be the sum of all your experiences and training. Part of that is going to be what you’ve learned in the crèche, for good or ill, and part of it will be what you experience in the years after. Remember this: the past is immutable and cannot be changed, but the future is an open road.
“If you want a different life than you currently have, you can always turn aside from your current path and choose a different course. Don’t be fooled into thinking that your future is decided by others.
“Envision a life that appeals to you and work to make it a reality. If there’s an obstacle in your way or someone that wants to deny you an opportunity, use grit and determination to overcome their resistance.
“I’m not saying that needs to be with violence like the Imperial Marines often use, but if you’re committed to making a change in your life, only you can make it happen.
“And always remember that sometimes we’re not able to effect the changes that we want. Failure is just as much a part of life as success. In fact, failure is often a better teacher than success.
“Whatever obstacles life throws in front of you, the creativity and determination that you use to overcome them defines you. The harder the journey, the stronger the person that makes it. Never give up, Little One, no matter the pressure that you face. Scream your defiance, keep fighting, and die on your feet like Anne Marie if that’s what’s called for.”
One Twenty-Four realized that she had a lot to think about. She admired Fei, Grace, and the marines. They were so strong and determined. They’d sacrificed so much for her.
Could she dare to dream of becoming an Imperial Marine? Was that even the kind of life that she’d choose for herself?
She didn’t know, but perhaps it was a good place to start. As Fei said, she could always change her mind later.
“If I wanted to become an Imperial Marine, how would I go about doing so?”
Fei’s smile widened. “You don’t think small, do you, Little One? I suspect that would be a difficult journey indeed. Frankly, I can’t imagine how you’d overcome the resistance that you’d face in doing so, but at least it’s a life that I know something about. If you truly want to learn what it means to be a marine, I’ll help you.
“Perhaps it’s even a good intermediate goal. You can always decide that you’d rather do something else with your life, right up until the moment you officially swear the oath. Over the next several weeks, I think we can teach you the basics of what it means to be a marine and start some kind of training for you.
“If that’s your heart’s desire, I’ll stand beside you, and so will Grace. We’ll fight for your freedom to make that choice. You have my word on that.”
One Twenty-Four hopped to her feet and nodded decisively. “When can we start?”
While the rest of them went to the bridge, Grace raced to her quarters and quickly changed into a light-green blouse and tan pants before racing after them, taking up a position at the back and watching the main display as they approached the heavy cruiser. Kayden Harmon stood beside her, also casually leaning against the bulkhead.
Even though he feigned casualness, she could tell he was tense. She felt the same. They both knew that this situation could spin out of control at any moment and end them.
“Any idea what’s going to happen?” she asked quietly.
“I’ve been stopped a number of times, but this one’s a little unusual. Normally, the military doesn’t take an interest in small freighters like Bright Passage unless we’re doing something demonstrably wrong.
“This has to be related to the destruction of the transshipment center. I’m hoping that Captain Anders is right, and this is simply to gather information from someone who actually witnessed the events in question.
“If so, we’re not really in that much danger, but we’ll have to be on our guard. If we make a mistake and arouse their suspicions, that will doom us.”
He turned slightly toward her and smiled. “You won’t be taking any part in discussions with them, I’m afraid. You don’t exactly have the verbal skills to pass as a native speaker like the bridge crew does.
“I’ve been thinking about that, and it surprises me. I’d have figured that everyone on this mission would have had adequate language skills, at a minimum.”
She gave him a toothy grin. “My skills lie in other areas.”
“Indeed, they do,” he murmured.
Grace found herself blushing. “That’s not what I meant, but thank you anyway.”
The woman sitting at the communications console raised her head and signaled to Anders. “We’ve got another request for a connection, Captain. They sound annoyed at the delay.”
Anders stood and gestured for Kayden to take his seat. “Remember the plan. Play it nice and easy.”
“What about me?” Grace asked. “Should I get out of sight?”
Anders shook his head. “No. Come over and stand next to me. We’ll be bringing you on board with us if we go, so you need to be a familiar sight.”
Kayden shook his head. “I think portraying her as a crewmember is a mistake. She’s not going to have any of the skills, and she can’t speak the tongue very well. I have a different cover story if need be, but it’s somewhat… demeaning.”
Grace felt her eyebrows rise. “What does that mean?”
He grinned at her. “I’m going to have to play this by ear, but just accept that what I’m saying isn’t unusual inside the Singularity, and I’m not choosing it to be crass. In fact, I believe it might provide you with a great deal of latitude in your behavior.
“Now, we’ve delayed long enough. We had to look like casual merchants, but if we keep ignoring their attempts at communication, they’re going to become suspicious. Everyone, clear your expressions, please.”
