by M. D. Cooper
“Can we just go back a few decades and start over?” Sera asked with a rueful laugh.
“If only,” Tanis replied. “Perhaps Finaeus will know something that can help us.”
“They got him?” Sera asked, her face alight with hope for the first time since Tanis had seen her on the Spacewatch platform above Normandy.
Tanis nodded. “Sorry, got so caught up in everything else I forgot to tell you about that. The Daedalus is taking them to the I2, which is where I need to go.”
Sera didn’t respond, she just stared at Tanis—her eyes, wide and sad, boring into Tanis’s.
Tanis replied—which was untrue. She knew what Sera was asking, she just didn’t want to hear it. She didn’t want that need to be true.
Sera explained.
Tanis drew a deep breath. Even though she had spent the last eighteen years in the New Canaan system, she felt as though she’d only just arrived. There had been so much to do, so many decisions to make and plans to set in motion. Wasn’t it her turn to finally relax?
Angela shared her thoughts with Tanis and a smile spread over her face.
Tanis wondered at Angela’s momentary slip, but she was distracted by Sera’s repeated query.
The relief on Sera’s face was palpable, and Tanis saw that Greer noticed it, too, before his eyes flicked to her. He would suspect the content of their private conversation, but she doubted he would fight her for the position. Admiral Greer had never struck Tanis as a man lusting for power.
The rest of the Admiralty? They would probably cause more issues.
“I want to talk to our Orion Guard prisoners,” Tanis spoke aloud to Sera. “I should be able to sort them out before the Daedalus gets here and we meet with Sabrina. Perhaps Finaeus can finally shed some light on what is really going on.”
“Good ole Finaeus,” Admiral Greer said with a smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. “That’s a name I’ve not heard in some time. Dare I hope that it’s your uncle Governor Richards is referring to?”
“Yes, Admiral Greer,” Sera nodded. “One and the same.”
Greer glanced at Viska. “Well, maybe we can still clean up this shit show yet.”
KENT
STELLAR DATE: 03.27.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: TSS Galadrial
REGION: Roma-Normandy L1 Point, New Canaan System
Tanis stepped into the holding cell and surveyed the man within. He was the last of the Orion Guard infiltrators, their leader. She had already spoken to the rest, checked and cross-checked their stories in an attempt to get a clear picture of the man who had tried to kill her.
A colonel in the Orion Guard, he was well respected by his troops—they would follow him to the core, if needs be. Every last one of them prepared to die a glorious death to see their mission’s goals fulfilled. One surprise was that they did not expect to be captured. From the stories they told, the TSF and OG rarely took prisoners. She didn’t know if it was true, but they certainly believed it.
“Colonel Kent,” Tanis said as she walked across the room and sat across from the man.
His eyes followed her and he did not respond, though his lips drew into a thin line when she addressed him. His hair was a dark brown, matched by thick eyebrows and chest hair which poked over his collar—a strange affectation in the current age. His features were angular, and his skin showed some age, as though he had not undergone any rejuv recently, or perhaps ever.
“The men and women you led onto the Galadrial have spoken very highly of you. They were impressed by your bravery when you rushed onto the bridge in an attempt to kill me—an attempt which may have succeeded, were I any less prepared.”
Tanis studied the man’s impassive features, looking for any scrap of emotion, any response to her words as she leaned back and gave a soft chuckle.
“A lot of people try to kill me, most have learned that it’s much easier said than done. Lady Luck is on my side.”
“Not forever, though,” the man finally replied, his words barely above a whisper—probably the first time he had spoken since his capture.
“Which? That I’ll not live forever? Or that luck won’t be on my side forever?” Tanis asked.
“Both,” Kent replied, his frown deepening into a scowl, his voice louder now. “You chose the wrong side. The Orion Guard is in the right.”
