by Chris Hechtl
She paused and then seemed to concentrate. After a moment he felt himself going into cloak. That made him blink in surprise, he hadn't known she could do that! He knew she was a part of his cloak but …. “Hey, wait a minute,” he protested, holding a hand out to her. He looked at his arm to see the uniform sleeve swarming with nanites. Patches were already turning invisible.
“Okay, that's just wild,” he murmured thoughtfully, now taken in by the process. He concentrated to take the control of his respiration and body on his own however. With his focus handling the basics, she turned her attention to his uniform. After a moment he had patches of invisibility all over the uniform.
“I wish we had a mirror,” he murmured. She made a shushing sound. When he tried to move she locked his muscles so he couldn't. He grimaced and realized it wasn't facial it was his body. He waited patiently for her to finish.
When she seemed satisfied he moved slowly. He looked at where his hand was and couldn't see it. After a moment she traced an outline for him. Then he saw the edges of his uniform. If he moved his arm too quickly, she couldn't keep up he noted. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than having to strip in an emergency.
She motioned to him on the HUD and then pointed to the door. He flicked his ears and then moved to it. He palmed it open and then stood there. When a spacer walked by, he curiously looked into the open doorway. “Boo!” Jethro said, making the Veraxin jerk back in surprise. The bug scuttled away, swiveling his upper torso and eye stalks to look at the phantom until he was out of range.
“Okay, so …,” he felt his legs move under her guidance. She was moving him slow though. “Okay, okay, I get the idea,” he said, moving slowly out into the companionway.
She got him to do a field test, going around the ship while in cloak. It worked, though people tended to move to where he was from time to time so he had to dodge quickly. He remembered his half-forgotten training from Jet and after the third near encounter stuck to the sides of the passageways and slipped through the doorways quickly and neatly. He used the shadows as much as possible too. All the fast motion had Bast hissing in frustration though and struggling to keep up. He could see her open a broader channel to the suit. She kept motioning for him to go to the suit, but he refused.
He returned to his quarters elated by the experience, but apparently Bast wasn't totally thrilled. She pointed to his energy bar, he'd nearly drained her energy reserves. He was also strangely hungry. She was also obviously tired. Her eyes were heavy lidded, and she kept yawning.
“Okay, okay, I get it. I need to be careful how I use it. You need a recharge, and I need to eat. And you need to sleep. To process what we did? You learned that much?” He asked. She nodded. “All right then,” he said, jacking in to the ship's energy net. He felt the trickle of power go through his systems. She seemed to brighten a bit.
“So you can do that with anything I touch? Like, oh, a weapon?” Jethro asked thinking out loud. Gold eyes glittered as the A.I. cocked her head. Finally she nodded slowly. “Cool,” the panther replied with a slight grin. He could see all sorts of ways to use that to their advantage. “And I bet with the suit on it'd be easier ….”
“Gunnery Sergeant, we're reading an energy drain in your room. Care to explain?” a voice said from the intercom.
“Who is this?”
“Spacer Aurora, ship OPS,” was the testy reply.
“I didn't know I was drawing that much Spacer Aurora; I am …,” he frowned, thinking furiously then shrugged. “Recharging my implants,” he finished lamely.
“You need that much?”
“I have held off for a while. And I was doing some … classified work recently so I drained my energy reserves.”
“How long are you going to need to recharge?” she demanded.
“I um … don't …,” Bast put a countdown up on his HUD. He focused on it then nodded. He naturally doubled the number, knowing the spacer was going to be difficult. “About an hour.”
“Understood. You'll need to finish charging your systems later though. You are disrupting the energy systems on your deck. You've got five minutes, and then I'm disconnecting your power.”
“Oh, sorry,” Jethro murmured, ready to eject immediately. Bast made a hissing sound but he shrugged. “I'll unhook then.”
“See that you do. Set your systems to take a smaller amperage please.”
“I'll see what I can do.”
“Good.” The line disconnected.
