by M. D. Cooper
Sylvia shook her head. “He won’t go for that. He doesn’t want the delay.”
“It’s just a second or two.”
The rotund woman shrugged. “OK, you tell Maverick that. I’ll get the popcorn.”
“Sure, I’ll—”
“Stop,” Gert held up a hand. “That won’t be necessary. We can do the implantation the way Maverick wants.”
“How?” Sylvia and Finn asked in unison.
“I’ve identified the specific systems that give Jerrod the ability to tap into the host’s nervous system. I can disable it, and just to be safe, so long as the AI has a separate, well-buffered, Link from Maverick, there will be no way for this code to execute, even if someone runs an update and re-enables it.”
“Let me see that,” Sylvia said, moving across the room in a fast waddle. “Shit…yeah, you’re right, that is the segment of code that enables the takeover routine. How did I miss it?”
“It was hidden under several layers of innocuous systems. Maintenance routines and the like. Just took a bit of sandboxing and backtracing.”
Sylvia gave Gert a look like she thought the explanation was a lie.
In a way, it was, but she wasn’t going to tell the other woman her secrets. Having an edge that set her apart meant safety. She planned to make sure that Maverick knew who had achieved his desired result.
One way or another.
AN UPGRADE
STELLAR DATE: 10.05.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: GFS Satisfaction
REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
“And don’t come back till those asshats get their ships here!”
The door closed behind Francis, and she sagged against it. Maverick had been in a foul mood lately; everything she did seemed to be wrong.
Not that he’s ever been terribly reasonable….
She shut her eyes and drew a deep breath, willing herself to become calm—as much as she could while in the service of a megalomaniac.
“He still irritable?” a voice asked from nearby.
Francis looked up to see Gert, the woman who might as well be an alien, with her stick-thin limbs and the tentacles on her head.
I wonder if she really is an alien…like…what if aliens are living amongst us, and they’ve tricked us into thinking they’re modded humans?
She realized that Gert was waiting on an answer, though Francis didn’t see how one was really necessary. “Yeah, though that’s an understatement…of the millennium.”
Gert nodded, her brows furrowed. “Maybe I’ll come back later. I hate doing his check-up when he’s screaming at me.”
“Wise choice,” Francis nodded.
Gert asked privately.
Francis nodded vigorously, her eyes imploring Gert not to continue that line of questioning.
The green woman cocked her head, and then nodded. “I like you, Francis. You know, I might have something that could help Maverick relax a bit. Would you like to come to my lab to see it?”
Something about the offer intrigued Francis, and she nodded, following the strange woman as she all but floated down the hall.
Behind her, she could hear Maverick bellowing at someone else, and she was glad that she had somewhere else to be at the moment.
MAN WITH A MISSION
STELLAR DATE: 10.14.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISF I2 Dock A1, ISF I2
REGION: Outer Silstrand System, Silstrand Alliance
“Anything else you need?” the admiral asked Grayson.
“No, ma’am.” He shook his head, pausing to take her in one last time. She wasn’t taller than him, not by more than a centimeter, at least, but she exuded a commanding presence he’d never before witnessed, and doubted he would again.
She wasn’t stiff, either, but rather relaxed, more like a jaguar than a woman. Nothing about her demanded respect, either. She didn’t wear a chest full of ribbons, or an ornate uniform. Heck, each time he’d seen the admiral, some piece of hair was almost falling out of her ponytail.
But she was in charge. There was no doubt about it.
Grayson supposed that a part of it was how the people around her behaved. There was almost a level of reverence directed toward Tanis Richards. The woman who commanded a fleet numbering in the millions—who possessed ships with invincible shields.
“Well…” he cocked an eyebrow. “Not unless you’re willing to upgrade my ship to have stasis shields.”
Admiral Tanis Richards placed a hand on his shoulder. “Sorry, Colonel. At the moment, we’re all tapped out on that tech. Plus, your ship would need an ISF or Transcend AI to manage the shields and self-destruct systems. The pair of destroyers I’m sending with you will have to do.”
“I understand, ma’am, just had to ask.”
The admiral laughed. “Of course you did. I would have too. I half-wish I could go with you to Gedri. I’m no fan of Maverick, that’s for sure. I owe him a double helping of payback.”
“You know Maverick?”
Grayson was surprised that the erudite woman before him could have ever come in contact with human trash such as the now-president of Gedri.
“Years ago, on the PetSil Mining Platform here in Silstrand,” she said, a far-off look in her eyes. “Bastard nearly cut me in two with a plasma sword.” She shook her head. “Plasma…can you believe it? The guy was nuts.”
Grayson snorted. “Well, that sure hasn’t changed. He still has that damn thing.”
