by M. R. Forbes
She hoped that she would have the chance to later.
She reached the bottom of the locker, finally locating the chip sitting in a small box in the corner. She picked it out, deftly opening the box and removing the fingernail-sized bit of electronics. She tucked it into the pocket of her grays, stuck the small box under Mitchell's pillow, and then began grabbing at the items she had removed. She considered leaving the mess for Watson to find so she would have more time to escape. She wondered if maybe she should let him know she had it already. She decided not to. She didn't want him putting too much effort into finding her just yet. Let him wonder if Mitchell had truly left the chip in his footlocker, or if he had destroyed it.
She was very interested to see how he would react to that.
She finished replacing the items, and then slipped out of the space once more. She stood in the corridor for a moment, listening. She could hear Watson's footsteps echoing in the empty spaces. She smiled as she opened the bunk above Mitchell's and climbed into it, closing it behind her.
Then she waited, peering down through the air vent.
Watson arrived a minute later, moving casually through the ship. He had calmed since his explosion over Tio's actions, having brushed his hair back away from his face and changed into dry clothes. She thought it was curious that he had taken the trouble, but what else did he have to do to occupy himself? She had observed every member of the crew carefully since she had arrived on the Goliath. It was something her mother had taught her to do. Watson had always been eclectic. She shuddered slightly when she remembered how he had looked at her sometimes when he thought she wouldn't notice. His eyes had often settled on the small mounds of her developing breasts in a way that made her feel frightened, angry, and strangely guilty.
If she were captured, would he act on the desire she had seen there? Or had his Tetron awareness overcome that simplistic lust of the flesh?
She didn't want to find out.
The Tetron opened the door to Mitchell's berth. He didn't enter it fully, leaning in and grabbing the footlocker and pulling it to the corridor. He knelt down over it, taking each item and throwing it carelessly away like a child looking for his favorite toy. He began to huff as he neared the bottom, and when the final item had been removed, and the locker was empty, he lifted it over his head and turned it upside down, shaking it as if the missing chip would suddenly appear.
"Where is it?" he said, the calm beginning to fade again. He threw the footlocker aside, sifting through the discarded items again. "Where is it?"
He moved into Mitchell's berth. The pillow came flying out of it a moment later. Watson gave an anguished cry, and the box flew out, shattering on the opposite wall.
"She has it," he yelled. "The little bitch has it."
Kathy felt her body go cold. Why had she left the box where he could find it? Some part of her had wanted him to discover it, for him to know she had taken it. Why?
Because she hated him, that was why. Because of what he had done to Tio, to Millie, and to Mitchell. And she hated what all of the Tetron had done to her Origin. Then there was the way that he looked at her. She could feel his eyes on her when she thought about it. She wanted him to feel pain and anger and frustration. She wanted him to burn.
He exited Mitchell's locker, throwing his fists into the walls, denting the metal there with each blow. "She has it, she has it, she has it." His breathing was quick and short. He was standing right below her, chest heaving.
She couldn't hold back her smile.
"Where are you, little bitch?" he said. "I know you're in here, somewhere. I'm going to find you little bitch. I'm going to find you, and I'm going to hurt you the way only one human can hurt another."
He kicked at the items again before storming away, still shouting. "You can't hide in here forever, little bitch. I will find you. I will hurt you. I will get my chip back." His screams turned unintelligible after that.
Kathy leaned back in the space, breathing heavily with both excitement and fear. She had pushed his buttons well. Maybe too well. She dug the chip out of her pocket. He knew she wouldn't destroy it. He knew she would want to know what it contained. Not the human garbage on the surface, but the data hidden underneath, petabytes of it in secret storage channels. Data that the parent had provided to the configuration.
She had to find out what it contained. If there was any chance it could help Mitchell, it was worth any risk she would have to take.
15
Mitchell was sitting alone in Tio's meeting room, leaning back in the Knife's large, comfortable chair with his eyes closed. Despite every effort to find a minute to sleep over the previous three days, sleep had been an impossible wish.
The evacuation was coming along as well as could be hoped, considering he had lost three of his key officers when Steven had headed out on the Lanning. He hadn't been surprised to find out that Captain Rock had joined his brother on the mission. He had been surprised when he learned that Germaine and Cormac of all people had joined him. It had never occurred to him that either of those men were loyal enough to him that they would do something like that.
The rest of Tio's fleet had arrived within the last two days, over two hundred more ships of similar strength and quality to what had come before. It had taken a lot of repetitive briefings to get them all up to speed and on board with their plans, though Teal's presence and reputation smoothed things over more quickly than Mitchell ever could have on his own. Once that was done, the commanders and their crews had joined the evacuation with fervor, helping get supplies and people organized onto their rides.