“So, you're going to need to recharge over longer periods. Maybe when I'm sleeping?” Jethro offered. Bast grimaced, ears flat. “Hey, I'm not exactly thrilled about being chained to the wall by a cable either you know,” he told her. “But we've learned something. And we've learned there are limits to what we can do, at least aboard ship.”
She slowly nodded.
“We'll have to keep the cloak on that level in reserve. For emergencies only,” he said thoughtfully. Again the A.I. nodded.
“In four minutes we'll disconnect, get some chow, and then rest. Deal?” Jethro asked. She flicked her ears at him and then yawned again.
“Or you can rack out now if you prefer,” he said. She sniffed. “Go ahead, I'm not going to stop you,” he said. He watched as she reached out, touched his cheek. He felt the phantom caress on his whiskers and cheek.
“How you do that is mind blowing,” he said, shaking his head. She just seemed amused by that and as usual refused to explain. He shook his head. She seemed sleepy however, yawning again. Finally she curled up for another nap.
“Sweet dreams,” he murmured to her softly.
<(>~^~<(>
Jethro noted each time Bast slept for a full shift she was getting slightly bigger. Her form was changing a bit. After the third day, her image rescaled down to compensate.
Each day she looked less like a normal cat and more like a neo. A black neo female, with gold eyes and gold circuitry designs running around her neck and through her body. She also started to take on a uniform. It was barely there, very suggestive and cut along Egyptian lines to go with her theme. That was amusing to him.
“You're growing up. Does this mean you'll talk more?” He asked. She shrugged off that question. “No? Of course not,” he sighed. “What was I thinking,” he growled.
<(>~^~<(>
Four days before breakout, Bast woke him yowling. “What? What is it?” he demanded, sitting up with a start. She was glowing red; her eyes a bright angry red. “Security breach,” the A.I. hissed.
“Breach?” he asked, getting out of the bed and putting his uniform on.
“Suit,” Bast said and pointed urgently to the door.
“Damn it,” Jethro took off at a trot, and then dropped to all fours to lope as the A.I.'s urgency hit him. “Open a window,” he growled, dodging around a couple crewman and a Marine.
“What's going on, Gunny?”
“Someone's where they aren't supposed to be,” Jethro answered as the window opened. He could see out of the suit's sensors and video cameras. There was a group there: a couple of his recruits, a couple of the crew, some cargo handlers, and a couple of the contractors. They had just taken the shell cover off the container to the suit.
“No, don't!” Jethro said as he felt Bast rise in riotous rage to act. “Don't! I'll handle this BAST!” He snarled, bouncing off a wall, grabbing a pipe from above to swing over a crewman with a cart to slip between the hole between the cart and the ceiling bulkhead. He dropped to all fours and continued his lope.
“It's weird! Black. It looks like it can come to life. Should we be doing this? I mean what if the Gunny finds out?” the Gashg Nux said, swiveling his eye stalks around nervously.
“He won't if you keep your big trap shut. Get a couple pics. We can look at it later,” one of the contractors urged.
“Dude, if you put anything up on the net, MI will be all over your ass,” Nux said, shaking. “The gunny will find out then and we'll be toast. Let's put it back.”
“Yeah Bre
t, no one said anything about pictures. Just a look you said,” a crewman said.
“We won't tell him. Besides, who will know it was us?”
“I will,” Jethro said as he came into the cargo hold. They turned at the sound of the lock.
“Shit! Someone's coming!”
“Freeze!” Jethro bellowed as the A.I. lit his suit's eyes up red and had it climb out of the container. “I said freeze!” Jethro bellowed, straightening. “What in hell do you people think you are doing?” He snarled as the recruits came to attention. “Do you have any idea how many regulations you just broke sticking your nose where it doesn't belong?”
“We're civilians. You can't touch us,” Bret said snidely.
“Wanna bet? I can bounce your contract like that,” Jethro snarled, snapping his fingers under the human's nose. “Or snap your neck if you piss me off anymore. Cameras now,” he growled.