“Sides?” Tanis asked, leaning forward, her hands spread wide on the table and a frown creasing her forehead. “This is all bullshit. We never wanted to be in the middle of your war—a war that is completely nonsensical. I can’t fathom what you and the Transcend are even fighting over after so long. Sure, Tomlinson is—was—a dick, but your Praetor Kirkland probably is, as well. Hell, I’m an ass when I’m running the show, too. It seems like it’s a natural evolution of things. Still, is that a reason to start an interstellar war? For throwing the Inner Stars into the mix? How many people are going to die so that someone can be right?”
A look of uncertainty appeared in the man’s eyes and he glanced away before speaking. “What are you going to do with me? Torture me for information?”
“I don’t think I need to,” Tanis replied. “But don’t act like you can play on my emotions. I’ve used torture before, and I will do it again if I have to. And not the sort of torture you’re imagining. No simple pain or mental breaking techniques, not even mind-reaping…” she stopped herself, realizing that for all her bluster, she had fallen into a trap, and despite her words, she had replied with her heart, not her mind.
“I didn’t pick this fight,” Tanis said after regaining her composure. “All we wanted to do was to get away. When we took the Transcend’s deal, we didn’t even know there was an Orion Guard. Although, even if we had known, Sera Tomlinson had already proven herself to be a friend and I expect that we would have taken her offer even still.”
“Well, we wouldn’t have taken you in,” Kent shook his head. “Not unless you surrendered all of your picotech to us so we could destroy it. We’ve cleaned up enough messes like that already.”
That was new information, and Tanis schooled her expression to hide her interest.
Angela said privately.
“Cleaned up in the Inner Stars?” Tanis asked Kent.
“And the Transcend,” Kent replied with scorn.
“Oh?” Tanis asked, hoping that Kent would continue to supply her with intel, now that he�
��d started speaking.
Kent nodded. “More than once your friends in the Transcend have meddled with picotech, and each time they’ve failed to contain it. They also have a habit of researching it near our borders—at least that we know of,” Kent shook his head at that and then met Tanis’s eyes. “On three separate occasions, we’ve had to send strike teams into their systems to take out worlds infested with picoswarms. The Transcend tried to stop us each time, they wanted to see what would happen. We destroyed the planets as well as their observation and research posts.”
A feeling of cold dread swept over Tanis. “What were the systems?”
Kent named them, “Elegium, Tardas, and Indans. They fought hard to defend their labs of destruction, but in the end, we won and rained kinetics on the worlds until they were molten.”
Tanis sat back in her chair, doing her best to hide her anger from Kent, while sharing it with Angela.
“So, now that you know the truth, what are you going to do?” Kent asked.
“Other than wish that the FGT had really disappeared thousands of years ago?” Tanis asked. “I’m going to talk to Sera and see what she thinks.”
“A Tomlinson?” Kent sneered. “I can imagine what she’ll say.”
“And what of your Praetor Kirkland?” Tanis shot back. “He sent assassins to kill me and take our technology by force—which would have left us defenseless.”
“A small price to pay for peace,” Kent replied.
Tanis stood and slammed her fists on the table. “Your people are mobilizing the Inner Stars to spark a war across the Orion Arm. How is that peace?”
Kent paused and Tanis wondered if he had come to the end of the answers that the OFA’s propaganda machine had fed him.
“We’re just doing what we have to,” he finally said, his voice feeble. It was plain to see that he had his doubts.
She opened her mouth to reply, but saw that he had realized his blunder in showing his feelings, and his expression hardened. She would get nothing more from him today, but she did have a certain high-ranking official in the Transcend government to speak with.
“We’ll talk again,” Tanis said and stood from the table.
* * * * *
“What do you mean, he’s gone?” Tanis asked the dockmaster.
“He had clearance…well, he made his own clearance,” the dockmaster said with a nervous shrug. Tanis could tell the woman had no idea how to deal with a foreign head of state; one who may or may not be forcibly occupying her ship, and who was demanding answers about her own government’s politicians.