As for Kathleen Amway, Watson, and Nova Taurus, Mitchell had been forced to give up the search. There weren't enough hours in the day, there weren't enough eyes to help him, and frankly the entire thing was leading nowhere fast. He would never have a complete picture of the past that had brought them to this point. And, he had spent too much time consumed by Digger's comments about Ella. He couldn't help but question if the mechanic was right that the commander of his starfighter wing was supposed to be here in his place. Except M had come for him. Katherine had left messages for him. Even the Tetron on Hell had wanted to capture him. Was that only because the recursion had changed that part of time? If it had, wouldn't that be enough to have broken the Mesh?
Maybe it wasn't the first time the Mesh had been broken? Katherine said it improved their chances of winning. She never said it would be definite.
It was enough to add to his exhaustion when he spent too much time thinking about it. The result was that he was still himself in the here and now, only he had suffered a blow to his confidence that he didn't like losing. He wound up pissed at Digger, being short with the mechanic for bringing it up. How had it helped, anyway?
"Colonel Williams."
The voice followed a short, shrill beep in his ear. Mitchell's eyes snapped open, and he leaned forward. He wasn't used to the communicators yet - tiny devices that sat in the ear canal, invisible from the outside and easy to forget about until they beeped. They were secure in the sense that a set of communicators had an encrypted signal that could only be picked up by like-programmed devices. They were insecure in that you couldn't open a channel to a single person. When he was knocked, all of the crew who had one, fifteen at the moment, got the knock as well.
"What is it Aiko?" he asked out loud. It was another inefficiency of the device that they had to speak to use it. It was no wonder such technology had been abandoned two centuries earlier.
"Are you occupied?"
He considered saying "yes," because he had almost fallen asleep. "No. I'm in the meeting room."
"I'll be right there."
Mitchell closed his eyes again. The seconds until Aiko arrived passed quickly.
"Colonel," she said, knocking on the side of the door frame with her hand.
"Come in, Aiko. What do you need?"
"We believe we have narrowed the list of potential identification tags to about two dozen. We've gone as
far as we can go with the data we have. If we want to continue on this course, we'll need to get the information matched against the Black Hole database."
Mitchell looked at her. She appeared as tired as he was, her black hair falling randomly out of its normal bun, her eyes bloodshot. She had a smile on her face, though. She was proud of herself.
"How many did you start with?"
"About four thousand."
"Wow. Amazing work."
She blushed again, looking towards the floor. "Thank you, Colonel."
"How sure are you that Pulin is one of the codes on that list?"
"Ninety-five percent."
"You told me ninety a few days ago."
"I'm feeling confident today, sir."
Mitchell laughed. "Good. I like that." He twitched his cheek muscle, which shifted his ear and activated the communicator. "Calvin, can you come down to the meeting room? Teal, you too."
"Yes, sir," they both said.
"What about the alternative research path we discussed?"
"I've had Davin working on it. It's a dead end so far. We couldn't even identify who Pulin might know outside of the other scientists. I don't know if he had no friends and family, or if Mr. Tio made sure not to keep any of that information because it could lead back to himself."
"It's probably a combination of the two. Please, have a seat."
Aiko nodded and approached the table. She sat down next to him.
"You haven't slept at all, have you?" Mitchell asked.
"No. There hasn't been any time. The people here on Asimov are my family. I can't risk them getting caught here by the Tetron again. I can see by your face you haven't slept either."
"I'm in charge of this mess. I need to set a good example."
"You have, Colonel. All of the techs respect you and the efforts you are making."
Admiral Hohn appeared in the doorway, with Teal right behind him. Mitchell waved them in, and they took seats around him.
"Aiko has the list of identities," Mitchell said.
"Great news," Teal said.
Calvin remained quiet though his face looked more thoughtful at the announcement.
"What are our next steps?" Teal asked.
"How long until we can get everyone off Asimov?" Mitchell said.
"We're just about there. We have four ships that showed up yesterday who need resupply. Everything else that's left here is memories."
"Good memories," Aiko said.
"Mostly," Teal said.
"Has Digger set the charges?"
"Yes, sir. Enough explosive to blow Asimov to pieces."
"And Kylie has the codes?"
"Yes, sir."
Kylie had volunteered to stay behind and wait for Steven to return, with orders to blow Asimov if the Tetron showed up. They would try to leave the station and its archives intact just in case, but they also wouldn't take any chances.
"Calvin, you estimated two weeks to the Black Hole planet, and we talked a few times about possible paths of inception if the Tetron haven't taken the planet. Do you have anything new to add?"
Calvin shook his head. "I've done all that I can, Colonel. I have a good understanding of how the data centers are run, but it is still incomplete. As I mentioned to you earlier, our best option for success is to try to identify an operative and use them to infiltrate the system. They won't do it willingly."
Mitchell nodded grimly. They had discussed this particular plan at length. It was Mitchell's least favorite approach, one that would have been better suited to the true Riggers were they available. One that involved torture and suffering. It was also the most likely to produce results.
"I'm not sold on that plan yet," he said.
"I understand. I wouldn't be, either."
"What's the other option?" Teal asked.