Guiltily they handed over the cameras. He saw one tech try to palm a flash card. Bast pointed it out. He pointed a claw to the hapless tech and then to the flashcard. “Get it out of that pocket before I use you as a scratching post.”
“Sii …,” the guy gulped and took the chip out and nervously handed it over. When he turned enough to see behind him, he nearly fainted. “Oh shit!” he said, gulping and quivering.
“Yeah, that's right. You tripped my suit's security. It was about to kill you,” Jethro snarled, baring his fangs. That made more than one person gulp and quiver in fright. “I wasn't kidding. You are damn lucky I arrived in time. You four,” he pointed to the crewmen involved. “Report to the XO. Give a full statement. If you're lucky maybe Military Intelligence won't have you filling out paperwork for the next month in the brig.”
“Yes, sir,” one gulped.
“You two I'll deal with later,” Jethro growled, pointing to the Gashg and Neodog recruits. Both seemed shaken. They had reason to be; they knew how bad the Gunny's temper could be after seeing what he'd put Amber through. “Move out boots.”
“Yes, Gunny,” Nux said. He put a meaty hand on the small white pug's shoulder. “Come on, Dogbert, shag your ass or he'll dock your tail and your ears,” he said, moving quickly.
“As for you two,” Jethro said, turning on Bret and Eliza Faud. “You may not be under my jurisdiction but you are military contractors. That means not only are you subject to the UCMJ in situations like this,” he growled, chin pointing to the suit, “but you're going to just love the investigation that will follow.”
“You wouldn't dare,” Bret growled, eying him with narrowed hating eyes.
“You just bought yourself a locker full of trouble,” Jethro growled, going toe-to-toe with the human. “You'd better lock the attitude up before you dig yourself any deeper,” he growled.
“Come on, Bret, I knew this was a bad idea,” Eliza said, tugging on her brother's arm. “We're sorry, sir. We were just …”
“Curious I get. Selling military secrets I do not allow,” Jethro growled as his A.I. put up information she had hacked from the ship's net. Apparently the group had gotten together over the net and discussed getting the reward from some media agency for images of his suit. He wished Bast had brought that up to him before the damn incident; he could have headed it off.
He felt Bast tearing their cameras’ internal electronics apart with her nanites. He crushed the cameras and then handed it back to them. “I've recorded this incident with my implants as well as my suit. It will be passed over to MI for further investigation. Don't be surprised if you get terminated during the investigation that will follow or at least lose your security clearances,” he growled.
“We're very very sorry,” Eliza said again, tugging on Bret's arm.
“Yes. You will be. Mark my words on that.”
“Curiosity usually killed the cat not someone else,” Bret taunted. “Don't be surprised if this boomerangs back and hits you instead. They need me,” he said sarcastically, letting his younger sister pull him out of the cargo hold.
“Need you like a hole in the head, you mean,” Jethro growled softly after they departed. He sighed. “Great. That means we've got a ton of paperwork to deal with. And I'm going to need to post a damn guard on this cargo hold and alert the captain and XO. Lovely.”
He paced. “The next time this shit starts, let me know beforehand Bast,” he growled. She blinked at him. “Don't play innocent with me. You put that net chatter up pretty damn fast. Almost like you already knew,” he accused. She looked innocently at him. He snorted. “Bullshit. You allowed this security breach, which is just as bad as their roles in it. You know that, right?” he demanded. The A.I. winced then pretended to butter him up.
“Can it. We have reports to write,” he sighed. She meowed, now clearly upset. He rubbed his brow. Punishment reps for the boots involved, but how did he punish Bast for her part. He wasn't sure he could. He shook his head as he directed the suit back into its box.
<(>~^~<(>
“So you see, sir, I've posted a marine detail on the hold but your people …”
“Obviously broke protocol in accessing classified cargo. Understood. I'll put them both up for a mast. The civilian passengers though …,” the XO shook his head.
“I'll need any security recordings for the investigation that follows, sir,” Jethro said.
The XO eyed him unhappily. “You think it will come to that?”