Kayden made a gesture, and the woman who’d spoken earlier tapped her console. The main screen cleared, and Grace could see the ship’s commanding officer sitting at his console. There were a couple of others whose backs were turned as they worked at consoles set against the rear bulkhead. Based on other Fleet bridges she’d seen, there were also consoles arrayed in front of the commanding officer.
He wore a severe, dark-gray naval uniform and sported facial tattoos, but they were different than Andrea’s. His forehead and cheekbones were covered with what looked like an intricate geometric pattern of small blocks.
If their delay in answering his hails had overly bothered the man, it didn’t show. His expression somehow managed to be both bored and casually arrogant. He gave off the air of a man that was very comfortable with his authority.
“Bright Passage, this is Legate Lucius Seven Fifty-Three of Ever-Loyal Warrior. Shut down your drives and prepare to receive my cutter.”
Kayden smiled as if he wasn’t worried in the slightest. “Understood, Legate. Might this one inquire as to the nature of this matter? My schedule has a little bit of play concerning the delivery of my cargo, but I need to know what you require in order to better serve you.”
The man smiled slightly, not really showing any humor at all. “I require you and your ship to perform a service for the Singularity, so your cargo
is going to be delayed.
“I also require information. It’s my understanding that you just came from the Aponte system. Is that correct? You were at the transshipment center before whatever occurred there took place?”
Kayden nodded. “That’s correct, Legate. What service might my ship and I provide for the Singularity?”
The man’s humorless smile widened slightly. “You’ll discover that in due time. My cutter will bring you and your senior staff to answer a few questions in person first.”
“It shall be as you order, Legate,” a seemingly subservient Kayden said with his head bowed. “May I bring a non-crew guest?”
The man showed interest for the first time, raising one eyebrow slightly. “Non-crew guest? Explain.”
Kayden casually reached out and placed a hand on Grace’s arm. “My mistress. She’s from the fringe worlds, and I rather enjoy having her around to liven up my day. If there are no objections, I’d like to bring her with me.”
That earned Kayden what looked like a genuine smile, though a small one. “I have no objections. Be ready for my transport. My marines will search you before embarkation, so bring no weapons.”
The screen went dark, and Grace turned to glare at Kayden. “Your mistress? Seriously?”
“Hear me out before you punch me,” he said with a smirk. “I realize that it’s sexist, but this type of arrangement is common inside the Singularity and will explain why you can’t speak the tongue very well.
“If you make any social faux pas, they’ll just assume that you’re there to be pretty and aren’t terribly bright. You can use their preconceptions to their detriment.”
“Well, I suppose it could be worse,” she grumbled. “What do we do when we get there?”
Anders gestured toward the bridge hatch. “Let’s go back to the wardroom and discuss our options before the cutter arrives. They’ve undoubtedly ripped out the transceivers, so we’re going to have to see if we can stash something on Alan that he can use to allow an implant connection to the ship. If he can slip it past them, I should be able to overpower everyone on board.”
“And if they don’t have the necessary program?” she asked. “What if the ship is too old to have it?”
“That’s a Gauntlet-class heavy cruiser, so she has it. Still, unless we have to, we won’t act. We’d be safer behaving like ordinary merchants and going along with whatever mission they have for us. I understand that we need to get out of the Singularity as fast as we can, but we don’t have a choice in this matter.”
“I certainly hope that’s the way it works out, Captain,” Kayden said. “We’re in grave danger that grows worse with every moment that we spend inside the Singularity. Also, anything that we say or fail to say aboard that ship could trigger a negative response.
“Grace, I’m going to give you a brief rundown of everything that I can on a fringe world that I’m familiar with. I’ll upload the data to your slate so that you can transfer it to your implants and be able to answer at least basic questions about it. Not that I’d expect any of them to be familiar with it, or to even question you on the subject, but one can’t be too careful.”
She approved of his thoroughness. “What about our implants? If they’re going to scan us for weapons, are they going to be able to detect our implants?”
Kayden shook his head. “The wands they use for weapon detection aren’t meant to look inside bodies. They won’t be looking for Imperials on every ship they stop. That’s not their function.”
“Let’s hope you’re right,” Grace muttered. “Come on, let’s get ourselves set up.”
28
One Twenty-Four hadn’t actually expected her training to start right then, so she was surprised when Fei took her back to the other marines and put her into armor and armed her with the weapons that she’d had earlier.
With the chances of a battle being very high, she tried to settle her mind into a place of determination but had to keep fighting the fear that tried to worm its way into her mind.
How did the marines keep fear from freezing them in place? She’d have to ask Fei when time permitted.