Tanis let out a long sigh before nodding. “Do you know where Secretary Adrienne went?”
The woman licked her lips and Tanis was certain she knew the answer before it was voiced.
“Through the jump gate, back to Airtha.”
“Great,” Tanis muttered and walked out of the Galadrial’s main dock. In the corridor, she leaned against the bulkhead, fighting the urge to scratch her missing arm.
Angela suggested.
Angela’s warm laugh filled her mind.
Tanis nodded, straightened up from where she’d leant against the bulkhead, and began walking to the bridge.
Sera laughed at the joke and Tanis was glad to hear it. Her friend had been through an unimaginable amount these past few days. More, considering the burden running The Hand must have been—still was?—so much was up in the air she didn’t even know where anything stood.
Sera sent the lounge’s location, and Tanis sent confirmation that she would be there momentarily.
When she reached he lounge, two TSF majors were hunched over a table, speaking in whispers. Tanis cleared her throat and gestured to the door. The man and woman looked up at her, their faces blanched, and they sketched uncertain salutes before dashing out into the passageway.
Tanis wondered if it were her, or the four dour-looking Marines that were all but glued to her.
“You’re going to have to wait outside,” Tanis instructed the Marines.
“Ma’am, my layout shows that there is a rear entrance to this room through the back of the galley,” Corporal Liam replied. “I really have to insist that we secure it, as well.”
Tanis laughed. “Brandt has trained you well.”
“And Colonel Usef said that he’d skin us alive if anything happened to you,” the corporal replied.
“Noted,” Tanis replied with a grim smile and gestured for the Marine to do as he saw fit.
A minute later, Sera wheeled into the room, the door closing behind her. Her medchair carried her to the table and she gave Tanis a wan smile.
“So, when is today going to be over, Tanis?”
&
nbsp; “Not for a while yet, I fear. How are you mending?”
“Well enough, I’ll be back on my feet in a day tops. No arm for you yet?” Sera asked, nodding to Tanis’s med-sealed stump.
“Angela won’t let me use your formation material. She says it’s probably contaminated,” Tanis replied.
Tanis looked into Sera’s eyes, wondering what her friend might be hiding. The sadness was real enough, Tanis could tell that Elena had really meant a lot to her. However, it was difficult to ascertain her friend’s true emotional state. Sera’s artificial skin did not change temperature, sag, lose color, or flush. It always looked perfect.
But the eyes were the window to the soul, and Tanis hoped she would like what she saw.
“What do you know of Indans?” Tanis asked.
“Huh?” Sera replied. “What does that have to do with anything? It’s one of the worlds the Orion Guard destroyed some time back…a thousand years or so. What about it?”
“Kent mentioned it,” Tanis responded. “He said that I had sided with the wrong faction. That the Transcend had lost the worlds of that system to rogue picoswarms. The Orion Guard cleaned up the mess when the Transcend wouldn’t.”
“That…” Sera paused and shook her head. “Fuck, Tanis, I have no idea. Nothing seems like it’s true anymore. Either story is equally plausible. My father was a bag of shit, but I’m pretty sure that Praetor Kirkland is too. Finaeus was never a fan, and…I just need to talk to him. He’ll know what to do.”
“I sure hope so,” Tanis said with a nod. “We’re going to need all the intel we can get, but if we do this thing together, we turn over a new leaf. Full disclosure to the people, no secrets. I’m not going to be a part of some empire shrouded in secrets where the rulers think they know what’s best for everyone.”
“Damn, Tanis, that’s a tall order. The Transcend is all but built out of secrets. The Hand…core, its very existence! Layers and layers of secrets,” Sera said, looking more defeated than when she had come in. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“Well, your first secret is gone now. The cat’s out of the bag about the Transcend and Orion—or if it’s not yet, it will be soon. This isn’t negotiable, Sera. We run things above board. We’re honest with our people. If you can’t agree to that, then we’re going to have to part ways after this battle.”