"We need to get someone to the site on our own without triggering suspicion," Calvin said. "They also need to be able to work the data interface. The first part is difficult but not impossible. It is the second and third that are the challenge."
"Neither sounds easy," Teal said.
"No, it won't be, whatever we do. We have to do it to the best of our abilities. Calvin, do you have what you need for both approaches?"
"For the most part. The people of Asimov are from both nations, so we have a supply of Federation clothing and uniforms. There are also a few Federation starships in orbit. I spoke to the captains. The Kemushi is legally registered and should have clearance to launch a transport to the surface."
"Do we know who the ground team is?" Teal asked.
Mitchell looked at Calvin. "Have you decided on a team?"
"We need to keep the group small to avoid suspicion. The two of us, Colonel, though I suggest doing something to alter your appearance in the next two weeks. There is another former Federation member, Joon, who I believe will be valuable. If we choose plan B, we will require Aiko as well."
"Me?" Aiko said. "I'm not a soldier."
"You're the best data technician we have," Calvin replied.
Aiko looked at Mitchell, her face pleading. "I can't do this, Colonel. I'm good with data and machines, not espionage."
"I want you to come along either way," Mitchell said. "I'm sorry, Aiko, but even if we capture a Federation operative, we need someone to tell us if they're trying to be deceptive. We'll have two weeks travel to the planet. I can give you some basic training."
She bit her lip, her face pale. "But, Colonel-"
He shifted to face her, keeping his voice gentle. "Aiko, if you want to protect the people of Asimov, this is the best way to do it. I know it is a scary thought, but Calvin and I will be with you, and I've done this sort of thing before."
Of course, he was lying. He had never participated in any kind of undercover operation before. He was a soldier, not a spy. The words still seemed to ease her mind, at least a little bit.
"What about if the Tetron have already taken the planet?" Teal asked.
"Then we'll drop whatever we need to get to the data stores and see if anything is still there to take. We salvaged a few mechs from Hell, in addition to Digger's Franks. If there's a Tetron on the planet, we abort and come up with something else."
"What if there is nothing else?"
Mitchell had wondered the same thing himself. If there were a Tetron embedded in the planet they chose, they wouldn't be able to overcome it, which would leave them high and dry in finding Tio's brother. Without Pulin, without Goliath, and months behind the Tetron invasion of Earth, they were going to lose, plain and simple.
"We'll think of something else," Mitchell said, and he meant it, despite the dark thoughts churning through his mind. "We don't give up. We don't give in. Not until we're all dead."
16
"This isn't how I had ever envisioned things happening," Mitchell said. He was sitting in the cockpit of the jumpship Fortitude, piloting the starship away from Asimov and towards the hangar of the battleship Carver. "At the very least, Steven was supposed to be here with me."
"You said you admired what he did," Calvin said from the co-pilot seat.
"I do. That doesn't mean it feels any less odd. The Carver is his ship."
"Lieutenant Lewis seemed a capable commander to me."
"I hope you're right."
Twelve hours had passed since his meeting with Aiko, Teal, and Calvin. The evacuation of Asimov had been well underway since then, with the smaller ships loading up on passengers and ferrying them to the waiting starships. It was a bittersweet procedure for the people of Asimov. They had spent years helping the Knife bend the rules and break numerous laws to slow the progress of intelligent machines, and now that those machines had made themselves known, they were being forced from their home. That they were leaving to fight back was the only consolation they could find. It was also a strong motivator.
"I haven't been off of Asimov since I arrived," Aiko said. "Fifteen years ago."
"You look too young to have come here that long ago," Calvin
said.
"I was only a teenager back then. My parents were imprisoned by the Federation because my father refused to work at Omicron Corporation. He doesn't believe in violence, and they wanted him to help them develop weapons. Mr. Tio's wife had heard of the situation through their network, and she found me and took me away."
"Are your parents still alive?" Mitchell asked.
"I don't know. I haven't heard anything in all of that time. Mr. Tio allowed me to search for them in the data we received, but I was always too afraid I would discover they were dead. For me, it has been better to hope that they are alive."
The Fortitude reached the end of the tunnel leading out of the asteroid, accelerating out and away. More than two hundred ships hung in the space around them, illuminating the entire area in the glow of their lights. It was a sight that made Mitchell's breath hang for a moment in wonder. A sight that for a moment gave him hope that they could fight back and win.
It slowly faded as he turned the jumpship and vectored it towards the Carver. The Alliance battleship was easily the largest starship in the fleet, as well as the newest and most powerful. It was also heavily damaged, the metal hull scored and dented and scraped almost everywhere. Large swaths of protective shell were missing along the side, slagged metal and wires hanging into nowhere, the interior levels the gaping wounds led to closed off by emergency bulkheads. There had been no time to fix the most egregious damage. Not when so many of the ships needed repairs, and the Carver had the strongest shields by far.
"I can't believe she can still fly like that," Mitchell said.
"It is a good design," Calvin replied. "Not quite up to Federation standards, but serviceable."