Fei started by teaching her how to use the HUD—the heads-up display—inside her helmet to both communicate and get information about the marines. It was even possible to bring in visual and audible feeds from the exterior cameras on their armor.
To make it work, Fei had to add One Twenty-Four to the platoon as a member. Once she’d done so, One Twenty-Four could see all of the marines on her display as small dots. By focusing on them more closely and using her chin controller to manipulate the data, she was able to see information specific to each and every one.
She focused on herself and saw that Fei had reused Anne Marie Scott’s ID rather than creating a new one for her. She supposed that made sense since they were pressed for time.
It was fitting that she was taking the place of the woman who’d saved her. It was also potentially an omen—which might also be fitting, if still a reason for concern.
The basic principles were simple enough for her to master, though when combat began, she’d undoubtedly find herself unable to figure out how to do something, almost certainly when she needed to be doing it very badly.
Once she’d run through everything with her helmet, One Twenty-Four went to stand next to Fei. “What happens next?”
“We wait,” Fei said. “Right now, we’re at the mercy of that ship. It’s a heavy cruiser, so he’s more than capable of handling anything we can throw at him. Even if we used all of our concealed weapons to open fire on him with no warning at all, he’d be able to shrug aside the damage and burn us down.”
“So, we’re helpless?”
“I wouldn’t say we’re totally helpless,” the woman said as she squatted down next to One Twenty-Four. “If we need to, we can get to their ship in a hurry. Some of the containers have boarding pods, and we’re close enough that they’d be effective.
“The problem is that they have far more marines than we do. On a ship that size, I’d expect to find a full company, so roughly three times our number.
“And that’s just in numbers. Unlike us, they’ll have access to powered armor. With our unpowered armor and lighter weaponry, the fight would be severely uneven.
“If push comes to shove, we might as well fight, because we’ll all be dead anyway, but our best hope at this point is to remain hidden from view. As long as they never suspect that we’re here, they won’t come looking for us.
“And those of us that they do see, so long as they believe that they know who they are, can remain disguised. The enemy’s preconceptions will influence their understanding of what they see.”
One Twenty-Four frowned slightly and tilted her head just a little to the side. “I don’t think I understand that. Are you talking about some kind of technology that projects an illusion over a person?”
Fei laughed as she stood. “Not precisely, though I understand that the advanced armor available to the Marine Raiders can do that. As an example, if you ever need to get into someplace that you’re not supposed to be, wearing a bland uniform—preferably with a hat—and carrying a slate makes you look official.
“People are conditioned to ignore folks like that. You can pass unnoticed if you act as if you belong somewhere and don’t draw attention to yourself. The exception is if you’re in an area where they know you’re not supposed to be or doing something unusual. Even then, a good bluff can sometimes get you through.
“So, the basic lesson is that if you behave as if you belong and dress nondescriptly, the odds are excellent that no one will even consciously notice that you’re there. They won’t be inclined to stop you or ask questions, because they’ll believe they already know who you are and what you’re doing.”
One Twenty-Four thought about how such an act might work. It was an interesting concept that she’d never considered before, but it had implications beyond the current situation. She’d have to ponder it at length when she had time.
Pulling herself back to the situation at hand, she decided to ask about something else that bothered her. “What do we do if they send marines to Bright Passage?”
Fei shrugged. “We have places that we can use as defensive redoubts, but they’re only going to be of limited utility. We’ll hold the enemy off as long as we can, but at that point, it will be an exercise in futility. They’re going to win, but maybe we can take a few of them with us.”
“Your plan does not inspire confidence.”
Her dour comment made the woman laugh. “Hopefully we won’t have to do anything like that. Grace is going over with Captain Anders, Commander Kyle, and Kayden. The people on that ship have no reason to suspect that we’re anything other than what we look like, so our people should be able to fool them and perhaps even capture the ship through trickery.”
One Twenty-Four found herself blinking. How could such a thing be possible?
“Why would they do that?” she queried. “If you captured the ship, how would you keep such a great number of people under control?”
“That’s trading up when it comes to problems,” Fei said with a shrug. “If we have to figure out what to do with a ship full of prisoners, that means we’ve won. If that happens, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.”
That offhand comment derailed One Twenty-Four’s retort, making her scowl. “What’s a horse, why would anyone look in its mouth, and what does that have to do with our situation?”
“We’re getting a little off topic,” Fei admitted, putting a hand on One Twenty-Four’s shoulder. “You’ll have time to look up sayings and terrestrial animals once we’re out of this mess. Right now, since you’re dressed as a marine, you should probably be focusing on marine things.
“Grace is going to be over in a little while, and if things go well, we’ll get the signal to assist them. If things go poorly, we might be fired upon. If it’s somewhere in between, we’ll just have to see how things play out.