“Pry it from his cold, dead hand.” The veneer of a serene woman faded entirely as she spoke the words. Before Grayson now stood one of the most fearsome predators that humanity had ever seen. The look in her eyes spoke pain and suffering for any who dared cross her; she was making Grayson the instrument of her vengeance.
She’s going to make one hell of a mark on the galaxy.
“That’s a promise I’m happy to make, Admiral.”
“Good.” She withdrew her hand from his shoulder and pulled it to her forehead in a salute. “Kick ass, Colonel.”
“Aye, ma’am.” He returned the salute. “Asses will be kicked.”
* * * * *
“Shit, that was weird,” Major Fallon said as space reappeared on the forward display.
Grayson gave her a look of agreement before turning to Scan. “Confirm location.”
“Sir, confirmed,” the scan officer replied. “We’re in Gedri. Four AU from Tomlinson.”
“Comm, alert the Kent. We’re ready to decouple.”
“Aye.” Comm bent over his console, then glanced at the Helm officer. “Ready to decouple.”
“Maneuvering thrusters green.”
“Separate us,” Grayson ordered. “Scan, do a full active sweep.”
A slight shudder ran through the deck as the Polis Fury disconnected from the ISS Kent, the ISF destroyer that had pulled them through the jump gate. The other destroyer, a ship barely larger than a frigate and named the Perdition, snapped into existence a thousand kilometers starboard of the ‘Fury.
Both ships were equipped with jump mirrors and stasis shields, and though they were small, their use of zero-point energy for power gave them an array of beam weapons that would make a Silstrand Space Force battlegroup envious.
“Sweep coming up,” Scan announced, as the forward holodisplay showed a three-dimensional view of the system.
“Shit,” Fallon muttered. “Look at that, they’ve got the SFF pushed all the way out into the Scattered Disk.”
“And Freemont is a salvager’s dream,” Grayson added. “Too many SSF hulls out there. Samuel never should have attacked that station. The people here aren’t going to forget that.”
“Especially since they won.” Fallon’s expression was hard. “Now we’re going to have to double down to bring these people to heel.”
Grayson cast a measuring look at his XO. “Crushing the people of Gedri isn’t on our agenda. We’re here to depose Maverick and
then instate a new governor until proper elections can be held.”
“Proper,” Fallon snorted. “Like Gedri has ever had one of those.”
“Oh really?” Fallon asked the AI. “Like voting on how best to screw the people?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Grayson cut in before his AI could start another fight with his XO. “We’re not here to reinstate democracy. That’s going to be someone else’s job. Maverick is to be captured and charged with his crimes.”
Fallon gave Grayson a sidelong look. “Captured? You mean that with imaginary quotes around it, right?”
“I have my orders,” he replied. “I got the impression that Tanis doesn’t care if he lives or dies, but Silstrand wants him to stand trial.”
“And if he fights back?” Fallon asked.
“If?” Grayson snorted and folded his hands behind his back as he continued to watch the system scan populate with more information. “There’s no ‘if’ about it.”
Fallon gave him a toothy grin. “Yes, sir.”
The colonel inclined his head in response before turning. “Comm, broadcast the Alliance president’s message. No one is going to give a crap, but we have to do it anyway. Helm, coordinate with the Kent and Perdition. Best course to Jericho.”
“You sure Maverick will be at Jericho?” Fallon asked. “I thought that The Futz was the capitol.”
“Not anymore.” Grayson looked over the ship idents that Scan was putting up on the main display. “There. It’s docked at Laerdo Station, right above Montral.”
“Sir?”
“The Satisfaction. Maverick will be where that ship is.”
OUTSIDE
STELLAR DATE: 10.14.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: Outside the City of Montral, Jericho
REGION: Gedri System, Silstrand Alliance
Kal carefully worked his way back down the scree-covered slope, breathing in lungfuls of the dense air deeper in the valley, as hardy scrub grass gave way to low bushes and, eventually, thick forest.
The valley was more like a gash in the surface of Jericho where once a river had flowed to the north of Montral. Now it was one of the low-lying areas where the planet’s atmosphere was thick enough for foliage—and humans—to survive.
So far as he could tell, part of what made for the valley’s verdant growth was oxygen-rich air spilling out of the aqueduct. It was the freshest in that vicinity, and that was where the escapees from The Shade had made their home for the past nine days.
Nine days during which Maverick’s people had been scouring the city looking for them.
When he’d first led the former slaves into the valley, they’d gone several miles north of where the aqueduct exited. The trek had taken them several hundred meters closer to the surface, to the limit of what unaugmented humans could handle.
There, they had waited for any pursuit through the aqueduct. It had taken several hours, but eventually, a team of Maverick’s people had emerged and made what could only be described as a cursory search of the surrounding area.