Jethro nodded. “Military intelligence takes breaches like this seriously, sir. And no, I'm not sweeping it under the rug. I was tempted initially but …,” he shrugged.
“I saw the recording. Faud pushed you and now you have to. I get that. Frack, I hate investigations though. Frackity frack …,” the XO paced, clearly pissed. Hopefully, his unhappiness would spill over more on those responsible than Jethro.
“I'll handle my end. You keep your people out of any further mischief.”
“Aye aye, sir.”
“Good. Get out of here and deal with them. I'll deal with my problem children.” Jethro nodded and left the compartment, shutting the door behind him. He passed the crew standing at what they thought attention and ignored them as he went about his business.
Chapter 4
The Cygnus class freighter made its usual exit in a boiling flash of light and angry gravitational waves at the jump point. After transmitting her IFF to the picket nearby, they received clearance to move out.
Jethro overheard talk in the mess about how they would eventually not even go in to the inner star system. Warehouses would be built near the jump point and sublight freighters and automated tugs would be kept busy moving freight between the various warehouses in the star system. He shook his head. He wouldn't want to be one of those “truckers” as they called it. It sounded like a dull and boring job.
Hell, so did being a spacer he thought as the ship lumbered through the star system to Agnosta. “My, how the times and star system have changed since I've been here,” Jethro remarked idly. Bast looked on it with fresh eyes, those of youth and curiosity. She flicked her ears and touched a couple of icons, forming karats around them. His vision enhanced, picking out their IFF and details about her targets. She flicked her hand paws and turned to new prey after a moment.
The convoys that were plying the space between Antigua and Agnosta were doing turnarounds in the star system as his ship crossed the void. Shipments were being off loaded in the orbital docks and then shipped by shuttle, or open tugs to various warehouses. Of course priority shipping went out first. The orbital warehouses were almost as busy and crazy as the annex Jethro thought. But he could see with Bast's help the organized chaos underlying it all.
From what he had gathered from his orders, he was to spend several weeks training recruits and then move on. He had done much of the same on the Cygnus class freighter that had brought him and the twenty-nine recruits to Agnosta. He also had some leave time accumulated. It might be to his advantage to use it on Agnosta over using it at some Spirit of Space forsaken post they stuck him in he thought with
misgivings about his future.
He had to transmit his request for an intelligence investigation to the administration. He got an immediate request for clarification. Silently he encrypted and sent his report as well as the recordings of the incident. He didn't need to highlight the response and threat from Faud but did so anyway out of a sense of spite.
He got a response a few hours later. “We'll take care of this, Gunnery Sergeant. Those involved will be interviewed and processed according to protocol,” he read out loud. Terse, to the point, and damning for some. Or not if they didn't take it seriously and just brushed him off.
<(>~^~<(>
When they got into orbit and docked with the Cygnus's assigned docking berth, no nonsense MPs and a miffed Neodog intelligence officer were waiting for them. The crew was put on lockdown as they boarded and marched to the captain's office. Jethro was called to the office as were everyone involved. They took his statement again then the statements of the others involved. Bret and Eliza Faud refused to make a statement and insisted on getting counsel. That pissed the intelligence officer off even further. He eyed the two humans and then Jethro. “Stupid.”
Eliza seemed ready to object. He looked at her expectantly. “You have something to say?” he demanded. Her brother gripped her arm. She shook her head after a moment and looked down.
“Fine then. Since this is an active investigation and you have invoked your right to counsel, you will have to be sequestered.”
“Sequestered?”
“Yes. You breached a classified area. That is a major felony and a security breach of that nature, and your intent to sell said secrets is a violation of your contracts and a possible treasonous act. We'll have to let the judicial system sort you out.”
“But …”
Jethro could see the humans pale from his thermal imaging. He shook his head slightly.
“Don't say anything more. I'll have to read you your rights. This is going to land on everyone involved rather harshly I'm afraid.” He said. He turned to the Neopanther. “Gunnery Sergeant, thank you for bringing this breach to our attention. We'll handle it from here. If we need you we'll contact you.”