By the time they’d finished, several of the escapees were showing signs of oxygen deprivation, so he led them back down into the valley, as close to the aqueduct’s entrance as he dared.
And there they had remained.
It honestly surprised Kal that Maverick hadn’t figured out where they were hiding. The searchers seemed convinced that he’d used one of the other exits from the aqueduct.
Which I probably would have, if I’d known they existed.
It was also possible that Maverick didn’t want anyone to know about the passage that led from outside the dome right under The Shade to the Atmo Tower. Or that the crime lord knew that the escapees were hiding in the valley, and was waiting for them to starve and come back to the city on their own.
Or it could be a dozen other things….
“What’s the word?” a voice asked, and he turned to see Karen emerge from the undergrowth, a dozen apples nestled in her arms.
“They’re still looking for us,” he said. “Though I think it’s simmered down from active searching to just keeping an eye out. People are far more concerned with paying homage to His Grand Poobahship.”
Karen chuckled. “When it comes to Maverick, that’s practically a compliment. Maybe something like ‘Grand Asshator’.”
Kal picked an apple out of her arms and rubbed it on his shirt before taking a bite.
“Kal, seriously,” she chided. “That apple is probably cleaner than your shirt at this point.”
He looked down at the dull grey shirt he’d been wearing for longer than he cared to admit. “Damn…force of habit.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I know what you mean. Still, we’re not going to starve, but eventually, we’re all going to be naked.”
He gave her a sidelong look and saw that Karen was grinning at him. “Funny.”
“Funny because it’s true.”
“We won’t be out here that long. I got a message back from my contact…. He’s organizing a geological survey so there’s a reason to have ground vehicles out on the surface. They’ll pass by here, and we’ll get aboard. Then we’ll head to Hephaestus and ship out from there.”
“Ship out…” Karen whispered the words. “I grew up in Montral, you know.”
Kal pursed his lips and shrugged. “Well, so long as Maverick is president, there’s no place for you there. No place for any of us. Not in Montral, on Jericho, or in Gedri.”
“You don’t think the SSF will come back in force and depose him?”
They rounded a corner, and Kal caught sight of the group’s small camp tucked into a dry ravine below the aqueduct. A thick canopy of trees lay overhead, and even standing at the edge of the opening above, you’d never know that a group of refugees were hidden below.
“Word was going around that President Vaax was a Scipio plant. If that’s true, the SSF is likely shoring up defenses at Trio, and won’t give two shits about Gedri.”
Karen nodded wordlessly and was about to speak when Barry came running into camp. His gaze swept across the group of people settled amongst the foliage until they landed on Kal.
“Kal!” he hissed, rushing toward them. “We’ve got trouble.”
“Trouble?”
“Yeah.” Barry nodded vigorously. “There’s a patrol coming up the valley from the south.”
“Shit!” Kal swore. “How many?”
“Four that I saw. They had good stealth gear. If I hadn’t been in my cloak, I wouldn’t have gotten close enough to see more than one.”
“How far?”
“At their pace? Not more than fifteen meters behind me.”
Kal turned to the refugees. “OK, people, time to move!”
THE PINCER
STELLAR DATE: 10.14.8948 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: SSS Polis Fury Approaching Jericho
REGION: Jericho, Gedri System, Gedri Freedom Alliance
“Weapons! Target that…corvette,” Grayson ordered, highlighting a small ship that was moving around the edge of his formation. “Don’t let it flank us.”
“Aye, Colonel,” the officer on weapon’s barked. “Firing beams. Rails when it gets another degree past the Kent.”
Grayson almost felt bad for the cobbled together forces that Maverick was throwing at his trio of ships. The enemy had scored a few hits on the Polis Fury, but the pair of ISF destroyers were entirely unscathed, their stasis shields simply shrugging off every attack.
If he were honest with himself, the ISF ships would be far more effective if the Fury weren’t present. They were spending as much effort to protect his ship as they were attacking the enemy.
Even so, at the end of the day, it was important that this be seen as an SSF takeover, not an assault by some foreign military.
Those that fought, at least. A lot of the ships in Maverick’s flotilla seemed just as happy to pick over disabled hulls as to join in the fight. There were still more ships further out, everything from cargo haulers to a few corvettes and destroyers belonging to other syndicates. He wondered if they were holding back on Maverick’s orders, or holding back because they didn’t want to lose assets to the ISF destroyers.
All ships in combat had heating issues. Reactors ran hot, and you had to shed heat from incoming energy and kinetic shots. Gravity shields didn’t aid in the venting of heat, but they didn’t block any ambient dissipation, either.
Stasis shields, on the other hand, were very effective at trapping heat inside. The larger ISF ships had fewer issues, as they could run more CriEn modules, but due to spacetime distortion, the destroyers could only run one, and that meant tapping into fusion reactors during extended combat.